Hello, Friend-- Color Throwdown #429 and MIM #275

Well hello,

I thought I'd pop in to not only share this card that I'm entering into the challenges but also to let you know I'm still alive and (somewhat) kicking! I actually am chronically ill-- I have over 12 diagnoses and 65 different medications I need to take daily. One of my diagnoses is a rare immune-deficiency disease, which means that even a cold can land me in the hospital or at the very least takes me 6- weeks to recover. Soooo, all that to explain my disappearance since August!

Now, on to the fun stuff! :)

My color combination was inspired by this week's bold Color Throwdown #429 challenge:



And my technique with the "dangles" from the sentiment is from the tutorial Amy did for this week's Make-it-Monday #275. So here is my interpretation:

**All supplies PTI unless otherwise noted.

 My sentiment comes from the Bitty Bouquet set. The lines/"dangles" and bows are from sets by PTI, Mama Elephant and Avery Elle. The "symbols" on the dangles are also from various stamp sets/companies-- Clipsters Mini Kit, Stacked, Avery Elle and Mama Elephant.

Once the front panel was completed, I matted it with Soft Stone Striped patterned paper, which I cut using MFT's Scalloped Rectangles. Then, I wrapped some black baker's twine around the panel 3 times and finished with a bow. Finally, I mounted the finished front panel onto a Hawaiian Shores card base, cut with the Noted: A2 die set.

And that's all! Hope you had a lovely weekend and I look forward to any and all comments!

-O

O-Fish-Ally Awesome- Lawnscaping Challenge #

Hello and happy Monday!

Just stopping in for another quick post for the awesome Lawnscaping Challenge, for challenge #136 in which we need to make a card with a "punny sentiment". How fun, right?

 So, using Lawn Fawn's adorable Dad + Me stamp/die set and my Copics, I created this card:

I created the card panel using my Lawn Fawn Large Stitched Rectangle in PTI's Stamper's Select cardstock. The Hawaiian Shores cardstock strip that was threaded through PTI's Scene It: Scalloped Tag Base Die. On that I layered the Scene It Backer and then die cut the Scene It Mountain View Dies, which I sponged with distress ink. Then I set up the scene with various stamps/dies from the Dad + Me set and then I die cut the cloud, which I sponged with Hawaiian Shores ink, from Lawn Fawn's Yay Kites set.

 I finished the card off with the punny sentiment stamped in Lawn Fawn's Black Licorice onto a stitched banner, added some matching enamel dots and...I'm done! :) I had such fun making this card and coloring these cute little critters, I hope you will enjoy it too!

Thanks for stopping by and as always your comments are super appreciated! Have a wonderful, craft-filled week!

-O

Loads of Fun Shaker Card

Hello and I hope you've had a wonderful beginning of your week, so far! I'm just stopping by with a quick post for this week's Lawnscaping Challenge, sponsored by Lawn Fawn:

 So here is my interpretation of "Pattern Palooza": 

 I had so much fun creating this girly card for one of my (many) nieces! Seriously, I have 9 nieces and 10 nephews, but I digress...Hehe. So, my card began with this beautiful, patterned paper from Lawn Fawn and from this I pulled the colors and fun style. I love this stamp set and had such fun stamping the various faces on the undergarments!

I added other details such as glossy accents on the washer's knobs and around the bottom portion of the heat embossed sentiment, I stamped in PTI's Hawaiian Shores the tiny hearts, which are included in the set to decorate the clothes and such

A mixture of Copics and Spectrum Noirs were used to color the images and they were finished off with a very liberal slithering of Clear Wink of Stella. And finally, sequins from Pretty Pink Posh's Spring mix were added for some subtle"bling"...though I believe that is actually an oxymoron, haha. 

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to stop by the Lawnscaping Challenge for more gorgeous and inspiring cards! 

Until next time...craft on! 

-O

The Male Room Challenge: Celebrate your 5th Birthday!

 Entering this card (and another) into the male-centered challenge, cleverly named The Male Room:

The Male Room Challenge #40 - Happy 3rd Birthday

Entering this card (and another) into the male-centered challenge, cleverly named The Male Room:

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!

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

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