How to make your own fridge magnets

November 21, 2018 by Kate

Rating: +2 (from 2 votes)

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What a fantastic idea! And believe me, it is great no matter what occasion and no matter how old you are. Until there is a personal touch to it, the gifted person is going to love it. So don’t waste any time and learn how to make your own fridge magnets. You need very minimal supplies to make it and there are a few ways too.

You can buy ready magnet canvas’ which is about 2.5 inches by 2.5 inch in size but if you are more ambitious and would like to have it a bit bigger you can buy just a canvas 3″ x 3″ or 4″ x 4″ in size. Those don’t come with a magnet at the back of it so you will need a photo magnet sheet which is self-adhesive. You just need to use a pair of scissors to cut the right size and stick it to the back of the canvas.

Now you just need to get a small brush and some acrylic paints and get to work. You can obviously find tons of designs online. Try to pick an easy one if you are a beginner artist. You should focus on one object and try to work out details as good as you can to achieve the great result.

If it is a birthday gift you can go for simple flowers, paint a teddy, doll, or a train, just think about something that is going to be close to the interests or hobbies of the special person who will receive the gift.

If it’s Christmas, you can paint a tree with decorations on it or a snowman with a red hat on his head. For Mothers Day you can paint a sunset that your mom loves or maybe a hot air balloon which she always dreamt about. The possibilities are endless.

I hope this was a super easy explanation on how to make your own fridge magnet and you will become the famous person in your family who gives away these fantastic little magnet canvas’ of art which they can see on their fridge everyday. Good Luck!

How to Make Your Own Logo

May 2, 2016 by Kate

Rating: +3 (from 3 votes)

Rating: 5.0/5 (4 votes cast)

I think this is about time now to turn my love to the blogging in to my company. To make it in the professional way I will do lots of interesting things and I will share it with you as I go. I definitely need to start with my logo. I have looked up on-line to find a free design maker. There is plenty of websites which will put in the head line that the logo maker is free but when you actually make the logo and would like to download it, you will find yourself on the credit card page and they will ask for 50$ or more. Then I have looked at the apps. There are some free or for few dollars, so I have tried again. Those have only very simple designs for free and to get cool stuff you have to buy premium package, so this idea didn’t work out either (especially you don’t have guarantee that premium package will contain this what can be adopted for your needs). Finally I have decided to make model of my logo which is going to be cheaper taking under consideration that I will get logo model and the door hangar at the same time. Please follow this post to see how to make your own logo and please enjoy.

First you want to think about this what your logo should represent and write down the ideas. I wanted to have name of my business in the logo and show connection between my favorite disciplines which is, handy work, painting, sewing and jewellery making. I have drafted initial project and then went for shopping in to my favorite arts & crafts store. They didn’t have exact items for my design, so I had to adjusted it here and there.

When working on your logo design you have to answer few questions:

Do you want to have name of your business on the logo?
Do you want to have any graphics on your logo?
What colours are you going to use?
What shapes are you going to use?
What is the message of your logo if any? Maybe your logo will mean something specific?
How big it should be?
How can you use it on the promotional items like fliers, company paper, envelopes, business cards, maybe T-shirts?

When you answer those basic questions you will have better understanding where to go with your design. I wanted to have name of my business in it and some other elements which will represent what I do and what The One With Art is about.

I will show you how I have worked it out and how to transfer your design in to digital version of it so it can be used on other items.You should take your time while working on this project as you would like to be happy with final result and don’t regret anything. Also this logo is going to represent your business and you should stick in to it down the road while building your brand and marketing your company.

First I have painted base in white to make neutral look of it. Then I have decided that shorter parts of the wood will be covered with the fabric.Longer pieces will remain white as it will be base of some small art which I’m going to pain on it.Then I have painted letters. Since the big letters were originally painted and this is how I got them from the store I thought I could keep it and try to match colour for small letters to go with it. As it is not an easy job I can always match as close as I can and then paint over the big letter as well then all of them will be even.Fabric strips were attached and dry and now I can glue the letters on the board. My idea was to make letters to stand out and be very much visible, so I have used light, contracting colour of the fabric under it. I have left everything for few hours to make sure it’s well attached and all dry.Now I have started painting on the white spaces which I have left. I have added this small blue flower which perfectly highlights my personality.When all was dry I have sealed it with Mud Glue which will make it permanent and more resistant to the potential damages.

I have to remember about my beaded jewellery too so I have added small chains of it on both sides. I have used elastic band only, so unfortunately it is easy to come off the logo, which I don’t think this is much of the problem anyway. We are almost there… Now I took a photo of my design. I did several of them to make sure it is straight and very clear. Now with use of an app I have converted photo in to different version of it to choose from. There is plenty of free apps which can convert your photo in to different types of drawings, cartoons or even oil painting look. I have put it out for my family for little discussion and we have picked second one as The One With Art’s logo.Now I have added nice chain to the wood and I have hanged it on the front door of the house.

What do you think? Does it look good?

I hope I have give you some good idea on this how to make your own logo. It was apparently easier than on-line tools and result is really unique and interesting.

How to Make Handmade Greeting Cards

July 7, 2015 by Kate

Rating: +5 (from 5 votes)

Rating: 5.0/5 (6 votes cast)

I’m sure you have never thought of making your own greeting cards thinking it takes to long or may not look as good as those from the shop.

I’m going to prove you wrong with this easy tutorial and material guide. You will become master of greeting cards in no time.

This is only one of many ideas on front page design and since I love hand-painted greeting cards I have decided to go in this direction but you can think of any other materials like: stickers, partial prints, fabric scraps ect.

First we need to shop a bit and get some fancy tools.

You will have to decide on the type of medium to choose correct type of paper. I have chosen acrylic metallic paints and paper with some sort of texture. I think most popular and cheapest solution would be water colours but maybe technique of painting is not easy to handle.

Anyway, let’s go back to my project. I got some helpful items which will make my hand-painted cards looks professional. You can see beautiful stamp: “handmade with love”, ink pad in dark brown colour and old gold coloured marker.

We also need envelopes in desired size, transparent bags and some sort of tape to close bags with. Now we can start whole process. I have stamped my envelopes.

Then I cut the paper in to right size so it can fit in to the envelopes. My cards will be folded so there is plenty of space for wishes to this special someone.

Another stamp on the back of the card and website address of The One With Art. One one of them I have included my signature as well to see how it looks like but I didn’t like it so much, so all the others doesn’t have it any more.

Front of the card got flat background so my painting will stand out.

Oh yes, it looks exactly how I wanted! Each card took me about 30 minutes to make. This is big advantage of acrylic paints, it dry’s really fast so you can finish all the details in no time.

Now we need to put the card and envelope together, insert it in to the plastic bag and close on the back with our decorative tape.

Looks professional and person who gets it will feel very special for sure. Good luck with your creations and don’t be shy to let me know about them, I will be more than happy to share it on-line.

Kids Art – Spring Project

March 11, 2015 by Kate

Rating: +8 (from 8 votes)

Rating: 5.0/5 (9 votes cast)

What is a better way to keep kids busy like giving them an art project to work on? To complete this Kids Art project please prepare following materials: canvas, acrylic paints (light blue and dark blue, turquoise, orange, yellow, white, black), brush and sponge.

First you need to pour paint over the canvas to make the background. Try to cover all the white spots.the canvas should be standing up right and please make sure there is an old paper underneath to collect all extra paint dripping down. Once paint has rained through the canvas you can put it flat and allow at least an hour to dry.

Now our little artist is going to dab some clouds using a sponge with white paint ….

and then add some blue under white…

Next step is the umbrella. I suggest using any bright colors to make it pop out! Shape may be a bit difficult (dependence on the age of young artist). You could use a big oval plate and then glass to trace edges (it works).

It is very rainy spring painting in deed 🙂 I hope you had fun!

A proud artist took the painting to school this morning and she hopes to hang it in her class. How sweet!

I will do my best to work on more kids art activities and share them with you. My daughter is so enthusiastic and eager to work on any crafts and I have decided to change category name from “Arts and Crafts” to “Parya’s Corner”.

Home Made Playdough

July 22, 2014 by Kate

Rating: +5 (from 5 votes)

Rating: 5.0/5 (5 votes cast)

My biggest challenge of this summer is how to entertain kids.

I have decided to make some home made playdough which hopefully keep them busy for a while.

There is plenty of fantastic playdowgh recipes in the net. Grab one or use below one.

You need:

2 cups plain flour (all purpose)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
Up to 1.5 cups boiling water (adding in increments until it feels just right)
food colouring (optional)
few drops glycerine (optional- adds more shine!)

Method:

Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a large mixing bowl
Add food colouring TO the boiling water then into the dry ingredients (colour optional)
Stir continuously until it becomes a sticky, combined dough
Add the glycerine (optional)
Allow it to cool down then take it out of the bowl and knead it vigorously for a couple of minutes until all of the stickiness has gone.

Once it has cool down give your kids a “cooking” assignment. You can prepare pictures of food for younger once and thru some ideas on the older so they can get creative. Then you can wait for results. I had 2 hours free for myself while kids were “cooking” 🙂

Have fun with your own home made playdough.

Neilson Park – BLACK & WHITE Exhibition

June 13, 2014 by Kate

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I’m glad you are back to see what new is going on here.

I have entered into the Black & White Art exhibition which is hosted by Neilson Park.

As the title suggest the art work has to be black & white only. this is first exhibition out of 3 prepared for this summer and hopefully I will participate in all of them.

I have decided to compose something different than I used to.

On this painting (reading from the top) you can see an average, cloudy sky, well blend with realistic shapes. This is representing the ever changing part of our lives but at the same time is a very clear aspiration of Heaven.

On the left side we can see irregular lines, ugly, overlapping, some of them flat, some with texture – this is where we live and how unimportant it is, unclear and messy. Also it represents the passing of time and how little of it we actually have.

On the right side you can see the perfected shape of a place of worship. it is ideally white and clean, and formed, and stable against the rest of the painting. It is like an anchor of our life and stepping in it will let us see this cloudy sky.

On the bottom of the painting towards the building you can see the shapes of people. since we have only black and white colors to use I have used different shades of grey to illustrate the different characters of people. Some shapes are dark or black – thses are bad people among us who are hypocrites and the are still blending in and going to pray. Then you can notice shapes of people in the crowd with printed words on them. Words represent all the values I’m identifying my religion with and which I’m trying to communicate to the world.

The painting is full of meaning and I’m planning to show it at the Muslim Fest 2014 which is coming up in the first weekend of August.

Let me know what you think about it.

Take Care! 🙂

Story telling – About Baby Lion

April 12, 2014 by Kate

Rating: +6 (from 6 votes)

Rating: 5.0/5 (6 votes cast)

I have lovely kids story to share with you today. Lego building blocks came very useful! Have fun reading!

One beautiful morning deep in the rain forest close to a lonely rock and a cold stream Baby Lion was born. His mommy and daddy called him Mack. Everybody loved Mack! Days were spent lazy, playing games and having fun but finally Lion King said:

-Son, it is time for you to start school. You have to learn how to be the future king.

So Mack started lessons. First the easy ones like holding the head up, how to be polite at the table, then some hunting techniques, how to be very quiet in the bush and how to be fast like the wind.

All was going well until the day when Mack was supposed to learn how to roar like a king lion. This was truly difficult and was coming out more like “worry” than like “roarrrrrrr”. Mack and his dad were very upset.

One day, when the whole jungle was asleep Mack woke up because of a strange sound. He raised his head and looked around carefully. He didn’t see anything, but he was sure of this strange sound coming from different directions. Mack ran to the closest hill and climbed up on it. He couldn’t believe his eyes! There was a big fire far on the horizon coming closer and closer to his kingdom. All the animals and their houses were in danger! There was no time to lose! Mack took a deep breath and from the top of his lungs a very loud ROARRRR came out! It was so loud that everybody woke up and all the animals, big and small, managed to escape safely.

Our little Mack grew up to be a brave king with quite a good roar when needed, and with excellent hearing, which turned out to be his greatest talent. I guess we never know what we can do best, until we will have an opportunity to try it.

Story telling – Milky Way

December 5, 2013 by Kate

Rating: +5 (from 5 votes)

Rating: 5.0/5 (6 votes cast)

Once upon a time there was a little girl called Ania. She was about 4 and she had a beautiful smile on her face all day long.

It is not very easy for such a young child to be happy all the time but there was a secret which Ania loved to share with everyone. Every evening Ania’s mom was giving her a nice, warm cup of milk with a little bit of honey. It was so delicious that Ania couldn’t wait to have it every evening before her bed time. This MILK seemed to be a magical key as every night after this sweet treat Ania had fantastic dreams! As soon as she closed her eyes colors started to appear. First there was a rainbow instead of a sky, funny fruit trees and lots and lots of flowers. This town was full of furry creatures, mostly looking like Ania’s toys, but they were all alive and playing their favourite games in the playground. Laughter and joy was everywhere! All her friends loved Ania a lot and she loved them back. One day a terrible thing happened. Oh no! The milk was finished and it was too late in the evening to go to the store and get fresh one. That night Ania had to go to sleep without her favourite cup of warm milk. Mom and daughter were very sad but there was no other way, like going to sleep with a cup of tea for example. Next day Ania got up with a frown on her face. “What happened?” asked Mom, “I didn’t have any dreams”, said Ania with a lot of disappointment in her voice, “I was so hoping for a funny, playful dream and there was nothing, nothing at all. None of my friends came round. Mommy, mommy, please buy milk today!” The day in the nursery was long and boring. There was nothing funny or enjoyable for little Ania. When her mom came to pick her up a big smile came back on Ania’s face because a big box of yummy milk was in the plastic bag next to mom’s legs. A few hours later Ania was sitting on her bed, all dressed up in her PJs with her usual cup of milk in hand. She was ready to jump into her Milky Way town to play with her friends again. You never know when this city will open its door for you, so make sure to have a cup of warm milk every night and then wait for the magic to happen.

Leg Warmers – first knitting project

December 5, 2013 by Kate

Rating: +5 (from 5 votes)

Rating: 5.0/5 (6 votes cast)

Dear All!

Yes we are going to learn something new from time to time. Maybe it is nothing new for you but it is definitely for me. I have never touched knitting needles in my life. I thought it takes too much time and this repeated movement will make me sleepy in 5 minutes.

Since I couldn’t find any decent material to sew leg warmers I decided to try with my hands on needles and yarn – why not? Actually one of my friends was strongly surprised I hadn’t included it in my portfolio of skills yet. So, let it be!

I got yarn and needles and started some research on the net. Well I had to learn somehow so my best bet was youtube with instruction movies. If you would like to try yourself you can find a link at the bottom of this post.

First look at the label which comes with the yarn. You need to find out how many loops you have to put on in order to get the right length of final product. My yarn was size 6 and in order to make it fit my daughter’s legs I should have put 22-24 looks but since her leg warmers will have to go over her trousers and maybe even over her boots, I put on 34 loops and I decided on the Brioche Stitch (very easy for beginners).

I thought it would be a long few days before I would manage to finish it and I was very nicely surprised to see that I made 15 cm in 1.5 h! 🙂

I tried to keep up my spirits because in truth I was actually very disappointed and devastated I needed so much time for such a small result. But hey! I said A, so I should say B and get it done.

When the first leg warmer was finished I tried it on and I thought it was a bit too big, and I will show you later how I overcame this little obstacle. Now we can both wear it, both me and my daughter!

Winter clothes are not my favorite part of creativity but we need them, so it is good to learn knitting and crocheting in case you need to make something warm for a change.

I obviously added small decorations. This also helps kids to find the front and back. I always put some small “marks” on so my daughter will not get confused.

When we tried them on for the first time they did stand out in the middle section which is the widest and the most stretchable so I had to do something about it. I fed through two lines of white elastic underneath and it did the job perfectly fine.