Tutorial

Gift Box DIY

For a little gift I was looking for a gift box and it happened that I had my new Exchange Place Stencil on my workbench and when I looked at the middle I realized that this would make an awesome template for a little gift box.

I used a cosmetic sponge and some acrylic paint and dabbed the paint through the Exchange Place stencil through the middle section of the stencil as seen in the photo onto a sheet of self adhesive canvas.

I then cut the canvas piece out, adhered it to a piece of cardstock and then cut along the edges of the cardstock as well.

I outlined some of the stenciled areas with black and white.

 

Using a bone folder and a ruler, score the folds

applied my gift and tied it all up for a little package.

Voila. That was fun. The box measures approximately 3″x3.5″x2″

Here are some of the supplies besides Acrylic paint and Cosmetic sponges I used:


Nat

Comments (2)

  • Peg Gulrich

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    Hi. This looks great. Can you tell me what kind of adhesive backed canvas you used and what the dimensions of the final box you made are?
    Thanks

    Reply

  • Rae Missigman

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    I fell in love with this all over again! ❤️

    Reply

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Embroidery with Stroll Rubber Stamps

This month my friend Kim and I decided to do an embroidery play date. I am loving this new hobby and it is so nice to settle into a movie at night and do a little bit of embroidery. It’s relaxing, creative, and a fun way to add a personal touch to clothing. Kim and I chose some clothing items to embroider, and went straight to my Stroll Around the Block and Stroll Through the Hood rubber stamps for our designs.

You don’t need much to pull this off: embroidery thread, needles, scissors, a hoop, and a super nifty adhesive fabric stabilizer from Sulky that dissolves in water (see the link in the supplies below). Then you just choose a rubber stamp design and stamp on the fabric stabilizer. Kim chose the Craftsman stamp from my Stroll Around the Block set. It fits right in a 6″ hoop with some room to spare.

Then she carefully peels the backing off the stabilizer, removing the bottom a little to position and stick onto her tshirt. It is important to make sure the tshirt is flat underneath with no wrinkles and do not stretch the tshirt either. Slowly peel away the backing and press the stabilizer firmly onto the fabric.

I chose my E-Train rubber stamp from the Stroll Through the Hood 2 set. It fits nicely on the shoulder of this tshirt.

I next put the embroidery hoop on, careful to not stretch or distort the fabric. It should be taut but not stretched. Because of the neck opening, I had to position the image off to one side so that the hoop could grip the fabric all around.

Kim got to use my new StazOn stamp pad that I got in Japan with the cute cat cover…

Now the fun begins, and we begin to embroider, stitching to follow the stamped designs.

I like to make a stitch, then double back and go through the stitch to make a quasi “split stitch”. I am no expert on embroidery, and the main thing here is that you don’t have to be! Just make stitches and follow the design.

I trace the outline of the E-train stamp and Kim traces the Craftsman house…

It’s fun to begin to choose colors and mix things up in the design. If you don’t like what you did, you can always gently loosen the stitches back with your needle and cut the threads out. I also found that I could trace the design with a colored pencil to help envision how a color would look.

Here are our designs, coming along.

When I finished, I loosened the hoop and slipped it off, and tore off the excess stabilizer.

Next you wash it gently under running water and the stabilizer melts away, leaving just the embroidery. Be gentle and make sure to get under the stitches if you have dense areas.

Now your piece is ready to be laundered to take any additional adhesive off.

Then you can wear your new personalized shirt :)

And of course I didn’t stop there. I had a dress with a red hem that was calling for some decoration…

I began with my Brownstone stamp from the Stroll Through the Hood 1 set.

And then the Queen Anne house from the Stroll Around the Block set…

And finally the Art Deco stamp from the Stroll Around the Block set!

Here they are on the hem of the dress:

I loved taking some clothing items and making them more interesting so I might now wear them. And the embroidery is so easy to pick up and have fun with, especially if you use the rubber stamped design on the stabilizer sheet. Give it a try! Everything you need to get started is below:


 

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Nat

Comments (4)

  • Nancy Sapp

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    I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE ALL the embroidery ideas from your stamps, Nat!!! I just wish I was good at embroidering!!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      thank you so much ! I am not good at embroidery at all and this was really easy- promised!

      Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Clever…unique…love it!

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Stenciled Summer Scarves Tutorial

Last week Kim and I got together for a little stenciling playdate. We had already done some things with fabric paint but this time I was wanting to try fabric markers.

I found this nice set of non-toxic permanent fabric markers with both a fine and a broad tip ends and some silk scarves online. I chose a white scarf as my backdrop and Kim went for yellow. We gathered all my stencils to decide what patterns we might like.

I jumped right in with my Santiago stencil – trying to decide how best to line it up. These are large square scarves so we decided to decorate the corners so you can see the design as it’s wrapped around your neck.

The fine tip end worked nicely with the stencil and the colors were pretty and bright – especially on the white scarf. The thin and smooth silk fabric was a bit tricky to hold down and we found you had to really hold the stencil and fabric in place to keep the pattern lined up. Another trick on thin silk – use very little pressure with the marker – it doesn’t take much ink to make a mark.

The ink spreads and gives a watercolor look to the design. This is maybe not a project for the very fussy – the silk and markers produce a more hand-painted look than precise line. I found the broad end of the marker worked well for filling in large areas of the design. As you can see, I switched colors several times with the same stencil.

Another tip: make sure you have paper or some protective surface underneath the scarf to catch the pigment that bleeds through. I added another stencil here: Amsterdam, and a few more of the marker colors. My tactic was “more is more”.

And finally I added a bit of the Versailles stencil and one final color. You can see that this scarf is thin and translucent (those marks near the orange pattern are actually on the paper underneath) and the markers are transparent too.

Kim chose to use only the Beacon stencil on her yellow scarf.

The designs look like flowers and she stayed with pinks, orange, and purple colors. Again, she worked on the corners of the scarf.

Here is her field of flowers when she was done. You can see the markers bleed on the thin silk, but it gives a pretty painted look.

My scarf is a colorful collection of patterns and so unique!

And here is the final result for Kim, a one-of-a-kind scarf for summer! This was a fun and easy project and just took an hour or so. I also really liked the color selection of the marker set so I’m definitely going to try them on some other things too. I hope you try it and share your results with me!

Here are some of the supplies we used for this project:


Nat

Comments (1)

  • stephanie

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    What a fun project! Both scarves are lovely

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Mother’s Day Photo Transfer Keepsake

A while ago I made some photo transfers on galvanized metal plates and Kim really liked the look and so she asked if I could show her how to do it so that she could make a cute gift for her Mom for Mother’s Day.

The fun part about doing a transfer on the metal is that you have the metallic sheen in the transfer but also the visual texture of the tin adding almost a painterly quality.

Gloss Gel, a brush, a galvanized tin and photo as well optional some stamps and a stamping pad are the supplies needed. Kim decided on a galvanized heart box for the transfer.

Something that is really important regarding the photo is that you need a high contrast laser print and that you will need to reverse the image before you have it printed out because the transfer will mirror your photo, words, buildings, people etc.

Cut the image to size – Kim cut along the edges of this photo -aren’t her sister, she and her Mom the cutest?

She made sure the photo would fit onto the heart shaped lid of a tin box.

Scoop some of the Liquitex Gloss Gel out of the jar. You can later put the unused gel back into the jar. The reason why I like to use glossy Gel Medium is that the glossier the medium, the more translucent the transfer will become.

Using a paddle brush to cover the tin (you can use any brush- but I prefer the paddle brush because it helps with an even distribution of the medium and and makes it easer to smooth out brushstrokes)

Even though the photo is smaller then the lid Kim covered it entirely because will even the glossy sheen once the gel is dried.

Then spread the gel also over the photo. You don’t want to cover any of the surfaces to thickly and you need to work fast to prevent the gel from drying.

Then place the image facing down onto the tin

and burnish it down. Carefully get rid of any bubbles that may have accumulated beneath the image by using a plastic card or squeegee.

Start at the center and work towards the outer edges of the adhered image.

Set the tin aside and let it dry for several hours.

Wet the back of the image transfer paper applying some water with your fingertips.

Start rubbing the back of the paper off in a gentle circular motion.

The image with start to appear as the paper pulp is removed. Work one area at a time until most of the paper is rubbed out. Let the image dry in between. The remaining paper will reappear and will show you which areas might need more rubbing. Work gently and stop before the transfer gets scratched or damaged by further rubbing.

Apply a final coating of a little bit thinned down Gloss Gel to the entire lid of the tin. Make sure to carefully work the gel into any areas where are tiny bit of paper might remain. The Gloss Gel will seal the surface and make those bits of paper invisible once dried.

Let dry.

Kim then added some stamping with StazOn and my Love Tag and Love Knots stamps.

And there you go, a personal little keepsake box filled with some sweets, a bunch of flowers and you are ready to go for Mother’s Day.

I love the transfer on metal – there are many options using tin – for example tin plates with a transfer for a journal or else! Hope you give it a try if not for Mother’s Day then maybe some other time :)

Here are some of the supplies Kim used for her Keepsake box



Nat

Comments (1)

  • stephanie

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    what a great project! thanks.

    Reply

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Foam Stamped Ho-Ho-Holiday Cards

Last week Kim and I got into the holiday spirit a little early and made some stamped cards with my newest ArtFoamies.

We had some craft paper card and envelope sets, my ArtFoamies foam stamps, a whole bunch of acrylic paint, brayers, and some deli paper or palette paper.

First Kim used my Broadway Positive Negative foam stamps and made a few cards for Thanksgiving – one of my favorite upcoming holidays (hosting again this year woot woot!).

We didn’t limit ourselves to the typical holiday colors – here I am doing a card with my Valley Road Positive Negative set and just decided to go with purple. Why not?

We overlapped and mixed colors and here used my Central Avenue Positive Negative stamps for a modern card. Maybe it’s a snowflake or Christmas ornaments or just festive and fun :)

We went a little nuts and both made enough cards for just about everyone on our lists. Here I layered up the Downtown Positive Negative stamps and used a bit of metallic paint.

I love how intricate this design is. Maybe I will go back to this card as I got a bit too much paint on the stamp. It will not go to waste.

Kim chose an unusual arrangement for this card using my Exchange Place stamp and some mauve and purple paint. She could write a personalized message in the corner when she’s ready to send.

It was easy to stamp out a bunch at a time.

Kim lined up the edges of a few cards and stamped them at once to get the designs moving off the edge of the paper.

In the end I decided to add a message on this one (stamped with my Van Vorst Positive Negative stamps), using an Opount envelope addressing guide.

I dressed this one (used the Grove Street Positive Negative stamps) up with a bit of black pen to look like an ornament.

At the end of our play date we had made a bunch of cards for all the upcoming holidays! It was quick and easy and took a little of the stress of the season away knowing we have them ready to go!

Here are some of the supplies we used (some are affiliate links):


Hope you enjoyed our HO-HO-Holiday playdate :) We already have some fun project lined up for the December one.

Nat

Comments (2)

  • Sue Clarke

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    I especially love the one that is a purple ornament.
    Fun fun fun creating right there!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Thank you Sue- it was super fun and so easy too – stress free holiday card making in this case :)

      Reply

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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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Summer Stamping: DIY Wine Charms

A couple of weeks ago my friend Kim and I spent a morning to make some fun DIY Wine Charms. With 4th July coming up and some wonderful evenings spent with friends outside we thought that my RubberMoon Stroll Through the Hood Sets would be perfect for making a couple wine charm sets.

We stamped using black Staz On on top of Shrink Film (complete supply list is below)

Colored the images in with some Derwent Graphik line painters.

Cut the images out

and poked a whole into them. (we learned we needed to make sure that the whole would be really big- since they shrink too – so hole punch whole is the perfect size)

We placed all the shrink plastic shapes onto a baking sheet and followed the directions on the packaging -backed it for a couple minutes and

pulled out the cutest little plastic pieces. See how much Lady Liberty shrinked. We shrieked in delight

and put some wine charm rings through them

We made an E-Train Set

and a Brownstone Set

A mixed set

and a mailbox set

and we could not stop. Guess what everyone is going to get for presents in my friend’s circle in the next couple months ;)

On this note “CHEERS” my friends and I hope you liked this little tutorial. Give it a try :)

Here are the supplies we used- some links are affiliate links


Nat

Comments (4)

  • Susan

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    Nathalie, these are darling! My kiddo just pulled out the shrinking supplies this morning!!!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Thank you Susan! I bet it was fun playing with the shrinking supplies !

      Reply

  • Rae Missigman

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    oh I love these! I remember doing charms last Summer with the kids and we loved it! Thank you for reminding me I have a bunch of the supplies left in the closet and need to haul them out again this Summer break…now….what to make this time!!! :) You rock!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      thank you Rae! I bet you are doing some fun pieces with them :) how about some mini mark embellishments :)

      Reply

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DIY – Stamped Easter Eggs

For the upcoming Easter Holiday I decided to dye some eggs. I bought some wooden eggs, blew out some brown eggs and cooked some white eggs to have a variety to play with.

I dyed the cooked white eggs with some natural dyes (Yellow/Orange (Annatto extract), Purple (Radish), Blue (Cabbage) – see picture on top of the collage. For the blown out brown eggs and the wooden eggs I wanted to try the new Tea Stain Dyes by Faber Castell, which are not suitable for food. They are meant to dye fabric and paper but I thought it should work with wood and egg shells too. I loved how the colors came out with these dyes, especially on the wooden eggs, the brown eggs were a bit tricky with the light green, but it was all good. Both dyes resulted in colors that I was super happy with.

I stamped the eggs with a white pigment dye stamp pad – using my inked cling rubber stamps by wrapping those carefully around the egg, and using some of my foam stamps by rolling the egg over the inked stamp.

On the top row you see the eggs stamped with my ArtFoamies foam stamps – I love how they turned out- the impression is bold.

On the bottom I used my Cardboard Cling Rubber Stamp Set. I loved especially how the Tread stamp gave a look of rubber bands but I do love ever single one. The yellow of course was a bit tough with white ink …so I used an archival ink on top which made it a bit smudge. Oh well.

Next I tried my Embroidery Cling Stamp Set – ohhhhh- i so loved the look of this. The different stitches came out really well on the eggs.

On the bottom you see eggs used with the Stroll through the Hood Cling Stamp Sets -see the Hydrant pattern – I was geeking out- LOL- I know it is random but I love it.

Here you have a couple of the eggs as decoration on my table. The cooked eggs are in the fridge waiting to be consumed in the next couple days ;) That was super fun to make, so easy ! I hope you like them and give these a try :) Here is the supply list of what I used besides some brown and white organic eggs:


Nat

Comments (4)

  • stephanie

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    great eggs!

    Reply

  • Joi@RR

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    Heheheh – love your EASTER PARADE of EGGS Nat! They are GORGEOUS. Your stamps are perfect on them. Xj.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      thank you Joi, I am so glad you like them :) Have a wonderful start into the week! <3

      Reply

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Rule of Three – #2 – Three Ways to Use Your Gelli Plate with Foam Stamps

Here is another episode of my new series of mini-videos: “Rule of Three”. As we all know all good things come in three and these mini-tutorial-videos will show you all kinds of fun and practical things and techniques coming in three.

Rule of Three – #2 – Three Ways to Use Your Gelli Plate with Foam Stamps

Rule of Three – #2 – Three Ways to Use Foam Stamps with a Gelliplate/Monoprinting Plate from Nathalie Kalbach on Vimeo.

I hope you find these 3 ways to use the foam stamp sets in your mono printing process inspiring :) . Here is a full list of the supplies I used in my video:




I am looking forward to share more Rule of Three videos with you soon! Have a wonderful creative day!

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Nat

Comments (6)

  • stephanie

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    Great ideas and video! Thanks Nat

    Reply

  • Joi@RR

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    Wow – you have just turned into such a pro on your videos Nat. What an amazing video tutorial this is. I so love listening to you talk and seeing you in creative mode! WONDERFUL WONDERFUL. Thank you soooo much. Big hugs. j.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      LOL- Joi – thank you – is it the super fast talking? ;) I try to make those videos short- which as you know…I want to put so much stuff in there- it is a bit challenging for me to keep myself short ;) Glad you liked it- big hugs to you too and have a wonderful weekend!

      Reply

  • Kathy Gledsdale

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    Thank you for sharing.

    Reply

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