Another Maker's Mart KOM Completed

Hurrah! Maker's Mart KOM-005 has been completed and removed from my pile of kits to do. This kit came with the dies, layered chipboard sentiments, wooden frames, ribbons, and other bling to use along with the usual papers, cardstock and cards/envelopes. There were no stamps with this kit and it appears that most of the older sets didn't have sentiment stamps. This was another challenge for me to use just what was in the kit. I did add a button and some sequins (for the shaker card) and I did make a couple of die cut flowers from a die in my stash. Everything else was kit only. 

I think this is getting a little bit easier as I pushed through this kit. These are far from the drop dead gorgeous cards I see everyone else make, but, hey - one needs to start somewhere, right? My largest struggle with this kit was the paper. I thought they were ugly and tried my best to make them a little more appealing to use. Overall, I think I did OK, but nothing to write home about - but maybe, just maybe, they may brighten someone's day. 
 

Maker's Mart KOM-002 Finished

This year is all about working on things I've had in my stash for a long time. I had purchased some Maker's Mart Card Kits of the Month on clearance a few years ago. When they came, I looked at them and pulled this one out to work on. I did the example pieces and then was at a loss and felt totally intimidated by the pieces that were left over. Mind you, I'm not a creative person. Take away the instructions and I feel lost. I put everything away and never touched the kits since. Well - not until this month. 

Starting with a partially used kit that I had abandoned was far from my warm and fuzzy place. I dumped out everything and stared at things and struggled trying to come up with something. Finally, I did and finished my first card. Was the second card easier? NOPE! Well, after a few days, I finished and here is my end result. 10 cards and one box down. 

Sunday Stamps Challenge #SSC251 HAVE A SLICE

Time for another Sunday Stamp Challenge! This one is really cool and  is called "Have a Slice". I was excited as soon as I saw it, because I love the colors and had the perfect colors for this challenge in my stash. I had so much fun making this card. I love using dies to create my cards. I love the dimension I can get from them! 

I cannot tell you the exact papers I used. They came from a past kit from Maker's Mart. The dies were from Spellbinders and the ink was an unbranded cube from a past card kit - I just don't remember what one it was, but one from a few years ago.

The challenge states you must use a minimum of 3 colors from the graphic they posted on Sunday. The challenge runs from February 21st until March 5th at 6pm EST. Have a look at the graphic below and if you'd like to join in, you can got to the challenge page here and find more details to enter. I hope you'll join in the fun!

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #477-#478

I had never heard of Word Art Wednesday before and when Karen stopped by and invited me to join, how could I resist? I really wanted to use their posted verse, however, my printer is not printing a nice crisp image and is ghosting, so I decided to take the "Anything Goes" theme from their Weeks #477- #478 Challenge and pull out a Spellbinder's KOM and see what I could come up with. This kit was one of their first kits (KOM-003) when it was sold under the name Maker's Mart. I had purchased a bunch of back kits a couple of years ago and I'll be honest - I had a hard time making the cards from the old kits. I just didn't have the vision to use the items in the kits. The old kits didn't have the tons of ephemera and other goodies that they provide with their kits that they now sell.

I had made 5 cards using the flowers and other goodies that came with the kit, but I used up a lot of the embellishments and just sat and stared at what was left. I packed the rest back up for "someday". Someday has happened and this challenge spurred it on. I pulled the kit out, dumped things on the table and decided I was going to finish the other 5 cards. Three down, two to go. 

I saw the sentiment "You Can Never Have Too Much Sparkle" on one of the stamps and decided to have fun with it. I used the textured white card base (that always comes with their kits) and then layered a light blue paper, a textured silver, and an extremely shiny teal paper that also came in the kit. I cut the sentiment tag from a piece of 100gsm vellum (purchased from Amazon) using one of the included dies. There was no ink provided, but I found a matching ink in one of the other Maker's Mark kits. All embellishments were provided with the kit. 

I had a bear of a time trying to get a photo to show how shiny and sparkly the card is so my photo is not the best. My apologies. 

I will be posting photos of my other finished cards from this kit soon. As I wind down with the amount of embellishments left, it's getting a bit more difficult to come up with something. I'm not a creative person, so the challenges are really pushing me on and making me think outside of the box. I'm having so much fun!

If you would like to join in with the challenges from Word Art Wednesday you can visit their website and learn more about them. I'll just be making the deadline, as it ends today and can't wait to see what the next one brings!

Hubby's Valentine Card

Now that it's past Valentine's Day, I can post the card I made for Hubby. I had purchased some decoupage sheets from White Rose Crafts LLC and had a lot of fun putting a few of them together a little while ago. I had no idea what I was going to do with them at the time of purchase, so I put them aside for another time. 

On Saturday, I came across the box that held the finished decoupage items and a lightbulb went on. I pulled out the past Valentine's day card kits from Simon Says Stamp (from 2019) and found the perfect pattern papers and sentiment. I used an ink square from Brutus Monroe in the color Rouge and a piece of cardstock from one of his Inspiration Boxes. I added a few Dew Drops that I also purchased from Brutus Monroe. Overall, I'm quite pleased how the card turned out. 

The card photo was taken on a black background. The colors are accurate. The background is a pink and cream color and the red needs more like a country red - not a bright red. It's too bad that the layers really don't show up in this photo. It really is neat!

Combined Card Challenges

I haven't made a card in a long time. Mostly because of a lack of place to make them. Since everyone is now working at home, it made it hard to try to craft. I have been knitting and crocheting as well as a little beadwork over the past year, but trying to lay things out and doing piecework is difficult. This year, we are slowly working on a crafting space for me in the basement. I now have a table and need to put together some shelves - but I have a table and I can let things sit until I can return!!! Such luxury!

My first card was a sketch challenge from Sunday Stamps combined with The Card Concept Challenge #148 {Sweetheart Sweets}. I needed the inspiration and a starting point. It's been a while since I made a card from scratch so I decided to make a Valentine card for my son. I used things from my stash so I can't list the exact names of papers, etc., just where they came from. (Please note: the black background is not part of the card).

Supplies: 

• Sprinkles Background - Simon Says Stamp Feb '19 KOM
• Sparkle paper - Christmas wrapping paper
• Chocolate looking paper - Kaiser Krafts
• Candy Box Stamp - Brutus Monroe Stamp of the Month
• Sparkle Heart stickers - Brutus Monroe Inspiration Box
• Ink - Brutus Monroe Inspiration Box - Rouge
• Prism Art Colored Pencils
• Ranger Glossy Accents

This was a really fun challenge to do and here's the sketch I had to work with:

Sunday Stamps posts a new challenge every fortnight, so I'm hoping to be participating more. If you would like to join in on the fun, just hop on over to their blog for more information.

The Card Concept Challenge posted a photo and the photo is to inspire your design. 

For me, the colors were perfect and it was centered around delicious sweets, so that was the color inspiration for me. I went with what I think was the Shabby Chic and Vintage style. For me, these two challenges went together perfectly!!! If you'd like to try your hand at this type of challenge, you can visit their site here.