Yay, my jigsaw came home

Yay, I got my jigsaw! Last post I showed all the pieces I'd done for everyone's jigsaw. Here's mine, the theme was butterflies, and each person in my group did a piece. I'm so pleased with it, especially how much dimension there is to it!

Maureen, you asked in the comments last time how it started, well we each started with a blank chipboard jigsaw. This swap was on UKScrappers, which has a great selection of swaps. It was run by Frances, who was a fantastic host, keeping us all straight about which piece to decorate with each theme so the jigsaws would work at the end. I don't envy her that task! We're hoping to do a 6x6" swap in a couple of months to complete the set.

8x8 jiggy swap

After the 12x12 jigsaw swap I took part in on UKS earlier this year, I was eager to join in with the 8x8 swap. I've just finished my pieces, and can't wait to receive back my complete jigsaw. I feel that I used more techniques on this jigsaw, and played a lot more with ink/ paint.

The themes were

1. Musicals. I found this really difficult, as I'm not a big musicals fan, but I like how it turned out. I found some show programme images on the web and used them to create a background, then added a couple of painted acetate notes and a flower which I stamped with a text stamp.

2. Christmas. This was the first piece I completed, I painted the piece, then embossed silver snowflakes. I then stamped christmas trees, cut them out and added them, mounted on foam pads. I completed the piece with a metal embellie and a small piece of ribbon.

3. Vintage Love. I enjoyed doing this piece. I used patterned paper for the background, and added a strip of lace across the middle. I stamped the roses, and wrapped some mulberry paper round them, then used that paper also to make a couple of hearts.

4. Butterflies. This was my theme. I created a digi background using supplies from Designer Digitals, then stamped 2 butterflies on acetate. I painted one with Staz-on ink (using a cut n' dry nib) and gold acrylic paint, and added Stickles to the other.

5. Celtic. I loved the sound of this theme, but for some reason I had great trouble creating the piece that was in my head. I'm pleased with the final outcome though. I printed a celtic seal, then added leaf beads to artist wire to create a look of a slightly hidden celtic stone.

6. Fashion through the ages. I stamped on the background of this piece with Paperartsy stamps, then added cut out stamps of shoes. I then added the quote, and created a hanger from artist wire. I stamped a bag, cut it out and made the strap from beads, which I then hung on the hanger.

7. Faeries. It took me a while to decide what to do with this piece as it's not a theme I have any supplies for. I drew on a wing, then coloured it with Stickles, paint, ink and liquid pearls. I had a lot of fun mixing those all together to see the effects. I then added a stamped fairyland ticket.

8. News Headlines. I decided to go with the moon landing for this one as I am an astronomer at heart. I painted the jigsaw piece with a mix of black and blue acrylic paint, stirred together with silver stickles. I then added a chipboard moon, painted with liquid pearls, and a teeny American flag on it. I found a picture of the moon lander, and the front page of a newspaper from that date. I printed this image out, added some distress ink to yellow it, and folded it with some blank paper so it would look more like a full newspaper.

9. Mythical creatures. I chose the phoenix as the creature for this piece. I printed out an image, and blinged it up with sparkly pens and stickles. I added some stickles dots on the background too to look like stars. I then printed out the phrase, and burned the edges with a match.

Quiet time for scrapping

This last month I've barely scrapped, just don't seem to have had the time. I'm sure I read an article in one of the mags last year which said our creativity goes in cycles, so I'm clearly in a gathering phase just now. Hope the creating side comes back soon:). I am just back from my holidays, so do have 250 new photos to scrap!

I did manage the first day's challenge in Jessica Sprague's challenge a day at the start of June, to list 5 favourite things about summer. It includes my new favourite technique - extractions, which I learned using a fabby technique from Cassie on Designer Digitals.

I did do a couple of interesting LOs at the start of last month when Anna Aspnes set challenges on Designer Digitals, they are totally different to anything I'd usually do, but I loved being out of my comfort zone.

The first one gave us a template, with the title 'Absolutely Zero Desire', and I had great fun thinking of my top 10 to be included.

The next week she gave us an overlay, including the title 'I have a secret desire 2' which came just at the right time for me to know exactly what to write about.

To counteract that, I did my first paper LO in a while, and as I'm not doing so much of it, I decided to go all out and include lots of product. I love the bright colours in it.

Loving the challenges on Jessica Sprague

This LO was done for the 3kits 3ways challenge on DD. I used J Edwards Bluebells and Daffodils kit; A Aspnes Esther brushes; K Pertiet Photo wraps as the 3 kits, as well as some other bits and bobs from DD.

Jessicasprague.com had a week of challenges this week - 7 LOs in 7 days. I wasn't able to do all of them, but I got 3 done. Even better, there's one for each day in June too!

This first challenge gave us a template by LivE. I used the Pandamonium kit by M Terasawa for the little bee etc.

The second challenge got us to use a blending technique. I used the heart shape from the standard Photoshop shapes, then added a brush and changed the blending mode to overlay. I like this photo, taken as my photo of the day in January. 

This last one is just a fun one. We were to think of a song that means a lot to us. I love Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves, it's just such a sunny, happy song. I made the little mini-me last year as one of the challenges during a UKS cybercrop, so I used a photo of it on my LO now that I know how to extract things!

If you've never done a digi scrapping class, then I totally recommend Jessica's classes. There's a video tutorial for each one, and tons of supplies. It's the easiest way to learn, I've learnt sooooo much!

More LOs

I love you because...
I almost think there's too many challenges available for scrappers, I love them, but sometimes I can get caught up in thinking I have to try them all! Today was Saturday Scraplift day on Designer Digitals, and I gave it a go. I'm not used to scraplifting, but I liked the original LO. It was fun to use baby photos of Amy as I've just been using recent ones so far for my digi pages. Also, I LOVE the Pandemondium kit by Mindy Terasawa, and use it all the time!

I'm also loving all the various styles of page I see in the gallery. This week's colour challenge on DD was set by Anna Aspnes who has a really cool arty style. We got this background paper, and the swirly clipping mask. It's totally not my usual style, but I enjoyed having a play. I downloaded the dragon clip art and covered it with paper from K Pertiet's clipper paper pack. 

Apart from this we've just had the first posting of the eco-friendly cj on UKS. My theme is reuse: what have you repurposed around the home. I'm thinking there could be some really interesting themes with this one.  I've asked that everyone use some packaging on their LO. On mine I cut some flowers and title out of a Mintrels packet and a cookie wrapper using my Sizzix dies. The title on the front was cut from magazines and a colouring pad of Amy's (the U).

Yay, got my mojo back

I'm so glad I've got my new laptop, I was worried for a while that I'd lost my mojo for digi-scrapping, but now that I've reloaded everything I'm back. It helped that Designer Digitals had their quarterly sale last weekend, with lots of chats and freebies. 

Here's a few LOs I've done since then, using freebies from the chat day as well as other goodies from DD.

Also, I actually managed to do a paper LO last month too! I chat on a social group on UKS called animal, vegetable and mineral for those of like who sometimes like to do LOs without people. Last month the challenge was to use our favourite stamp, and I love this set by Rhonna Farrer for Autumn Leaves. Also decided to use up some of my hoarded stash, so I included the lace cardstock and layered several chipboard flowers. I really enjoyed paper scrapping, though it was a bit annoying that stamps can't be flipped, now I'm used to Photoshop brushes lol.

Arty Farty Jigsaw Swap

Here's the first piece I've finished for this swap on UKScrappers. The theme's music, and we were to include the purple ribbon. It was great fun to do, I did a digi background, added some inchies, and the note is chipboard with a Basic Grey rub-on on top.