Blog: Art Journal

Creative Squad: Lost in a Book – Judi Kauffman

Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a post from Judi Kauffman who is sharing a nifty project for all you bookworms out there! She’s using my ATC Mixup stencil and kicking off our new theme for us: Lost in a Book – What is one of your favorite books (from childhood or as an adult) or a book that you recently read and really enjoyed? Create a project inspired by the characters, plot, or any element of the book that really stuck with you.

I’ve been getting lost in a book since I was 4 and started to read! To this day you can always find me with a stack of books spilling out of the night table by my side of the bed, and another pile next to the easy chair in the living room, right next to the jars with colored pencils and pens. I can remember reading HEIDI over and over and getting my first library card was like winning the lottery!

Instead of focusing on a single book for this month’s Lost in a Book theme, I decided to create some library pockets to put into my Traveler’s Notebook. I can record the title and author of each book I’ve been reading on the insert cards and add a few notes so that I can remember and recommend my favorites!

Instead of plain vanilla (or, more accurately, manila) I duded them up with inks and Nathalie’s ATC Mix-Up stencils!

Cover work table with newsprint or other paper. Lay purchased, die-cut or hand-cut library pockets and insert cards on the table and sponge on two different inks as shown or as preferred.

Tear newsprint into a variety of shapes and strips to act as masks. With masks in place on the front (bottom section) and inside of the pocket (top section only)…

…sponge on the third ink.

With masks still in place, stencil patterns onto the pocket and insert cards.

Remove masks. Fold and glue the sides of the pocket if a purchased pocket wasn’t used. Write on the front of the pocket and on the insert cards.

Thank you Judi – love this way to record what we’ve read and wow those colors look great together with the ATC stencil patterns!

Give it a try: you can find all my Stencils in my Online Shop and here are some of the supplies Judi used:

Looking for more projects? Follow the Creative Squad on Instagram here.

Nat

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Pack of Dogs – Art Journal

“Sometimes I feel like a fire hydrant looking at a pack of dogs.”

As I was moving, packing and unpacking my studio, I swore to myself to use what I have which includes the huge stack of collage material in one of my letter press drawers. So here I am… sticking to my self made promise.

The background is from a gelli plate print – lifting off paint I had applied to it with my Hydrant foam stamp.

Next I added some collage paper I made in the Time Traveler workshop with Birgit and Marsha, one of the techniques I show in the workshop that resembles old peeled wallpaper. Then I added some sewing pattern paper and stamping with my Triangle Love rubber stamp set.

As for the journaling, that is a reflection on a recent phase… Happy to say the fire hydrant made it and is not drowning ;)

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

Comments (1)

  • Sue Clarke

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    What a fun page Nat.
    We have fake fire hydrants at our dog park and we joke that the dogs from MA have to teach the dogs from NH how to use them.
    Most areas in NH do not have fire hydrants (our fire engines suck up water from local ponds to fill their tanks).

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Unsettled – Art Journal

In this one I was reminiscing about what home means, while seeing the coverage of the Ukraine on the news. While the colors are pretty exuberant, the thoughts and ideas behind the page are of course very emotional and upsetting.

I added in a painting on canvas which I cut up and saved the part with the house. That part I originally created using acrylic paint, markers, and chalk.

I used some acrylic inks on the background, sprinkled with Holbein pink gouache. The stamps in the background are from a wooden stamp set with months, weekdays and numbers.

I did my journaling with a fine Posca marker.

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

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Finding Peace – Art Journal

“You cannot find peace by avoiding life.” – Virginia Wolf

The paper I used was self made marbled washi paper – you can see how I did that in this blog post.

Then I took my Solid Hex Small rubber stamp and used the so called kissing technique – you ink up the stamp and then press another stamp on top of it to lift the ink, then stamp. Here I used different stamps like my Cardboard and Embroidery stamps as well as the Numerals stamp. As you can see the Numerals stamp is mirrored, so be careful when you use it with numbers or letters. I still wanted to use it and I like it.

I also used the part of the Numerals stamp with the triangle to make some marks and repeat the pattern in the middle of the hexagon pattern. I adhered it all with double sided tape.

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

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Good Girl – Art Journal

“I am just a good girl with bad habits”

My background was made with a sewing pattern which I adhered with acrylic paint and Liquitex matte medium to the ledger page. I layered up the paper, which gets a bit translucent when adhered on top of paint layers, and I also partly covered it up and scratched into the still wet paint with a pencil to create some marks. Then I used the same acrylic paint colors to stencil in different areas with my Art Deco Fairview stencil to tie it all together.

The piece of fabric is sun-printed (cyano type) and is from Birgit, Marsha and my workshop called Beyond the Paper where, in addition to tons of ideas for using substrates other than paper, I showed how to sun-print using stamps and stencils.

I had found an old letter in my collage drawer which contained the words “a good girl” – in the main image you can see it in the bottom right – which inspired me to create this page. The letters are from an old self adhesive letter sheet.

To finish it off I added some black splattering as the black backgrounds of the letters were a bit harsh and contrasting, and it needed a bit of repeating and visual weight throughout the page.

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

Comments (2)

  • Sue Clarke

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    Love the colors and the quote. This came together nicely Nat!

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  • Robin seiz

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    I love everything about this page!!!! Such beautiful texture!

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Together – Art Journal

“We were together. I forget the rest.” – Walt Whitman

The collage elements in this page tell quite the story. The green paper strip in the background is from a scrapbooking paper line I did for a French company back in the day …it was called Emoticon and I thought I should use it up as I still have some sheets.

The Fairview stamped paper is from a technique and online class that I produced with Birgit Koopsen and Marsha Valk called Time Traveler. We each chose a stylistic era to draw artistic inspiration from in the course. In addition to showing a bunch of gelli printing and other mixed media techniques, we also each bound all our pages together in the end using a different bookmaking method. You can check it out here, sign up, and enjoy the class at your own pace :)

I forgot where I got the sheer adhesive backed strip from that I used to attach everything – they are strips that I think someone gave to me a while ago… They are great for journaling and stamping on (I stamped one of my Fan-fare stamps on this page) to make your own washi tape. Maybe someone knows what they are and can tell us in the comments below!

I was using my Triple Play foam stamps with stazon ink on Grafix Duralar for this element. It was part of a technique that I showed in another class with Birgit and Marsha called Beyond the Paper. As you can probably guess, the class looks at a bunch of different substrate alternatives to paper and still gets me thinking. You can check it out here and again, it’s available anytime ;)

In my move I found a lot of odds and ends and am excited about finally using them – stamp and stencil samples, tests, misc products, and collage papers from my online classes.

Here are some of the supplies I used in this page:

Nat

Comments (1)

  • Sue Clarke

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    That paper line was awesome and quite different for its time. I have a piece or two kicking around.
    Nice words and design. Have a great day Nat!

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Times Like This – Art Journal

“In times like this, we need more than thoughts and prayers.” —just my thoughts – don’t be cross with me.

I created my background pattern with different versafine ink pad colors and my Wabi Sabi rubber stamps.

I made a sketch of my Church foam stamp on Grafix Duralar, cut it out and adhered it with double sided tape. For my journaling I used a Sharpie gel pen.

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

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Do What Is Right – Art Journal

“The time is always right to do what is right.” – MLK

I love using a fresh gel plate where the mineral oil makes the paint crystalize.

In fact I loved the print using the Lady Liberty foam stamp so much that I did not want to add much more to it! Sometimes it is ok to keep it simple.

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

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Continuous Flow – Art Journal

“I am made and remade continually. Different people draw different words from me.” ― Virginia Woolf

For this page I started with homemade marbled paper for my background.

Then to make the different patterns I stamped the Solid Hex Small rubber stamp in different Moonlight Duo ink pad colors and then used some of the Hex Set Small stamps to stamp on top.

I finished it off with a fude pen for the journaling.

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

Comments (1)

  • Sue Clarke

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    I just love that background paper and how the whole page goes so well with that quote Nat.

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