Thursday, August 24, 2023

Crafting with the Kits Collection


I’m back with the Creative Card-iology Team bloggers for another blog hop, and this month we are featuring the Kits Collection from Stampin’ Up!  The kits are on sale through August 31 at great discounts – up to 30% off, and there’s a great variety of kits that are sure to give you a great time of crafting.

I chose the Forever Friends Kit, which includes the supplies to make 8 cards (2 designs, 4 of each) with envelopes.  I love the beautiful floral designs and foil accents for the cards and the envelopes with the same foil design on the flap, and I was so excited to see the Dimensional Strips as the adhesive in the kit.  The coordinating Stampin’ Up! colors are Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight, Night of Navy, Old Olive and Petal Pink.  A Night of Navy Stampin’ Spot and Calypso Coral Baker’s Twine are included.


I made 2 cards following the pictorial directions, and then changed up the designs a bit by adding a little extra cardstock to the supplies in the kit.  I switched card bases and printed design layers to the opposite ones in the printed directions and added a layer of colored cardstock (Night of Navy and Old Olive) as a mat behind the printed design.  I stamped a floral image in the Night of Navy ink and colored the flowers with Stampin’ Blends.  My Calypso Coral Baker’s Twine was arranged around and adhered to the back of the floral images and then the floral images were adhered to the card fronts, popped up with pieces of the Dimensional Strips.


I went a bit further with an alternate project with this kit and made a mini journal using one of the card bases as my journal cover.  I made a score line about 1/16” on either side of the center score of the card base.  I took about 8 pages from a sketch journal and folded them together inside the card base and then stapled everything together twice along the center score of the card base with my long neck stapler.  I then trimmed the inside pages even with the cover.


I kept the cover design pretty simple as I didn’t want any embellishment to be ruined when this journal is slipped inside a purse, back pocket, etc.  I just cut one of the printed design pieces to the size I wanted, stamped the floral and leaf outlines on the flowers and leaves of the printed design, and then matted the piece it with a slightly larger piece of Night of Navy cardstock.  I die cut a sentiment label using one of the stitched circle dies from the Stylish Shapes Dies collection.  To fit my sentiment within this circle, I colored half of the sentiment with the Night of Navy Stampin’ Write Marker and stamped it on my die cut circle, then repeated the process with the second half of my sentiment.  I adhered it to my card front with Mini Glue Dots.


Since I used sketch journal sheets for my inside pages, I thought this would make a great beginner’s (that’s me) mixed media art journal.  I decided to start by embellishing the first page of my journal by brushing some Daffodil Delight ink with a blending brush over the lower right-hand corner of the page.  I then stamped the floral and leaf images in Night of Navy ink over the inked corner.  I used Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive and Real Red pencils from the Watercolor Pencil Assortment 1 collection to color the images.  Who knows where it will go from here!

Not quite sure what I’m going to use the journal for, but I love how it came together.  I might keep it myself to write about answered prayers and how God brings me through hard times, or I might give it as a gift.

Since the kits don’t take up much room, they’re great for crafting on the go or in small areas when you don’t have a lot of room, and they are an easy and cost-effective way to get started stamping.  The Classic Stampin' Spots Assortment is a great beginners collection of inks to add on to your kit, and it will help expand the use of your kit stamp set beyond the kit contents.  I used the Daffodil Delight Stampin' Spot for brushing ink on my journal page. 

The Kits Collection changes as availability changes, and new kits are added regularly.  Stampin' Up! also has a monthly subscription kit called Paper Pumpkin, which is a stamping kit that includes all the supplies to make the featured project, just like the kits in the Kit Collection.  Paper Pumpkin subscriptions are available on a month-by-month payment basis (paperpumpkin.com) or by 1, 3, 6 or 12-month prepaid subscriptions (shop prepaid subscriptions).  


The September Paper Pumpkin kit looks like it will be a beautiful kit - you won't want to miss it!  The sign up period for the September kit runs through September 10th.  There is a coordinating Thoughts of Thanks journal add-on available now while supplies last.

I hope you were creatively inspired by the Forever Friends kit – making the cards as the kit directions called for or possibly creating some alternate projects - and I hope you can see how easy it is to get started stamping with a kit.  

Don’t forget to check out my blogging teammates’ projects for some more "kitspiration" by clicking on the links below.


Jessica's Blog

As always, thanks for hopping along with us today!  I love connecting with blog readers and getting your feedback on the projects, so I hope you’ll leave a comment and let me know you stopped by today!  Don’t forget to check out the Kits Collection and take advantage of the super Kits sale (shop the Kits Collection)!  

If you’d like to get together with some friends at your home or mine to craft together with Kits, I’d love to talk with you about how I can assist you with your craft gathering!  You can connect with me by email at kimskeepsakecreations@gmail.com or on my facebook page @kimskeepsakecreations.

And as always, the products used to create my projects can be found in the list below.  Happy Stamping!

Product List
Forever Friends Kit (English)
$21.00
Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock
$10.50
Night Of Navy 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock
$10.00
Old Olive 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock
$10.00
Classic Stampin' Spots Assortment
$24.00
Neutrals Stampin' Write Markers
$30.00
Calypso Coral Stampin' Blends Combo Pack
$10.00
Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends Combo Pack
$10.00
Petal Pink Stampin' Blends Combo Pack
$10.00
Watercolor Pencils Assortment 1
$16.00
Blending Brushes
$13.00
Mini Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine
$66.00
Stylish Shapes Dies
$30.00
Paper Snips
$11.00
Paper Trimmer
$26.00
Mini Glue Dots
$5.75
Stampin' Seal
$8.00
Simply Shammy
$8.50

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