Blog Hopping With Nathalie Kalbach's New Stencils and Stencil Girl Products

I'm really honored to be a part of todays blog hop showcasing a fabulous stencil designed by Nathalie Kalbach for Stencil Girl Products. I've been waiting with great anticipation for her designs to come to the market place and I know that you will love them as much as I do. Let's take a look at the stencil and what I created with it.

If you remember what this is...raise your hand?

The TYPEWRITER...the bain of my existence for my college years! Every term paper pounded out on a double layer of onionskin with carbon paper in between. Typing along and then BAM...a mistake! Somehow though I made it through all those term papers and graduate from college!

Fast forward to today...how do we communicate in the 21st century???? I love the new technology and I would call myself a techie, the new advances are so up my alley. That is the concept for this journal page using the fabulous new stencil designed by Nathalie Kalbach.

My background started as a MOP page in my Dylusions Creative Journal Page. This is the place where I mop up any excess ink sprays {can't waste that good stuff}. On this page are all the various Dylusions Ink Spray colors.

I wanted the this typewriter stencil to take center stage so using Wendy Veechi Studio 490 Black Embossing Paste I scrapped the paste over the stencil, removed the stencil and allowed the paste to dry completely.

To complete the journal page I took screen shots of all the various forms of technology, social medium platforms and communication that I use on a daily basis. The photos you will see are from my individual pages. The icons are all free social media icons found on the web, along with the composite picture of the Apple products I use. 

Do these look familiar to you? I'm betting they do! I am a creature of my own technology and communication forms and wonder how far these innovations will go. I'm hate to admit I will anxiously be waiting for all the new things to come.

Thank you for stopping by and I'm pretty sure you might find a GIVEAWAY over at Nat's Blog BUT...she tells me if you comment here too you will have another entry into her giveaway! As a matter of fact she will give you an entry into the giveaway for each blog you comment on--how cool is that! -Nathalie gives away one of the this Typewriter Stencils. You have five chances to win it. Leave a comment on each of the listed blogs and on my blog  and let us know how you like the projects and Nathalie will pick randomly one lucky winner. You have time to comment till August 20, 2013 - midnight EST.

Blog Hop Participants:

Nathalie Kalbach

Martha Richardson <------ ME

Maria McGuire

Corrine Gilman

Michelle Hernandez

My WEEK in Review...Art Journals, ICE Resin & Jewelry!

I've been BUSY...creating everyday...something...trying new things...having BIG FUN!!!!!

I'm taking a jewelry class from Courtney Stein Birdsall at Serenity Studio Arts on Mon. nights. This is one talented metalsmith...let me tell you. I'm going to twist her arm to let me showcase some of her jewelry pieces in a future blog post!

 Last week I learned how to wrap sea glass.

This week I learned how to create a frame and wrap beads...I really love this technique!

On Thursdays two of my very favorite soul sisters come over and we spend the day creating art...usually working in art journals but this week I taught them how to create jewelry using the Media MiXage system from Spellbinders and ICE Resin. I can't talk about our little group because "what happens at Mart's...stays at Mart's"...so I will have to twist their arms to see if they will let me share.

Harriet's Rose Garden

Inspire the Dream Collection

My Creations

A sneak peek at a secret squirrel project that I am working on...now that everything has arrived I can get started.

I have been playing in my journal and I am trying out a different approach...leaving some white space on the page. Here is the page I created and I'm really happy with it...so different from one of my regular pages!

Last BUT not least...and truly thankful and excited...I will be teaching Art Journaling down at Serenity Studio Arts here in Elizabeth City, NC. 

I have been gathering supplies and information for several people who have never created an art journal. Courtney {proprietor of the studio} and myself are trying to create the concept of an open studio for art journaling. At this time we have scheduled several different dates and time...once you have completed your first session then you can drop in at any of these times to work on your journal. I plan on introducing different techniques and supplies at each session but also just be there to encourage the students! Because I absolutely love this journal we will be starting off in the Dylusions Creative Journal designed by Dyan Reaveley. 

Now it's time to go see what else I can get my hands into...have a creative Friday & thanks for stopping by!

Jill K. Berry Stencils and Artistcellar

Hello everyone...it's the start of a new week and I'm raring to get back to work, took a little time away from creating art. Today I want to share a guest designer post that I was really honored to do over at Artiscellar. If you love stencils you have to go and see what there!

Hi everyone…Martha Richardson here. I’m thrilled to be a guest designer on the ArtistCellar blog today. I love using stencils in my mixed media work, love making my own backgrounds…just love the freedom stencils give. I was even more excited when I received Jill K. Berry’s Signature Series in Rivermap and Roadmap. I have been a fan of Jill’s since I received her fabulous book Personal Geographies: Explorations in Mixed-Media Mapmaking.

One technique that I often use is to create a STENCIL STUDY…I want to know how the stencils will look, react with paints, sprays and mists and how different papers will react. Let me show you my process and all the projects created from this stencil study.

First up is both Jill K. Berry stencils on a 6x6” square of Strathmore 140lb. watercolor paper using Dylusions Spray Inks. I thought that Roadmap would be the one I liked the most but I was pleasantly surprised to find the opposite to be true. From these papers I then went onto to create mini journal pages that will be collated into a journal at some point and several postcards that will be sent to Jane Davies postcard project. I have several of these mini journal pages created already from other stencil studies.

Below: Roadmap Stencil & Dylusions Ink Sprays in Dirty Martini, After Midnight & Calypso TealBelow: Roadmap stencil & Dylusions Ink Spray in Funky Fuchsia, Dirty Martini, After MidnightBelow: OOOPS! Oversprayed Dylusions Ink Spray...appears the watercolor paper REALLY soaks up the color. THE SAVE...Wendy Veechi Studio 490 Embossing Paste in black applied over the mistakes. SHHH...we won't tell anyone and they'll think I planned it that wayBelow: Rivermap stencil and Dylusions ink SpraysNext I tried the Rivermap stencil on Strathmore 140 lb. Mixed Media paper with a background wash of Dylusions Spray Inks {ink sprayed on baby wipe and then washed across surface} and stenciled with Distress Inks. Love the finished feel and look. I used this background to create a gift tag which will hold a gift card for a soon to be traveler.I again used the Rivermap stencil {see how much I liked this one} on a mop art journal page. As I’m creating the leftover paint, spray or mists get wiped onto a blank journal page so I’m always creating backgrounds in my journals. This background is in one of my Dylusions Creative Journals. The experiment this time was to see how the stencil reacted with Luminartes Silks Acrylic Glaze in Olive Vine and Bolivian Blue. Now I have created another layer on my page and added some beautiful shimmer and that same time. Is the background done? … nope! But it’s ready for another layer to be added.Finally some other random stencil studies created over random papers created with more random sprays, mists, or paints. I applied black acrylic paint over 2 of the papers and Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 Embossing Paste and both black and white over the stencils. Then using my Vagabond and various dies cut out different shapes that will be utilized in other projects down the road. I also applied black and white embossing paste over another background…really loves the effect. You can see the hearts used in the gift tag above

So to recap from my “stencil studies” I have created 2 mini journal pages, 3 postcards, 1 art journal background, 1 tag, random die cuts and a page that I’m undecided on. Am I finished with these stencils...no! They will added to my ever growing collection and with creating this stencil study I know have a visual aid that will help me when I go to find that perfect stencil to be added to a project.


Finally the winner from last weeks giveaway is:



carolMarch 31, 2013 at 7:18 PM

I would like to try them, I keep seeing people get great results with them! My favorite (because I only have two) is the one I cut myself, of some kind of pod-like flowers.

CAROL...Please contact me through my blog ;)

Thank you for joining me today. Maybe you will try a Stencil Study...if you do let me know what you think.

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Art Journal Page Defines...

I want to share an expanded look at an art journal page created for THE MONTHLY WORD Blog that I collaborate with Catherine Matthews-Scanlon. Using art journaling helps me define what I'm thinking at a particular time. This was created for my choice of Re~Order as my Feb. Monthly Word.

The background of these pages are actually mop pages where I scrape excess acrylic paints off when working on other projects so I'm not wasting my supplies. I keep several journals going and use them to do this so I always have backgrounds in various stages of being complete. Right now my favorite journal to work in is the Dyan Reaveley Creative Journal, the papers she chose are meant for mixed media work and they fit the bill!

I stenciled over my background with a stencil designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer exclusively for Cocoa Daisy and also punchinella {sequin waste}. I used FRESCO PAINT from Paper Artsy in Mermaid & Snowflake. Love the matte finish of these paints. The tag was a gift tag created by Vicki Chrisman and it turns out that it is one of my FAVORITE stamps and symbol...the Dragonfly.

On this page I utilized several stamped images to symbolize the areas of my life that needs to be RE~Ordered {here is the original post}. The stamps are from various collections of Tim Holtz and Wendy Vecchi stamp sets. These were stamped using Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black. I painted several areas of the images with Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dapper in Metallic Gold...it has one of the best colors in a metallic gold that I have found. You will see that I scraped thin lines with this paint throughout the pages.

In the following close-up pages you will see various other techniques I used to create interest, texture and depth to these pages...scraped lines, splatters,  and hand painted circles. All images were glued using Helmar Adhesives and Faber Castell Artist Pitt Pens for hand detail work.

I'm really pleased with the final outcome of these pages. The backgrounds were created over a several week period just waiting for the right inspiration to come along and finish.

Do you art journal and what are your favorite background techniques?

Thanks for stopping by...have a creative day!

InLinkz.com