Tag Archives: glitter

Tool Tip Tuesday – Coffee Filters

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Did you know that inexpensive, disposable coffee filters can provide the perfect quick item to corral small items! I don’t know about you, but a seem to be a messy crafter. Once I get started on a project, it’s like an explosion has gone off around me. I am always looking for ways to contain small items I am using.
Artful-Adventures-Kristie-Sloan-tool-tip-tuesday-coffee-filters

The first time I realized how hand coffee filters could be was when I was working at an office job and had an unruly snack. I decided I would grab a coffee filter to use as a little bowl. Then I decided coffee filters could come in handy in the craft room!  They can also be used in different ways in things you may create, but today we are looking at them today for their versatility as a utility item, not a project component.

Not only can you use them to hold small parts of a project, they are great to use for embossing powder or glitter! Because they are static free, you may even like them better than the little trays which have the spout to pour your powder or glitter back into the container. When you are finished with your powder/glitter, just gather up the filter and make a little spout to pour it back into it’s container.

Beads, sequins, brads, eyelets… you get the idea! In fact, you can even use a filter as a little bowl to hold all the small items you may have ready for a project. They will stay right where you put them until you are ready to use them.

A stack of flat bottomed coffee filters can be handy for so many things, but in the craft area, I’m sure you’ll find them useful. You can even grab one to use instead of a paper towel to wipe your paint brush on, dabbing off a bit of water, or cleaning between changing colors. Just think, if you leave it to dry, it may even be the perfect item to add to a collage, art journal or mixed media piece!

Just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it won’t work!

What small products do you find you are always chasing around after they get loose while you are working?

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures!

KS

Wednesday Wonder – Winter Silhouette Painting

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This video shows a fun method to create a winter painting as a gift or for your own home! Stephen Lursen has been doing some work with Donna Downey, and he generously shares this winter silhouette painting! I hope you enjoy it.

For those of you with an electronic cutting machine, you are a step ahead! Cutting a stencil to use would be a breeze!

 

The Close to My Heart Artbooking Cricut cartridge has this reindeer image which would make a great stencil for the holidays. Otherwise, just search for an image you can cut with your machine!

Artbooking Reindeer

Happy Holidays!
KS

Easy Birthday Card with a Scrap of Patterned Paper

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A card inspired by a scrap of paper from the Chalk It Up paper pack.

A card inspired by a scrap of paper from the Chalk It Up paper pack.

Often we’d like to make a birthday card, but really don’t have a lot of time. This birthday card went together rather quickly! The whole idea came from a scrap of paper! I knew the recipient liked orange and I saw this scrap of paper on my desk and thought it was close enough to orange. It is from the Chalk It Up Close to My Heart paper pack. I liked it because it already had some other colors and it would make my color choices fast and easy. The color along the left side is the decorative “zip strip” I told you about the other day. It is the extra 1/2 inch on one side of a patterned 12×12″ paper, which is a bonus decorative strip that coordinates with the paper pack.

Since I was in a hurry (and maybe a bit lazy), my plan was to just use this scrap and try to get as much mileage from it as possible. So I cut it into strips and then arranged them across the width of the card, and adhered them.

One thing I like about using clear acrylic stamps is the fact that you can pull them off the backing sheets and arrange them before you ever stamp them. If you don’t like the look you can move them around until you are happy, or entirely swap out the stamps. When you begin to accumulate stamp sets, it’s fun to mix and match. I decided to use the cupcake and candle from the Birthday set from the CTMH Cricut Artiste collection, and the Happy Birthday sentiment is from the Build A Cake set.

D1618 Build a Cake

CTMH – Build a Cake, # D1618

CTMH D1529 Birthday_Artiste

CTMH, Birthday – Cricut Artiste Collection

I stamped the “Happy Birthday” on white card stock, in Lagoon ink to match the color at the left side. This helped pull the Lagoon color across the entire card. The white card stock was matted with at piece of Sorbet card stock to coordinate with the color from the scrap of paper I started with. The cupcake and candle stamp were stamped in `black and were colored with the Touch Twin alcohol markers in Peacock Green, Barely Beige, and Golden Yellow. Then I added some glue to the cupcake to and sprinkled with glitter to make the icing look like it had been dusted with sugar.

Glitter was added for a little sparkle

Glitter was added for a little sparkle!

I was happy with the way it turned out, and extra happy that it didn’t take too long! Isn’t it funny how inspiration comes in many ways? This was simply because I only wanted to use one scrap of paper I found on my desk! What inspiration will you find today? Come over and share it with us on our Facebook Group! Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures! KS       If you are in the US, please feel free to shop in my online Close To My Heart store. Here are handy links for the products in this featured project.

St. Patrick’s Day Digital Printable Jazzed Up

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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.

St. Patrick's Day Template

Original colors of download

St. Patrick's Day Template Color Change

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.

Lucky Printable Card

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

Lucky Printable Card with embossing

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

  1. Half sheet of black card stock (cut 8.5″ x 5.5″), folded in half
  2. Lucky Limeade card stock (cut 4″x5.25″)
  3. Printable Template reduced to allow some of the white border (cut 3.75″x5″)
  4. Before assembling the card pieces wipe the printout with an embossing buddy
  5. Use Versamark marker over some of the letters.
  6. Sprinkle Hollogram Embossing powder and use heat tool to emboss!
  7. 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!

Heart Punch Cupcake

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Heart-Punch-Cupcake_KristieSloanIt’s my birthday and here is a no calorie cupcake just for you! Plus I wanted to show you this nifty way to use a heart punch or die cut.  Who knew you could make cupcake frosting out of hearts?

Heart-Punch-Cupcake_KristieSloan_2

At least 3 punched or die cut hearts, 1 square.

Take your hearts and flip them with points at the top instead of the bottom and layer at least three of them.  The number you use will depend on how big your hearts are.

I sponged a pink colored ink onto the bottom of the hearts, starting outside the heart and dragging it to the inside. That way it gave more definition around the outer edges.  I liked it best with the sponge having less ink and being more dry.  I was able to better able to control the depth of the color, by layering it.

Heart-Punch-Cupcake-Kristie Sloan_1I layered and arranged the hearts and glued them to each other. I then used a 2-way glue pen and ran glue around the bottom edges of my “frosting” layers, and applied glitter.

I ran paper through the Big Shot in an embossing folder before I cut it into a 2″x2″ square, so that it had vertical lines to resemble a cupcake paper.  You could just as easily score lines for a similar effect.  Then I used the same sponging technique on this piece.

Simply adhere your square cupcake paper, and then your frosting hearts!

Next, I punched a small red circle and adhered it to the top of my frosting, and used Crystal Effects to give my “cherry” a shiny finish!Heart-Punch-Cupcake_KristieSloan_3

Black cardstock with white sponged and distressed edges, and a white ink message finish off this card! This is an easy way to make a cute cupcake for any card!

Please come share with us over at our Artful Adventures Facebook Group!

Here are some supplies you can pick up over at my Stampin’Up! store.

Heart Punch – #119883

Stripes Embossing Folder – #123128

Assorted Card Stock Pack – #12094

Stamp Sponges – #101610

Ink Pads

Basic Black – #126980

Melon Mambo – #126948

Anywhere Glue Stick – #104045

Dazzling Diamonds Glitter – #102023

Crystal Effects – #101055

Big Shot Die-Cutting Machine – #113439