12 Kits of Christmas January Challenge & Some Blog Candy!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Well, not just yet, but after my last minute scramble to finish Christmas cards a few short weeks ago, I have resolved to have a nice, big fat stack of cards finished both inside and out all ready for the next holiday season long before I need to address and mail them.  To help me with this resolution, I am a member of a newly formed group who call ourselves the "12 Kits of Christmas Club".  I was so lucky to join this group of extremely talented ladies who all love to make cards as much as I do.  Each month one of us will play hostess and send a "kit" of identical supplies all ready to assemble some great holiday cards.  We will all be revealing our cards on the last day of the month with our own "Blog Hop".   At the end of the year, we all will have a great start to our holiday card creation. Today is the first of our blog hops and I hope you get ready for the first of 12 kit card reveals!

Renee Lynch of It's a Patchwork Life is the hostess for January and is also offering up some really great blog candy too!  All you have to do is visit each blog and leave a little comment.  Renee has a pic of the prizes on her blog, so make sure to check it out here. I have to say, Renee set the bar so high, I can not imagine being able to come up with as many gorgeous kit ingredients as she sent us.  Here is a picture of everything she sent to us:

 You should notice all the beautiful patterned paper, stamped images, diecuts, ribbon, sentiments, buttons and bling she included.  I will have a detailed list at the end of my post as I am certain you are going to want to own some of these for your very own.

Here is the first card I made:

Almost every single element on this card came from Renee's kit.  My absolute favorite is the beautiful diecut window.  The diecut is large and makes a beautiful focal point on a card.  Just about anything can be seen "through the window", but for this card I chose a night time scene with sparkly snowbanks and a cute doily Christmas tree with little red birds perched on it.  The bright shiny star was also included in the kit.  The only things not included in the kit were the pure poppy card base, the great bow which is from Waltzingmouse stamps Candy Jar Fillers and the stitching. 

My second card features another of the window diecuts, but this time I focused on the outside of a window looking in.

Who wouldn't like to shop at this Sweet Shoppe?  I used the beautiful snowflake patterned paper and this time a white window pane stamped with a Waltzingmouse Stamps Candy Jar Christmas sentiment.  I cut out a rectangle from the card front and also added a window pane on the inside to give a nice finished look to the card.  The inside of the card is actually as finished as the front.

The sparkly peppermint candy jar is also a WM Candy Jar Christmas stamp colored with copics and all glittered up.  The doily it rests on is actually a bottom layer of one of the Christmas Tree doilies Renee included in our kit.  This one is even already signed and just needs an envelope and a stamp. 

Thanks Renee for such a great kit to start out our year!

Here's the cards together:

Now that you've seen mine, be prepared to be amazed at the other 11 crafty people in our club.  Please make sure you stop by and check out what they have made from our January kit and you might be the lucky one to win the blog candy prize.

Suzanne: thecardyard

Joyce: Cards-by-the-Sea

Kim: CupcakesCardsandKim

Amy: Stamp-n-Paradise

Kara: KandRDesigns

Sharron: OnPapillionWings

Marybeth: Marybeth's Time for Paper

Jeanne: AKeptLife

Jessica: The Paper Parade

Christina: SeaGlass&Sentiments

Renee: ItsAPatchworkLife

Details: 

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse Compliments of the Season, Candy Jar Christmas, Candy Jar Fillers

Dies:       Memory Box: Star of Wonder, Poppystamps Die:Grand Madison Window, Cheery Lynn:  

               O Tannenbaum Christmas Tree, Papertreyink: In the Meadow

Patterned Papers:  October Afternoon, Holiday Style