I always love it when I can show you something and get a project done at the same time! Today, I’ve got yet another way to use a heart punch or die cut. We are almost to March this year, and St. Patrick’s Day brings Irish inspired design to many things during the month of March.
These were made from vellum so that they did not completely cover up the background layers.
For this March art journal calendar scrapbook page:
Used a green piece of 12×12″ card stock for the foundation piece.
Die cut “March” from a printed paper, and inked the edges of the letters
Arranged the vintage greetings and adhered them.
Toned down the greetings with a bit of white craft ink.
Punched hearts from heavy vellum card stock
Inked the edges of the hearts
Arrange the hearts into shamrocks
Adhered just the points with a bit of glitter glue
Topped off the center of each shamrock with a bit of Crystal Effects, to make sure they adhered securely.
Drew stems on the shamrocks with a marker.
Numbered the petals of the shamrocks to be used as a tiny journal spot for each day.
Don’t forget to join us over at the Artful Adventures Facebook Group and share your completed items! There will be “lucky” prizes drawn in March for those who have uploaded something they have created. You never know when those drawings will be held!
How many great ideas have your pinned on Pinterest? How many have you actually tried out? Well, over that the blog, Young House Love, an unofficial Pinterest challenge has been kicked off. There have been several previous challenges, but this is the first time I have participated. Be sure to check it out, because there are all kinds of wonderful projects people have completed and submitted! Now, here is my submission!
I have seen several framed magnet boards lately and I thought it would be fun to make one. One of the ones I had pinned on my Pinterest boards came from this site.
Since I have a lot of scrapbooking supplies, I decided that is what I would use to make my board. Here is what I used to make my framed magnet board.
A 10″ x 13″ frame
Metal sheet that is from the hardware store
One 12″ x 12″ Scrapbook paper
Sticky Strip
Adhesive runner
Embellishments for your magnets
Magnet that are a suitable size for the embellishments
After removing the glass from the frame, I put the backing into the frame and marked around the inner edge of the frame so I would know where to adhere the metal onto the backing.
Next, measure and cut your metal sheet to fit within the lines you have marked. I used Sticky Strip to adhere the metal the the backing. You don’t need a lot, just enough to hold it in place, because it will be in your frame!
Adhere metal to the backing within the lines you have marked
Next, cut your decorative paper to fit over the metal. I cut a 1″ strip off the end and cut it into two 1/2 inch strips. Center your paper, and then you can put the 1/2″ strips on each end. I also realized I had more than I needed on one side and cut off another 1″ strip.
Center the decorative paper over the metal, and lay strips at end, and adhere them with your adhesive runner.
I wasn’t very pleases with the way the pattern looked after I placed the strips on the edges, so I just used the other cut strip used the reverse side of the paper. Oh, double sided paper, I love you! I adhered it over the seams and replaced the backing into the frame.
Replace your covered magnet board into the frame
Now you are ready to make your magnets. Select magnets that are smaller than your embellishments, so that your magnets will be covered. Sticky Strip should easily hold most of your embellishments in place. Just snip off a little bit to cover the magnet and stick your embellishments on top.
Use snips of Sticky Strip to prep your magnets for the embellishments.
Remove the backing of the Sticky Strip and press your embellishments in place!
Embellished Magnets
That’s it! You are finished and now have a lovely, framed magnet board! If you create one, I hope you will come over and share it with us over on the Artful Adventures Facebook Group!
Listen in and meet art friend, Joanna Grant! Here are a couple of photos and you can see more of her art below the podcast.
Visit Joanna at her Joanna Banana blog to see more of her work and keep up with what she is currently doing! Thank you, Joanna! Here is some of Joanna’s work- ENJOY!
Chalkboard art is quite popular right now. I’m sure you’ve seen a thing or two that lately that has the chalkboard look. I’ve got a couple of ideas for you today.
We’ll use a punch to create a stencil.
We’ll create a chalkboard look for a scrapbook page.
Here is more mileage we can get from that same heart punch that we’ve used for several ideas. You can use most any punch for a stencil. You’ll need:
Black paper for your background
Your punch
Paper to punch and make your stencil
White Ink – a pigment ink will allow you to smear it well
Sponge for applying your ink
A white (or silver) pencil or pen for the detail work
After you sponge in your punched stencil with the white ink, just take your white pen or pencil and create some doodled lines! Doodles DON’T HAVE TO BE PERFECT! Just have fun.
I first drew in simple lines that ran between the hearts.
Next I drew a second line and just ran back and forth over the first one. It creates kind of a ribbon look.
Then I just added some curls at the ends of my lines.
I then added dots on my “ribbon” and at the end of the little curlicues.
There are a number of options you can consider using for your doodling. I used the white watercolor pencil on this project.
Now you’ll want to make the black paper look a little more chalky so that it looks like it has been erased a few time. Two options I like are:
Lightly sponge on more white ink, using the sponge almost dry so that you don’t get too much. You can always add more, but it’s hard to remove it!
You can use an Embossing Buddy, which is meant to be used on the surface of your project before using embossing powder. It has a slightly powdery effect which will make sure you don’t have static and have embossing powder clinging where you don’t want to emboss. Rubbing it across your black paper gives it that “chalky” appearance. However, it is still kind of powdery, so if you are using this technique on a scrapbook page, you may want to select the inking technique.
At this point I added a photo to the page and added more doodles around it. Then I added a title, and even more doodles. Then I decided I needed some more hearts, so I stenciled in a few more hearts. Okay, I may have gone overboard, but it’s a fun page, and I enjoyed doing it! I got a cute picture on a page, and I enjoyed myself!
Loosen up and try your hand at something new. My page isn’t perfect, but I don’t care. In case you haven’t noticed, there are people who are enjoying quite a following creating art that isn’t perfect. Is is NOT about the perfect! I hope you’ll give the chalkboard technique a try and you are always welcome to share your work with us over at the Artful Adventures Facebook Group!
Last, but not least, here is another page I made that has a similar look. This page was done with the February sketch layout from my friend Beth at ScrappingWonders.com.
Couples names are individual digital files to arrange as you like!
Yesterday was Valentines Day, and I really hadn’t planned on sharing this page I made, but in the end, I wish I had shared this information with you sooner! However, it’s not too late, this would be perfect to use for an anniversary or wedding! Here’s the scoop: The couples’ names are each a digital .png file, that can be arranged or sized any way you want to. There are even more of them than I chose to use on mine. Even though I feel bad that I didn’t share it with you in time for you to use it for a Valentine, wouldn’t it be cute to use for an anniversary or wedding? You could easily replace the “You & Me” with the couples name, and add a date! There you go – great personalized gift!
I finally had time last night to put one together, put in a frame and gave my husband for Valentine’s Day. I made a 5×7 (because I thought if he wanted to set around his work space it wouldn’t be too big, PLUS I figured I had a frame I could put it in. (I like to play like I am being eco-friendly, rather than flying by the seat of my pants, and just need to grab what is on hand!)
After getting that done, I decided to use it for today’s scrapbook page for the Layout A Day (LOAD) challenge this month. Why start from scratch when I already had that much done! I added the little doodled looking border, (if you know who this designer is, please let me know!) A “heart punch” photo of the two of us, and some journaling on the side.
Back to the heart punch. Think how cute it would be to take photos that you won’t ever scrap, and just punch some hearts! Or hearts punched for floral, landscape, sky… that could make some interesting hearts to add for embellishing something!
You can grab the digital couples’ names artwork here at the Stampin’Up Store. When you download it be sure to select whether you want to use it with My Digital Studio or other programs.