When I close my eyes my vision is even more powerful.
In this art journal spread I played with different collage elements from photos I printed out, images I found in magazines, advertising and paintings by other artists.
I layered stamps and stencils and I love how everything came together.
Here is a little list of some of the supplies I used- some are affiliate links:
Have a wonderful day <3
A couple years ago my friends Vic Chrisman, Cat Scanlon and I founded The Whatevers, a Creative Storytelling Project. In a nutshell we decided to give old discarded photos we found a new life by telling the story of those shown. The three of us wrote an article for the recent Cloth Paper Scissors Issue – and we decided to revive the Whatevers every Wednesday this May on our blogs :)
Here is my project for this weeks’ photo
“Uncle Alfred always was a bit different and they couldn’t believe it that he ruined that he ruined the very pricy family photo by distractedly looking into the other direction. Little did they know that Uncle Alfred just saw the world in a different way and that right at that moment a miracle had happened.”
For this spread I stamped with the Versailles Negative and Positive and the Buenos Aires Border Foam Stamp using acrylic paint. After the paint dried, I brushed yellow acrylic ink over parts of the spread. Love the effect. I printed out the photo on printer paper and cut the family out and painted over them with acrylic paint. I also added my star tag stamp in different colored ink, rotating it and adding some strings with a signo pen. (thank you Marsha for that inspiration!)
Now let’s check out what Vicki and Cat did with the photo and in case you want to play along with us -here is the original photo for you. Share with us what you came up with on the Whatevers Facebook Page or leave a link in the comment section :)
Here are the supplies I used for my page – some links are affiliate links:
P.S: Don’t forget that the Artful Adventures: Stroll Through the Hood Challenge and Free Class starts today!
Your color use is always amazing! Love!!!
Awe-thank you Vic!!!!big hugs!!!
I love the bright colors and how you created those lovely layers! You’re foam stamps are so amazing! I wonder what the miracle for Alfred will be, are you going to reveal it next week? I love this so much Nat.
Awe- thank you Cat! Ha…I think no-one will ever know what the miracle for Alfred is but it is sure colorful ;)
Hello from the Creative Squad! This month the Creative Squad will be playing along with my Stroll Challenge and today Tina Walker is starting us off with a really cool mixed media project using my Stroll Through the Hood #2 stamp set, and working with the theme Out and About – Sometimes it’s hard to see all the cool and inspiring stuff that’s right under our noses. This month we hope you will join us in our 30 day Stroll Challenge and get Out and About where you live, and find some local inspiration.
Hi! Tina Walker here today with my take on this month’s theme, ‘Out and About’. During the month of May, as part of n*Studio’s 30 day Stroll Challenge and getting out in my neighborhood, I thought it would be fun to take one of the photographs from the challenge and use it as inspiration for my project. We hope you will join us this month and get out and about and say hello to your neighbors and enjoy the spring weather.
To kick off the STROLL, I used this photograph as inspiration this month. I was ‘strolling’ to my mailbox and captured this shot of my walk, mid stride.
Because my stroll was taking me to the mailbox, I immediately spied the fabulous Mailbox stamp include in the ‘Stroll Through the Hood #2’ stamp set. It was serendipitous!
I haven’t created a trio of ATC cards for a while, so I thought I’d pull out some blanks and get creating.
To create the background of each ATC, I covered each blank with a sheet of dictionary paper. I then heat embossed the Warehouse, Main Station, and E-Train stamps also included in the set.
I added lots of distressing with Distress Oxide inks, reacting the inks with water.
The mailbox embellishments were created by stamping into oven back clay. Once hardened and cooled, I distressed each piece with acrylic paint.
To finish each ATC scene, I added people die-cuts, stamped fabric sentiments, and a hand-cut and colored Flag stamp (also included in the set).
Each ATC was machine stitched to a scrap piece of leather and cotton batting, incorporating a fabric ‘hanger’.
I love how my patriotic ATCs turned out. Each vignette made me think about the generations of people, strolling to their neighborhood mailboxes, sending well wishes, happy thoughts, and joyous news. It seems all so simple and uncomplicated, in our new world of electronic media, and impersonal communication.
I hope you enjoyed my project today and join us this month. Have a great day!
Thank you Tina for taking us back in time and inspiring us to get Out and About wherever we live! In addition to scrap fabric and a sewing machine, Tina used these supplies – some links are affiliate links:
Play along with us this month and join the 30 day Artful Adventures Stroll Challenge! 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 “n*Spiration From Around the Globe“.
Love those “romantic” ATC’s Tina. My favorite is the optimist one.
Perfect for Memorial Day and 4th of July coming up!
oooh! What a great post….I love that mailbox stamp and it was cool to see the embossed buildings in the background. Just might have to try this technique with the fire hydrant as my walks to the mailbox always include walking the pug (who likes to mark the neighborhood gnome as every other dog has done so too). Shhh, she also has a favorite mailbox she likes to mark (the only one out of 60+ in the neighborhood).
LOL- it is kinda funny that you pug has a fave mailbox ;)
These are really awesome Tina!! Love how you incorporated the stamps into the background, and people!
Funny thing….I live in a different area…southwest Florida – where I live we don’t have sidewalks, few houses…we have no mailboxes except for the ones in front of peoples homes, and a blue box in front of the post office. If I go for a stroll, I see some houses, and lots of vacant lots! We have no factories or industry……….our oldest house was built in the late 1950’s! I will really have to put my thinking cap on to play along.
You can take a pic of your mailbox, from an angle, upside down – it can be also your postoffice or anything- think in the widest sense, make up your own rules ;)
Birgit Koopsen is part of my book Artful Adventures in Mixed Media and I thought it would be interesting to hear more about her and some of her thoughts. Grab a seat and a cuppa and listen to this interesting conversation which I think you will enjoy. We are talking about things like
Artful Adventures in Mixed Media Interview with Birgit Koopsen from Nathalie Kalbach on Vimeo.
I hope you enjoyed the interview- let us know what you think about some of the topics.
You can Pre-Order Artful Adventures in Mixed Media now
My friend Kim and I decided a while ago that we would stamp and stencil some flower pots and even create some as an upcoming Mother’s Day gift. I also think that Kim can’t bare seeing my really badly neglected plants on the terrace ;) (I do have a brown thumb for sure!)
We left some pots in their natural color and painted others with golden gesso and black gesso.
On some pots we used my ArtFoamies Foam stamps. We used a brayer to apply acrylic paint to the foam stamps and then used them on the pots. Especially the border stamps worked well since they can easily and carefully wrapped around the pots.
We both really loved how the colors popped off the black and golden gesso-ed pots.
For some pots we used Stencils – we secured the stencils with masking tape and it was so fun and quick.
On one pot I got a bit wild and layered all kinds of stencil designs.
While Kim took a more “less is more” approach and used one stencil with variations of color – I like that very much :)
We loved being outside and it was such an easy and colorful project – I could do this all day long- no kidding.
And then we added some herbs and dirt and voila
Don’t you think this rosemary should be happy in this new home? Well…I promised to also water it ;)
Mother’s Day can come now and …summer – Cannot wait to sit outside and enjoy my new funky colorful pots on the terrace!
Here are some of the supplies we used – some links are affiliate links:
Hope you have a wonderful day and enjoyed this little project!!!
Nat, they’re beautiful! I might try to brighten my flower pots
Sherri, so glad you like them and yeahhhh – brighten yours too :)
Looks like you and Kim had fun and what a nice collection of pots you ended up with as well.
Will you put any kind of protection over the paint to help the design last longer Nat?
thank you Sue :) You can seal those with Matt Medium of course.
I invite you to an Artful Adventure Challenge with a Free Class !
Play along with me on this 30 Day Challenge, beginning on May 10th, 2017 and culminating in the release of my new book Artful Adventures in Mixed Media: Techniques Inspired by Observation and Experience on June 8, 2017!
Go on an Artful Adventure with me and join into a Free Classroom with some fun tutorials!
With the challenge find inspiration by taking a “Stroll Through The Hood” and observing the details of the world around you. Anyone can join in on the fun by following our list of daily prompts. Each day you will have a new word to inspire you. Go for a stroll outside, snap a photo of something that you feel illustrates the word of the day, and build a collection of visual material to inspire your artwork, art journaling, and mixed media projects. Along the way you’ll discover things about your Hood that you may have never noticed before, and you’ll learn to find inspiration just outside your door. Use #ArtfulAdventures on social media and share your photos and the projects you were inspired to make.
Go even further and sign up to access the FREE classroom going along with the challenge. The classroom will offer several tutorials by me, my photos for the challenge with explanation what inspires me, some surprise guests with tutorials, a place for sharing, a community environment, and multiple chances to win a free copy of my new book Artful Adventures in Mixed Media.. Join me on my #ArtfulAdventures as I show you how I transform my prompt-inspired photos into artwork. Share your photos in the daily lesson prompts and see what others are observing in their “Hoods”. Comment and discuss with a whole bunch of people who are taking the challenge with you.
I hope you will join the fun! It’s free- so …come on :)
Woot! I’m signed up too
Wooooottt- yeahhhhh :)
Just signed up for class – don’t know how much I will be able to participate but am anxious to see what you share. Can’t wait to get your new book!!!
Yeah- so good to have you JoAnn! Have a wonderful weekend!
How cool is that image to go along with the quote!
yeah, i do love it too :)
Last week I went to Ohio to teach at Artiscape, a 3-Day Mixed Media Workshop Event. I taught three classes “Artvergnugen- Artjournaling” “Walk With Me – Altered Book” and “Master Art Express – Artjournaling” and the classes were filled with such delightful and talented students- I had so much fun!
Look at all the smiling faces and colorful backgrounds in the Artvergnugen class. (Artvergnugen – the pleasure in creating Art :))
In “Walk With Me” we gave old books a new live using their initial book soul – loved the different takes of students incorporating bits and pieces of the book to be part of the art like the title or drawings in the book.
Oh and Joe – I still owe you a quarter for saying John …maybe next time? ;)
In “Master Art Express” we took the Orient Express to stop at different stations and meet some Master Artists and got inspired for some out of the box approaches for art journaling.
We trully made the dull looking hotel conference rooms sparkle with color…and laughter :)
I truly loved every single moment of the classes and in between the classes there was a lot of great opportunities to stock up on art supplies for mixed media work at Joe Rotella’s store and also the vendor fair. Where else do you find a bucket full of “appendages” LOL
It was also great to catch up with some artist friends like Jen Crossley and MaryBeth Shaw and to meet some other wonderful teachers, like Glenda Miles, Cheryl Strait and Cindi Bison-Mc Gee.
And ohhh looksie some of my RubberMoon Stamps in the store – wohooo.
It was wonderful to meet Klara again who was also at my workshop at Color Crush two months ago – always the best to see students again !
It was a relaxed and great event and I hope I can come back some time.
Thank you to all students who come and made this such a wonderful experience and thank you to Lisa and Joe for having me and putting together such an amazing event. It was truly an Artiscape!
If you missed out on this event and would like to take a class with me – check out my In-Person-Class listing to see where I am at in the next couple weeks.
Have a gorgeous day!
Hey Nat, It was so great to hang out with you so many laughs,til we meet again have fun Jen xx
It was so good to see you girl!!!! Glad to hear you came back well – cannot wait to see you again- on either side of the pond :)
What a bunch of beautiful faces having fun creating!
Don’t you just love to hang with people who create?
Thanks for sharing the pics and one day I will meet you in person Nat.
Have a nice weekend.
yeah it is the best, Sue and I would sooooooo love to meet you in person one day! ❤️
Nat – I had SO. MUCH. FUN! In all 3 classes. I do hope you’ll come back. Stephanie
Stephanie, it was so cool and fun to finally meet you!!!! Thank you so much for coming and I hope I see you soon again . Huge hugs!!! nat
A couple years ago my friends Vic Chrisman, Cat Scanlon and I founded The Whatevers, a Creative Storytelling Project. In a nutshell we decided to give old discarded photos we found a new life by telling the story of those shown. The three of us wrote an article for the recent Cloth Paper Scissors Issue – and we even made the cover :)
So we thought we would celebrate this by doing a monthlong revival of the Whatevers and the three of us a posting our project based on a photo we picked every Wednesday this May . Maybe you will even play along with us. Here is my take for our first pic this month:
“Tiffy was not amused…of course Dad and uncle Bob were the only ones opposing the war on the block and so they dressed up as Mr. and Mrs. Dam to tell everyone what they thought about it. But good grief…The worst really was that she had to sit with them. If only Mom wasn’t visiting her grandparents right now. ”
The whole photo is just super interesting. I am assuming it was taken during a 4th of July Parade and so I wanted the background to be colorful and funky. I stamped and stenciled with acrylic paint. I printed the photo out on printing paper, glued it into the journal and painted over it with watercolor.
Now let’s check out what Vicki and Cat did with the photo and in case you want to play along with us -here is the original photo for you. Share with us what you came up with on the Whatevers Facebook Page or leave a link in the comment section :)
Here are the supplies I used for my page – some links are affiliate links:
You gals had fun with this photo…….
lol, we did! hope you download the photo and play along with us!
How fun!
I hope you join in :) Download the photo – and have fun with it :)
I love how you did the background, it is super interesting with your stamps. Love love love! I think the added flag is the perfect touch. I so much love how we both got the clue that little girl wasn’t happy, she is actually my grandmother, whose name was Cordelia. Can’t wait until next week! Xoxo, so happy for the revival.
Ohhh you didn’t tell us – you need to tell me the real story of this pic if you know :) LOL. Off to check your and Vic’s project :)
Comments (2)
Tina Walker
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I really love this Nat! The colors, the composition, the design! ♥
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nathalie-kalbach
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Awe- thank you so much Tina!
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