I am dedicating this post to you, my dear readers. I am grateful for you!
I am thankful for you following my blog.
I am thankful for you leaving heartfelt comments and messages – encouraging me and sharing your stories, your thoughts and sometimes even your struggles.
I am thankful for you spreading out the word through your personal blogs, Twitter and Facebook and sharing posts and ideas you like with your friends and followers.
I am thankful for your patience on weeks in which life happens.
I am thankful for your participation in my workshops and the lovely feedback you are leaving and warming my heart with.
I am thankful for your support in Creativity Prompt via buying the products you need through the links I provide.
I am thankful for you!
Thank you so much!
As a token of my appreciation I am giving you two printable files with labels and journaling tags (you can punch out the tags with a 2″ circle punch):
[To download the files: either click on the links above OR right-click and opt for “Save Target as…” or “Save Link as…”; Print with no scaling on a letter-size cardstock or sticker sheet]
Photoshop Elements Tip – Adding A Hand Drawn Element
Here is how I added the hand-drawn flowers to my tags:
Draw your elements with a black marker on a plain white paper.
Scan your element in high resolution.
Open the scanned file in Photoshop Elements.
Press Ctrl+L or Command+L and tweak your levels, so the white is bright white and the black is pitch black.
You can also use the eye-drop tool on the Levels Menu.
Open a new layer beneath your scanned elements.
With the Quick Selection tool select all the white areas and press Delete. Make sure you are working on the scanned elements’ layer. The checkerboard pattern means this part is transparent.
Save the file as a PNG file – that will keep the transparency attributes.
With the rectangle selection tool select the element you want to use and then press on the Move tool.
Open the file you wish to insert the hand drawn element to, drag and drop your hand drawn element into the file you have just opened. Re-size as needed.
Happy Thanksgiving!
[Due to the holiday – and my limited access to my husband’s MAC… – there will not be a Creativity Prompt this week, but I have included the tutorial above, enjoy! 🙂 ]
“Capture Your Dream” workshop is relaunching as a self-paced workshop. Isn’t it the perfect time for you to capture your dream and make it happen?
Check out the new “Make Your Own Planner” workshop and you may solve this year’s holiday gift shopping problem. An affordable workshop that keeps on giving…
Sending handmade cards is a wonderful and well appreciated gesture, but with a recipients list as long as eternity, who has the time to make them?
What if most of the work was already done? The basic design has been laid down. The greeting has been “stamped” and all you had to do is cut, score, punch and paste? That would really give the push you need to accomplish your goal of sending handmade cards to all your acquaintances.
Search no more. I have sorted out your Christmas cards dilemma for this year.
Below you can find a printable template (PDF file format) that does most of the work for you. If you are interested, keep on reading.
Tools & Supply
Printable cards template. [Right-click on the link and opt for “save link as…” OR “Save target as…”]
Print the template on a cardstock of your choice (8½” by 11″). Make sure your printer’s setting is on “No scaling”.
Cut your cardstock at 5½” and score each half at 4¼”.
Cut 1¼” by 1¼” squares from the patterned paper of your choice. Use a punch to make this step super quick.
Adhere your patterned paper squares to the squares on the template, using dimensional foam adhesive.
Either stop here, right a personal greeting inside and send the card OR embellish some more.
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If you have any question, suggestion or remark – don’t hesitate to contact me – either leave a comment here, use the contact form or start a new thread on the Creativity Prompt Flickr Group!!!
I would also be very happy to see your own creations, so don’t be shy and share 🙂
Check out the new “Make Your Own Planner” workshop and you may solve this year’s holiday gift shopping problem. An affordable workshop that keeps on giving…
That means that part of the book is designed digitally and part of it – traditionally. Together it’s a great mix of new & old.
Using digital elements, such as patterned papers, word art and other digital embellishments helps in keeping a theme and a color scheme for the book. If you want to make this book as a gift, in multiples, then starting on your computer also allows you to include all your journaling on the pages and then printing them either once or a million times, with no extra effort.
Start this project on the computer. Open your photo editing software and either crop or resize the digital patterned papers to the same width and height of your board book.
Don’t forget to count the spine while making the pages for the cover, leave a gap the same width as your spine between them.
Print your pages on cardstock. Plain paper won’t be opaque over the altered pages of the board book.
Use the borderless printing setting, otherwise the printer will scale down your images to allow a white border around them and it’ll distort your measurement.
Start working on the cover – trim off the excess paper and score your spine’s fold lines to get crisp creases. You may also go over the folds again with the bone folder, for an even crisper look.
Adhere the cover by applying a generous layer of glue stick on the board book cover and burnish with a brayer. Let dry.
In the meantime, start cutting the pages and your photos and any other digital element you have printed (word art, embellishments, journaling tags, etc.)
Once the glue has dried, turn your page around and cut off the excess with a very sharp craft knife. If you get uneven edges, you can file them down with sand paper.
Repeat the same process with the rest of the pages: adhere, go over it with a brayer, let dry and trim off the excess.
Make sure you trim off the edges of a page before adhering the printed cardstock to the other side.
Some ideas for embellishing your mini altered book:
Adhere your titles with foam pop-dots to give some extra dimension.
Stick to one type of embellishment (buttons in my case) to maintain cohesion.
Use different sizes of pen tips to create interesting handmade word art.
Outline your pictures, letter stickers and other elements with your journaling pen to anchor them to the page and add dimension.
Using 3D embellishments can make dents in your photos, so make sure both pages have the same “elevation” so the elements won’t touch the pictures themselves.
Have fun!!!
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If you have any question, suggestion or remark – don’t hesitate to contact me – either leave a comment here, use the contact form or start a new thread on the Creativity Prompt Flickr Group!!!
I would also be very happy to see your own creations, so don’t be shy and share 🙂
Check out the new “Make Your Own Planner” workshop and you may solve this year’s holiday gift shopping problem. An affordable workshop that keeps on giving…
An Artist Trading Card (aka: ATC) is basically a 2½” by 3½” piece of original artwork which is traded among artists.
Participating in an ATC swap is a great way to express yourself creatively without being overwhelmed with a huge blank canvas. It is also a great way to get to know other artists and expand your artistic world.
On this week’s creativity prompt I want to walk you through the process of creating my ATC for the swap.
If you want to find out how I made this ATC (plus learn some valuable tips and tricks) then keep on reading:
Step by Step Instructions
Cut your cardstock to the traditional 2½” by 3½” size. To make the most out of an 8½” by 11″ sheet of cardstock, start by cutting it at 2½” lengthwise twice and then you’ll end up with a 3½” strip.
Adhere a vintage text paper (from an old book. I used an old text book about Roman Law…) to another piece of non-textured cardstock with a glue stick.
Stamp the heart winged butterfly image in dark brown ink over the colored vintage background. Try to stamp the images as close as possible, but leave a small gap between them. Let the ink dry completely.
Mask off 2/3 of the ATC with a post-it note and stamp the houndstooth background stamp using one of the distress inks.
Take off the post it and use it again, masking the part you’ve just stamped. Then stamp over it with the screen shadow stamp.
Take a small piece of bubble wrap and apply a layer of distress crackle paint over it. Use the wet bubble wrap to “stamp” with it over the screen shadow background. Let dry.
After the crackle paint is completely dry cover it with a thin layer of clear glue or glaze to prevent the paint from breaking and falling off.
In the meantime stamp the circular greeting on another piece of non textured cardstock using the same dark brown ink (I used the Clear Design: Who Loves You – CL309 – stamp set by Hero Arts, but it is no longer available). Punch the greetings out with a 1″ circle punch.
Cut a green textured cardstock to 2½” by ½” strips. Poke a line of holes, 1/8″ apart from each other, along the middle of the strip and “connect the dots” with a white gel pen. Adhere the strip to the border where the two different background patterns meet.
Cut the butterfly images with precision scissors. I am using Fiskars spring action micro tip scissors and I absolutely love them.
Attach the circular greeting to the cardstock strip with a foam dot.
Attach the butterfly above the strip in an angle using some mini glue dots behind its body and some pop up glue dots behind its wings.
Don’t forget to add your name, date and signature on the back!
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Have you ever participated in an ATC swap? Are you interested in assembling an ATC swap group here on creativity prompt? If you are, please leave a comment and show your interest.
If you have any question, suggestion or remark – don’t hesitate to contact me – either leave a comment here, use the contact form or start a new thread on the Creativity Prompt Flickr Group!!!
I would also be very happy to see your own creations, so don’t be shy and share 🙂
This week’s project is also quick and easy to put together. You decide how much time you want to spend embellishing each page later on…
All you need is a bunch of envelopes, 2 pieces of chipboard and a long piece of ribbon. Pretty straightforward.
You can take your time and decorate each page individually, or just adhere a photo on the back of each envelope and insert your journaling in each corresponding envelope. The sky is the limit for you.
Cut 2 pieces of chipboard – ½” taller and wider than your envelopes.
Stick a strong double sided tape at the center of each chipboard piece. You can use the markings of your cutting mat for easy alignment.
Adhere your ribbon to both pieces of chipboard, while leaving a ½” gap between them.
Adhere each envelope to the next at the base with plain packaging/wrapping tape. Make sure you keep the orientation of the envelopes.
Cut the excess tape off the sides of the envelopes stack.
Adhere the envelopes stack to the chipboard with some more strong double sided tape.
Cut the envelope inserts out of cardstock. Make them ½” shorter and narrower than your envelopes.
Insert a piece of cardstock into each envelope.
Embellish and… Voilà !
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If you have any question, suggestion or remark – don’t hesitate to contact me – either leave a comment here, use the contact form or start a new thread on the Creativity Prompt Flickr Group!!!
I would also be very happy to see your own creations, so don’t be shy and share 🙂
I loverecycling and every time I manage to turn trash into treasure, I am happy. Maybe too happy, but that’s for the professionals to judge 🙂
If you are as jubilant about recycling as I am and would like to make a fat journal out of cardboard and packaging paper used for padding – then keep on scrolling.
I’ve got a video tutorial just for you.
Tools & Supply
Packaging material – cardboard and padding paper (or plain copier paper)
Cut cardboard at: 5½” by 4½” | 5½” by 4½” | 5½” by 1″.
Cut 2 pieces of patterned paper for the cover, at: 8″ by 6″.
Adhere the cover pieces to the center of the patterned paper with glue stick.
Cut the corners of the patterned paper and leave a gap from the cardboard corners – a gap as long as the cardboard is thick (between ½” to ¼” depending on the cardboard).
Fold the remaining patterned paper flaps over and adhere to the cardboard with glue stick.
To cover the spine, cut a 6″ by 6″ piece of patterned paper diagonally. Cut it 2″-1½” away from the corner on each side.
Fold and adhere the top patterned paper flaps to the cardboard spine with glue stick.
Apply strong double sided adhesive to both edges of the patterned paper and attach the cover pieces to it. Allow an 1/8″ gap between the spine and each of the cover pieces.
For the inside cover, cut your patterned paper at: 5¼” by 4¼” | 5¼” by 4¼” | 5¼” by 1″.
Adhere the patterned paper to the inside cover with glue stick. Optional – To secure the adhesion go over the cover with a brayer a few times in different directions.
Punch 2 holes in the spine using a Crop-a-Dile.
Cut the insert pages (from the packaging paper, or any other plain paper you have) at 8″ by 5″.
Fold the insert pages in half.
Optional – Use a T-Square ruler to straighten up the inserts (or leave them looking rustic).
Position your folded pages where they should lay inside the journal and mark the placement of the holes, then punch the inserts accordingly.
Thread your string through the inserts, from the inside – out.
Thread the ends of the string through the spine and secure in a knot or a double bow.
Write your secrets and deepest wishes in the pages of your new handmade journal.
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If you have any question, suggestion or remark – don’t hesitate to contact me – either leave a comment here, use the contact form or start a new thread on the Creativity Prompt Flickr Group!!!
I would also be very happy to see your own creations, so don’t be shy and share 🙂
A good quality art journal with sturdy signatures may burn a hole in our pocket. However, by using just 5 high quality cardstock pieces, you can make your own art journal for a fraction of the price – not to mention the cute foam cover you get…
If you are interested in watching how to make one of these cute art journals, than keep on scrolling…
Tools and Supply
Heavy weight cardstock (5 sheets of 8½” by 11″ will make 10 signatures = 20 pages)
Fold the signatures in half. For a sharp crease use a bone folder.
Poke holes along the crease line of each signature. Start at the center and then continue each inch below and above the center.
Sew your signatures together. Start at the top hole and go through each hole with a plain running stitch, after you went through the bottom hole go back through the top hole again.
When attaching the second signature (and the ones after it) secure each stitch by going through the stitches on the spine before threading the needle through the holes.
After you have made the last stitch on the last signature, secure the ends with a few knots.
Cut the fun foam at 9″ by 5¼” for the cover.
Attach the signatures to the fun foam with a generous layer of glue stick. Apply pressure on the journal for an hour or so to ensure good adhesion.
Start painting and sketching in your new art journal…
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If you have any question, suggestion or remark – don’t hesitate to contact me – either leave a comment here, use the contact form or start a new thread on the Creativity Prompt Flickr Group!!!
I would also be very happy to see your own creations, so don’t be shy and share 🙂
How would you like to put together a beautiful mini album – from start to finish – in about an hour?
Sounds good, doesn’t it?
You know what, let me throw in a special feature that will turn your mini album from a beautiful albeit simple board-book into an intricate gate-album that is guaranteed to extract some “oohs and ahs” [I am pretty sure it’s a technical term. Please correct me if I’m wrong].
Are you interested? Yes? Then keep reading.
Oh, wait. Have I mentioned there’s a video tutorial included in the package?
Tools and Supply
2 Heavy-weight acetate or acrylic sheets – 4″ by 6″ each.
5 pieces of heavy-weight chipboard (about an 1/8″ thick) – 4″ by 6″ each
[Music with permission is by Josh Woodward from his album “Here Today”]
Step By Step Instructions
Cut all your acetate and chipboard pieces to size and arrange them according to the following chart:
The top and bottom acetate (or acrylic) pieces protect your photos. You may leave those pieces out if you wish.
Mark a 1/4″ line – lengthwise – on the respective edges and mark 3 dots on that line – 1 dot in the center and 2 other dots 1″ above and below the center one. Punch these marks with a Crop-A-Dile.
After you have punched 3 holes on each side on one piece, you may use it to mark the holes on the other pieces and punch them accordingly.
Adhere each photo to the chipboard with a generous application of glue stick. Start with one side, use a brayer to insure strong adhesion, and re-punch the holes before moving on to adhering the photo to the backside.
You may replace each photo with a 4″ by 6″ sheet of patterned paper or cardstock – whatever works best for your needs.
If the photo is bigger than the chipboard piece, trim the excess with a sharp craft knife.
Double check the orientation of each photo, before you adhere it.
Assemble all your layers, following the chart above, and attach together with binding rings.
Embellish!
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If you have any question, suggestion or remark – don’t hesitate to contact me – either leave a comment here, use the contact form or start a new thread on the Creativity Prompt Flickr Group!!!
I would also be very happy to see your own creations, so don’t be shy and share 🙂
This week’s creativity prompt is more of an idea on how to reuse drier sheets after they have made your laundry smell fresher and become softer. You know how much I love recycling, so this project is right up my alley.
It takes merely seconds to make this flower and it has a fabric-like texture. Think of it as a tissue paper that won’t rip.
The added bonus of the drier sheet is that even after it does its job inside the drier machine, it still holds its smell. That means that you are not only adding cuteness to the project but a scent too!
Add color by rubbing ink directly onto the circles. If the ink pad falls off, no worries. Stick it right back with a glob of Diamond Glaze.
Cluster the circles together and adhere with Diamond Glaze – a dot of glue will do. (dry adhesive, like a tape runner or glue dots will not work)
To finish off the look, thread an embroidery floss through a button and adhere to the top circle with another dab of Diamond Glaze.
Let dry. After the adhesive has dried up and hardened, you can go ahead and attach the flower to the project with a glue dot. (Position the glue dot directly on the hardened adhesive).
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Share your thoughts and your own drier-sheet creations by leaving a comment!
Score each strip at 3″, 6″ & 9″. You can just align your score lines with the 3″ mark on your paper trimmer.
Fold your score lines – once up and once down – to create an accordion fold.
Adhere the folded cardstock strips to the fun foam with a double sided adhesive. Optional – Before attaching each cardstock strip, you can add a strip of ribbon to it – just align the middle of the ribbon with the center point of the back of the cardstock and adhere to the fun foam. Tie the ends of the ribbon in a bow to make sure your accordion fold stays put.
Find the center of the fun-foam cover’s flap with the grid ruler and mark 1″ on each side. Cut along these marks all the way to the bottom of the flap and snip off the ends.
Adhere the velcro or magnetic snaps to the flap. To make sure the aligning is perfect, adhere both parts of the velcro while they’re attached together and then peel off the backing and close the flap. To allow some room for bulky embellishments, make sure you don’t close the flap too snag.
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If you have any question, suggestion or remark – don’t hesitate to contact me – either leave a comment here, use the contact form or start a new thread on the Creativity Prompt Flickr Group!!!
I would also be very happy to see your own creations, so don’t be shy and share 🙂
Reminder
Only a few more days left for the early bird’s admission to “Capture Your Dream“. Don’t miss the special offer of only $14.95 for 30 downloadable lessons!!! (LESS THAN 50 CENTS PER LESSON)
This time I revisit an oldie, but a goodie – 
An Artist Trading Card (aka: ATC) is basically a 2½” by 3½” piece of original artwork which is traded among artists.
How would you like to put together a beautiful mini album – from start to finish – in about an hour? 
This week’s creativity prompt is more of an idea on how to reuse drier sheets after they have made your laundry smell fresher and become softer. You know how much I love 
For this week I have a 5-minute-project for you. An adorable little brag book with a fun foam cover that makes it extra “snugglable”. 
