January: Creating My Own Kit

 
I had so much fun creating and using my December kit, so I decided to do the same thing for January. I went with a winter theme and built my kit with 90% items from my stash and 10% new items.

With the winter theme in mind, I built the kit around a pack of pattern papers and stickers from Echo Park -- the Winter Wishes collection. I love the colors and designs in this collection.

Just like December, this month's kit is a big kit. It's amazing when you go through your stash and see how much you have that will coordinate. I really wanted to pull out lots of items so I would get some use out of them. So this month, I added in some tools to mix -- like an embossing folder and a border punch.

Here's what's in my kit:

• Winter Wishes collection by Echo Park -- includes twelve 12x12 patterned papers, one 12x12 element sticker sheet, one 12x12 alpha sticker sheet
• 15 sheets of 12x12 cardstock -- blue, navy, kraft, and white
• 15 sheets of 12x12 patterned paper from my stash -- all in winter themes colors
• 6x12 white mesh
• Jenni Bowlin stencil guide
• Wood stars -- small size from Recollections, large from my stash (source unknown)
• Six paper snowflakes from Curtsey Boutique
• Winter embellishments from Jolee's Boutique -- three packs
• Winter embellishments from Paper House -- one pack
• Winter glitter snowflakes from Recollections
• Blue fabric brads from Pebbles
• White metal frame by Pressed Petals
• Studio Calico Mistables -- stars
• American Crafts baker's twine in grey
• Various blue and purple buttons, brads, and yarn from my stash
• Chipboard tag embellishments by Teresa Collins
• White and silver glitter
• Blue paper polaroid frame
• Blue shipping tag
• White rhinestone flowers by Pebbles
• White canvas tag
• Three white paper doilies
• One mistable tag by Heidi Swapp
• One mistable border strip
• Two packs of journaling tags by Me & My Big Ideas
• Fiskars border punch
• Cuttlebug embossing folder -- swirls
• Four packs of Thickers
• Set of two Doodlebug background stamps
• Two bottles of Studio G glitter glue -- blue and white
• Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Tinsel
• October Afternoon Sprinklers in Frequent Flyer and Night Sky

Of course, I had to buy a few new things, just to keep things new and exciting.

I bought these from Scrapbook.com for this month's kit:

• Timbergrove Flair by Fancy Pants Designs: $3.99
• Lawn Fawn Winter Sparrows die set: $5.99
• Lawn Fawn Winter Sparrows stamp set: $3.99
• Creative Impressions Glimmer Brads: $2.99
• Studio Calico Mr. Huey's Shine Mist: $3.84

Total: $20.80

That's a little more than I should have spent, I think, but I've been dying to create something cute with those Lawn Fawn sets I've been seeing around the blogs. So this month, I'll give it a try. Plus the mist can be used for lots of other projects, so I really should only count a little bit of the cost here. :)

There's more in this kit than I'll be able to use in a month, I'm sure, but I'll give it my best shot. Stay tuned for layouts created with this kit coming up soon...

Have you created your own monthly kit? I would love to see. Please share it here...

December Kit Wrap-Up

I did it -- I finished off my December kit. I had so much fun using up my stash with a kit I made for myself. I was able to create six scrapbooking layouts and four cards. I think I could have made more, but I was ready to move on to other projects. :)

So, to recap, here's what I made...

1. Sketch layout for Kiwi Lane DT Doodles week 46:

2. Sketch layout for Fotobella's December sketch challenge:

3. A two-page Christmas layout:

4. Sketch layout for Sketch 'N Scrap's December 1 sketch challenge:

5. Cover page for 2006 Christmas album section:

6. Cover page for 2008 Christmas album section:

7. Four quick and easy Christmas cards:

Not too shabby. I love all of these projects, and I'm happy to add them to our family albums. I can't wait to get January's kit going...coming soon...

Top 10 From 2013, Prize Package, and a Blog Hop

Updated 1/1/4: Congratulations to Ange Harris Weisbeck -- you are the winner of my Top Ten blog hop giveaway!! Email me at mightycraftyDOTmeATgmailDOTcom to claim your prize!

It's a big day here at MightyCrafty -- today, I'm sharing with you my top 10 favorite projects from 2013 -- plus you could win a great prize package! Read on to find out more...

I've teamed up with a great group of other crafty ladies to bring you a blog hop for these top 10 posts, and many of them are doing giveaways as well. So, after you check out the projects here and enter my giveaway, be sure to hop around and visit the other blog hop sites:

• Monika Wright
• Christine Meyer
• Suzanna Lee
• Ashley Horton 
• Jodi Wilton
• Lisa Swift
• Cathy Harper
• Marcia Dehn-Nix
• Lynn Shokoples 
• Lissa Mitchell  -- You are here!
• Juliana Michaels  -- Go here next!
• Melissa Elsner 
• Charissa Miller 
• Kelly Jean 
• Ashley N Newell 
• Jennifer Haggerty 
• Laurel Seabrook 
• Krissy Clark 
• Kerri Yarus 
• Rhonda Van Ginkel 
• Malika Kelly

And now, in no particular order, here are my top 10 projects from 2013. These are the most viewed projects on my blog, or just my favorite projects from the year. :)

1. I love decorating my porch for Christmas, so this one has to be on the list:

2. In 2013, I did a Project Life album to document our family's everyday life. I love these pages:

3. In 2013, I joined the Kiwi Lane design team. It has been so fun to create using their designer templates (which I was addicted to before I was on the team!), and I have created lots of my favorite layouts for the DT Doodles sketch from their each week. This is the first one I created as part of the design team, and it's probably my most favorite so far:

4. I love doing furniture makeovers, and updating my hope chest was one of my favorites from this year:

5. 2013 was the year I discovered Miss Kate Cuttables, and I fell in love with her super cute cut file designs for the Silhouette. (Did you know she offers a new free cut file every single day?!) I've been using her designs like crazy this year, and I always love how they turn out. Here's one of my favorite layouts from this year:

6. I created these framed art pieces for Kiwi Lane with the Teresa Collins Memorabilia collection. Definitely one of my favorite projects of the year:

7. I've made several layouts with the All About a Boy collection from Echo Park -- and they've been some of my most favorite boy layouts ever:

8. This year, I really delved into my Studio Calico kit stash to make a lot of layouts. I love these from the January 2013 Block Party kit:

9. One of my favorite projects are the School Albums I'm creating for our boys. Each grade has a set of pages in the album, and I'm all caught up through 2nd grade (my boys are in 4th this year). Quite an accomplishment, if I do say so myself:

10. And my final favorite project from this year -- another set of Studio Calico layouts:

Wow -- that was quite a year. It was so hard to narrow it down to just 10 favorites, but there you have it. To celebrate, I have put together an awesome prize package for you to win...

Included are lots of awesome goodies from October Afternoon, Maya Road, Jillibean Soup, Elle's Studio, and Kiwi Lane Designs. To enter to win, just do one of these:

• Subscribe to my blog (in the left nav) and leave a comment on this post telling me you're all signed up.
• Like my Facebook page and leave me a quick post there telling me you did it. 

I'll announce the random winner on Jan. 1, 2014. So be sure to enter before midnight MST on Dec. 31. (I can only ship to United States -- thank you for your understanding.)

Now, head on over to the next stop on the blog hop. Have fun -- and stay crafty!
:) Lissa

More Layouts from My Monthly Kit

I'm using up the last of my December kit, and I have a few more projects to share. I really feel like I've stretched this kit into a lots of great layouts.

I created this layout as a cover page to the 2006 section of our Christmas album. I have a section for each year, and I like to create a cover page for each using our Christmas card photo.

It was very simple to make -- in fact, I didn't even trace any Kiwi Lane templates in the making of these strips. I just used pieces that I had already cut out and hadn't used yet. Super easy.

I also made this cover page layout for the 2008 section of our Christmas album. With all the strips of coordinating papers I already had out, this layout was equally easy and quick to create.

I misted the 2008 -- a die cut from my Silhouette -- to match the layout instead of leaving it white like I did on the previous layout.

 After this layout, I was really getting to the end of the kit -- I only had a few full 12x12 sheets of paper left. So I decided to kill off the kit by making a few cards. I used the border strip leftovers I had already cut with my Kiwi Lane templates to make these quick, beautiful cards.

 I absolutely love how they turned out. Just the right ratio of fancy to simple for me.

And with that, I think I've finished off this kit, just in time to end the month...

Christmas Layout With My December Kit

Remember the kit I created for myself for December? I've got another layout to share that I made from the kit. I'm loving having this kit on hand. I'm using up my stash and creating lots of projects for our family holiday albums.

I created this layout based on the Kiwi Lane DT Doodle sketch for week 41. One of my favorite sketches...

I used the Large Brackets from Kiwi Lane on this layout, plus a fun Fiskars border punch. Those Large Brackets are a great way to make a big impact on your page without doing a ton of layering. Love that.

I made the felt embellishments out of layers of die cut flowers held together with a brad. A soft, easy embellishment.

Another layout done with the Christmas kit I made for myself...

Have you been making any Christmas layouts this month? I would love to see them...

Sketch 'N Scrap December Layout

Sketch 'N Scrap has posted their layout sketch for December 1 -- it's a great one (as always!).

I used my December kit to create this layout based on the sketch -- but I turned the sketch on its side, since I had horizontal photos I wanted to use.

I also went a bit more monochromatic with this layout, which gives it a different look from the other layouts I've created with this kit. Love that!

This was a fun sketch to use -- I'll be using it again, I'm sure. Be sure to head on over to Sketch 'N Scrap for more sketch inspiration. They post two layout sketches and two card sketches each month. You'll find lots of ideas to inspire you!

Tip Time Tuesday for Kiwi Lane Designs -- And a Giveaway!

Updated 12/23/13: Congratulations, Carla from Utah (cghundley) -- you are the winner of the Kiwi Lane templates! Email me at mightycraftyDOTmeATgmailDOTcom. :)

I'm so excited to be up on the Kiwi Lane Designs blog today with a new feature for Tip Time Tuesday. It's all about embossing with your Kiwi Lane templates and using washi tape to extend 6x6 papers on your 12x12 layouts. And I'm giving away an awesome set of Kiwi Lane templates -- read on to find out how to win!

For December's projects, we got to work with some beautiful collections from Authentique, one of my absolute favorite scrapbooking companies. I was so excited to play with their Christmas-theme line, Joyous. Gorgeous papers and embellishments! Be sure to visit Authentique's Facebook page for more awesome scrapbooking ideas.

The featured Kiwi Lane designer templates for December are the Large Brackets, Mini Scallops, and Christmas, all of which combine to create an awesome look for any Christmas project you might be creating this month.

But before you go, you must enter to win your very own set of Kiwi Lane Christmas Accessory templates. To enter, just do one of these:

• Subscribe to my blog (in the left nav) and leave a comment on this post telling me you're all signed up.
• Like my Facebook page and leave me a quick post there telling me you did it.

I'll announce the random winner on Dec. 23. Be sure to enter before midnight MST on Dec. 22. (I can only ship to United States -- thank you for your understanding.)

Good luck!

Kiwi Lane DT Doodles Week 47

It's Monday -- that means time for a new sketch from Kiwi Lane Designs!

I love two-page sketches (okay, I love all sketches) and this one is great for getting a bunch of photos on the page. Here's my interpretation of the sketch:

We were lucky enough to have a glorious trip to the Rocky Mountain National Park with our friends earlier this summer, and I've been dying to get these photos onto a page. This sketch was great for that. I used the Campy Trails collection from American Crafts for the paper and embellishments, plus Mercantile Thickers and little alpha stickers from BoBunny Press. For the border strips, I used the Paisley Place templates (2A, 2B, 3A, and 3B) plus the Strips templates (1" and 1/2").

Such a fun layout to create with a great sketch. Be sure to visit Kiwi Lane for lots more scrapbooking inspiration, including a new sketch every week. And don't forget -- if you make your own layout from the sketch, you can enter Kiwi Lane's weekly giveaway for a chance to win a $25 shopping spree at the Kiwi Lane store. Good luck!