I was hanging out at the store one day in July oogling over new product when Wendy and Tina asked if I would do a kit and a blog post for them. I said sure and they handed me the September card kit. First I thought, ugh..card kit, I haven’t made any cards in forever! But then I said, what the hey? I need a few cards and I can always make a scrapbook page or two. For the most part, my style is clean and simple… so here’s what I came up with.
This kit is chocked full of product and the papers are lovely greens and blues and neutrals. There is a Homegrown 6X6 paper pad from Echo Park with double-sided sheets. It has a great variety of patterned prints which would be great for summer, picnic, garden or harvest type photos.
The Botanica stamp set from Kaisercraft is quite lovely and I was pleased with its versatility.
Here is what I made from this kit and there are still quite a few bibs and bobs leftover and still quite a few sheets and scraps from the paperpad. Enough left to make a couple of more scrapbook pages or to add to project life pockets or use up the scraps on cards.
For my first few cards, I was in a bit of a hurry as I needed these cards right away as a friend’s dad had passed away, another friend had helped me out of a jam and another friend’s daughter was moving away to attend school. For all three cards, I used the flower image from the stamp set and added some of my favorite simple sentiments stamps from my stash. I colored the stamp with my Tim Holtz Distress Markers in Peeled Paint and Dusty Concord. I huffed after it was colored and stamped the image on watercolor paper. For the “With Sympathy” card, I did this twice. I stamped the sentiment with black archival ink; then I matted it with some of the green paper from the pad and adhered to the white cardstock card.
For the “Thanks-Big Time” card, I used the same technique but just stamped the image once on watercolor paper. I adhered the watercolor paper to the green polka dotted card stock. The great thing about this card stock is that it is white on the B side which is great when you want to add a note on the inside of the card.
I wanted to try a tone on tone image so for the next card, I used Peeled Paint Distress Stain and added it to watercolor paper to make a background. (SIDE NOTE: I have to say, those Tim Holtz Distress Stains are some of my most favorite products. They are so simple to use and easy to control the intensity of the color!) Then I stamped the image onto the background using Peeled Paint Distress Ink. I then used my Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust Pen to outline the image and give it a bit of sparkle. I stamped the “Hello Opportunity” in black archival ink and adhered the watercolor paper to the green polka dotted card stock.
September is a very busy birthday month in my world so I needed a few birthday cards to have on hand. For the first card, I used the white card stock from the kit for the card base. I adhered the red patterned 4 X 5.25 from the paperpad to the card base. I had a bunch of these stars in my stash leftover from programs that I made for my daughter’s graduation so I adhered one of those to the front of the card. I stamped the sentiment on the read patterned paper with black archival ink.
For my next birthday card, I used the craft cardstock base which also has the white opposite side. Perhaps my favorite paper in the 6X6 pad was the multi-colored polka dots which I used here to make the birthday cake. I cut 1.5 inch wide strips of the polka dot paper at 3.5, 3 and 2.5 inch lengths. I rounded the two corners on the long sides of the strips then I inked the edges with red ink. I used a thin strip of red washi tape and adhered it around the middle each piece. Then I stacked the strips to make the tiers of the birthday cake. I stamped the candles in black archival ink and colored them with markers and stamped the sentiment in black archival ink. There were two of the mini printed paper bags in the kit and they are the perfect size for a gift card. So I stamped another birthday sentiment on the bag in black archival ink and adhered it to the inside of the card.
For the next birthday card, I used a white cardbase. I adhered ‘happy birthday’ washi tape from my stash on a piece of the multi colored polka dot paper, for the center strip of washi tape, I wrapped it around the card completely. I stamped the “Happy Birthday” sentiment in black archival ink onto the card base. This was an easy but colorful, happy card. It would be great for a child’s birthday.
For the next birthday card, I used the blue card base and made it very simple. I used some white with gold dots washi tape from my stash and stamped the number line on it. My thought is that you could highlight the number for the recipient’s age by coloring or adding a die cut number on top. I stamped the “Happy Birthday” sentiment with black archival ink on a scrap of patterned paper from the 6X6 pad, cut it out and adhered it to the front of the card base with pop dots. On the inside of the card, I stamped a sentiment on the bag with black archival ink where a gift card can be inserted.
For my next card, I used the leaf image from the stamp set and stamped one image in each of the Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade, Forest Moss and Rusty Hinge Distress Inks on the green patterned paper from the 6X6 paper pad. I stamped the “happy anniversary” sentiment in black archival ink and adhered the patterned paper to the blue cardbase. This is a nice card for a fall anniversary and I know just the couple that it will be perfect for!
For my last card, I made a card suitable for an engagement or wedding. I used the smaller floral image from the stamp set and stamped it multiple times on watercolor paper in Barn Door Distress Ink to form a larger floral image. I added the leaves in Shabby Shutters Distress Ink and the sentiment in black archival ink. Then I adhered the watercolor paper to the craft card base.
The fall theme of this kit inspired me to finally scrapbook a favorite photo of mine from last year’s Christmas card. I forced the entire family to get out of bed early one Sunday morning to take advantage of a nice autumn day to take some family photos. I headed out with my DSLR camera and a tripod and used the camera’s timer to capture some images of all of us. It took quite a few tries but I was pretty happy with how they ended up and I used this one on our 2014 Christmas Card. For this page, I used a 12X12 sheet of watercolor paper and used the Peeled Paint Distress Stain to make a background leaving some of the blank white space as a border. I matted the photo on a 4X6 piece of cork cut down from the 6X6 included in the kit. I used some gold with white stars washi tape and white with gold polka dots washi tape (that I dug out from my stash) to anchor the page. I adhered the photo, overlapping a couple of project life cards that fit with the theme that I had in my stash. I used the wood veneer pieces that were included in the kit along with some flair badges and a rub-on from my stash to embellish. The title is made with the SN@P alphas that were included with the kit. I am pleased with the result and happy that I finally got to scrapbook that photo.
Finally, I wanted to showcase the various papers found in the 6X6 paper pad that was included with the kit and thought that the theme of the papers went well with the invite and photo from a recent Pig Roast that our family hosted. I used 5 sheets from the paperpad and cut 2X2 squares alternating both sides of the paper to form a grid which was adhered to a piece of white cardstock. I layered the invite and the photo over the paper grid. I added some wood veneer pieces from the kit which I colored with my Red and Gold Wink of Stella Pens to add a little bling to the situation. I also added some Pig Roast appropriate flair embellishments. The tittle is made by adhering SN@P letter stickers from the kit to white cardstock and centering in beneath the invite and photo.
Here is what’s left of the kit:
A big thanks to Janna, Wendy and Tina for asking me to play along. Stop by The Paperie to pick up this fabulous kit!
pieces of my everyday life.... 