Art Journaling – Pocket with Hidden New Year’s Goals

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Kristie Sloan

Welcome to Make It Monday. You may have hopped here from Melissa’s site, where Melissa Shanun helps us start the year off right with a motivational page, and using embellishments in a no-fail design.

Speaking of the new year, I hope you are off to a good start! It seems that everyone starts off the new year with new intentions and goals. We all need a place to keep those written down so we can remember what they are! Why not incorporate your list into an art journal page? If you would rather not have them front and center on a page, you can put them on your page in a hidden journaling sort of way!

How would you do that? There are a number of ways to create hidden journaling. For this project, I decided to create a little pocket on a page so that I could slip goals in, either in on a list, or on separate pieces of paper. After all, who says you can only make goals once during the year?

I covered a two page spread with book text, as well as little 2015 calendar segments I printed out on my printer. I then put on a very thin coat of gesso and let that dry. Next I used watercolors to give a wash of color.

Next I added a variety of marks on the background with stamps and other mark making items in my stash. Then a little bit of acrylic paint was added over the top in a few places.

Layers of paper, paint, and ink create interest.

For the envelope, you can create one from papers you have on hand, or just use an envelope or recycle one! I used some vellum and washi tape.

Gold polk-a-dot vellum and washi tape pocket.

Add any title work or lettering on your envelope and you are all set to have a special little place to keep your goals and resolutions.

Art Journal page with a pocket to hold goals and resolutions.

For those of you with a Cricut, there are all kinds of envelopes available to cut! The newest Close to My Heart cartridge, Artfully Sent, has a variety of envelopes, as it is geared toward the card maker!

Thanks for stopping by today! Next in the Make It Monday blog circle is Alice, showing you how your scrapbooking supplies can help you reach your goals this year. http://scrapbookwonderland.com/scrapbooking-and-goals/

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures,

Wrapping Odd Shaped Gifts

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Kristie Sloan

Welcome to Make it Monday! You may be starting here today, or you may have come from Alice’s Scrapbook Wonderland, where she shows how Christmas is all about family connections on a holiday layout she shares.

At some point you are going to have an odd shaped gift and need a way to wrap it. There are a variety of ideas, but I came across this one and thought it was just brilliant! Plus, it’s not hard to do.

If you are so inclined, you could even take plain wrapping paper and just write lines of words for the appropriate occasion, or just make lines of designs with markers or paint pens. Whatever you decide, you are going to be happy to have this technique in your bag of gift wrapping techniques! Enjoy!

If you need some quick gift tags to print, you can always do a quick search on Google or Pinterest for “printable gift tags” and come up with all kinds of tags to suit your needs.

The next stop on this week’s Make It Monday blog circle is Karen at Photos Kept Alive. She is showing how she finds images in the digital software program she uses, Historian.

Just a quick shout out to the others in our circle this week, in with some tips that may make your holidays more memorable. Gina is making memories with homemade bread this week. Do you have a family recipe that is a must have at the holiday meal? Do you have a recipe that must be passed down from generation to generation? Gina shares her favorite.

Connie whips up last minute holiday party treats and adds festive handmade gift tags!

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures!

Wednesday Wonder – The Documented Life Project – 2015

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Kristie Sloan

Whether you are new to art journaling or an experienced pro, you’ll want to be sure that The Documented Life Project is on your radar. 2014 is the first year this project took place. It was headed up by a group of the five women who make up the Art to the Fifth Academy; Lorraine Bell, Sandi Keene, Rae Missigman, Barbara Moore, and Roben-Marie Smith.

The project was free and was designed as part planner, part art journal. Most people used Moleskine journals. A prompt was issued each week and these five women shared their take on the prompt. A Facebook group was started and by the end of this year, it had grown to over 7,700 members! People shared photos of their pages and the inspiration and comradery was phenomenal!

The good news is that there will be a new project for 2015!

You can find out about it HERE.

I hope you will join the experience!

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures!

Tool Tip Tuesday – Coffee Filters

Posted on December 16, 2014 by Kristie Sloan

Did you know that inexpensive, disposable coffee filters can provide the perfect quick item to corral small items! I don’t know about you, but a seem to be a messy crafter. Once I get started on a project, it’s like an explosion has gone off around me. I am always looking for ways to contain small items I am using.

The first time I realized how hand coffee filters could be was when I was working at an office job and had an unruly snack. I decided I would grab a coffee filter to use as a little bowl. Then I decided coffee filters could come in handy in the craft room! They can also be used in different ways in things you may create, but today we are looking at them today for their versatility as a utility item, not a project component.

Not only can you use them to hold small parts of a project, they are great to use for embossing powder or glitter! Because they are static free, you may even like them better than the little trays which have the spout to pour your powder or glitter back into the container. When you are finished with your powder/glitter, just gather up the filter and make a little spout to pour it back into it’s container.

Beads, sequins, brads, eyelets… you get the idea! In fact, you can even use a filter as a little bowl to hold all the small items you may have ready for a project. They will stay right where you put them until you are ready to use them.

A stack of flat bottomed coffee filters can be handy for so many things, but in the craft area, I’m sure you’ll find them useful. You can even grab one to use instead of a paper towel to wipe your paint brush on, dabbing off a bit of water, or cleaning between changing colors. Just think, if you leave it to dry, it may even be the perfect item to add to a collage, art journal or mixed media piece!

Just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it won’t work!

What small products do you find you are always chasing around after they get loose while you are working?

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures!

Easy Hand Decorated Gift Bags

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Kristie Sloan

Welcome back to the Make It Monday blog circle. You may be starting here, or you may have come from Jen Wright Designs and seen her fabulous Christmas template and freebie she shared today. Continue through this post and find out who is next in the circle.

Gift wrapping. I would venture to say that you either love it or hate it. Personally, I love creating a beautifully wrapped gift! A friend once told me that when she first got married, they lived in the small hometown of her husband. There was a store in town that wrapped gifts in the most beautiful way, and when you received one of these gifts, you felt special before you ever even opened the gift. We use to laugh that it could have been rocks and you would have loved them, because they had been presented in such a fabulous fashion!

You may be among the many people who have moved to just putting your presents in a gift bag, and just calling it complete! No doubt, gift bags have really taken the stress out of wrapping presents these days. They are quick and easy, and you can add a variety of ribbons or fibers to create an even more festive look, if you want to. However, a gift bag and some tissue is all it takes to get the job done.

Wouldn’t it be great to have some gift bags on hand, that would fit any occasion? How about keeping some plain bags on-hand, and then decorating them as needed — hand decorating them. Don’t roll your eyes at me! Hear me out.

Items to consider:

You don’t have to be an “artist” to accomplish this!
Hand designed items are often more expensive than other items, and you can create your own!
You could decorate bags as needed, making them unique to the occasion.
You can use simple shapes and line art.
Few supplies are needed.

decorative gift bag with holly and berries

Grab a plain gift bag and a paint marker! The Gold Pen-touch markers are fabulous!

I never really thought about doing this until I had taken Joanne Sharpe’s free 5 Golden Letterings online class, which I told you about recently. Even then, I didn’t have a plan. Then the day came…. Christmas. It was one of those days where plans changed faster than you could figure out what was going on. Suddenly, we had someone who still hadn’t wrapped her gifts needing to make about a two hour round trip to bring a family member to our celebration. Her husband went home and got the gifts, and brought them to our house to get help with wrapping. Larger items were wrapped with paper from rolls, and then….. I suddenly remembered the idea of hand decorating gift bags! Okay, I may have thought about it before, because I had a pack of kraft colored medium gift bags. I pulled them out, grabbed a gold and a white paint pen, and got busy. The extent of this endeavor was writing “Happy Holidays,” or a quick bunch of holly leaves with some berries, a Christmas tree shape, a couple of bells with a bow at the top, etc. My images looked like they came from a coloring book, just simple line art. I believe some of the bags were decorated with random shapes and patterns, fast and easy.

How did they turn out? Let’s just say, some people are easily impressed. I noticed that those bags made a return visit last Christmas.

hand decorated gift bag, with greeting and Christmas tree.

Simple and effective!

Think how some red glitter glue could jazz up these berries!

hand decorated gift bag with Christmas tree

Look how this crazy simple tree even looks “elegant” in gold on this black bag!

Obviously, you may not always have the correct sized gift bag on hand, but to have some that would fit many small things could be a life saver. “Happy Birthday,” or some balloons would be sufficient for a birthday bag; or even zig-zags or spiral patterns. I hope you’ll give this a try! You’ll also love the money you’ll save! I just bought a pack of 13 medium gift bags from my craft store, and used a 50% off coupon, which made the bags cost about 27 cent each.

The next stop for Make It Monday is with Beth from Scrapping Wonders. Beth is sharing how to make a Christmas Wreath with paper and her Cricut.

Before you go, leave a comment and tell me whether you think you will try this some time! You could do it!

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures!