Creative Arts Lifestyle Blog

2012 Chalkboard Paint Election Candidates

Jess — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:39:02 +0000

Ever wonder what the difference is between chalkboard paint and regular black acrylic paint? So did we. Read More to find out how we felt about black paint, clear chalkboard paint, black chalkboard paint, and a Matte Varnish coating. —————– *clump clump clump clump* (The sound of Patty walking down the hall into the team’s shared office.) “Do you guys have any chalk?” She asks. Jess S (Scans her desk) “No, I don’t think so.” Jess M (From the other side of the wall) “Nope!” Joe (From behind his computer full of scary techy code) “What do I look like, an artist?” Dustin (ever prepared) “Yes!” So the chalkboard experiment began! These are the candidates. Basically Patty coated the whole board in black paint, then coated certain sections with the black chalkboard paint, the clear chalkboard paint, and some Matte Varnish. Then she brought it in to have us try drawing and erasing, and getting our thoughts on each chunk of board. The Black Paint got mixed reviews. This is the method Patty has been using for years, which was the real reason for the whole experiment. She’s always been perfectly happy with this method, and wanted to see if there was enough of a difference to want to get a specific product. When she brought it in to me, out of the four, this was my least favorite. We all found that, although it’s pretty durable and there’s little to no shine, it doesn’t wipe clean with a dry paper towel. Most of us felt this was a deal breaker. Patty still thought this was okay, you just have to wet the paper towel to get your surface really clean. So I guess it’s purely a matter of preference. If you’re okay going to the sink when you want to erase your board, just using your black paint is perfectly fine, and keeps you from having to buy something new. The Matte Varnish was, in my opinion, the most surprising candidate out of the four. It wiped remarkably clean with a dry paper towel, and was actually the smoothest to draw on. Our only problem at first was that the surface was quite shiny when compared to the other three. Unfortunately it then failed the durability test, and caught a rough patch of the chalk and had some pretty bad scratches on it by the time we finished. So, if you don’t plan on being rough with your chalkboard surface, and you don’t mind the little extra shine, the Matte Varnish is something you might already have that will work pretty well. The clear chalkboard paint made us pretty happy. It wasn’t too shiny, was smooth to draw on, and wiped clean with a dry paper towel. As would be expected, something that is made specifically for chalk worked quite well. The special thing about the clear coating is that you can take something of any color, coat it, and turn it into a chalkboard surface. This means any color paint, wood, terracotta pots, whatever you want to chalk up without making it black- this stuff will work like a charm. *hearts* Our overall favorite for the classic black chalkboard effect was, not surprisingly, the Black Chalkboard Paint. Smooth writing, wipes clean, and was quite durable. Dustin actually took a quarter out of his pocket and tried to scratch both the black and the clear chalkboard paint, and they came out unscathed. So is it worth making the jump to chalkboard paint? Out of these four candidates, the majority of us thought it very much was. Hassle-free cleaning, durability, low shine, and the clear coating gives you the option to have any color surface. But it really depends on what you plan to do with your surface, how much you plan to use it, and whether you’d prefer a “wash” clean or a “wipe” clean. Now, there is one other wild candidate that we weren’t able to test. We’ve found these instructions on Pinterest for using any color acrylic paint and unsanded grout to mix your own chalkboard paint if you were feeling like a super messy chemist. So obviously there are other options out there. Have you tried to make a chalkboard surface? What has been your experience?

Success For Dustin!

Jess — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:48:24 +0000

Posted in Images

Ho ho ho! New Painting surface and lots of creativity coming from Patty! We’re all super excited to see what she comes up with! Way to go Dustin for engineering this awesome sleigh! (That’s his happy face ) (This picture was taken with my iPod touch camera. . . it envies Patty’s iPhone camera! Think of this as a super early sneak peak, lol) It comes in five pieces that slide together easily, great for storage in the off seasons. Patty & Dustin have been busy putting that old Drafting Degree of his to use on all kinds of new wooden surfaces. Getting the samples in is very much like Christmas for us =) Can’t wait for us to decide what to paint on these sleighs? You can get them now! You can grab the big one, great for holding presents and displaying all kinds of Christmas Cheer, here: Wooden Sleigh Large – 17.5 x 14 x 9 Or the smaller one here: Wooden Sleigh Small – 11.25 x 9.5 x 6.5 We see potted plants and teddy bears riding in this size! Have Fun & Happy Painting!

Joe (our tech/ video editor) and his college graduate girlfriend Katelyn, congrats!!!

Patricia — Sat, 05 May 2012 19:22:42 +0000

Posted in Images

Jess

Patricia — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:21:29 +0000

Posted in Images

Poser! Lol **edit: This is Patty testing her new iPod app for posting to the blog! Yay =)

Using Essential Corners

Jess — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:39:00 +0000

Posted in Images

Using the Essential Corners for the first time! Layering the different sizes. Different size scrolls for different size surfaces! Mix & Match! Using the 4×4 essential square with a corner on a larger square, would make a super cute frame for an iPhone photo print! Click here to pick some up today!

How To Place An Order

Dustin — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:43:58 +0000

Posted in Experiments How-To Videos

It seems like you can buy everything online these days, doesn’t it? The frustrating thing can be that pretty much every website has a different way to buy products. We’ve made a handy-dandy tutorial video that will make ordering from CreativeArtsLifestyle.com easy!

5 Tangle Critters, Inspired By Lucy

Jess — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:24:13 +0000

Posted in Creativity

One of my very best friends had a birthday a few months ago. She likes to deny it, but she has them from time to time. This particular friend is artsy, creative, free-spirited, and has a wide range of “critters” that she loves to incorporate into her artwork. So I put together a Zentangle® bucket for her, with one of the books, some micron pens, and a few other art supplies, and a card with step-by-steps of the five creatures she uses the most in Zentangle® style. So without further ado, here are Owliez, Gnomiez, Flaminkoz, Pohlah Bearz, and Pixigons. All inspired by my lovely Lucy =)

Making Rubber Stamps

Jess — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:15:05 +0000

Posted in Experiments Product Testing

Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted to do this exact thing? Make my own rubber stamps? I mean seriously, I was a kid trying to stick layers of foam together that I’d cut out, carving shapes out of potatoes, anything that would apply ink to paper without having to spend all my hard earned chore money on an expensive wooden stamp (but they’re so PRETTY!!). I always thought “I wish there was something permanent, something that worked. . .” So I was flipping through Pinterest on my break one day, and came across a tutorial for making your own rubber stamps. Out of actual rubber! YAY! I immediately ran downstairs to the product catalogs we order from, flipped through and found the goodies. And there were angels singing and light from the heavens! (Okay, maybe not, but it was a really good day!) It took some time and examples to convince Patty, but then when the lightbulb dinged- more lights and singing angels! And a month later, here I am, with a slab of pink rubbery stuff, kind of the consistency of a pink eraser but without the crumblies, and a new set of tools to get the hang of. These are Lino cutters. My Professor & Mentor from college would be so proud. Printmaking is his thang! You can now pick up this set of 6 from us here. I found that for these little jobs the 90 degree angle guy and the flat scooper guy were my favorites so far. (Like the technical names? You’re learning with me here! ) The magic pink rubbery stuff is called an “Easy Carve Block.” It’s made specially to not crumble and last a long time, while still being relatively easy to carve. You can pick up a 4×6 slab here for $8.47. Another handy thing you might need is a Clear Acrylic Stamp Block with some Tack-It Over & Over to stick your new stamps to when they’re done. This keeps the stamp flat and makes it easier to handle, like the wood block on a regular stamp. The Clear block will be good for positioning, and the Tack-it over & over will make it so you can unstick and stick your stamps to your heart’s content! So- you wanna see? I hope so! I definitely suggest you start out with some very basic shapes so you can get used to the tools and the material. It’s going to take some practice, but just take your time and don’t be afraid to experiment & make mistakes! I tried a couple of different ways to get the images that I wanted to stamp onto the Easy Carve Block. The first was using a butterfly from our Flutter By Diva Stencil, one of the solid, simple shapes. Just traced it on! Tada! (I missed a couple spots, but since it was a pretty simple shape it was pretty easy to connect. You should be more careful!) But let’s say I wanted to do some other little image? Something iconic that I can see myself using again and again in my own art that I can’t find anywhere else? EASY! In my case I just printed a few of my favorite shapes we’ve done in our various projects here that got rejected in the stencil elimination process. It’s okay little artworks, today you shall live! And I used Yellow Tracing Paper to trace the shape with a soft-lead pencil. (A 5B for you artsy geeks like me) Hello! Then I just flipped it over and rubbed it on with my thumbnail. This looks like a good place to tell you to make sure that when you do words they need to be backwards! They’ll print the right way when you stamp them. !olleH (That’s Hello! backwards! See what I did there? hee hee) You can also draw directly on it, of course- just remember that whatever you draw will end up backwards when you stamp. It’d probably be better to draw it the way you want it in your sketchbook, then do the tracing paper method. Now for the magic part! Time to start carving =) This is the first time I’ve ever done this, so it was fun to experiment with the different tools and what directions were best. I did find that it was better to cut around the edge and away from your image. Take your time with it and be careful with your cuts. Once it’s gone there’s no getting it back! It was actually somewhat therapeutic once I got into it. I had to concentrate and try to figure out how to get into the tight spots. With the butterfly I drew lines and cut them using the knife-like tool and stayed within the lines. I found when I did my next one that cutting the whole stamp away from the main section of block was a little easier to handle than trying to do it still connected. Again, more practice will tell you what works for you. Almost there! Then I get to cut it out! I’m basically trying to get deeper here, making sure there are no little edges to sneak up and pick up ink. And here are my first two stamps ever! The butterfly turned out pretty ugly, but “Hi!” turned out better. Starting simple is easy because it seems like there are always simple shapes that I end up using or wanting to use all the time. As time goes by I’ll get a little more complicated with some swirlies, stars, leaves, maybe a couple of doodle stamps. The possibilities are pretty much endless! My art journal is going to be very happy =)

The How To Use A Video…Video!

Dustin — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 20:07:45 +0000

Posted in How-To Videos Product Testing Site News

If you’ve ever had trouble watching the Tole TV videos on CreativeArtsLifestyle.com, then you need to watch this video! Wait…a video on how to watch videos? That’s right! Just click “Play” and grab a pencil and paper. I explain how to use our Vimeo video player, including how to fast forward, adjust volume, and resize. I also give a quick explanation to some video terms you might have heard before, like “streaming” and “buffering”. Click the Read More & Discuss button below. Here’s the video: If you have an idea for a tutorial video you’d like to see us do, send us an email or reply to this post. We’re going to start posting tutorial videos on all sorts of topics in the near future.

Decorative Painting for…Nerf Guns?

Dustin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:16:05 +0000

Posted in Creativity Experiments Painting Randomness

It all started with the announcement that Club Kairos would be having a Wild West theme with a twist this year. What is Club Kairos? Well, several years ago, my church, Fellowship of Faith, started doing themed dinners for Valentine’s Day weekend. The first year I started going, it was a ’50′s diner theme. The year after that, it was a murder mystery theater. They were a fun way for families at the church to have a “date night” (even though kids were often involved). Eventually this morphed into Club Kairos (“kairos” being Greek for “the right moment”), with the idea that each year would have a different theme based on a period in history. Like I said, this year’s Club Kairos was Wild West. Wait, what about “the twist” I mentioned earlier? Well, after the success of the movie “Cowboys & Aliens”, we decided that maybe we should have some extraterrestrials show up to “take back their time-travelling technology”. So guests were encouraged to dress up either as cowboys or as aliens. I thoroughly enjoy dressing up for Halloween and plays/films when I can, so I was excited about it. I took inspiration from actor Daniel Craig’s character in “Cowboys & Aliens”, who wakes up in the desert with a bizarre alien cuff on his wrist that turns out to be a weapon. I created the costume of an “alien bounty hunter”, a cowboy who ran afoul with the extraterrestrials and stole a futuristic weapon that he uses to track down the alien menace. Ok, ok, most people didn’t go this far with their costumes – most just showed up in a plaid shirt and a cowboy hat. But I tend to go over the top on these sorts of things. Ask Patty or Jess. For Christmas, I actually asked for a Nerf Longstrike CS-6 rifle, a crazy-looking three-foot beast of a gun that shoots little foam darts from orange clips. I’d seen pictures online of people who had modified their Nerf guns to look retro-futuristic, especially the “steampunk” style (go to Google and search for “steampunk nerf guns”). I got an odd look from my mother that’s to be expected when your 27-year-old son asks for a toy gun for Christmas. A few weeks later, I had amassed all the needed materials for the modification: multiple bottles of paint (lots of DecoArt Dark Chocolate, a bottle each of Lamp Black, Honey Brown, and Metallic Pewter, plus another brand of shiny Turquoise Blue), some cheap brushes (I know, I know, but I’m hard on brushes ), some Metal Powders (Copper, Platinum, Rust, and Brass), a Micron Pen, a can of Rustoleum Plastic Primer, a can of Krylon Fusion Satin Black, and a can of Krylon Matte Varnish. I also had a sanding pad, Dremel tool with sanding drum, and some small screwdrivers. First came the arduous task of taking the gun apart. After removing about 30 small screws and prying the thing apart with a tack hammer, I finally had the gun in pieces. Then I put it back together, and took it back apart again. Why? Look how complicated this thing is! All those little springs and parts had to go back in the way they came…hoo boy! Undaunted, I proceeded with sanding all the raised “NERF” logos and the like off the gun’s exterior (because aliens don’t carry Nerf guns) with a Dremel. I wet sanded the areas that I’d got with the Dremel and washed the entire gun, because sanding a plastic gun with a Dremel makes lots of blue sticky particles fly everywhere, including into your hair. Next, I laid out all the parts to be painted on a work table and coated everything with plastic primer. I let that dry for a day. Then I broke out the can of Krylon Fusion. Now, I love Krylon Fusion. It sticks to plastic like nothing else. I painted parts of my car interior with it, and they’ve stayed painted for about 6 years, as long as you follow the directions (light coats, drying times, etc). So I gave everything a light coat and then…wait, what? What’s this the paint is doing? Almost immediately, the paint started crazing everywhere! At first I was like, nooooo! Then I started looking at it, and thinking about what the gun was going to look like. Hmmm…it’s kind of nice. It looks like the texture of hand-beaten metal. Very fitting. I don’t know what caused it (maybe the primer reacted with the Krylon, or it was too cold in the garage), but I doubt I could re-create this effect. So…if you try this, your results may vary. After letting everything dry for a few days, the real fun started. I spend the next week and a half painting each piece. In truth, I hadn’t a clue what I was doing at first – I sort of made it up as I went along. I started with a rich copper patina, made with the Dark Chocolate and Copper metal powders. The look of the first coat of metal-powder-infused paint made me a believer in them, and the project in general. Next up was a sort-of aged iron patina (Rust powder plus Dark Chocolate with a touch of black), then Brass (Brass Powder mixed with Honey Brown), and finally a nice aged silver (Platinum powder in Pewter). I wanted the inside of the gun to glow with “energy”, so for that I used the Turquoise (mixed with a little Paint Adhesion Medium because some parts I hadn’t primed). After everything was dry I pieced the gun back together, checked to make sure it would still work (it did), touched up some spots, added some alien hieroglyphics with a Micron pen, and gave the whole thing a coat of Matte Varnish. The result? A really amazing-looking “toy” gun that has gotten nothing but positive comments from the people I’ve showed it to so far. It was nice to spend some time on a real art project and I appreciate what Patty does more (even though I’m sure she would have chuckled at some of my painting techniques lol). So if you’ve got a kid that’s in to Nerf guns, maybe you could give them a special present of a custom gun that will be the envy of the other kids (please note that the durability of the custom finish is, um, somewhat less than that of a regular Nerf gun). P.S. What about Club Kairos? Well, the night was a success. We all had a great time, and as another side project, I made this image of myself. Yeah, it’s cheesy, but fun.