Hoarding Like Squirrels

I love stamp sets and admit I’m a bit of a hoarder. That’s probably not news to you, but I suspect many of you are hoarders too. However even with a stamp set I love I sometimes wish there were other/extra images. This was exactly what happened after I got the Nuts About Squirrels Stamp Set last year. The two squirrels are so cute but something was definitely missing, separate acorn images. So why was it only after I’d finished today’s project that I realised my wish had been granted?

NUTS ABOUT SQUIRRELS

It’s been far too long since I last used my Nuts About Squirrels Stamp Set so that was my challenge today. I began by cutting a 2″ x 5-1/2″ strip of Thick Basic White Card. Then I used a pencil and ruler to mark the centre at the top. This allowed me to punch a hole using the Label Me Fancy Punch. Then after erasing the pencil mark I was ready to create my little scene.

From the two squirrels in the set I chose the one holding the acorn, I just love his cheeky face. In fact there are actually four different stamps that make up this image. So first I used Early Espresso ink to stamp the outline onto the bottom of my bookmark piece. Then I used the separate solid stamp and Cajun Craze ink to colour his fur. This was actually quite easy to line up simply by looking through the clear photopolymer stamp onto the outline image.

The final two stamps I needed were the acorn cup and acorn. For the cup I inked up the stamp with Early Espresso ink and ‘stamped off’ onto some scrap paper. Then I stamped the lighter colour into the image outline.

I experimented a little with the acorn colouring by stamping some different ink combinations on scrap paper. In the end settled on Cajun Craze ink and inked up the acorn. Then I ‘stamped off’ onto the scrap paper before stamping the lighter ink onto the image on my bookmark. After cleaning off the acorn stamp I inked it up with Mossy Meadow ink and once again stamped off some of the ink. Finally I stamped into the acorn outline again to give me a unique colour.

FINISHING TOUCHES

Having completed the squirrel I noticed that he appeared to be floating, so I had two choices. Either I could trim off the white card below his feet or I could colour it in to give him some ground to stand on.

In the end I decided to take a real chance and pressed the bottom edge of the bookmark directly onto the Mossy Meadow ink pad. It wasn’t perfect but it did the job.

Next I toyed with the idea of adding something in the space above the squirrel. I considered adding the branch and/or leaves from the Nuts About Squirrels Stamp Set, but thought perhaps it would detract from the cute little guy I’d created. So in the end I simply added some sky using Balmy Blue ink and a Blending Brush.

With that done I cut four 6″ pieces of Linen Thread and poked them through the hole. Then I tied them all together in a simple knot. My sweet bookmark project was finally complete.

Acorns! Now I remembered that the new Fond Of Autumn Stamp Set includes separate images of acorns and oak leaves. What’s more the Autumn Bouquet Dies has dies to cut them out! So combining these two stamp sets and the dies is now one of the projects on my list for today.

For some of last year’s projects using the Nuts About Squirrels Stamp Set see these earlier blog posts: