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.

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.

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.  I made 9 cards - as described/shown below.

More Spellbinders Embellishments

I once again am making embellishments with new dies.  This is probably the last "new dies" post for awhile, because I have long since spent my paper crafting allowance - but they're so much fun!

Athletic Apparel: (pictured above) - I LOVE this set of dies!  They are SO versatile.  These were made by die cutting from white & then coloring with ink (red = colorbox, blue & orange = distress oxide, lavender = teardrop, orchid = particraft.  I used numbers from the coordinating Jersey Numbers set that has both number and mat.  The red and white shirt depicts a "button up" and was the one I had to look at a video to figure out how to use.  Often used for baseball uniforms, this one simply takes the basic shirt (blue without the offsets) and adds the long button up piece on top of the original collar.  For the blue shirt, I cut two each of collar & cuffs & left one white - offsetting just a little as you see in the picture.  The lavender is a sleeveless style with golf-type neckline.  The word "Friend" was stamped from HOTP Heartfelt Greetings.

Sporting Goods Set:

This die set certainly covers MANY different sports.  I can see using all except the lacrosse equipment - since I don't know anyone who plays or watches that sport.  

Woodland Scene:

This is a fun little set for creating small Christmas scenes.

Be Bold Blooms:

I made flowers from another set which I can't remember at the moment, but this last set is Be Bold Blooms.  I've been waiting for it to go on sale ever since it was recommended by a friend.  It DOES make a fun variety of floral elements.

Zip Gift Tags

Today I have several gift card holders made using the Zip Gift Tag die set from Trinity Stamps.  I REALLY like the "zipper" opener for getting to the gift card - so fun!  I chose to make my tags the way Sara Lihz did in this video - bottom opening so tag stays mostly intact & all made except for gluing the bottom so that gift card can be inserted when needed and then the tag will be glued closed waiting for the recipient to "unzip" to get the gift card.  Seeing her use the zip at the bottom gave me the courage to try adding it there myself - even though the die didn't fully fit within the lower hole.  I simply aligned the bottom of the zip die to the bottom of the lower hole and let the top of the zip die ride on top of the main tag die - worked fine.

Gift Tag #1 & 2 (above):

These first two are for Christmas - cut from printed card blanks from HOTP.  As you can see, they are similar, with one gold and one red embellishments.  

Gift Tag #3:

I had to try all the little embellishments.  This star one is pretty generic and can be used for many occasions.

Gift Tag #4:

Here's one for birthday - I added some gold vinyl for the cake & gold sticker that says "birthday".  The card stock was again from an old HOTP printed card blank.

Gift Tags #5&6:

Here are a couple more.  The 2nd is clearly a birthday card - with added stickers.  The yellow one could be either birthday or anniversary - maybe other occasions as well.  I cut gold tag board square/rectangle to add word & cake to the front.  I forgot to mention, but for most of these, I used a Sharpie to edge all the tags.  The yellow is leftover Adoreable Scoreable printed card stock from Hunkydory, while the pink is again from an old HOTP printed card blank.

Gift Tag #7:

This one uses the heart & thanks dies (from the set).  I made it specifically for a friend that often hosts us when we drive their town.  It will make a fun way to thank them.

Gift Tag #8:

These last 4 cards did not have die cuts out of them - just the zipper.  I decorated them with other things from my stash.  This first one is clearly a Christmas tag and I decorated it with a matted die cut from my stash.  I see from the picture that I somehow missed cutting one of the white ribbon sprigs on the diagonal - I'll go back and do that now!  Again, the tag itself was cut from an old HOTP printed card blank.

Gift Tag #9:

Here, the tag was again cut from an old HOTP printed card blank.  In addition to the ribbons, I have an inked partial doily and a pansy with leaves from Spellbinders Pansy die set.  I finished it by adding a Dazzles border strip.

Gift Tag #10:

This old lace tag was cut from an old HOTP printed card blank.  In addition to the ribbons from my stash, I added flowers die cut from two Spellbinders die sets - the small flowers on stems are from Garden Builder, the large flower from Simply Perfect Layered Blooms.

Gift Tag #11:

My final tag for this set of gift card holder tags is again cut from an old HOTP printed card blank.  I added some flowers mostly from Simply Perfect Layered Blooms.

I think this die set will be a GREAT for giving gift cards!

More Embellishments

I got some more embellishment/focal dies, and am working to make some up for my stash before I put them away.   All of these are from Spellbinders.

Gnome Drive Holiday: (above)

First up, is a set I bought for the car.  I like that it is facing forward - so many you see from the back.  I'm not that big on gnomes, but I THOUGHT I had seen that it would work with the Elizabeth Craft animals.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.  They are too big for the car.  It IS the right size for the Karen Burniston animals, but I don't have any of them!  So, gnome driver it is, I guess.    As gnomes go, I DO like this one - really easy to put together.  The tree and star aren't much different from others in my collection, but I really like the bows on the packages - much nicer than others I have.  The car itself is pretty cute - quite a few pieces, but not hard once you get the hang of it.  

Beautiful Wreaths Collection: 

Build a Wreath:

I really like the elements in this set!  The green sprigs and little branches, the flowers, and the pretty bow - all are really nice and can be used in far more situations than simply making wreaths!  They will be a really nice addition to my other floral sets.

Birthday Wreath Add-Ons:

I can't imagine using these on a wreath as they were intended, but they will be great for birthday cards!

Snowman Scene Etched Dies from the Simon's Snow Globes Collection:

So far, this is the only die set I have from this collection - I don't have the snow globe itself and don't know if these will fit with the HOTP snow globe I have.  I bought it because I don't have much in the way of decent snowman dies and this seemed reasonable (Hmmm, I wonder if they are the right size to drive the car????).  Anyway, I partly got it so I would have decent snowmen and partly because I thought it might work with the "window with a view" (see below) set for winter scenes.  We'll see if they're the right size for that.  Anyway, one of the things I discovered is that tiny scraps of gold metallic card stock works great for these little Christmas tree ornaments.  The star that comes with the snowman also works great for a topper for the Christmas tree.  I also found that it works great to use scraps of glossy photo paper to cut some of these pieces - then they can be colored with Sharpies to great a glossy look.  Especially nice for the top hat and Christmas tree ornaments!

Holiday Blooms Etched Dies from the Celebrate the Season Collection:

This is the only set I have from this collection and I don't expect to get others.  I bought it simply so I'd have more layering Christmas flowers for my various makes.  I cut these all from white card stock and then inked them with Distress and/or Distress Oxide inks.  I really like the cat tails that I made using Peeled Paint - and Vintage Photo pounced to create the brown cat tail parts.

Country Road Collection by Annie Williams:

I currently only have a couple of these sets, but another is on order.  It has nice greenery bits and I like the smaller flowers.  The poinsettias are okay, the large roses? are not my favorites.

Rustic Garden:

I LOVED playing with this set!  I cut all from white, then colored them with a mix of Distress inks, Distress Oxides, and permanent markers (Sharpies & Bic).  It was fun to create the look of an old copper pump with patina using a greenish metallic over the copper - smearing it before it could dry.  Not at first realizing that I could cut the rim & the spokes at the same time, I ended up with extra spokes & innies - which I tried to turn into game boards (darts).  They could also make a ferris wheel or a windmill! :)

Garden Builder:

What a lot of nice plants and flowers - and a cat!  These were again all die cut from white scraps & then colored - mostly with distress inks - before being assembled.

Windows with a View Collection by Tina Smith:

I currently have 3 sets from this collection - and I believe all the rest are on order.  I think it will be the only one where I have the entire collection, and I'm looking forward to the enormous variety of scenes it will allow me to make!

Backyard Haven View:

I LOVE this set!  So many fun elements!  But they are TINY.  I found myself using my finest point marker to place eyes for the squirrel & owl.  Speaking of the owl - I used the innies from the tire swing to back the owl (trimming as needed) to create the little eyes.  Most pieces were colored with Distress inks, though I used markers & water brush for the little birds.

Coastal Escape View:

This is another set that was SO MUCH FUN! However, I THOUGHT the fish would be easiest to color - I was wrong.  I had a REALLY hard time with them for some reason.  I felt the coloring on the other elements was more realistic.  I'm sure I'll learn.  I really had fun playing with these.  Mostly I used my distress inks - with Copper & Silver Sharpies.  Since I don't have yellow distress ink, I had to use the distress oxide.  I prefer the plain distress inks for these.  The background of the brown/framed water was done with distress oxide and I find it harder to create light/dark with the same ink.  But, I sprayed it with a sparkle spray and it created a lovely water effect.

Up in the Air View:

What a fun set of die cut elements - small but so much fun!  I didn't finish coloring all the umbrella's balloons, and flowers because I figured I'd wait and color them specifically to fit a card or scrapbook page.  In the meantime, I've got lots of other elements to choose from.  Once again, these were mostly colored with distress inks or Sharpies, but I did use some patterned papers as well as scraps of silver card stock.  It works really well to use a silver Sharpie to color metal bits like on the umbrellas.  Also, when I used regular Sharpies to color over a silver metallic piece, the color ended up looking a bit metallic!

That's all I have for now - but my next shipment is on the way.  I haven't bought much in some time but really found some things I liked recently and went a little crazy.  The next shipment has the rest of the elements from the Window with a View set and another of the Country Road.  It will be fun to put them all together.

HD Perfect Days - Cozy Kitchen

 

After many days spent working on embellishments, today I have a set of Hunkydory cards again.  This set is called Cozy Kitchen - and is from their Perfect Days Card Kit.  Here's what the kit looked like originally:

As you can see, it has 1 1/2 pages of die cuts and one sheet of AS (adoreable scoreable printed card stock).  After adding a bit from my stash, I ended up with 5 cards:

 

This was definitely a challenging set to get so many cards from, but for the most part, I was happy with the way they turned out.  Now for a closer look at each.

 

Card #1:

 

I usually start a set by figuring out what to do with the AS - and this card was the result.  I decided I could cut the panel to fit a slimline card - with just a bit of room at the top to add a border (also cut from the AS). Since the border would overlap the cut panel, I added a spacer piece of card stock so the border would be level when glued.  Then I added the sentiment and was done except for the . . . 

Inside:

I went really simple with this - EXCEPT that I fussy cut the smallest die cut piece that had the dog and the cat so that I could have them hanging out over the border as you see here.

Card #2:

After looking at any printed pictures on the AS, my next step is to start to divide the rest of the elements.  It became clear really quickly that A2 cards might work better for many of the remaining die cut focals - so I cut the remaining AS into a couple of A2 sized panels - cut a bit smaller than usual to accommodate the size of the die cuts.  I know the border & greeting look like they're bordered in red, but they're actually gold (reflecting the color of my shirt!).  I decided I needed to draw "room" lines to stand any chance of having this look reasonable.  

Inside:

Now this inside is REALLY simple - just the remnants of the border that was used on the card front.

Card #3:

I used the other piece of AS that I had cut to create this card using the largest die cut other than the base piece.  After inking the edges, I added a piece of the AS border that was left - using a scrap piece of card stock as a "shim" so it lays straight.  I added a few extra die cuts - gluing them in place directly.

Inside:

I was finding it challenging to figure out what to do with the insides of the cards.  In this case I simply cut a piece of the die cut page scrap to form a border.

Card #4:

I realized too late that I might have been better off to save that last piece of AS instead of covering most of it up like I did on that last card.  That meant that I had to find papers in my stash for the background.  I found an aqua glimmer paper that went well - but everything looked weird against it.  I realized that it would really help if I had a "rug" for the pet bed to rest on.  As you can see, I found a patterned paper in my stash that I thought would work & cut it to size using "room lines" like for card #2.  After assembling my scene using other die cuts from the set, I inked the edges with black and matted it all on a piece of patterned paper that I found in my stash.

Inside:

I added some remaining "rug pattern" paper to create a border on the inside.

Card #5:

My last card was to use the base die cut, so I pulled out a 5"x 7" card blank.  After using a circle punch to "round" the corners to match the die cut, I inked the edges before gluing the focal in place.  I added several extra die cuts using foam squares, added the sentiment, and my card front was complete.

Inside:

Once again I used a scrap from a die cut page to create a lower border.  After inking the top and bottom edges, I added the dog/cat die cut and called it good.