Basic Black – ConstantlyCreating.Me

I promise that I make more than card kits these days – and I’ll have some individual cards blogged about soon – but right now I’m trying to accumulate some stock for my local gift shop and get ahead on cards I need to send myself. 🙂

I recently found myself looking at another card kit I had waiting, and before I knew it, I had a bunch done! As a matter of fact, I made all twenty cards in one sitting (though I did go back and add sentiments to a few insides the next night). That’s just not me. I take way too long to make cards with my level of detail. What a freeing, productive feeling it was to have that many done at once! And I didn’t feel like the designs were too simple for my style, either.

This particular card kit, the Notes of Kindness All-Inclusive Card Kit, is current in the 2018-2019 Annual Catalog from Stampin’ Up, on page 7. The kit itself is $35 but it comes with a clear stamp block, an Archival Black ink spot, a 6-piece set of photopolymer stamps, Copper Baker’s Twine, adhesived mini pearls, Stampin’ Dimensional pop-up dots, die-cut sentiment stickers, die-cut flowers, lined envelopes, twenty printed card bases, and a kraft box you can store or gift them in. Full-color picture instructions are also included. All you need is your choice of adhesive and anything extra or different that you want to do.

There is also a refill kit you can purchase for $21 that includes all this except the stamp set, block, ink, and box – and the refill makes another twenty cards. (I know what is on my wishlist!)

I snuck another stamp set into my work so that I had “Best Wishes” wedding and anniversary cards as well as thank-yous. I also used some Wink of Stella Clear on some of my flowers to make them sparkle and shine. I made the card fronts the way the kit suggested otherwise. I did use some retired thank-you stamps on the insides where appropriate, just so I had some variation. And I was even able to use one of the German sentiments that are included. I live in a Pennsylvania Dutch area and thought I’d test one and see if it sells. (There are French sentiment stickers too!)

The colors in the kit are some of my favorites: Blushing Bride, Blackberry Bliss, Soft Seafoam, Mint Macaron, Mossy Meadow, and Basic Black and Whisper White. Though the sentiments inked up well, I love that they are photopolymer – for just in case I needed to realign something.

I think this one is my favorite. I turned it into a 5-piece card set complete with acetate box and pen!

You can see some Wink of Stella shimmer on the dark parts of this flower too.

I used the current Stitched All-Around stamp set for the “Best Wishes” cards (inside and out).

For this tiny thank-you sentiment with the twine behind it, I laid down some ATG tape first, to keep the twine controlled, before adding the Stampin’ Dimensionals and sentiment.

You can really see the Wink of Stella shimmering on this succulent. I varied where and how much I used it on the succulents but ended up loving them all!

Anyway, I’m not usually a card-kit user, but I’ve been beginning to change my mind about them. As long as they don’t feel too simple to me, I’ll probably give others a try now too. I also still have the Lots of Happy kit to finish sometime. 😉

If you’re interested in trying this kit or others, or if you need some supplies, I’m happy to be your Stampin’ Up demonstrator! Sale-a-Bration just started this week, which means you can get a free select product with any $50 purchase. And they even have a couple of amazing products for $100 orders! SAB goes through March 31. Let me know if I can help! ❤️

Thanks for reading!

Hello, everyone! Thanks for stopping by my blog today. It’s my first time “hopping” with Amy Koenders’s Stampin’ Up Inkin’ Krew!

We are focusing on Halloween cards today. Truthfully, I’m not a huge Halloween fan, so I rarely make cards about it, but I did do this one in the more-recent past using mainly Stampin’ Up products. It’s currently for sale in my Etsy shop (thelittlewhatnotshop.etsy.com).

I used Stampin’ Up’s Basic Black cardstock for a base, layered it with gold metallic foil (which makes for some wonky picture-taking), and then adhered some SU “bat” DSP from the (retired) “Happy Haunting” pack across the bottom third of the card.

I can’t remember the name of the black-and-gold foil bat doilies from Stampin’ Up, but they are fun to play with if you run across a pack. (They’re retired too.) They come with black backgrounds as pictured here or the reverse. The large singular bat is from SU’s “Cheer All Year” stamp set and it was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

I used a circle die to cut a white piece for my sentiment – I just laid the nested dies atop my bat doily until I saw the size I wanted. And then I used SU’s retired photopolymer “Skinny Mini Alphabet” and placed the letters where I wanted them.

The only thing that isn’t Stampin’ Up on this card are the little bats flying around the sentiment. I found those on a wooden Halloween stamp and individually inked up the rubber parts I wanted and attempted to place them around the letters. Might have been easier, faster, or more accurate to hand-draw some. I had a lesson in patience that day….

I kept the inside of the card simple with a white piece to write on and more of the bat paper from the front.

Thanks for joining me today! “Hop” on over to Julie Johnston’s blog by clicking “Next” or go back and visit Sue Prather by clicking “Previous” to see what they’ve come up with for Halloween cards!