Blog: Art Journal

Love is in the Air – Art Journal Page

I was playing with some transfers and used the engagement photo of my great-aunt Margot and my great-uncle Hans. I love this photo.

She turned all pink layered over this ares :) All in all a bit too pink for me- so you can see I needed to grunge this all up a bit with some stamping but it was fun!

Love stamping with manufactured stamps but also with lids and other bits and pieces I find on my work bench to break it up a bit.

It was fun to try some different colors – and go crazy pink- LOL . Valentine’s Day is not a huge thing in Germany to be honest so the whole concept around this is kind of fascinating for me, but of course I do enjoy the wonderful flowers and gifts from my US-born husband ;)

Hope your day is filled with Love!

Here are some of the supplies I used for this spread


Nat

Comments (2)

  • pam hansen

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    ❤️❤️?

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Always nice to see Margot on a layout or art journal page.
    My favorite items to use on paint are lids from plastic jars I have at home.

    Reply

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The Small Things in Life – Art Journal

I created this Art Journal spread on a snowy day last week – as you can probably guess :)

The lady is drawn on deli paper, stamped and pasted into the journal. I stamped with different of my ArtFoamies Designs and then painted with grey and white. I like how it came out.

For the journaling I used a bamboo sketching pen and ink – I love using a bamboo sketching pen – have you ever seen my video I once made of the match made in heaven? It is a bit older but you might still find it interesting to see how I use those pens with the ink

Liquitex Ink and Bamboo Sketching Pen from Nathalie Kalbach on Vimeo.

Here are some of the supplies I used with the art journal spread


Nat

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Too Many Thoughts – Art Journal

“I am too little butter on too much bread. I am too many thoughts in too little head”  – Tyler Knott Gregson

This started actually out as many different approaches to a background and thinks just didn’t work out the way I wanted and once I just started covering it up with the gold I fell in love with the antique- streak look and left it. There -problem solved ;)

The girl is mainly on deli paper with I stamped and painted and layered Neopastels on top. Her eyes are a bit off but I can live with that …Moving on is the motto ;)

Love how the foam stamped pattern shows is slightly visible through the gold layer.

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


Nat

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For All I Know – Art Journal

I have been working on a big assignment and some personal tasks lately which have me stressed out a bit …so a little art journaling mantra is keeping me sane ;)

some stamping with my RubberMoon stamp sets and I used Neopastels to paint inside the ink transferred figure. I also traced with a pink Neopastel inside the opening of my Manhattan stencil and while I like the outcome, there was a lot of the Neopastel sticking to the stencil which wasn’t easily to get off or transfer to a different spot – so this was probably a one time adventure LOL.

Here are the supplies I used for this spread.


Nat

Comments (4)

  • Lois Moore

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    I read somewhere that a soak in water with dishwasher “liquid” soap would remove dried on paint from stencils. Maybe it will work with your neopastels too.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      I will try that Lois. My best experience so far is with Murphy’s Oil- but I usually do not remove paint as long as it is acrylic paint. I will give it a try :)Thank you

      Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Do you put something over the neopastels so that they don’t smudge on the opposite page when the journal is closed?

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Sue, if the layer of neopastels is not too thick it is not a problem, but in this case where it is very thick I put half a sheet of delipaper in between the pages to keep it from transferring to the other side.

      Reply

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Sometimes you are the window…sometimes you are the rock

Loved Michelle Ward’s video at Creative JumpStart 2018 and used her technique with my Amsterdam and Versailles Stencil creating a grungy background.

Just love the outcome – Michelle does the technique a bit different when I usually do- so it was fun to do it with a different approach. What Technique you ask ? WElllllll…LOL- yes- I am doing this to you right now…you gotta sign up to and see yourself- it is so much fun and the videos are so awesome. You still have time to join us for Creative JumpStart and play along!

Loved creating the girl with some ink sketching and stamping- ….I kinda want her coat- LOL.

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


Nat

Comments (1)

  • Dee Spillane

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    Love this so much!

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Fire – Art Journal

“I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me!”

I started this art journal spread a while ago but Carolyn Dube used in her Creative JumpStart Video junk envelopes which inspired me to add some collage elements from the inside of junk envelopes as well. I stamped with my Central Avenue Foam Stamps and acrylic paint on top of the envelope pattern and then cut out circles in different sizes – the lines of the stamp providing perfect cutting guidance.

I used a black Fude pen for the journaling and to add some dots here and there and then added some white highlights with a white Signo pen. It basically repeats the color scheme and the circles theme of the collaged envelope circles.

The figure was from a demo in a class in Oregon – Ink drawing on deli paper and then pasted into the art journal with gel medium.

The red and green are giving a great contrast and impact – it is a not so simple but kind a simple looking page  – I like it. Here is what I discovered with this page:

  • I always forget that in the US a lot of the bank statements have security envelopes with cool pattern inside – great collage material
  • I mostly use women when using figures in my journal  – it was fun to change that up for this one :)
  • I am still in love with the subtle texture scraped gesso over an acrylic painted background provides – It makes me happy :)

There are so many ways you can get something out of Creative JumpStart – wether you are a beginner, an intermediate or advanced Mixed Media Artist. You can take the videos “literally” and do the same project, you can get inspired by the theme, certain materials, use the same techniques, try to substitute materials to see what happens in comparison …the ways are different…but they all have something in common – YOU HAVE TO WALK!

I hope you walk with us :)

Nat

Comments (12)

  • Ben Gill

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    Looking great! Some nice textures and patterns going on here. The colors are great also.

    Been reading your blog for a while but first time commenting here :)

    Reply

  • sue-sharp

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    I love your texture and colours! I keep forgetting what a great impact white scraped over colour makes!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      thank you Sue, yeah I love the grungy white scraped look over color.

      Reply

  • gloz

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    This is fabulous, Nathalie! I too have started saving the insides of security envelopes for collage. I never noticed them before Carolyns’ jumpstart project!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      thank you so much Gloria- yes those security envelopes are so cool!

      Reply

  • florenceturnour

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    Love your background, Nathalie. Lots of details in there. Your Art Foamies are very cool as well.

    Reply

  • cathsheard

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    Love what you created and great to see you jumping too :-)

    Reply

  • dcnewman52

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    Glad to see you playing along with us and enjoying the fun of Creative Jumpstart that you created for all of us!

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Thoughts on Paper – Art Journal

After watching Tina Walker’s Creative JumpStart Video I was inspired to pull out my PanPastels. Her video wasn’t about using PanPastels but she had used them in a little part of her video and that made me pay extra attention. I used to use them all the time and also teach with them and then somehow I really neglected those little pans full of pigment joy! So it was time to dust the pans off and get them out.

I had covered up some of the background with black gesso which I had stamped with my Versailles Positive & Negative Foam Stamp Set and my Van Vorst Positive and Negative Foam Stamp Set.

I used gold and bronze PanPastel over black gesso using my Versailles Stencil. I always love how black gesso makes the pastels really pop.

I also stamped with the white side of RubberMoon’s new awesome Moonlight Duo Ink Pads. Each ink pad has a white pad next to the initial color for creating tints and I just love the white by itself. It dries permanent – yeahhhh!!! I used my Embroidery Stamp Rubber Stamp set. This page was really more a bit of a play but I had fun and I put some thoughts down as well – and it served a couple of really good purposes:

  • I pulled out my PanPastels again and I realized I need to use them more again!
  • I tried the white ink pad side of my RubberMoon ink pads and know this will be a staple in my mixed media art
  • I actually did something creative on a day which was filled with computer work and non creative to-do’s and that prevented grumpiness
  • I once more realized that I do not like the look of light green and metallic color next to each other – yeah – sometimes even that is a thing to discover- LOL

I hope you are part of Creative JumpStart as well – it is such a great and supporting community and looking at everyone’s project based on the daily videos is another wonderful source of inspiration. If you haven’t joined yet- you can still do it – sign up for Creative JumpStart 2018 !

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


Nat

Comments (7)

  • florenceturnour

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    Lol hairspray. Does it smell perfumed? I guess workable fixative doesn’t smell all that nice. I love that you are writing white on black. I’m going to have to give that a try too!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      LOL- all I head. Fixative is actually smelling worse and most you have to apply. That wasn’t an option with the cold here anyway- LOL

      Reply

  • cathsheard

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    Oooh, those metallic PanPastels – wow! They look fab….

    Reply

  • Catherine

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    Nathalie, I really like these journal pages! I love using Pan Pastels, but never quite know how to affix them to the page! Did you use anything so they won’t rub off? Thanks!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      thank you Catherine. yes they def. need to be fixative either with a fixative or in this case just with hairspray.. hairspray might change the color but i can live with this in my art journal

      Reply

      • Catherine

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        Thanks, Nathalie! I think that would be the easiest! Will try it!

        Reply

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(self-)Respect – Art Journal

I am so excited- LOL- Hold your horses! This is the very first year in seven years, I actually started to play along with Creative JumpStart– usually there is just too much going on on the administrative side of organizing the workshop, traveling to teach and with CHA/Creativation that I just cannot play along. But ha – this year I am in! This art journal spread was inspired by the first video with Mystele in CJS18 – wow- she rocked that video. I used some of her ideas to jumpstart my own page and then went for it.

Mystele painted a gorgeous face – I used a hand carved stamp – see you can do whatever you want with those videos (get inspired by the technique, the material, the way the artist use things, the look, the colors…nameless options) but they do totally feed you if you are just willing to play- and Oh and I am willing this year ;)

My word for 2018 is (self-) Respect – and so it was a good page to do !

Are you in for Creative JumpStart 2018? If not you can still join – check it out !

Give yourself the permission to play!

 

Nat

Comments (4)

  • sue-sharp

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    Wow, I love the colours, and energy from this page.. and LOVE that hand carved face!

    Reply

  • cathsheard

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    To quote you “love love love” that you are finding time and space to JUMP as well :-)

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It’s All in My Mind – Art Journal

I love how this page turned out. I had seen a page by my sweet friend Birgit Koopsen where she had used a black art journal and then doodled in white on top of it and that set off this page. I painted my art journal page with black gesso, let it dry and then added some white watercolor ground into the the middle area.

I then used different stencils of mine and used a white Signo Pen to outline some patterns on the black gesso

I stamped the different houses from my Stroll Around The Block Set with archival ink and then added watercolor and the journaling.

The watercolor ground gives a lot of tooth- so the watercolor looks a bit different on it when on normal watercolor paper- but I love the texture.

It was fun playing with different media and a different ground

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


Nat

Comments (2)

  • Sue Clarke

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    I love how the white pattern on black sets the background for the rest of the page.
    I must try this soon in my new art journal!

    Reply

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