Hello Sunshine and Butterfly Card

Posted on May 9, 2020 by Kristie Sloan

Hopefully you have been keeping occupied with some creative time lately! It is a great way to pass time and keep your mind busy with something you enjoy. I would like to tell you that I have gotten loads done during this time of having to stay home, but it wouldn’t be true! However, I’m feeling like I am getting back in my groove and am really enjoying creating! I truly wish I had been able to capture the shimmer applied to the butterflies. After all, who doesn’t enjoy a little sparkle?

Hello, Sunshine and Butterflies!

The card is 5″x7″, and opens at the edge of the green lace. The cut size of the card is 12″x5″ scoring at 5″ along the 12″ side for the fold.

This card was created with pattered paper and dies, including the Chantilly Lace border die are from Crafter’s Companion. The solid color papers and the seam binding ribbon are from Stampin’Up.

Seriously, the “Hello” should be a little larger, as it becomes lost in the floral print. Yet it was already glued down, and it still makes me happy to look at.

Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy YOUR Artful Adventures!

Stamping for All Occasions

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Kristie Sloan

Sentiment stamped when you know what you want!

For some reason, it seems like I never have enough birthday cards! Sometimes it seems like I could just get by with a ‘Happy Birthday’ stamp and leave it at that. Just kidding! You know I couldn’t do that. Yet it brings up the question of selecting greetings if you are trying to make up a batch of cards in advance. How do you decide what and how many to make of your greetings? Actually, you don’t have to make it such a hard decision!

One way to deal with this problem is to go ahead a make a bunch of cards and leave off the greetings! When you find a stamp set that has a lot of different greetings or sentiments they usually tend to be a similar size. That makes it easy to make cards and just leave off the sentiment, and stamp it later! Then all you have to do is have the stamp set easy to find, grab your ink pad and stamp an appropriate sentiment!

Here is an example of using this technique, using a double-sided, printed paper.

Cut the paper to fit the front of the card. Cut a strip 1″ to 1.25″ wide. Make sure your strip is large enough for the sentiment if your stamp set has larger stamps. You could also use the busier side of the paper for your bottom strip, leaving plenty of space to stamp above the dividing line of your papers.
Now you can use both sides of the paper on your card, and coordinate the top and bottom.
An additional strip was added from coordinating paper on one card, and some shimmer trim on the other. I love shimmer trim! It has an adhesive side, and quickly jazzes up a project!
Next, add any other embellishments. The flowers and leaves were made using the Springtime Wishes stamps and Thin Cuts.

Bottom section is left blank, to stamp sentiment on later.

If you want to stop here, you can put your cards away, and keep you stamps and an ink pad handy to stamp an appropriate sentiment as needed.

NOTE: When using this technique, you’ll want to leave the area to stamp as flat as possible. Don’t add layers and layers with paper and adhesive, because you’ll want to make sure you get a good image when you stamp. These cards only have the printed paper on top of the card base. When ready to stamp, open your card out so that you are stamping on as few layers as possible!

The bottom has enough space to stamp a variety of sentiments, as you need them.These flowers have a bit of colored pencil in the centers, as well as a little pearl accent.

Sentiment stamped when you know what you want! Green shimmer trim and little pearl accents finish off the embellishments.

Here are a few great sets you may be interested in because of all the occasions they will cover. Plus, Close to My Heart is having their Stampaganza during the month of March. It’s a buy 2, get 1 free. You all know the rules… the free one can’t cost more than the one’s you purchase. But this would be a great time to stretch your dollar for purchasing some of the larger sets.

Close to My Heart, D1646 – Finding Words

D1525 Casual Expressions, Close to My Heart

C1633 – For Family, Close To My Heart

C1605-Happy to Be friends, Close To My Heart

B1504, Sending Love

This could also be a great time to share stamping with a friend. Make up a few cards and help her get comfortable with basic inking and stamping techniques. Then she could use a set of greetings and an ink pad to take this idea home. What is better than a new crafting buddy? You can’t convert everyone to enjoy your favorite hobbies, but you never know who will find out they enjoy sharing in a fun pastime with you!

Be sure to come back to see another One Sheet Wonder this week! We’ll take one sheet of printed paper to create a stack of cards! Links to products used today are below, for your convenience. But first….

It’s Make it Monday! Alison, over at AlisonDayDesigns.com, is prepping for Easter. Remember it comes kind of early this year, March 27th! Hop on over and see what she’s doing!

Here are some quick links to the main products used on today’s cards:

Kaleidoscope paper pack

Springtime Wishes stamp set

Springtime Wishes Thin Cuts

Green Shimmer Trim

Finding the Words Occasions stamp set

Until next time…

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures!

Celebrate Winter – Card and Scrapbook Layout

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Kristie Sloan

Winter can seem like a LONG time when you live somewhere cold and snowy.

Fun in the snow

Every year seems to take on a personality of its own, and you never know what it will be like. You may have a year with a lot of snow, or maybe not much. There are places in the USA that have had more than their share of snow this winter. Ours hasn’t been too bad, so far. We haven’t had a lot of snow, and it hasn’t been nearly as cold as it was last year, so far. No matter what it’s like, there will still be many days to figure out something to do, and if there’s enough snow, it is so fun to watch kids go sledding! I was reminded of this as I was going through some photos. Once again, I realized there was a story that needed to be told and saved!

When I first started scrapbooking, I wanted to get as many photos on a page as possible! I couldn’t image why anybody would use up a whole page and only put one single photo on it. I guess I felt like it was wasting all that precious scrapbook page real estate! Now days, I often have a story that only has one photo to go with it. Sometimes there is a lot to the story, and other times it is just one sentence or paragraph. In the end, it’s all about the photos stories!

I have really enjoyed the Close to My Heart Snowhaven papers and embellishments, and thought it would be fun to create a winter layout using that set.

When I decided to print out my photo, it just wasn’t coming out right! I finally gave up and decided to use the Snowhaven kit in the Studio J online digital scrapbooking website. All the papers and Complements pieces were right there online, and I was able to still use them all together. In the end, I was able to create my page, and ended up having my physical products to use for something else. I’m not sure what I’ll do with them!

Here is the page:

Snowhaven kit in Studio J used for winter scrapbook layout.

CTMH Snowhaven papers and embellishments are available in both physical or digital!

Why can I not catch the typos until I am already posting my layout here for the world to see? I really do know how to spell “friends.”

I hope you will take time to celebrate each season of your life, and those who are close to you! Capture even the little stories that will be fun to look back on and remember.

I promised a card in this post. The SnowHaven card kit was so fun to use to make some Christmas cards. All the materials were gathered and directions put together so I didn’t even have to plan them out!

There were left overs from the kit, and I thought they would be fun to use in part, for a card.

A few scraps can be pulled together for a quick card.

White card stock was the base of the card, and snowflakes from the SnowHaven card kit stamp set were stamped in Glacier.
A little strip of red and white design from one of the kit papers made a great accent.
Silver Shimmer Trim and the red heart were left over from the kit as well.
I stamped the “Have a day filled with…” and “Fun” from one of the stamp sets that accompanies the Cricut Art Philosophy bundle.
I used a shimmer mist on the card, and got too close.
Then I added some bling by attaching some little sparkles to the center of some of the snowflakes.

I think it still needs something, but I’m not sure what. Moving on…. What do you think you would do it at this point? Comments are welcome!

If you are following the Make It Monday blog circle, you arrived here from Jen’s site, where she is sharing a template for another one of her 52 week pocket pages.

Next, stop by and see how to Celebrate 2014! Create a layout with your top photos from last year. Alice shows you how!

Feel free to shop my Close to My Heart online store!

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures!

Creative Christmas Bundle

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Kristie Sloan

Projects and ideas from 15 crafters and designers.

I am so excited to tell you about a creative bundle of goodness, which I’ve been working on behind the scenes, in preparation for the big day it is released for sale, November 24th. It is a collaborative effort of 15 crafters and designers, which can give you a jump start with ideas and how to instructions on many great holiday projects! You’ll want to be sure and go check out the information about the designers and sign up to get updates.

Here’s a peek at some of what you’ll find in the Creative Christmas Bundle:

2015 printable photo calendar
Advent calendar, printable supplies, tutorials, and suggested daily activities
December Daily scrapbook sketches and more
Printable pocket page cards
Cut files for Silhouette and Cricut
Gift ideas and tutorials
Christmas-themed cross-stitch patterns
Printable Christmas cards
Tutorials for making photo gifts
Tutorials on using apps to create and print photos and photo gifts
Art journaling (for any time of year)
Upcycling for a green Christmas
Plus bonuses galore

You won’t want to miss out on this bargain, if you are even the least bit prone to creativity! Valued at over $250 it will be on sale for just $29.99! You can meet the designers and sign up to get the email for the initial release here. The sale runs from November 24 – December 1.

I am bringing my Art Journaling Basics class online, and the first release will be part of the Creative Christmas Bundle!

In this class you will:

Learn what art journaling is. Discover ways you may decide to use it.

Receive tips on what to use for a journal. Don’t get lost in the sea of choices, you can make informed decisions.

Learn how to make your own journal by recycling a book. It’s easy to go green!

Learn about basic supplies and adhesives. Don’t spend money on supplies you don’t need to get started. Find out what you may already have on hand that will work.

Receive product recommendations. Get tips you can use to make your selections and save time and money.

Learn how to create five fast and easy ways to make backgrounds. Get started right away, so you aren’t staring at a blank page wondering what to do next.

Receive a list of page prompts and learn how using prompts can spark your creativity. Never feel ‘stuck’ or lacking ideas!

Receive printable images and quotes to get started without delay! Great to take shopping!

Bonus 1: You will also receive the original Artful Adventures Art Journaling Basics eBook for free! This ebook in .pdf format also contains links to the videos and the printables, giving you multiple options to access the class information.

Bonus 2: A private Facebook Group to connect with others and share your projects without the judgement of family and friends who have no idea what you’re doing! We’ll have our own fun!

What you get:

7 Lessons

5 Videos

6 Pages of Printable Images (91 single images)

2 Page of Quotes and online quote resources

Samples with basic description of steps to complete.

List of page prompts

Printable list of basic Product Recommendations

This class is a steal at $20, but it will be part of the Creative Christmas Bundle. So you can have access to the online class and do it whenever you want to, and get all the other goodies in the bundle as well! All content is available upon payment of your Creative Christmas Bundle. You’ll receive a code for your class registration, and there is no expiration date to access your content. Hurry over now to sign up and get updates!

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