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Behind the Museum -Painting

I finished up this painting last week – and called it “Behind the Museum”

It depicts a quintessential streetscape in the city of Amsterdam, with it’s unmistakable architecture and one-of-a-kind beauty. On a recent trip to the city, after an afternoon spent enjoying the Rijksmuseum, I took in this lovely view while waiting for a tram. Since it was  a pretty long wait I just looked for 20 minutes at the details and contemplated about who used to live there, how the street looked like when it was built and who might live in there now.

I used acrylic paint, gouache, graphite and marker on canvas and the painting measures 10″ x 8″. It is available in the store now :)

Nat

Comments (2)

  • Sue Clarke

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    Nat, it just blows me away how far your art has come. From colorful scrapbook pages and cards to paintings that evoke feelings of warm neighborhoods that I want to visit! You go girl…you have the creative world by its heart strings.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      aweee- thank you so so much for your wonderful words! <3

      Reply

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Stroll Through the Hood – August 2018

Time for a Stroll Through the Hood . Strolls through my hood get me out of my studio, they help me unstuck and often I get inspired by what I see and to 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.

Well- first of all meet Bobby Pretzel- our new cat. Bobby is adorable and just 13 weeks old now -he also has his own instagram account @bobbypretzel . He is an awesome studio kitten, super cuddly, and very adventurous – makes me laugh – so that is good :)

What Niles thinks about this? “What the Fluff” sums it up – LOL. He is very curious, sniffs and plays with the kitten, they have also slept two time for five minutes cuddled together but most of the time Niles looks at me like he looks at this weird Marshmallow stuff in a jar.

I was out and about in the city last week – for a wedding of a very good friend of mine from Germany – and saw the fun mural above at the WTC station. Good, the area needed some color and I love the contrast.

Here is the gorgeous couple- so happy for them – they are adorable and it was a wonderful day! I still cannot believe how they managed in the clothing in this insane heat that day -I looked like a wet towel- they looked gorgeous!

Spent some nice time at DUMBO and took the ferry from DUMBO to 33rd street which was really nice – for 2.75 Dollars you have a cool ferry ride – on my list for future visitors.

I never saw the sign above – also kind of funky- LOL- two days later I saw an article with that sign in the New York Times and learned that “Brad’s Drink” as it was called first 120 years ago was advertised as a medicinal drink …go figure! LOL

Speaking of friends

I also got to spent some time with my wonderful friend Birgit Koopsen – who I was lucky to see twice during her family vacation in the States. I always love seeing her ! We took one photo together …guess we had too much fun to think about photos :)

Looking around at open houses is also super interesting and inspiring -love the old fire place and the grate – the pattern intrigues me but then of course also how original this is.

and be still my heart- look at the stenciling on the stairs – I am wondering where those designs came from and how common that was in the 1880s and a bit later -anyone has an idea?

Part of a back yard of a house- love the man made old wall – so cool!

Also getting around a lot to see more murals –

Always love Rubin415 geometric shapes but I also dig the colors he used here

and of course pixelpancho – fun!

Meanwhile Lady Liberty in our parking lot in front of the apartment building is still suffering -I hear you Lady- I am with you!

And someone tied up their lego dog in front of Hamilton Park.

I hope you enjoyed my monthly Stroll Through the Hood – I hope to see you next month again!

Nat

Comments (1)

  • Sue Clarke

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    Congrats and welcome to Bobby. Niles…be the big brother and try to be kind.
    The Lady Liberty is stunning yet so sad (reflecting towards concerns for many of us).

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Raiders of the Lost Stash – Jennifer Gallagher

  

Welcome to a post from my wonderful Creative Squad! Today we have a project from Jennifer Gallagher who is using my Space Oddity and Mini Santa Fe foam stamps in a unique subtractive way to create some gorgeous cards. She was inspired by this month’s theme: Raiders of the Lost Stash – It’s time to raid your stash of art making stuff. Pick a few things you’ve tucked away for later and use them NOW. Maybe you have some leftover scraps or deli papers that you couldn’t bear to part with. Maybe you’ve squirreled away a new product that you’ve been meaning to try. The time is now! Raid your stash and try it :)

We are raiding our stashes this week. What good artist or crafter worth their salt doesn’t have a considerable stash of supplies just waiting for inspiration? In my stash I found a few sets of Sizzix thinlits dies by Tim Holtz that I haven’t used in ages. These dies, along side a few of my go-to supplies, were the inspiration for these beautiful note cards.

I adore my n*Studio artfoamies and wanted to show you a new way to use them. Begin by spraying a few colors of Dylusions Ink Spray onto a watercolor note card. Don’t be stingy with the spray! You will want a nice base of color to work with.

Next, spritz some water onto your artfoamie (I’m using Nat’s Space Oddity and Mini Santa Fe ArtFoamies) making sure the entire design is wet. Gently press the artfoamie onto the note card. After a few seconds, remove the artfoamie and dab a paper towel onto the card to pick up the excess moisture. (Dab – don’t wipe!) Because the ink sprays are water reactive, we will be pulling ink off of the card leaving the design of the artfoamie behind. Repeat until you have a design you like.

Choose a few sentiments from the die set and run them on black cardstock through your die cutting machine. Fix your sentiment onto your note card with a liquid glue like Tombow Mono.

This is a fun way to use your artfoamies so be sure to try this at home and share your creations with us! Get into that supply stash and get creative.

Wow these are beautiful Jennifer!!! Love the subtle variations in color and love this exciting way to use foam stamps – almost like a sponge. You can find all of my foam stamps and more in my online shop and if you’d like to try this technique, here are some of the supplies that Jennifer used:



Be sure to check out all the Creative Squad projects on the Creative Squad webpage and if you feel inspired, share your projects with us! We love to see what you’re working on. I post projects almost every month in my Inspiration From Around the Globe posts!

Nat

Comments (2)

  • lynda

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    Love this idea Jennifer! Question…….do you let the Dylusions spray dry before stamping with the foam stamp? Thanks!

    Reply

    • Jennifer Gallagher

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      Hi Lynda! I did let the layers dry. You can let them air dry or use a heat tool to speed it up a bit. Thanks for checking out my project.

      Reply

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Struggling – Art Journal

She struggled for she wasn’t sure what the goal should be and she didn’t know how to just live in the moment.

I stamped with Archival ink and the Valley Road stamps from my Large and Small Circle Jumble Rubberstamp Set on top of a blue painted background.

I used a blue Stabilo Woody Pen to create some scribbles and went over the sketch again – I like the soft texture of the pencil versus the brush strokes and surface of the acrylic painted background.

Here are some of the supplies I used – as always you can find most of my stamps and stencils in my store here.


Nat

Comments (2)

  • Sue Clarke

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    I particularly like how you’ve been making patterns on clothes with your stamps.
    That statement just about sums up life.
    Have a delightful day Nat.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Thank you sue- I love making those patterns – and I wish some of those clothes would magically appear in my wardrobe LOL! Have a delightful weekend Sue!

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XOXOXO

Just a little card using some acrylic paints and my new Amsterdam Foam Stamp – some collage paper and dashes- done :) I do have two sizes of the Stamp in my store – check it out.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend, what are you up to ?

xoxoxo



Nat

Comments (1)

  • Jill Adamy

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    Love your card… it’s adorable! Great job!

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Inspiration from Around the Globe – August 2018

Ready for some inspiration? Today we have some projects from around the globe. It’s always fun to see how you’re using my stamps and stencils and I am so happy to share some examples today. So let me know if you’re doing something cool with my products, and you might see yours on the next Inspiration from Around the Globe!

First up is a beautiful wall hanging from one of our former Creative Squad members Gwen Lafleur, from the US. She is using my Manhattan stencil for the blue background pattern on this funky design!

Next is Barbaree King also from the US with a cool mixed media postcard using my Grove Street foam stamp on the left in pink.

From the UK we have a pop of color from Colleen Melody, using some stamps from my Marks stamp set in red here.

From the US we have a neat mixed media index card from Cathy B who has created a nifty wedding scene using my Mailbox, US Flag, and Main Station stamps, all from the fun Stroll Through the Hood 2 set :)

And finally we have some pages from Jade Sutton in the US who is using my Manhattan foam stamps to create a bold background to unify her spread.

If you’re working on something fun with my stamps or stencils, be sure to tag me and share! I’d love to see! Here are some of the supplies used in this post:



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Nat

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At The Center – Art Journal

At the center of your being your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want!

Great…lol- off to the center ;)

Using my new Small and Large Circle Jumble Rubber Stamp Sets to create some fun patterns. I loved playing with fine and more chunky embossing powders – it has been ages since I used those. I used the small circles only for the bolder pattern with the thick embossing powder as it works better on bigger stamps as the design doesn’t just bleed and melt together.

It is funny how a certain supply keeps you enthralled for a long time and then it is suddenly totally gone from your mind- and then it come back. Actually since all of a sudden all the mixed media world is into it, I kind of was reminded how much I used it to create texture on mixed media canvases etc.

yum! Have you lately pulled out something you haven’t used in ages?

Here are some of the supplies I used besides acrylic paints:


Nat

Comments (2)

  • Sue Clarke

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    Love the embossing. I always struggle with it.
    The gold tones are wonderful and the words are right on.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Sue, it is so much fun. It is usually just a matter of watching closely the changes that appear when heating it up.

      Reply

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