Believe me, circles are no longer boring!! I have just discovered the artwork of Hungarian born painter Beate Santor and her wonderful variations on the circle shape.
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| figure 1-Sandor art |
Her work can be seen at
http://www.studio-sandor.com/
Beate's cheerful contemporary paintings of the circle shape have gotten me thinking this month about new and creative ways we can use our own circles. We all have either circle cutters, circle punches, or circle templates that we can use to reach out and make a few truly new scrapbook page ideas. Another great circle artist is Ed Emberly. Some of you may even have his wonderful children's book Ed Emberly's book Picture Pie: A Circle Drawing Book.
Figure cir 3 -tools
Our world is full of circles! You will never see a 'simple' circle punch the same way again! Circles are so versatile, you are bound to find a circle idea you can use for your albums! Feel free to adapt colors and sizes to suit your own page and space you have available. :) Use many sizes of circles together. I use circles a lot on borders and backgrounds. I want to share with you a few of those. Feel free to imitate them or borrow the ideas in your own albums.
Swiss Cheese page background: To create this background, cut the largest circles first and then the smaller ones in a punch art imitation of Santor art. This would make a great cheese page in yellows and golds! Or a cave/outdoor page if done in rock textures. This one is for a bright teen layout I have planned. Place your photos in the largest holes for a fun look
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Sprinkles: Just sprinkle punched circles onto the background. Put that scanner to good use!
Figure cir 8 sprinklebkgd
Circle flowers of many types:
Snip a bit out of the sides for a 'fringy' look or stack some up fried egg style-- and don't forget the chalk! Some flowers can be pieced out of three crescents punched from cardstock Mary E style!
figure cir 9 flowers,
fig cir 10 flowers
Bulls Eye Border: This was inspired by a quilt I recently made for my son. Stack circles of pattern paper and quarter cut them.
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| figure cir 11 | fig cir 12 | |
Bulls Eye Adaptation Border: This was inspired by a quilt variation I just did for my daughter. Stagger the 1/4 circles made as above.
fig cir 14
Circle Backgrounds: Great for teen pages! These are just pen drawn circles. Trace varied size circles in different pen colors.
fig cir 15
Circle backgrounds in softer tones on dark paper: Try some silver, gold, purple, and copper gel pens for wonderful heritage or wedding books. I am not sure if these show well here but try some and you will be pleased!
fig cir 16
Embossed circles on Vellum: Make your own patterned vellum for a fraction of the cost using a circle template or punched shape. Punch your own templates if you like. Use a stylus to press the paper into the template gently.
fig vellum cir 17
Tree Rings: Outdoorsy yet simple. Cut them with a deckle for extra realism.
fig cir 18
A Grill for Barbecue pages: A simple little punch art with two sizes of circles.
fig bar pieces cir 19 
fig bar finished cir 20
Stacked Circles Border: Punch random circles on several 2 inch strips and then stack them.
cir 21
Hot Torn Circle Sun: Think resort pages and vacations and warm summer days! Draw a circle with your template or circle ruler on the back of the cardstock and then rip around it for a better circle.
cir 22
March Shamrock clover: Of course I had to include this-- since this is the month for such things!
cir 23
And of course if you want to know more about how to highlight and shade your circles so they look more like a round ball or sphere there are artistic tips for that at:
http://www.drawsquad.com/lessons/less2.html
Need a few fonts to finish off the journaling? Try downloading and installing some fonts that have a circular look. (For specific step by step installation instructions, consult your own computer's HELP file contents index.)
Circulate (figure 24)
http://www.1001fonts.com/font_details.html?font_id=401
Mystery (figure 25)
http://www.acidfonts.com/m11.htm
and
Charaille (figure 26)
http://www.acidfonts.com/c3.htm
Have fun with those circles! There are no ends to the possibilities.
And I hope will see you a-round next month for more great ideas! LOL
