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Keep singing your own song! Art Journal

“No matter what people think of you, alway keep singing your own song.”

I used ink to sketch the dude …bad lip job but oh well ;)

I used some music sheet color painted with watercolors for the background of the guitar and stamped on top of the clothing with my building rubber stamps from various sets. For the skyline I used the patterned and solid side of my Midtown Foam Stamp Set and stamped the windows and doors on top.

This was a fun spread to create – here are some of the supplies I used:


Nat

Comments (2)

  • Sue Clarke

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    I absolutely love how you’ve been using the building stamps to make clothing patterns.
    I never would have thought of doing that and it makes for such an interesting look.
    Thanks for your continued inspiration Nat!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      thank you Sue! I am so obsessed with doing those building clothes- cannot stoppppp :)

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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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Not Flowery – Art Journal

For not being a flowery girl, I did an awful lot of flowery stuff lately, huh? LOL.

This spread was inspired by a mural I saw in Birmingham, UK last year- can you spot which one in the post about it?

The background was spray painted over my Kassel stencil, and the flowers are painted with acrylic paints and gouache. For the face I used neopastels.

I like how all the different paint mediums look together and play with them.


Nat

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Vacation Mode – Jennifer Gallagher

  

Hello from the Creative Squad! Today we have Jennifer Gallagher and her set of absolutely lovely postcards to send from your vacation destination. She is using my Toledo and Kassel stencils and my Valley Road foam stamp, along with our theme: Vacation Mode – Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we are slogging through winter with only one thing on our minds – vacation! Whether it’s Spring Break, a weekend getaway, or an hour with a good book, everyone needs an escape to Vacation Mode now and again.

This month we are in Vacation Mode here at the Nstudio Creative Squad. What better time to beat my current winter blues than looking ahead to Summer and family vacations. I love the warm Summer sun, sand between my toes, and the salty ocean breeze. So, today I will walk you through making some adorable beach-inspired postcards to send to family and friends from any destination.

These fun postcards are quick and easy to make and you can use your favorite Nstudio stencils, stamps, and artfoamies to make them uniquely you. I used my six by six inch gelli plate, brayer, watercolor postcards, and inexpensive acrylic craft paints. To make some really standout postcards I used Nat’s Toledo stencil, Kassel stencil, and Valley Road Artfoamies.

I layered my paint onto my gelli plate from light to dark in coordinating colors with my brayer. I put down my stencil and pressed my watercolor postcard down. Press firmly!

I chose complimentary colors, in this case turquoise and teal, and applied the paint to my artfoamies. I applied the design in interesting places on my postcards.

After the paint dried, I decided to add some interest with black India ink. Following the spaces between the stencil gives an interesting line for the eye to follow.

Now all that is left is to send them out. Thanks for stopping by and be sure to visit every Tuesday for the latest Creative Squad post. Enjoy!

Thank you Jennifer! Those colors are sure to brighten any gloomy winter day :)  Here are some of the supplies that 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“.

Join us on Thursday March 22nd at 4pm EST for my latest Kaffeeklatsch on Facebook! I’ll be chatting about all the latest and greatest here at Nathalie’s Studio. Special this time is a GIVEAWAY you will not want to miss, tales from my trip to Japan, and lots of news about exciting upcoming in-person workshops! Join us and say hi!

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Nat

Comments (1)

  • maura

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    Love how you made your own postcards with the stencils and stamps, Jennifer! Cool idea and colors! Maura

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Different doesn’t Mean Wrong!

Different doesn’t mean WRONG!

Good reminder as I am doing a lot of things different in my art journal lately ;)

I liked the sketch so much that I didn’t wanna change it up with color or stamping, so I left it as is. I adhered some some washi tape with Gel Medium and added the Journaling on top.

The building is a printout on gauze. I manipulated the image which was taken in the neighbor hood in an amazing class a couple years several years ago with Natalya Aikens and I hoarded this piece of fabric. I decided it was time to just use it up :)


Nat

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Inspiration from Around the Globe

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 super lovely and colorful art journal spread from Barbaree King in Florida. Her Creative JumpStart inspired page uses my circular Grove Street ArtFoamies stamps for an unexpected background.

Next we have an art journal spread from Jeannine Stein at Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine in Massachusetts. She’s created a lush background and stamped over it with my Brownstone and Lady Liberty stamps. Love it!!!

Here we have some awesome tissue paper stamping action by Sue Sharp from Canada! She drew inspiration from a lesson in Creative JumpStart and used the stamps from my Marks stamp set.

From the UK we have a gorgeous art journal spread from Frieda Oxenham with one of my favorite icons of the NYC skyline :) and 2 cool ways to use my Chicago stencil for the background and border.

And finally, a celebration of pattern in her art journal by Valerie Teele in California. She was playing along with Creative JumpStart and used my Manhattan and New Orleans stencils :)

I hope you enjoyed these projects and feel inspired to do some creative play yourself! Here are the stamps and stencils that were used:


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Nat

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Be Silly – Art Journal

Be Silly, be honest, be kind!

Fun using up a tag I made a while ago with my Versailles Stamp set and the Manhattan border stamp. For the background I stenciled some gold gesso through my Amsterdam and Versailles Stencil and colored the space in between with watercolor paint.

The building is a cut out from an old calendar print of my Highline painting. This was a fun and fast spread to do :)


Nat

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A Long Way – Art Journal

Little collage play in my art journal. I am enjoying using a lot of scraps and paper I collected and trying some different things :)

I sketched the 50s girl on deli paper and then pasted it on a flower painting in watercolor. I used several of my urban stamps to create a grungy look.

I love combining the romantic look with some grungy me – just my style ;)

I cut out some artwork from an old MoMA desk calendar as well as a part of one of my own old calendars which had some of my building paintings included. I like incorporating my own paintings on different scale into my art journal.

Here is a close up of the dress. I am having so much fun with this :)

Here are some of the supplies I used:


Nat

Comments (2)

  • Sue Clarke

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    What a delightful spread. I can picture you wearing this dress!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Thank you Sue! Oh yeah- I would love to have that dress too :)

      Reply

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