Easy Monthly Kits

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Kristie Sloan

Need a creative escape?

Short on time? (You’re to-do list is longer than the amount of time you have!)

Don’t know what to create? (You already spend too much time on Pinterest!)

Don’t want to buy a lot of stuff? (The zen/guest/exercise/craft room is already full!)

Ahhh, I have just the thing for you!

A gorgeous red box will arrive at your door! (A fully decked out paper carriage.) You open it to find it filled with everything you need… ink, paper, stamps, accessories… all cut and ready to assemble a sweet project!

No mess. No excess. No craft-aftermath!

Click Here for More Info!

Heart Punch Shamrocks on March Art Journal Calendar

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Kristie Sloan

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:

Printed some vintage St. Patrick’s greetings which Joanna Grant had shared on her site, Joanna Banana Design Originals, and cut them apart.

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.

Artful-Adventures-Kristie-Sloan-March-Project-Layout

Toned down the greetings with a bit of white craft ink.

Artful-Adventures-Kristie-Sloan-March-Project-Inking

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.

Artful-Adventures-Kristie-Sloan-Heart-Punch-Shamrocks

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!

Framed Magnet Board {a Pinterest Challenge}

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Kristie Sloan

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!

Artful Adventures Podcast: EP 03, Everyday Artist Joanna Grant

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Kristie Sloan

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!

Altered Art Dolls from Recycled Materials

What I Might Be

Chicken 3

Hold a Star

Shake It

Take Time to Play

Fly Me to the Moon

Forever and a Day

Geisha Shadowbox

Hear the Music

Longing

Recycled Slide Mount Art Magnets

ATCs and ACEOs

Charming, recycled CD art

Discard Diva 12

Divine Journey

Do Without

Door Left Open

Come Through 5

Contemplation

Dangerously 1

Discard Diva 15

Goddess, paper art dolls

Gypsy Spirit, art journal

Namaste

The Messenger

The Original Fan Club

Art Journal pages 1 and 2

Art Journal pages 3 and 4

Art Journal pages 5 and 6

Chalkboard Technique with Doodles and Heart Punch Stencils

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Kristie Sloan

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.

Artful Adventures with KristieSloan chalkboard doodle punch

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.

ArtfulAdventures KristieSloan chalkboard doodle punch pens

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.