Category Archives: Doodling

Word for 2014

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I can’t believe today is the last day of January 2014! What kinds of wonderful things are you planning to accomplish this year? Whatever you plan to do, wherever you plan to go, I wish you the best year ever.  Now I am waving my fairy godmother wand over you, so you know you have the power to go out and do it!

I have a theme this year of “More Doing, Less Thinking about Doing!” Towards the end of last year I really got sidetracked with so many things that were going on around me. I did so much more thinking about doing than the actual doing of the things I wanted to get done.  That brings me to something many of you have heard of, or may do yourself, which is select a single word for your year.  My word this year is “NOW!”

Here is a dictionary definition

Now – adverb

1. at the present time or moment

2. without further delay; immediately; at once

For me, this goes along with more doing and less thinking about doing! However, it is so much more. I want to make sure that I enjoy the moments of everyday, being in the present, being in the now. Each day I wake up to a new day, enjoy it now!  Each day I have with my family – enjoy them now. I want to be grateful for all the little things we take for granted – now. I don’t want to put things off that I want to do – so I want to work them in – now! If I can’t actually do it now, write time on the calendar to make the time.  I’m sure you get the picture!

This page was done in an online class I’m taking with Joanne Sharpe, called “Draw Your Awesome Year.” It was colored by using Inktense Pencils, which are a water soluble ink. If you like using bright colors and water – you would love these!

Have you selected a word for the year? Please share it in the comments!

Now-word of the year-Kristie-Sloan

May Scrapbook Style Art Journal Calendar

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Artful-Adventues-May-Art-Journal-Calendar

May Art Journal Calendar

An art journal calendar is a fun way to just make a few note about your daily life, and this style is great if you are just dipping your toes into the world of daily journaling.  A great feature of creating your own pages is the fact that you can start anytime.  If you didn’t start in January, no problem!  You don’t have a pre-made book with dates that are just empty. (If you did use a pre-dated item, you could always just fill in the previous pages with other stuff — notes, ideas, sketches — it’s all good!)

It’s been kind of hard to get into a spring mindset, with all the snow that kept showing up in April.  I felt like where I went, there it snowed!  This page kind of represents a spring morning, the dawn of a new season! Even with the threat of snow as I was making this page, and my daughter coming in to tell me that she was standing outside and watched a light rain turn into snowflakes, I was still determined to make a spring page for May.

Here’s the way the page came together:

  • Large letters were used to create a mask for the word May.
  • I used pastels to create the background.
  • Then I blended and played with the color to make my version of early morning.
  • I decided I didn’t want to cover the background I had so much fun creating, so I used a piece of lightweight cardboard from the back of a tablet of paper and made a flower template with my Big Shot and a flower die.
  • Tracing around the flower die, I left a few running off the edge of the paper, and made some close enough together to make them look like there are some behind others.
  • Day numbers were added at the edges of the flower shapes.
  • Some doodles were added here and there.
  • A border was doodled around the entire border.

That was it!  I think as the month goes on, I will be able to add more doodling and other embellishments as it becomes clear which days have more written in them. We’ll see how that goes.

I hope you will make a page and come over and share a picture of it over on our Facebook Artful Adventures Group page!

Here are some of my other examples of art journal calendars.

Have you made any art journal calendars, either in more of an art journal style or this scrapbook style?  Please share your ideas with us!

 

Doodling on a Printable Download

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Artful Adventures Digital Printables We continue our Artful Adventures today as we look at another way to use a printable download.  How do you like the picture for our adventure this week?

My definition of a printable download is one which is ready to print and could be plopped in a frame as is, except for perhaps trimming it.  The ones I am using this week are from Stampin’Up!, and come with not only the printable .jpg image, but have the digital stamps/brushes so that you customize colors of elements, change them around or use them on any of your digital projects.  Yesterday we worked on one for St. Patrick’s Day, and today we have one that is not just word art, but has a sweet little picture.

Let’s take a look at what we are starting with today.  Earth Laughs digital printable

This is a very sweet piece which is certainly framable as is.  However, around here, we like to kick it up a notch!  So let’s grab a fine tip black pen and just add some doodles on this piece after we print it!  We are only going to add a little definition to the larger elements, and let the more fine line work stay in the background, kind of like a piece of background paper on a card or scrapbook page.

Artful Adventures Earth Laughs digital printable with doodles

Once again, I want to stress that it doesn’t have to be perfect! Like our friend Joanne Sharpe says, “Perfectly imperfect!”  If it needed it to stay perfect you would just leave it as it came off the printer.  Just try your hand on a little bit of doodling, if you haven’t.  If you have, you may not have thought of giving yourself a headstart by using something straight off the printer!

Next, I just added a bit of a shadow to some of the lettering with a light, warm gray marker.  I wish I would have used a smaller tip marker, but…. it’s done.  Nobody is really going to be up close and examining it with a magnifying glass.  If they are, and they don’t like it, they should just make one of their own to admire their own self-imposed perfection!

Artful Adventures Earth Laughs digital download with highlights

This next photo is up close and personal.  Take a look and notice how imperfect it is.  (I have to say, I never in a million years would have dreamed I would be telling people to take a close look at something I did to take special note of how imperfect it was!)  There are finer tipped pens that may have been more appropriate for the doodling on this, yet they weren’t handy at the moment I wanted to work on this.  Remember when you were young and liked to color and doodle?  It’s still fun!

Earth Laughs digital doodles closeup

Try your hand at a project like this and come post it on the Artful Adventures Facebook Group!  We would love to see what you are up to!