12 Kits of Occasions: "Happy Hello" January 2015

Hello, friends!  It's for sure one of my very favorite days of the month....the day we get to post our projects for the 12 Kits of Occasions.  I cannot even tell you how excited I was when the fabulous Kelly sent us the photo above to let us know what we had to look forward to in our kits this month.  I truly LOVED every single item she included in this "Happy Hello" themed kit.  Don't let the small number of cards I created fool you.  I could have easily created 15 cards, but I've been out of town and only had two nights (filled with frequent interruptions as the baby awoke) to create.  Make sure you head over to the 12 Kits Blog today.  There are lots of things going on!  In addition to getting a peek at the other ladies' fabulous creations, you'll see that we've had some changes to the team (insert two sad faces for those leaving and one happy face for our new addition), AND you can enter to win next month's kit.  These kits are so fun...go...quick!  Enter that contest. :) 

One of the things I loved most about this kit was the color scheme.  They are some of my very favorite colors!  In fact, my closet door is open right now and inside I can see multiple articles of clothing in every single one of the colors included in the kit.  I also loved the die cuts, which made an appearance on almost every single one of my cards.

Above is my attempt at a collage card.  I loved all these goodies and wanted them on a card, but as you probably can tell, collages are a challenge for me.  My mother would be the best collage card maker out there, but my mind doesn't work very well that way...I couldn't help but keep some order to the arrangement.  You'd think years and years of pinning things on bulletin boards and walls in my room would have helped, but now that I think about it, they always had some sense of order as well.  You'll never believe it, but I just found proof.  Ha!  Mind you I just snapped these photos of some old blurry photos from my first college apartment.  The desk was mostly my roommates stuff, so ignore that, but look at the walls. 

I remember my initial idea was to have one giant collage on the wall, but when I got started, I just couldn't do it.  I had to group the photos, arranging them by the people in them.  Each of my sisters got a group, the rest of my family is an another group, my church friends are in a group, my school friends are in a group, my doggies had a group, etc. etc.  Good times.

How's that for another tangent?  I've had a few of those in my posts this month.  Alright...back to cards!

CAS(E) This Sketch #108 inspired this card.  The funniest part is that I glanced at the sketch earlier in the day and had the general idea of it in my head when I started this card.  I chose the colors based on the recipient's preferences.  It wasn't until I was uploading the sketch for this post that I realized that those were the colors in the photo, too.  The coincidence made me chuckle. :)

 

Okay, I have one last card to share.  I forgot to mention that I'm also entering these cards in the "Anything Goes" Simon Says Wednesday Challenge.  Now seemed like as a good a time as any to throw that in. :) See what I mean about the colors in this kit?  Just so fun and cheery.

Don't forget: head over to the 12 Kits of Occasions blog to enter in the contest to win a spot for next month's kit.  One winner will be randomly selected on February 4th, so don't waste any time.  Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Sending happy weekend wishes to you all!

Cardinals

Hi! I'm back again with a post just for fun to share the other card I made that was inspired by Kara's Friday Inspiration File.  (If you missed the first one, you can check it out here.) This is a super simplified CASE of this pin, which is a beautiful watercolored card by Isha Gupta {New Ideas}.  I'd love to CASE Isha's card again when I have a more time, so I could actually try to watercolor, but there certainly is some satisfaction in creating a really quick and easy card.  The part that makes me happy about this card is the cardinal.  Cardinals always remind me of home.  I loved seeing them in the trees when I was little.  In fact, for years (like before I was even married) I've had this little picture in my head of a perfect day.  I'm not sure I've ever written it down, but I can always remember it.  Anyway, it goes something like this...I'm in the kitchen baking pies on a fall day.  When I look out the window over the kitchen sink, I see my kids happily playing in the backyard.  The backyard is framed by lots and lots of trees, and I can see little flecks of red and blue in the trees where cardinals and bluejays are perched.  I'm smiling just thinking about it.  Now where was I?  Oh, yes.  The cardinal on this card makes me happy. :) Boy have I ever been tangential this week...I'm not sure why.    I hope I haven't completely lost you. :) Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Supplies
Stamps: PTI (Birds & Blooms); Winnie & Walter (Winter Wonderland)
Ink: PTI (Aqua Mist, New Leaf, Pure Poppy), Ranger (Jet Black Archival Ink)

Inspired by Kara's File

Hello, friends!  Do you all know Kara of K & R Designs?  I sure hope so!  She is super talented and inspires me on a regular basis.  In addition to following her blog, I also love to follow her Friday Inspiration File Pinterest board where she pins her favorite paper crafting projects made by others.  To celebrate her 200th week of inspiration, she's hosting a challenge to create a project inspired by one of the pins.  I have pinned so many cards from her board that it was super hard to choose, so naturally I couldn't narrow it down to just one. :) My first card is a CASE of pin #196, a fabulous card by the wonderfully talented Katie Gehrig {Stamping Lightly}.  In fact, as I browsed Kara's file looking for cards I might want to CASE, my eye landed on several of Katie's cards.

One of the things I loved most about the card I chose to CASE was the colors, so I stuck pretty close to them.  I used pines and berries like Katie did, and I love how they have such a different feel when stamped in these fun colors.  It's a little tricky to see, but I embossed a stitched rectangle on the card first, stamped the images inside of it, and then I die cut out a smaller rectangle.  After I popped up the smaller rectangle I didn't feel like the sentiment stood out enough, so I stamped it a second time, cut it out, and popped it up as well.  I love the cheerful colors on this card.  Make sure you go check out Kara's blog and Pinterest board.  You'll love them!

Happy New Year-ISH

Okay, so I know I'm a little late with these cards, but that's been the norm since our little one was born.  My new favorite/most frequently used word these days is "ish" (particularly when referring to time).  For example, yesterday I told my neighbor I would bring them dinner at 5:30ish.  Or I might describe my house right now as clean-ish.  Or I might say that I am happy-ish with these cards.  There are parts that are far less pristine than I would normally ever share, but I'm learning to let things go....at least some things...some of the time.  (In my defense with the cards, though, the stamping really does look worse in the photos, and one of them I purposely stamped the image a second time a little off in an attempt to create a shadowed effect.  Hey, I can use the word again...it created a shadow-ish.)

I've mentioned my thoughts on the up/down photos before, but I went against the norm today because the "up" photos showed the shine on the card a little better...at least on the silver foil. The glittered gold cardstock didn't photograph well no matter what I did. Do you want to know a secret about the silver foil? Hee...I'm chuckling already.  I have to preface this a bit.  Before my kiddos came along, I worked in the public school system.  School budgets are super tight, so you learn to be creative AND to save everything!  Really!  I'm beginning to let that go because I also like a clean, organized home, but there are so many times that I go to throw something away and I still think..."but what if I could use this for____" or "this would make the best___." Anyway, I had one of those moments a couple months back.  Occasionally I bring meals in to neighbors, and I've learned a thing or two along the way.  One of the things I've learned is to make everything you package the meal in disposable.  It makes it easier for everyone.  The dollar store has become my best friend in this regard.  I love getting their foil containers, and I usually buy the ones with lids.  Here is a picture of what I'm talking about.

I can't take credit for the delicious food picture....Cafe Rio can...and that's a whole other tangent.  But do you see where I'm going?  I didn't need a lid on one of the containers a few months back and just as I was about to toss it in the garbage, I thought..."Hmm...that looks a lot like the pretty foil paper I've been seeing on cards lately.  I wonder if..." So yep, I kept it...and now I've used it.  And it really is pretty and shiny and wonderful.  One more confession: Last night I took dinner in to a neighbor who just had a baby, and I purposely filled the fruit to overflowing in one of the containers, so I would have to cover it in foil and thus could keep the lid. :) My husband just shook his head.
Okay, on to my second card, which uses the negatives from the first card.

Actually, I guess the first card technically used the negatives because the little stars are the leftover centers of Papertrey's Super Stars Border Die.  (I just used Simon Says Stamp's Falling Hearts Stencil as a rough guide to adhere them.)  Then I used the leftovers strips on my second card. Oh, and the sentiment was built with several PTI stamp sets as well as the Simon Says "Happy" stamp set.  Phew....apparently I was in a long winded mood tonight.  (Another random side note: My 11th grade English teacher wrote "too verbose" or "needs to be more succinct" on nearly every paper I wrote that year.  Almost always I edit and cut out big chunks of my posts, but obviously not tonight.) I do apologize for such a long post, but I really do hope that you have the most wonderful, blessed new(ish) year! :)
PS I'm linking this up to the SSS Flickr Challenge #9, which is to create a card for anything "new".  And speaking of new things, I used two "new"ish PTI stamp sets (Phrase Play #5 and Inside & Out: Love) on this card.  I've had them a while, but never used them before, so I'm also linking this up to Darnell's 3rd NBUS Challenge.

Card Supplies
Stamps: PTI (Headline Alphabet, Inside & Out: Love, Movers & Shakers Sentiments, Phrase Play #5); SSS (Happy)
Other: PTI (Super Stars Border Die), SSS (Falling Hearts Stencil)

Sending Prayers

Hello!  Just popping in to share a card I made for a dear friend.  Because I really wanted to emphasize the message, I knew I wanted to keep this card clean with beautiful but simple images.  Winnie & Walter's Winter Woodland stamp set was exactly what I needed.  I loved this set the moment I saw it, and I love it even more now because of how easy this card came together.  That's a sign of a good stamp set in my opinion. 

I was inspired by three challenges when making this card: Winnie & Walter's 1st Birthday Bash: One Challenge and Virginia's View Challenge #11: Clean Slate and One-Layer Simplicity Challenge #12: Attractive Opposites (stamping on opposite corners).  I'm also linking it up to Darnell's 3rd NBUS Challenge because this is my first time using this new Winnie & Walter set.  For just a bit of interest, one of the images extends to the back of the card - a fun little trick I saw the oh-so-brilliant Cristina Kowalczyk do on this card.  Sometimes I forget how much I love just simply stamping on a one layer card.  There truly is so much beauty in simplicity...at least that's what seems to speak to my soul. :)

Joy

My husband has been able to take several days off work for the holidays, and it has been wonderful having him home.  We're all happier when he is around, and it's been so nice to be able to do some extra cleaning, extra sleeping, and a little extra crafting.  I have a feeling that Monday is going to be a sad day for all of us when he goes back to work.  Speaking of Mondays, I made this card for the current Make it Monday A la carte challenge.  I was inspired by Make It Monday #158: Stamping with Watercolor Mediums.

I almost didn't finish this post tonight.  I actually made this card a few days ago, but my heart has been a bit heavy this week as so many loved ones are going through hard times and dealing with a lot of pain and worry.  Posting a card seemed a bit trivial.  I do try to think positively, and I've decided that one blessing is that times like these really help you count your blessings and see with clearer perspective.  And I couldn't think of a more perfect blessing at this time as I'm setting goals and really thinking about who I want to grow to become this year.  I hope that this new week brings happiness to you all and many blessings!