Do you ever wonder, what you would have done if you just knew ….?
I love the color combination, which I was inspired to used by a painting by Marc Rothko. I love breaking away from my usual color uses by exploring other artists and then use their color schemes or combinations.
Lot’s of pattern with acrylic ink applied with foam stamps and stencils.
Here are the supplies I used, besides acrylic paints:
What is your favorite color combination at the moment?
Happy New Year from the Creative Squad! We’re kicking off a new theme here but first we would like to say a big hello and welcome to new squad member Maura Hibbitts! We are so happy to have Maura and her super creative style on the team so stay tuned for her first project later this month :) And now we have a lovely project from Marsha Valk, who explores a technique by artist Max Ernst using my new Stroll Around the Block and My Home is my Castle stamp sets. Our theme this month is My Home is My Castle – Home means many different things depending on who you ask and where you are in the world. This month we’re thankful to have a place to call home, a place where we can rule and be King – or Queen :) – of the castle!
Happy 2018!
Oh, how I wish I could have a home like the ones in Nat’s new Stroll Around The Block stamp set!
My own home isn’t anything like that, but remarkably enough, there is one stamp in the set that reminds me of something I have in my house. It’s a screen print of an American house similar to the Craftsman house, and I decided to start with that stamp.
Of course, I could have just stamped with it, but I recently went to the Max Ernst Museum in Brühl, Germany and there I saw Ernst’s fascinating work composed of pencil rubbings of wood and other materials. Max Ernst invented this technique in 1925 en he called it ‘frottage’.
I wanted to try if frottage works with rubber stamps too. And… it does!
I used wax crayons, but you can also use coloured or graphite pencil and charcoal instead.
As for paper: a thin paper works best, so use printer paper or look for something of a similar weight and smoothness.
You have the option to stamp the My Home Is My Castle text first before applying the wax crayon.
Or, if you’d rather stamp the text later on, then I suggest testing if your stamping ink stays put on the wax crayon rubbing first.
I had no trouble stamping over my rubbings with Archival ink, but a combination of other brands/materials may have different results.
Position the stamp of the Craftsman house under the paper, image side up, and start rubbing over it with a wax crayon.
Rubbing with the long side of the crayon works best!
Create a landscape or background by placing background stamps or stencils under the paper and rubbing more wax crayon in different colours right next to the image of the house.
Also, try adding layers of different colours and textures on top of each other. Just have fun with it and see what you can come up with!
Thank you Marsha for sharing this super cool technique with us – what awesome results too! In addition to computer paper, Marsha used the following supplies (some are affiliate links):
Play along with us too: 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“.
Thank you Maura! Museums are the best: you never know what catches your eye!
Or what’s going to catch your eye (but you know what I mean ;-)).
What a year this has been! Besides 2017 being a bit of a rollercoaster ride with some health issues with my shoulder and neck and some other world issues, it was a year of mile stones for me for sure.
Becoming an American Citizen after living for four years here and publishing my first book Artful Adventures in Mixed Media were major and weird and awesome and fun! I will never forget the experiences and feelings tied to these two events.
2017 was also a wonderful year because I had my godson visiting me– which was a cool and bonding experience as well, I am sure neither he nor I will forget this.
An epic road trip reminding me to appreciate our world we live in, to respect nature and history and how fortunate I am to have such an awesome husband who shares the same ideas, values and interests with me. We called it the Tour of the American Ancients
And also last but not least a highlight was meeting the many wonderful students and workshop organizers this year at A Work of Heart in San Jose, CA, The InkPad in NYC, OOAK in Salem, NY, Artiscape in Dublin Ohio, My Heart’s Fancy in Oklahoma, Scrapbooking Forever in CA, Everything Scrapbook and Stamps in FL, Art Workshops in the U.K, in Nathalie’s Studio, NJ, Queen’s Ink in MD and Runaway Art & Craft in Salem, Oregon, thank you all for coming and inspiring me right back! I cannot wait to come back to many of those places in 2018!
Thank you to all of you who joined me on this Artful Adventure in 2017 – you are amazing! I wish you a wonderful, healthy, creative and peaceful year 2018!
Wow, you have had an awesome year! Here’s to 2018 and all that it brings us!
Thank you Sandee! Happy New Year!
What a year is right…and thanks for all your inspiration, photos, neighborhood walks and sharing your art/like adventures with your loyal fans Nat! Wishing you the best for 2018 as well.
Happy New Year Sue, wishing you a wonderful year 2018 as well. Thank you for all your visits- I cherish every one of them!!!
In this interview with Jen Crossley, we talk about Craft vs. Art, metal edging, junk stores, her love of cooking and the unlikely likely occurrence of poisonous spiders in Australia ;)
Jumping with… Jen Crossley…a CJS Interview Series from Nathalie Kalbach on Vimeo.
Jen is also sharing one of her favorite recipes with us:
1 Lge BBQ chicken cooked
1 small Brown onion
1 pkt Bacon
3/4 cup Chicken stock
1 cup Milk
3 Tablespoons Plain flour ( not self raising)
3 dessertspoons Butter
Topping:
3 tablespoons of butter
2 cups cornflakes
Break up the chicken into small pieces no bones. In a saucepan melt the butter then add the onion, add the bacon and cook until done, do not brown the bacon or onion. Next add flour – do not brown the flour. Cook for 2 minutes. Add chicken stock and milk, stir until this thickens then simmer for two minutes. You can add a bit more milk if the sauce is too thick. Mix in Chicken pieces then put it into a casserole dish.
Topping:
Melt the butter and the cornflakes together then spread on top of the chicken base. Bake in a oven on a medium heat till the cornflakes brown on the top.
Serve and enjoy!
You can download Jen’s recipe here: CJS18 Recipes Jen Crossley
I hope you enjoyed the interview- Jen’s video for CJS is shows such a cool technique! Come and join us for Creative Jumpstart 2018 and see yourself !
Hi Nathalie,
Just caught up with your last two interviews – enjoyed them both. It was so nice to get to meet the artist in advance of their tutorial – tomorrow!!! Yay!!!
so glad you liked the interviews- It was really fun to chat with them! Looking forward seeing you in the class room :)
I hope to see you at one of my In Person Workshops happening all over the world! Whether you are looking for classes on art journaling, gelli printing, mixed media techniques, inspiration for your artwork, or you are just looking for an awesome and fun creative day, there is something for everyone. Be sure to check out my classes and sign up early – It will be a busy year for me and in fact I have already organized all of the workshops that I will be teaching in 2018. Here is the big list:
April 7th and 8th at My Heart’s Fancy – I’m returning to teach more workshops and will have more details very soon :)
May 18th – Mono Print Painting at Ephemera Paducah – Let’s take our gelli plate printing to a whole new level and discover the mono printing technique of H.N.Werkman. We’ll create complex, layered mono prints as elements of our mixed media work and as stand alone artwork. Sign up here!
May 19th – 20th – Artful Adventures in Art Journaling 20th at Ephemera Paducah – This 2 day workshop will take you on a journey built to inspire your art journaling. We’ll learn some fundamentals about color, composition, and the principles of art, we’ll explore the work of famous artists, and then we’ll see how to apply that knowledge and inspiration through the use of transfer techniques, layering, and collage. Sign up here!
June 22nd – 24th in Coventry – We’re returning to Coventry to teach a brand new workshop! We’ll take you on a creative scavenger hunt, make inspiration maps, play with Birgit and Nat’s favorite tools, and we’ll translate everything into unique, personal art journal pages. Learn to see your environment in a new way and to use it to inspire awesome artwork!
Sign up details coming soon!
July 29th and 30th at A Work of Heart.
Uber Gelli Plate Printing – Join me for a day long class, diving into the basics and beyond of gelli plate printing. We’ll play with pattern making and we’ll discuss color theory and design. I will introduce you to the Mono Print Painting technique inspired by H.N. Werkman and we’ll learn different ways to create elaborate and layered mono printed paintings. Using self made tools, stamps and stencils, we’ll take your gelli plate printing to a whole new level. This is the ultimate in uber fun and easy printing techniques.
Art Rules – Art in Translation Art Journaling – We’ll look to the style and technique of master artists for inspiration for our own art journaling. We’ll learn about opacity and layering, colors, troubleshooting, mixing materials, making your own tools, creating backgrounds and patterns. We will work with acrylic paints, inks, markers, wax bars and other paint media to create dimension and texture.
More information coming soon!
September 21st, 22nd, and 23rd at Tolles Ding – 8 Kurse + 4 Workshopleiter + leckeres Essen + 50 Meter zum Strand = OstseeScrap 2018!
October 13th and 14th at Runaway Art & Craft in Salem, Oregon – so excited to come back – detail son the workshops coming soon!
November 2nd – 4th in Coventry – A thrilling three-day art adventure awaits you! Join Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Nathalie Kalbach for an intensive art-making weekend packed with tips, techniques, ideas, laughter, and excellent instruction. Over the three days we will create our own unique papers, build complex backgrounds, layer collage and paint and collage again, use stamps, use stencils, draw, splatter, scrape, and learn varied art concepts from color mixing to design principles. You will leave the workshop with TWELVE completed mixed media collages and an arsenal of art techniques and ideas that can be used in your art journal, on canvas, and while papercrafting. You do not want to miss out on this opportunity to expand your repertoire of techniques! Please join us for Mixed Media Circus: Whimsical Collage.
Details coming in Mid January!!!
…………
Hope to see you in the New Year at a few of my workshops!
Be scared and do it anyway …it’s a good motto don’t you think?
In a recent class I had shown my Valley Road Foam Stamps stamped with acrylic paint and then added some blocks of acrylic paint partly over them here and there for a background.
I tried out some of the Finnabair Alchemy Wax – love it- it actually dries permanently and you can see the red/brown areas on the art journal page which are created by rubbing some of the wax on.
I also made some marks with my new Tom Norton tool and walnut ink and it was all in all a playful spread trying out new supplies – fun, fast and educational :)
Are are some of the supplies I used besides Acrylic paints:
did you get some new art supplies over the holidays?
Yes to new supplies and I’ve been making a paint mess on my kitchen table!
It was so much fun to talk to Kae Pea, who is one of our teachers yet again for Creative JumpStart. Join us while we are chatting about unfinished art, how to find time for arting, how she finds inspiration for her stamp designs, cooking begrudgingly or not ;)
Jumping with…Kae Pea – a CJS Interview Series from Nathalie Kalbach on Vimeo.
I hope you enjoyed the interview- his video for CJS is full of techniques and ideas! Come and join us for Creative Jumpstart 2018 and see yourself !
Hello my friends during this busy holiday season! Today we have a lovely art journal spread from Creative Squad member Shilpa Nagaonkar. This will be Shilpa’s final project with the squad and we thank her for her brilliant work and we wish her all the best in 2018 and beyond! Today, Shilpa is using my Circle Drive and Van Vorst ArtFoamies and my Santa Fe stencil, along with this month’s theme – My Fire Burns Bright – Creativity is a passion that can come from deep within the heart and soul of the maker. Sometimes this fire gets ignited by an event or an influential person in our lives, and other times it can be ignited by a love for a material or just simply the enjoyment that comes from making. What makes your creative fire burn bright?
Hello Everyone, Hope you are enjoying the beautiful art by the Creative Squad this month, we are making with the theme – “My Fire burns Bright”. My everyday life has great impact on my creative journey. … and that keeps my fire bright. I have a journal page to share with you today, in which I have created an abstract city scape as I was thinking about my previous home. .. so here we go…
Here was my process:
To start with I applied various layers of acrylic paints in greens and blues.. I have used Dylusion paints here.
I stamped beautiful texture using Nathallie’s Circle Drive stamp set and blue acrylic paint, randomly on the surface.
Further I created stencil texture with Nathallie’s Santa Fe stencil and paints.
For creating my imaginary buildings, I adhered dictionary papers on card stock and colored them in pink and red acrylic colors. I stamped the beautiful Van Vorst design on it using Black Archival ink. Next I cut them into building shapes and adhered them on the page.
I used a white Gelli roll pen to add more details, I also wrote create, inspire and love with black pens to finish my journal page.
Thank you so much for stopping by.
Thank you Shilpa – I just love this happy color combination and the mix of patterns! In addition to dictionary paper, Shilpa used the following supplies (some are affiliate links):
Play along with us too: 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“.
Thank you for the step by step tut Shilpa.
Great and inspiring colors as well.
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Marsha, I love how you did this as a rubbing and were inspired by your museum trip! Maura
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