“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 ;)
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).
My Hydrant foam stamp just cracks me up sometimes. It’s big and bold and well… kinda cute. Is that possible for a hydrant? I don’t know but in this case I think so.
It’s one of those iconic sights on the street in the US and wow is it popular with four legged friends if you know what I mean ;) But it’s also a pretty interesting piece of equipment, always a bright color (usually red), and it makes me think of city neighborhoods, which I love.
It’s a little unexpected and fun to use it as a repeating pattern in my art journal…
…and in fact I also like the abstract shape that you can make by stamping the back!
Got some dog lovers you know? These cards by Creative Squad member Judi Kauffman are hilarious:
And then also this votive project was a pretty neat idea, especially when combined with a few of my other foam stamps. You can create a whole little illuminated streetscape:
It’s a unique foam stamp, but that’s probably why the Hydrant catches your eye and makes you smile. It’s a little different and that’s one reason I love it.
Happy Holidays from my Creative Squad! Today we have a festive post from Robin Seiz who is sharing a mixed media piece using my Hydrant foam stamp, Small Circle Jumble rubber stamps, and my new ATC Mixup stencil. Our theme is Celebrate the Season – Many cultures celebrate in December so let’s do some celebrating ourselves with our favorite art supplies and the holidays that make this season so festive.
Hello friends, This month we are celebrating the season! I love bling; my friends know this and always expect me to show up with just a little “extra something”. As I thought about this project, I knew it had to have some sparkle for the holidays.
We were encouraged to use some foam stamps from Nat’s last release; I hadn’t used the Hydrant that much. It’s such a fun foam stamp! When I stamped it, the front looked like a wreath to me… so that’s where I started.
The first thing I did was use my Gelli plate to pull two gold papers, one darker than the other. (You’ll see there are red marks on the gold paper; that’s from a previous project and I don’t mind those little bits and pieces. If you are more of a perfectionist; I suggest cleaning your plate before you start, but I rarely do.) The lighter piece would be the background paper for my piece, the darker piece would be the background for the fire hydrant stamp. I wanted the gold to show through the stamp and I knew I would be fussy cutting the hydrant. That’s the wonderful thing about foam stamps, they often have the lines you can see through and play with the color in the background. I used Versa Fine Clair Paradise to stamp the hydrant.
Next, I took a very small flat tipped brush and dipped it on the Versa Fine Clair Green Oasis and painted the “wreath” on the front of the fire hydrant. Once it was dry (and that’s a super important step) I drew a ribbon with a red Posca paint pen. If you are like me and really don’t have drawing skills, then I would suggest a few simple books to help you out. They come in super handy. I will list them in the supplies. Once the wreath was finished I wanted it to have the look of fresh fallen snow. I don’t often use glitter because it’s so bad for the environment, but sometimes, I just have to break it out! If you look closely at picture 4, you will see the “snow” both on the wreath and the hydrant. It’s subtle, but it does show up.
I moved to the lighter gold background paper for the next steps.
I recently ordered Nathalie’s Small Circle Jumble Set and hadn’t yet used them. They were the perfect stamp for the hanging lights. I rarely use embossing powders, but I did so in this project. Embossing always feels like a “little something special” and gives a piece a lovely dimension. I then drew in some string for the lights with a micron pen; I did later go back over it with a little heavier line.
Next, I fussy cut the hydrant and auditioned where it would be placed on the paper. It’s quite bold, so I needed something to counter balance it compositionally. Nathalie recently gifted her Creative Squad the new ATC Mixup stencil sheet and it has a wonderful star pattern on it. I thought this would be the perfect background to balance the hydrant. I used the stencil with gold acrylic paint. I worked more boldly in the upper left corner to balance the hydrant.
When I was finished with the background, I attached the hydrant with dimension tape. I think it adds so much to a piece when there is dimension. I still felt like the piece needed a little more of “something” (some bling) I added glitter stars and the piece was finished. As I looked at it more, I thought that perhaps I should outline the hydrant in the Versa Fine Blue. This never works well for me, I seem to get it all over everything. If that works for you, it definitely adds even more dimension. I have included both pictures, ( 10 and 11) with and without. You see which you prefer.
This piece could be a card (it’s 6×6) or a add-on for your journal. It could even be framed and brought out during the holidays, which is what I might do.
I wish you all a wonderful holiday. I hope it’s filled with joy, love and perhaps even some creative time! See you in the New Year! Peace, Robin
Thank you Robin for such a lively composition – feels perfect for celebrating the holidays!
I am challenging myself to use up the collage pile I have collected in my one of my letterpress drawers over the years – it is fun to go through the bits and pieces and finally use them for some art journal pages.
I stenciled with acrylic paints through my Manhattan stencil and I also cut a triangle from black paper where I had used my Valley Road stencil. I added a magazine image (the green and black fencing behind the lady) and used some leftover deli paper with yellow and black paint as I loved the texture on it.
I sketched my figure and even gave her jacket a little pattern using my Art Tag rubber stamp. Then I used my Hydrant foam stamp which I had previously stamped with acrylic paint on paper.
A bonus project from Riikka Kovasin from my Creative Squad for you today :) I think this card is super cute with the Hydrant foam stamp as the focal point on top of Grove St (for some extra oomph) and the message “You are the best”!
Here is from Riikka:
“I’m not totally sure how a person could be the best hydrant, but I still thought that the Hydrant would make a great focal point in a card! The shape is really captivating, don’t you think? Maybe it’s more like the hydrant looks like number one? Or that it doesn’t have anything to do with the sentence! “
“Where the art journal page was layered with different mediums, this card is more straight forward. There’s only different inks used in this card. Oh, and some pencil scribbles. The background is done using Archival Inks. First I stamped the circle (another ArtFoamies, Grove Street) and then added some yellow patterns around using a stencil. The focal point, the “Hydrant”, is stamped using Distress Ink and it’s actually from a try out sheet I did after getting the stamps. You might have seen that on my Instagram Reels.”
Thank you Riikka – I think anyone would be honored to be called the best hydrant LOL
Give it a try: you can find all my Foam Stamps in my Online Shop and here are some of the supplies Riikka used:
Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a post from Judi Kauffman that made me smile and chuckle using my Lady Liberty and Hydrant foam stamps and our theme: Good Morning Good Evening – Are you a Morning Person or a Night Owl? Or maybe neither? Create a project inspired by your preferred time of day – when you are in good spirits, doing what you love, and enjoying life.
Stamping, Day & Night!
Imagine my delight when Nathalie’s ArtFoamies arrived for this month’s project – Lady Liberty and Hydrant! Both spoke to this city girl’s heart. The theme fit both stamps very well, I thought. And they’re big enough to fill a card front with little else.
Day person, night person? I am a bit of both. My best energy is in the morning but sometimes my best ideas take shape at night How about you?
Project 1 – Statue of Liberty cards:
Our godson and his family live in an apartment in Brooklyn that looks out at Lady Liberty so I get to say good morning and good night to her when I visit. Each time I see the statue I thank this country for welcoming my grandparents to this country of immigrants.
I made a pair of very simple cards that allow the beautiful image to take a starring role. Tiny glitter dot stickers create the stars in a night sky and the rays of a noonday sun.
Every day and each night (and many times in between…) dogs out on walks with their owners get to check their email by sniffing the fire hydrant across the street from my house. I hand-cut a wagging tail for each card. The tail becomes shorthand for a dog, just enough to create the scene! The night version of the card has a fussy-cut hydrant, offset on foam squares so the one stamped on the background stays visible and becomes a shadow.
Bonus – Other takes on a fire hydrant:
While I was at it, I stamped extra fire hydrants to fussy-cut for more cards. Some of the extras were quite pale because I was using up paint before cleaning the stamp to put away. One thing led to another and some of those extras got turned into a bird, a vase filled with flowers, and a strange big-eyed creature wearing a knit hat.
Have fun turning fire hydrants into something else! And be sure to share what you come up with…
Thank you Judi for this creative group of projects and unique ways to look at the stamps!
Give it a try: you can find all my Foam Stamps in my Online Shop and here are some of the supplies Judi used:
Oh my…the tail to the hydrant! Funny story about our dog park. We don’t have hydrants in my area (we have many small ponds to draw water from via our fire trucks), and someone made some “fake” fire hydrants for the dog park and painted them red. The dogs from my area didn’t know what to do with them. The dogs who come up from MA “showed” the NH dogs how to pee on the hydrant. I’m not sure if that comes across as funny, but it made me laugh and your hydrants made me think of it!
This was some paper which I had used to clean up my gelli plate – hence the grungy background. Then I just stamped with the back of the Hydrant foam stamp in yellow and the patterned part in black – Tongue in Cheak …cheek… well you know ;) Cannot stop using the Hydrant !
For this spread I used my new foam stamps and acrylic paints. These were actually all kinds of test stamp sheets for our product photos but I loved the vibrant colors and thought it would be fun to layer them up.
I was journaling just random thoughts on why I love living in a city.
Here is Church and Row Houses too. I just layered them as I wanted and then added a double sided adhesive to the back and cut where the journal fold is so it would be easy to open and close.
Happy Monday and welcome to another pattern in my big vintage ledger! Today I’m using one of my newest foam stamps – Hydrant! I kept it simple and stamped the front and back – sometimes the back of the stamp is an interesting shape on its own.
Here is a look at the finished pattern and the Hydrant stamp that I used:
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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