Oh Baby! It's KitCat Sunday!

It's the first KitCat for 2011!!!

The lovely Lorie was our January hostess with the mostest! Lorie just became a grandma to sweet little Maxwell, so she sent us a baby-inspired kit overflowing with sparkly papers from My Mind's Eye & Penny Lane, organza ribbons and flat-back pearls in shades of blue & pink, Martha Stewart glitter & a Quickie Glue pen, AND the adorable Winter Baby in Teacup stamp & a vinyl brag booklet from Peachy Keen Stamps (which, by the way, is offering a 10% discount throughout January!) Oh Baby!

(click image to enlarge)

For the cover insert, I masked the snowflake portion of the image and covered the snowflake on her cap with a Prima flower, because I want this to be a "seasonless" gift for a dear friend who has a beautiful granddaughter named Cailyn. She's already 2, but I think that Grandma Gwen might enjoy keeping some of her favorite pics of Cailyn in this to tuck into her purse! I layered some of the gorgeous DP and used some of the pearls, glitter, and organza ribbon. I'll be making a card to go with this using the unmasked image and more of the papers & embellies, so watch for that in the next couple days.

Be sure to check out the other KitCat Kittens for their baby-inspired creations!
*Lorie*
*Kelly*
*Michelle*
*Jeanette*

Wishing you a 2011 filled with laughter, joy, lots of crafting, and many blessings!

It's A KitCat Christmas!

It’s another KitCat Sunday and the Kittens are celebrating a heart-felt, homemade Christmas!

Kitten Kelly was our hostess, and she challenged us to create an ornament & gift tin for someone who may not otherwise receive a gift this year. Talk about your warm fuzzies! I think it's a fantastic challenge, and I hope we will inspire YOU to do the same!

Naturally, Kelly’s kit was *bursting* with supplies, including a CD tin and wooden ornament shape along with beautiful papers, ribbons, flowers, glitter glue, bling, and more!

I was immediately drawn to the I Believe! papers from My Mind’s Eye and the glittery red cardstock from DCWV. Even though an image wasn’t a requirement, I just couldn’t resist coloring up the darling image from SU's Greeting Card Kids. I just love the old-school look of these images!

For the tin, I created a paper patchwork, tied the ribbon to hide the seams, and created a cute little winter bouquet with the flowers, cord, snowflake, & glitter brad. The rhinestone star gives a nod to the ornament shape inside.

For the ornament, I sponged the edges with SU Rose Red then painted them with the glitter glue. Then I added a frame cut from the glittery CS and a background from the DP, and made another winter bouquet. I also covered the back with a different DP and added the silver cord hanger.

I had so much fun and such a great feeling in my heart when I was making these, because I knew exactly who would receive them: an elderly widow who calls our office every now and then for advice about this and that. I’m going to send it anonymously and write on the card that a Christmas angel is thinking of her. I hope it warms her heart as much as it does mine!

Sending a warm hug and a big thank-you to Kelly for reminding us to count our blessings, no matter what we may be experiencing, because there are always others who are less fortunate that we.

Be sure to visit the other KitCats to see their wonderful heart-felt, handmade Christmas creations!
Michelle * Lorie * Kelly * Jeanette

Wishing you a wonderful day!

Whimsical KitCats!

It's the first Sunday of the month, and that means its time for the KitCats creations! Yours truly was the hostess, and for no particular reason, I was in the mood for something with a magical, whimsical, or fantasy theme.

Each kitten received a different assortment of the luscious papers in K&Co.'s Que Sera Sera collection, as well as a 2011 planner and an overabundance of embellies from my stash that had gone unloved for so long. (I hope my "kitchen sink" of embellies didn't overwhelm them - sorry, kittens!) My challenge was for them to surprise even me by offering them a choice to alter the planner or create a card (or both!) using any type of whimsical, magical, or fantasy image they had.

So here you have my altered planner! I "painted" the plain cardboard cover with distress ink, then sponged over that with several SU inks to coordinate with the DP panels. I wanted the planner to stay closed, so I attached a strip of DP long enough to wrap around, then added Velcro to the ends.

The real challenge was coloring and fussy cutting the tiny Summer Fairy image and getting all of the embellies to stay stuck to the image panel! Below are a couple close-ups of the embellies I chose.


While I created this to give as a gift, I really love the way it turned out, so I may need to keep it for myself. Shhhh . . . it will be our little secret!

I'm excited to see what the other kittens chose to create with my kit and what embellies they used, since I only used a fraction of what I included. Click on each kitten to see their whimsical, magical creations:
Jeanette * Kelly * Lorie * Michelle

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Image: The Greeting Farm Summer Fairy digi
Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Spun Sugar); SU dye inks (Rose Red, Elegant Eggplant, Pumpkin Pie)
Copics: BV00,E000,E31,E42,R20,$22,R85,RV000,RV00,V01,V12,V15,V17,YR12
Designer Papers: K&Co. Que Sera Sera Collection
Embellishments: Victoria Lynn pearl pick, Plaid faceted teardrop, Blue Moon Beads 'joy' charm, Darice silver cord, Kreinik silver blending filament, SU scallop punch

In an Altered State!

Last year in The Sisterhood, we had a secret Santa goodies swap, which, in addition to the papers, embellies, and such, had to include at least one altered item. "Oh, great!" I thought, because other than a recipe, the last *thing* I altered was one of Mum's shoeboxes for a Valentine's Day receptacle back in 5th grade. But then I remembered my sister, Mary, had recently used Modge Podge to make a beautiful lamp shade and thought, Well, if *she* can do that, certainly I could alter something!

So off I went to the craft store, and I ended up altering a small wooden desktop caddy and a big paper mache "L" for my secret sis, Lindalee, using ink, DP, ribbon, and flowers. I think they turned out nice, but most important, Lindalee liked them!

Unfortunately, I have no pictures to post because, well, I'm a loser and didn't take any before I shipped them. But I do have a few recent altereds to share with you.

First up are the paper mache boxes I altered for the sweet and sassy Karen, my secret sis for The Sisterhood's secret summer swap. (NOTE: *Never* underestimate how long customs will hold a box that contains nothing more than papercraft supplies.)

I fell in love with this Wild Raspberry paper collection by K&Co. and thought the colors were something Karen would like, too. After sponging on some Very Vanilla craft ink, I simply MP'd the paper panels then added some pink primas with yellow button centers to finish the tops. After the boxes were finished, I tucked some of the embellies I chose for her inside.

I was nervous about how they would hold up during shipping to Toronto in the summer heat: I had visions of the packing tissue and various other things sticking to them, causing them to look like a 5-year old made them, but Karen assured me they arrived safe and sound. Yay!

Next up are the altered wooden tray and recipe box I made for Lady Catherine for our Craft Room Organizing Smack-Down.


I chose these beautiful papers from My Mind's Eye that featured Cat's favorite colors of greens and blues and earth tones. I painted the tray & sponged the box with cream craft paint, then sponged several coordinating colors on the tray for a worn, distressed look.

To dress up the box a bit, I found matching flat-back pearls and added a dimensional flower that I cut from the DP. Insided I added a piece of DP to the lid.

It was so great meeting Catherine to exchange our goodies! You'll find the sweet goodies that Cat made for me here! After breakfast, we spent *hours* browsing and shopping at Archivers, all the while laughing and talking and being total shopping enablers to each other!


Now that I've made these fun projects, I look at many things and wonder, Hmmm, could I Modge Podge that? As a result, I have a tote full of stuff waiting to be transformed into something new. So, if you haven't played with Modge Podge in a while, grab a bottle and have a go at it. You'll be surprised at how easy it is to create fun, funky items for yourself or gifts for others.

tick, tick, tick...Christmas is just around the corner, you know!

Happy Creating!
Susan

October KitCat Club!

*WHEW* It's been a long day and I was worried that I wasn't going to get this posted! And I only have one photo because my camera is not cooperating. grrrrrr . . . . .

The beautiful Lorie was October's KitCat Club hostess, and she sent us the most frightfully fun altering project -- a wooden picture frame! Along with the frame, she sent cute Peachy Keen images, double-sided DPs, ribbon, glittery buttons, and even a nail file & a glue stick!

I ended up sponging the DPs with Ranger Tea Dye to distress them a bit, and after attaching them to the frame, I sanded the edges and sponged the bare wood with the same distress ink.

Mr. Star looked so frightened! In fact, he's so frightened that he is about to fall on Mr. Candy Corn! LOL!! I was thinking about what would make me freak out like that, and there's pretty much only one thing - a spider! YUK!!! I found the web and spider buttons in my stash and attached them with Crystal Effects. I used the ribbon to make a "flower" to highlight the sentiment, and added some of my own green buttons to the glittery ones.

Lorie thanks so much for challenging us with this project! It was so much fun to make!!

Be sure to check out the *amazing* creations by the other KitKat gals:
Catherine

Jeanette

Kelly

Lorie

Michelle

Oooo, I can't wait to find out what November's KitCat project will be! Until then,

Happy Creating!
Susan

Altered: Box & Cards Gift

My dear friend, Beth, and I meet every year for a *Christmas* breakfast or lunch. This has become quite the joke, because we never meet at Christmas anymore. It is usually January or February, sometimes May or even June, before we manage to get together. But we meet nonetheless, and that's what's important!

This year, I wanted to make her a gift of cards and a holder she could reuse in some way when the cards are gone. I was looking around for something just the right size when I found this Starbucks box.

It originally held a coffee and chocolate sampler that I received as a gift from my friend and office mate, Young Susan. (I gave us the titles of Young Susan and Old Susan for obvious reasons.)

I decorated it with the gorgeous Addison DP by K & Company and the beautiful blue Raindots I received from Judy. I was going to add an oval Nestie layered panel that said "Cards", but I thought she might find a different use for the box. It looks so pretty with the Raindots IRL but the lighting was lousy when I took these!

I made two each of the 5.5x5.5 cards below for Beth. I used simple cream satin ribbon, more of the pretty Raindots, and my Nesties to embellish them. The sentiments are from SU Happy Harmony, which was a gift from a wonderful gal, Deb, who sent me a box overflowing with card kits to play with when I was off following my hysterectomy.

All of the fabulous layouts came from SCS card sketches -- such a great place for inspiration and to get your card mojo moving!

SC182

Lots of little layered "tiles" on a faux-seersucker Soft Sky panel. It was a little time consuming cutting all the layers for the squares, but I really like the end result!

SC207

I used the Textile Texture embossing folder in my 'Bug to give the Old Olive strips some, uh, texture!

SC163
I added Raindrops to the centers of the flowers, but really wish I would have stamped an image in Versamark or added some Raindrops to the bottom left of the River Rock panel.

All in all, I'm pleased with the way these turned out, and she appeared to like it too! I hope she'll send the cards on to someone who will enjoy them, and that she can find a practical use for the box as well!