Using paper collection kits

Hi everyone!  Only hours to go before it's Friday again - woo hoo!!  I loved that feeling when I woke up today knowing that tomorrow morning I don't have to travel 2 hours into London!

I'm here today to give you some tips on using one my all time fave goodies over at Quixotic Paperie - paper collection kits!    As some of you know, I mainly make cards to sell for charity - - it's such a great excuse to spend more time crafting to help to raise funds for worthwhile causes (even though you know you should be doing the ironing!).  Last weekend I gave over 50 cards to our local Sussex Horse Rescue Trust who do an amazing job in:

•     Preventing cruelty and relieve suffering of  horses, ponies and donkeys
•     Providing management and maintenance of facilities for the care of the rescued animals

You can find out more about what they do on their website here.  We often visit the rescued horses, ponies and donkeys during our dog walks - they are so lovely and I can't believe people have treated them so badly.  {{Sigh}} if only everyone was kind and caring like the crafting community!

That's my rant for the day - back onto card making ... my stock of cards has now been seriously depleted and need to quickly get them back up to give away to other charities.  One way I do this is to use the 12 x 12 paper collection packs out there.  Today I wanted to share with you four cards I made using one of the Echo Park Collection Kits that Quixotic Paperie sell...

I made all four of these cards from the Little Boy Collection Kit in less than two hours - pretty impressive for me as just one card can take me days to do!  To speed up the process I simply:

1. Selected some co-ordinating plain cardstock 
2. Selected a couple of border punches
   
3. Copied sketches I've used before
4. Used my Grand Calibur to cut several Nesties at the same time- I'm sure the Big Shot can be used this way too!
   

So there's hardly any thinking that goes into the actual process making them!  I used Ranger Archival Jet Black ink for the sentiments, some buttons from my stash and 4mm chocolate flat backed pearls (90p for 100 - talk about value for money!!).

I hope you like them!  I am entering these cards into the following challenges:

• Pollycraft Monday for boyz to men
• Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps for shaped cards (the circle ones, obviously!!)
• Papertake Weekly to use punches or dies (both!)
• Catch the Bug - anything goes
• Whimsie Doodles - no colouring
• Crafty Catz - use sentiments/quote
• Crafty Emma's - use your fave colour combo (mine is orange with any other colour!)  

Paper/cardstock: Bazzill cardstock, Echo Park Little Boy Collection Kit

Stamps: Ladybug Crafts Ink sentimental set

Mediums: Ranger Archival Jet Black ink

Accents: buttons and ribbon from stash, 4mm chocolate flat backed pearls
Tools: Nestabilitie dies, Fiskars border punches