I hope you like what I've created for January. I'm going to post them with a note showing what order they were created in (a total of 7 pieces). I don't know if this is valuable information or not, but I found that what I did for the previous item shaped what I could (or could not) do for the rest.
First layout (Item 1/7)
This was just close to my heart. This coming weekend would have marked my father's 69th birthday. I miss him a whole lot. When I saw the "celebrate life" title I wanted to make a little something to celebrate his life, even though he has passed away. This was one of my favorite pictures of him, taken at Natural Bridges in Santa Cruz on my 25th birthday (I was just getting into photography, and developing my own black and white film back then).
Second Layout (Item 7/7)
After items 1-6, I had all of these great pieces of paper left over. I wanted to make a cover page for the book I bought to hold all of my ORMV layout pages. I wanted to reference some of the general info and rules (like what items we're allowed to use). I thought this would be a creative way to do it. Some of the layout is blurred out because it contains our contact info. However, you can see the full layout as a PDF in our joint email account (sent file). I created it all using a few basic MS fonts, just different sizes and orientations. I printed the layout on vellum and put it over a graphic I created with some of my left over pieces (and embellished with the same). What do you think?
First Card (Item 2/7)
So, I really had *no* idea what to do with the candles/stars black paper. I liked some of the candle graphics (and Anth mentioned that some of them were lined similar to cartoon drawings of chromosomes). When tightly wound DNA on chromosomes is usually depicted it looks like this:
I hand cut (without tracing anything... all freehand) - all of these itty bitty "chromosomes" out of the candles on the black paper. I made this card to "CELEBRATE LIFE" because one of my close friends (also Rachael, but with an extra "a") is pregnant and due soon. She works in the biotech industry with me and her husband is a scientist (PhD) at UCSF. I thought they would appreciate the "celebrate life" theme coupled with hand-cut chromosomes. Pretty nerdy, huh? (I secretly love it; it's my favorite this month.)
Here is the inside. Also created using basic MS fonts. I need to learn to take pictures before I use the cards next time! :-)
Second Card (3/7)
I just don't even know what I was thinking here. I didn't think about about tracing and cutting shapes at this point, but knew we could use circle cuts. For some reason trees and birds came to me. I free-hand cut everything except the circles (and the pre-made stickers). It shows. :-P
Third Card (4/7)
At this point I was just pretty damned determined to use the piggys and all of the good stuff I had left in the pack. I don't think this is all that creative though. It has taught me to wait until inspiration comes.
Fourth Card (5/7)
Another birthday card, with similar motivation to 4/7. Passable. Not my favorite in the group.
I do like how shredding the blue ribbon made cute balloon strings though.
Fifth Card (6/7)
This is all free-hand cut, except the scallop and blue circles - and of course it shows. However, for some reason, I like it anyway. I didn't know what to do with the flames from the black paper, but I really wanted to use them. S0... they became a flower, which was turned into a little card. It doesn't have any sentiment in it - so I could use it for anything really.
So, that's all for January. I am still stumped for most of the Feb. materials. I didn't really think about tracing line drawings. I may give that a try. Until next time... Happy Crafting!
With love and curly cutz,
Theresa
