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

Their Story Begins Scrapbook Page

Making a scrapbook for my future daughter in law three years ago is what got me started with stamping and cardmaking.  When I look back at that book, I realize how far I have come and also, how much more I have to learn.

My second son, Andy got engaged on Christmas Day to Ashley, his girlfriend of four years.  About time, don't you think?  We are all very excited.  The wedding isn't for quite some time, April, 2013.  It sure takes a long time to plan a wedding these days, much longer than when my husband and I planned out 32 year ago.  I am going to make a wedding scrapbook for Andy and Ashley that highlights both the planning of the wedding and the actual wedding day.  I have been googling and pinning inspiration layouts for weeks now.  Here is one that caught my eye:

Credit

It is sweet, simple and I love the forever words overlapped over the black and white picture. If you notice the picture is in black and white and it looks like their jeans are colorized to bring out the navy color of the background  paper.  I have no clue how to do that!  So, here is my somewhat cased scrapbook page.

This is going to be the first page of the album and I wanted it to be flat.  It is made using digital paper, which is a smokey shadow gray color.  The stripes are ivory and the dots are bright white.  I took this picture of the happy couple in black and white because once I started snapping pictures I realized that since it is Winter, there are no leaves on the trees and those poor leafless trees looked pathetic in color.  The sweet pose was actually Ashley's idea and we both thought it would look cute.  Andy went along with it because he wasn't about to argue with both his fiance and his mom.  Very wise son I raised.  I used a digital brush for the Forever words and added the Title and their names using  a beautiful scripty font. 
The wedding colors are black, ivory and lavender, so there just wasn't any way to work lavender into this page without it looking too bright and I also couldn't find any digital rhinestones to use, so this page is very muted.  I am looking forward to learning more about digital scrapbooking as this scrapbook progresses, some pages with be totally digital and some will be hybrid, which is  part digital and part real paper and traditional embellishments.  Wish me luck with this project and if you know any good blogs or find any great wedding layouts, I would welcome the advice. 
Details:
Digital Papers: MissMintClassicWedding by Peppermint Creative.com

WMSC#81:Anniversary #32!

Next week on the most romantic holiday of the year, Feb. 2nd, Groundhog's Day, my husband and I will be celebrating our 32nd wedding anniversary.  So romantic, isn't it?  A couple days later we could have married on Valentines Day, but no, we just had to go for the groundhog.

My husband and I are not a gushy romantic couple.  Our cards to each other tend to be more funny than romantic, so this years card is going to really shock him.  He will never expect a card with cameos and little heart tags all over it.   Here is the sketch by Anya Schrier on which I based my card:

Here's my way out of my comfort zone anniversary card:

I used an ocean tides cardstock base,  My first layer is vintage cream stamped with PTI Background Basic Newsprint.  I stamped WM stamps Off Beat Backgrounds polka dot stamp all over the newsprint.  I think that makes some really pretty patterned paper.  I used a dark chocolate cardstock embossed banner for the mat.  The embossing folder is by Provo Craft and is called Cassie's Brocade.  It is such a pretty damask pattern.  The two cameos (which look nothing like my husband and I by the way) are from WM Cameo Creations.  I stamped them on some patterned papers by My Minds Eye, Lost and Found Portobello road collection.  I stamped it on a fleur de lis Spellbinder diecut and added a few little swirly images from WM Holiday Labels #14.  I added a couple hearts from WM Fancy Phrases.  I notched the sides to hang a little loop of twine and added 5 mini tags stamped with hearts and  tiny sentiments from WM Say It Loud.  The little pins the tags are dangling from are some hooks I originally say on Ashley Cannon Newell's blog.  I think my husband is going to wonder what got into me when he sees this card, but I love it.  Guess there is a romantic side to me still, even after 32 years!

PTI January Blog Hop and CR84FN46 Color Challenge

It's not often that I am able to make one card and be able to submit it for two challenges, but the stars must have been aligned just right for me today, because I have a card to share for two challenges.

First, this is January's PTI monthly blog hop.  Our challenge this month was to share one of our favorite cards of 2011 and to re-create it in a new or different form.

The challenge for the CR84FN46 Color Challenge is to use the colors of light pink, yellow and a neutral.

One of my favorite cards of 2011 was this card made in July.

 I made this specifically as a masculine card, using kraft as my base and a very simple brown, navy, kraft color combination.  I used a simple polka dot embossing folder and a diecut star as an embellishement.

For my re-make card, I decided to use the CR84FN#46 colors of light pink and yellow to make this card into a "girly-girl" card.

I used the same background Impression Obsession Cover a Card stamp called Birthday Words stamped in sweet blush ink on lemon tart cardstock.  I used a pink scalloped diecut in place of the circle diecut from the inspiration card and embossed it with a cute cupcake embossing folder.  Us girls love our cupcakes, don't we?  I changed the color of twine to pink and white and stamped a little heart background on the diecut label, used a different embossing folder on the top layer and instead of a star, stamped a cute cupcake from Waltzingmouse Stamps Frame-It.  Of course that cupcake had to have some chunky glitter to add sparkle to my feminine card.  I had a great time switching up one of my favorite cards and now have both a masculine and feminine version to use when I need a send a quick birthday card.

Enjoy the rest of the blog hop and also, check out all the great pink, yellow and neutral creations at CR84FN. 

WMSC#80-Dainty Doilies

I was so inspired yesterday by all the "sweet" goodness created for the Waltzingmouse Blog Party.  It's not too late to check out some really cute cards and sweet treats.  Here's a link.   I especially loved the beautiful colors used by many of the entries.  Today I made a card using one of my most recent favorite color combinations, gray and berry sorbet.  Here is this weeks sketch on which I based by card:

Where as many people who used this sketch saw long paper strips, I saw smaller squares in this sketch. 

I used patterned paper by Authentique, the Uncommon collection and used pinking shears to cut out the postage stamp patterned paper.  I layered it onto some smokey shadow cardstock and another long strip of Authentique paper in a really pretty damask pattern for the center band.  I used some dark peach velvet ribbon and some cream colored pom-pom ball trim.  The doily is stamped with Waltzingmouse Stamps Dainty Doilies Large onto Authentique paper with gray ink.  The sentiment is from Teeny Trees.  I added a rose, a twine bow and some tiny pearls for a little bling.  I love the vintage postal feel to this card.  Thanks for taking a look!

Waltzing Mouse Blog Party "Sweet Things"

It's the 17th of the month and time for Waltzingmouse stamps new "Blog Party!"  No longer called a waltz, it's still based on a specific theme and will now be posted on the Waltzingmouse Blog using InLinkz. 

This month's theme is "Sweet Things".  My project is very sweet, although not an edible kind of sweet.  My son Andy got engaged on Christmas Day and I made a card to congratulate Andy and Ashley on this big occasion . Here's the card I gave them on Christmas Day. 

 I loved the folded and layered doily and the tulip border edge on this card.  Since I am making a wedding scrapbook for the happy couple, I made a scrapbook page for their book to coordinate with the card I made them. 

Here's my "Sweet Thing" of a romantic nature!

I tried to make it look as much like the original card as possible.  I didn't have any pink and white striped paper, so I made my own by cutting pink strips and gluing them on the cream cardstock.  I used a border punch to imitate the tulip border on the card.  I didn't have any music background paper large enough for a 12 x 12 layout, so I stamped some!  It is difficult to see in the picture, but Waltzingmouse Stamps Text It is stamped in pink over the dark chocolate music background.  I made another layered and folded doily, just like the one on the card.  It uses WM Nordic Winter images and adds some nice texture to this card.

 I stamped a mat with sentiments from  WM Big Day Additions and added some champagne glasses from WM Join Us set.  This mat was run through a Linen and Canvas impression plate and popped up on dimensionals. 

I used some of the same brown and cream lace as well as some pearls for embellishments just like on the original card.  The letters were cut with PTI's Alpha dies.  The picture was taken on Christmas Day and you'll notice Ashley made sure her pretty ring was front and center.  I think this is pretty "sweet", don't you?

Now get on over the the Waltzingmouse Blog and check out a whole lot of "Sweet Things".

4 of a Kind-January

Time flies.  It's my turn again to play hostess for our 4 of a Kind club which consists of four friends who love to stamp and make cards. We take turns hosting the club and sending the other members a kit of identical ingredients that are used to make a card which is revealed on our blogs a few weeks later.  Every single month the kits have been so creative and I had a really hard time trying to come up with a kit that was anything close to as good as my three friends, Renee, Joyce and Kim have sent me.  I wanted to do something a little different this month, so this is the kit I sent to everyone.

I included some beautiful patterned papers by Authentique from the "Uncommon" collection.  I also made a couple of notepad templates and included notepads and stamped images from Papertrey Inks Take Note stamp set.  There was some ribbon, buttons, felt flower diecuts, paper clips and a Tim Holtz rosette.

Here is what I made with my kit:

First up, a mini notepad, just the right size to pop in my purse.  It has a little mini pen attached and a 3 x 3 Sticky Notepad on the inside.  

Next up, a matching card.

I cheated a bit and made myself another Tim Holtz Rosette to use as the focal point.  This time I used a sentiment from Papertrey Ink Flutterby Friend and a melon berry felt rolled flower as a pop of color.  The card edges are cut with a Spellbinder Edgeability die with an interesting tulip shaped edge. 

Here are the two projects together:

Now that you have seen my projects, please go take a look at what my three friends have done with their kits.

Renee

Joyce

Kim

WMSC#79: Birthday Wishes

Today I have a card I made for WMSC#79, the first sketchof 2012.  Here is what the sketch looked like:

Being a little short on time this week, my card needed to be CAS.  Here it is:

I used a smokey shadow cardbase stamped with a sentiment from Say It Loud and embossed it with a leafy pattern embossing folder.  I stamped the smaller rose from Roses in Bloom onto some polka dot Stampin Up paper, and popped up all three layers.  The striped strip is also Stampin Up Paper which was layered over two rows of the very large border stamp from Victorian Frippery.  I did a little zig zag and straight stitching and added a few of the pretty leaves from Roses In Bloom for a little additional color.  The final touch was a little glitter to the flower center.  Thanks for taking a look at my first card of 2012!