Simon Says Stamp November Card Kit

Austin: I like all these cards. I like how different cards there are I really like the cards I like how we can do so many different things. This kit stamp set is really good for beginners and it would have helped me at the beginning, that's why it's an amazing stamp set.
I like the watercolour card with the trees it looks lovely and a great design. The twine is what makes the card really sparkle because twine is so lovely and amazing. It's a really different card.

Sally: I used to get card kits all the time when I was first making cards & at least half the time I would have no idea what to make. I think I was so worried about doing something new that I would never make anything. So yeah, it's way more fun with Austin who totally doesn't care about that. Plus I did Kristina Werner's card sketch trick & it helped Austin & I choose which cards we wanted to make with the kit. We ended up making these 5 cards.

This card was actually really simple, there's actually a quick video of it in our saved stories on Instagram (it's under watercolour). Simply, we watercoloured the bear which was on one of the Suzy's Winter Thanks watercolour prints included in the kit. I used the watercolours from the kits which were....interesting to say the least. I think they'd be great for kids or for someone who is only casually interested in watercolouring. Honestly though it's not my favourite, the paints are kind of chalky & can leave a weird texture on the card, but - disclaimer - I am a total snob about watercolours. Too many years of using super fancy watercolours has spoiled me for anything less posh lol.

Anyway...the background. We made the background by heat embossing some leaves from the Woodland Whimsy stamp set in the kit all over a piece of watercolour card using Simon Says Stamp gold embossing powder (this is the only embossing powder we used across all the cards) & then painted over it loosely with the watercolours from the kit, deepening the colour where the leaves were stamped.

After that we blended some Vintage Photo distress ink around the edge, painted some gold watercolour stripes onto the scarf & flicked the same gold over the background.

Then it was just a matter of a little vellum, a  hugs die cut out of gold foil & I stuck the finished panel onto a card base which we had covered with some of the wood-grain patterned paper from the kit. 

I wanted to use the Thank You sentiment from the print so we didn't waste so much so I made this quick, simple card. 

I stamped the stunning trees from the stamp set in some Memento Rich Cocoa ink. Then I quickly & loosely water coloured them, die cut the panel using a Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle die & then added some twool twine, a few wooden stars & stuck on the sentiment which I had fussy cut off of the print. Like I said, super easy card. I'm not surprised it's Austin's favourite though, it is a pretty cute card.

This one was a 100% me card, Austin is not a big fan of this kind of style of card. 

Honestly I made this card because I messed up cutting down the patterned paper, I love how it ended up though, very festive 😊.

I did some loose watercolouring as a first layer & then I coloured the next later using watercolour pencils.

After that I did some fussy cutting, cut a panel out of the cream card from the kit & finally I heat embossed the sentiment from Big Scripty Greetings - Holiday using the Gold Embossing powder we used before.A simple card but the end result is really pretty.

Okay, I think this is my favourite card we made, mostly because it's kind of at the crossroads of my style and Austin's. And this card was SUPER simple. 
I stamped some of the foliage from the Woodland Whimsy stamp set that's a part of the kit, heat embossed it with the same Gold Embossing powder as before.
Then, to finish the easiest background ever I did a super loose watercolour wash in a gradient, darker in the bottom left hand corner and lighter in the upper right hand corner. I also went over some of the lower left-hand foliage with a darker green watercolour.
Then I added on a sentiment strip (cream card from the kit & gold embossing of a sentiment from the stamp set) and the hedgehog from the stamp set coloured with watercolour pencils...stuck it to a card base made from card from the kit & it was finished.

This is our Mum's favourite card and again it was really simple. I was really looking forward to making a wreath with this set, it's so perfect for it, so I made a really clean and simple wreath, stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa ink & then coloured it with watercolour pencils. 
I stamped the bunny on some more watercolour card, also in that rich cocoa ink, & coloured it with watercolour pencils.
Then we loosely watercoloured the card panel in a soft green & a little gold watercolour, finally we stamped a banner from the set in the brown memento & then heat embossed 'thinking of you' on it with the gold embossing powder from before. Yeah, and then we put it together with some of the patterned paper from the kit.
Oh and I added a touch of gold glitter glue to tie it all together.
I love how this card could work for any time of year, the colour scheme could be festive but is also soft enough to work for spring or summer...


So in the end, we made 5 cards from this kit with the addition of two inks (versamark for embossing & memento rich cocoa), one embossing powder (Simon Says Stamp Gold), a heat tool, a pair of scissors, a paper trimmer (because I can’t cut in a straight line), a sheet of watercolour card, a tape runner (optional), some glue, two dies (Simon Says Stamp stitched dies - optional & Simon Says Stamp hugs die), one stamp set, (Simon Says Stamp Big Scripty Greetings Holiday), some twine (optional), Vintage Photo Distress Ink (optional), a blending brush (optional), my own watercolour brushes (optional), a strip of vellum (optional), a scrap of gold card (optional), watercolour pencils (optional), gold glitter glue (optional), some wooden stars (optional) and a gold watercolour (optional).

So about 10 non-optional-ish items (22 total items), making this a GREAT set for beginners. Seriously, you could make so many cards from this kit and a few total basics.

Which is your favourite card? How do you cope with card kits? What do you think of this one? 

Also would you be interested if we did a series where we made 3-5 cards using the items from a card kit & a few beginners essentials? I'm sure it's been done before but it might be fun to put our own twist on it & I know it's something I’d have appreciated as a beginner