12 Kits of Occasions: January with Kelly and 'A Happy Hello'

We're back with the start of a new year and another exciting reveal by the 12 Kits of Occasions group. This month's hostess is the fabulous Kelly, Gingham Girl and the theme is 'A Happy Hello'--a perfect choice for the start of another year. Unfortunately, on a sad note, two of our very dear members have stepped down to spend more time with their families. While they will both be missed terribly, both Renee Lynch and Kara Vrabel will always be with us in spirit and we hope to see them back when time allows.

I loved Kelly's kit. It was so amazingly easy to work with and I couldn't believe how quickly my cards seemed to take shape. She included wonderful papers and embellishments and the most adorable die cuts. I was especially charmed by the little Lawn Fawn birds. The 'hello' theme is so versatile and as I made my cards I could imagine additional sentiments I could add on the inside as different events occurred. Thank you so much, Kelly, for an awesome kit! Below is a photo that Kelly provided of some of the goodies she sent.

I made six cards and could have made more. The one below started out using a tag and some flower die cuts but I thought it might be too much. So I went back through the supplies and substituted the die cut and bold sentiment with the tiny bird. Now I think it may be my favorite! It's so much fun to play with all the fantastic choices our kits include.

A list of all the participants are on the 12 Kits blog so just click here to start on the blog hop. Kelly also asked two very talented people to be guest designers with us this month and their names and blog links can be found there also.

********SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT********

Would you like to be a 12 Kits Guest Designer in February?? The theme is BIRDS and we would love to see what wonderful creations you would make with our next kit. Of course, there will be lots of bird related supplies! So how can you enter our little contest? Well, just leave a comment on the 12 Kits blog telling us if you have a favorite bird and whether you do anything special to attract birds to your home--feeders, ponds, etc. The deadline for the drawing will be February 4th! There will be a random drawing and the winner will have their kit mailed ASAP!

Thank you so much for spending some time with us today. Hope you enjoy the hop!!

Sharron

2nd Entry for CAS-ology and Uniko Challenges

These sweet bunnies are another NBUS that have been living in my stamp basket for almost a year (so sad!!) and this seemed like a great chance for them make an appearance. I colored them with Prismacolor pencils and gamsol and added some 'puff' on their tails with a Snow Marker. The window is a Memory Box die and the patterned paper is from Bo Bunny's Winter Woodland. A shooting star from Avery Elle's Storybook stamps (another set I used today for the first time!) is embossed in silver. 

Hope you can read the silver 'Best Friends Forever'. I'm always looking for a way to do better photographs--even with special lights, lighting continues to be my biggest problem! Any tips are greatly appreciated!

You can visit the CAS-ology and Uniko challenges here and here. 

The bunnies and I thank you for taking time to come by today! Have a great week!

Sharron

Merry Monday #142: Christmas Houses

My Wonderfully Whimsical stamp set hasn't seen ink for the longest time! It's always been a favorite of mine so I was glad to use it for this week's Merry Monday challenge. The snowman is from another PTI set, Tinsel and Tags (no longer available) and the sentiment is from Love Lives Here: Holiday. I so wish I could capture the shine and sparkle with my camera. The gold trimmed trees and touches of Wink of Stella look so pretty IRL!

I'm so excited to play at Merry Monday and start my Christmas card collection early this year. Thanks again for letting me share!

Sharron

Supplies

Stamps: Wonderfully Whimsical, Tinsel and Tags, Love Lives Here: Holiday (all PTI)

Cardstock: White (Recollections); Cupid's Bow (WPlus9)

Dies: Landscape Trio (Mama Elephant); Stitched Rectangles (Lil' Inker)

Additional: Embossing Folder-Argyle (Cuttlebug); Clear Wink of Stella; Pilot Gold Marker; Copics

CAS-ology #130: FRIEND

This week's theme for CAS-ology Challenge 130 is FRIEND! With so many adorable images, Mama Elephant was an easy choice for images to do with friendship. My card uses In My Heart. Love the sweet children and wonderful sentiments! The paper airplane elements are from Avery Elle's Airmail--another one of my NBUS stash! Thanks, Darnell, for getting me going!!

Also added to Uniko's challenge featuring LOVE and FRIENDSHIP.

Hope you enjoy! Love when you drop by and leave a note!

Sharron

Supplies

Stamps: In My Heart (Mama Elephant); Airmail (Avery Elle)

Cardstock: White (Recollections); Aqua (Bazzill); Lemon Tart (PTI)

Ink: Tuxedo Black, Bamboo Leaves, Love Letter (Memento): Copics

Friends Make the Holiday MERRY!

Here's my last NBUS entry for Darnell's NBUS #3 challenge. I'm also going to enter it in the CAS-ology NBUS challenge and Merry Monday which is featuring Christmas Critters. For this design I used another new Mama Elephant set called Arctic Penguins. Just LOVE all the sweet penguins included! The stamped sentiment is from another Mama Elephant set, Jolly and Merry which includes lots of images and sentiments that work great with the penguin images. I have no idea where I got that patterned paper but loved the plaid and fun penguin!

Challenges Entered

Thanks for letting me share another card! I loved playing again!!

Sharron

Supplies:

Stamps: Arctic Penguins, Jolly and Merry (Mama Elephant); Tinsel and Tags (PTI)

Cardstock: White (Recollections); Cupid's Bow (WPlus9)

Dies: Anytime Tags (Lil' Inker): Tinsel and Tags, Wet Paint Holiday (PTI)

Additional: Patterned Paper (source unk.); Tuxedo Black, Bamboo Leaves, Cottage Ivy, Lady Bug Inks (Memento); Copics; Clear Wink of Stella for the berries

NBUS Joins CAS-ology!!

While my posts last year were at a minimum, it didn't keep me from purchasing new supplies. And quite a few of my new stamp sets were from Mama Elephant. So when I was looking for materials for Darnell's NBUS challenge, my Mama Elephant file was an easy choice. I am so thankful that Darnell has encouraged me to finally play with some of these fabulous sets. And since I have several new Christmas sets, I will be ahead of the game for Christmas 2015!

And what fun when I saw this week's cue word at CAS-ology. None other than Darnell's very original term--NBUS, which stands for 'never before used schtuff" Visiting Darnell's blog is always a treat--her humor and creativity are amazing!! If you have never stopped by, put that at the very top of your to-do list!

So for my card........ Aren't these little Mama Elephant Alpine Carolers so adorable? There are dies to match but I don't mind fussy cutting and like my images cut on the edge instead of having the white border. The bells and sentiment are from another Mama Elephant set, Winter Wonderland. Three sizes of bells are included. The glimmery background paper is from Bazzill and I brushed the white in front with clear Wink of Stella.

I have another card I will be posting shortly. Hope you are having a wonderful week!

Sharron

Supplies

Stamps: Alpine Carolers, Winter Wonderland (Mama Elephant); Heartfelt Mix (WPlus9)

Cardstock: White (Recollections); Aqua (Bazzill)

Dies: Stitched Circles (Lil' Inker)

Additional: Gold Embossing Powder (Ranger); Tuxedo Black Ink (Memento); Copics

CASEing Michele!

I've found a new blog and it's filled with inspiration!! Tracey, In My Creative Opinion, who is one of the 12 Kits members, mentioned the blog in a post so I went to visit. I instantly fell in love with all the fabulous creations and yesterday took the time to explore further. Michele Ferguson, I Card Everyone, has a wonderful CAS style and I found so much inspiration. In the card below she used a PTI set, that I have but had never even opened. for a stunning white and silver design. Below is a photo of her card.

And below is the CASE I did. Unfortunately I have a terrible time photographing metallics! It is much lighter and sparkly IRL. I used Memory Box's Contempo Circles die and patterned paper from S.E.I. The sentiment and bird are from PTI's Trendy Trees. The landscape is embossed with silver.

I'm so looking forward to making many visits Michelle's blog as I am now a follower! I am also entering this in Darnell's 3rd NBUS Challenge and in Virginia's View Challenge #11, Clean Slate.

Don't faint but I just posted two days in a row! Thanks for coming by again,

Sharron

Congrats, Kara

One of my favorite places to visit for inspiration is Kara's (KandRDesigns) Friday Inspiration File. And she is celebrating her 200th week of posts with a challenge. Click here to find out the details. You can select any pin in any of the files for inspiration and create a project. I needed a masculine sympathy card and had been really struggling finding something special when I came across this card by Jill Foster in Kara's file.

I used a tree stamp from PTI's Through the Trees and embossed it with gold embossing powder on some watercolor paper. Sorry the glittery gold doesn't show up well. Koi watercolors were used for the subtle background. The sentiment is from Altenew's Ori Kami and is one of my favorites for sympathy cards. The layer of green cardstock is WPlus9's Green Acres.

I enjoyed my review of Kara's files so much, even though I didn't make a dent in visiting all the wonderful inspiration projects. I have started a list of some I want to CASE. This will really help me get back into the stamping routine that I have been missing so much in 2014! Thanks, Kara!!

Thanks for letting me share,

Sharron