travelling a trail of stars

When the new year comes around, I can't help but think of the possibilities: the places I could go and the things I could see.  So I thought this was a timely opportunity to share a page about planning to travel.  One evening, the boyfriend and I settled down in the foyer of the National Theatre to steal their wifi (it's free so it's not really stealing) and plan our trip to Prague.  Plus, if you sit in a theatre bar, it's empty while the performances are on so you can have the place pretty much to yourself!  I used mainly project life cards and a few odds and ends to put this together, and added a hand-drawn title.

We were planning in October when the nights were starting to close in earlier, so a chalkboard background made a nice night sky. Plus these chalkboard papers have been everywhere and I'd been itching to try one (although I can't seem to find many blank ones which is what I would prefer).

I love how wonderful the white pen looks on the black background - it really leaps off the page and enabled me to make a design feature of the journalling.  The main body of the page is made up of layers of PL cards, scraps of punched dictionary paper and bits of tags and ribbon.  With a little peg to clip it all together of course.  The writing gives the appearance of another layer. Most of the layout is constructed on a sheet of 12x12 clear acetate - the photos, papers, embellishments and stars etc are not stuck to the background at all. However, the sheet of acetate simply lifts off if you want to clearly read the full story underneath.

I thought the string of stars (tutorial here) made a nice touch to a night-time page.  I simply draped the garland across my page and then added a little dot of glue behind every other star or so; I didn't need to stick them all in place.The thread in between each star completes the impression of a smooth curve of stars trailing across the page.  It's simple, but I think it looks detailed and delicate.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Yep, I will definitely be needing more chalkboard paper.

a string of stars

Merry Christmas little blog!  It's been a while with all the inevitable busyness, but now the school holiday is here and I have a little festive project to share.  To make this simple string of stars, you need some patterned paper, a needle and thread, and a punch. Any shape will suffice, but I thought stars were Christmassy.  Perhaps I can pass this off as a whole new idea in February with little hearts for Valentines day!  I chose dictionary paper for my garland because it's very thin and the text pattern goes with everything, making the final project very versatile.  

With a sharp needle, put a small stitch through each star and slide the paper down along the thread.  A knot in the end will hold the first star in place, but I found once I'd slid each punched shape into position, they stayed put and didn't slip out of place or all fall to the end of the string.  Using very delicate paper was also an advantage here as the needle could stitch straight through it and I didn't need to poke holes in advance.

Once you've stitched through the desired number of stars, this little garland is ready to go! You can choose whichever spacing works for you; all together point to point, or spaced at intervals.  These strung stars could go on presents, around a tree, drape along a shelf or, my personal favourite, go on a scrapbook page!  I have a project to share using a string of stars in a day or two.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, and I hope to be around here a bit more this holiday :D

Kisses xxx

P.S. I am Journalling My Christmas, but in a very literal sense this year, in that is currently in purely written form.  I haven't really had the time to do more than that, but it has still been nice to record the Chirstmas memories, and it's been wonderful seeing so much creativity pop up in my blog reader :D