Stampendous: It's a Jungle Out There!

"It's a Jungle Out There"

Stampendous is having a blog hop, and asked DecoArt to join in. I couldn't miss the fun!

I had the idea of combining an urban jungle with a natural one, and Nathalie Kahlbach's stamps worked perfectly for my idea. 

I started by adding a textural and messy layer of gesso to my art journal pages. Once that dried, I added drops of the blues, and brushed it out. I sprayed a bit of water over it, brushed it again, then closed the pages together. When you open them, you get this wonderful texture! (the darkest areas are where the page has no gesso and soaks up the colors)

To create the land aspect, I did the same thing with Quinacridone Gold and Payne's Grey.

Love these textures!

Next step, I stamped the Starry Swirls into the sky with the Watering Can ink, and then went into some areas by brayering Titan Buff onto the stamp to get some more definition. 

Tip: an easy way to clean your stamps when you use paints with them, is to go in and scrub them with an old toothbrush as soon as you are finished using the stamp.

Originally, I stamped my elephants onto the pages, but the colors blended into the background too much, so I stamped them onto paper to cut out and add. I added a mix of Canary and Bright Salmon and used the foam stamp in the elephant set.

I decided it would work best to also stamp the buildings on paper and cut them out to layer them into the cityscape. The background buildings are the foam stamps and I brayered on Purple Rain and Lamp Black. Once the stamped images were dry, I went in and brushed them with colors.

details...

I hand lettered my words at the bottom of the pages, and added a bit of white to some of the windows to finish my pages. I'm liking the contrasts between urban and natural, and between blues and oranges, especially.

I've enjoyed sharing my art journal with you using both Stampendous and DecoArt products! I hope you are having fun hopping and getting lots of inspiration!! Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!

Thanks so much for the putting this "IN THE SPOTLIGHT" Nathalie Kahlbach in your March newsletter post! I am honored!!

SUPPLIES:

Stampendous 

Cling Starry Swirls

NK Studio Elephant Foam Stamp, Cling

NK Studio Urban Roam Stamp, Cling

DecoArt

Fluid Acrylics: Quinacridone Gold, Cobalt Teal Hue, Cerulean Blue, Titan Buff, Paynes Grey, Prussian Blue Hue

Americana Acrylics: Bright Salmon, Purple Rain, Deep Turquoise, Canary, Lamp Black, Snow White

White Gesso

Other

Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black, Watering Can

Dylusions Art Journal

brayer

brush

toothbrush

black and white permanent pens

palette knife

water sprayer

heat gun