Jillibean Soup Card Kitchen, Part 2

Today I'm sharing the remaining cards I put together with Jillibean Soup's October Card Kitchen kit. To see the first four, click HERE. Visit the Card Kitchen blog for lots more inspiration.

I really, really enjoyed working with this kit! Here's why:

• The fabulous product, of course!
• I have a LOT of stuff in my craft room. Hopefully what I'm about to say won't sound negative or ungrateful, but sometimes I believe you can have too much stuff. There are times when I've felt positively claustrophobic in my space and overwhelmed by choice. "Staying in the box," so to speak, the Card Kitchen box, was fun and quite liberating.
• Most of my crafting is done in my craft room, which is away from my family. I loved the portability of this kit box. I added my tape gun, a paper trimmer, some pop dots, and a handful of basic punches, and that was it. I could hang out with my family wherever they were, while making my cards. A beautiful thing! 

For more info on Jillibean Soup's Card Kitchen kits in general, visit the Card Kitchen website.

 All the little doodads on the sheets of die-cuts and stickers were perfect for my "she loves to layer" style.

The focal point sentiment card is from the Country Pumpkin Bite Size Bits, which is a 12x12 sheet of twelve different sentiments and journaling cards (I have lots of leftovers), and the rolled flowers are hand-cut.

I love the trio of little wooden trees (a Kaisercraft product) that came in the October kit! I used one of them here, along with two other trees that I cut out from the Country Pumpkin - Pumpkin Puree 12x12 sheet.

I thought this would be a unique way to tell someone they're #1. The "you" letters are stickers, and the plaid arrows (photo corners, really) are from the same sticker sheet. More of those cute little trees that I cut out of the 12x12 pattern, too.

Happy Turkey Day! Personally, I'm not really all that fond of Thanksgiving turkey, so yep, that cute little "where's the pie?" sticker works for me!

Thanks for stopping by!

Here's the Scoop ...

The teacher appreciation committee at my kids' elementary school held an ice cream social event for the teachers and staff last week. I suggested to the other committee chair that we put an actual invitation in their mailboxes the day or two before instead of just emailing out the details. I didn't find what I was looking for when I searched online for pre-made printable invitations, and didn't have the time or budget to order anything, so I decided to make my own using various digital scrapbooking materials and such. I'm usually such a frustrated novice with digital creations because I don't know how to do so many things. But this time I was thrilled with the final project and thought I'd share it here.

The ice cream sundae image is from the Ice Cream Shoppe kit at digiscrapkits.com. This was the only component that I had to pay for, and it was only $1.00 (for the whole kit, which includes other images). The colorful row of chevrons element came from the free Seasons of Change Mini Kit by Shannon McNab, and the button and twine bow elements came from the free In the Garden collection by Gennifer Bursett (both are from Design House Digital). And last, I did the polka dots with the medium polka dot overlay, one of a free three-pack that I found at digitalscrapbooking.net. I designed the invitation in Photoshop Elements at 2 3/4" x 6," so that I could print four on an 8 1/2" x 11" page.

For the toppings labels, I created a sheet of a full chevron background just by duplicating that single-row chevron element from the Seasons of Change Mini Kit, then added white rows and the names of the different toppings. The font is Henparty (love that name!). The labels were then punched out with a large circle punch. Some we used as tags on milk bottles and others we adhered to tent cards.

I also printed out a cute "here's the scoop ... you're sweet" design onto full-sheet sticker paper, punched them out with a circle punch, and stuck them on the cups for a sweet message. The "sweet" graphic came from another Design House Digital freebie -- the I Do Freebie. I just re-colored the letters to match my color scheme.

And just to be silly, I made a Keep Calm and Eat Ice Cream print  :)

We found lots of good display ideas on Pinterest, and we ended up making good use of all the antique/flea market/farmhouse-inspired pieces I've been purchasing from Decor Steals and Antique Farmhouse all year ... milk bottles in a wire crate for the sprinkles, a glass-top button box to hold some of the dishes we used for toppings, small galvanized buckets for the syrups and whipped cream, cute fabric-lined wire baskets for the cups, and a wooden yardstick crate for the napkins.

The teachers were grateful and we hope they left feeling a little bit spoiled!


Taking good pictures in a drab cafeteria with flourescent ceiling lights using an iPhone is way beyond my skill-set, but I'll share some not-so-great photos anyway.

Thanks for visiting!

October SFYTT - Market Street Stamps

Happy World Card Making Day to all! This is my second post today, so if you're looking for Verve's October Diva Inspirations hop, just scroll down or click HERE. If you're looking for the October SFYTT, stay put, you're in the right place :) 

This month, we are sponsored by Market Street Stamps. I've been eyeing their cute sets for a long time now, so I'm just thrilled to have them as our sponsor this month!

Here's the October sketch:

You'll find the entry form on Jen's blog. Can't wait to see what you create!

More inspiration from the SFYTT sisters:

Jen del Muro with Designer of the Month Stacey Shafer (welcome, Stacy!)

Amber Hight

Becky Carafa

Carole Burrage

Jen Tapler

Jodi Collins

Kerry Johnson

Megan Lock

Susan Liles

Tracy Schultz

I chose to work with Market Street's Gone Campin set. I love the whimsical style of the artwork, and the sentiments are fantastic. I used papers from the Simple Stories Take A Hike 6x6 pad. The campfire image is stamped directly onto a pattern from Take a Hike, then colored (sparingly) with Copics. The bottom was screaming for something, so I added a little olive hemp and a square button.

Have a fantastic day and weekend!

Hugs,

October Diva Inspirations Hop

Welcome to the World Card Making Day edition of the Verve Diva Inspirations Hop!  Along the hop this month we're debuting FIVE brand new plain janes that just hit the store today, so grab a drink and hop along to see a fresh mix of old and new Verve and maybe even win a prize! You can find out all the prize details and see the full reveal of the new plain janes over on the Verve Blog today. 

For my hop card, I chose to use the new So Sweet Plain Jane, which is exactly that -- so sweet! I love the open letters for the word "sweet" -- perfect for coloring, or even paper piecing (if you're brave). I layered the sentiment over an accordian-fold medallion and accented with two flowers and some Licorice Divine Twine. The whole cluster is then layered over a Spellbinders Fancy Tags 2 die-cut, washi tape, and a partial Spellbinders Labels Fourteen die-cut. On the Fancy Tags 2 piece, I added a very subtle stamped border from Borderline. The card base is Papertrey's Smokey Shadow, which photographs as black (for me, anyway), but in real life gives the card a much softer look than straight-up black.

Here's the full hop list. Enjoy!!

	1. Betty	9. Andrea
	2. Jen T.	10. Charmaine
	3. Julee	11. Janelle
	4. Sankari	12. Laurie
	5. Sony	13. Maureen
	6. Susan	14. Teresa
	7. Amber	15. Tosha
	8. Amy

Happy WCMD to all!

Jillibean Soup October Card Kitchen

I'm so excited to be guest designing for Jillibean Soup's October Card Kitchen kit! The Card Kitchen is a monthly card kit with tons of paper, stickers, die-cuts and other cute and fun embellishments, plus eight coordinating card bases and envelopes as well as ideas, and even instructions, for those first eight cards. (Of course you're welcome to do your own thing with the supplies instead, if you want to.) I love the fun, bold Jillibean Soup products, and had a total blast working with the card kit!

Today I'm showing the first four (of nine) cards that I made with the October kit. Cards #5 and #6 are posted today over on the Card Kitchen blog, so I hope you'll check them out there. The last three cards are scheduled for the Card Kitchen blog on Monday. And at some point I'll do a part 2 here as well :) And maybe even a part 3, because I had a ton of leftover product and lots more ideas.

Without further ado ...

This last one is my favorite :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Never Give Up - DS72

[Updated to correct all kinds of errors ... Prima's collection is Tea Thyme, not Tea Time, the sketch is by Jen Shults, not Sheri Gilson, and Donna isn't on vacation :) And to think, I used to be an editor by profession!]

I truly think this 12x12 pattern from Prima's Tea Thyme Collection is the most beautiful piece of patterned paper I've seen in a long time. I like a lot of different styles ... trendy chevrons, bright, whimsical, anything "office-y," but when it comes to sheer beauty, Prima nailed it with this one! I didn't want to cut into it, much less cover it up with anything, but this week's Deconstructed Sketch beckoned. And I knew once I cut into it, it would be a breeze to work with. Here's our sketch this week, brought to us by Jen Shults, who's back on sketch design duty after a break last month:

I didn't really mean to switch the rectangular panel for a more oval configuration, but as I was playing, I remembered these older Tattered Angels chipboard frames that I thought would be perfect . The card stock oval frame on top of the chipboard is a Verve Classy Label die cut with a large circle punched out of the center. The sentiment, Never Give Up, is from Verve's Borderline set. Flowers are also Prima, the cameo pin is from Webster's Pages, and the pearl flourish is from Zva Creative. For the vertical strip at the right of the card, I used two layers of some lace fabric tape by Love My Tapes.

Lots more inspiration from the team ...

Amber Hight

Amy Sheffer

Arielle Gordon

Cresta Woodruff, Guest Designer

Donna Wardle

Jen Shults

Kadie Ensley

Lori Boyd

Sheri Gilson

Tracey Pickersgill

The entry from and participation details are HERE on Jen's blog. Hope you can play along!

Thanks for visiting!

You're Magic! TCPTues230

Happy Tuesday, friends. It's my turn to host the weekly TCP Tuesday Challenge, which means it's sketch time. Here's what we're playing with this week:

I inked up the darling bunny in the hat from Presto!, colored with Copics (the E40's), and paper-pieced the hat. The papers are from Echo Park's For the Record 2 6x6 collections ("Documented" for everything but the hat, which uses a pattern from "Tailored").

Hope you'll join us this week!

1. Each Tuesday we will give you a challenge.
2. You will have until the end of the month to complete the challenge.
3. Add your entry to the guestbook on Alma's Blog and/or upload to the SCS Gallery, using the keyword TCPTUES230 for this week's challenge.
4. TCP stamps/dies are not required, but if you have them, we love to see them.
5. There will be one randomly chosen weekly winner, announced on Tuesdays.
6. There will be one winner, The Swanky Stamper, announced the 1st of each month. That lucky stamper will win several sets from an upcoming release and get to play along with us at our Pajama Party and Blog Hop.

Have a great Tuesday!