KCC15 - Christmas in July

It's July and time for a new Kendra's Card Challenge (KCC15).  I decided it was time to make headway on this year's Christmas cards, so chose a set of Christmas papers to use this time.  By choosing these papers, I also had the option to bring in others from the same set to create coordinating mats & embellishments as I chose.

Here's a picture of the 15 cards I made for this first KCC15:

And next is a closer look at each one.

Card #1:

For this first card, I chose a green & white chevron patterned card blank.  I have a set of these printed card blanks that I hadn't figured out how to use, so was glad to find a use for them!  Instead of matting, I used silver Sharpie to create the look of mats - not perhaps quite as nice as matting, but it worked well.  For the focal scene, I used a bunch of embellishments from those I've created over the past few weeks (elements from the snow globe die sets called woodland scene, snowman scene).  It was really nice to be able to just grab these pieces rather than having to create them as a part of my card.  I DID create the "snow" drifts around the animals and trees.  To do this, I simply cut some shapes, then inked the upper edges with a light blue distress ink.  I wanted a cardinal in my tree, so took a little bird I had created from a die, and used it as a pattern to create a second by cutting around it - but adding a crest to the top of its head.  After coloring this little bird as a cardinal, I glued all the pieces of the scene in place.  I then die cut the sentiment (from one of those same die sets), backing it with a scrap of red, and adding it with foam squares to complete the card.

Card #2:

This time, I decided that rather than matting each strip individually, I'd create one mat to serve all four strips.  I embossed the white card front with Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots embossing folder before adding the matted strips with fun foam to add dimension.  Then, as you can see, instead of a simple circle in the lower left corner, I added a die cut ornament (HOTP die set called 3 lacy ornaments) to this matted panel.  To create the ornament, I used the die to cut a piece from white card stock.  I then used a scrap of silver metallic card stock to die cut the hanger part at the top.  I found another scrap of the silver that I cut to fit behind the white die cut before finishing it with a small silver ribbon bow.  Finally, I die cut a matted sentiment - again from the white & silver.

Card #3:

For this third one, I realized that I had miss-cut the diagonal of this rectangle so that the pieces angled the opposite way from what was intended.  Since I wanted the angle to rise, I turned it 90 degrees to create a portrait layout.  I created this stamped & colored cat a long time ago (using a Stampendous stamp called Christmas Kitten) and it's been sitting in my stash since.  I mostly colored it with Inktense pencils and a water brush, but I also added fun flock to the fuzzy parts of the Christmas hat.  For a card base, I used a green glitter card from my stash.

Card #4:

This card uses two different coordinating papers in addition to the two that were cut from the original papers.  This creates some lovely mats.  The sentiment is a Christmas Greetings Dazzle set.

Card #5:

I ended up cutting the "Merry Christmas" paper sideways from what I meant to do (90 degrees), so I ended up having to rotate the sketches - which I sometimes do anyway, but had no choice on this and the next one.  The hanging ornament focal was stamped, embossed, and die cut using matching stamp from JustRite (Deck the Halls) and die from Spellbinders (Heirloom Ornament 2010).  The sentiment is little Christmas words Dazzles stickers.  Mats are green coordinating additional paper from the paper pad.  The card blank was a plain dark red one from my stash, but I embossed it using a Darice embossing folder called Ornaments Hung.  I lightly inked the raised areas with Distress ink.

Card #6:

The sentiment is from Sassy's LLC & the ribbon/thread from my stash - as is the red paper used for the background/mats.  Once again I had to adapt the sketch to landscape mode because of the way I cut my paper.

Card #7:

Not sure about this one.  It seems pretty plain.  The card base came with the edge cut.  I got some of these a long time ago and seldom figure out how to use them, so was glad to use one here!  You can't see it in the picture, but when closed, you see red behind the scallops from the red paper border on the inside.  This is one that actually works better since I cut the Merry Christmas paper sideways from what I had planned.  I would have had to change the orientation of this sketch if I had cut it as I intended.  For the large mat layer, I cut the lower edge with a cutter I have that cuts small scallops.  The larger sentiment mat is cut with the Double Stitched Circles from Kat Scrappiness.  The red mat layer is a 2" scalloped punch from EK Success.  The sentiment is another Sassy's LLC.  The ribbon bow is from my stash.  I added 3 punched "dots" in the lower left corner to help balance it out.

Card #8:

This card was a bit of a challenge because the sketch just really didn't work well when I turned it 90 degrees like it needed to be for the stockings paper.  I used the little piece I cut from the red mat on the previous card to form a border between the patterned papers.  I then inked the other edges with brown.  As you can see, I used both a round and a strip sentiment - both from Sassy's LLC.  The sweater was created with a couple of stamps - sweater (Contemporary Christmas stamps from Simply Made Crafts) and deer (Holiday Mansion by Art Impressions).  They were colored with Inktense pencils and a water brush - and some Sharpie marker (red).  Then I fussy cut everything, glued the deer to the sweater, and then glued the sweater in place on the card.

Card #9:

I can't decide how well I like this one.  It feels a bit busy, but also has a fair bit of white space.  At any rate, the tree was made with die cuts from Spellbinders Snowman Scene set.  I followed the sketch pretty well, but matted the border and set of flags in white.  I added ribbon to the border & matted the sentiment (one of Sassy's LLC) with a scrap from the background paper.

Card #10:

This one very closely followed the sketch.  I did add a narrow strip of the background between the two patterned papers.  I used a Spellbinders Splendid Circles die to cut the mat for the sentiment.  Finally, I added crystal colored Stickles to all the dark green trees.  Quick and easy, but I think it's a fun card - and a nice contrast to the busyness of #9.

Card #11:

You may recognize the focal tree from card #9 - same die set used, though I added some small red Jewel Dazzles.  I chose a plain green mat for the background which I also used for the border.  A smaller piece of white card stock forms the backdrop for the rest of the papers.  I bordered the center piece with a dotted red - which I also used to mat the focal.  A Sassy's LLC strip sentiment completes the card.

Card #12:

The trees were going the correct direction, so I was able to follow the sketch fairly well.  I chose to mat my pieces as well as add the background - a light green this time.  Instead of a sentiment strip as the sketch called for, I chose to stamp the greeting on the little snowman scene (HOTP Snowglobe stamp and die set).  Speaking of which, as you can probably tell, I created a bit of snow at the bottom of the focal panel by cutting a curvy pattern into some white card stock and lightly inking the top edge to create the look of dimension.  The snowman is another that was created from a Spellbinders set called Snowman Scene.  

Card #13:

I pretty much followed the sketch for this one - made my greeting a bit smaller so I had more room on the half circle to put my holly.  As you can see, I used a silver glitter card base, and white for my mats.  A piece of plain dark red was my fill-in piece.  I switched out the long strip for the green pattern since sideways stocking bits didn't look very good.  I added these holly dazzles - die cuts would have been better since I had to go over the dazzles with a magenta Sharpie to get the color to blend in.

Card #14:

This pattern looks a bit strange because of the papers I chose, but it's a good first go at this sketch, and hopefully other paper sets will work better for it.  As you can see, my card blank was a green glitter, to which I added white mats, patterned paper, and a matted die cut sentiment (Moonstone Minis - Deck the Halls).  It still looked a bit plain so I added the bow.  That's better, but I'm thinking I might go back and add some jewel Dazzles or some corner stickers to the white mat. 

Here's the update.  I DO think it looks better now:

Card #15:

I decided that this last card didn't need to be a Christmas card, so turned it into a birthday card.  Instead of making it a dress like the sketch, I took the optional approach and made a shirt.  I used Jewel Dazzles for buttons and added Sharpie for "thread".  I also used a fine line pen to create stitching lines around the collar & pocket - probably should have done the button line as well, but for some reason didn't think about it.  Anyway, that's my first complete KCC15 set.

July Swaps

July's Card Swap: This month's card swap on the message board is "fruit".  I found the watermelon stickers in my stash and several papers that sort of coordinated with them.  Then I went looking for a sketch idea.  I found my inspiration in Mojo Monday sketch #483.  The result is what you see in the picture above.  I used rectangular pieces of multiple papers to create an interesting background.  I then stuck the stickers to white card stock to create narrow mats around the watermelon.  The sentiment is from Sassy's LLC.  I inked the edge with brown, then matted on a punched green mat and a brown decorative die cut mat (Spellbinders Splendid Circles).

Inside:

Inside I have a couple more watermelon pieces & scraps of some of the papers from the front.

Materials Swap - Plaid/Check/Gingham - my supplies:

Here's a look at the materials I sent to my partner - slimline card base, plaid paper, denim paper, white card stock with stamped greeting, small piece of brown suede paper, two tools (hammer & wrench) made from Spellbinders All the Tools die set.

And here's the card I made using these materials:

I can't take full credit for this design.  It was adapted from one I found on Pinterest here.  I'm not sure who created it, but if you follow that link, you can see that the person had created a pair of jeans.  I added the plaid shirt and my own touches - including suede paper for the belt - but definitely took my inspiration from that card.  I usually see jeans stitching lines in yellow or orange.  Since yellow wouldn't show well on the paper, I used a fine-line orange pen to create the stitching lines.  I really liked the way it turned out.

Materials Swap Plaid/Gingham/Checked from my partner:

Above are the materials I got from my partner.  

Card I made from these materials:

And a second card I made using her materials with my own card base and a couple of deer from my stash.

 

 

Digi-Swap #1:

This swap requires that I use printed digital downloads and meet at least one other challenge on the MB I frequent.  Here I used 3 different patterned papers as well as met the "letter challenge" with D=Dog.  I cut the patterned pieces as you can see, and inked the edges of all.  I added a little dog picture I cut from a calendar to be my focal.  It looked pretty plain, so I added some muddy paw prints.  It still felt like it needed a little something more, so I added a few punched circles from the blue print and scattered them along the card front.  

Inside:

As you can see, I used similar elements on the inside to add a bit of interest.

 Digi-Swap #2:

The sky paper was a digital printout.  I narrowly matted it with black and added a black border.  The sentiment was one printed and die cut with my Mom's stamps & dies.  The gnome and heart balloons were all created from Spellbinders cutting dies (Gnome Drive Holiday, Up in the Air View). 

Quick Patriotic Card

Here's a quick patriotic card I made from scraps.  I had an empty sheet of Red Jewel Dazzles set on my desk to remind me to reorder them.  Looking at it, I realized there was a LOT of beautiful red holographic sticker material left and started thinking about ways to use it.  I cut a couple of matching pieces from this leftover material, and placed them on either end of a plain white slim line card.  I then embossed a piece to go between (using Cuttlebug folder called Swiss Dots), then added fussy cut kite stickers, twine, and a matted sentiment to finish the card.

KCC14 Set 3

I've started on my 3rd set of Kendra's Card Challenge (KCC) #14 cards.  This time I'm using papers I got from my Mom that had been treated with a "love it, chop it" theory and were thus already cut into rectangles.  I found that I mostly could use those cut for slimline cards, but also some of the other sizes as needed to cut the pieces as per the KCC.

Here's a picture of all 15 cards:

And here are each of the individual cards.

Card #1: 

Here, I started by matting the pieces on a pretty gold vellum - and at the same time I created the sentiment - matted with the same.  I cut a piece of purple card stock and embossed it with a folder from HOTP called Leafy Vine.  It was just a tad smaller than my card front, so I inked the edges of my card front with gold ink before gluing my embossed piece in place.  I then discovered that I couldn't place the pieces as she showed because mine weren't square for some reason (and had already been matted or I could have squared them up).  So, I rearranged them a bit to create the card front you see here.  After adhering these and the sentiment, I added a 3-d butterfly sticker from my stash.

Card #2:

Here I used a backdrop of green that had been embossed with a cutting die (Cheery Lynn French Lattice).  After matting the patterned pieces, I added them as per the sketch.  Then I added several mats to an inked Sassy's LLC sentiment and then added a couple of butterflies from my stash.

Card #3:

As you can see, I matted these pieces with pink glitzy paper, then glued the whole to a gold tag board piece before it was glued to glitzy paper and the card front.  Another matted Sassy's sentiment & small butterfly from my stash completes this card.  Though I think I'll add three pink/black dots to the upper left hand corner to provide better balance.  Here's what it looks like now:

Card #4:

I have been getting tired of cards that just had added butterflies, but maybe should have stopped when I was ahead.  I love the monkey (Dazzles) & greeting (Sassy's LLC) - but they really don't go with the background!  Oh well. . . .  another of these cards made so I'm closer to moving on to something more interesting.

Card #5:

I don't understand why, but I found this one REALLY challenging.  I guess mostly because anything I tried for focal seemed to fight with the rose - but the rose piece didn't really work for a focal either.  Finally came up with this idea - sentiment is Sassy's again.  Gold linen card stock and brown glimmer paper from my stash.  I very lightly inked the sentiment in 3 different colors of ink - cream, light blue, light pink - so that it would blend well - and as you can see, I inked the edges of it and the rose piece.

Card #6:

Card number six consists of a bunch of strips.  I varied it a bit because instead of just adding a couple of strips of the pink, I backed the strips such that the pink showed through in small amounts between the top and bottom strips as well.  As you can see, I used a cutting die (Spellbinders Splendid Circles) to form the mat for the punched white circle - which in turn forms the mat for the gardening tools (die cut using Spellbinders The Botanical Solarium set).  The greenery across the top is a vine die cut (Card Making Magic 5x7 card and box set). And the sentiment is another of Sassy's LLC.

Card #7:

I chose to mat these pieces with gold linen cardstock.  The focal contains die cut flowers from a couple of die sets - both from Spellbinders (Be Bold Blooms, Simply Perfect Layered Blooms).  The sentiment is another from Sassy's LLC.

Card #8:

Here I again used a variety of flowers & greenery - all Spellbinders dies (Garden Builder, the Botanical Solarium, Simply Perfect Layered Blooms, and Be Bold Blooms).  The sentiment mats are die cut using basic circle dies and Splendid Circles (Spellbinders).  The sentiment itself is a word Dazzle.  It was gold, but I colored it with brown StazOn ink.  I used a pink Glizy paper for most of the mats and scraps of the papers for the rest.

Card #9:

 

I'm sad about this one.  I had found a lovely purple scrap of mulberry paper to serve as background and was really liking the way it looked - but had trouble gluing it in place and ended up having to toss it!  At least I was able to find a pretty purple card stock in my stash to replace it with.  The sentiment is again Sassy's LLC.  The flowers are from Spellbinders sets - Be Bold Blooms, Holiday Blooms, & The Botanical Solarium).  They were all cut from white card stock and colored with distress and distress oxide inks.

Card #10:

Here I simply added layers - gold mat for the center diamond, and dark blue glimmer paper for everything else.  The white was a panel from my stash - embossed with Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots Folder.  The sentiment is again from Sassy's LLC (printed at 67 % and punched with 1 1/8" punch).  This was matted with a dark blue mat cut with a die from Spellbinders Splendid Circles before being added to the gold matted diamond - which was then added to the card front with foam tape.  The flowers on the other two diamonds are created from Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms and all are glued directly to the card front except the sentiment mat.

Card #11:

I really wasn't sure about this layout.  So many circles!  I didn't really follow the sketch completely the last two times, but did this time.  It's still not my favorite sketch, but isn't as bad as I was afraid of, either.  It was challenging to figure out what colors to use for the circles, but when I combined the gold linen and the darker golden glimmer card stock, it seemed to work.  I decided to add the flower & greenery die cuts (Spellbinders - Garden Builder, Simply Perfect Layered Blooms, Holiday Blooms) for a bit more color.  The sentiment is another of Sassy's but I cut it 1/4" smaller than usual.

Card #12:

For this card, I used a light aqua glimmer paper for background.  After matting the main patterned paper piece, I added it to the card front & then matted and added the other two pieces as per the sketch.  The matted circle was embossed with a HOTP folder called Leafy Vine.  I inked this with distress ink before gluing it in place.  The flower pot and pitcher are die cut from The Botanical Solarium set by Spellbinders.  After coloring them with Distress Inks, Distress Oxides, and Scroll & Brush markers, I glued everything in place as you see it here.  After tucking the greeting in place as you see it, I added punched dots in the upper right and lower left corners of the card, completing the look.

Card #13:

This time, I went with a subtle look - again using the light aqua glimmer paper as a background.  I also used a silver glimmer paper mat with silver punched dots.  The sprays of pussy willows are die cuts from Be Bold Blooms die set by Spellbinders, colored with distress inks.

Card #14:

As you can see, for this card, I used the golden brown glimmer card stock as a backdrop, then the gold linen card stock for a decorative circle (Teardrop Circles by Spellbinders) and strips on the left side.  The green mat for the sentiment was punched from green glimmer paper.  The sentiment was from my stash.  I finished the card with the white leaves & flower (Spellbinders die cuts from their sets called: Holiday Blooms and Be Bold Blooms).

Card #15:

The final card in this set started with the gold linen card stock as backdrop, with a strip of the golden brown glimmer card stock added.  After inking the patterned paper pieces, I put them in place.  I matted my sentiment (from my stash), and added it along with the sunflowers & leaves (Spellbinders die cuts from Simply Perfect Layered Blooms and Build-a-Wreath). 

Zip Gift Tag Cards

For some of the zip gift tags I made, I had scraps of the same paper that I figured would go with them to make cards.  I didn't want the tags separated from the scraps - but also didn't want to try to store the scraps with them as they were somewhat unwieldy shapes.  So, I took the scraps and the pre-made tags together and turned them into cards.  It was challenging because the scraps were similar so I had to really work to create variety in my cards.

Card #1 (above):  The scraps I had from this paper were no more than 6" long.  I decided to make a 4" x 6" card.  As you can see, I cut a couple of strips from the patterned paper and matted them on black.  I matted the gift tag the same way before gluing all in place as you see in the picture.

Card #2:

 

The previous card had the stripes going vertically.  For this card, a standard 5" x 7" card blank, I made matted strips that I glued horizontally.  This time I matted them with gold (after die cutting the centers so I would have some precut greetings ready to go) but embossed the center of the card base before adding the matted strips.  This time I didn't mat the tag, but it already had some gold accents on it.

Card #3:

I decided to make this one a fun fold card.  I cut and matted leftover patterned pieces on white card stock that I inked to match the tag itself.  The mat for the tag was inked with Stormy Sky Distress Ink, while the rest of the pieces were inked with Canary Colorbox Cat's Eye Queue Ink.  

Once these were all prepared, I took my 5 x 7 card blank and cut just the front at 1 7/8" wide on each side.  The center piece I then scored crosswise in half (2.5 inches).  I added the larger yellow matted strips to the side pieces and glued them in place - then I glued these pieces to the card back so only the center opens.  Next, I glued the matted tag to ONLY the bottom half of the center piece.  The final small matted patterned piece was added with foam tape squares to form a block so the center part could be folded back and set behind it for display.

Card #4:

I cut this tag out of the center of the card front, so it was easy to piece it back together with the tag in the center.  Because of the white edge around the matted background, I also put a white mat behind the tag.

Card #5:

This is the last of the non-Christmas cards made with gift card tags that had leftover pieces to use to make the card.  It was made for a sketch challenge, and certainly gives a different look than the others.

And now for the Christmas ones.

Card #6:

There wasn't a lot of the green pine tree print left, but I had enough for border top and bottom and decided to use a paper punch with the little scraps to add to the background.

Card #7:

I had VERY little in the way of scraps for this one and decided an embossed (Damask by Darice) red glimmer paper would make a good background.  I also decided on a fold-back card base.  I glued one piece to the right side of the inside, and the other to the folded back part of the card on the left.  I added the tag to just the left, folded-back, side, then did the same with the matted sentiment strip.  Here's a picture of the card partially open:

Card #8:

This one is actually a rather generic card.  While the stars allow it to be a Christmas card, the color allows it to serve for other celebrations as well.

Card #9:

I had used all the larger pine scraps on card #6, but using the punch on that one had given me an idea.  I used a small Christmas tree die to cut tiny trees from the remaining tiny scraps.  After adding them to the background, I added Red Jewel Dazzles before adding the gift tag.  I felt I needed a little more red, so added a red bow.