The Twelve Kits of Christmas: July

Wow, it's almost the first of August! For a few early birds it's also back to school time and it's not far away for the others. But today is time for another 12 Kits of Christmas reveal party! If you're not familiar with how our little group got started, you can visit HERE to find out a little more about us. This month's hostess is Christina. And below is the photo taken by Kara of all the awesome goodies she sent.

PHOTO BY KARA

The first thing that caught my eye were the bird die cuts. LOVE birds!! I have to admit I already have that die but it is one of my favorites. I kind of cheated and cut out another red bird instead of using the black one. He will be saved for another day! I always lay all the supplies out on the table before starting on even one card. Since my craft space is small, I take everything down to the dining room. I knew the second I looked at the kit that these were going to be the magical self-assembling kind of cards. They were such fun to work with! Thanks, Christina--I've loved your kit! These first two cards were made entirely with kit supplies, except for the tiny pearls for the bird eyes.

Wish I could enlarge this but horizontal pictures go off the page. Just click for a better view.

There were oodles of gorgeous papers with lots of patterns to mix and match. Love the colors too!

For this card, I used PTI's Mat Stack #3 die to cut an opening in the patterned paper. Christina had already stamped the poinsettia on red cardstock. I cut it out and used pearls that I colored with a Copic marker in the center. I tucked one corner inside and used foam tape in several places to pop it up and give more dimension. Not sure if I like it tucked in. If I were to do it over, I think I might leave all the petals on the outside. Gorgeous flower though--it's from Big Bloom Poinsettia by Waltzingmouse.

My last card is a style I don't usually do. For this one, I used two of the paper squares and cut up patterns to make a collage. Loved using the pretty red satin ribbon! A bit of twine tied on a gold jingle bell that I had in my stash.

AND THERE'S MORE!! We've added a new feature to our monthly reveal. Since we always end up with extra supplies from each month, we've been planning to CASE each other. But you know how that goes! We get busy with the new stuff and forget about our growing stash of Christmas goodies! SO as a way to encourage us to get those supplies out, we will be showing you one or more cards each month that we have made based on earlier entries. Renee was so sweet and posted the prior ones on Pinterest! 

Then it was time to choose and boy, that's hard! There were so many I wanted to make. I started with two but only got this one done! It is from a card Kara made in March.  HERE is a link to her post. I loved the chocolate brown and cream but  chose a different patterned paper (Chocolate Remix by PTI). So the card would have a more masculine look, I used twine (left over from this month's kit) and some green buttons that were in Suzanne's original March kit. I also used one of the die cuts from the Banner Borders set by PTI. Going with the nature theme, I added a little squirrel from In the Meadow stamp set, also by PTI.

Thanks for the inspiration, Kara! I'm always amazed at all the wonderful ideas people come up with each month. And we never end up doing the exact same designs either! Well, you'll want to go visit all the other blogs. I do too--that's probably the most exciting part of being part of the 12 Kits group!

Enjoy the hop! We'll all be back again on the first of September! All the kiddos will be back in school-- and the weather will be cooler--I HOPE!

HUGS,

Sharron

Renee {It's a Patchwork Life}

Suzanne {The Card Yard}

Cathy {Empty Nest Crafter}

Joyce {Cards-by-the-Sea}

Kim {Cupcakes Cards and Kim}

Kara {KandRDesigns}

Sharron {On Papillon Wings}

Marybeth {Marybeth's Time for Paper}

Jeanne {A Kept Life}

Jessica {The Paper Parade}

Christina {Sea Glass & Sentiments}--July Hostess

Supplies in Christina's Kit

Stamps: Big Bloom Poinsettia; Vintage Labels 18 (WMS); Big Pine Bough (Hero Arts); Holiday Words--Tree (Inkadinkadoo); Candy Cane Stripes-Retro Christmas (Practicing Creativity); Poinsettia Patterns, Winter Wishes (WPlus9; Fresh Alphabet, Signature Christmas (PTI)

Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Old Olive (Stampin' Up); Vintage Cream (PTI)

Patterned Paper: Wonder (Authentique)

Dies: Labels 18 (Spellbinders); Perched Reed Bird, Twigs & Berries (Memory Box

Additional: Ivory Seam Binding (Etsy); Red Satin and Olive Stitched Ribbon (AC Moore); Twine (May Arts); Twinkle Goosebumps, Pearls (Queen and Co.); Paper Leaves (Bazzill)