Blog: art journal techniques

Do What Makes You Happy … or In My Art Journal

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Here is one of my pages of the Art Journal I showed you in my Flip-Thru Video recently. As promised I will show some pages in more detail.

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I painted the background with a light grey acrylic paint and then started layering up some stencils, stamps and templates with different colors – going from light to darker colors.

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I used a cosmetic sponge to apply acrylic paint through the Elephant March stencil but to have a better contrast of the elephant versus the busy background I also traced the stencil after the paint dried with a black pen. In the blanket I used different acrylic marker colors and blended them over the stencil with my finger.

I applied the chipboard letters with Gel Medium – since this is the best way to make sure they stick and stay. A fun and colorful page – made me happy ;)

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Thanks for coming by and have a wonderful sunny day!

Nat

Comments (3)

  • Amante del Papel

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    THis elefant is absolutely amazing!

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    My plan is to do much that makes me happy today as I’m 50 today!
    One friend is taking me out to lunch and my family is taking me out to dinner. The weather is perfect and life is good. I do so love these words and plan to do a page in my art journal using them. Now why didn’t I think of going back over the stencil with marker after the paint have dried.

    Reply

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Photos of my Workshops at the Baltic Sea in Germany

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It was such a fun trip to Germany and see friends and family but mainly to teach again at the Ostsee Scrap Event in Boltenhagen at the Baltic Sea. Just as last year it was a really intimate and gorgeous 3-Day event with round about 25 wonderful students located in a holiday village with a 2 minutes walk to the beach.

I had a blast. Thank you to all my students for coming and being open to try new things and dive right into paints – you rocked it :) Also thank you to Daniela for another amazing event – as last year I had a great time and the organization was exceptionally well done. And last but not least: Thank you to Liquitex for supporting the event and my workshops with wonderful materials – it is not a secret that their products are very dear to my heart and that they make it a breeze to get the results you are going for in your art work!

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Since my students were mostly scrapbookers and a lot of them were dabbling for the first time into Mixed Media, I made sure they understand the essential message of this weekend …which somehow they really took to heart – LOL. They took this photo of me (thank you Sandra!) “It is not your life, it is just paper!” so overcome your fear of trying things and if they do not work as you want them , so what?- get over it! ;)

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We started with a fun mono printing workshop, adding loads of texture and layers and just to loosen up :)

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and soon the whole room was covered every where with prints and papers and booklets and they liked just playing and trying new things.

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Here is Dani the wonderful organizer, who also made sure we would eat loads of yummie German food in between…oh man I filled up on sausages and German cake- LOL…I guess I missed that ;)

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Next up was a canvas workshop – here is another photo collage I stole from Sandra :)

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We used mostly Acrylic Paints and Acrylic Inks by Liquitex to get a nice background and then worked with my Stampendous Stamps and found objects on top of it.

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It was so much fun to see them play with different colors and motifs and incorporating my stamps in different ways. Pure bliss and I heard some canvases are already hanging on walls :) Here is a group photo

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In between I was able to dip my toes into the Baltic Sea with Andrea Gomoll and Janna Werner, who also taught there. Melanie Hoch was somewhere…she was another wonderful teacher at the event and kept hiding from us ;) just kidding ;) It was wonderful to spent some time with all three of them – I find it always super special to meet other creative teachers and exchange thoughts and support each other.

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The last workshop I taught was an art journal technique workshop and the girls were ready for it on the last day :)

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We used a lot Acrylic Paints and Acrylic Markers Markers as well as my Stencils by StencilGirl Products and my Stamps by Stampendous.

 

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that was it…if you made it with all the pictures till here…you need a break and should do some art ;)

Have a gorgeous day

Nat

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Nat

Comments (4)

  • Natalie Strauß

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    Sooo schöne Fotos.Ich schwelge immer noch in Erinnerung.Die Workshops waren so klasse.Bis hoffentlich ganz bald.
    Lg Natalie

    Reply

  • Sandra

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    The weekend was so much fun. Just love how you teach :). Hugs, Sandra

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Yes I made it all the way through and now I will go play in my art journal.
    Those canvases are awesome and I especially like the pic of you and the other lady with “duck lips”.

    Reply

  • Seth

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    Great work made by everybody and it looks like all these workshops were a lot of creative fun.

    Reply

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Artvergnugen: PanPastel WS at The Ink Pad Photos

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This friday I had the pleasure of teaching anotherArtvergnugen Workshop at The Ink Pad in New York City. Artvergnugen is an ongoing Evening Art Journaling Class – once a month I teach with a different medium or tool and it is loads of fun. I love our little group of girls! This time I showed all kinds of techniques and ways on how to use PanPastel, a wonderful pastel medium, in your art journal.

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As you can tell I am very enthusiastic about PanPastels and the girls looked at me first as if I am a bit goo-goo..well I am ..but ha- I got them excited too ;) (Thank you Pamela Young for letting me use the picture)

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Soon they were playing and trying all kinds of applications and techniques

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Pamela loved how she could layer all kinds of different techniques to build up a page

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Wendy obviously loved playing with the Versamark Techniques I showed ;)

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Jane loved the Stamping Techniques :)

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Lisa loved playing with Stencils and PanPastel

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Sandra really liked being photographed ;) just kidding- she liked the stenciling best too I think :)

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And Sandy loved the vibrancy of the colors

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Ana loved how you could blend the colors and also the stenciling

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And finally Diane really loved her page with all kinds of different techniques ..and I love it too :)

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The next and last Artvergnugen is on June 27 – I believe there is one seat left – the theme will be Oilpastels/Artbars – I would love to see you :)

If you would like to learn the techniques and actually many many more  then what I taught in The Ink Pad on how to use PanPastels, sign up for my Online PanPastel Class. 

In five lessons you will learn the basics, all kinds of surfaces and techniques you can use the PanPastels with and I will show you several projects including a nice wooden canvas and a scrapbooking layout using them too. And you don’t have to travel to New York for this…although…it would be fun, right? You can take the class in your Jammies, whereever you are , whenever you want :) More details on the class here

Wishing you a wonderful day

Nat

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All That We Are Art Journal Page

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All that we are is the result of what we have thought – Buddha

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This page started out as a demo page at one of the Artvergnugen Workshop Demo Pages, I had created a simple background with acrylic paints and used my Stamps and the included templates with acrylic paints. I later hand cut out wonky circles, layered them on top of the spread and sprayed over with Liquitex Professional Spray Paints. While the Spray Paint was still wet, I lifted off areas with a paper roll and scratched off parts with the brush end to reveal more areas of the background again.

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I liked the result but it looked a bit flat so I added some more dimension and interest by using the Derwent Artbars – water-soluble wax bars – in different colors around the circle patterns. I love how the Artbars pop off the acrylic paint. It was a fun, easy and fast spread, especially since the background was already there and saved my day having me feel I did something creative when I spent most of the time with paperwork.

Here is the list of what I used:

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I wish you an amazing and creative day

Nat

Nat

Comments (7)

  • NANCY

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    Love your background. What was the color of the base of the page?. Did
    you cut out the circles to make a stencil and spray yellow?
    Keep up your beautiful work. I really enjoy following you.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Nancy- the base is a background that looks like everything you see that is yellow. Then I cut out circles, masked off areas with them and sprayed over with the beautiful Blue Liquitex Spray Paint. I love to do this whenever my background doesn’t really speak to me as smaller parts of it are more interesting than bigger :)

      Reply

  • Tracy

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    Such great colors! The Buddha comment is really a good one. I actually thought of s song by Pink when I read the post title. The song’s called “Are We All We Are.” Great spread! I want those stamps!

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    I just got this stamp set in the mail yesterday and will share something that I create with it if I feel it is ‘worthy”. :-)

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      All you do is worthy!!! Cannot wait to see what you do with it.

      Reply

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Artvergnugen: Spray Ink Splash at The Ink Pad Photos

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This friday I had the pleasure of teaching another Artvergnugen Workshop at The Ink Pad in New York City. Artvergnugen is an ongoing Evening Art Journaling Class – once a month I teach with a different medium or tool and it is loads of fun. This Friday it was all about:

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The Dylusions and Lindy’s Stamp Gang were both equally loved- since they are different but both are very vibrant and beautiful it was fun to explore the different techniques and applications you can use them for in an art journal. I do love them both a lot – for different reasons  :)

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I must say I love the ongoing concept of the Artvergnugen Class at The Ink Pad – it is a good challenge for me, because I constantly have to adjust to a new medium, it is very technique based and I do have people that have been in the last class but some are new and cannot just pick up at pages from the last Artvergnugen class.

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Nice ghosting here, Diane …

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and yummie abstract backgrounds that are a perfect base for an art journal page – love it!

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I love those girls- they all love to experiment…and get their hands messy ;)

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Plus I come out every time inspired by a color combination I have to use in my next project :) Green, Yellow and Pink..oh yes!

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Lot’s of stencils used

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and smiling faces :) – I cannot wait to see how Karen will finish up this page …

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Awesome page by Cheiron picking up a page from last week and continuing with the new techniques- love it!

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The next Artvergnugen class will be about: Stencil Madness on April 25. There is a waiting list for this date. The May and June dates and themes will come out soon – Artvergnugen…it is what makes your journal a piece of art :)

If you could attend an Artvergnugen class by me…which medium or tool would you like to play with? We had Stamps, Mono printing and Spray Paints so far :)

Have a gorgeous day

Nat

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Nat

Comments (3)

  • whyducks

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    Oh what lucky ladies and what beautiful work.

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    I see the stones divided stencil which I just bought yesterday.
    I would want to play with Silks and Pan Pastels. I tried one color of Silks at a crop yesterday and can’t wait to play some more with them.

    Reply

  • Nurse Ratchet

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    Once a month, taking a class with Nat seems like heaven on earth,to me! Have a fantabulous time ladies!!

    Reply

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CREATE Mixed Media Retreats in New Jersey

I am very excited about teaching at Create Mixed Media Retreat in Somerset, NJ. In 2012 I visited the U.S. and took some classes at CREATE and ever since I was dreaming of teaching at that event…so much to my delight…here we go :) (Yes…I am still excited about teaching…YEAH :) )

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ENCRUSTED SHRUBBERY CANVAS (6 HOURS) • NATHALIE KALBACH
Date & Time Price Materials Fee
Wednesday, July 9 • 9am-4pm $152 $15
Skill Level: Intermediate Technique: Collage & Assemblage
You will leave with… a beautiful finished home decor item and lots of knowledge of techniques that you can apply in future projects.
Description: We will create a wonderful home decor canvas using Acrylic Paints, Stamps and Templates as well as Embossing Media and create a one-of-a-kind piece of art.
Students Should Bring: Please bring 12×12 inch big stretched and pre-gessoed Canvas, 5-8 different colors of Acrylic Paints as well as Black and White Acrylic Paint, (Liquitex) Matte Gel Medium, (Liquitex) Gesso, a water jar, brushes in different sizes and formats, 6-7 cosmetic sponges, a water mister, baby wipes, a paper roll, a craft mat, a heating gun, an apron, scissors, palette paper, black permanent inkpad, versamark embossing pad

 

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TEXTURE HEAVEN ART JOURNAL (3 HOURS) • NATHALIE KALBACH
Date & Time Price Materials Fee
Thursday, July 10• 6-9pm $89 $25
Skill Level: Intermediate Technique: Printmaking & Surface Design
You will leave with… a finished texture art journal and lots of technique ideas for future projects.
Description: Create wonderful texture pages with monoprinting, stenciling and stamping techniques, encrust them with different Embossing Media and bind them together in a beautiful tactile art journal.
Students Should Bring: please bring 3-4 colors of not too thick Acrylic Paint- I prefer Liquitex Soft Body 4 pieces of lettersized sturdy white cardstock or sketch book paper, (Liquitex) White Gesso, Brayer, Rubber Brayer, Black Permanent Ink Pad , Versamark, Heating Gun, 6-7 Cosmetic Sponges, Baby Wipes
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IT IS ALL ABOUT LAYERS: ARTJOURNAL CLASS (6 HOURS) • NATHALIE KALBACH
Date & Time Price Materials Fee
Friday- July 11• 9am-4pm $152 $15
Skill Level: All Levels Technique: Bookmaking & Art Journaling
You will leave with… a load of knowledge about paint media and techniques and various finished pages in your art journal.
Description: Create depth and dimension by adding several layers with different paint and other media to achieve intriguing art journal pages. Learn about different media and playfully explore how to express yourself in your art journal. It’s all about the layers—so come and join us!
Students Should Bring: Please bring 5-8 different colors of Acrylic Paints as well as Black and White Acrylic Paint, (Liquitex) Matte Gel Medium, (Liquitex) Gesso, a white and a black journaling pen, a water jar, brushes in different sizes and formats, a fashion magazine, 2-3 cosmetic sponges, an old credit card, a water mister, baby wipes, a paper roll, a craft mat, optional deli paper, a brayer, an apron, scissors, palette paper, a heat gun, and an/your Art Journal. I use a Ranger Dylusions Journal but you can also use a Strathmore Mixed Media Sketchbook – whatever you prefer to work in.
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TEXTURE GALORE CANVAS (3 HOURS) • NATHALIE KALBACH
Date & Time Price Materials Fee
Saturday, July 12• 6-9pm $89 $20
Skill Level: All Levels Technique: Collage & Assemblage
You will leave with… a wonderful tactile canvas that serves as a home decor item.
Description: In this workshop you will create a stunning and unique canvas that will be a wonderful home decor item. Learn how to create dimension and texture with tissue paper, items of daily life, acrylic paint, lace, burlap, and gesso. Learn how to reveal the interesting and eye-catching texture with acrylic paints, art bars and acrylic inks and add some fun stamping techniques on top.
Students Should Bring: Please bring 12 x 12 stretched primed canvas, 5-6 different acrylic paints – colors you like, black acrylic paint, pencil, 2-3 sheets of plain white 12 x 12 cardstock, water jar, brushes in all sizes bristle and round, apron, cosmetic sponges, baby wipes, scissors, black journaling pen, White Gesso (Liquitex) , Matte Gel Medium (Liquitex)

Registration is now open and you can Register here Create Mixed Media Retreat in Somerset, NJ.

Hope I will see some of you there :)

huge hugs

Nat

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Nat

Comments (2)

  • Amante del Papel

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    amazing!!!!

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Looks like a nice offering of crafty goodness.

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Painty Fun at Bizzy B’s in Toronto, Canada

It was so much fun to come back for the third time to Bizzy B’s in Toronto and teach some workshops. Barb and Tony, as well as the amazing students make me always fell super welcome – love coming back- it is a special treat to be reinvited :)

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I was pretty stoked to see my Signature Stamps with Stampendous! and Stencils with StencilGirl Products on the “Nat”Wall. It was fun incorporating them in my workshops and seeing the students playing with them was the coolest ever!

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We played also with the new Creative Palette by Stampendous! for Mono Printing on Friday

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Saturday we were going fully into Artvergnugen :) – a six hour Artjournal Class – it was so much fun!

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This is Marg – she traveled all the way from Newfoundland for the second time to take my class- Thank you Marg- that is a LONG way – I love your smile and creative fun!

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And sunday we had a wonderful Canvas Class- loved again to see all the 22 different canvases created with the same materials and technique

 

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Thank you Barb and Tony from Bizzy B’s and my sweet Canadians for having me again – you inspired me !

huge hugs

Nat

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Nat

Comments (9)

  • Krista

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    Hi Nathalie, hope you are feeling better. I see you are working with the Creative Palette. How do you get detailed prints? I M not having much success? Thanks!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Kristia, I like it. I am not sure what might cause your problems- but it might be “too much” paint. Roll out thinner layers- you really do not need much paint for the prints. Hope that helps. nat

      Reply

  • nurse-ratchet

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    It was truly an amazing weekend…if anyone is wondering whether to take a workshop from Nat…never ever hesitate, Nat is a generous, inspirational task master, oh, I mean teacher. Your stamps are amazing, and your stencils sooo much fun to use!! Thank you, Nat and Barb and Tony and all the ladies that came out to play with us!,

    Reply

  • margm3c

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    I had so much fun. Learn a lot. Thanks Nat. Cannot wait till next time!

    Reply

  • Stampendous Stamps

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    Nathalie, it’s so great to see your photos of these classes! They’re just terrific and everyone looks like they’re having so much fun! Thanks so much for sharing our products with the world, we make a great team!!

    Reply

  • Felicia Aaron

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    Nathalie, I so wish I lived closer and could have been a part of the wonderful time it looks like you guys had! That studio looks FABULOUS!!! Wish it was around the corner from me!!! Maybe not…..I wouldn’t have a paycheck left!!! LOL!!! Thanks for sharing your fun, creative time!

    Reply

  • Marjolaine Walker

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    Looks like you had an amazing time, love all your new products!

    Reply

  • scrapinsue

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    I must get that crackle stencil!
    Lovely art journal pages and looks like a fun and creative time.

    Reply

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Photos of Artvergnugen at the InkPad

Last Friday was the first of my ongoing once a month evening class at The InkPad in New York City.

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Every month I teach about a special medium or supply and I bring it for an ongoing Artjournal Class. This time the theme was Stamping :) So I brought my new Stampendous Stamps and showed some techniques how you can incorporate them in your artjournal. so much fun to see them in the store and to see how people liked them :) – here you see Ana having a hard time deciding…

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I love the intimacy of the class- since the evening classes take in  the tiny but wonderful store (the weekend class are taking place in an out-of-store location) – there is only room for 8 students. It is a wonderful way finding out what expectations of a class exist and I loved being able to talk to each one and having them show their results and talk about it.

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Here is Cheiron showing her two page spread playing with different techniques – love the color combination

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Diane playing with backgrounds and the stamps- especially love her silhouette outcome.

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Sandra playing with the latest Whatever Photo- love the sentiment!

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Robin showing her wonderful background- great base for an art journal page!

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Ana with some beautiful color combinations and I love how she framed the second spread with the stamps – it looks so organic.

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Karen’s wonderful spread- I love how all fits perfectly together!

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Love Cheryl’s spread which totally reminds me of a Monet painting

The next session on February 20th, 2014 is about Mono printing and already full – sorry- there is a waiting list at The InkPad. If you are interested in the upcoming sessions in March and April sign up for their Newsletters so you don’t miss out to sign up.

On another note :

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today is the start of fellow Stencil Girl Products Artist Jessica Sporn’s awesome Stencil Scavenger Hunt. Check it out- she posts every day this week a new design and let’s you guess which stencils by Stencil Girl Products she used.. you can win something too- so check it out ;)

 

Wishing you a wonderful start into the week!

hugs

Nat

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Nat

Comments (5)

  • Laura Strack

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    Looks like a great time was had at your first class. Lucky Ladies! I’m not surprised that the next one is already full either. NYC is on my bucket list so one day I will happily join in all the fun.

    Reply

  • kat82ren

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    wow this look so amazing!

    Reply

  • scrapinsue

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    What a fun size for a class and the work/stamping that folks did is so crisp and colorful. I especially like the texture that your new stamps give to a page.

    Reply

  • Jessica Sporn

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    that class looks amazing and I see some wonderful and familiar faces there! Thanks for sharing about the scavenger hunt too!

    Reply

  • Caroline Duncan

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    The class looks like it was great and everyone’s creations are just beautiful and such a variety of pages!

    Reply

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PanPastel Resist Technique

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Those of you who were part of the Creative JumpStart 2013 saw the videos that me and my artist friends posted on my website throughout January 2013.  The videos are not available here anymore, since CJS 2013 was only available till June,  but I thought it would be nice to repost my 10 technique videos over the next couple weeks- so that you have access to them whenever you want and see what CJS 2013 was all about.

And now let’s jump to the video Number 8 in my Über*Media Creative JumpStart 2013 Workshop which was the PanPastel Resist Technique :)

If you have no external speakers on your pc – turn up the volume a lot (the audio is very low in this video)

CJS 2013 Technique 8 Pastel Resist from Nathalie Kalbach on Vimeo.

As you might have seen I just proposed Creative JumpStart 2014!

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It will work slightly different this year and has some major improvements like a forum and an easier access- and I can tell you already the line up of artists and the videos are AWESOmE!!! For 20 Dollars -that is less than 1 Dollar per video (23 videos by 21 artists) it is a great deal! Check out the information here :)

I would love to have you!

And here are my supplies I used for the PanPastel Resist Video above:

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Have a gorgeous and wonderful day!
hugs
nat

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