Heart Art Tutorial

This morning, I posted my latest craft adventure {I say "latest" as if I craft often---I do not} on the Living on Trees Facebook and had a few requests on how to make one.  So, here it goes.  And just FYI, the one that I posted on Facebook was my first draft.  I decided that I wanted to skip some words, play with the layout and add more words....so I did it about three times before I was completely happy with the finished product.  So what you see here is not the same one as I posted on FB earlier today.  :)

Go to Tagxedo.

Click on "create" to make your own creation.

Click on "load" to load in your own words.  For my creation, I chose words that

are significant to us.  I used the names of towns that we've lived in together, streets {street names--we didn't ever call the street home} that we've called home, important dates, our names, Kinley's full name, Lucy--of course, words the describe us:  happiness, laughter, love, smiles, dedication, promises, etc.  You get the point.

Then click "submit" after you've entered your words.

Now you need to choose a theme.  And I realize that I forgot to highlight the

theme button.  You are smart, you will see it on the menu there on the left.

My particular theme is called "Clouds Over Castle" because I'm in to the browns and blues.  I learned this the long way--so here is a tip, the outline of the colored boxes will be your background color.  Maybe you got that right off the bat...I'm a little slow.

Choose your font.  I added my own font--because I am picky like that. If you want to add your own, click there on the bottom right and find the font you want from your files.  Luckily, I keep all of mine in the same place and I knew right where to go.  But you can use one of their fonts too.  Whatever.

The next button is "Orientation" and I did nothing with this.

Now, after you've gotten this far.  Go ahead and click all of the little padlocks to the locked position.  This will save your work if you need to flip flop the layout or position of words.

Next up is choosing your shape.  

If you are like me, you did this first, because you get all excited about that part.

It's pretty self explanatory here.

Your next {basically, the last} step is to get creative.  Click on the "Word | Layout Options" button on the left menu.  You are going to come to this menu and I'll walk you through my customization from my project.  For the first tab, I chose to use numbers.  Obviously because I used important numbers in my word list.  So I clicked "yes" for that.

On the "Layout" tab, I changed nothing.

On the "Advanced" tab, I changed my background to 0% because I wanted this to have a white background even though my "theme colors" had a tan background.  I did this to save ink, basically. And because I didn't want it to look crappy from my cheap printer trying to do that much ink for a background.

{I'm going backwards here, bear with me}  On the "Skip" tab, you will see all of the words used in your project.  The words towards the top with the larger numbers, are the larger words in your picture.  So if you want some of them not so big, skip them.  I am sure there are better ways around this, but I couldn't figure it out and I'm not so patient in playing with something to figure it out.  So this worked for me.  For example, a street name was one of the big words in  my heart.  Obviously, I didn't want that, so I clicked to "Skip" that word.  The words on the bottom of the list are the tiny words.  Make sense?  So you probably don't want to skip those.  Unless one certain word is super prominent...in that case, click "skip" on a few of them.

Now, something that I didn't take a picture of...and I'm not sure why I didn't, because I did play with this feature a bunch---but the layout button on the left menu--it will rotate the words around in your picture.  So before you go and skip some words...you may want to toss the layout a little to see if you can get the look you want.  Also, the color button at the very top will rotate the colors around if you don't like the look.  Just some tips.

Key to this project: play around with it.

It took me about a half hour to finish and I did it while Kinley was up and playing...so it really was simple.

When you have it like you want it...print onto card stock {or regular paper, or whatever} and throw it in a frame.

Ta-da.  Art.

I really am not that great at tutorials, so if I left something out or if it's unclear, you can always send me a comment of find me on FB and I will be more than happy to clarify any of the steps.

Oh, and when you print it on regular sized paper or card stock, you will need to trim it for an 8x10 frame.  I know.  Common sense.  

I still hope to get  a mat {or is it matte?} from Hobby Lobby to make it even cuter, but even now, I am impressed.  :)

I want to see your creations!  So please share on FB and tag Living On Trees so that I can see it!

Pinning Fool

Are you a pinterest'er?  It took me a while to get on board with the whole thing.  Kind of like Twitter....even though I'm still not a consistent Tweeter.  I have a hard time latching on to the newest and greatest, maybe it's my age.  But pinterest is something that took me a while to catch on to but now, I love it.

I've really noticed a change in it lately.  I remember the first time I browsed the site.  I remember it being full of "oh my gosh, why didn't I think of that!?" types of things.  Little tips and tricks to make life easier.  For example, the bathroom faucet extender.  Genius.  We use it daily for washing little hands--because of the "I wanna do it!" attitude.  Now she can "do it!"

Recently, I'm noticing a whole lot of, "wow, now that is cool.  But I so could never pull that off." kinds of things.  And it's sad because I'm really getting the itch to start crafting.  And sometimes, I fool myself into thinking that I actually could make some of the pins that I see...but know that it will turn out looking like a kindergarten art project.

Being all "I wanna house and I want it now!" lately makes me want to start a 'hope chest' of sorts.  Did you have a hope chest growing up?  They're a trunk, usually made of cedar. I had one....but it was pretty hopeless.  There really was nothing in it.  And now it sits somewhere (maybe my garage?) empty.  I have so many crafty pins that I want to make for the day that we actually do buy and move.  Cool things to put in our home.

I went to a yard sale over the weekend and it was literally a pinterest pin graveyard.  This lady must have tried every pin she could find.  And then tried to sell them in her sale.  And she was proud of her work!  I couldn't help but laugh to myself when I saw some of her stuff marked at like $20.  I mean, come on lady.  I see that it's a 2x4 with scrapbook paper cut into petals.  I'm not paying you $20 for that.

I think that pinterest has created a mindset that we are all artists in our own rights.  In a way, that's pretty cool. But in another, it's so deceiving.  I have hundreds of pins full of big plans.  But let's face it, if pinterest ever dies.  Those pins die with it.  I am a mad pinner, but a sad do'er.  Aside from recipes, I really don't do any of it.  yet.

But these are on dock:

I think I can, I think I can.  Stay tuned for the results of this hot mess.

The last one, is first up.  And since it's a printable, I am pretty sure I can handle it.  But we shall see.