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.