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