Blog: Jewett Fan

Fishy Fishy Koinobori Windsocks – DIY Playdate

After many months of keeping these fish windsocks in my closet, Kim and I finally got together last week for a playdate. Koinobori are a Japanese tradition – windsocks that are usually flown around the celebration of Children’s Day (read more about this tradition here). We love the shape of these and the possibilities for personalizing them and wanted to put our spin (and stamps LOL) on these festive fliers.

The supplies were easy to gather together: my fan shaped foam stamps (perfect for fish scales!!!), the Koinobori windsocks (link below for those), acrylic paint / acrylic gouache, Posca markers, a brayer, and gelli plate. There are traditional Koinobori colors to symbolize different members of your family, but we decided to go with some of our favorite colors.

We looked at lots of examples online and started with some of the details, using a black posca marker. Eyes, gills, whiskers (these are actually carp, so they have some whiskers)…

…and also the fins. Each set of windsocks came with 3 different sized fish and the larger two have more detail, shape, and fins. We found that the larger bullet nib Poscas worked best on the fabric.

For the smallest fish, my Mini Fan foam stamp set was the way to go – a perfect size and shape to create “scales”.

We rolled paint out on a Gelli plate and then either brayered it on the stamps or used the Gelli plate like a stamp pad.

Then just stamp on the fish. We found that the fabric was sturdy enough that it didn’t bleed through.

Just keep going with the pattern. This is the medium sized fish, so my larger fan stamps like the Fairview Fan set made quick work of the pattern.

On the larger fish you have to work around the fins but you can decide how fussy you’d like to be.

Here’s a little guy all stamped with one of the Mini Fans.

And here’s the medium fish – it comes together pretty fast with the foam stamps!

You can add other colors with Posca markers – trace the stamp shapes to highlight the pattern or to add more detail to the fish.

You can also trace the fan shapes to emphasize those scales.

The smallest fish has such little detail that you kinda have to fake it with fins and such. We also definitely used the small ones to test out what we liked best in terms of design.

And in the end, we created a beautiful school of fish!

Each one an individual and full of personality :)

When they’re all ready, it’s time to let these windsocks fly!

On a windy day this guy will be “swimming” through a local community garden :)

Hope you give this project a try. Here are some of the supplies we used:

Nat

Comments (2)

  • Sue Clarke

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    L-O-V-E these!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply

  • jean marmo

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    These are so very cool!

    Reply

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April ArtFoamies Challenge – Day 22 & 23

Are you playing along with Nat and Sarah’s April ArtFoamies Challenge ? You can follow along on my Instagram feed daily with videos and photos, and I post updates here on the blog too. Today I’m recapping 22 and 23. Enjoy!

Day 22 – Fantastic –

Not a surprise here…since I have been creating a ton of fan shaped stamps for a while. The shape and possibility to add pattern to it just makes me super happy! So here is a bunch of fantastic stamps ;) including Broadway Fan, Fairview Fan, Jewett Fan, and Van Vorst Fan.

 

Here is a look at those Fantastic Fans!

 

April 23 – Grid – Had to be the Manhattan Positive and Negative Stamp set. Of course I screwed it up in the middle of the stamping – just like you get lost in Manhattan when you do not pay attention. The trick is to just pretend you wanted to go that route anyway… and then all is good and you are mastering the grid.

 

Here is a look at that April 23 Grid:

 

Follow along with the challenge on instagram  and post your artwork too with the hashtag #artcollabChallengeAccepted

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

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Welcome Back – Art Journal

“It’s OK. You just forgot who you are. Welcome back!” Happens to all of us every now and again and it is ok :)

I’m pretty happy with this background – the colors, the layers, the grunge. I used acrylic paint and my Jewett Fan foam stamps and my Art Nouveau Wallpaper stencil. 

I used a transfer technique for the figure with acrylic paint and some posca markers to add line and detail.

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

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Worry Less – Art Journal

Worry Less… Live MORE! One of those helpful reminders to get out of our heads and live in the moment :)

I stamped up a nice little background with acrylic paint and my Jewett Fan foam stamp set – comes with a positive and negative version of the design but instead of layering them I used them separately.

I outlined some of the design and did my quote with my new fav fineliner pens – Winsor Newton. A very happy looking page I think!

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

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Your Biggest Fan – Jennifer Gallagher

Hello there and welcome to a post from my Creative Squad. Today we have Jennifer Gallagher kicking off our projects using my Jewett Fan Positive Negative Foam Stamp set with her heartfelt take on this month’s theme: Your Biggest Fan – Let’s give a shout out to someone who is doing an amazing job. In a world obsessed with Me Me Me it’s important to take a look around sometimes and give some encouraging words to another, and not just in your art and craft making :) Be their Biggest Fan!  

I am so excited to be kicking off the theme for this month’s Creative Squad posts. This month we are giving a shout out to those people in our lives that we want to encourage. We are letting them know we are their biggest fans. I am a Mom to two boys and I am definitely their biggest fan. With them in mind, I’ve prepared a page for my family scrapbook using some of my favorite new n*Studio foam stamps, Nat’s Jewett positive and negative fan foam stamp set.. Let’s get started.

I began with a twelve inch square piece of kraft cardstock. I chose two colors of paint. I went with a complementary color selection – a shade of turquoise blue and an orange. I designated one color for the positive Jewett fan foam stamp and one for the negative fan Jewett foam stamp. I loaded paint onto the stamp (this can be done with either a stamp buddy or brayering onto a gel plate) and pressed it firmly into the bottom right corner to begin my pattern. Alternate your foam stamps to create the pattern. I only went about half-way across the page, but you could fill the entire page if you wish.

Next, I used a black fude ball pen to go around a lot of the design and add a dashed line around the outside edge.

I chose a few posca paint pens that were in the same color family and added additional details.

With a small brush, I applied some gold glitz glitter gel.

Next, I chose a few pieces of colored cardstock to build a paper frame for my photo to sit on. In the photo I show a salmon color, but in the end I went with a lighter turquoise. Be sure to audition several colors and combinations to find the one you like best. I just eyeballed the size and cut it with my scissors. I adhered each piece with 1/4 inch scor-tape.

I settled on a spot for my photo and adhered it with scor-tape as well. Then, using my black and white gelly roll pens I made some additional dashed lines to carry that theme through. I also added white dots to some of the flowers.

On my computer I printed out a sentiment for the page. What better than, “I will always be your biggest fan!: I attached it with 1/8 inch scor-tape.

It’s just that simple. I had so much fun making this one that I plan on making tons more pages for my family scrapbooks. You can easily use the tools and techniques you employ in card-making and art journaling into scrapbooks too. I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and will try it out at home using your favorite n*Studio foam stamps.

Thank you Jennifer! Love seeing your family and love how those stamps pop on that craft paper! You can find all my Foam Stamps in my Online Shop and here are some of the other supplies Jennifer used:

Feel inspired? Working on something yourself that you’d like to share?  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 next  “n*Spiration From Around the Globe“.

Nat

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Stay Soft – Art Journal

“Be Wild but Stay Soft”

For this spread I stamped out my new fan foam stamps with acrylic paint onto some white paper, cut them out, and collaged them into my art journal. Here is my Fairview Fan Positive Negative stamps.

And here is one of the stamps from the Jewett Fan Positive Negative pair. I went back into these elements with a bit of dots and marks using the new Winsor Newton fineliner pens – which I am super impressed with btw and links are below for them if you are also a fan of good fineliners :)

And here is the Broadway Fan Positive Negative stamps and the Van Vorst Fan Positive Negative stamps. Then I went in and played around with my lettering, bringing in the dots to tie everything together.

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

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