Creative Squad

Artful Adventures – Cheiron Brandon

  

Hello from the Creative Squad! Today we have a gorgeously colored art journal spread from Cheiron Brandon that uses my Beacon and Amsterdam stencils, and this month’s theme: Artful Adventures. Are you planning an Artful Adventure this summer? Whether it’s a day at the beach or a full blown International Vacation, don’t forget to take the time to soak up the uniqueness of your new surroundings and gather some inspiration for future artmaking. This month we’re turning to Nat’s new book Artful Adventures in Mixed Media, to help us find inspiration as we travel. We’ll be noticing color, shape, texture and more and then we’ll be taking that to the studio to help inspire some mixed media projects. Join us in the adventure!


Hi there. It’s Cheiron here with my monthly post, I haven’t had a lot of adventures this summer, but I did head down to a family wedding in Virginia with my siblings. Here’s a picture of us at the wedding (it was on a farm):

I was inspired to create a fun painty summer background on a page to add my “family” that used the Photo Manipulation technique in Nat’s book, Artful Adventures in Mixed Media. I used some Tim Holtz paper dolls and colored and doodled on them with some paint pens. Then I created a super fun painty background for them.

To begin my page, I put down some paints in turquoise, cheddar and medieval through the Amsterdam stencil. I also added texture paste in a layer to some spots.

I created lots of painty layers and marks. I kept adding and adding the layers until I was happy, I used the back of my paintbrush to add some sgraffito, revealing the layers underneath. I also added some white paint through the Amsterdam stencil on top of everything.

I added my Tim Holtz paper dolls that I had colored in with acrylic markers and pens. I love giving them fun clothing and details!

To make the page more cohesive and add extra pops of color, I used the Beacon stencil to create a pattern all over the blank page.

I also added some more stenciling with the beacon stencil around my focal image.

I hope you have enjoyed this fun, colorful page. Even if I haven’t had a real vacation yet this summer, I have sure enjoyed some fun times with my siblings!


Thank you Cheiron for this peek into your beautiful family! Cheiron 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 “n*Spiration From Around the Globe“.

Comments (1)

  • Karen Bearse

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    Love it!! Great use of the paper dolls and fun way to use family life as the inspiration. Really love all the layers!

    Reply

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Live Like It’s Spring – Marsha Valk

  

Hello from the Creative Squad! Today Marsha Valk is officially ushering in spring with a collection of gorgeous collages using a whole bunch of my stencils and the monthly theme Live Like it’s Spring – Springtime is when Mother Nature kicks it into high gear. It’s the time to wake up and approach life with renewed energy.  Let’s join Mother Nature in this reawakening and create some things in the Spirit of Spring!


When it’s Spring again I’ll bring again… Tulips from Amsterdam! They’re actually from my craft room about 50 km east of Amsterdam… but that’s near enough I think ;-).

I started with mono printing a bunch of greenish, reddish and yellow/orangey prints on copy paper with my Gelli plate and Nathalie’s Buenos Aires, Manhattan, Mesa Verde, Santiago, and Toledo stencils. Once dry I cut them up into tulip leaves and stems.

I wanted to use Nat’s ‘Amsterdam’ stencil, with the tulip pattern, for the background. To achieve a softer ‘ghost’ print, I had to pull four prints: I applied paint onto the Gelli plate, layered the stencil on top and pulled two prints to remove most of the paint.

Then I removed the stencil and pulled another print to remove even more paint. And then for the final print I applied white paint onto the Gelli plate and pulled a last ghost print. And this last print is what I used for the background.

The last step was to collage the tulip parts onto the Gelli printed backgrounds.


Thank you Marsha! I love how you combined all those different stencil patterns with those gorgeous spring colors. In addition to some white copy paper, Marsha used these supplies – some links are affiliate links:




Play along with us! 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“.

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Life is tricky

Life is tricky, Baby, stay in your magic.

I had a good time creating this page when I wasn’t really cheery but playing with those colors and with my new Amsterdam Stencils – 9×12 and 6×6 – made me happy again :)

I used red and green as complimentary colors on purpose to make everything pop a bit more. I applied acrylic paint with a foam stamp through the stencils.

I love that the pattern is slightly different in the 6×6 stencil and the tulips are also bigger- different size, different pattern but same elements – an easy way to tie the design together and apply some layering.

I used a small brush to paint over the magazine image and added some highlights with pastels – I love how the blue pastel pops off the dress.

Here is the supply list- some links are affiliate links:


I hope your day is super magic today!

Comments (12)

  • jbonomo

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    Stunning page! This stencil is one of my favorites (there are too many favorites like Chicago) and thank you for your color theory tutorial at AWOH. I love how everything pops off the page. Me thinks that your next venture will be high couture.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Awe- thank you Julie! It was wonderful to have you at AWOH!!!!

      Reply

  • sunmoongal

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    Hi, love this spread. Have to get some stamps!

    Reply

  • Linda Faber

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    Wow! I so love this page! So dynamic in color and style. Great stamps too.

    Reply

  • joi

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    What SUPER pages Nat. Love your sentiment and the neat dress PLUS your amazing patterns and colors! Xj.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Awe- thank you Joi – I want to own that dress :) Have a wonderful day !!!

      Reply

  • Sandra

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    Nathalie, I’ve signed up for one of your classes at Artiscape this year. Excited to meet you. Will your stencils and foam stamps be available for sale there?

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Sandra, so happy you will be there and I will meet you! I think stencil and foam stamps as well as my rubber stamps will be there – I am in the midst of organizing that ;)

      Reply

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