It’s month #12 of our 12 Kits of Christmas project…where on earth has the year gone?! I can’t believe it! This month’s hostess is Sharron! If you’d like to read about how this group started and works, please read this post. Sharron assembled a super fun winter kit for us, and I have to say that I think this one of my favorite kits yet. But it’s also my last kit, as it’s time for some others to have the fabulous chance to play along with these super talented ladies every month. I am going to miss them very much but I will be watching from afar to see what 2013 has in store for them!

For this first card, I added my own dotted washi tape and stamped the sentiment from Wplus9′s Winter Wishes (which was also included in the kit) onto my most favorite piece of patterned paper from the kit.

For my next card, I cut 1.25″ squares from some of the remaining sheets of patterned paper and stitched them together to look like a quilt. Then I used a PTI edger die along the bottom edge, and added the Wplus9 sentiment in Rich Razzleberry from SU!, along with the stitching image from PTI:

And last but not least…a card with the Simple Snowflake die. I embellished the “O” in JOY with a snowflake from last month’s kit, and layered everything, including the glittered snowdrifts that Sharron sent along onto soft stone cardstock:

And that’s a wrap! This isn’t goodbye to all my 12 Kits friends at all - I love you all and will forever treasure your kindness and generosity. I have had so much fun playing with all the goodies over this last year (though at times my wallet has scorned you). I hope you will pop in on me every now and then to see how much progress I am making on my own 2013 holiday cards…it will be the reminder that I will surely need!

Here is a list of everyone else in our group. Have fun hopping around and seeing their creations!

Thank you so very much, sweet Sharron, for an absolutely fabulous kit!

xoxo

Hugs,
Suzanne

It’s month #11 of our 12 Kits of Christmas project, and this month’s hostess is Jeanne! If you’d like to read about how this group started and works, please read this post. Jeanne is the queen of stunning detailed dies and this kits was so overwhelmingly full of amazing stuff - it was so beautiful that I honestly did not know what to do with it!

For this first card, I used a circle die to cut out the middle of the doily to shape it like a wreath and I added my own bow diecut from a MFT die. Isn’t the sentiment gorgeous?!

Jeanne sent along a gift card envelope diecut, so next I decorated that with some of the other beautiful dies that she included:

Then I made another CAS card, embossing the edge with a Lil Inker’s die and adding my own stamped frame and diecut to the sentiment - that is a Wplus9 die and frame stamp:

Be sure to hop along and leave some comments because one lucky winner from one of the blogs will win a stamp and die set from Serendipity, whose products you see on this hop today! AND in honor of this hop, they are having a ONE DAY SALE of 20% off all Christmas items!!! Head on over to check it out! Thanks so much, Serendipity!

Here is a list of everyone else in our group. Have fun hopping around and seeing their creations!

Thank you so very much, Jeanne! I am in awe of you and all of your frilly fru-fru fabbiness! xoxo

Hugs,
Suzanne

It’s month #10 of our 12 Kits of Christmas project, and this month’s hostess is Jessica! If you’d like to read about how this group started and works, please read this post. Jessica sent us an Paper Smooches filled kit - super duper fun times!

I really loved that Jess also chose papers matching Autumn Rose instead of a true red - this card looks so pretty to me with those pink holly berries that I added from my bling stash.

I knew that I had to work with the dog image, and know exactly who I am sending this next card to…

I added some glitter to his hat and opted not to color him. I really like the pine boughs she sent us too.

For my card above, I channeled my inner Lynn Mangan! How did I do!? Oh, I hope I did her proud! I heat embossed the leaves from my own Paper Smooches set onto the patterned paper using a glittery embossing powder.

And here is my favorite one of the bunch! I added the Wplus9 snowflake diecut behind the sentiment and added my own fine linen ribbon and stitching. I love all those trees in the paper!

Here is a list of everyone else in our group. Have fun hopping around and seeing their creations!

Thank you so very much, Jessica!!!

Hugs,
Suzanne

It’s month #9 of our 12 Kits of Christmas project, and this month’s hostess is Kara! If you’d like to read about how this group started and works, please read this post. Kara sent us an awesome kit filled with a bunch of fun stuff- too much, actually!

On my card above, I used the stamped banner image as well as the chevron paper that Kara sent, but added my own green spritz, gold washi, and embellishments.The brown snowflake image is from PTI - I thought it helped to balance the brown from the banner.

This is another reason why Kara’s kit was SO fantastic: she sent us materials to make our own holiday planner….LOVE IT! Here I added my own glitter strip and background stamping. The Hero Arts image was heat embossed. I thought it went perfectly with the planner since it has lots of holiday tasks in the text. And I love that font.

And for my last card, I layered lots of the papers and diecuts that Kara sent, adding only a few snowflake rubons of my own to make the whole card seem more wintery. This was really fun for me to make.

Here is a list of everyone else in our group. Have fun hopping around and seeing their creations!

Thank you so very much, Kara!!! I would have made more but I finished 75 Christmas cards for my mom earlier in the day and my eyes are tired. ;)

Hugs,

It’s month #8 of our 12 Kits of Christmas project, and this month’s hostess is Kim Heggins! If you’d like to read about how this group started and works, please read this post. Kim sent us a most amazing kit filled with non-traditional colors…my favorite for the holidays!

On my card above, I debossed the card base with the chevron impression plate from Wplus9, and colored the image with markers before adding the red bling. Below, I used an SU! die and coordinating paper piercer to diecut the sentiment and mount it onto some really beautiful patterned paper:

Next, I wanted to try something with more bells and whistles, so I adhered some of the fun pink ribbon to the top of the card, and layered the diecut word over a piece of a SU! diescut that was stitched along the bottom edge:

My last card is iffy to me because I am not a colorer, but I really felt like trying out my pencils again…so here it goes…I almost didn’t post it, but I like the layout!

Here is a list of everyone else in our group. Have fun hopping around and seeing our creations:

Thank you so very much, Kim!!!

One more piece of news is that Neat and Tangled Stamps is offering free shipping this weekend on all orders! Yipee!

Have a fun day and see you again soon!

Hugs,

It’s month #7 of our 12 Kits of Christmas project, and this month’s hostess is Christina MacLaren! If you’d like to read about how this group started and works, please read this post. You’re in for a real treat…we’re over the halfway point of the year, which means we are that much closer to Christmas…so now I’m really in the spirit! And this was one of my most favorite kits yet!

I made a total of five cards with our kit this month, but I could have made double that with everything that Christina sent. The patterned papers are just so beautiful.

Of course, I had to make at least one CAS card. I embossed the green cardstock with a Cuttlebug folder from my own stash.

I love that tree image in the first card, and the layout of the one above…a little inspiration from an old magazine. {sigh!} Here is a list of everyone else in our group. Have fun hopping around and seeing our creations:

Thank you so very much, Christina!

Hugs,

It’s month #6 of our 12 Kits of Christmas project, and this month’s hostess is Amy Kolling! If you’d like to read about how this group started and works, please read this post. I can’t believe that we are halfway through the year already! It’s amazing how time flies.

Amy sent the BEST kit this month. It was full of patterned papers from Simple Stories and TONS of diecuts from Lil’ Inker Designs: the bow die, the woodgrain frame, the holly, the bells, the stamps, OH MY! It was so fun to work with.

My approach for this month was to think small to capture the detail in all the itty bitties that Amy included in the kit. I made a mini card (above), a shaped card, and a tag.

On my first card above, I decided to score and trim the woodgrain frame to make a mini card - perfect for pairing with a wrapped gift!

Next, I’ll show you my tag, which slides inside of a miniature paper bag that was decorated with some of the embelishments and paper in the kit:

My third project for this month is a sideways banner card that I designed and cut by hand. I took three sections of patterned paper from the kit and stitched them together before trimming the V shape away to form the banner.

I finished the card off with the ribbon, the adorable stamped sentiment (also from Lil’ Inker Designs) and the bling.

Here is a list of everyone else in our group. Have fun hopping around and seeing our creations!

Thank you, Amy, for sending such a great kit this month in the midst of all your Gallery Idol events. I am so proud of you - your amazing spirit and talent truly shined throughout the last few weeks!

Hugs,

It’s month #5 of our 12 Kits of Christmas project, and this month’s hostess is Joyce! If you’d like to read about how this group started and works, please read this post.

This month, Joyce sent us a kit full of supplies to make Hanukkah projects, which was a special treat for me since I don’t have anything like what she sent. I also think her kit was the easiest for me to work with by far - I’ve got lots to show today and I was able to put them all together in record time. I am quite excited about that!

The card above was made using a sketch you may have seen here before - it’s from one of Lucy Abrams’ sketch challenges from last winter. I thought it was a great way to showcase the beautiful papers that Joyce sent us.

Next up is this adorable box diecut, which I do not own and am now SO tempted to buy. It was a breeze to assemble and decorate and I just love the shape.

Joyce also sent us some tags! I love tags, and was really excited about the diecut on the right since I also don’t have that one, or the one that was used to make those delicate and gorgeous circular flowers/wreaths. I love the triangles too.

Lastly, I have one last card to share; this time, I added more stitching to the top and to the bottom, and added some gold silky crush ribbon from RibbonCarousel.com.

Here is a list of everyone else in our group. Have fun hopping around and seeing what everyone else made!

Thanks so very much for stopping by,

It’s month #4 of our 12 Kits of Christmas project, and this month’s hostess is Marybeth! If you’d like to read about how this group started and works, please read this post.

Marybeth sent the most elegant kit this month. There were such detailed diecuts and images…unlike anything I am used to playing with, so this month was a challenge for me. I’ve hung on to some stuff hoping to CASE the talented ladies in the group. Yes, I just admitted that! Here’s Kara’s photo of the goodies that were sent:

And here is what I came up with! This month, I took the single strips of border diecuts and challenged myself to use them in pieces. On this first card, I made a small town scene out of the Memory Box diecut, adding my own hearts and sentiment from Love Lives Here: Holiday.

For my next card, I loved the texture in all the materials Marybeth used to diecut the bells and wanted that to be the highlight of the card, so I cut the strips into thirds and layered them over light blue cardstock, pulling it all together with the matching plaid paper that she sent. I heat embossed my own sentiment in white off to the side…

Here is a list of everyone else in our group. Have fun hopping around and seeing our creations!

The best part is always seeing what everyone else made because it’s always so spectacular!

It’s month #3 of our 12 Kits of Christmas project, and this month’s hostess is ME! YAY!

Here’s how it works: There are 12 of us in this group, and each person takes turns hosting the challenge each month by mailing to each of the other group members a kit full of supplies - stamped images, patterned papers, bling, ribbon, etc. Any company, any style…it’s all up to the hostess that month. Everybody in the group receives the SAME kit of ingredients, and each of us makes a card (or several cards) in secret using those supplies. On the last day of the month, we all post our creations…the fun is seeing what everyone else made with the same ingredients. We are allowed to supplement the kits with supplies from our own stash, but when I do that I will point it out to you.

Here is a photo of the kit I sent to everyone…I’ve included a complete list of supplies at the end of this post, in case you see anything along this hop that you love.

This month, I made four cards with my own kit. The only trouble that I had was that one of our dear team member’s kits got lost in the mail, so I had to send my actual kit away…which means I could barely remember what I sent everyone weeks ago. Which stamp was stamped in which color on what kind of paper and cut with which die? LOL.

I’ll start with my favorite of the bunch:

I added a Hero Hues bling to the ribbon, as well as some champagne glitter from A Muse Studio:

I stamped the sentiment on vellum, because I had a hard time remembering exactly how I stamped this for the kits. The tree diecut is from PTI’s In the Meadow.

I love how this next one turned out too…I am having fun playing with my Teresa Collins designer brads. I ran out of tin pins for myself and figured bling was the next best way to go:

The gingham ribbon is by May Arts, and you can find it in the Ribbon Carousel Store, along with the red and natural jute twines found on my other cards.

Do you remember these Thickers from last month? I love them. I am determined to use the whole pack up! The thick knot embellishment is something we learned from Kim Hughes in our class last week. I layered vellum over the patterned papers to soften them and to make the glittered letters stand out more:

Here is a list of everyone else in our group. Have fun hopping around and seeing our creations!

I can’t wait to see what everyone else makes. Have a fun day!

Paper: 1. Cherry Shimmer from A Muse Studio, 2. Candy Cane Stripe - A Muse Studio, 3. Twas the Night Before Christmas(text) - A Muse Studio, 4. Spring Moss (PTI), 5. Mitten Weather from Cosmo Cricket, 6. Dear Mr. Claus from Cosmo Cricket
7. SU! Holly Berry Bouquet, 8. The cream lightweight shimmer paper is Stardream Metallics in Opal.

Ribbon: 1. Green satin ribbon (double-faced) & cream lace - Ribbonbazaar.com, 2. The striped ribbon and the red ribbon are from SU!, 3. The twines are two new colors from The Twinery, 4. Polka dot ribbon is Ripe Avocado from PTI


Misc: 1. Metal tin pins, 2. New leaf buttons (PTI), 3. Cosmo Cricket sticker(s) from Dear Mr. Claus collection, 4. Rusty jingle bells 6mm (craftcatalog.com), 5. Labels 1 dies from A Muse Studio