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,

Blended Ink Background Technique

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Kristie Sloan

Welcome, it’s Make It Monday again! Today I wanted to share a background technique that is quick and easy and provides great results by blending ink.

It seems like every time I use this technique I use at least three colors. Today is no different. Supplies needed:

glossy card stock
ink pads (today I used dye based ink)
foam tipped daubers or sponge (I used my sponge rounds and cut them into 6 sections)

Minimal supplies for a background.

So that you don’t cross contaminate your ink pads with a totally different color, be sure to use an applicator dedicated to one color. You don’t have to have one for each ink pad, but have one for yellow, one for orange, one for green, etc.

I like to start with the lightest color and apply it first. Just use your applicator and rub it on your ink pad. Then apply it on the glossy side of your glossy card stock.

Apply your first color.

Next, you want to apply your second color, blending it up into the first color as you add it. You can use circular motions or just swipe back and forth.

Apply second color, blending it into the first color.

You may have already guessed, now you apply the third color! Again, blend it into to color you applied previously. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Remember it is going to be a background!

Apply the third color; again blending into the previous color.

A baby wipe can help you blend the color even more. However it will lift off a bit of the color as well, but can create a little different look.

A baby wipe can further blend the colors.

For the card I made with this background, I stamped a tree with Versamark ink, and then used black heat embossing powder. Because heat embossing will resist the ink, you can also emboss the image before you blend your ink onto the paper. Either way will work if you are heat embossing.

This was such a quick card. I used Bronze Shimmer Trim for even more pizzaz! And finished it off with a bit of bling from the Sparkles Brown and Tan Assortment. I already had the tree stamp, but it is very similar to the Always Grateful, Close to My Heart set.

A sunset background using the a blended ink technique

I hope you’ve been enjoying the Make It Monday blog hops as much as I have! Did you land here from Digital Scrapbooking HQ? Melissa Shanhun always has great ideas on making memory keeping fast and easy. Today she shares how to use the new Project Life App for documenting a Week in the Life project. Next on the hop is Alice from Scrapbook Wonderland with a brilliant tip on using a postcard on a layout. Remember, to think broader than scrapbooks — think art journaling or mixed media, too!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to leave a comment. You are always welcome to shop at my online Close to My Heart store if you are in the USA. The links for some of today’s products are below.

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures,

X5935, Adventure Cardstock Combo Pack	Z2162, Honey Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad	Z2191, Sunset Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad	Z2118, Desert Sand Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad
Z697, Round Sponge	Z726, Sponge Daubers	Z1938, Sponge Daubers Value Pack (12)	Z1849, Bronze Shimmer Trim
Z8753, Sparkles Brown & Tan Assortment

InLinkz.com

Creating a Background Effect with Handwriting

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Kristie Sloan

Welcome to the Make It Monday blog hop. If you’ve come from Gina Zee’s site, you’re in the right place! She always has clever up-cycling/recycling ideas for crafting! I’ll give you info on all the sites in this week’s blog hop at the end of this post so you don’t miss anything you may be interested in!

Have you ever thought about creating your own background paper with your own handwriting? Now before you tune me out, I don’t want to hear any, “My handwriting is awful!” because it doesn’t even matter for the technique I’m going to show you. This can actually be a way to do some disguised journaling. Or you can just use words that relate to a certain theme. You don’t even have to use full sentences. The choice is yours, and there is no right or wrong way to do this.

First you’ll need to decide what you’ll use for your background. This technique could easily be used for scrapbooking, art journaling, mixed media, card making, or whatever else you can think of to use it for. Then you’ll need something to write with that is a water soluble medium. Today I’m just going to use water color pencils. They are readily available and not too expensive, and hopefully you already have some on hand.

I took a couple of water color pencils in colors I wanted to coordinate with the fall theme I had in mind and I just randomly wrote about the fall season. See, I don’t have great handwriting, and I didn’t even try to be neat.

Even though I had already written on card stock, instead of just jumping in, I decided to first try this on water color paper. I did more “journaling” about fall with watercolor pencils and on the top of the page I brushed on water to activate the water color pencils. On the bottom, I simply used a baby wipe, with no additional water. The bottom created the look I was after!

Testing the method in a water color paper journal. The top was brushed with water, the bottom buffed with a baby wipe.

Since the look I liked didn’t use water, I knew it would work on card stock without treating the card stock in any special way. I decided to create a scrapbook layout with a photo I had taken, so I grabbed out a sheet of off-white card stock to make the background. This time I added a bit of a third color to the writing, a bit of yellow over some of the brown and the orange. Then I used a baby wipe and buffed in a circular motion. You can blend as much as desired. You don’t need to be able to read any of the words to realize that it is handwriting. If the wipe becomes too dry, grab another one, or dampen it ever so slightly.

Filled page with journaling about the fall season.

Now I created my layout. The leaves and tiny “title” were stamped with pigment ink, heat embossed, and the leaves cut out. The stamp set is “Fall Harvest, #C1504” from Close to My Heart. Bronze Shimmer Trim was added for a bit more pizazz. The outer edges were inked and buffed, as well.

The finished layout.

The yellow leaf was raised up a bit with foam squares to add just a bit more dimension.

Foam squares were used to raise the yellow leaf.

Overall, I was pleased with the outcome. I would use the handwriting effect again. I think it would be perfect for art journaling, and I can’t wait to try in on a mixed media piece with a different water soluble medium to write with!

Visit the other Make it Monday sites below and please feel free to shop my Close to My Heart online store if you live in the US.

Make It Monday blog hop participants this week.

Connie Hanks shares her inspired new wall display for showcasing scrapbooking layouts, tags and cards!
Melissa Shanhun is sharing a super simple, but FINISHED Week in the Life album – with free cut files for you!
Beth Solar is sharing the beginning of her December Daily prepping and has a great tutorial on how to incorporate different page protectors
Jen Wright is sharing a free template & her NEW! Count Your Blessings Project that starts on November 1st. This project will include hybrid, traditional and smash style scrapbooking, all in one fun mini album for November.
Karen Fitting scanned her Gelli prints to use them digitally!
GinaZee shares up-cyling capris into some Christmas tags.
You are already here! Kristie Sloan
Alice Boll from Scrapbook Wonderland has and adorable card for a little girl. Bonus… it’s a gift too!
Alison Day is sharing how to tie a current photo with an older story that didn’t have one, on her layout today.

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures!

Art Journaling Basics – 5 Ways to Create Backgrounds

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Kristie Sloan

So far, in our Artful Adventure into Art Journaling Basics, we have covered:

Now, let the fun begin!

Let’s look at some ways to get started on a page. Here are three methods of creating your page.

Create a background and then decide what you’ll put on the page as you move forward.
Have something already selected that you want to make sure your background will work with.
Work on part of your page and as it evolves, fill in the background.

There, now that doesn’t sound so hard, does it?

Today, we are going to look at some ways to work with the first method – starting the background first. With all the products available, look around at what you already have. Grab something and let’s go! You can use watercolors (cheap ones will do!), acrylic paint, or patterned paper.

Don’t worry if you don’t know what the page will look like. At this point, we may not have any idea, and that’s fine. Stop looking at the blank page and just get started!

We would love to see your backgrounds! Share them by linking in the comments, or come join us on the Facebook Group!

Artful Adventures

Ideas for scrapbooking, art journaling, mixed media, card making and stamping projects.

Tag Archives: backgrounds

Art Journaling – Pocket with Hidden New Year’s Goals

Blended Ink Background Technique

Creating a Background Effect with Handwriting

Art Journaling Basics – 5 Ways to Create Backgrounds