Blog: Monoprinting

Today – Art Journal

“He said: “There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow. So today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.”

The red/pink part of the Art Journal spread was done with some mono printing on a gelli plate. I used my Downtown Foam Stamp onto the plate and love how the pattern came through.

I painted part of the spread over with black gesso and once dry stamped on top with the Versailles Stamps from my Large Floral rubber stamp Set. For the white I used the second white pad in the Moonlight Duo Stamp Sets. So cool – once the white is dry it is permanent and it is pretty opaque as you can see.

I really love how this turned out – there is something about the grungy look of the monoprinted part and the black and white that just speaks to me.

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


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Same Moon – Art Journal

“Always remember we are under the same sky looking at the same moon”

The background started with some mono printing with a gelli plate. I had taken off the magenta acrylic paint with my Hexagon Foam stamps.

I added the beautiful washi tape with the moon and stars . The blue paper is actually a strip of scrapbooking paper which I created for a french Company many many years ago.

I also used my differently sized Hexagon Rubberstamps and stamped with white onto the background. Love how this came together. Here are some of the supplies I used:


Comments (1)

  • Sue Clarke

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    I love the colors and the quote!
    Happy Furry Mother’s Day Nat.

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Photos of my Workshop in Oklahoma

Last weekend I taught my 3-Day Splash of Color Workshop at My Heart’s Fancy in Oklahoma. We started out with blank papers, filled them with lot’s of pattern, and imagery and then bound them into art journals.

We did a lot of gelli printing/mono printing the first day- look at those colorful pages

Love all the texture – yummie!

We used tons of my stencils and stamps- always tickles me to see a wall of my designs :)

And we had a ton of fun – I love spending a whole weekend with a group of sweet talented students!

Look at Marcia colorful gelli plate :)

Time flies when you play with paint and colors – the three days went by in a breeze

Creating the covers was a big hit too  – happy faces

and thinking faces ;)

Now how can you not enjoy a weekend with all those smiling peeps :)

And it was so much fun to see how everyone loved their newly bound book on the second day and working in it.

 

yummie patterns with my ArtFoamies – I always love seeing the color combinations my students choose. So inspiring.

We also did some transfers and they looked fabulous!!!

And we created some funky clothing and city scapes with my RubberMoon stamps.

And here are all the beautiful bound art journals – 78 pages thick- such a happy colorful sight!

Thank you to all the wonderful students – I loved spending time with you, creating, laughing, chatting, eating …and eating delicious homemade cake (thank you Lynda!) and sharing supplies and ideas. Thank you also to Maura and Lisa for having me once again – I always love coming back.

If you would like to take an in-person class with me, I am teaching in May two classes in Kentucky at Ephemera Paducah which will be super fun. I will also teach in Toronto (Canada), San Jose (CA), Boltenhagen (Germany) and Coventry (UK) this year. For more information check my In-Person Workshop page I would love to see you.

Comments (6)

  • Sue Clarke

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    Looks like a fun class and an awesome store to shop in!

    Reply

  • Maura

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    I must say that this was such a wonderful workshop. Fun, inspiring…. in one word – delightful! Thank you Nathalie. You taught us such wonderful things and we enjoyed having you with us again!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Thank you Maura- it is always such a pleasure to come back and teach for you!!! See you soon again!

      Reply

  • Donna B.

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    Looks like it was a wonderful class!!! I envy those lucky students!!

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Opposites Attract – Marsha Valk

CS Opposites Attract logo

It is another Tuesday and therefore time for my Creative Squad to show you a fun project. The theme for March is Opposites Attract and the team will use my new Bird Foam Stamp, Rubber Stamp and Stencil Set. Just as opposite colors on a color wheel highlight one another, or yin and yang fit together so comfortably, sometimes the best is brought out when we celebrate extreme differences!

We’re very excited to share with you the very colorful, layered mono prints by Marsha Valk.  Take a look at her nifty interpretation of our theme!

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Marsha March Headshot

 

My thoughts on the theme ‘Opposites Attract’ were positive vs. negative and opposite colours on the colour wheel. And that immediately made me think… monoprints!
MarshaValk_nStudioCS_OppositesAttract-2
I started with sketching different placements on a scrap of paper so I could figure out how many masks and stencils I would need of the bird shape. Turned out I needed one stencil and three masks. I made them by stamping the solid foam bird shape onto transparencies and scraps of paper and then cutting them out.
MarshaValk_nStudioCS_OppositesAttract-5
I decided to use my 6 x 6 inch Gelli Plate so I could have a nice white border around my monoprinted images. I started with the yellow/purple print: added black acrylic paint to the Gelli Plate, put my handmade bird stencil on top, masked off part of the stencil with a handmade bird shape mask and then pulled the print and cleaned the plate.
I added yellow paint to the plate, positioned my bird stencil on the print with repositionable adhesive, pulled another print and cleaned the plate.
MarshaValk_nStudioCS_OppositesAttract-4 ver2
When the print was dry I masked off three birds on the paper using repositionable adhesive. Then I added purple paint to the Gelli Plate, created a pattern on top using the stencil and masks that come with the Bird Foam Stamp and pulled a print on a scrap piece of paper. Then I removed the stencil and masks and pulled a ghost print with my original paper.
Once I had removed all masks and any adhesive residue that was left on my print, I stamped the foam stamp bird with yellow paint on top of the negative (white) bird shape and the cling rubber bird with black ink on top of the yellow bird shape.
MarshaValk_nStudioCS_OppositesAttract-3
The second print was created in a similar way, but this time my black ghost print background didn’t work out as I wished. So I ended up adding another green colour and I stenciled the plant shapes over it with white paint.
MarshaValk_nStudioCS_OppositesAttract-6
The last print on blue paper was a ghost print that I pulled to clean the Gelli Plate and that I stamped over with the foam stamp bird.
MarshaValk_nStudioCS_OppositesAttract-7
Monoprinting like this is always a puzzle and rest assured that I had a few misprints too. I will keep those around for other projects! Whilst choosing my paint colours, I discovered that I hardly ever go for opposites on the colour wheel. It was fun to try this with a limited colour palette, out of my comfort zone!
MarshaValk_nStudioCS_OppositesAttract-1
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I love how Marsha showed how to use all three stamp surfaces together, by creating a reverse print of the solid foam stamp, and using the patterned side of it to stamp on top.  The layering and colors are super intriguing.
Besides the supplies listed below, Marsha also used black and blue cardstock to create these prints:
SuppliesCJS



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 ‘Opposites Attact’.

Comments (6)

  • A Year of Favorites from 2016

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    […] Creative Squad joined our team for a week of mixed media fun! You can see from this peek at Marsha Valk’s project during the hop that it was full of vibrant […]

    Reply

  • Karen Petitt

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    Please come teach me how to use a Gelli plate like that! Your projects are stunning. And the more I see of these new stamps the more I want them. Many thanks for the blog hop, the fabulous inspiration and for sharing your art with us Karen x

    Reply

  • gwenlafleur

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    Love how these turned out! Such cool compositions… and I really love your interpretation of the theme!

    Reply

  • Joi@RR

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    So unique and fun Marsha. What great colors. It’s so amazing to see how Nat’s birds look so different in so many settings. HAPPY ST. PATRICK’s DAY!!! j.

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  • Michelle LaPoint Rydell

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    Beautiful work with the theme Marsha! I love your opposite colors, and how you layered the birds!

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Quirky J.C. or Mish Mesh Stamp Set

Let me share another layout I did with the third of my sets of  my signature stamps for Stampendous! for CHA

NatKalbach_QuirkyJC01

 

 

For this layout I used my Mish Mesh Stampset:

MishMesh MishMeshBack

 

It comes with a free template which I used here and there with yellow.

I started out with some mono printing using the new Stampendous! Creative Palette – stamping into it with my stamps and then using the two colored stamps on cork. I cut out the cork circles and added them tot he layout. I applied Stampendous Aged Embossing Enamel on top of the letters – I love how you can grunge things up with it – also added some yellow acrylic paint on the letters to repeat the color.

The sight where they sell these tires was one of the first ones when I visited Jersey City for the first time last year and hahhaa- you bet I thought that would be a good spot to live if they have stores like that ;)

want to know where my stamps arrived so far? – I started a list of the stores carrying them – so check it out. If you stock them as a storeowner let me know :)

Here are the supplies I used with this Layout:

nSupplies



Have a beautiful day

hugs

nat

 

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Comments (2)

  • Laura Strack

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    Ooh, cool, I’m close to one of the stores that’s carrying your stamps! I’m gonna have to plan a small road trip :) I love the Mish Mesh stamp set!

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