The 12 Kits of Occasions: January 2016 with Lindsey "Celebrating You"

Hi all and also a happy new year! This is the first post of the 12 Kits of Occasions for 2016. And we have wonderful news. We have two new members!! Nancy Penir, Artful Notions, and Michelle Leone, Pretty Periwinkles, are with us starting this month. We are SO excited to have them and their wonderful talents. Be sure to visit their blogs and give them some special love. Blogs for all the members of 12 Kits are on the 12 Kits blog HERE. Several of us have been together for the past several years and while we have sadly lost a few members, we have been fortunate to fill the slots with some of the most fantastic stampers.

Our hostess is once again Lindsey, Occasional Crafting. If you visited last month, you saw Lindsey's December kit. And what a kit! I had such fun and then surprise, I got another absolutely awesome kit in the mail! There were so many papers, die cuts and embellishments. Oh, and lots of fantastic glitter and sparkle! Because of getting ready for vacation, I only made five cards but I could have made many, many more. I feel like we should be celebrating Lindsey for TWO months of AMAZING kits!! Thank you so much, Lindsey!

So let me send you on your way. You won't want to miss any one of the blogs.

PHOTO BY LINDSEY

CAS(E) this Sketch #156

One of my sweet 12 Kits buddies, Michele at I Card Everyone submitted her very first CTS sketch (above) and I wanted to give it a try! Isn't this a wonderful sketch! Thanks for inspiring me, Michele!! The stamps I used are from PTI's Life and the inks are Altenew's Green Fields set. The sentiment is PTI Winter Woods.

There's still time for you to join in--click HERE to enter and take a look at all the other inspiration!

Thanks so much for dropping by1

Have a wonderful week,

Sharron

Merry Monday #188: Hot Bevvies! & MFT Color Challenge

I've been having computer problems so I am posting this very late for this week's Merry Monday challenge! Love these MFT images so I wanted to use the colors for MFT Color Challenge too.  

I first embossed some snowflakes from Snowflake Flurry in white, and sponged the background with distress inks. The adorable mug is from BB Merry Christmoose and the sentiment is from BB Toasty Greetings. Love these stamp sets!! The snowflake peeking from behind the sentiment is a leftover from Lindsey's December 12 Kits kit. The oval was cut with a Stitched Ovals die from Lil' Inker.

Wish I could send some yummy cocoa to all my stamping friends in the snowed states in the Eastern U.S. To all of you, stay safe----and warm!!

Hugs,

Sharron

CAS-ology #180: Open

I couldn't miss posting this card on CAS-olgy this week. I thought of this stamp set when I first saw the cue word and then didn't get my card made until this weekend. Sewing Box-Hugs was one of my first WMS purchases and I always enjoy these sweet images. And I remembered that it also included this perfect for the challenge sentiment.

Paper piecing seemed like a great technique for a CAS card. I used the brick pattern from PTI's 

Petite Places Sweet Shoppe. Different colors of cardstock were used and I cut the door so it would open. The green door has two pieces of cardstock to make it more sturdy.

The inside needed a tiny sentiment but it was hard to find anything that small. I finally decided on this one from PTI's Tiny Tags. The hearts are from PTI's Wonderfully Whimsical.

Thanks for letting me share!

Sharron

Fusion Challenge

Fusion is celebrating their 2nd Year of wonderful challenges. And everyone is invited to the party! Check their blog to see lots of inspiration from designers and their guests. And doesn't this fabulous photo below make you want to join the party!

I started by embossing some white cardstock with a Lifestyle Embossing Folder called Zigzag. After watercoloring a piece of watercolor paper with yellows, I used an Avery Elle Chevron Die (not shown in the store anymore) and used just the arrow pieces. The top papers are vellum. The oval is a die cut from PTI's Limited Layers and the cake was stamped and fussy cut. Cake and sentiment are from Verve's Big Wish. The sequins are from Lucy's Little Things Muted Metallics.

The cake was embossed in white and colored with Zig Clean Color markers. The sentiment is embossed in gold but I never can get the shiny gold to photograph well. It does look wonderful in real life though!

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

Thanks for dropping by,

Sharron

Merry Monday Challenge: Using Plaid

I love plaids and there is always something special about plaid decorations at Christmas. I found this wonderful plaid paper in my basket of 12 Kits leftovers. Great colors, don't you think! And it gave me the opportunity to play in this week's Merry Monday Challenge. 

CLICK HERE TO CONNECT TO CHALLENGE

The little elf is from MFT's Birdie Brown Santa's Elves. It is a wonderful set that received much love this past Christmas. I normally use Copics but decided to try colored pencils for a change. Only his red boots are done with Copics. The bell is done with a silver marker and topped with IrRESISTible Pico Clear. The embossed snowflake on the ornament is from PTI's Warm Wishes.

I'm hoping to do more Merry Monday challenges this year to help build my holiday stash. Lots of other activities took over my stamping time this past year so hope 2016 isn't so hectic!

Thanks for letting me share. 

Please drop by again!

Sharron

A Couple of Challenge Cards to Post Before the Year Ends

I've had these two cards done for a while but just didn't get them posted. The first was a Christmas card for a special friend and the second was my hubby's birthday card for a couple of days after Christmas.

I knew the instant I saw the Fusion Challenge inspiration that I would use my PTI Winter Woods set. Nichole designed a trio of birds in Charley Harper style. And I absolutely love them! The only problem now is wishing Nichole would design more birds in the same style! The background is embossed with a Sizzix snowflake folder, the oval is Lil' Inkers Stitched Ovals, sentiment is a PTI die cut and the patterned paper is from Cosmo Cricket. Greenery is from WPlus9's Merry & Bright and the birch trees are Avery Elle. I tried several reds for the cardinal and found the best is Avery Elle's Strawberry, a gift from a very sweet friend. I wanted the bird's head to be black with the wing/tail stamp to be a dark gray so I cut my stamp apart to stamp. 

The Freshly Made Sketches Challenge led me to this design. Guess what, a snowflake! Mine is a Memory Box Bianca Snowflake, cut from glittery paper. The embossing is a Lifestyle Snowflake pattern. I made my own sentiment which is computer generated. The cup (done in green-hubby's favorite color) is from a Christmas present set, MFT's Birdie Brown Merry Christmouse.

 And below is the inside. Stamp from the same set.

A Little Side Note:

I helped at our botanical gardens before Christmas making greenery arrangements to sell at the holiday Illuminations. There were a lot of assorted decorations to use for accents but when we started to run low I decided to make some using stamps. I used all kinds of stamps but this particular one is from MFT Birdie Brown's Santa's Elves. I bought the smallest plastic ornaments from Michaels and PTI's Tag Sale #4 fit perfectly. I just had to cut off the top tag part so we could use the more sturdy plastic one. I added artificiaI snow purchased at a local nursery. If you are ever looking for winter decorations for your home, fresh greenery works better than anything else as it will last for ages by just adding a little water to the oasis. I bought this one to bring home. It was made 3 weeks ago and is still fresh as new!

Have a safe evening if you are going to be out and about, and a very blessed New Year!!

See you next year,

Sharron