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Fun with Furoshiki Wrapping

Furoshiki is the wonderful art and tradition of wrapping things in a nicely printed square cloth. When I was in Japan I saw specialized Furoshiki stores everywhere, selling not only the beautiful cloth but also showing how to wrap different gifts, books, and make bags etc. I totally fell in love with this and so Kim and I decided to have a little playdate to make our own wrapping cloth.

I dyed some white cloth beforehand so we would not just work with plain white and then gathered fabric paint, some foam stamps and brayers.

For one of of the pieces i used my Grove Foam Stamp Set and created a pattern leaving some white space as this seems to work the best for this purpose.

Kim created a pattern using the Broadway Foam Stamp Set.

And create a border using my Exchange Place Foam Stamp.

And Kim used for her second piece the Circle Drive Foam Stamp.

Then the wrapping part started. Our cloth was a tiny bit too stiff …it worked but when we do this again a thinner fabric would work even better.

Here is the close up

and wrapping a bottle

you can tell …the cat sneaked into the picture …but there you go- LOL ;)

Another method for boxes or books

And a simple but fun one

I love that these cloth can be used in so many ways by the recipients. Either reused for gifts yet again or as kitchen towels, or depending on the fabric as shawls etc. So many options and a great way to give a beautifully wrapped gift. I hope you liked our playdate and give Furoshiki a try.

Here are some of the supplies Kim and I used for this Furoshiki play date:


Nat

Comments (2)

  • Janene

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    Very beautiful! I would love to receive a gift (or even my lunch) wrapped in something so lovely. I don’t have any fabric paint (yet), but I’m seeing a trip to the store this weekend so that I can give this a try. Thanks for sharing!

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Springtime Stamping: Easter Eggs!

This year I wanted to mix it up with an idea for coloring Easter Eggs and decided that stamping might be fun. So Kim and I had a play date and decorated a bag of plastic hanging eggs with lots of stamped deli papers.

To match my blue and white dinnerware, I decided to use all shades of blue acrylic paint and some of my mini ArtFoamies. Kim chose some cheery colored StazOn and Archival ink pads and stamps from my Embroidery and Marks stamp sets. We found that smaller scale patterns work best for this. This would also be an interesting way to use any collage papers you have been saving that are deli paper or tissue paper – thin paper is easier to decoupage on the eggs.

Then we stamped the full length of the deli paper – our deli paper is 6″x10.75″. Here I am using my Mini Chicago foam stamp set.

Kim used my Chain Link stamp from the Embroidery set.

More blue soft body acrylic and my Buenos Aires Border foam stamp for me…

…and then I used the Mini Buenos Aires Tile. Loving how saturated the blue is…

Kim layered up some rubber stamps – here are Love Knots, Starfish, and Grannies…

We stamped up a bunch of papers :)

We used Liquitex Gloss Gel Medium to decoupage onto the eggs.

To figure out the best way to cover the eggs, we had some trial runs. You may need to play around with it depending on how big your eggs are. Here I tried a bit of paper stamped with my Mini Batik Pattern 4 stamp.

To fit our egg size (see the link at the end of the post for what plastic eggs we used), we folded the deli paper in half lengthwise. I chose a paper stamped with my Santiago foam stamp.

And cut it down the fold to make 2 strips, each 3″x10.75″.

I cut off a 4.25″ long piece. This will be the first piece I decoupage on the egg.

And with the leftover I cut a 3.5″ egg shape.

Both the rectangle and the egg shape get .75″ cuts in them, all around the edges and at the corners. This helps the paper conform to the curve of the egg.

The egg and the paper got a coat of gel medium…

…and then the messy task of applying the paper. First put the rectangle with the 3″ edge at the hook end and go around lengthwise until you wrap over the bottom of the egg. You will be overlapping your cut edges so some of the pattern does get obscured along the edges.

The front face of the egg has the pattern nicely. Next up is the egg shaped paper…

After a coat of gel medium on the back of the paper and egg, apply the egg shaped paper over the gap and again, overlap and smooth the cut edges around the sides.

Here are some of the eggs I created, ready to hang. The patterns are (clockwise from top left) Manhattan border, Mini Chicago, Mini Buenos Aires, and Santiago.

I picked up some flowering branches at the local market (not sure if they are dogwood maybe?) and set up a very lovely display in my dining room.

A closer look.

Kim’s set are very pretty too with the delicate patterns.

I like how the Starfish stamp ones turned out.

Here are some of the supplies we used:



Hope you stamp some eggs this year too!

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Nat

Comments (1)

  • Deb

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    Love it! Very clever, fun project. Thanks for sharing.
    I love reading your blog posts and look forward to them in my daily email browse! Always brightens my day.?
    Deb

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Ready for Spring Sneakers – DIY

I am telling you, I am longing for spring!

I painted two pairs of plain white sneakers a couple weeks ago with basically the same colors but different designs.

I removed the shoe laces and taped off the rims of the soles and then started painting. I used acrylic paint and ink and I dipped the brush instead of into water into Flow Aid between every paint application.

The Flow Aid serves two purposes, it makes the acrylic paints react more like watercolor and it also keeps the canvas of the shoes soft.

Since the are painted with acrylic paint, the paint is permanent, so there is no further step for setting the paint needed. It was easy to paint on the shoes- and I have to say the Keds fabric was also nice because the paint didn’t bleed crazily and I felt I was in control (and no I am not affiliated with Keds nor did they sponsor this post :) )

For the second pair I used the same colors but since they are a different design, I chose a different flower design as well.

I personally like the second pair better, while Kim likes the first pair better, and so those shall be hers when I get them back (they were for an assignement) :)

It was actually less difficult when I thought it would be – I was a bit intimidated starting to paint on those pristine white sneakers but then I just kept on going. I figured worse case scenario I will paint them over with a really dark color and stencil white on them- LOL. Which pair of spring sneakers do you like better, the first one or the second one?

Spring can come now – I am ready :)

Here is what I used to paint those sneakers:


Nat

Comments (2)

  • Sue Clarke

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    The first pair yell SPRING at me but the second pair are more my style to actually wear.
    Looks like fun and yes, worse case you go dark (purple perhaps) and then add some white.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Oh I like the idea of dark purple and white! Great idea!

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Made with Love: Foam Stamped Valentines

Last week Kim and I had another Craft Play Date, this time to make some Valentines. We pulled out my ArtFoamies and stamped all morning. It was super fun and easy and a very relaxing break from all the other deadlines I am chasing.

We used deli paper to make some simple heart shaped stencils for the cards.

  

Then we secured them over the cards with masking tape and started stamping.

I began with hot pink paint and a brayer on my Valley Road foam stamp.

Kim chose my Chicago and Chicago Mini stamps and some hot pink and red paints. She layered them all over her heart stencil.

It was fun to see the big reveal when we pulled off the stencil. Here is my Broadway foam stamp layered up.

We made some simple knowing that we’d add some more to them a bit later… Here is my Downtown foam stamp and a little bit of Grove Street in the pale pink.

Next we tried layering solids with the stamps…

And just played with lots of yummy layers and texture.

  

I added outlines and some scribbly stuff with a couple calligraphy pens…

Including this new Kuretake Bimoji brush pen that has a nice firm tip.

We stamped the edges…

…and just had fun with it.

We turned my ArtFoamies all shades of pink and red for Valentines Day.

Here are some of the deli paper stencils afterwards – they look pretty cool too!

And a big variety of Valentines (and of course matching envelopes) for all our sweethearts :)

Some simple – this one just the two Central Avenue foam stamps…

Some on the wild side with all kinds of yummy layering with my Grove Street stamp…

… and some just beautiful happy accidents (with my Van Vorst stamps) that just occur when you let loose and have fun with the process!

Here are some of the supplies we used:



I hope you are now inspired to try some foam stamped cards for your Valentines this year :)

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Nat

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Burning Bright: Stamped Candles

Kim and I had so much fun again at our monthly Craft Play Date. This time we made some candles and it was so easy and ohhhh I love them !

All you need are some stamps, some ink pads (try different ones as some might bleed) some tissue paper, wax candles and a craft heat tool.

We used my new RubberMoon Stroll Around the Block and My Home is My Castle Stamp Set.

We just stamped along on the tissue paper with different colors and brands

the less juicy the ink pad the less it was bleeding into the tissue but I also liked the bit of a painterly look a little ink bleed would give.

Then we just cut out the stamped images very close to the edges

and smoothed it out on the candle.

With a heat tool place on some deli paper(or non stick paper) we placed the candle and carefully heated it up – once the wax is molten the stamped tissue paper fuses right into the wax.

I used the deli paper while the wax was still warm and smoothed out any wrinkles. Make sure to be careful and not burn yourself !

I love this so much

We just couldn’t stop

but there were only so many candles- LOL

I love them with different houses and different sizes like below

I love Kim’ Number Candle as well

And the Adirondack chair candle on the right makes me want to gather some sand dollars and sea shells and set up a beach themed plate for the candle in the center.

And …I still want the Mid Century House that would host the candle below … I mean…for myself- LOL- One can dream, right?

Hope you liked it and give it a try- guess what everyone is getting for next birthdays- LOL.

Here are some supplies we used  – of course you do not need a huge amount of ink pads



Can’t wait for our next play date- always love getting creative with Kim :)

Nat

Comments (4)

  • Karen Bearse

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    What a great idea! Love this, thanks for the tutorial.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Hope you will give it a try, it was super easy and fun!

      Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Nice presents and they can even be personalized with the number of the house.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Such a great idea to add the number of the house! Thanks, Sue!

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Rubber Stamped Ornament Merriment

Kim and I had our monthly playdate and made some Christmas Ornaments and Gift Tags. OH that was so much fun!

We mostly used my new RubberMoon Stroll Around The Block and My Home is My Castle stamp as well as some small stamps from the release before.

We used some chipboard drink coasters and stamped on top of them with black archival ink

For some I used Eclipse Tape – which has a tacky side, stamped on top to duplicate the stamped image and mask off the image on the coaster.

It is such an easy and fun way to create a scenery by working from the foreground to the background.

Here is the midcentury house now appearing behind the craftsman house.

The cool thing about the Eclipse Tape is that you can reuse it.

We also stamped on top of some wooden small tags.

And then we were ready to start the fun.

We used watercolors

and watercolor pencils- I love he vibrancy of the Caran D’Ache Museum Aquarelle pencils.

I also mixed the pencils with some Gouache paint. Love how the the transparency of the watercolor pencils and the opacity of the gouache work look together.

Here are my ornaments

and here are Kim’s

and on the left my gift tags and the right Kim’s.

Using my very old, very beloved Japanese Screw Punch we made holes into our ornaments and threaded some string through it for hangers.

Look at the details in Kim’s ornaments- I love this so much – She created little Christmas lights, and wreath and garlands, and even some candles in the window.

And the wreath in watercolor around the Cape Cod – soooo love it.

I think this was our favorite Playdates so far :)

And here are mine hanging in the tree- I really like how they look like- the colors really pop off the tree

Hope you enjoyed our playdate and give it a try . Here is a list of the supplies we used:


Hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

Nat

Comments (2)

  • stephanie

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    Oh my gosh — What fun. These are so cute. Merry Christmas!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      thank you so much Stephanie!!! hope you had a wonderful christmas!!!

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Fall Fun: Stenciled Pumpkins

Kim and I had our playdate for October and of course…Pumpkins had to be the stars. I am so amazed by all the different shapes and sorts of pumpkins- I went a bit overboard and bought everything I could find- LOL. I think Kim laughed secretly about that.

We gathered some of my stamps, StencilGirl stencils, brushes and cosmetic sponges and off we went.

I decided I wanted to go with a gold and lime green theme and painted some of the pumpkins with gold.

Kim decided to go with a black and orange theme and she painted the acorn squash black before stenciling with a cosmetic sponge using orange paint on top. We held the stencil mostly in place by hand, since the pumpkins have a lot of uneven ridges.

We used a mixture of heavy body and soft body paints- for now real reason but using what we have.

on the squash above the paint didn’t stick very well- and it crackled a bit – a coat of gesso underneath would have prevented this …but at the end of the day…hey- let’s not go super crazy and I came to like the grungy look :)

We also had fantastic supervision by Niles – he just wanted to make sure we are doing it all right …I guess also if there was really no treat falling down the table …;)

That was an easy and fast and fun project and one that you can make as elaborate as you want- or as easy as we did.

Here are Kim’s geometric patterned pumpkins

and here is my gold and lime/teal green bunch.

Grab your stencils – decorate a pumpkin and get into the fall mood – I am ready for some pumpkin pie now…and I don’t even like pumpkin that much ;)



Hope you have a wonderful start into the fall so far!

Nat

Comments (2)

  • Sue Clarke

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    Nice pumpkins and so wonderful of Niles to supervise.

    Reply

  • Carole Morrison

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    Well, aren’t these just the cutest things ever!!! A refreshing change from the usual “Jack-O-Lanterns”!!! Thanks, gals!! Super project!!!
    Carole from Chicago

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Deli Paper ReDo! Stamped Paper Leaf Mobiles

A couple weeks ago Kim and I had yet another play date and we decided to use up some of left over painted deli paper and make stamped paper leaf mobiles.

Often when creating I clean off left over paint or inked stamps on top of deli paper and those were the perfect pieces to enhance further by stamping with my foam stamps.

we grabbed all my Art Foamies Mini Foam Stamps and the border Foam Stamps.

 

and stamped with them with acrylic paint on top of the deli paper.

Kim had found some really beautiful drift wood branches at the beach and also gathered some thread, matte gel, scissors and tape.

We freehand cut out leaves

We sorted them a bit by color and pattern to see which ones would look best together

And then arranged them loosely to see how they would best look like when hanged.

We added string to the branches making loose knots and then added the leaves with tape to the strings.

Once we were happy with the result we secured the strings with gel medium to be held in place and hung up the mobiles.

Love the little colorful home decor as a transition piece from summer to fall decor

It was a fun and super easy project.

A great way to use some left over deli paper and also to do with kids.

Hope you enjoyed our little play date as much as we did. Here are some of the supplies we used.


Nat

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Summer Stamping on Ceramic

My friend Kim and I had our monthly play date and we decided to oomph up some ceramics.

Since succulents are growing on my deck like crazy we thought taking some and planting them into some fun planters for the window sill, would be a great idea

And we also found this darling set of vases.

We used different colors of Staz On ink which is great for slick surfaces. Just don’t forget, you can still rub the ink off. The great think about the cling stamps is that you can bend them quite nicely to cover rounded areas.

We stamped with different themes of my RubberMoon Stamps – here you see some of the Embroidery Set. It is a bit tricky to get the images onto the slick and not straight ceramic but if you have a wet rag handy, you can wipe off any oopsies quite fast and without anyone ever knowing ;)

for the vases I wanted to go really plan and simple and use grey looking Staz On and my Stroll Through the Hood Sets.

The vases had some bumps and those caused some interrupted areas,

which I could easily fill in with a fine permanent marker.

The Planters coming sets of three offered the possibility to create four different themes given the four sides of their form.

I chose one side to stamp with the Hydrant and Mail Box Stamps in black and then colored them in with some glass and ceramic paint markers.

And here you go – some different sides and options to display our new planters

Kim used all kinds of green tones on her planters- love the outcome

and I decorated all sides differently so I could display according to my mood- LOL ;)

And my favorite those vases for which I bought some cool flowers – I am totally in Love with those. And it was so quick and fun.

We had a great time and have already planned our next play date. But until then, we hope you enjoyed our Summer Stamping on Ceramic – maybe you give it a try as well. Here are the supplies we used:


Nat

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