Blog: Numerals

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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All Shapes and Sizes – Josefine Fouarge

  

Today we bring you a post from the Creative Squad! The lovely Josefine Fouarge is with us today to share a fun art journal page that celebrates one of her favorite shapes and one of mine too – the circle! Josefine uses my Mini Manhattan, Buenos Aires Border, and Central Avenue ArtFoamies stamps as well as my Numerals rubber stamp for her page. She was inspired by our theme this month: All Shapes and Sizes – Circles and squares, big and small, let’s mix it up and play with different shapes and sizes this month. Just because things are different doesn’t mean they can’t look great together!

I’m super excited about this month’s theme. I love shapes and it’s so much fun to incorporate them in my art journal. If I would have to pick a favorite shape, it’s definitely circles. I constantly draw circles and add bubbles to my projects.

That’s why I decided to emphasize them even more for this theme. I started by picking some random mono prints. I have a huge stack of them and thought that they are perfect for adding random marks and then cutting them into shapes. In addition, I selected a few ArtFoamies foam stamps and Dina Wakley paints. I made sure that the paints fit to the mono print background, so I didn’t end up with harsh contrasts or muddy colors.

On the first page, I stamped using the positive and negative Mini Manhattan foam stamp.

Next up, I used the Buenos Aires Border foam stamp and stamped one pattern next to another. Here, I didn’t add one color to the entire stamp, but tried to create an ombre effect with a lighter and a darker blue. I stamped the pattern several times lined up next to each other.

For the third page, I picked a contrasting color and I decided to change the shape of stamp as well. Here I used the Central Avenue stamp. I liked it so much that I added a few more circles, stamped with the Central Avenue stamp, to the first and second page as well.

Now I had to cut out some shapes. Even though I love circles I’m not good in free hand drawing them, so I used a little help, a paper cup, and randomly drew a couple of them onto the first two pages.

I wanted to mix and match parts of the circles, so I cut some of them in halves and the rest in quarters. Before doing anything with the circle pieces, I prepared the background of my art journal page. It was as simple as using some tissue paper with a magazine print on it (it’s actually French fries paper from a restaurant) and adhering it with gel medium onto the page. I made sure that it looks really messy, with wrinkles and torn edges. I then “puzzled” individual, non-matching circle pieces back together and adhered them onto my art journal page.

Next, I cut out a few squares from the contrasting mono print piece and made those pieces even smaller by changing the shape into triangles later on. I randomly adhered these triangles around the border of my art journal page.

To add a few finishing touches, I outlined all the circles and triangles with my water color pencil and blended it out with a water brush. It still felt like something was missing, so I picked the Numerals stamp from Nat’s My Home is My Castle stamp set and stamped it all over the page with grey ink – in some areas just parts of it and in some areas the entire row.

At the very end, I added some scribbly journaling to it.

I hope you enjoyed this theme as much as I did. Thanks so much for stopping by! Don’t forget to come back every Tuesday for more inspiration from the Creative Squad.

Thank you Josefine! I love that you collaged together some really cool elements like papers from your mono print stash and even paper from some french fries! The layers are so interesting to look at. If you’d like to try something similar, here are some of the supplies that Josefine used:



And if we inspired you today and you’ve made some artwork, send me a pic and you might just see yourself in our next Inspiration From Around the Globe!

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Nat

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This Must Be the Place – Jennifer Gallagher

  

Happy Tuesday from the Creative Squad! Today we have a beautiful and certainly inspirational art journal page from Jennifer Gallagher using my Grove Street ArtFoamies, my Kassel stencil, and my Adirondack Chairs and Numerals rubber stamps along with our monthly theme: This Must Be the Place –We’re all on a journey to somewhere or something. Sometimes we’re just making preparations for simple things like dinner or weekend plans. Other times we’re aiming for bigger goals, bigger places. Whether it’s a location or a state of mind, you’ll know when you get there. Where are you headed?

This month the Creative Squad is asking, “Where are you headed?” I am not exactly sure. I focus more on my state of mind and how I feel about my current state of being, rather than worrying over individual goals. Yes, I have goals I want to achieve, but I am more concerned with finding happiness in my personal life, family, and art than I am anything else. And so this month I am saying, “This must be the place.” There is a great amount of peace that comes with loving your life in this moment in time.

So, this month I want to share with you an entry in my art journal. I wanted this page to reflect the happiness I feel at this moment in my life. You will see this reflected in content and color. Starting off I chose Nat’s Kassel stencil. It’s the perfect design for a fun background. I went with an ink-blended background using my distress inks in twisted citron, carved pumpkin, wild honey, and picked raspberry. This is a very easy technique using your mini-blending tool.

Then, using seedless preserves and black soot, I blended in a dark section in the very center of the page.

I raided some of my gift wrapping supplies and pulled out a large sheet of plain white tissue paper. I applied some heavy body acrylic paint onto my Grove Street negative and positive ArtFoamies and pressed the designs onto my tissue paper.

While those were drying, I stamped Nat’s Adirondack Chairs stamp onto some watercolor paper and colored it in with my distress markers.

I chose a few of my Grove Street circles to fit across the center of my page (across the dark stripe). For my journal, I only needed three. Tear or cut the excess tissue paper from around the edges so they don’t overlap. Then using matte medium, fix the circles to your page. If you prefer not to have the dark background behind these circles you can skip that earlier step.

While the matte medium dries, stamp Nat’s Numerals stamp onto white tissue paper in a line.

Cut this strip out. Also, cut out some more of your grove street circles to apply to the top and bottom of the page. Use your matte medium once again to fix these down. Once the matte medium is dry, I used my Sakura gelly roll black pen to add doodling to the circles.

When I placed the stamped Adirondack image onto the page I really felt like the chairs needed to be separated. So I cut the stamped image in two. I added just a touch of handwritten journaling and glued down the chairs. I hope this page inspires you today. No matter your plans, or where you are headed, remember to enjoy your life now. Enjoy each moment.

Thank you Jennifer! I love the page and the idea of focusing on the happiness that we have at this moment :) Here are some of the supplies that Jennifer used:


Play along with us too: 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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