Orang-utan update

Well, I lost my stitching mojo for a while so progress has been slow, but I've finally got the bug back again so have been stitching a lot over the past few days and have finally finished the second page -

I need to get a move on though - these first two pages have some blank space on them but the last two pages are completely stitched.  When I first started, I thought I had plenty of time (my son goes to Borneo next summer) but because I slowed down so much, the target is more challenging now.  But if I carry on at the speed I've been going for the past couple of days, there will be no problem ...

And for anyone who doesn't know the background - previous blog posts are here and here .

More new stash to create with ...

... yesterday not one but TWO lovely parcels arrived.  One contained something I plan to play with fairly soon (more of that in a later post, I hope) and also a new extra large acrylic block, which was very handy as the second parcel contained, among other things, my new Tim Holtz christmas stamps :-)  I'd also splashed out on some more distress inks (SO many gorgeous colours to choose from - I plan to own them all eventually).  So I just HAD to get all inky today and try out the new stamps and some of the inks, didn't I?

I'd already had an idea for some christmas cards, so that is what I did.  There are two different designs but they can be done in a variety of different colour schemes - limited only by my imagination and the number of ink pads I own ;-)  My favourite is the second design, but the first will be nice to send to people who prefer a more traditional style of card  -

The colours are much richer in real life, and the sparkle (from the perfect pearls mists) doesn't show up on the photos at all.

They are very simple to create, but great fun (and a little messy!).  The backgrounds are distress inks in various colours applied randomly with an ink applicator the spritzed with perfect pearls mists.  Then I swept some ink directly from the pad across the bottom of the sheet before stamping the image in plain black ink.

I think I will be making quite a few more of these over the coming weeks ...

Yet another beach LO ...

Yes, another beach-themed layout!  Having done the two small LOs in CJs, I was really pleased to see this week's weekly challenge on UKScrappers involved a beach theme - it was good to play around with some of my ideas on a larger scale.

The challenge was a beach theme, the colour blue or turquoise, and two photos.  I knew immediately that I wanted to scrap some photos of this summer's holiday in France.  Although I initially had plenty of ideas, I couldn't find papers that looked right.  Then I found this paper with circles all over it - although it didn't seem like a "beachy" paper, the colours were so perfect I knew I had to use it. Then I remembered my new Tim Holtz mini mask, and started to get ideas ...

I rounded the corners of the photos to fit in with the circular theme and found a journalling card that fitted perfectly.  The letters were printed on cardstock and cut out (printed from the hybrid downloads that went with the ScrapaGogo kit in which I found this paper).  I inked over the mask to create the compass shape over one of the circles, then used a brad to attach a spinner in the centre of it ...

The finishing touch was to dry brush some sand-coloured acrylic paint around the edges for a sandy effect.

My first tag

Tags have intrigued me for a while.  I love the look of them but have never quite seen the point of them ... what do you do with them once you've made them (apart from admire them, of course)?  But now I'm starting to get more adventurous with inks, stamps and other exciting things, I thought I'd have a go, and I've even worked out what to do with it ... it will be added to the front of a card and sent to somebody at some suitable occasion -

I used a blank manilla tag  (size 8) and began by inking it with distress inks (frayed burlap and crushed olive, with a tiny bit of walnut stain).  I then used frayed burlap on a clockface stamp (from ScrapaGogo) randomly over the background.  The large V's are rub-on letters (referencing the roman numerals found on many clockfaces).  The quote is a Tim Holtz stamp - the piece of card has been distressed and inked with the same colours as the tag.  I've used some Tim Holtz Ideology bits (clockface and game spinners).

The lower clockface was cut from blank chipboard, stamped and embossed (another Tim Holtz stamp, using black ink and clear embossing powder) then inked with the same colours as everything else.

Finally, the whole tag was spritzed with a Perfect Pearls mist (heirloom gold) to add a subtle sheen that doesn't really show very well on the photos.

I'm really pleased with my first effort and think I'll be doing more of these - watch out for them if you receive a card from me in the next few months! 

Another CJ, another beach ...

I didn't realise when I did the beach LO on the last CJ that the next CJ I was due to receive had a beach theme, so this is two beach-themed CJ entries in a row.  There are some similarities (twine and use of distressing techniques) but also differences (no paint this time, but plenty of ink).

We were asked to use photos of deserted (or nearly deserted) beaches (as few people as possible) and to stick to "beachy" colours.  We were also asked not to journal directly onto the page, to either leave out the journalling or to hide it; I chose to do some hidden journalling (if you untie the twine bow, the flap lifts up to reveal journalling about why Cancale is such a favourite place for us).

Snowman limbo

I spent four hours yesterday afternoon at a crop and had a very productive time.  I scrapped the last of last year's photos for the family photo album - I managed two double LOs and one single from a pile of snowy, icy scenes.  I was particularly pleased with this double LO -

There are a couple of "firsts" here - the first time I've used mixed fonts in the title (I didn't have enough letters to use all the same font so decided to give mixed fonts a try), and the first time I've used journalling strips, rather than journalling in a block.  It took me ages to plan and a while to complete (mostly drying time as most of the lettering started off as plain chipboard and was painted/glittered/varnished) but I'm really pleased with the final effect.  I'll certainly be using both techniques again, and may even pluck up the courage to use even more mixed fonts in future (mixing fonts within words too) - I've seen it used very effectively elsewhere.