SJ Kit Club and Falling Off the No-Buying Wagon

Happy Monday everyone!! I hope you had a fabulous weekend.

I did MOUNTAINS of laundry and the never-ending errands that I seem to never have time to do. Okay, maybe I do have time but I don't want to do would be the correct statement.

I also had book club yesterday and we read The Pecan Man by Cassie Dandridge-Selleck.

It was okay. A little all over the place for me but an easy read. On Goodreads they say it is a combination of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Help. I think both those books are better written then this one. However, it is interesting that even in the 1970's the discrimination and hatred toward African Americans was still so strong in the south. I am a northerner and was in elementary school in the 70's. I don't remember even discussing race in my house. People were people-that was what my mother taught me.

On another note, I received two packages in the mail on Friday. One was from Simon Says Stamp! and the other was from PaperTrey Ink. I ordered both on my birthday and should not have. I really need nothing!! I snuck the packages in so my husband would not see. (Shhh-don't tell!!)

I bought the Tim Holtz Distress Crayons that everyone is going wild about. Now that I have them what do I do? The Houndstooth Die-namic is Michele Ferguson's fault. I LOVED this clean and simple card she created. I also am kind of a fanatic about houndstooth so I justified my purchase. The Wplus9 "Beautiful Bouquets: Ranunculus" was something I KNEW I had to have when it was released. I just had to wait to order something else before I could buy it. I cannot wait to ink it up and color!!

My PaperTrey order was really bad. (please excuse this awful photo too) This is everything I bought minus all the card stock I replenished. I succumbed to their anniversary fervor. That design team gets me every time!!!

Today I am sharing the cards I created for SJ Kit Club Blog. This is where one of my friends from Scrapjazz.com sends a kit full of stuff and we create cards. Here is what was sent to me this month.

I am always the underachiever for this. Most of the girls make more cards then I do. I always leave it to the last minute and am rushing to the deadline. Not sure why this is. There were plenty of fun items in this kit to use.

For my first card, I used one of the pre-cut designs to make a sympathy card.

I added a blue scalloped edge on the side and a strip of pink paper under the rose image. I know this image was meant to be for Valentine's Day but the roses reminded me of loss for some reason. I decided I would make a sympathy card instead.

After the card was all put together, I used Wink of Stella and glossy accents over the roses to give the flowers a bit of sparkle.

On my second card, I also chose to use a pre-made design. Again, I stayed away from the Valentine's theme and made it more of a card you could give for an anniversary.

I added the little flowers but everything else came in the kit.

My third card was really, really simple. I just cut up pieces of patterned paper and adhered them to a pink card base.

The heart border is a piece of Washi. Isn't it fun? I am not in love with this card but I know that I can send this to anyone that I know.

My last card is my favorite. I started out by making the card front. I used pink distress ink to partially ink a white card front. I then used a die to emboss the edges. 

I created the envelope out of a scrap of the patterned paper I used on the previous card. I added some little heart circles that were die cut from a piece of patterned paper and a few sequins. The sentiment was stamped in red and adhered with foam adhesive. The little wood veneer heart was one from the kit.

I created this Valentine using the card above as a template. 

Instead of shading, I used a piece of the patterned paper and a burgundy piece of card stock behind it. I die cut an envelope out of card stock that came with the kit, adhered it to the card and added hearts that also were in the kit and then some sequins I had. I used foam adhesive to add the stamp. 

I then created two sympathy cards using a simple design. 

I created one with cream card stock and used a pink card base for the second.

I framed pre-printed images with a maroon background, adding some green branches that I die cut using Winnie and Walter's "Paulina's Greenery Cutaways."  

The images were then adhered using foam adhesive. I covered the flowers with Wink of Stella and then glossy accents. 

I really LOVE how these came out. 

Well, that is all for today. I thank you for stopping by. Have a great day!!