12 Kits of Christmas-July

It's Christmas in July here and I am back with some cards for the 12 Kits of Christmas.  This month our hostess was Christina and she sent us a kit full of so much patterned paper, stamped images and sentiments...I had a ton of options.  Here is a pic of the fabulous kit she sent us.

My first card uses the beautiful poinsettia images from Waltzingmouse Big Bloom Poinsettia.

I just cut them out and added some gold glass beads to the centers.  I distressed the edges and stitched around them a bit, added one of Christinas nice sentiment strips and the card was done!

My second card is very CAS.

I used one of Christinas die cuts from Very Vintage Labels #18, also from Waltzingmouse and another poinsettia, this time I colored it with copics.  I used a cuttlebug embossing folder on the green layer and punched a snowflake border to layer of the red strip.

My third card is my favorite.

I used a pretty branch image added the little red bird diecut that Christina sent us.  I added one of her sentiment labels and a few pearls for a tiny bit of bling.  Love that little red bird.

We had one last assignment this month and that is to CASE a card using some of the leftovers from our previous 5 kits.

I chose to CASE a card from last month made by my good friend Jeanne.

I am always amazed with the beautiful layering and little touches Jeanne adds to her cards and I shamelessly copied it almost exactly.

Here is Jeanne's card:

Here is mine:

Not many differences,  although I didn't have the exact pieces of patterned paper that she used, I came pretty close and loved making her very
"inspirational" card.

Now that you have seen my cards, make sure you follow along the list and check out what the other members of our 12 Kits of Christmas group have made.  

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

WM Sketch Challenge #108

Today I have a card I made for WMSC #108, a really cute sketch by Belinda Chang Langner. Here's the sketch:

Although I love tag cards...and I mean I really love them, I have been wanting to try my Vintage Banners stamp set, so instead of a tag...I used one of the cute banners as my sketch focal point.

I used Crate Paper, Little Bo Peep patterned paper I just received from my friend Joyce (Cards by the Sea). It has such pretty pink, yellow and blue patterns. I stamped a houndstooth background using WM Heirloom Patterns and the sentiment is from WM Compact Sentiments. I made this while I am on vacation, so I will keep this post very brief. I am so happy I have finally got some craft supplies here with me so I am not totally cut off from crafting, it makes my vacation that much better!

Posted with Blogsy

A Sweet Taste of Montana

Today I want to share a little gift set I made for one of my friends who has sent me more "surprise" packages than I can count.  Jeanne of A Kept Life has sent me so many beautiful roses, diecuts, ribbon and more that I wanted to thank her with a little something I bought while on vacation.  Huckleberry Jam is one of the treats I always look forward to when we vacation in Montana.  Since we were driving this year, I stocked up and now have lots of jam to give as gifts.  Someday I will tell you the story of trying to pack jam in our checked luggage (think Homeland Security and bomb test screening).  Long story.
I used WPlus9 Fresh Picked to make my own label, tag and card to send with this jam.  Huckleberries look just like small blueberries, so all I had to do was change the color of ink to make the perfect huckleberry.

The jam is tucked into a ceramic berry basket from Sur La Table, just the perfect size for some jam and a little shredded paper filler.  

The label included with the WPlus9 Fresh Picked stamp set is the perfect size to put on a jar of jam...the works Montana, Huckleberry, and Jam are custom stamps I bought from  Imagine Stamps.  They are the perfect size to fit onto my jam label.

Other stamps I used on this card and jam label are On the Farm (PTI) and a Distressed Corduroy Cover-a-Card stamp by Impression Obsession.
Hope you enjoy it Jeanne!

WMSC#106- Yee Haw!

Today I've made a card for Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #106 which uses a sketch by
Sandie Dunne.  It's a great sketch and lots of ideas popped into my head. Here is the great sketch:

I needed a birthday card for my sister-in-law whose entire house...inside and out is themed "Western".
Here's a pic of just the front porch entrance to give you an idea of what I am talking about.

I decided to make her a western-themed birthday card and used Waltzingmouse Stamps Way Out West Stamp set.

I used the woodgrain, star, western word and cactus landscape stamps along with some sentiments from WM Back In The Saddle.  Yee Haw, I love the sentiments in that set!  I also added a strip of brown burlap, some bakers twine and a few My Favorite Things Country Charm Die-namics star die cuts with a shiny gold brad.  I really love how this card turned out, it was one of my most favorite sketches to work with.

Waltzingmouse July Blog Party- The Great Outdoors

Today is the 17th of the month and you know what that means...Waltzingmouse Stamps is having their monthly blog party!  This months theme is The Great Outdoors and was one of very favorite so far.  Who doesn't love Summer and everything it brings with it, sunshine and warm sunny days, green grass and sweet summer fruit.  Those things are what I chose to base my card on for this challenge.

I cut a little strawberry basket using an svg file on my cricut from My Scrap Chick and stamped it with an image from Picnic Patterns...looks like a woven basket, don't you think?

I used a Cheery Lynn Border Carnivale die cut wrapped with twine to embellish the basket.  The little leaves are actually a little tree image from Frame It stamped in two different colors of green.  I cut some sunbeams from Summer Sunrise patterned paper, pinked the edges, added a grass border and my favorite thing...those cute little crochet The last thing was a sentiment from Sewing Box Hugs which I think went well with the sunshine theme  I love anything crocheted!

Want to see some more projects featuring the Great Outdoors?  Here's a link to the Waltzingmouse Blog Party.

It's July 16th and the time for another edition of Four of a Kind...In Bloom style!  This month, Joyce of Cards by the Sea is our hostess and she came up with another great kit based around Papertrey Ink's In Bloom stamp set.    Here is a picture of everything Joyce sent us, and it was a lot!

Lots of great ingredients to make our practically "self-assembling" cards...Joyce must have been die cutting and embossing for hours for us!

I was lucky enough to receive this kit right before I left on vacation, so I had a lot of fun putting together my three cards and only had to add a few little embellishments that I had brought with me.  

Here's my first card:

Joyce created some pretty patterned paper for us using the In Bloom images and I love that I didn't have to even color them...the line images are pretty enough all by themselves.  I did shade the center flower a bit with a pink copic marker and add one of the Think Big sentiments I brought with me, one of my very favorites.

One of the things I love about In Bloom, is it's elegance.  The embossed vellum panel Joyce included in our kit seemed perfect for one of those cards we all hope to never have to send, but is nice to have on hand for the times you do.

I used the pretty black seam binding from Joyce and added a sparkly button from Webster's Pages.

Muy last card is my favorite:

This is going to be either for a wedding or an anniversary...I am leaning toward an anniversary card.  I love that pretty impression plate design and the Wonderful Words die cut says everything an anniversary card needs to say.  

Here are all three of my cards lined up just ready to address.

Another great month and even more fun for me because I got to make them on vacation.  Thanks Joyce for a wonderful kit and for giving me all the things I needed to create something while I was away from my own craftroom!

Check out the rest of our groups cards:

Joyce

Kim

Renee

Next month our hostess is Renee and it will be our 12th challenge.  It is hard to believe it has been a full year since we started our little challenge group!  

Cloud 9 Blog Hop

Today is the very first blog hop for a new blog...Cloud 9 created to showcase the fabulous stamps from WPlus9 Design Studio.  I only have one WPlus 9 stamp set, so I was a bit limited in what I could create with the first inspiration photo, but I plan to have a few more sets to work with in the very near future.

Here's the inspiration photo:

I loved the bright colors and that neat grass trim, so those are the elements I tried to re-create in my card.

I stamped the blueberry image from Fresh Picked in shades of red and pink and made the stems in shades of blue and green.  The trim behind the image is a very stiff raffia-like trim I have had for quite a while, not even sure what to call it, but it kind of looks like the grass skirt from the picture.  

I am looking forward to the day when I have several WPlus9 stamp sets to choose from...I am sure there are going to be lots more great blog hops from Cloud 9 in the future.

Sweet Girl

My card today started with this cute little outfit I bought for a neighbor who had a baby girl this weekend.  I loved the neat pattern and that sweet giraffe and label underneath.  The pattern reminded me so much of PTI's quatrefoil cover plate.  I don't have that die, but luckily my friend Joyce of Cards by the Sea sent me a few quite a while ago and I still had one in the right color, so I put that die cut right to work.
Here's my card:

The giraffe is from PTI's Sweet Baby and I used Polka Dot Basics II to stamp the polka dot pattern.  I don't have the stamp set, just the dies, so I used a pen to make a black outline to make it look more like the giraffe on the baby outfit.  The little tag on the outfit says "sweet girl" and Pti's Night, Night Moon has the exact words and in almost the exact font, so I think I got pretty close to the look of the outfit.  I finished the inside of the card with another giraffe and sentiment from Baby Button Bits.

Here they are together, what do you think?