Finally it's not too early to do Christmas!!

 I've been doing Christmas cards all year but not posting them because, well, it's too early. Now it's OK so here are the first ones!  I'm trying to use up stuff already in my stash, but I can't seem to make a dent. Most of these are put together from embellishments in my stash for several years, or former Spellbinders' kits.  There is also a bunch of papers from old kits and old 12 x 12 paper pads from Michael's.  Like I said, I'll never make a dent at this rate.  

SB Damask Daydreams kit for July

This month's kit from Spellbinders came later than usual. They are having supply issues. Yikes.

It's also another softly colored kit, with lots of distressed patterns. I hope next month we're back to bright colors and fun images.

Speaking of images, I couldn't wait to use this couch, but that touch of blue along the bottom made it hard to use with most of the papers in the included paper pad.

Couching it

 

SB June kit - 10 cards

Here are 10 cards I made with the Spellbinders June card kit called "Wild Hello". Next month's kit is coming next week so I had to get a move on it. 

 

More from the beach.

 I forced myself to "finish" the May 2021 Spellbinder's kit before I started the June kit.  My kits are now coming well over half into the month now. I  got the June kit on the 17th, well after the affiliated crafters have put their "10 cards one kit" videos up on YouTube.

Anyway, here are the rest of the cards I made. Why yes, I did use the dies from the June kit, since I love the sentiments. 

Moving into May's kit of the month, finally.

 

Spellbinders' May kit of the month is "Beach Day" and is beach and tropical flowered themed.  It comes with a LOT of premade hibiscus die cuts, as well as a bunch of philodendron leaves. For this first card I used the dies that came in the kit to make the anchor and its chain, and filled in around the "ground" with various premade die cuts of shells and plants. Then I slapped on the seahorse in the upper right corner to indicate this whole thing is under water.

In this next card, a mini slimline, I used a mermaid with a beach umbrella and one of the many hibiscus flowers included, as well as 2 kinds of patterned paper and some of the plastic "gemstone" embellishments. This one wouldn't stay shut for a flat photo, even with a tiny glob of adhesive in it, so that's why it's a standup picture.  Funny story, I couldn't bend over far enough to get a more direct-on photo. I take these photos on my little screened in front door area, which isn't very wide.

The sentiment reads "Wonderful, Fresh air & sunshine, Summer life". 

Catching up with April's kits and such

 

So, I made a couple of mini slimline cards with the small die  of the month from a while back, and haven't done anything with April's yet. These are quite intricate, but I still haven't seen many different ways to use them.  Some dies lend themselves to many different possibilities, but this one, I don't see.

I did another couple of A2 sized cards with the March kit "Sincerely Yours". I made another collage card and a scene card with the horse and tree die cuts included in the kit. The horse and the trees didn't seem to "go", so they made their own little scene. Spellbinders gets these kit components from a company in New Zealand called Rosie's Studio, then adds dies, cardstock and supplies, etc. I'm ready for them to go back to some brighter colors again.

May's kit came around the middle of the month and is beach themed. Coming up!

Sincerely yours, part 2

Spellbinder's April card kit of the month is all about correspondence and flowers! 

The little white flowers with yellow centers remind me of tiny, tiny fried eggs. This month's kit includes puffy sticker words. I like them a lot, but not as much as the tiny images we got last month.

Funny thing, I had a lot of tiny gold hearts left over from last month's bunny frames, so I put a few on these cards, including the bunch of blue flowers above. 

These flowers were a lot of die cutting. I loved putting them in the bunches, and I love the way they look, but it's a darn good thing I don't have trouble with my hands like some crafters do.

After making 10 cards with this kit, and using up all the card bases that come with it, I decided to do a bonus mini-slimline. This one is about 6 /14 wide by 3 1/4" tall.  

Here's a funny story. Well, maybe not so funny. I donated a bunch of my cards to the Friends of the Library to sell on their May junk table. In theory these are to be Mother's Day gifts, but OMG the stuff, most of it, is yard sale junk.

Except for the cards, of course. The cards made by library staff with the Cricut are priced at $2, and mine are priced at $4, a real bargain.  Most of them probably cost me more in supplies than that per card.

These kits from Spellbinders, however are a good value at $38.50, so if I make 10 cards the cost in materials is $3.85.  And they sell for $4 on the junk table. A whopping big fifteen cents more than the materials.

I'm not complaining, because I've been making cards and couldn't use them up or give them to my friend who wanted some fast enough. Just in case anyone thinks they can make a living making and selling cards, really you want to think it through first. It's a good thing I love my day job.