Creative Squad

From Small Beginnings – Marsha Valk

CS September Theme 2

Happy Tuesday!  It’s time for my Creative Squad to share a project with you with this month’s theme: “From Small Beginnings”. Throughout the month of September, the team will be using my n*Studio Stamps to interpret the theme. The change in seasons and the childhood ritual of Back to School in September has me thinking about starting new things – new projects, learning new things, and meeting new people, and all the excitement and challenges that come with all of these “new”s. For this theme, From Small Beginnings, my Squad will think about the process of starting something new and the very first steps they took. I’ll ask them, how did you experience a Beginning?

So this week we have a gorgeous scrapbook page from Marsha Valk, where she reminisces about her start in mixed media with stamping, embossing powders, and scrapbooking.

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Marsha September Headshot

This theme made me think about how I started stamping. I can’t remember which stamps I bought first. I’m guessing it was a small wood mounted alphabet set.

I do know that some of the first inks I had were little Colorbox Cat’s Eyes and the first time I used embossing powder was in an Ali Edwards class. It was sooo scary and soooo amazing at the same time!!! And then, of course I had to buy the stuff for myself.

Anyway, I started to look for the mini I made in that class and I ended up looking through some of the other minis I’ve made over the years. One of the minis featured a photo of my scrapcorner in the attic in 2006 and that sparked my plan for this theme:

I wanted to scrapbook, I wanted to heat emboss and I wanted to use materials I would (or could) have had 10 or more years ago.

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I started stamping on a smooth watercolour paper with embossing ink. I heat-embossed with white embossing powder.

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Then I played around with Ecoline and… forgot to take further photos… Oops.

Once the Ecoline was dry I added the cardstock cluster and my photo. My title was made with two of my Dymo Label Makers. One of them is actually visible on the desk in the photos!

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I also added some Scrappers Floss to the cluster with a stapler and because I used to print most of my journaling, I adhered my text in strips to the page. I finished the page with some paint marker splatters and the date.

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I love how Marsha took us both back in time AND behind-the-scenes with her super fun page.  And those Kaffee Klatsch and Mish Mesh stamps look amazing embossed in white against those gorgeous colors!

In addition to paper floss, a stapler, and personal photographs , Marsha used the supplies listed below (some are affiliate links):

SuppliesCJS

Maybe you will even play along with us -I would 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“.

See you next Tuesday for another project from the Creative Squad!

Nat

Comments (2)

  • Joi@RR

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    This was a fun story of your beginnings Marsha and your project is fun too! Really awesome background with the stamps. My very first stamp was Nathalie’s Fiesta stamp and would you believe I WON it – from her???!!!! I treasure it still!!! Thanks bunches for sharing. j.

    Reply

  • Mary

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    Beautiful. Love the technique. Thanks for sharing.
    On my list to do.

    Reply

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From Small Beginnings – Cheiron Brandon

CS September Theme 2

It’s Tuesday and time for my Creative Squad to share a project with you with this month’s theme: “From Small Beginnings”. Throughout the month of September, the team will be using my n*Studio Stamps to interpret the theme. The change in seasons and the childhood ritual of Back to School in September has me thinking about starting new things – new projects, learning new things, and meeting new people, and all the excitement and challenges that come with all of these “new”s. For this theme, From Small Beginnings, my Squad will think about the process of starting something new and the very first steps they took. I’ll ask them, how did you experience a Beginning?

So this week we have 3 different card designs from Cheiron Brandon to celebrate her love of cardmaking – the thing that got her started in the creative life :)

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Cheiron September Headshot

Hi there! It’s Cheiron here with my September project. When I initially thought of the theme From Small Beginnings, I thought back to how I got started in art, crafting and art journaling as an adult. About 12 years ago, I moved back to NJ and there was a small stamp shop that opened right down the street from me. I was always interested in making things and I remember making watercolor cards in high school and putting simple messages on them. Rubber stamps opened a whole new world to me. In the past several years, I have had the opportunity to work with several stamp companies and design teams, the most recent being a part of the N*Studio squad.

I am grateful for having art, stamping and especially card making in my life. In the past 10 years I have amassed a HUGE collection of supplies, but I always find for me that the cards I love to make are the most basic. I am sharing 3 simple cards with you today, each was made with only one stamp and a sentiment or word pulled from a giant bin of stickers I still have. I made all three of these cards in under an hour and now have some happy mail to send to friends!

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This first card is made with a stamp from the Marks stamp set. I love these X’s and stamped them in 3 different colors then went over each section with an ink blending tool with the same color. A few letter stickers, pieces of washi tape and a staple with my tiny attacher, and voila!

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The second card was even easier…a few stamped images from the Kaffee Klatsch stamp set colored in with watercolors, and a little gold splatter and one simple sentiment sticker.

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For the final card, I used a stamp from the Mish Mesh stamp set as a sunshine, and painted it loosely with watercolor, another sentiment and it’s good to go.

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I hope these cards remind you of why you got started with this hobby, and what initially brought you joy. I had so much fun making these quick cards and sharing them with you :)

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I love Cheiron’s story of her “beginning” and the cards are simply beautiful.  I think everyone would like to be on her mailing list!

In addition to washi tape and various word stickers from her stash, Cheiron used the supplies listed below (some are affiliate links):

SuppliesCJS

Maybe you will even play along with us -I would 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“.

See you next Tuesday for another project from the Creative Squad!

Nat

Comments (2)

  • ,Mary Holshouser

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    Love the card with the XXXXX
    I have that stamps and will be using that
    idea.
    A pretty, colorful card.
    thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  • Brenda

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    These cards are so colorful. Makes me want to go make some. Did you emboss in white on the last card?

    Reply

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Say Yes to New Adventures – Cheiron Brandon

CS August Say Yes

It’s Tuesday and time for my Creative Squad to share a project with you with this month’s theme: “Say Yes to New Adventures”. Throughout the month of August, the team will use any of my n*Studio Stamps and Stencils they would like to use to interpret the theme. Here in the northern hemisphere, summer is coming to a close and it’s about time to seize the days and go on a little adventure before hibernation! With this in mind, the team will create something that celebrates the spirit of adventure.

This week we bring you Cheiron Brandon and the adventure she went on to create a beautiful art journal page!

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Cheiron August Headshot

Hi there, Cheiron here with my August project for the n*Studio Creative Squad. This month, I tried a new adventure in my art journal, and it did not come out as I planned at all, but I will show you how I got it back to something I could use :)  Here is my finished art journal page with a fold out in the center for journaling:

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It did not always look like this, I started with a much brighter page and I did not like how the writing came out at all, so I painted over it with black:

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I added many layers to the page with lots of different stamps using Distress Paints that I applied to the stamp with a foam blending tool:

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I also had a page from another project that was an adventure gone wrong, so I cut it up and added it to the page so I could use the back for journaling:

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The lesson for me this month, is that every adventure whether it be small or big does not always work out, but you should just keep taking new adventures!

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Cheiron’s art journal spread turned out beautifully with all those layers, and the adventure it took to get there was definitely worth it.

Cheiron used the supplies listed below (some are affiliate links):

SuppliesCJS

Maybe you will even play along with us -I would 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“.

See you next Tuesday for another project from the Creative Squad!

Nat

Comments (1)

  • Miriam Prantner

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    Love how it turned out and how you were able to fix what you didn’t like. Loving the contrast between the background and the insert too!

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My City Speaks to Me – Cheiron Brandon

CS April My City Speaks to Me Blue

It’s Tuesday so it’s time for my Creative Squad to share a project with you! The theme for this month is “My City Speaks to Me” and throughout the month, the team will be using my new Urban Scribble Foam Stamp, Rubber Stamp and Stencil Set. This month’s theme is all about expressing what your hometown or city is all about.  What makes it special, vibrant, and important to you?  This month, our Creative Squad will take us on a trip to their city!

Here is Cheiron Brandon and her super colorful interpretation of the theme, which happens to feature a city that’s my neighbor too!

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Cheiron April Headshot

Even though I am a Jersey girl, New York City has always been my city. I live about 8 miles from NYC and get a beautiful view of the skyline on my drive to work each morning and most times, I see the sun coming up. It is like the city is saying hello to me each morning.

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For my project this month, I created a journal page with all the colors of the morning sunrise using the Urban Scribble stamp as the main focal point.

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To start I used a page where I had wiped up some Distress stains from another creative adventure. I stamped the page using stamps from the Marks, Wired, and Mish Mesh stamp sets along with various Archival Inks to create a background. Then I stamped the skyline twice and colored it in with Faber Castell PITT artist pens. This stamp was so fun to color! I fussy cut around the stamp and adhered it to some crinkled black tissue paper to use as my focal piece. Once my piece was done, I adhered it to the background with matte medium.

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I hope you enjoyed Cheiron’s gorgeous art journal page! We are both Jersey Girls so I totally understand her love of the NYC skyline – it inspires me all the time. I love her choices of color too and the way she layered several stamps in the background to capture the energy of the city.
Besides the supplies listed below, Cheiron also used black tissue paper and Tim Holtz Distress Stains in Picked Raspberry and Wild Honey:
SuppliesCJS


And maybe you will even play along -we would love to see how you interpret the theme – email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share what you did at the beginning of next month!

See you next Tuesday for the another project with the theme ‘My City Speaks to Me’.

Nat

Comments (5)

  • Dee Ann O'Brien

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    What a beautiffully happy city -so warm and inviting1

    Reply

  • gwenlafleur

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    Beautiful pages! Really love your colors and how you filled in the city stamp. Lovely!

    Reply

  • Joi@RR

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    Sooo vibrant and fun Cheiron. I love orange so you had me captured immediately!!! Love that background and you definitely put a whole new pizzazz into Nat’s Urban Scribble city scape. BRILLIANT!!! j.

    Reply

  • Miriam Prantner

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    What a fantastic page! I love those sketchy buildings, a wonderful cityscape!!!

    Reply

  • Brenda

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    I love the colors of the morning sunrise too! Love how you applied them here on your page.

    Reply

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Won’t Be Easy or … In My Art Journal Today

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“It won’t be easy, but it’ll be worth it”

I have to remind myself ;) This page started actually out as a demo page in class and I had shown my students how to apply gesso over a pre-painted page and then scratch into the still wet gesso to reveal the under layer. This is a technique called sgraffito.

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Once the gesso was dry, I stamped loosely parts of the Urban Scribble rubber stamp and parts of the Mish Mesh stamp onto the background.

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I cut some self adhesive canvas sheet for journaling, fringed the edges and added some titanium white before journaling because i didn’t like the stark white of the canvas pieces.

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It was a fun page ….actually easy and still worth it ;)

Here is a list of the supplies I used:

SuppliesCJS



I wish you a wonderful day !!!

 

Nat

Comments (1)

  • Joi@RR

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    What an art journal treat this is Nat. I have never tried scratching thru paint like that but… I”m ready now!!! Might just try it today!! It looks wonderful and so do the stamps. Perfect background for your very chic gal. Love her outfit and face. You always inspire me girl. Thanks bunches! Have a happy Sunday and a super fine week. Hugs. j

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