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Inspiration From Around the Globe!

This Tuesday we’re taking a short break from our Creative Squad (they will be back next week with a new June theme to play with!) to bring you some amazing projects from around the globe. My stamps and stencil designs are available for purchase online and maybe even in your local craft store, so crafters and mixed media artists and art journalers from around the world are using them. I am always excited to see how YOU use my products in your own projects. I am even more excited to share some of the beautiful and creative examples of these projects with you today. Enjoy this inspiration from around the globe!

First we have this very fun travel-inspired art journal spread from Robyn Seaniger from NSW, Australia. Robyn has used both my Elephant and my Urban Scribble foam stamp sets to create this colorful ode to India.

Metal Artist Elitia Hart from Calgary, Canada, used my Elephant Parade stencil in this very original metal embossing project. This is a very creative use of the stencil and I highly recommend checking out her video below explaining her process. It is long but definitely worth watching as it is a real step by step class!

Cool, right?

Judi Kauffmann from Maryland, USA sent me this fun mail art envelope using my Bird and Urban Scribble foam stamp sets. What a nice surprise in my mailbox :)

Finally, we have a couple of awesome videos from Lindsay Weirich from Maine, USA for you to check out. In these videos, Lindsay uses my Urban Scribble foam stamp set to create a cool card project and then she uses my Bird, Elephant, and Urban Scribble foam stamp sets to make a gorgeous art journal.

Join us again next Tuesday for another great project from one of our Creative Squad members! They will be working with a new theme for June. And in the meantime, share with me what you’ve been working on with my stamps and stencils. I would love to feature your project in an upcoming post!

Try some of the above techniques for yourself with these n*Studio supplies:

Nat’s Elephant Stamp Set	Elephant Parade Stencil	Nat’s Elephant Suite	Nat*s Bird StampSet
Nat’s Urban Scribble Stamp+Stencil Set	Nat’s Foam Stamp Trio

InLinkz.com

Nat

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Artist Quote of the Week – Norman Lewis

Artist Norman Lewis Quote

Nat

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Art Tapas – Bite Sized Tips for the Mixed Media Artist – Tip #6 Go-To Brushes

Art Tapas Art Tip Brushes Mixed Media

Art Tapas are short videos that will give some practical tips or advice about anything that is related to tools, art supplies or processes and any Mixed Media or Hobby Artist might appreciate.

Lots of times these reflect some mistakes that I made along my journey, so to speak, things that I learned the hard way and sometimes they are just some things that I would have loved to have known when I actually started in Mixed Media.

Today’s Art Tapas is about my Go-To Brushes

Art Tapas – Bite Sized Tips for the Mixed Media Artist – #6 Go-To Brushes from Nathalie Kalbach on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoyed this little bite – and if you have questions that you would love to have answered in some of the Art Tapas videos- let me know and I might just cook one up for you to nibble on ?

Nat

Comments (6)

Kathy Adams

February 26, 2017 at 11:08 am | #

Glad you had the brush “talk” with us! Will never think of a filburt the same way! LOL!

Reply
- nathalie-kalbach
  
  February 26, 2017 at 11:13 am | #
  
  LOL ;) Glad you enjoyed it !
  
  Reply
Joi @RR

May 28, 2016 at 6:33 pm | #

You are such a DELIGHT. I love watching you every time. Great info on the brushes for sure. Thanks bunches Nat. Have a safe and happy holiday. xxj.

Reply
- nathalie-kalbach
  
  June 1, 2016 at 3:45 pm | #
  
  Awe Joi- you always write the sweetest things!!! Thank you- hope you had a wonderful holiday as well! Nat
  
  Reply
JoAnn Campisi

May 27, 2016 at 4:28 pm | #

Thank you – I always love your tutorials – love everything you do!!!

Reply
- nathalie-kalbach
  
  May 27, 2016 at 4:41 pm | #
  
  Awe- thank you so much JoAnn – I am so glad yo liked it!!! Have a wonderful weekend!
  
  Reply

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Elephants Never Forget – Michelle Rydell

Art Journal Creative Squad Elephant Foam Stamp Inspiration Stencil

It’s Tuesday and time for a project from my Creative Squad and this month’s theme: “Elephants Never Forget”. Throughout the month of May, the team is using my new Elephant Foam Stamp, Rubber Stamp and Stencil Set to interpret the theme. I asked them to draw from a childhood memory, and to use the elephant as a symbol of something that fascinated them as a child. And if you want to hear a little bit about me, you can read about my personal connection to elephants here (just scroll down to “WHY an elephant…”)

Today we have an art journal spread by Michelle Rydell. Michelle used the theme as a jumping off point for this colorful page. I love her inspiring message!
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When I heard the theme “Elephants never Forget,” the first thing I thought of was my daily entries in my art journal. The ones where I record little bits of my life each day, so I don’t forget them! I decided it would be fun to let Nat’s regal elephants guard my memories for the week! Here’s how I did it…

I painted my whole background with black acrylic paint, and then covered up the black with squares of bright colors. Next I stenciled the foam elephant stamp with white paint onto black cardstock – twice, and then cut them out. You know how sometimes people wrap a thread around their finger to help them remember something? I wrapped a little crochet thread around one elephants trunk, and the other ellies leg to symbolize that! After that I pasted the two elephants onto the journal spread.

I felt like the page needed something to make the colored blocks work cohesively together; so I glazed the whole page (except for the ellies) with a thin coat of Golden’s fluorescent chartreuse paint.

I used the stencil that comes with the kit to create a border with black paint. My page was then ready to add memories as the week progressed!

Here’s how the week looks all finished. I just love my elephants parading across the bottom. I really feel like it makes the page special!

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I love Michelle’s color block background and the very fun way she tied reminder bows on the elephants! Here are the links (some are affiliate links) for the supplies Michelle used:

Maybe you will even play along with us -I would 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 what you did at the end of the month!

See you next Tuesday for inspiration from around the globe using some of my stamp and stencil products!

Nat

Comments (4)

Sharon Fritchman

June 10, 2016 at 11:18 am | #

I love your art journal pages, Michelle! I especially like the fun theme and what you did with the stencil!! So creative and fun!

Reply
Joi @RR

May 25, 2016 at 9:30 am | #

Hehhehe – ADORABLE Michelle. What a great journal creation. j.

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Michelle Rydell

May 24, 2016 at 9:39 am | #

Thank you Julie!

Reply
Julie Tucker

May 24, 2016 at 9:04 am | #

Love love love this Michelle!! LOVING those elephants and the colors!!!!!!!!!!!

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Art Stroll: National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia

Art Stroll Australia Melbourne National Gallery of Victoria NGV

The first day Julie, my husband and I arrived in Melbourne, it was raining and so we went straight to the National Gallery of Victoria. A beautiful building filled with wonderful artwork. I am not showing everything we saw, only a couple of my favorites, either for their subject matter, composition, material, texture or else.

Shield made of bark I assume and I loved the scenery depicting typical Australian animals.

The Australian Indigenous Art was amazing. These wooden sculptures were intriguing and beautiful.

This Painting made me happy with it’s texture and the colors- yummmmmie!

Asher BILU, Yuga ii, ca. 1966 Melbourne, mixed media on composition board

I love how Jenny Watson created texture and dimension in a grid on this oil painting called House painting: Box Hill North, 1977 Melbourne

Rosalie Gascioigne, Flash Art, 1987 Canberra, tar on reflective synthetic polymer film on wood

Rosalie made assemblages from found objects found around her home in Canberra. The piece above is made from retro-reflective road signs, which she cut up and rearranged. She once said “Most of the things that I use have been exposed to the weather and in that sense, mine is an art of the outdoors.” I love that- I have never thought about this when you use found objects that have been part of the world outside :)

Constanze Zikos, Fake Flag, 1994 Melbourne, thermo-setting laminate, enamel paint, crayon, metallic and plastic self-adhesive tape on composition board

In this painting Zikos uses everyday materials and inserts stars symbolic of other cultures. It reflects his examination of cultural identity and the concept of authenticity.

I could not stop looking at this! The colors were so vibrant and the dots were pulsing.

Paddy Japaljarri Stewart, Marlu Jukurrpa (Kangoroo Dreaming), 1987 Yuendumu, Northern Territory, synthetic polymer paint on canvas

Trevor Nickolls, Third eye, 1986 Adelaide, synthetic polymer paint on canvas

This painting was so mesmerizing- I love the depth of it and the limited color palette.

This one is also by

Trevor Nickolls, Wrestling with the white spirit, 1990 Adelaide, synthetic polymer paint on canvas. The details and symbolism of this painting !

This artwork touched me deeply. It refers to the experience of Indigenous people as outcasts.

Sandra Hill (born 1951) , Beyond the pale, 2010 Balingup, Western Australia, synthetic polymer paint on plywood, painted wood

Sandra Hill was taken from her parents at just seven years of age – the third generation of her family to be removed and placed in an institution.

Gordon Hookey, Aboriginality victorious, 2008 Brisbane, oil paint, plastic and metal on canvas, paper, metal and metallic and oil paint on boxing gloves

Wait…who are those people here ? Goof balls- LOL

Limpi Tjapangati, Waputi and Tatupa, 1979, synthetic polymer paint on canvas

This painting provides an aerial view of how the artist perceives his landscape. We will see the landscape entirely different from our perception of the same landscape. I love this concept and idea!

This was massive.

Lorriane Connelly-Northey, Possum-skin cloak: Blackfella road, 2011-13 Vistoria, rusted iron and tin, fencing and barbed wire, wire

Djambu Barra Barra, Preparing for ceremony, 1988, synthetic polymer paint on canvas

The colors – the details – swoon!

I hope you enjoyed this art stroll through the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. It was such a different museums experience and we spent many hours there.

Nat

Comments (6)

Joi @RR

May 23, 2016 at 10:15 am | #

Wow – amazing pictures. What a place. Thanks bunches for sharing these Nat. Just awed. XXj.

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- nathalie-kalbach
  
  May 23, 2016 at 11:49 am | #
  
  thank you Joi! have a wonderful week :)
  
  Reply
Sue Clarke

May 22, 2016 at 10:51 am | #

What a wonderful tour for my Sunday morning.
Thank you Nat.
I especially l Wrestling with the White Spiritike .

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- nathalie-kalbach
  
  May 23, 2016 at 11:48 am | #
  
  so glad you liked it Sue! I love putting those together as it makes me relive the visit :) Have a wonderful week!
  
  Reply
Joyce

May 22, 2016 at 9:30 am | #

Thank you for this tour through this museum broading the mind with new insight and possibilities thanks for shsring

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- nathalie-kalbach
  
  May 22, 2016 at 10:25 am | #
  
  Thank you Joyce, I am glad you enjoyed the little tour ! Have a wonderful sunday!
  
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Don’t Suck or … In My Art Journal Today

Art Journal Bird Foam Stamp Stencil Girl Products

“Life is about doing things that don’t suck with people who don’t suck!”

so true – isn’t it? Tell you, what didn’t suck – playing with paint and doing a happy colored art journal spread :)

I played with my Bird Foam Stamp Set. I used the frond stencils and masks with acrylic paint on the background. Stamped the two sides of the included foam stamp- one side is solid and one is patterned. for the solid side I used a magenta color by decor art which is translucent and applied it very thin to my stamp with a brayer as I wanted the background to still show through and create the pattern of the bird. I love the outcome.

I traced the lines of the patterned foam stamped bird with a Graphic Painter Pen by Derwent- just to make it pop a bit. The flicks of paint you see here and there are actually also made with the Graphic Painter Pen – if you blow the side of the pen you can get some fine color mist spreading out- it is fun to do and looks awesome.

Here are the links (some are affiliate links) for the supplies I used:

Hope you have a wonderful day and some time to create something!

Nat

Comments (2)

Joi@RR

May 21, 2016 at 8:45 am | #

Hehehehhe – YES Nat – it’s true!!! Love this!! AND… you are using DecoArt.. I’m surprised! YEAH!!! Luscious background. And your bird stamp is just so versatile. Adore your birds!! XXj.

Reply
- nathalie-kalbach
  
  May 22, 2016 at 10:24 am | #
  
  Thank you Joi. Yes- I do have some deco art paints and like using them in an art journal or for mono printing.
  
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New class at Pratt in July!

Art Journal New York City Pratt Institute workshop

Art Journaling 101 at Pratt, NYC on July 16th

Learn how to become inspired and discover the basics of art journaling in this six-hour class. Explore mixed-media techniques using collaging and creating colorful backgrounds with acrylic paint and other media. Delve into this stress-relieving art form and create the first basic, beautiful pages in a visual journal.

Learn more about this class and register here!

I hope to see you there!

Nat

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Elephants Never Forget – Marsha Valk

Creative Squad Elephant Foam Stamp Mixed Media orange purple Stencil

It’s Tuesday again so here is my Creative Squad with another fun project for you with this month’s theme: “Elephants Never Forget”. Throughout the month of May, the team will use my new Elephant Foam Stamp, Rubber Stamp and Stencil Set to interpret the theme. I asked them to draw from a childhood memory, and to use the elephant as a symbol of something that fascinated them as a child, inspired awe, or just got their little brain all wrapped up with wonder. And if you want to hear a little bit about my childhood, you can read about my personal connection to elephants here (just scroll down to “WHY an elephant…”)

Today we have a mixed media piece by Marsha Valk. After persisting through a brief creative block (it happens to everyone!) she created this gorgeously layered piece using a fantastic combination of purple and orange.
—————————————————————————————————

It’s hard to choose just one childhood story or memory, so I concentrated on the elephants and tried to come up with as many elephants as I could remember from my childhood. The big one is that my little brother collected elephants when he was young. He had many, many elephant figurines. At least two of those came from my grandmother’s house and I remember that at one point they were in the guest bedroom. The room had a typical 70’s decor. It wasn’t psychedelic in any way, the walls where neutral, the furniture was white, but there was an orange washbasin and purple bed spreads with a fringe. I loved those bed spreads! When we were very little, my sister and I used to play with them when we woke up early.

Anyway: the colour scheme for this project was set! It had to contain purple and orange. I struggled with what to do though. I tried some things first with no great success, until I decided to just have fun! I chose the back of a shallow round tray (28 cm) as a substrate. I love working on wood panels, so when I saw this at my local craft store, I knew I wanted to use it as a ‘canvas’!

The problem with ‘having fun’ is that I can’t exactly tell you what I did. I started to prepare the wood tray with two coats of gesso that I sanded smooth. Then I randomly applied soft body acrylic paint to the surface. Once that was dry I started painting, stenciling and stamping layers using soft body acrylic paint, paint markers and permanent stamping inks.

I tried to get the whole surface covered. Then I decided on my composition, stamped and embossed the Elephant cling rubber stamp image and painted the top layer. I also scratched into the surface and I added acrylic inks and black and white charcoal pencil.

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I love Marsha’s circular design and I’m so glad that she decided to have fun with it! I think the results, and those super nice, 70’s inspired colors :) speak for themselves. In addition to the supplies (some links are affliate links) listed below, Marsha also used a wooden tray, black and white charcoal, and the stencils from the Urban Scribble, Bird, Mish Mesh, and Fashion Dame stamp sets.

Nat’s Elephant Stamp Set	Nat’s Foam Stamp Trio	Nat*s Bird StampSet	Nat’s Urban Scribble Stamp+Stencil Set
n*Studio Kaffee Klatsch Stamps	Stampendous n*Studio Fiesta Stamps	n*studio Mish Mesh Rubber Cling Stamp	Nat’s Fashion Dame Set
Liquitex SB Light Green Permanent Acrylic Paint	Liquitex Bright Aqua Green SB Acrylic Paint	Liquitex Ivory Black SB Acrylic Paint	Liquitex SB Quinacridone Blue Violet Acrylic
Liquitex Quinacridone Magenta Soft Body Acrylic Paint	Liquitex SB Pyrrole Orange Acrylic Paint	Liquitex Unbleached Titanium SB Acrylic Paint	Liquitex SB Titanium White
Liquitex Cerulean Blue Hue Ink	Liquitex Titanium White Ink	Liquitex Professional White Gesso 32 oz	Golden Airbrush Medium
Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid Satin	Wow! Embossing Powder Opaque Primary Mandarin	Versamark Embossing Ink Pad	StazOn
Archival Ink Black	Posca Uni Marker	Sanding tool	Cosmetic Sponges

InLinkz.com

And maybe you will even play along -we would love to see how you interpret the theme. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share what you did at the end of the month!

See you next Tuesday for the another project from the Creative Squad, with the theme Elephants Never Forget.

Nat

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Inspired by Melbourne, Australia

Australia Melbourne Traveling Artist

Julie, my husband and I had such a fab time in Australia and we started off in Melbourne which I really loved. A very green and vibrant city, with a great public transportation system, wonderful houses, street art and good food. Paired with good company …it was a a good spot to be for a couple days before our Mixed Media Circus Workshop at Artified.

We stayed in a beautiful AirBnB with some great artwork located in Fitzroy. We had a nice roof terrace, which we couldn’t use too much because it is fall in Australia and it rained a lot. Mhhh – writing this my eyes drift through the window and I realize …it is spring here and it rains nonstop at the moment …

Below are the three of us on the right of the screen on our way to the National Gallery of Victoria (post coming soon).

As I mentioned in an earlier post there is a huge amount of street art in Melbourne, fun signs and a lot of grungy texture. For us it was a feast for the eyes.

Look at the texture and the color combination on this wall – yummy!

Where the garbage cans are:

And a feast for the belly – LOL. We ate so much …but since we walked a lot too we did pretty good.

We often started with a “healthy” breakfast …ahem…

And then we tested about every possible dumpling place in Melbourne and we actually rated our dumpling experiences. Below are the second best dumplings we had …and they were delicious.

We found a really nice Art Supply store in the city and went for a shopping day for our workshops and took another day to pick those supplies up.

Just to realize AFTER we did that, there was an art supply store RIGHT NEXT to our apartment – we just never noticed because we never went into that direction and the sign was hidden. If you know Julie and me, you might imagine the laughing fits we still get when we talk about the “art supply moment” . BTW – speaking of art supplies, I cannot believe how much more expensive art supplies were in comparison to here or Europe. It is insane and makes me appreciate even more the hoops my Australian students have to go through!

We loved the parks throughout the city and the amazing gigantic trees and flowers

Everything is just so green!

Oh and here is a gum tree with some gum nuts – I love those !

more street art …told you…it was everywhere

And of course there was lot’s of silly photo taking too ;)

We also met Kass Hall for lunch. It was great to see her again! She has an awesome new book out – Amplified Art – Dynamic Techniques for High-Impact Pages – check it out!

As you can see we had an amazing time in Melbourne and I would love to come back some time.

There are still way more pictures to come in the next weeks from the Australia trip – I am trying to spread it out a bit for you :) Next up I take you on an Art Stroll again ;) Have a wonderful day

Nat

Comments (6)

Joi@RR

May 16, 2016 at 9:18 am | #

Always love seeing you and Julie together Nat – you guys make me laugh!! PLUS… I can only imagine the joy you bring to your students too!

Loved seeing these pictures – dear me – they DO have giant trees and flowers!!!

And what fun to see all the street artwork. XXj.

Reply
- nathalie-kalbach
  
  May 16, 2016 at 3:31 pm | #
  
  Thank you Joi- glad you enjoyed the photos and yes – ha those flowers and trees were pretty gigantic :)
  
  Reply
Mary

May 15, 2016 at 11:32 pm | #

Glad you guys loved Melbourne. Plenty of street art. Fitzroy is a great area to wander around in.

Reply
- nathalie-kalbach
  
  May 16, 2016 at 3:32 pm | #
  
  Indeed Mary- I loved Fitzroy- it reminded me a lot of parts of NYC and Jersey City – but then …of course it is yet so different :)
  
  Reply
Rachel Greig

May 15, 2016 at 7:09 pm | #

Love seeing your photos from melbourne!! It’s a fabulous city! :)

Reply
- nathalie-kalbach
  
  May 16, 2016 at 3:32 pm | #
  
  Thank you Rachel :)
  
  Reply

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Nat’s Elephant Stamp Set	Ranger Dylusions Paint Black Marble	Ranger Dylusions Paint White Linen	Ranger Dylusions Paint Squeezed Orange
Ranger Dylusions Paint Bubblegum Pink	Ranger Dylusions Paint Vibrant Turquoise	Ranger Dylusions Paint Fresh Lime	Golden Fluorescent Heavy Body Acrylic Paint Chartreuse
American Crafts Black Cardstock	Aunt Lydia’s Crochet Thread Size 10 Golden Rod	Aunt Lydia’s Crochet Thread Size 10 Hot Pink

Nat*s Bird StampSet	Deco Art Media Fluid Acrylic Paint, Primary Yellow	Deco Art Media Fluid Acrylic Paint, Cobalt Teal	Deco Art Media Fluid Acrylic Paint Green Gold
Liquitex Transparent Mixing White	Derwent Graphik Line Painters	Liquitex Titanium White Fine Marker	Derwent Charcoal Pencil Medium
Brayer	Nat’s Foam Stamp Trio

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Art Journaling 101 at Pratt, NYC on July 16th

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