The 12 Kits of Christmas - November 2012 Edition

We are at the end of November and that means another edition of our 12 Kits of Christmas and this month Jeanne from  A Kept Life is our wonderful hostess. First let me say that this was one amazing kit....so many wonderful goodies and every time I sat down to work on my cards I swear that more pieces would show up. I have enough kit leftovers to CASE the rest of the groups amazing cards. We have a new member joining us this month, Kelly from Gingham Girl...be sure to check out her blog, she is so amazing and incredibly talented, it is an honor to have her with us. This month is a special one complete with some wonderful blog candy from Serendipity Stamps, there beautiful ornament stamp and die and also a sale! How much better can it get? The sale is a 20% discount any Christmas Serendipity Stamps for one day only, Friday, November 30th. Be sure to click on the link and check out there beautiful line of stamps and dies, they are just amazing, very elegant and beautiful! Be sure to leave comments on all of the blogs to be eligible  for the blog candy.  Links to all of the blogs are at the end.  Thank you so much for stopping by and taking a peek and good luck with the giveaway!

Kit Photo Courtesy of Kara

Renee of It's a Patchwork Life

Cathy of Empty Nest Crafter

Suzanne of The Card Yard

Marybeth of Marybeth's Time for Paper

Amy of Stamp-n-Paradise

Christina of Sea Glass and Sentiments

Kim of Cupcakes, Cards and Kim (that's me)

Kara of KandR Designs

Jessica of The Paper Parade 

Jeanne of A Kept Life - this month's hostess

Sharron of On Papillon Wings

Joyce of Cards-by-the-Sea 

Kelly of Gingham Girl

Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday #93 Splitting Die Cuts

I am in love with this weeks MIM...what a wonderful idea, splitting your die cuts and then putting a sentiment in between, just so clever! It really makes for a quick card too, or at least mine was pretty quick.  Be sure to head over to Nichole's blog to check out all of the wonderful ideas that have been posted. Since Christmas is just around the corner I decided that I should make another Christmas card. This will be the first year in what seems like forever that I won't be sending out Costco photo cards.  I have been making so many Christmas cards with one of the monthly challenges I do, The 12 Kits of Christmas.  I have so many cards and it will be nice to put them to good use. Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek!

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White and Pure Poppy

Die: PTI - Mat Stack Layerz #4

Ink: SU - Real Red

Stamps: PTI - Over Under Easy Holiday Additions

Snowflakes: Stash

Papertrey Ink's November 2012 Blog Hop

I loved the inspiration ideas that PTI has for this month's Blog Hop, taking a magazine or book cover as your inspiration piece for you card.  So clever and something I never thought but have to admit I have seen cards on blogs that have used this very inspiration...just so clever.  I don't save my magazines usually, once I read them and take out what I want to save I take them to my local coffee shop that I go to regularly.  I had to do some digging because I knew that I did have a few issues that had too many ideas to toss it out. I used an old Tea Time magazine and made my card a birthday card.  I pulled out all of my sets that anything to do with birthday and started playing around. I loved the look of different fonts and different sizes too, and I am so happy with how my card turned out. 

My inspiration....

My card....thanks for stopping by and taking a peek!

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White, Melon Berry and New Leaf

Ink: PTI - Melon Berry, New Leaf, Sweet Blush and VerasFine - Black

Dies: PTI - Get to the Point

Stamps: PTI - Birthday By The Numbers, Birthday Bash and Big and Bold Wishes

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #124

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful day and lot of yummy goodies to munch on.  We watched the Macy's parade while Dwight got the turkey ready...it was the best ever!

Now my mess is cleaned up, company gone home, used the turkey carcass to make broth for a pot of soup and made time to sit down and make a card for this week's Waltzingmouse sketch challenge.  This week's sketch is by Karin Akesdotter and I was really stumped for awhile...needed to spend some time thinking about what to do.  I also wanted to use some stamps that I have not had the chance to ink yet.  I pulled out Festive Foliage, so happy that it was back in stock and I was able to order it.  I played around a bit and then came up with this...thanks for stopping by and taking a peek!

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White and Ripe Avocado

Stamps: WM - Festive Foliage

Ink: PTI - Ripe Avocado and VersaFine - Vintage Sepia

Dies: Spellbinders - Labels #18

Brads: Stash

CASology #20 - Gobble

This is the perfect cue card for this weeks CASology challenge with Thanksgiving just a day away.  I forgot that I even had a turkey stamp until I saw what Tracey from In My Creative Opinion made...I love Thanksgiving but don't really have too many stamps to make cards to send out.  I did remember that I purchased one other stamp from some online company going out of business a few years back, I like it because it has that "subway" sign look to to it.  So here is my card...thanks for stopping by and taking a peek. Wishing all of you and your families a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White

Patterned Paper: PTI - Orange Zest

Stamps PTI - Foodie Fun and Impression Obsession - Turkey

Dies: PTI - Foodie Fun and Fabulous Frames

Ribbon: Stash

Ink: VersaFine - Vintage Sepia

ColourQ Challenge #164

Wow...this has to be one of the most fun color combinations I have seen on ColourQ, not something I would have ever put together but they are just so festive combined.  My sister sent me an email asking me to make a thank you card for the caterers they are using for her work tree trimming party. The theme for the party is gingerbread men and she really wanted me to reflect that in my card.  In my stash I found this adorable little gingerbread lady cookie and gingerbread men cookie cutters to use to embellish my card.  I did not have any paper to represent both the More Mustard or Cajun Craze, so my gingerbread lady cookie is the More Mustard and the stamped images are Cajun Craze.  I felt it needed something to dress it up a bit so I pulled out my fabulous scor tool from Stampin Up and it did the trick.  Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek!

Ingredients
Solid Card Stock: PTI - White and Royal Velvet, Blue color is from stash
Stamps: WMS - Join Us
Ink: PTI - Canyon Clay
Buttons: Stash

Thank you for being a friend....

Anyone know the TV show that has this line in their theme song? It's the Golden Girls and I have to admit I love watching the reruns, it also happens to be one of my mom's favorite shows too. After I finished Ashleigh's Dr. Who cross stitch I started right in on my mom's...it's one of her Christmas gifts so I needed to get started on it right away.  So no card making the last couple of days, just stitch, stitch, stitch! I have to admit that I did take a bit of a break last night and met my sister to see the new Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn Part 2...what an amazing movie, well at least in my opinion but then I happen to like all of the movies, read all of the books and even took a trip to Washington and Oregon to do the Twilight movie tour, self guided with Ashleigh and my sister. Too much fun! Any way, back to my cross stitch...this one was much quicker to stitch than Dr. Who but just as much fun to see all of the characters come to life on the fabric. Now that the Golden Girls is completed I started on the last one I plan to make as a Christmas gift, this one is Star Trek...Be sure to check out Wee Little Stitches and see all of the wonderful things you too can make.
Thanks for taking a peek!

Four of a Kind - November Edition

It's that time again...the November edition of our Four of a Kind challenge. This month's hostess is Joyce from Cards-by-the-Sea and she sent the most amazing kit, perfect for this time of year too. I love all the fall colors, the oranges, browns, greens and reds, just so warm and vivid.  If you have not been to my blog before there are four of us and each month one of us is the hostess and sends out kits with the same ingredients and then we create cards or projects with them. Some time they are all very different and then others, some are very, very similar. It was so nice to get the kit with the "self assembling" cards too, always a nice bonus when you open your kit, spread it out on your desk, walk away, come back and there you have it, cards made...Joyce has some kind of magic! Be sure to take a peek at all the cards on each of the blogs, these ladies are incredibly talented!

Photo Courtesy of Joyce

Joyce - Cards-by-the-Sea

Cathy - Empty Nest Crafter

Renee - It's A Patchwork Life

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #123

My new Waltzingmouse stamps arrived today and I could not wait to try out one of the new stamps for this weeks sketch challenge. Only one more day to work and then a week off for Thanksgiving...I'm so excited and hope to have lots of time hanging out in my craft room.  My shopping is just about done and other than some sewing and baking I am ready for the holidays! With Christmas just around the corner I decided to use the new Christmas stamps, Compliments of the Season Two along with Sewing Box Christmas, who does not love those sweet mittens? Another quick and easy card and ready to send out for the holidays.  Thanks for stopping by and checking out my card....

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White

Patterned Paper: Echo Park - Holly Jolly Christmas

Stamps: WMS - Compliments of the Season Two and Sewing Box Christmas

Ink: SU - Real Red and VersaFine - Black

Button: PTI - Pure Poppy and Snowflakes - Stash

Baker's Twine: PTI - Pure Poppy

Dies: PTI - Scallop Border and Double Ended Banner 

CASology #19 Thanks

Happy Wednesday....can you believe in just over a week lots of us will be sitting down to a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends. This is both my daughter and husbands favorite holiday and we have to follow all the family traditions.  So this week's cue card from CASology, "Thanks"  is perfect, and we have so much to be thankful for.  In keeping with the theme of clean and simple which is not always easy to do, I think I accomplished it by just using letter dies to spell out thank you.  Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek! Wishing you all a wonderful week.

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White and Plum Pudding

Button: PTI - Royal Velvet

String: Stash

Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday #91 Faux Pockets

I don't think I have ever had my card ready this soon after seeing what the Papertrey Ink's MIM technique was...I guess having the day off and being up early helps a bit too. I'm on a roll too, this is the first time I have been able to do a MIM card two weeks in a row! As soon as I finished watching the video the wheels in my brain began to spin and I started pulling out stamps and paper and what a mess but I am so happy with the finished card and I think I will make a few more. This is such a fun and very quick technique to use and looks like you spent way more time than it really takes.  Have a wonderful day and thanks for taking a peek.

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White and Blueberry Sky

Stamps: PTI - In The Meadow, Signature Christmas and Background Basics Music

Ink: PTI - Blueberry Sky, VersaMark and VersaFine - Black

Ribbon: PTI - Blueberry Sky Bitty Dot

Dies: PTI - In The Meadow

Lawnscaping #45 and ColourQ #162 Challenges

I'm so excited to have tomorrow off from work, it means I can stay up late and be creative and also leave some love on all the blogs I follow, after being sick I got so far behind.  I started making this card for the Lawnscaping Challenge this week, "Dust 'em Off" thanks to Joyce from Cards-by-the-Sea for the little nudge to play along. I only have one Fawn Lawn stamp set so it make it very easy to play, it has been sitting around collecting dust for some time so it works perfect for the challenge.  I love the different glasses in this set and thought it would go so well with the Happy Birthday Eye Chart from Technique Tuesday.  Not sure what colors to use so I thought I would play along with ColourQ this week too...once I got started with the glasses I remembered I has a pair of metal glasses that were in a pack of Santa buttons, the perfect little touch.  Thanks for taking a peek!

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White, Pure Poppy and Lemon Tart

Stamps: Fawn Lawn - Clear to Sea and Technique Tuesday - Birthday Eye Chart

Ink: PTI - Kraft, SU - Real Red and VersaFine - Vintage Sepia

Eye Glasses: Stash

Dr. Who.......

No cards today but I wanted to share what I did instead. My daughter loves the British TV show Dr. Who (I have no clue what the show is about other than it seems a bit strange to me), and can't wait for the new season to start. So when I saw this cross stitch pattern I thought this would be the perfect gift for her. I have not been able to find too much in the way of Dr. Who. I have to say this one took a bit longer than I thought it would, the Tardis took what seemed like forever to finish (the Tardis is the blue thing that looks like a phone booth).   A while back I ran across these cross stitch patterns on Etsy called Pixel People by Wee Little Stitches,  They have so many fun patterns to choose from, just purchase, download, print and stitch. This is the second one I have made, the first was Big Bang Theory and now that Dr. Who is finished I started working on one for my mom, The Golden Girls.  I am not too worried that Ashleigh will see what I have done, she never checks my blog and I really wanted to show everyone what I have been working on, thanks for taking a peek!

Cloud 9 November Blog Hop

Can you believe that in less than 2 weeks we will all be celebrating Thanksgiving! It is so early this year but I guess that will give everyone a bit more time to plan for Christmas, right? This month inspiration photo is just so beautiful, I would love to have fun bedding like this for the holidays, it is so festive and the colors are so bright and cheery!  

I woke up this morning around 2am to the sound of an amazing hail storm and it seemed to last forever! Our cars looked like there had been a bit of a snow flurry.  The hail storm was followed by thunder and lightning and lots of rain and I just could not get back to sleep.  I realized it was the 9th and did not have my card ready for this month WP9 blog hop so I fixed a cup of coffee and turned I Love Lucy on and made my card.  Thanks for taking the time to visit today.

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White and Pure Poppy

Patterned Paper: Stash

Ribbon: Stash

Stamps and Dies: WP9 - Iconic Christmas

Window and Tree Dies: Renee Lynch

CASology 18

I just could not pass up on this week's CASology challenge, orange is close tot he top of my list for favorite colors... This weeks cue card is Orange...a fabulous color that I think everyone should be wearing, right?  I have more clothes in my closet in orange and lime green, both my favorites, so bright, fun and very festive.  I thought for a bit as to what I could do and started thumbing through my box of stamp sets and then it hit me...my friend Joyce from Cards-by-the-Sea sent me this wonderful little set by Hero Arts that is all about sewing, another favorite hobby of mine.  I have had the set for a while but always came up blank when trying to decide what to do with it, that is until today.  Take a peek and let me know what you think. It was a fun quick card to make and I think I will make a few more for a little gift set.

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White

Ink: VersaFine - Black

Stamps: Hero Arts - So Artsy

Floss: DMC #721

Papertrey Ink - MIM #90 - Creating Focal Point Sentiments with Stamps and Dies

It really feels like it has been month's since I have just sat down to make a card/project for a challenge blog...I won't bore you with all of the details but I have had the worst cold/bug ever and it lasted for 3 weeks, but now I am just about back to feeling 100% human again so let the crafting begin!  I decided to make something for this week's Papertrey Ink's MIM...I loved the idea of using my alphabet dies too. I don't pull them out often enough, they can be so much fun and the possibilities are endless.  Instead of making a card I decided to make a note pad cover.  I used the handmade strawberry that Cathy from Empty Nest Crafter gave me, these little guys have been hanging out on my craft desk for some time just begging to be used and seeing the strawberry gave me the idea for the note pad.
I purchased a bunch of these cute little note pads from PTI some time ago and they can be so quick and easy to put together and really make a fun little gift.

Thank you so much for stopping by and taking a peek at my little project today!

Ingredients

Solid Card Stock: PTI - White and Pure Poppy

Patterned Paper: PTI - Frutti Tutti and 2008 Bitty Dot Basics

Dies: PTI - Alphabet

Ribbon: PTI - Pure Poppy and Simply Chartreuse

Stamps: PTI - Take Note

Strawberry: Cathy Weber

The 12 Kits of Christmas - October Edition

I know we are late this month...first due the super storm Sandy and then next I am late too because I can never seem to get my days and time zones right. I decided to make my self a cup of coffee and sit down at my computer to get some what caught up on leaving comments and saw that the rest of the bunch posted their cards at the correct time.  

October's hostess was Jessica, from The Paper Parade and wow, what a kit! She out did herself, just like the rest of the group. Again, it was fun playing with goodies that I don't have...Jessica is an amazing paper crafter and works such magic with Paper Smooches, they have fun whimsical designs that are just so much fun...be sure to scan Jessica's blog for all of her wonderful creations, you will be blown away.

Jessica's Kit

Be sure to check out the rest of the ladies in this fabulous group...their cards are just so much fun!

Renee of It's a Patchwork Life

 Cathy of Empty Nest Crafter

Suzanne of The Card Yard

Marybeth of Marybeth's Time for Paper

Joyce of Cards-by-the-Sea 

Amy of Stamp-n-Paradise

Christina of Sea Glass and Sentiments

Kim of Cupcakes, Cards and Kim (that's me)

Kara of KandR Designs

Jessica of The Paper Parade This month's hostess

Jeanne of A Kept Life

Sharron of On Papillon Wings

Thanks for stopping by....