Get ready to transform your art journal and other creative projects with a bunch of fun and versatile tracing and transfer techniques. Enjoy Early Bird pricing – 25% off the regular price of $39, so just $29.25!!! – now through Monday May 27 when the workshop officially begins. Sign up here.
Check out the promo video:
Sign up now through Monday, May 27 and get the workshop for just $29.25. Throughout the workshop I show you ways to bring imagery into your art and how to integrate those elements with your style and make them your own. If you are looking for some inspiration for the summer, this is the perfect workshop for you! Join us!
May is almost over- wow that was a pretty wet month here in New Jersey but nonetheless I was able to do some Strolls :) Strolls through my hood get me out of my studio, they help me get unstuck and often I get inspired by what I see and get new ideas to create something. It is part of my philosophy about Artful Adventures in Mixed Media – which is the subject of my book. Here are some photos that I gathered in the last couple weeks.
This is from the beginning of the month – look at the amazing sunset – I always love this view the trees and our pencil factory buildings when I come home.
I love those houses on a side street of The Beacon, an old huge Hospital complex now Apartment complex – the little balconies and the colors- swoon.
Here is a part of The Beacon which has a ton of tall buildings which are the largest concentration of Art Deco buildings in New Jersey. One day I would really like to go inside- some of the areas are suppose to look stunning. I had students in my classes in NYC who told me they learned being a nurse there and they would never move in there because they swear it is haunted. MMHH…though I do not believe in these things …I love hearing those stories …probably the reason why I am so scared when watching anything suspenseful hahahah- maybe a little bit in my does believe after all ;)
This house above is the Hilton-Holden Homestead- which is considered to be Hudson County’s only surviving safe house on the Underground Railroad. “David and Edward Holding, aspiring astronomers deeply immersed in abolition causes, are thought to have used their observatory mansion to shelter runaway slaves.” You can see a little bit of the observatory to the left of the pediment and it is believed that it was used for signaling.
Little head poking out – Love how weathered it is and still intriguing.
Cherry Trees in Liberty State Park framing the Manhattan skyline
and leading towards Lady Liberty
We always stop here so my husband can skip some stones, funny little habits :)
And this view never gets old for me – I love it – riding the bike through the park and seeing this.
BTW that is behind me when I look towards Manhattan – the only bridge – not for public – to Ellis Island. That’s how all the tourist sandwiches get transported over LOL. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could just bike over there?
A burned out house in the new neighborhood. So sad to see this. I wonder how this will look like in a couple years – if they will take it down or gut it. It belongs now to a developer and the house to the right which actually looked pretty nice from the outside was totally stripped off its remaining ornamental original window and door parts and now looks like a typical Flipper-Frankenstein house.
Speaking of houses …here is our hallway where we started exposing some of the brick. It is a brick house after all.
I hope you enjoyed the little stroll – until next month!
I worked in Jersey City for many years before I retired. I miss the wonderful sights/sites you posted. Your photos were fabulous. I do get back there about once a month and have been mesmerized by some of the wonderful street art. Thanks for posting these photos. — Michele
Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have an art journal page from Jennifer Gallagher using my Floral Tile Large rubber stamps and my Van Vorst stencil, celebrating this month’s theme: Pastel Dreams – This month we are focusing on the softer, gentler side of things and going pastel with our color palettes. These dreamy pale colors are undeniably appealing and just as powerful as their bolder cousins on the color wheel.
When I think of pastels, I think of softness and they evoke a certain delicate nature. I decided to create a two-page art journal spread that perfectly displays my idea of what pastels are all about. First, I began on the right page of a two page spread in my small dylusions journal. Using Nat’s Van Vorst stencil, I applied a light amount of black soot distress ink with the mini blending tool.
Next, I applied a little picked raspberry and shaded lilac distress ink around the edges of the same page. Then I placed some Dina Wakley Media washi tape in coordinating tones on both the right and left journal pages.
Using my stamp perfect platform, I stamped Nat’s Versailles positive stamp from the Large Floral Tile Set onto deli paper using Momento Luxe Tuxedo Black ink pad. This ink is perfect for stamping on deli paper! I stamped two images for each medallion I created for my page, stamping a total of six.
After cutting my stamped deli paper along the design, I cut out three coordinating squares from white copy paper. I glued one deli paper square onto each white square with a basic glue stick. I added a little color to each medallion with distress ink. Then I placed an extra deli paper square on top of that and attached it with a mini black brad. In all I made three of these two-piece medallions.
I attached two of the medallions on the center of the washi tape stripes I created earlier on the left page. The third medallion went on the opposite page. Each medallion was adhered with a basic craft glue stick. I also added a few tissue paper sentiments from Dina Wakley Media collage words.
These cute little medallions would also be a wonderful accent for your hand-crafted cards. Be sure to play along each month with the creative squad and share your creations. Happy creating!
Thank you Jennifer – what a beautiful page! You can find all of my rubber stamps and my stencils in my online shop. Here are some of the other supplies Jennifer used:
Feel inspired? Working on something yourself that you’d like to share? I love to see how you interpret our monthly themes. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share your projects in my next “n*Spiration From Around the Globe“.
My wonderful friend Tina Walker is at it again – she invited several people to join her Stencilfied Prompts. The prompts are music related and each week she is posting a song. You can be inspired by the lyrics, the video, the album cover or anything related and the only restriction is that you have to use StencilGirl Product Stencils. Here is my take on Prompt 19
This week’s prompt was Danny’s Song by Loggins and Messina which I had never heard before. It’s a pretty uplifting song about love so I was inspired to make a bright and happy page.
I used my Batik stencil with spray paint – one of my favorite stencils that is an “oldy but a goody.”
I wrote out some of the lyrics with a Fude pen and also added my Far Out and Mid Century Squared foam stamps with watercolor and spray paints.
It’s time for a special edition of Currently Digging – with my Creative Squad! Once in a while I like to share with you some nifty finds – like an Artist whose work caught my eye…, some Inspiration that got my creative juices flowing, and Tools & Techniques I am currently digging. Today I asked Tania Ahmed from my Creative Squad what SHE is Currently Digging :) Hope you enjoy this.
Vincent Van Gogh – I am practising drawing and sketching more these days, I have had a mental block for a very long time where a voice in my head said “I can’t draw” … now I am telling that voice, “But I can try!” :) So I have been making sketches, taking classes and filling many many notebooks with paintings and scribbles. At the moment I am practising abstract flowers and I particularly fascinated especially by Van Gogh’s sunflowers. I love sunflowers as they are unabashedly flamboyant and I can’t help but be cheered up by them. I now grow them every year in my garden because they are so easy to take care of!
Netflix Documentary: The 100 Years Show “You cannot talk about art. You have to art about art.” On the other side of the spectrum I have been fascinated by the works of Carmen Herrera who is described to be a “minimalist visual artist.” A trained architect, her work is a vision of bright colours and bold geometric shapes who was finally recognised by the art world at the age of 89. As much as I love the chaos of sketching and drawing, there is a part of me that is drawn to stark geometry and order in art. The documentary is very short, only 30 minutes and well worth a watch.
Artist Carmen Herrera in front of some of her paintings. Credit: Matthew Carasella
Stabilo Woody Pencils – In my quest to sketch and draw more, I am exploring new mediums too! I have been eyeing the Woody Pencils over the years and always wondered if I really needed them considering I have a myriad of other amazing supplies at my disposal. Recently to treat myself, I got them and have not stopped using them! I now keep a few supplies as we travel a lot during weekends in my “entertainment bag” as my husband calls it, haha! These will definitely go traveling with me as they are watersoluble and the surprisingly quite pigmented. Perfect for quick sketches and art journal pages.
Thank you Tania! Stay tuned for the next Currently Digging Creative Squad edition for more from our other members :)
“He said: “There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow. So today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.”
The red/pink part of the Art Journal spread was done with some mono printing on a gelli plate. I used my Downtown Foam Stamp onto the plate and love how the pattern came through.
I painted part of the spread over with black gesso and once dry stamped on top with the Versailles Stamps from my Large Floral rubber stamp Set. For the white I used the second white pad in the Moonlight Duo Stamp Sets. So cool – once the white is dry it is permanent and it is pretty opaque as you can see.
I really love how this turned out – there is something about the grungy look of the monoprinted part and the black and white that just speaks to me.
Here are some of the supplies I used for this page:
A Look Back – a blog series to show you some projects and posts that you may have missed – sometimes going WAY back in the archive. I think it will be fun to revisit a few ideas that we haven’t seen for a while. I’m excited to see how a little look back might inspire something new in the future :)
All month I have been posting Nat’s April Patterns videos on Instagram showing how to make patterns with my new rubber stamps. It’s been a lot of fun and maybe you are looking for ways to use these patterns, so this time I’m going to show posts and projects using rubber stamps! Here is A Look Back at some ideas. Enjoy!
First is an art journal spread from a couple year ago where I used watercolors to color the rubber stamped cityscape I built. I love how easy and quick it can be to add color to stamps in this way. Here I started with my Stroll Through the Hood 1 and 2 stamp sets and then added bright hues that make me happy.
When I was on that same kick of creating neighborhood scenes with rubber stamps from my Stroll Through the Hood 1 and 2 stamp sets, I tried something different in this art journal spread: I colored them using fluid acrylic paints. You have to be a bit more careful to stay in the lines, but it’s a much bolder effect.
In 2017 Kim and I had this playdate where we used rubber stamps on white ceramic pieces – flower pots and vases. Here she is using stamps from my Cardboard set and from my Embroidery set. You can find a lot of plain white ceramics online that are just begging for a little personality.
In 2018 Kim and I got together for this playdate to use rubber stamps as a pattern for embroidery. Here is my Craftsman stamp from the Stroll Around the Block set getting an embroidery treatment on a t-shirt. It’s fun and relaxing and you get a really unique clothing item in the end.
And finally, from back in 2016, Creative Squad alum Michelle Rydell used embossing powder to make this rubber stamped bird really pop on a black background. Using embossing powder with rubber stamps is fun to begin with and once you add a dark background – wow. I love it!
I hope you enjoyed A Look Back through my archive and maybe you are inspired to try some of the rubber stamp techniques I shared.
Here are some of the supplies that were used in these pieces:
I loved your art journal page with the gold gesso years ago! I bought some and the jar was broken and a hot mess but had fun applying it to everything in sight. This year I tried the clear gesso on top of an IOD transfer on a journal and it was very nice indeed to watercolor on. Thank you for the reminder to dig up those old tools and make them new again.
I worked in Jersey City for many years before I retired. I miss the wonderful sights/sites you posted. Your photos were fabulous. I do get back there about once a month and have been mesmerized by some of the wonderful street art. Thanks for posting these photos. — Michele
Reply