Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Yay, Kites- "Quadruple-Shaker and Double-Slider" Card

The title sounds quite weird, right? Well, you shall now see what I mean by "quadruple shaker/double slider card... *drum roll*:  





Does it now make sense? Haha, I certainly hope so! So, when I initially set out to make this card, which is for a soon-to-be 10 year old girl, I was stumped and (sorely) lacking in inspiration/ideas/mojo etc,. But then I did my daily "rounds" of challenge blogs and I finally had my muse!!  For the color scheme, I actually drew inspiration from both the Sunday Stamps Challenge (where we must use a minimum of 3 colors from the challenge image above) and from Lawn Fawn's Lawnscaping Challenge  #134  in which we had to incorporate rainbow colors. That also happens to be the same theme for Virginia's View Challenge #22:

As I could not fit 7 kites within the space of the gorgeous Mama Elephant frame, I simply decided to cut 4 kite shapes and put two different colored sequins in each (except for the first). 

For a little twist and colors that I thought would be more appropriate for a girl, I decided to use somewhat non-traditional rainbow colors, using pink rather than red, for instance.





And finally, as I'm participating in Kathy Racoosin's awesome 30-Day Coloring Challenge, I opted to use little critters that I could color!


Monday, July 25, 2016

Colour 351 & Stamp-a-Faire 2016: Gilded Gold- Sending Birthday Cheer

Well hello and happy Sunday/weekend! I'm here today with a card that was made for two challenges-- the colors were inspired by the beautiful and regal color scheme of ColourQ #351 and gold "touches" throughout were inspired using the techniques that Danielle Flanders challenged us to use in the Gilded in Gold Stamp-a-Faire (SAF) 2016 video:

I pulled out my Don't Forget to Write Make-it-Market kit and used my trusty MISTI to get near-perfect stamping. The card base is PTI's Soft Stone, upon which I overlaid a chevron cover-plate (in white). Then, from Hawaiian Shores cardstock, I cut the "base square" using my MFT Stitched Scalloped Squares. Then I die cut and stamped the frame, with the edges accented in gold and the "mail stripes" in PTI's Hawaiian Shores. The sentiment, both the die-cut "sending" and "birthday cheer" (stamped in PTI's Amethyst Allure) are from the kit but the stitched banner is from MFT Blueprints 29.
The floral spray was mounted using dimensional adhesive after having stamped it in an array of colors, namely Hawaiian Shores, Enchanted Evening, Amethyst Allure and embossed with gold accents.
I finished the card off with some Sparkling Clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh and then lined an envelope, using an awesome stitched die from Lil Inker Designs, with PTI Soft Stone striped patterned paper. And that's it! As always, thanks for stopping by and craft on! :)

-O

Monday, July 11, 2016

ColourQ #349 (2nd helping ) : Enjoy the Journey

And I'm baaack with another card for the beautiful color scheme for ColourQ's Challenge #349


After having made yesterday's camping card, I decided that as I already had he supplies out, I might as well make another card! I was in need of a masculine birthday card, so the Colour Q challenge #349 fit the bill! 

I began by die cutting the layers of the focal point, using various dies from PTI's Scene It collection. The mountains were die cut from PTI's Kraft and Stanper's Select cardstock. The cloud layer was also cut from PTI's Stamper's Select and then sponged with Simon Says Stamp's Cloudy Sky dye ink. I die cut the tree layer from both Kraft ans Aqua Mist cardstock.  I snipped the trees from the Aqua Mist die cut and layered it on top of the Kraft one for added dimension and color. 

I adhered all the layers onto the PTI Scalloped Basic Backer and set it aside.  I die cut various pieces from PTI's Petite Places: Happy Camper set. I inked the car up with Memento's London Fog dye ink; the fire, suitcase and camper with PTI's Pure Poppy; the "Enjoy the Journey" sentiment was stamped in PTI's Smokey Shadow ink; and finally the lawn chairs were inked up with Memento's Teal Zeal. The small banner with alternating colors was colored with Copic markers.

I die cut the banner for the sentiment from Tag Sale Quilted (PTI) and stamped this sweet sentiment from Mama Elephant's Sunday Sentiments stamp set.  I then cut from Kraft Cardstock the frame using MFT Stamps' Stitched and Scalloped frames. I adhered the focal point scene, along with the banner and frame, to the white card base. I finished the card up with some red baker's twine and enamel dots.

Well that's all folks and until next time...craft on! ; )

Have a fantastic week!
-O

ColourQ #349: Sail Away...my first slider card!

Hello all and happy Monday! 
I'm here to share my first ever slider card. In the past, I  have hesitated to make one as I thought it would be difficult and/or time consuming. ..but au contraire, mon frère! It was a ton of fun and I thought it the perfect opportunity to make a cute little nautical scene using the gorgeous color palette from the ColourQ Challenge #349


And, I finally inked up my What the Doodle:Waves set from PTI. I thought it would be super cute and fun to have the boat from the set seem as though it's riding the heat embossed /watercolored waves. 


I colored both the boat and the waves with a combination of Zig Clean Color Real Brush pens (022 Carmine Red, 024 Wine Red, 092 Blue Gray, 042 Turquoise Green) and Akashiya Sais ( unfortunately the names are not in English but I used a "cloudy blue, bright red, light blue and dark gray).

I put down a wash of color starting with my darkest colors and "pulled them out" to the lighter areas. I then waited a bit of time for it dry (not completely, still "moist") and went back in with more colors, building upon the first layer.

For the background, using Lawn Fawn's Stitched Clouds Border dies, I die cut a couple strips that I then used as a mask to sponge on the clouds (I used a combination of PTI's Aqua Mist/Hawaiian Shores/Tropical Teal). I die cut the frame from PTI's Pure Poppy cardstock using one of my favorite Mama Elephant dies. I die cut the track using Lawn Fawn's Slide On Over die set, which made creating the slider card a breeze! Behind the top layer,  I die cut a piece of white cardstock and sponged on the above mentioned colors to provide "uniformity" (to match the sky/ocean) and so that it wouldn't be a stark white behind . And finally for the sentiment, I used Mama Elephant's gorgeous new Calli Letters alphabet set and the interior card sentiment (picture coming soon) is "& enjoy you day!"  . I love, love, love that set and it also pairs well with the Concord & 9th upper and lower case alphabets! I finished off the card with some Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear sequins and...I'm done! I hope you've enjoyed this lengthy detailed post (hehe) and that you'll come stop by my blog again soon!

I'm also entering this card into the now returned (YAAAAAAAAAY!) Virginia's View Challenge #22 (Summer) As you may have already deduced from my 'exuberant' yaaaay, I'm super stoked it's back! :) hehe! My card fits the coloring/ink blending and (I think) color-layering criteria. There is a TON of beautiful inspiration on the site, so be sure to check it out!

And I'm  also submitting this card into Kathy's super-fun 30 Day-Coloring Challenge! Her work is always so inspiring!

MIM #255 String Art Using Die Cuts : Enjoy the Journey




Well hello and happy Monday to all!!

I know it may seem as though I've either a) fallen off the edge of the Earth or b) decided to sorely neglect my beloved blog and fellow crafters...but rest assured, it's neither option a or b! I've been sick, with a rather nasty infection, for about 7 weeks and so my card making has been sparse...but not non-existent. I've simply been so exhausted that I found it easier to post my cards to my Instagram account "O2CraftMama". I plan on posting the cards and projects I have up on Instagram to this blog in the coming days.  And now to the "main course" of this post (haha): 

I was first inspired by the cool, "retro-ish" String Art with Die Cuts technique that Amy challenged us to use on a project. As I've been short on strength and time, I opted to use the "no-sew" version. You can check out the video (and find more lovely inspiration) by heading over to   Nichole Heady's blog. Then, my color scheme was inspired by the beautiful mood board up on the Lawnscaping Challenge blog, here it is: 
Lovely, right? And now on to my card: I "scavenged " my die supplies and finally settle on the MIM Circle Shaker dies. I cut the circle put twice so that I would have a sturdiet piece that would not warp once wrapped with the yellow/white baker's twine. Originally I had planned on making a large flower much like the one Amy used as her focal point on one of her cards, but then it struck me that the lines the string art made looked very much like sun rays! So that moment of "Ah ha!!" is what set the stage for the rest of the card (hehe)! 
I used the awesome Scene it Dies to cut from both Stanper's Select and Soft Stone the mountain range. Using PTI'S Smokey Shadow, i stamped the "Enjoy the Journey" sentiment from Betsy Veldman's Petite Places: Happy Camper set. I cut out the hill/trees piece  (in the same set as the mountains ) from white and Aqua Mist card stock. From the Aqua Mist piece,  I cut off the trees and adhered it to the white one. I then colored the tree trunks with a grey Copic marker (IG1). Then, I die cut all the small pieces (car, camper, chairs etc,.) from the adorable PTI Happy Camper set and stamped them in Hawaiian Shores, Bright Buttercup, Soft Stone and Smokey Shadow ink (all PTI). For the banner on the camper, I once again pulled out my Copic markers and colored each individual pennant with alternating colors. For the clouds, I used two die sets, Lawn Fawn's Yay Kites and PTI's Scene It die, so that I would have a variety of sizes. I then sponged the edges of the clouds with Lawn Fawn's Merman and PTI's Aqua Mist for contrast and depth. 

Then, I adhered all of the top layers (tree/hillside,triple mountain peaks, car, camper, chairs etc) to the bottom-most mountain layer.  I used dimensional adhesive, for depth and interest, and then adhered this petite scene directly on top of the "sun rays". I then cut the stitched rectangle mat (from Aqua Mist cardstock) using Lawn Fawn's Large Stitched Rectangles die set and the white, scalloped card base from PTI's new die collection Noted A2. I adhered all the various pieces, mats and layers to the card base and...I'm done! :) It was time consuming and at times frustrating because I have tremors, which certainly does not facilitate such miniscule,  detail oriented work, buuuut all in all it was a ton of fun to create! 

I hope you enjoyed this post, despite its novella-length (haha) and I hope that you all have a happy, craft-filled Summer week! ;) 
Until next time...craft on!
-Oreet