I’m beyond happy to announce I’m part of this very special workshop – Time Traveler!
I’m teaching along with my amazing friends Nathalie Kalbach and Birgit Koopsen in this three-week online workshop that goes on sale today and begins on August 17th.
Become a Time Traveler with us! With this course, Nat, Birgit and I will help guide you through space and time, finding inspiration from different eras in history.
Each teacher has chosen a time and will show you mixed media techniques and design motifs inspired by their modern take on that period.
The goal is to create three different handmade book projects using Gelli® plate printmaking techniques and favourite mixed media techniques unique to each teacher.
You will get three different artistic perspectives and oodles of fun and creative ideas to try.
Sign up TODAY for Early Bird pricing: Today, 5 through 8 August 11.59 EST this course is just $89 USD. From 9 to 17 August 11.59 EST Time Traveler will be $99 USD. And then, from 18 August the course will be its regular price of $139 USD.
Check out the promo video below:
Time Traveler will begin on 17 August and will run for three weeks, with a new video publishing each day.
There will be a total of 21 videos, over five hours of video in total, as well as supply lists and additional lesson content in the classroom to help you along the way.
All the videos are downloadable and available to you to enjoy at your own pace.
Here are some of the topics covered in this workshop:
Mixed Media techniques
Gelli Arts® gel plate printmaking techniques
Bookbinding techniques
Tips and tricks for translating inspiration into art
Creative ideas to take to all your artmaking, art journaling, cardmaking, and beyond!
Sign up HERE for this one-of-a-kind take on creating personal, expressive mixed media art in book form from three talented teachers.
The Stencilfied Journal is a 24-week StencilGirl® Collaboration Challenge hosted by the fab Tina Walker. Each Monday from January to June, Tina has revealed a song prompt for us to play with (using stencils by StencilGirl® Products).
This round wasn’t as successful for me as the first round during the summer of last year. Which is a shame, because I use song lyrics in my art journal all the time and, I immensely enjoyed the six prompts I did end up doing!
I figure it has something to do with my schedule at the beginning of the year and the fact that song prompts require more (mental) steps than last year’s ‘doing, not thinking’ type prompts.
I may, or may not, do a couple more of the prompts. I’m certainly not abandoning this little journal. I still love the pocket size, and I want to see it filled to the brim just like last year’s!
Tina has written up a farewell post on her blog, with some of the stunning pages the other participants created. Visit her here: The Stencilfied Journal 2019 – Tina Walker
Please note that though I am a columnist for StencilGirl® Products, this is not a sponsored post. I participated in this collab because it’s fun and I think Tinais thebombdotcom!⠀
It’s my turn on the n*Studio blog today! Which means that it’s time to share last month’s project with you here!
My Fire Burns Bright
Last month the n*Studio Creative Squad was asked to create with Nat’s City Streets Art Foamies and tell about something that makes our creative fire burn brightly.
I told about Creative JumpStart and how I discovered Mystele Kirkeeng last year. I’m super stoked she’s back again this year and… her video went up yesterday!
It’s my turn on the n*Studio blog today! Which means that it’s time to share last month’s project with you here! In fact, I have two to share this time, because I seem to have missed one…
Each Day is a New Adventure
Last month the n*Studio Creative Squad was asked to try something new in our art-making.
I had just bought a brand new set of Ecoline Brush Pens, and I decided to break them in on this little journal page, using some of Nathalie’s stamps.
Hi there! It’s the 10th today, and I’ve got a new instalment of Inspired by for you! The theme this time is…
Masking Tape
Who doesn’t love washi tape?! The idea for this theme came about a couple of months ago when Riikka sent me a set of beautiful washi tapes on behalf of Tapegarden. Tapegarden (or Teippitarha) is a Finnish online store that offers a wide variety of tapes, stationery and planner goods.
The Japanese masking tapes are by far my favourites. I love both the quality and the designs of these tapes. The first washi tape I acquired in 2009/2010 was a (crazy expensive!) set by Kamoi, and I still have some of these rolls!
As it turns out Kamoi and mt – masking tape is the same thing. On the mt website, it says that Kamoi started out as a fly catch paper manufacturer in 1923. They didn’t start making paper adhesive tape, like sealing tape and industrial masking tape until the 1960s.
The tape we know as washi tape (washi means ‘Japanese paper’) was first created in 2008. Apparently, three women wrote a book that showed creative use of industrial masking tape and that inspired Kamoi to develop colourful masking tape.
My collection
Can you believe washi tape is only 9 years old?
The photo above shows my washi tape in spring 2013. The collection soon grew out of this cute house shelf, and I moved it into a big drawer in my Ikea Moppe unit.
And that’s where it stayed until I thoroughly Marie Kondoed my craft room and donated a massive amount of craft supplies to a local school earlier this year.
I’ve kept only the ones that I love and more importantly that haven’t lost their adhesive power (even after years and years).
I use washi tape all the time, but mostly for gift wrapping, to hang things or to temporarily stick something down. Sometimes a stray piece of tape shows up in an art journal spread, but it honestly isn’t the first thing I grab when it comes to art journaling.
I am however not afraid to use up an entire roll on something silly like masking off my Gelli plate.
The project
When it came down to creating with washi tape, several ideas came to mind, and none of them seemed right. I’m unfortunately stuck in a major creative rut, and I feel terribly recalcitrant every time I *have* to create something. Even if it’s for Inspired by!
I know you can’t tell, but it took me ages to come up with this idea. And then I had the idea (of a hand-lettered and washi tape embellished quote), but could not come up with a text to write. Everything seemed so mundane and meaningless!
So I decided to make it as low key as possible. I grabbed grid paper from my Filofax planner to write on, and I just took text from the back of a magazine:
At least this line isn’t meaningless! (Translation: ‘Climate suffers under cheap meat’)
Then I took a news headline (Translation: ‘Now it’s upon the political groups’) and I hand-lettered that:
Conclusion
I really, really love the way the washi tape borders turned out. It was a bit of a faff, the cutting of the tape, but I think it was worth it. Even for a creative exercise like this! I also practised my hand-lettering, which was awesome. Let’s not waste any more words on my creative rut. I hope it blows over soon!
Check out what Riikka has made this month on her blog Paperiliitin. I can’t wait to see!
Take care and have a wonderful week!
Please note that though I received masking tape from Tapegarden, most of the tape shown was bought by me over the years and I will not benefit from any sales generated by the links!
Inspired by is a blog series by my friend Riikka and I. We decide on a theme (and that theme can be anything from a film, a book, a painting, to an item, colour scheme or material), and then we create something with that theme or thing in mind.
We keep what we’re making a secret until reveal day on the 10th when we show you and each other our creations.
It’s my turn on the n*Studio blog today! Which means that it’s time to share last month’s project with you here!
Artful Adventures
Last month the n*Studio Creative Squad worked with Nathalie Kalbach’s new book Artful Adventures in Mixed Media (aff. link), to help find inspiration as we travel (or roam around the neighbourhood).
I didn’t leave the country this summer, but I did have a couple of artful adventures in Amsterdam. I documented one of them in my Traveler’s Notebook.
Other supplies:
Derwent Inktense Pencils (I have a set of 36 of which I used: Cherry, Fuchsia, Ink Black, Peacock Blue, Poppy Red, Sun Yellow, Teal Green)
Pentel Aquash Waterbrush
uniPosca markers (black PC-5m and PC-1m)
Sakura Pigma Micron 05
Please note that though some of the supplies were given to me, I will not benefit from any sales generated by the links!
It’s the 10th, and I’ve got a new instalment of Inspired by to share!
Inspired by is a blog series by my friend Riikka and I. We decide on a theme (and that theme can be anything from a film, a book, a painting, to an item, colour scheme or material), and then we create something with that theme or thing in mind.
We keep what we’re making a secret until reveal day on the 10th when we show you and each other our creations.
Christmasworld
In January, Riikka and I both attended Creativeworld at the Messe Frankfurt. Christmasworld is being held at the same time, and it’s the fair where new products and innovative trends for seasonal decorations are presented by manufacturers and wholesalers from all over the world.
I’ve never been to that part of the Messe, but Riikka found time to go this year and got bedazzled by the glim glam and madness of it all. She described it along the lines of Easter meets Christmas with rainbows, fairies, lollipops and fluffy cupcakes in pastel colours.
But don’t take my word for it: go to Riikka’s blog post to read about it first hand!
She gave me this brochure when she got back and said it would be awesome for Inspired by.
Surprise Surprise
The inside of the brochure isn’t super special. I think the cover says it all, so I decided to use it as a mood board.
I toyed with the idea of creating something 3D but decided to go with my art journal instead for practical reasons.
The idea for the elephant came from a photo of one of the Christmasworld displays I found on Instagram.
And this is what I ended up with:
Conclusion
This was interesting!
I thought the colours of the mood board were out of my comfort zone, but in the end, I think that only the peachy pink colour isn’t one I use very often.
I really enjoyed drawing and painting the girl. I’m not that comfortable drawing ‘human’ figures, but maybe I should just explore it a bit more.
I loved mixing older and newer (to me) supplies: DecoArt Media fluid acrylics, Nathalie Kalbach’s Elephant stencil, WOW! Sparkles (Pumpkin Spice), the cute washi tape with baby animals that was kindly sent to me by Tapegarden and of course my favourite uniPosca pens!
Now head over to Riikka. I can’t wait to see what she has come up with!
