The 12 Kits of Occasions: November 2014

Happy end of November.  I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving (or good weekend).  We hosted Thanksgiving at our house for the first time in several years, and most of my family came to town to see us.  It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. 

Our hostess this month is Kim, and her kit is all about Santa and Christmas. She sent such a fabulous assortment of stamps, die cuts, papers and embellishments.  Most of the stuff Kim sent was things I didn't have, so they were especially fun to play with.  Lots of retro santa goodies.  I dug right in to her kit as soon as it arrived earlier in the month, because I wanted to send the cards I made to the Caring Hearts Drive.  I just saw that they have received 9000 cards.  Wow.  Here is a picture of Kim's kit.

Photo Courtesy of Kara

I made 6 cards from my kit, and still have so many leftovers.  Can you believe that I did not even get a chance to use that cute owl?  That one will be the first leftover I use.

I'll start with my favorite card of the bunch.

That's all for me today.  I cannot wait to see what everyone else made with their kits.  Thanks so much, Kim, for sending such a wonderful kit.  Please click here if you would like to see a supply list.  And, you can click here to see our 12 kits blog post.

Now, you can hop on over to the other designers in the group to see what they did with their kits.

Joyce (that's me)

Cathy

 Jeanne

 Jessica

 Kara

 Kelly

 Kim

Lindsey

Marybeth 

Renee 
Sharron

 Tracey

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PTI November 2014 Blog Hop

This month's blog hop is all about snow.  Living in San Diego, stamped snow is about all I can get.  I had some crazy idea about pulling all my PTI holiday and snow related stamps and dies and trying to use all of them for this blog hop.  I didn't quite make it through even half, but I did have a good time trying.

I think my favorite of the bunch is this little Whoville-like village I created with Wonderfully Whimsical--one of my favorite stamp sets that doesn't get nearly enough love.  I drew the snow with a paint pen onto my Distress Inked sky 

City Scene, another favorite stamp set that I haven't used in a long time.  I used the sketch at Wanna Sketch #22 for this card,

I used the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch #101 for my next 3 cards.

Edited to add that I am also linking this snowflake card up at Stampin' Celebration SC92 (Thanks Kimberly) in their It's a Little Holiday Inspiration Challenge, where the inspiration is this gorgeous photo.

 

My next card uses the sketch at Clean & Simple Stamping #313.

I pulled out Holiday Home and some embossing past for my next card.

This card uses a birch tree stencil and some stamps and dies from In the Meadow.

And, finally--a sweater to warm you on a snowy day...

That's it for me.  I think next year, I will try to make something with all of my Christmas and holiday stamps, but I will need to give myself more time.

Happy hopping and thanks for visiting today.

CASology Week 123: Eat

It is 2 days before Thanksgiving, here in the US, and what a fitting cue word we have this week--EAT.  Who besides me will probably spend the entire day eating?

I pulled out Foodie Fun and decided to make some colorful gelatos tumbling across the page.  Something to look forward to after the turkey.  This sentiment is one of my favorites.  I only wish it were true.

So, what about you?  What are you planning to eat this week?  How does the word EAT inspire you?  Check out the beautiful designs from the CASology Design Team members and see how they were inspired by FLAG.  Don't forget to keep your card Clean and Simple. 

Ardyth Percy-Robb

Gillian Ross

Jen Wills

Joyce Mehrberg (that's me)

Judy Marino

Kimberly Wiener

May Park

Meghan McMillan

Melissa Chipperfield

Tracey McNeely 

Guest Designer: Coni

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In Bloom Thank You

I made a card today using the technique taught at Make it Monday #189:  Impression Line Water Coloring.  I am also linking up to Simon Says Wednesday Thanks/Thanksgiving Challenge. 

I used the In Bloom Impression Plate and my Inktense Pencils for the water coloring.  I drew over all the impression lines with the pencil, then went over them with a water brush.  Then, I went back and added more color inside the lines using more water to get a paler version of the same color.  I started with the leaves and then moved on to the smaller flowers.  By the time I got to the biggest flower, I had the technique down better, and I am most happy with how that flower came out.

I was not sure where to put a sentiment, because I did not want to cover up my biggest flower, so I cut the panel to a narrower width and had the sentiment go up the side of the card base.  If my paper was not so warped, I would have popped this panel up, but I had to use lots of score tape to get it to lay flat.  I think I will use water color paper next time.

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Four Cards for Thursday

Today I have a card that uses the colors from this week's ColourQ #268 and the sketch from RetroSketches #141.    When I first saw the colors and some of the samples, I was thinking feminine, but after I put my card together, I realized that my design worked better as a masculine card--so I picked a different sentiment that wasn't so ornate.  I'm also entering at Seize the Birthday, without toppings.

After cutting my 3 different colors of card stock with the SSS Diamond Parade die, I stamped them all with the background texture stamp from the same set as my sentiment--PTI's 1960's Stamp A Faire set.

Happy 2nd birthday to Addicted to CAS.  I made a card with my newest owl stamp, this little cutie from Unity called Woo Hoo Owl.  He is perfect for my owl-loving daughter because he has long skinny legs and wears glasses, just like her.  Can you see the Glossy Accents I used to make lenses on the glasses?  I am also entering at Addicted to Stamps #122 for their Make your Mark challenge, as I used Copic markers on my owl.  My daughter is going to Florida tomorrow for a big lacrosse tournament, and I'll be tucking this into her suitcase.

I was inspired by Kristie's card to finally use my No Strings Attached stamp set, and made another card for The Card Concept 23 Krafty Christmas.  I will call my card Clean and Layered.

My last card is for this week's Muse Challenge #94, Paper Players #222 Clean and Simple Thank You, and Simon Says Wednesday challenge thanks or Thanksgiving.  I wanted to follow the basic sketch of the gorgeous inspiration card, and use the technique of overlapping stamped images and inlaid die cutting for the sentiment.  When I stacked up my sentiment and inlaid it back into my stamped panel, topped with the layer cut from the stamped panel, it was really too difficult to read the die cut word, thanks.  So, I left it as a stacked inlay, but did not put the last layer on, which was the layer cut out of the stamped panel.  I added some burlap texture to the card front.

That's it for me today.

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Less is More #198

I have not played at Less is More in so long, and I am very happy that I found time to play along this week.  The theme is 'more than one tree' and I remembered seeing a tutorial not too long ago about adding a sense of depth to a card by using vellum.  I don't remember where I saw this technique, so I am sorry I cannot supply a link, but I did use the technique on this card.

I cut out 5 trees and 2 snowdrifts and adhered 3 of the trees and 1 snowdrift behind a piece of vellum.  I adhered the remaining 2 trees and 1 snowdrift and snowman on top of the vellum.  Does it look like those trees in the back are very far away?  The trees in the back are also cut from darker green shades of paper.

Time is running out to created and send cards to the Caring Hearts card drive.

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