Word Tags for All Seasons

Posted on February 8, 2016 by Kristie Sloan

Celebrate everyday with word tags. They are such an easy way to decorate for seasons and holidays.

Love tags on words for all seasons tag blocks.

In honor of Valentine’s Day this week, here is some love.

Last week I told you about using blocks to hang tags on, and how to prepare them. I finished my first set of tags, and thought about the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. So I just wanted to pop in and show you how they turned out.

I decided that for my first set I would just go ahead and get a set from The Little Blue House. I wanted to get them ready for this week, since Valentine’s Day is approaching, and that way, everything was ready for me to just put together. You have to appreciate a project like that, right?

Fun elements add interesting touches.

Like many paper projects, the more layers of interest and different elements, the more interesting something becomes. This heart shape was used for the letter “o” in the word “LOVE” and I think that was such a fun idea. Many of the little swirls you see on the different blocks were sections of flourish.

Coating paper letters with Liquid Glass from Close to My Heart.

Coating the letters with Liquid Glass gave much more dimension than just the plain paper letter.Let

The letters were cut from cardstock. You could die-cut letters, cut them with an electronic machine such as Cricut or Silhouette, or even hand draw letters for your tags. I know many of you love to do hand lettering!

The letters were then coated with Close To My Heart’s Liquid Glass. Even though you can see tiny bubbles in these close-ups, they really are not that noticeable. I love how much more dimensional the letters become!

Love My Family word tags. The tag on the right is for a family photo.

Here they are all together. The block on the far right is ready for a small family photo. My family has grown so large with grandchildren that I may just put one in of them! Who better, right?

On a side note, I actually made these at the store during one of their available times to get together with other crafty friends. The lady next to me was making a cute set for summer, and she told us that she is going to hang hers on the wall, because she doesn’t have space for the blocks. Yes, nobody is going to make you hang the tags on blocks if you don’t want to.

I hope you’ll try a version of this idea!

This week on the Make it Monday Blog Circle:

Carole Cassel creates gold elements in PSP: http://scrapbookcampus.com/2016/02/create-gold-elements-with-psp/

Alison Day is embracing all the red to make a special Valentine for her husband. http://alisondaydesigns.com/a-special-valentine/

Blue for Valentine’s Day? Here’s how Alice Boll made that work for her layout! http://scrapbookwonderland.com/blue-ombre

Mixed Media Halloween Wall Decor

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Kristie Sloan

Welcome to this week’s Make It Monday blog hop! If you arrived by way of Karen Fitting’s website at Photos Kept Alive, welcome! I don’t want you to miss her post because she always has such great ideas, so I’ll tell you how to get back to it at the end of this post.

Today’s theme is Fall/Halloween for the hop. I have had this idea for a little while, and so I saved it for today. Since so many people want to know how to create the mixed media projects they are seeing, I decided to create something with a limited set of products. I chose the Scaredy Cat paper pack and Scaredy Cat Complements pack from Close to My Heart because I felt it offered such a great collection for what I wanted to create.

Halloween Mixed Media Decor Item

This project was done on a 12″x12″x1″ canvas. By painting the edges, it doesn’t need to be framed. If you wanted to, you could use a canvas panel so that it would be thin enough to place in a regular picture frame.

First off, select what you’ll use for the background. I chose the Slate paper for the top or sky, and the black for the ground bottom. I cut a strip off the bottom of the Slate paper and then tore a tiny bit along the edge. That way, the layers ease together nicely. Now, use an adhesive medium to coat the back side of your paper. Turn it over onto the canvas add a layer of your medium over the top to seal it.

slate background paper applied to canvas

Tear along the bottom edge to create less bulk when adding the next layer.

Next, I tore an edge on my Black paper to create the ground. Again, coat the back of the paper with your adhesive medium, turn it over onto the canvas and add another layer of the medium.

Black paper turn to give curves for the ground portion of the project.

Next, you can either add some texture to background or you could just continue to the next step. I like to add a lot of different textures, so I used black StazOn as well as some white paint and a bit of Thistle ink. In the end I was sorry I had added too much of the white, so I grabbed some black paint and gave a squirt into my white paint to make a nice gray. I then brushed this over the sky portion of my background and restamped my texture in StazOn.

After my night sky became too light, I ended up creating gray with my paint and toned it back down.

Now it was time to really start having some fun. Between the paper pack and some stickers from its coordinating set, there was a lot to play with. Since these were the only products I wanted to use, I did a lot of cutting. One of the decorative sheets has a lot to choose from, and the parts that didn’t get cut up from that sheet will still be used to make some other things — cards, treat bag toppers, etc. You can get a lot of mileage from that one piece of paper! Here is what it looked like

Major pieces placed and doors and windows added.

Next I added details with a fine line marker, placed more stickers, and then used a black Pitt Pen to smudge around the edges of everything to give it more definition. A bit more black was smudged into the sky to add a little more darkness. NOTE: You MUST have sealed everything with your medium over the top, even the stickers. The Pitt Pen will smear for a second as soon as you put it on, but it will not smudge if it is on unsealed paper. You have to act quickly, and you may need to dampen your finger, as well.

The last thing I did was use a white gel pen to add some final definition to a few areas. You’ll notice that I didn’t try to make perfectly straight lines. That’s it. Complete! Here are some close ups.

White Gel Pen used to add some details.

Black Pitt Pen smudged around edges.

Night sky with more black smudged in over the Slate background.

~~Here is the final piece.~~ I may go back in and use my fine tip black pen to outline the witch and broom over the moon. What do you think?

Halloween Mixed Media Decor Item

Here is the FINAL piece. I went back in and outlined the witch!

Halloween Mixed Media Decor Item

Easy access to the Scaredy Cat items are below.

As promised, if you missed Karen’s great idea for hybrid Halloween tags, you go back and check it out HERE. Otherwise, next on the Make It Monday blog hop Melissa Shanhun is scrapbooking Halloween and there’s not a costumed child in sight!

I hope you all know how much it means to know you’ve stopped by, looked and read. I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a comment!

Until our next Artful Adventure,

Here are the featured products used in this project, with links to my online Close to My Heart store.

Scaredy Cat Paper Pack

X7185C, Scaredy Cat Complements

#Z888, Black StazOn Ink Pad

InLinkz.com

Halloween Magic Potions Decor

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Kristie Sloan

Add a little decorative element to your home for Halloween by creating some “magic potions!” I know many of you enjoy doing your own lettering and drawing, and you can use this idea as you like. However, when pressed for time, or if you just want to use the get it done version, here’s how to make it happen. When I saw these cute little label stamps, I knew I had to do something fun with them!

Magic Potions Stamp Set, #C1509

Each of these label shapes can be cut with a Cricut die cut machine from the CTMH Cricut Artiste Collection cartridge, #Z1790. You can see that the page of the accompanying booklet and the cutting size are marked right along side the stamps. Since they are clear, they are easy to see exactly where to place your stamp on the label.

I grabbed some random bottles and decorated them! You can see I did a very basic version of dressing these bottles. There is so much more you could do, but I wanted you to see that just doing something simple can be very effective! These would look cute with candy in them. Since these bottles are rather tall, I filled them with water and added food coloring to the water to create the colors I wanted in each one.

CTMH Scaredy Cat papers with the Magic Potions stamps.

I love the Black Shimmer Trim! It was perfect for this project to add a little zip to the top of each bottle. All you have to do is pull off the backing tape, and it’s ready to adhere to your project!

Paper rosettes make a nice backing to the labels, or just use some of the coordinating papers from the Scaredy Cat collection, #X7185B.

Magic Potion stamp with paper rosette from Scaredy Cat paper collection.

Cutting the labels with the die cut machine makes easy work of decorative labels. Inking the edges finishes this label nicely.

Magic Potions stamped label with inked edges.

Coordinating decorative papers, as well as plain colored card stock make it easy to create projects have a cohesive look when doing a grouping of items.

magic potions stamps and scaredy cat papers

Coordinating papers make the perfect background to add even more interest.

There are so many possibilities for these label stamps. Wouldn’t they look adorable on treat bags? What do you think you’d make with them, my little pretty?

Here’s a peek at the Scaredy Cat printed paper. There are also pieces of coordinating card stock not shown.

CTMH scaredy cat paper pack

Magic Potions	Scaredy Cat Paper Packet	Cricut Artiste Collection	Black Shimmer Trim
Baker’s Twine Neutral Metallic Assortment	Thistle Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad	Sunset Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

InLinkz.com

Doodling on a Printable Download

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Kristie Sloan

We continue our Artful Adventures today as we look at another way to use a printable download. How do you like the picture for our adventure this week?

My definition of a printable download is one which is ready to print and could be plopped in a frame as is, except for perhaps trimming it. The ones I am using this week are from Stampin’Up!, and come with not only the printable .jpg image, but have the digital stamps/brushes so that you customize colors of elements, change them around or use them on any of your digital projects. Yesterday we worked on one for St. Patrick’s Day, and today we have one that is not just word art, but has a sweet little picture.

Let’s take a look at what we are starting with today.

This is a very sweet piece which is certainly framable as is. However, around here, we like to kick it up a notch! So let’s grab a fine tip black pen and just add some doodles on this piece after we print it! We are only going to add a little definition to the larger elements, and let the more fine line work stay in the background, kind of like a piece of background paper on a card or scrapbook page.

Once again, I want to stress that it doesn’t have to be perfect! Like our friend Joanne Sharpe says, “Perfectly imperfect!” If it needed it to stay perfect you would just leave it as it came off the printer. Just try your hand on a little bit of doodling, if you haven’t. If you have, you may not have thought of giving yourself a headstart by using something straight off the printer!

Next, I just added a bit of a shadow to some of the lettering with a light, warm gray marker. I wish I would have used a smaller tip marker, but…. it’s done. Nobody is really going to be up close and examining it with a magnifying glass. If they are, and they don’t like it, they should just make one of their own to admire their own self-imposed perfection!

This next photo is up close and personal. Take a look and notice how imperfect it is. (I have to say, I never in a million years would have dreamed I would be telling people to take a close look at something I did to take special note of how imperfect it was!) There are finer tipped pens that may have been more appropriate for the doodling on this, yet they weren’t handy at the moment I wanted to work on this. Remember when you were young and liked to color and doodle? It’s still fun!

Try your hand at a project like this and come post it on the Artful Adventures Facebook Group! We would love to see what you are up to!

St. Patrick’s Day Digital Printable Jazzed Up

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Kristie Sloan

Thanks for joining me again this week! Our Artful Adventure today continues with ideas to jazz up a word art digital download. Digital downloads can make quick word of creating something special, whether you want a piece of decor or a card to send.

Here you can see the original version of the template. Since this version is able to be quickly transformed, you’ll see that it was easy to tweak the color just a wee bit. Only the green has been changed. This makes it such an easy way to personalize it in a way that best fits your color needs.

Original colors of download

The green color was tweaked just a wee bit.

One way to change up your printable is to print it out and then use a fine tip marker to outline some of the words. If you don’t really feel confident with your hand lettering skills, this is a perfect way to have a little practice.

Remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Note to self, don’t have so much caffeine before you do this again! Some of my lines are less than desirable, but that’s okay. I was rather pleased with the outcome.

This was meant to show you a quick project, so I only did some of the larger words, which I knew would be much easier to outline. When you try something like this, you’ll begin to notice the little nuances of the particular font of the word you are working on. That is what lettering is all about, the little things that each letter has in common.

St. Patrick's Day printable enhanced by outlined letters

Pick some of the words with larger lettering to outline! Glad this isn’t under glass yet, I see I forgot to do part of the “k” in “lucky.”

As long as you are going to print it out, why not make a smaller size and create a card? Here is a card that was created from the same template.

Reduce the template before you print and you can create a card!

Just a little embossing can really jazz up a quick card! The Hollogram Effects embossing powder combines a bit of glitter in a clear embossing powder, which will let the ink color show through!

Card Recipe

Half sheet of black card stock (cut 8.5″ x 5.5″), folded in half
Lucky Limeade card stock (cut 4″x5.25″)
Printable Template reduced to allow some of the white border (cut 3.75″x5″)
Before assembling the card pieces wipe the printout with an embossing buddy
Use Versamark marker over some of the letters.
Sprinkle Hollogram Embossing powder and use heat tool to emboss!
Assemble card pieces

TaDah! You are done!

Okay, now that the card is finished, I realized that the Hollogram embossing powder is no longer available! SO….. some other ideas to add a quick bit of sparkle or shine (these are options, not steps):

Use 2-way Glue Pen over selected letters and sprinkle with glitter.
Use Clear Embossing powder
Use Dazzling Details on selected areas
Try some Crystal Effects on a few letters!

Artful Adventures

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

Tag Archives: decor

Word Tags for All Seasons

Mixed Media Halloween Wall Decor

Halloween Magic Potions Decor

Doodling on a Printable Download

St. Patrick’s Day Digital Printable Jazzed Up