Killing the Simon Says Stamp February 2017 Card Kit

I love subscribing to card kits…it probably has something to do with the automatic arrival of fresh, new goodies every month and the inclusion of items that I might not normally use otherwise.  I’ve tried Paper Pumpkin from Stampin’ Up, My Monthly Hero from Hero Arts, StampTV kits from GinaKDesigns, and Simon Says Stamp Card Kits.  And after subscribing to the SSS card kits for about three years now, I can honestly say that I have liked the majority of them and have made maybe a single card with each one.  ?

When Hero Arts recently announced they were going to add a subscription option to their monthly kits, I was so excited…until I took a good, hard look at the box of leftover kit supplies I keep hidden under my workbench.  Stickers, stencils, ribbons, oh my!  I told myself that if I was going to subscribe to one more kit, I had to at least make an attempt at “killing” them when they arrive.  So, I followed Vicky Papaioannou‘s example and set out to make ten cards with the SSS February 2017 card kit, using up as much of the included supplies as possible.

It took about three days for me to blast through that kit…but only because I refused to clean it up from my bench until I was finished (all other work had to wait).  At times, it annoyed me to even go into my craftroom and see those bright patterned papers and smiling coffee cups.  Killing this kit meant I would have to embrace puffy stickers…and coffee (I don’t drink coffee).

As it turned out, those puffy stickers (Doodlebug) made for some quick and cute cards and I used up every single one of them (a goal of mine when I started).  I paired the smiling tea cups and sugar cubes with the plaid paper and a heat-embossed sentiment from the included stamp set (“Coffee and Tea” – SSS).  The smiling mugs and tea bags were accented with a few patterned pennants and an ombré die-cut sentiment (“Painted Hello” – SSS).

On the left, I paper-pieced the tea cup and bag before shading them with colored pencils.  A dry-embossed card base (added from my kit stash since this one only contained 4 sheets of cardstock) was accented with a little pink baker’s twine and another heat-embossed sentiment.

After trimming out two little valentines from the patterned paper stack and clipping them with a tag punch, I added white twine to make them look like tea tags and popped them up over even more patterned paper to create the card on the right.  Dabs of Ranger Multi-Medium Matte hold the strings in place in a few spots.

I wasn’t in love with a few of the cards I made…these two in particular just felt forced to me!  With such adorable images in the stamp set to color, I wanted so badly to let them shine…but honestly, I think they fell flat because I’m not a coffee-drinker.  It’s hard to send someone a message you can’t really get behind.  ?

The Cream and Sugar Collection is super cute all on its own, so for a few cards, I just let the patterned papers be the focus and added embellishments from the kit where needed.  All in all, I was happy with about two-thirds of the cards I made and it felt so good to use nearly everything up.  I was only left with a single page of 6″ x 6″ paper (tiny scraps were tossed), a few more bow-tie paperclips, and some enamel dots.

My favorite part was throwing out the inspiration sheet that comes with the kit (this was a first for me)…with the majority of the contents used, there was no point in saving it.  Will I be able to keep killing the kits that show up every month?  I don’t know, but I’m going to try…and I’m planning to cancel any subscriptions that do go unused in the future.  I have enough supplies to last a lifetime and accumulating more stuff is really starting to take a toll on my creativity.

Promise to hold me accountable? ?