Category Archives: Art

Random Art Journal and Scrapbook Prompts

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What do you do when you are totally stuck and really don’t know where to start on an art journaling page or a scrapbook page? Even if you are using a list of simple prompts, you may still need an extra nudge of inspiration! Here is an idea you may not have thought of – a way to look online for very random inspiration!

Kristie-Sloan-Random-Prompts_Album-Cover

Layout inspired by music album cover art.

There are many places online to find images.  However, we are not looking for something to copy, we are looking for inspiration. A couple of key places to look are Ebay and Amazon! The reason those are great places to look is because there are going to be so many things associated with a word you type into your search. If you are only using one of the regular search engines like Google or Bing, your search will really be much more narrow. The images that come up will be so closely related to your search word, that they will all be very similar unless you scroll down to page 1,000 of the search!

When you use Ebay or Amazon, you should have such random things come up that you might get an inspirational idea such as:

  • a color palette
  • a layout
  • a reminder of a technique you haven’t used in a while or maybe have never tried

Let’s talk a little more specifically. There are often books and packaging that come up in this type of search. Why not use them as inspiration? You may take the layout of the lettering, the graphic design, or the color scheme. That would be three ways to use the look of just one book or package. That’s just the beginning! There are so many ways this could take you

Some ways that you might generate random images could be using:

  • your name
  • the street you currently live on
  • the street you grew up on
  • a pet’s name

What you come up with may be very out of the ordinary for your usual work! Here is another post about using prompts.

Have you tried this method of random idea inspiration?  What did you come up with?

Simple Ideas and Prompts for Art Journaling and Scrapbooks

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Do you ever feel like you just need a little nudge getting starting on a scrapbook page, or an art journal page? Let’s talk about that for just a minute! The other day, I announced that you could get a page of Inspiration Starters for free.  It has 45 prompts that you can use for either scrapbooking or art journaling. Today, let’s talk a little bit about prompts and inspiration.

Kristie Sloan Ink and Paint Blots

Simple prompts make YOU use YOUR CREATIVITY, like an ink blot test!

Some people like to have an idea spelled out for them, in kind of a “take this and do that with it” way. Since I like to urge you to stretch your creative wings, my inspiration prompts are a little more random that that. They are more like those ink blot tests!

If I say “BLUE,” what would you think of?  There are many ways you could go with a prompt or idea that is just as simple as one word. Here are some things you might come up with for blue:

  • the sky
  • feeling “blue”
  • baby boy blue
  • your car may be blue
  • a favorite piece of clothing
  • color of your house
  • a room in your home
  • a new art product you just bought
  • the blue eyes of someone special
  • the nursery rhyme “Little Boy Blue”
  • your phone may have a blue cover and spend a lot of time on it
  • your favorite shade of blue
  • … etc., etc., etc.

See what I mean? That’s what is so fun about getting less information with a prompt! When YOU come up with what you are going to do with the prompt, it is truly YOUR idea!  So go ahead and get the sheet of “nudging” right now! When you let me know you want the sheet of prompts, you’ll even get a new sheet every month!  By the way, blue is not on this list!

June Art Journal Calendar

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Artful Adventures June Art Journal Calendar

June Art Journal Calendar

Here is another month in our series on art journal calendars.  This idea for June is made in a 9″x12″ art journal. This particular journal has tear-out pages, so it can be taken out and added to the rest of pages that have been done this year. Previous pages this year have been made on 12″x12″ card stock, and the months have either been on a single or double page layout.

Here’s the process for this month’s pages:

  • Background misted with color at the top and bottom of the page. The top is someway blue and the bottom somewhat green.
  • The June title was just hand written and embellished with a little dot and line work.
Handwritten June Title

Handwritten June Title

  • I made a stencil of a watering can using my Cricut, and used a yellow PanPastel to create the watering cans, covering the entire shape.
  • When finished with the PanPastels, I went outside and sprayed a workable fixative over all of it, so I could continue to work over the Pan Pastels.
  • After realizing it would have been better to have the handles open to see the background, I went in and colored the handles and the open tops with black marker.
  • Now, it was way too dark, and so a bit of paint was mixed to coordinate with the background, and painted into the handle openings.
  • Two different green markers were used to create wispy grass along the bottom.
  • Three colors of stamps were use to create the flowers. Some being stamped two or three times to get different levels of colors.
Wispy Grass and Stamped Flowers

Wispy Grass and Stamped Flowers

  • Next, a bit of paint was mixed into the water color, and the open tops of the watering cans were filled in, and the water drops painted.
  • Finally, Glossy Accents was used over the water drops and the top openings of the water cans.
Glossy Accents added to water in cans and water drops.

Glossy Accents added to water in cans and water drops.

  • Last, but not least, numbers for the days of the month were written onto the watering can spouts.

It is kind of hard to see, but the misting on the bottom also has some sparkle in it! I love sparkle and shine!  What are things you like in your projects?

Selecting Color Themes for Your Projects – Monochromatic

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Artful Adventures Monochromatic Scrapbook PageCompanies that make suites of products for scrapbooking, card making, papercrafting, etc.; have pre-selected color themes for you, so you don’t even have to think about what to use.  However, what if you are purchasing items individually, or have left over product?  What do you have that those things will coordinate with?  It’s all about selecting a color theme!  That’s why a company’s product line looks great, and that’s how you can select colors that will work for you as well!

In the last post we discussed how to use the color wheel and use a triad color scheme for a project or scrapbook page.  Today,  let’s talk about a different way to select colors – the monochromatic color scheme.  You may think that a monochromatic color scheme is 50 shades of the same color.  That’s true!  However, when you move up and down the spectrum, you find that there is more to a monochromatic scheme than appearing to be all the same color.

Monochromatic Theme

The open circle is the coral color

For this scrapbook page, I wanted to use a background color that was based on Calypso Coral, but I wanted it to have a little bit different look and feel than the other colors I normally use with it. I picked that color on the color wheel, and look at the other variations that are up and down that line of color.

Here are the colors that pop up!

Coral Monochromatic Scheme

Monochromatic scheme using coral as the base color.

For some reason, every time I have tried to upload this color strip, it seems to alter the way the original colors appear!  One color appears to be more gray than it looks here.

Using a color scheme as a jumping off point for your project, you can then use what you have and take liberty with adjustments as needed.  Here is a layout using this method.  You’ll see that the paged is not strictly made using only these colors, but you can also see that the majority of the page is based very close to this.

For an easy way to help you create a monocromatic color scheme, here is great website to use: kuler.adobe.com  (See below this next photo for a video on how to use it!)  Once you try this method and link up your project here or over at our Facebook Artful Adventures Group!

Artful Adventures Monochromatic Scrapbook Page

Watercolor Technique, Markers and Stamps

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Artful Adventures Watercolor Techniques with Markers and StampsToday’s artful adventure video takes us further into the world of watercolor techniques which we are exploring this week.  We’ll use markers and stamps, and we’ll discover how to achieve effects with the assistance of tools such as water brushes, blender pens, or misting with water.

We’ll also look at a 2-step stamping process, as well.  If you aren’t familiar with 2-step stamping, it is where a completed images is stamped in two steps, using two separate stamps.  These can make amazing images.

There are no completed projects shown today, just the watercolor techniques with markers and stamps. Remember, many of these lessons are to help you use the items you have on hand, however I have included some links to basic tools beneath the video.