More Art Journal Pages!

I've totally been on this kick lately! I just love doing these art journal pages... they are so fun and easy to do. Very meditative as well - they make you feel GOOD! I have 2 pages out of my art journal to show you... and I did these between yesterday afternoon and this morning; it goes to show you just how quick they really are! I'm going to basically give you a step by step of each page so that you can recreate it in your own way if you so choose. The first page was just me experimenting a little bit. Here it is:



I started out thinking that this was going to be a really bold page since the colors black and red are usually very striking when put together. So those were my base colors. I painted my background black, dried it with my heat gun and then painted strokes of red over top. I thought that since my background was already dry that it would be okay, but, as it turns out, I didn't let it dry ENOUGH so the colors blended slightly in some places into a maroon like color. Since that wasn't quite the way I wanted it, I painted over top of the RED again and it become more bold it some places. I then added strokes of violet over top of the red and black. Then the page just felt really dark to me and so I decided to add lime green to the top - a lot of lime green! Since lime is my second favorite color, I think I kind of overdid it a bit, but it looks okay now. For the strips along the bottom, I used a strip of corrugated cardboard to stamp lines. The circles I stamped with a piece of corrugated cardboard cut into a circle (freehand) and the dots were put on in yellow with the handle of a paintbrush.



This next page was actually for a challenge that I started on scrapbook.com called the August Inspiration Challenge. The challenge was to watch the very first episode of TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles) and to make a piece of art that used something that inspired you about that episode. I chose a quote from Raphael that says "whatever they were - they're junk now!" I decide to use a gray for the background because it reminded me of metal... which is what I think of when I think of junk! Like the last page, I stroked on several different colors of paint - a lighter shade of gray and a lime green. Even then, I wasn't quite feeling it, so I added the corrugated cardboard stamp across the WHOLE page! I liked it a lot, but I still felt like it was missing something. I added the black strips along the top and bottom and a little on the sides. I then felt that I needed one more color to brighten things up, so I decided on red circles (in honor of Raphael's mask color, I used red). I actually used the bottom of my embossing powder to stamp them... I painted the bottom and stamped away! Lastly, I added the quote, highlighting the word JUNK since it was my whole inspiration for the piece. I used crayola colored pencils to write. They worked perfectly!

I hope you enjoyed looking at some more of my art journal pages, and I hope to share with you all some more scrapbook pages here really soon!

~Jordan~

Art Journal Start!!

I've been wanting to start an art journal for a while now... a long while! Finally the composition notebooks I was wanting to use went on sale for school and I got one... I know I'm cheap and I admit it! I painted the cover black with a strip of lime green along the binding and I glued a piece of ribbon along the transition between paint colors. Here is the first page in the book:



I REALLY like it!! I had so much fun and it was really relaxing; so easy to create. I didn't worry once about if I was going to ruin it... like I sometimes do when creating scrapbook pages. I used a bunch of layers of paint in all different colors and I stamped on it with "stamps" that I found around the house.

Thanks for looking!

More ATCs!

I just finished up all of the ATCs that I needed to complete for the swaps I'm in now. I received my newspaper ATC from the swap I was in and I absolutely love it! I've got about 5 ATCs to share with all of you guys today. 4 of them are rubber ducky ATCs and the other one is another elephant one. Let's get started!

I guess I'll show the elephant ATC first... I really like it! It just seems that even though the small size was hard at first, I got over that really quickly. Almost every ATC I've made since I've started again I've fallen in love with!



To create this ATC, I started with a white ATC blank. I then continued on to use a brown ink pad to rub over the top, giving it a soft distressed look and feel. I selected several 1" cardstock squares in 3 neutral colors, arranging them in a grid on top of the base. I stamped an image in the lower left hand corner and added a strip of paper tape measure that I distressed. Once the elephant is on top, the ATC is complete.



Coming up with ideas for a rubber duck ATC was a lot harder than expected! When I signed up for the swap, I didn't think that it would be difficult at all to create a good looking card to swap. Boy was I wrong! I had the toughest time figuring out where the best places would be to put the ducks - goodness, even finding images of rubber ducks was hard! But I finally found enough to create all of the ATCs I needed.



As you can see, this ATC has basically the same layout as the last one. They are the same for the most part, yet so different in so many aspects. The colors are very different, as are the images. I crumpled up the background and inked the wrinkles, added a scalloped strip and white circles. I also matted the ducks in a coordinating color and put stickle dots on the circles.



I have to say, I think this might be my favorite rubber duck ATC to date! I love how his head is so much bigger than his body... It's so out of proportion, yet so cute at the same time! The supposed stitching around the edges are actually marker lines and the blue tint to the "sky" is - get this - eye shadow! I saw a package of my eye shadow in the bathroom today and thought "wow... that looks an awful lot like chalk!" Sad isn't it? It was really light, but it worked for what I was wanting.



I did this one basically the same as the previous one as well. I thought that the images themselves were just so cute, and the first ATC that I made turned out so well that I couldn't help myself from making another!

Hope you guys enjoyed looking at my work and I'll talk to you guys soon!

Feeling Crafty

There for a while, I wasn't really feeling too crafty. I wanted to make stuff... I really did, I just was having a hard time making cards or scrapbook layouts. I made tons of ATCs and inchies, but no pages! Hopefully I'm out of that slump now! Today I made a thank you card using a few scraps of paper I had in my collection. Everything in this card was scraps. And I love it!

I did some heat embossing on the sentiment - I stamped in black ink and then embossed in clear embossing powder. I just love the effect that it gives. I inked the edges of the circle and then adhered it in the center of a circle that was already on my black pattern paper. It gives it a framed look that I love! The little strip of striped paper is actually a piece of what was leftover from my scrap of black pattern paper after covering my card. I just thought "Well, I have this scrap, I haven't used the back of this pattern yet, but I know the colors match... might as well use it!" All of this went through my mind in about a second flat. That is the way my brain works.



I also made this ATC. I've actually had it made for a while, but just haven't got around to posting it! It is the earth portion of my elements cards.



Hope you like them and have a nice day!

Inchies

So now I would like to show you guys my other inchies that I created, but didn't have time to post yesterday. There are 5 that I want to show you - some I like more than others, but experimentation is the father of invention! I'll share with you guys some of my favorite techniques and maybe some color combos.

First is this ladybug inchie. I used a plain white background, stamped with two different images in two different colors, and then added a ladybug with a pop dot. This is my first inchie that I made, and, I have to say, it was hard to make. Mostly because I couldn't figure out what in the world to put on it without making them all look the same. But I tell you the truth - they get easier! The more of these little guys you make, the more ideas you get! Here is the ladybug inchie:



This next inchie is actually the second one that I created. I was working with this butterfly stamp that I really liked, but, instead of putting it directly into the middle of the inchie, I placed it off of the edge. I then added another stamped image with a pop dot. I then added some faux stitching around the butterfly with a pen. Another tip that I have for you guys is to use a piece of scratch paper underneath your project. That way, if you are painting, stamping, etc, you have something to catch the excess. Plus, afterwards you have a decorative piece of paper that you can use to create with! Here it is.



The next one is not my favorite. At all. In fact, I kind of hate it. But I'll show you anyways. I think I would like this inchie better if the stamped image was colored in.



These last two are actually part of a series that I'm doing. A fruit series. The first one is a strawberry and it is raised up with pop dots. To get the background, I took a regular piece of cardstock, and then I took the sprinkles stamp from the nook and pantry Basic Grey collection and just randomly stamped the sprinkles over the top. I then added words from the newspaper that say one-of-a-kind flavor:



And now for the apple one. This is another masking technique that I just had to try, and since I had an apple punch that I wanted to use for the fruit series, I thought it would be perfect. Plus, since an inchie is such a small canvas, it is not very intimidating, and a PERFECT place to try out new techniques. So this time, instead of punching out shapes and using them, I punched out shapes from the sticky part of the post it note and used the negative as a mask. It worked like a charm! I then continued on to ink the edges in cranberry Ink it Up ink and then wrote out apple. Some faux stitching finished it off and gave it a homemade feel.

New ATCs and Inchies

So recently I've been making a TON of ATCs and inchies, just because I was craving a new size. You guys have seen a couple of my ATCs, but I also made some inchies. In case some of you don't know what an inchie is, it is a small paper project, most commonly collage, that is measured at 1x1". You may think I'm crazy, but seriously, these things are quick, easy, and most of all, addicting! First off, I think I'll post my ATCs.

This ATC was originally created for the newspaper swap, but, as it turns out, I made this one a little too late to enter it, so I'll just post it on my Flickr as available. Here it is:



Next up, we've got some ATCs that I made for an elephant swap. The first one I'm going to show you is collaged. It has a cardstock base that was crumpled up into a ball, flattened out and smoothed, and then this process was repeated 2 or 3 more times. Then the creases were inked by rubbing an ink pad flat over the top of the ATC. I also inked several other portions of the ATC. The epoxy sticker is from ColorBok and I bought a pack of 12 at Target for a dollar. The stamped word is by Scrappy Cat and it is the Playful Classic. The edges were distressed by painting around the edges with tempera paint.



The next elephant ATC was drawn. On occasion I like to experiment with drawing and shading with Primsacolor pencils. Prismacolor pencils have a softer lead than regular colored pencils, which gives them an effect that might not otherwise be possible.



The last of the ATCs are for a swap I'm doing that is based around the 4 elements. The 3 that I'm about to show you are very simple, yet they still turned out really nice looking. The 4th, which is Earth, is not going to be the same. I'm actually going to draw that one as well. So for the 3 other elements, I simply printed out an image as big as an ATC to use for a background, then adhered it to a piece of cardstock to make it sturdier. Then I used the Playful Classic acrylic stamps again to spell out the correct word. I then cut them out, rounded the corners, and inked the edges. Perfect! First is the fire one. I have to say that I think I like this one the best. I used Ink it Up ink in the color Terra Cotta. Very pretty.



Next up we have the water ATC. I have to say that I REALLY like the image in the background. I just think that it's really cool. Again I used Ink it Up ink, but this time I used Indigo as my color:



Last of all the ATCs is the Wind ATC. I really like the image in the background of this ATC as well. The element is actually air, but since a tornado is just moving air, I decided to use a tornado as my image, and wind as the caption. I think it turned out pretty good!



Okay, that was all of the ATCs, so now onto the inchies we go! I'm only going to show you 2 ATCs today, and the rest tomorrow. The first inchie I'd like to show you is an inchie that I created earlier today. I stamped the background using the stem portion of flowers and it reminded me of bamboo! Well anyhow, I added the stamped image of a star, and then stamped cherish along the bottom edge:



And the last project that I'm going to show you today is my favorite inchie of all: one that I call entertainment. I punched out a bunch of flowers from the sticky part of a post it note and then stuck them onto my base. I then painted over it with lime green paint, added buttons and a piece cut from a newspaper. Complete!



Hope I inspired you and hope to see you next time! Bye!

ATCs

Hey everyone, I'm back, and like I said in the last post, I've been trying to make an ATC a day. I've entered several swaps and so far I've succeeded at completing 2 ATCs. The first ATC I did isn't my favorite, but it still turned out pretty well and I love the colors. It started out a collage ATC, but then I started painting over top of the collage and then added some embellishments. Here it is:



Next up, we've got an ATC that I created for a challenge over on Artful Ideas. It is a group on Flickr. It is invitation only, but if you send a message to the owner, they will send you an invite. The only restriction was that your card must have newspaper in it. I used newspaper as my base; then I painted over it, collaged, stamped, drew, etc. on top of it. I LOVE this card!



Hope that you got some ideas from this post and hope to see you guys next time. Bye!

Sunshine Award

I was passed a sunshine award by Alison over at This Little Scrapper a while back and it just brightened my day! Thanks Alison!



These are the rules of the Sunshine Award:
1. Put the Sunshine Award on your blog and/or within your post.
2. Pass the award to 12 other bloggers.
3. Link the nominees within your post.
4. Let them know they received the award by leaving them a comment on their blog.
5. Share the love & link to the person from whom you received the award.

There are many talented bloggers out there and it is going to be hard to pick even 12! So here we go.

1. 365 Cards: This blog is very inspiring... even for people who mostly make scrapbook layouts!! Even though I don't normally make cards, this inspired me to try!

2. Creations by Christie: Christie's blog is an amazing place to visit!! She is sooo inspiring and I have learned so much from her blog.

3.
Katelyn's Craft Corner: Like me, Katelyn is also a young scrapper and she has an amazing Youtube channel. I've been so inspired even since I just learned of her blog and channel sometime last week!

4. My Happy Place: Rose has some lovely cards over at her blog. She sometimes works from sketches, and I often get ideas for my scrapbook pages from her cards. Some amazing work over this way!

5. My Scrappy Goodness: I love this blog so much because there is such a wide variety of styles in her layouts - kind of like me!! I am inspired by how some of her layouts are distressed with dulled colors, while still others are bright and clean!

6. Naked Heart Art Studio: This blog is AMAZING! There are at least 4 ATCs posted each and every day in a variety of styles; some are drawn, some are collaged, some are origami... so much inspiration to see here! I'm actually going to be starting out in their project to do an ATC every day... and I'll post my work here!

7. Pretty Paper Swirls: I love this blog... it has the some of the most beautiful distressed and vintage looking layouts I've ever seen! If you like to scrap this way, or even just look at them, be sure to check this one out!

8. Scrapper Forever!: This blog has mostly layouts with a few cards thrown into the mix. For the most part, the layouts are multi-photo, so if you're looking for a way to use up those photos, this blog is a good place to stop. Also though, there are some single photo pages if those are your specialty!

9. SRM Stickers: Jenyfur over at SRM Stickers has some nice layouts, but this blog is mostly cards... really cute ones!! I am often awestruck by the amazing cards over on this blog. Make sure to check it out; I'm sure you'll be inspired!

10. Pink Cricut: I adore this blog! The projects are soo cute, there are amazing videos posted every so often, and best of all, there are ideas for using the cricut! If you own or even have access to a cricut, this is an amazing blog!

11. {Paper Dreams}: Kelly at {Paper Dreams} has some really pretty cards posted! She makes mostly cards and a lot of times she posts supply lists - not quite a tutorial but close!! So if you see an effect in a card that you really like it's easy enough to find what it is!

12. Tutus&GlueDots: This blog has some REALLY pretty layouts... simply amazing! The colors in the layouts are perfect and the style is somehow unique. Check it out!

Thanks for looking!!

New Layouts!

I actually did 3 layouts this afternoon, after me, my 2 brothers, and my dad rode 1 1/2 miles uphill on BIKES to get to the craft store! It was pretty fun; I got some adhesive, some lime green pearls for a dollar and 2 unmounted rubber stamps for 25 cents!! Here are my layouts:

Strippy Layout
by Jordannichole
Scrapbook.com

I had a lot of fun designing this layout. For deciding upon the colors, I chose a stripe patterned paper and matched my colors to it. The circle of dots is one of my new stamps that I got for 25 cents and the roses inside of them are home made from a tutorial. The flower on the lower right corner of the photo is a store bought flower and it is covered with white stickles, with a blue button in the center. Also, over at my other blog 365 Scrapbook Layouts I did a challenge that you should make a page with at least 2 hand made flowers and at least 1 store bought one... this is mine!!

B.T.
by Jordannichole
Scrapbook.com

This is a page that I decided to make for an album for my brother. I actually made it for a challenge over at www.colorfulcreations.ning.com and the challenge was to use at least 2 shades of blue and one shade of brown. Since I've gotten back into scrapping, my new thing is journaling. MOST of my layouts since I started up again have tons of meaningful journaling.

Girly Blue Layout
by Jordannichole

This page was also made for a challenge over on Colorful Creations. The challenge was to make a super girly page... I had quite a bit of trouble over this one because you also had to use your favorite color and mine is blue!! Plus, I'm pretty much a tomboy, sooo as you can imagine, problems kept popping up everywhere! But I managed to pull it off (I think) by using lots of bling, glitter, and pictures that were girly!!

Hope you enjoyed looking at my layout and I thank you for taking the time to!! Check back soon because my new challenge for myself is to blog every day!!

A Layout and A Card

I only have older projects to share with you guys today, but don't worry! Later, I'm going shopping at a local craft store to get everything I need to get started crafting again! I'm all out of adhesive, but yesterday I got totally desperate and used glue sticks to create a card. I'll share that with you later, after I fix it up with regular adhesive. But anyways, I'll share a layout and a card right now, even though they are pretty old.

First off, I apologize for the crappy cropping of the photos - I'm testing out a new editing program and I'm also trying to figure out a way to get my layouts straight when I photograph them. If you have any ideas or suggestions to fix this, please let me know in the comments section.

The first project I'm going to share today is a layout that I made a while back using pictures of me in all different stages of my life. In the first picture I'm probably about 2, the second about 4, and in the third I'm probably about 6. The fourth picture of course, is me at 13, my age now :) I used these colors because I thought that they were very striking together, and I knew that when I was little, my favorite color was pink (I'm waaay different now then I was then!! My favorite color now is blue - and I'm a little bit of a tomboy...) and I wanted this layout to have a certain sophistication to it... and look nice! I'm pretty sure that I used a sketch for this one, but I guess I couldn't be certain.


And now for the card. I like to make random cards every now and again even if it isn't even close to the event! For example, there was no birthday coming up when I made this card, I just felt like making a birthday card, so I did! The sentiment was a stamp and I used a regular office paper clip for the corner. I thought this card turned out pretty good!



Probably after I go shopping later, I'll post a picture and write about what I got. And then I'll get started scrapping. Immediately. I'm suffering from craft withdraw.

Hoping...

I applied to several different design teams recently, so I'm hoping that I'll get lucky! I have applied for different ones before, but have never been accepted. Wish me luck!

Anyways, the layouts I decided to share today aren't really new, but they haven't been posted before on the blog, so I thought I would share! I'm actually going to show you guys 5 layouts and a card. The card might be posted in my etsy shop, but even at the moment I have a bracelet and a necklace there. My etsy shop is found at www.jellybeansdesign.etsy.com and be sure to keep an eye out for new products. Coming back to the subject at hand, here are the projects:


First off, I'll do the card. This card was inspired by the stamp itself. Also, I love, love, love the colors pink and green together, because I think that it makes the project feel either feminine or spring - like. I did a lot of distressing on this card, both tearing and inking, which doesn't give it a worn look, but more, a softer, more feminine look.


The first layout is this one; titled BA*H. I'll tell you the truth... I've gotten a lot of comments on how clever it was to use the asterisk instead of a T, but if the whole truth was to be told, I actually ran out of the T in this color thickers and I was desperate! But it did end up fitting the whole bath theme anyways. This layout is actually one of my faves however, because of the distressed, layering look I've got going there in the corner. I love that style, except, for some strange reason, I always have trouble figuring out how to make it work!


Next up we've got this layout: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. I made this page for an album I'm making about myself... starting at the very beginning, as a baby, and working towards the present. Now I have to tell you, I have many, many styles. It doesn't really matter what kind of style it is, I guess, as long as it's "cute." As you can see in this layout, I've made it a very bright, fun type of layout instead of a grungy, shabby chic kind of page. But I like them both. In fact, my very favorite layouts are either bright and bold or shabby chic... or my own style, which is a little bit of both!


Here's another page that I wanted to share. It's titled "Love Your Smile" and it is a sort of tone on tone type of layout. As you can see, most of the elements are pink, with several of the elements being yellow. These yellow elements form a type of visual triangle which helps to grab your eye's attention and helps to keep it. The colors were drawn straight from the photograph.


This page is titled very simply... just my brother's name: Brandon. Another of the fancy, distressed layouts that I simply adore! I tried really hard to make this a really masculine page... the browns and reds, the metal accents, the white paint... and I really feel like I pulled it off! The bright orange sweatshirt that he's wearing in the photograph doesn't help anything, but I think the reds really toned it down. Also the journaling is a poem and the title is stamped in red paint.


The last one... a page of my brother Owen's birthday party! My dad has been experimenting a lot lately with making cakes... he made one for Christmas, my birthday, Owen's birthday, my little sister Sage's birthday... he even made a Dharma cake for the grand finale of Lost this year! Well, getting back to the initial subject, he made Owen a Wii remote cake! This page includes a picture of the cake itself, Owen's expression when he saw it (he cracked up!) and a couple pictures of him blowing out the candles. It was a day that we will never forget!!

I sure hope that you enjoyed my little gallery showing of some more recent layouts and going on to another subject altogether, if you enjoy beading, I've started an article series on the basics of beading. The first article is located here: http://ezinearticles.com/?Beaded-Jewelry-101---Designing-Your-Own-Jewelry---Line-and-Shape&id=4539916 I hope you visit and have a good time!