..:: placement day ::..

 Hi Friends! I am up on the Paper Issues blog today with a layout for the Head of the Class challenge! I chose to tell this story about my daughter receiving her placement and teacher name in a new building for the 2020-2021 school year. Usually the students find out on the last day of school, but this year was different because of the school building closure. Here is a look at how I documented this important story.

We knew that placements would come in the mail, and thought it might be this day, so we went to the mailbox together. I took a couple of photos of her excitement. To be honest when I printed them out the first time, I accidentally printed them in black and white.  So I reprinted them in color and I ended up liking the four photos together! Happy accidents are the best kind!  Here are a few close up shots of the layout.

I used items from the Strawberry shake collection by Studio Tekturek. I love all of the bright colors! I added some stitching with my sewing machine and some Nuvo Drops in pink!

You can find this and all of our current challenges in the September Challenges album in our Facebook Group. You have plenty of time to participate. Play along until October 4, for a chance to win a gift card to the Paper Issues Store. Shop the store using the code OrangeGearle for 20% off your purchase.

Thanks for stopping by, see you again soon! XO o.g.

..:: love this lagoon life ::..

Hi Friends! I am up on the Paper Issues blog with a Keep It Sketchy layout for you! Here is a look at my mixed media fun!

And here is a look at the sketch that I used for inspiration:

As you can see I pulled the fun rainbow of mixed media from this layout, as well as the basic design. To start, I grabbed some white card stock and prepped it with gesso. When the gesso was dry I added seven different distress oxides (see below) straight to the page -- then added water and watched it slide down the page!  

Once the distress oxides were dry I went back in with a blending tool and a heart stencil and added some hearts over the top, using the same colors. I love how this turned out!

I added some heart clusters across the page for more embellishment. I tried not to add too much because there was already a lot going on. I did add some pops of black because that's my jam. Here are a few more close ups.

This was a really fun layout to make. You can find this and all of our current challenges in the August Challenges album in our Facebook Group. You have plenty of time to participate. Play along until September 6, for a chance to win a gift card to the Paper Issues Store. Shop the store using the code OrangeGearle for 20% off your purchase.

Thanks for stopping by and I will see you again soon! XO o.g.

..:: photog ::..

Hi! Orange Gearle here with a layout for the Touchy Feely Challenge over in the Paper Issues {Friends & Fans} Facebook page. For this challenge you are to use a lot of TEXTURE (like texture paste, textured paper, mesh, fabric, ribbon, etc).  I decided to add texture by stitching with my machine, adding pop dots, and lots of tangled thread throughout the page. Here's a look at my take on this challenge:

I used the Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolor set that is available in the store, here, to create the stripes of color behind the photo, and then stitched after it was dry. This is what all that stitching looks like up close:

As you can see, I popped all those little bits up off the page and added tangled thread under the photos. All of those little bits are from Amy Tangerine's Picnic in the Park Collection that is also available in the Paper Issues store here. 

Here is the story, and a few close ups:

You can find this and all of our current challenges in the August Challenges album in our Facebook Group. You have plenty of time to participate. Play along until ?????, for a chance to win a gift card to the Paper Issues Store. Shop the store using the code OrangeGearle for 20% off your purchase.

Thanks for stopping by and I will see you again soon! XO o.g.