Marieke's January Results

So it took me a while to finish this. I had it mostly done for a while, but finally got it completely finished at my crop this past weekend. 'Bout time, too. Geesh, I'm only 4 months behind schedule. Sigh. And I still have March and April to do. And look, it's already May. Ahh!

As these ultrasound photos were taken back in January, I didn't know yet that she was a...well, a "she", and I knew it was something I was thinking a lot about back then so I decided to focus on that.

Here's a link to the song on Youtube: It Won't Be Long

Claudia's January Results

I have to give full credit for my layout theme to Shaughn, who helped me tremendously because I was stuck with way too many Beatles song titles swimming in my head. It was also just a few weeks ago that Gavin came to me completely covered in marker, which was the first picture we both thought of. After that, it was pretty easy finding other pictures of Gavin and Mia in troublesome situations. I used my Cricut for the title (Alphalicious font), and Word's Juice ITC font for the lyrics, which had a similar look. The ribbon is stapled on in tangles with Color Staples, a technique I saw in a YouTube card-making tutorial video (I don't remember which one, it was a while ago). And I just sketched and cut out the yellow starred paper by hand.

As for the second project, the one song title I really wanted to use was "All You Need is Love", but couldn't figure out a layout I could pull together with the pictures I have. Then, a few days ago, I found a cute little stamp at Michaels with just those words, and I took it as a sign. I made this card for my parents' anniversary next month.

I don't know why the picture of the front of the card turned out so "fisheye", but it is a rectangular card, and the yarn goes straight across. I was thinking about making more copies of this card for the cardswap at CU (someone mentioned it on the Facebook group)... What do you guys think? I have no experience with that sort of thing, so I don't know if this card is appropriate or worthy of swapping. Your input is much appreciated, as always. :)

Rachel's January Results

First of all, apologies for the weird photo this month. I'm bad enough at taking photos during the day, but nighttime is pretty much a disaster, what with the shadows and all. Also, let me know if you're still not able to click on it for a closer look - I need to figure out what's causing that.

I loved the idea that Claudia had for this month. This was the first Beatles title that came to me, and while I toyed around with others, I just kept coming back to this one. This is the first time I have ever used my Cricut. Finally. I ended up tracing the letters with a blue gel pen because I wanted the title to stand out a little more. Clearly I still need some practice in letter placement, but luckily the font allows for a little, er, playfulness in the arrangement.

I also decided to print the photo on the left in black and white because the clothing patterns were too busy. The green sweater in the right photo had to stay, though. Too perfect.

January 2011 Kit

So, for all of our followers, ORMV has decided to split up hosting the monthly projects for 2011. We are each taking 3 months, of which 2 months will be 'host's choice', and 1 month will follow the classic ORMV kit rules. I took January, February, and March, and here are the instructions I included with my first month's kit:

January---Song Title: The Beatles

Obvious enough... the task is to use the title of a Beatles song as the title or primary sentiment of your project. Also acceptable are definitive Beatles lyrics (i.e. "I am the eggman"). I've included two printed sheets that gave me a Beatles vibe, as well as a few coordinating embellishments. Please don't feel obligated to use them if they don't work for you---the only restriction this month is the title.

P.S. The 2 butterfly/dragonfly stickers varied from kit to kit, there were all part of one embellishment pack I split up between the 4 of us... I hope that's okay. Please let me know if you are missing anything.

Theresa's December 2010 Results

So, when I opened the December 2010 kit, I was happy to see blue and green papers and embellishments. I immediately thought of our stay in Santa Cruz for Christmas 2009 - the Dream Inn, chinese food and a movie! It was fun, despite also being sad because it was our first christmas without Dad. So, here a selection of images from that time.

I will most likely make cards and other things with the December kit since there are so many neat materials to choose from. (Most of the background papers/edges here were from the Dream Inn or the restaurant we went to.)

More to come!

Claudia's December Results

I intend to make a scrapbook layout with the beautiful December pages and embellishments that Marieke put in this kit, but for now, I made a few Christmas-y 'thank you' cards. Since I am always procrastinating, I waited too long to buy seasonal 'thank you' notes and couldn't find any the past few days. So I thought I'd make my own. I went a little cookie-cutter, using just one layout for the 4 cards, and on top of that, I scraplifted this from a Scrapbooks etc. email newsletter from a few years ago. (I've used this idea for birthdays, Mother's Day, and just about any short sentiment you can think to fit in the little message box on the card.) You can think of this post in one of two ways: an admission to how unoriginal I am at times, or my sharing a favorite "recipe" with you. Please be kind. I did add one piece of ribbon that wasn't in the kit (the fat red ribbon) that I had left over from last Christmas, just because I felt the little tag needed another width.


Luckily, these cards don't take very much in the way of supplies, so I still have the majority of the December kit to play around with. But for now, I will consider myself caught up and ready to move on to ORMV 2011. Happy New Year!

Marieke's December Results

So, I feel like celebrating. I am finished with every kit this year. It feels like an accomplishment, I must say.

The last half of this year has been hard for me because I feel so constrained by the no tools rule - it sort of took the fun out of it for me. Don't get me wrong, that rule served it's purpose when we first started out and didn't all have the same kinds of tools, but it feels like it has outlasted it's usefulness. Maybe it's just me.

So, with that said, it should come as no surprise that I am very much looking forward to the freedom we will have in the new year. I think Claudia's challenges sound great and I already have an idea for January. It's time to ring in the new year.

This month, I made a few cards. Nothing fancy.


I think my favorite is the little guy. I used a strip of glittered flourish I cut off the larger patterned paper and added the bird that came with the angel embellishment. The "Peace" sticker seemed to go with it since the script was cursive-looking and since the bird was a dove it seemed to fit right into the theme.

Rachel's December Results

Christmas cards seemed like the obvious choice this month, what with all of the adorable embellishments and coordinating papers. But I had my heart set on scrapping last year's Christmas photos, so that is what I did. With a card thrown in for good measure, of course.

I kept the layouts very simple, in order to keep the focus on the photos. I decided to cut the "Joy" 12x12 paper into two 6x6 strips to use as side borders for my photo block. This was a good exercise for me, too in my quest to get more comfortable with white space. I added the felt holly embellishment to disguise my shoddy cropping work. I'm starting to remember why I like to crop my photos in Picasa before I have them developed, but this month I played it old school.

In the second layout, I wanted to record the way the house is decorated for Christmas. For the title, I violated the "Season's greetings" embellishment to get the "Season" I needed for my title. Note to self: don't take the picture until after the gel pen has had time to dry. Oh, well. You get the idea.

I had a lot of fun with this card. The blue and white really jumped out at me as this is one of my favorite color schemes for Christmas. Maybe it's the whole winter wonderland thing, or the fact that it's a new take on the standard red and green. I just think it's a beautiful combination, and I was thrilled that Marieke included these pieces in the kit. I had fun using the leftover strips from trimming the cardstock to create a faux-snowflake. Or star or what have you. Anyway, I like it.

December Kit

1. Paper

2 - 12 x 12 plain - lime green and kelly green
2 - 12 x 12 patterned - joy and ornaments



Miscellaneous Paper

white glitter cardstock
plain red
red plaid
dark green holly
light green holly
plain blue
lime green
snowflake embossed white



2. Ribbon, Brads and Bling

Ribbon:
thin white
thin green
red polka dot

Bling:
red rhinestones
green rhinestones


Brads:
4 silver
4 red



3. Embellishments

Holly Stickers
3D Snowflake Stickers
3D Angel
3D Sleigh
Felt Holly and Berries (cut using a sizzix die)






4. Titles and Sentiments

Where to Buy Your T-Shirts

So there are several t-shirt design companies out there where you can upload your graphics and they print the shirt for you.

Among them are:

www.cafepress.com
www.zazzle.com
www.customink.com

My intention was to create a store front with various styles of t-shirts for you guys to choose from, but honestly setting up a store front is much more complicated than I anticipated.

So, I've created a basic t-shirt at Custom Ink. Before going over there, please note that the back image has been centered though it does not appear that way - their t-shirt photos is slightly off center of their template. Here is the link: http://www.customink.com/designs/ormvtshirt/fnz0-000g-hygb/hotlink?pc=HL-46120&cm_mmc=hotlink-_-2-_-Body_txt-_-button1

To edit size and color:

1. Click on the orange checkout button

2. Click on the round button with the t-shirts on it to swap the item

3. A color palette will come up and you can choose a different color t-shirt (once you've chosen a color, click "get quote" to change the sizing and to get the final price.

OR

4. You can click on the link that says, "different product" which is under the orange bar that reads, "Swap Item". There you will be able to scroll through all of the t-shirt choices. Be aware that some have minimum purchase quantities.

I think cafe press and zazzle may be a few dollars cheaper and they have more design styles (v-neck, women's fit, etc.) so you may want to go over there. I will email everyone the files you will need to create you own t-shirt. It's very easy to upload them and work the t-shirt design editor.

Also, you may find a cheaper alternative to anything I've listed. If so, please let us know. I think spending $20 to $28 dollars on a t-shirt is a bit extreme, myself. But, it is custom made, so I see why they charge that much.