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My Fire Burns Bright – Marsha Valk

  

Welcome to December and a new post from my Creative Squad! Today we have a series of gorgeously layered pieces from Marsha Valk. To create such lovely backgrounds, she used my Downtown foam stamp set, my Amsterdam stencil, and a variety of my cling rubber stamps. This month the squad is using a new theme for inspiration: 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?

My creative fire ebbs and flows like I’m sure yours ebbs and flows too. We all need new input now and then, to spark creativity, get new ideas and to try new supplies or old supplies in a new way.

Nat’s Creative JumpStart always hugely ignites my creativity. And by that, I mean not only the event in January, but also the brainstorm and preparations I get to do as one of the featured artists(!). It’s so much fun creating something extra special just for CJS!

In January I attend the online event and watch all of the videos together with all of you. I always find new artists to follow (or take classes from), and I take notes of what supplies, techniques or ideas I want to try myself later in the year.

One artist that inspired me in particular during Creative JumpStart 2017 was Mystele Kirkeeng. It wasn’t until recently though that I purchased a couple of her Wonder Paint episodes. In these recorded studio sessions you get a chance to look over Mystele’s shoulder while she paints, explores and plays. Mystele uses all kinds of supplies in her beautiful art, and that lead me to unearth stuff from my stash that I usually never use.

She prompts me to ask myself questions about what attracts me to specific art or supplies and reminds me that it’s OK to work on loose scraps and sheets of paper just for the sake of creating, layer after layer after layer.

Two of these ‘loose sheets of paper’ started out as Gelli Prints, the other two are cut from paper I used to clean my brayers and brushes. On top I scribbled, stamped, heat embossed, collaged, painted, scraped, sprayed, splattered, made marks and doodled and I pretty much used anything that was within reach.

The results are super messy, colourful and highly textured pieces of paper that I immensely enjoyed making!

If you want Mystele to ignite your creative fire too, then you are in luck because she’s one of the 31 featured artists for Creative JumpStart 2018!

I cannot wait to see what she has cooked up for this edition of CJS. Join us and register for Creative JumpStart 2018 here!

Happy December!

Thank you Marsha! It’s not only a pleasure to see this super juicy series of yours, but it also makes me grin to know that CJS is doing what I always hoped it would: inspire artists of all levels to feel a renewed sense of creativity :)  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“.

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Nat

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Happy Anniversary Card

A wonderful friend of mine lives in a mid century house and she and her husband were celebrating their anniversary and I thought I would send them a handmade card using my new My Home is my Castle and  Stroll Around The Block Stamps.

I stamped the Adirondack Chairs first, then masked them off and stamped with my Mid-Century Stamp on top of a blank card. I added the Street Sign and wrote “Happy Anniversary” into the two blank street plates.  I then colored everything with watercolors. I think my friend liked the card very much.

Here are the supplies I used to create the card:


Wishing you a wonderful day!

Nat

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Jumping with … Sandra Evertson – a CJS Interview Series

Super happy to have Sandra Evertson joining Creative Jumpstart 2018 as an instructor for the very first time. Sandra is a former model/actress turned artist, author, and collector and it was super interesting to talk with her. Check out my little interview with her:

Jumping with… Sandra Evertson – CJS Interview Series from Nathalie Kalbach on Vimeo.

As Sandra mentioned in the interview she also shares with you two of her most favorite recipes – I cannot wait to try them out myself- they sound delicious!

Serves 2

  • 1/2 lb sliced roast beef (Boarshead London Port)
  • 2 – 3 lemons
  • Extra Virgin Olive oil (match the amount of olive oil to the amount of lemon juice)
  • 1 tbl crushed red pepper flakes
  • Sea salt (3 pinches)
  • Spring Mix salad greens

In a bowl add olive oil, lemon juice, crushed red pepper flakes and salt.
Whisk until thoroughly blended.
Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.
Slice roast beef into 1” cubes.
Place salad greens in large bowls, add roast beef on top, remove dressing from refrigerator and whisk again thoroughly to mix ingredients.
Add desired amount of dressing to salad. (I divide the dressing into 2 servings equally on both salads.)

Serves 2

  • 8 Roma tomatoes (ripe)
  • 2 bunches fresh basil
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • 4 – 5 cloves fresh garlic
  • Parmesan cheese wedge
  • Ribbon pasta
  • Sea salt

Boil pasta in water with a pinch of salt.
Dice tomatoes in 1/2” pieces and place in a large mixing bowl.
Add approximately 1/2” cup olive oil (more or less to your taste) and a few pinches of salt.
Crush or mince garlic add to mixture.
Cut basil (leaves only) into strips, add to bowl. Mix together thoroughly.
Grate parmesan.
Drain pasta and place on large pasta plate, top pasta with tomato crudo mixture, garnish with lots of grated parmesan.

Enjoy!

*Note: If anyone makes these recipes, I’d love to hear how you liked them!!

– Sandra

You can download the Delicious Mediterranean Roast Beef Salad here CJS18 Recipes Sandra Evertson 1

You can download the Pasta Crudo Recipe here CJS18 Recipes Sandra Evertson 2
I hope you enjoyed getting to know Sandra a little bit better .

Come and join us for Creative Jumpstart 2018 !

Nat

Comments (4)

  • JoAnn

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    How delightful the interview was. She is such a fun person and I am now anxious to check her out and look forward to her CJS project. Thank you so much for these chats with the artists in CJS – great way to learn more about them.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Yeahh- so glad you like the interviews JoAnn! I know you will love her video for CJS! I am happy you are with us again <3

      Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Wonderful interview and of course I had to go and order some of Sandra’s items.
    Thanks Nat.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Sue, so glad you liked the interview – her products are so beautiful and unique, I bet you will have a lot of fun with them!

      Reply

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It’s a beautiful day in neighborhood!

“It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” is a song from a show called Mr. Rogers, which I have never seen because it was not really running in Germany – but once in a while one of my friends sing it for fun – and so it got stuck with me and I love it. For those of you who do not know the lyrics:

It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?

It’s a neighborly day in this beautywood,
A neighborly day for a beauty,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?

I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you,
I’ve always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.

So let’s make the most of this beautiful day,
Since we’re together, we might as well say,
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won’t you be my neighbor?

Won’t you please,
Won’t you please,
Please won’t you be my neighbor?

I used my new RubberMoon Stamp Sets – Stroll Around the Block and My Home is My Castle with the journal spread. I used the small windows and doors and turned them into cassettes of the doors in – so much fun to play with this.

We do have a pretty cool neighborhood with lots of friends living close by and we do hang out a lot spontaneously – in the summer on the stoop – in the winter in one of our places.

I created a weathered background using some metallic acrylic glazes and acrylic paint, then stamped on top and colored the stamps in with acrylic paints.

I added the lyrics of the song with a pencil.

This spread makes me all happy and fuzzy and now I wanna see my friends who also happen to be neighbors.

Here are some of the supplies that I used for this neighborly spread :)


Wishing you a beautiful day in your neighborhood :)

Nat

Comments (2)

  • Sue Clarke

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    Please don’t laugh…I had such a crush on Mr. Rogers when I was a kid. Just loved the land of make believe. He was such a gentle soul.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      I can totally understand Sue- I think , I would have liked him a lot as a kid as well.

      Reply

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Stroll Through the Hood – November 2017

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.

I bought this telephone glass insulator at an antique store and I am so in love with hit. I had now idea those existed- but now I am totally addicted. Love how the light from our window makes this beautiful color pop.

This funny pumpkin was sitting around in the hood and it made me laugh. Ken More …I guess now he is Ken No-More

This Mural around the corner- OMG- I soooo love this. It shows some iconic buildings of Jersey City like the Powerhouse and the Liberty State Park Train Station and some of you might know that I used those buildings for inspiration for my sketches for my Stroll Through the Hood stamps as well.

It never gets old- sunset over the city – so dramatic !

For Thanksgiving I bought a couple fun flowers at a new flower store Casa Mona in my neighborhood and set them into my little stamped vases. (you can see how Kim and I did that here) . Isn’t the mini pineapple just the cutest thing ever?

And of course Thanksgiving was wonderful as well- which we hosted and we had a ton of guests and lots of fun :)

And then I hosted our annual Friendsgiving – where we invite some friends. This time I made Mulled Wine (Glühwein) and got this old punch set I was giving by my great aunt to work. She would have loved Friendsgiving – she always loved hosting and her glasses, dishes etc. are always something I love to bring out to – it is like celebrating her a bit too during those events and thinking of her :)

And here is Niles our cat sleeping at the fire place – lucky him ;) Love this little guy – he is almost 18 years old – and he sleeps a lot. In my next life I want to be him- hahahah.

I hope you enjoyed the stroll! Wishing you a wonderful December!

Nat

Comments (4)

  • Janet

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    Great photo of Niles! He looks like my Katarina who is 17 and is such a queen! Pretty much lives on my bed with meals served there when she isn’t sleeping. And of course you are celebrating your aunt…in such a beautiful way! I love to use my relatives’ dishes and know that they are right there with me, enjoying the moment. Beautiful photos. Beautiful post. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Awe- they deserve to be queens and kings at that age :) Thank you for joining me on the stroll through the hood :)

      Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    I love the fireplace and it’s hard to believe that Niles is almost 18.
    I especially like how the vases came out with the dark ink against the while background.
    Thanks for another stroll.
    Yeah for memories of your dear Aunt.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      thank you Sue :) Yeah – I cannot believe it either- once in a while he becomes a little kitten again and runs around like crazy- LOL.

      Reply

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Jumping with … Tina Walker – a CJS Interview Series

This year I am super excited to have Tina Walker join Creative JumpStart 2018 as one of the 31 instructors. Her work is just stunning and if you are a follower of this blog you have seen her amazing work throughout her tenure as a Creative Squad Member for the n*Studio. Check out the little interview I did with her

Jumping with…Tina Walker a CJS Interview Series from Nathalie Kalbach on Vimeo.

Since the theme of Creative JumpStart 2018 is “Now We Are Cooking” , Tina also provided a recipe for you all

Strawberry Cake

  • Boxed Strawberry Cake Mix
  • Cream Cheese Frosting
  • Fresh Strawberries

Mix cake mix per instructions for a double layer cake.
Bake.
Frost when cool
Garnish with fresh strawberries.
Enjoy!
My art journal page was inspired by the strawberries, layers of cake and ‘frosting’ look. :)
-Tina

You can download Tina’s Strawberry Cake recipe as an pdf here: CJS18 Recipes Tina Walker

Hope you enjoyed getting to know Tina a little bit better .

Come and join us for  Creative JumpStart 2018!

Nat

Comments (4)

  • JoAnn

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    Enjoyed the interview and am pleased that I got to meet another one of your wonderful artist friends. I look forward to CJS2018 and Tina’s segment.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      JoAnn, so happ you tuned into the interview and liked it! Woohoo for having you back for CJS! Hope you have a wonderful rest of the week!

      Reply

  • Jean Goza

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    Fun interview. Always interesting to find out more about the artist behind the art. Really excited to be part of another year of CJS. As always, thanks for putting it all together. You are amazing.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Awe- Jean- so glad you enjoyed the interview! And thank you for your kind words- you are pretty amazing yourself!

      Reply

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My new RubberMoon Stamp Sets are out!

So stoked for my new RubberMoon Cling Rubber Stamp sets – I just have so much fun with those stamps:

Here is the first one –Stroll Around The Block:

The Stroll Around the Block stamps are inspired by iconic American architectural styles that I saw during my travels around the US. This set includes 5 cling rubber stamps. These original hand sketched stamp designs may remind you of your childhood home, Grandma’s place, or even the house you live in today.

And the second set is called My Home Is MY Castle:

The My Home is My Castle stamps are inspired by the iconic details of American neighborhoods in the US. This set includes 8 cling rubber stamps. It is amazing how some things just never change. Do you remember what street you grew up on? What about the excitement when the mailman came? Or gazing out the window to see who might be at the front door?

Here are some sample cards that I made with both stamp sets- I will show more projects using them,  in the next couple weeks :)

A row of the Queen Anne, Craftsman and the Mid Century. I stamped with some black archival ink and then colored the stamped images in with watercolor. I just loved doing that.

Here is the Midcentury Modern from the Stroll Around the Block Set paired with the Street Sign from the My Home is My Castle set . I also added my Star Tag stamp. I left the street sign empty on purpose so that it can be filled with whatever words or names you would like to use in it.

So much fun with the little door and windows of the My Home is My Castle Set

And another one using the stamps from the My Home is My Castle Set

The Craftsman – I think I will fill the street sign in with Happy Holidays and and send it out as a Holiday Card.

You can get them now in my n*Studio Store here.

I so hope you like the sets! Which of the stamps in the set is your favorite?

Nat

Comments (4)

  • Sue Clarke

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    Stroll Around The Block!!!
    The craftsman is a great style.
    This set is on my wish list for sure.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      YEahh- so glad you like it Sue! I would move into the Craftsman if I could right away- LOL

      Reply

  • Sherry Canino

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    They are all soo gorgeous!!❤️❤️❤️

    Reply

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Each Day is a New Adventure – Shilpa Nagaonkar

  

Hello and welcome to a post from the Creative Squad! Today we have some super colorful tags from Shilpa Nagaonkar to brighten your day. Shilpa used my Mini Batik Pattern 2 foam stamp and my Mesa Verde stencil for lots of layered pattern goodness. This month the Squad is working with the theme: Each Day is a New Adventure – Be adventurous this month and try something new in your art-making! Use a new tool, medium, or technique that you’ve been meaning to try for too long now. Go on a new adventure TODAY!

Hello Everyone! My teamies have shared beautiful projects with this month’s theme – “Each Day is new Adventure” and now it’s my turn today. I love to try new techniques in my mixed media work. I am using Nat’s beautiful stamps for the first time these days, and that itself is an adventure for me… but today I’m going further and using a Gelli Plate for the first time…

Here is what I did: I applied acrylic paint to the Gelli plate using a brayer.

I stamped on the Gelli plate several times with the Mini Batik Pattern 2 stamp.

Then I pressed copy paper onto it and I got my monoprint/ Gelli print.

I did this same procedure using 3 different colors – Lemon, Cheddar and Magenta.

You will find in the pictures, I got several backgrounds.

After that, I cut out tags from the gelli printed papers and adhered them on white card tags. For my next layer, I applied blacksoot distress ink through Nat’s Mesa Verde Stencil randomly on the tag.

I also cut out hearts from the same gelli prints and adhered them on the tag. and they are ready :)

Nat’s ArtFoamies and Gelli plate are a perfect match! I am sure going to make more monoprints with them…

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Thank you Shilpa for a fun combination of color and pattern! In addition to some white copy paper and glue, 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“.

And join me tomorrow, Wednesday November 29th for a little gossip from my studio! I’ll be on Facebook Live chatting about all sorts of fun NEW stuff. You’ll have to join us to see what all the excitement is about ;)

 

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Nat

Comments (1)

  • Deleted User

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    These are beautiful, Shilpa!

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Creative JumpStart 2018 AND CYBER MONDAY SALE

 

I’m excited to announce Creative JumpStart (CJS) 2018! If you’re not familiar with CJS, it’s a one-of-a-kind online event, now in it’s 7th edition, to kick your creativity into high gear in January 2018.

The Theme this year is “Now We’re Cooking: Mixed Media Art Recipes”. We’re heading into the kitchen of creativity for this one: the Mixed Media studio! Join our crew of Mixed Media Artists and Crafters as they grab their aprons, favorite tools of the trade, and share with us their own recipes for a mixed media masterpiece. They’ll share with us their favorite art ingredients and show us how to put them together to create original projects. These are mixed media art recipes for art journal pages, canvases, assemblage and more!

Learn techniques, discover new materials, and connect with other artists and crafters.

Throughout January participants get access to 31 downloadable videos from 31 featured artists. Over 6 hours of video content will be available to you!

I’m proud to be the founder of Creative JumpStart and one of those artists, called “JumpStarters.” See for yourself:

Announcing Creative JumpStart 2018 – CJS18 from Nathalie Kalbach on Vimeo.

Sign up here and find out more details:

n*Studio CJS2018 – Let’s Jump!

And the best? It’s CYBER MONDAY!!!!!

You get 31 videos – over 6 hours worth of video content –  for just $40 (USD) if you sign up by November 29 11:59 pm EST, 2017. Afterwards it will be 45USD until December 31st, 2017 before it goes to its normal sale price of 50USD.

So what are you waiting for? SIGN UP HERE

So can this Cyber Monday get any better????

YESSSS- it can ….how about 25% off stamps, stencils, books, and DVDs in the online shop. Sale runs until Monday, November 27th at 11:59pm EST. Shop and save big. Just enter the coupon code SMALLSAT25 when you check out.

Support small businesses this holiday season!

Happy Monday!

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Nat

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