Besides the designed cards in the Watercolor Winter Simply Created Card Kit, I was able to make lots of other designs with the materials in the kit.  Some I copied and some I made up as I went along! That’s the beauty of stamping! The Watercolor Winter Kit is still on the Stampin’ Up! Year-End Closeout Clearance Rack, but is only available while supplies last! There are other holiday products on there that you might like to grab right away so you can use them this year – or save them for next year!

Here are some of the other cards I made from the kit and maybe with a few extra pieces from my stash.

Yesterday I followed my own advice and just sat at the kitchen table and made Christmas cards! I used the Watercolor Winter Simply Created Kit, which made the card-making easier because the pieces were all there!  All I had to do was assemble!  Ok, I did do some watercoloring with ink refills (the trees, the letters, the sleds) but that was super simple with my Aqua Painter (even though a brush is included in the kit). No watercoloring skill required – just wet your brush, dip it into the ink refill puddle which can be in the lid of your ink pad, and brush over whatever piece you are coloring.  It helps to color the pieces before punching out because you can just color right across. Since the “ombre” look is so in style, it doesn’t matter if you get one part darker or lighter than the other.

There is also a coordinating stamp set that goes with this set, available separately. It is the Watercolor Winter Too Stamp Set. You can also use any greeting set you already have.

Since I have already made some of the cards exactly how the directions in the kit showed, I barely looked at the directions this time and just made my own designs or copied ones I liked on the internet. So in some cases, you will see I used a few other materials that did not come in the kit. But if you didn’t have any other paper scraps or materials to use, you would still be able to make the cards in the kit and even have leeway on how you wanted to make the designs.

This Watercolor  Winter Simply Created Kit, as I write this, is still available on the Stampin’ Up! Year-End Closeout Sale (Clearance Rack), but only while supplies last!

Here’s another card I made.  Love the sleds!!!! The striped card base comes in the kit, the woodgrain white layer, the snowflake, the glittery word, and the banner on which to stamp the greeting.

Shop anytime at the Stampin’ Up! Online Store!

The thing about the Stampin Up! Paper Pumpkin Kits is that you can design alternate projects with the materials or even with the extra materials in the kit! This kit had such cute and clever Christmas cards and Christmas tags to make, that I didn’t think I could do much better on my own! But I did want to play around a little bit, so these are the extra tags I came up with. The top Happy Holidays tag just has a piece of Silver Glimmer Paper adhered behind the letters.  I love the glittery look it gives to the tag! Otherwise, everything else comes from the kit, including the glue dots!

Here is the punched-out snowflake for the designed card, but I put the two halves together and put the greeting across the line where they meet up. You can barely notice at the ends under the greeting where the two halves go together, I could have made the greeting a bit longer, but only a “professional stamper” will notice! I inked the snowflake with Versamark ink and embossed with the Heat Tool and Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder. I did adhere a little Dazzling Diamonds Glitter in a few spots where the Iridescent Ice didn’t stick or emboss well, but it is barely noticeable. The silver foil snowflake in the center comes in the kit, and since I didn’t add it until later, I just cut it in half and adhered both sides slightly underneath the greeting. I also added a few rhinestones from the kit around on the card. Of course the snowflake would have looked just as good just plain!

Look at all the Christmas cards and tags I made with the November 2014 Paper Pumpkin Kit from Stampin’ Up! And I still have some materials left over!

If you want to get in on the fun of the Paper Pumpkin papercrafting kit that comes in your mailbox just for you once a month, purchase one of these subscriptions and try it out!  No risk, no obligation! Add them on to your normal Stampin’ Up! order and it will count toward Hostess Rewards!

Paper Pumpkin Subscriptions make great Christmas or other gifts for your friends and loved ones! Make your shopping easy and a special treat for them!  Better than a gift from the mall!

The Watercolor Winter Simply Created Kit in the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalog really appealed to me after seeing some photos of the cards Demonstrators made at the Stampin’ Up! Convention. They are cute cards, but I found them a little bit more difficult to make than I expected. I think Stampin’ Up! could have done a little better job with the directions and they could have included color photos of  all the finished cards.  But you can look online or in the Holiday Catalog on page 37 to see the cards. The cards are not difficult to make, really, probably a little more detailed and tedious what with tiny pieces and waiting for the watercoloring to dry. If you are looking for super simple and quick, this kit is probably not for you. If you can handle taking some time and handling some small pieces and looking at another source to see what the cards are supposed to look like, then you might like making these cards just fine. You do get PLENTY of pieces of “stuff” in this kit so you can follow some or none of the directions and do your own thing. Or make some of the cards according to the kit directions and then branch out with your own ideas! Don’t forget the coordinating stamp set, also on page 37 of the Holiday Catalog, called Watercolor Winter Too.

As per the title of the kit, there is watercoloring involved with these cards!  A watercolor is even included. It’s best if you have some reinkers that match the cards so that you can add the reinker to a bit of water or use your Aqua Painter instead of the brush, to color the items in the kit, such as the letters on this card.  For these letters I chose to do the “ombre effect”.  Notice the gradation of shades from light to dark. Well, now that I look at the photo, I’m not sure the medium shade shows up, but however you want to do it, or however it turns out, is fine! It is easiest to color the letters while they are still attached and then you can pop them out when they are dry.

Here is the other card in the kit:

On this card, I actually painted on those gray stripes going across the card front! They don’t have to be perfect (and aren’t!) because you are watercoloring!  Lots of room for imperfection and it still looks good!  Then you just stick on one of the vellum snowflakes that comes in the kit and add a few sequins. The small letters are watercolored on their sheet, but here is a twist!  Turn the piece containing the letters and other card die-cuts over to glue the linen thread to the back of the letters. Directions on that ARE included in the kit. Again, a little tedious, if you are not into that kind of thing, but it does work! I used Tombow Multipurpose Liquid Glue. You could also color the letters, punch them out and then just glue them onto the card. But they are small!

So if you are interested in this Watercolor Winter Simply Created Kit, here is where you get it!

Be sure to watch this video so you can see what other supplies you need and see how they cards go together – and all the supplies you get in the kit! And let me know if you have any questions!

I was surprised when I finally opened up the Watercolor Winter Simply Created Kit package and saw ALL the pieces that come in it!  It took up half my kitchen table to lay everything out to show you! The kit has enough materials to make 20 cards and includes envelopes. You DO have to have some reinkers with which to watercolor the pieces, adhesive, and a couple of clear blocks for the stamps. I have to be honest and say I wasn’t pleased with the directions they put in the kit, and I think they should put color photos of each card so you have a better idea what to do.  I made one of each of two of the cards for today exactly like the directions say, which you will see below. I think when I strike out on my own making similar cards but not following the directions I will enjoy it more. I think it helps to lay everything out on the card before adhering parts to see if it all fits and see if you like it and which kind of adhesive you want to use. At the very end you will see a Stampin’ Up! video that helps in seeing how to make the cards.

I love the look of these cards, but you do need more things than come in the kit. You also need a Bermuda Bay ink pad and a greeting, like the Watercolor Winter Too stamp set that coordinates. But with a little patience and the right supplies, you can make a set of beautiful Christmas cards out of this Watercolor Winter Kit,whether following the directions or going out on your own!