Cards from a scrapbooking kit

Several months ago I learned about an organization called Bring Smiles to Seniors that delivers cards to seniors who may feel alone and need a little love. They might live in senior care facilities, be home-bound, or participate in nutrition programs, such as Meals on Wheels. Bring Smiles to Seniors collects donations of cards and has volunteers write messages and/or decorate the insides of the cards.

I wanted to send in a box of cards, so this spring I spent some time creating cards from a scrapbook kit I bought ages ago. The kit contained elements from two Cosmo Cricket lines: Early Bird and Garden Variety. The kit contained at least sixteen 12" x 12" patterned papers (some of the patterns were border strips and journaling cards to be cut apart), as well as adhesive chipboard elements, and alphabet stickers. I also have the coordinating stamp set from Unity Stamp Company. I'd used bits and pieces of the kit over the years but had mainly been hoarding it because I thought the papers were so cute. This was the perfect occasion to use them -- and here are the 72 cards I made:

I love the bright, cheery colors and patterns in these papers, and I thought they would be perfect for cards for seniors because there are some retro-style images and punny sentiments. I used a variety of other supplies with the kit, including sentiment stamps, word dies, punches, and a few simple embellishments. I thought I had jotted down some of those supplies, but if I did, I can't find the list. So if you have a question about a particular stamp, die, etc., leave me a comment, and I'll try to figure out which set or company it is from.

Here are more detailed pictures of the cards divided into smaller batches. (There are a lot of photos - sorry!)

The top middle card in the last picture wasn't in the group photo above because it wasn't in the batch I donated; I sent that one to my crafting bestie. But since I used the kit to create it, I wanted to include it in this photo.

I ended up using almost all of the papers; I had some little scraps left over, but I think I recycled all of them because I didn't want to hoard them any more. I did have some chipboard stickers I couldn't use because they were too big (e.g., a 12" long border pieces), and I tucked those away with the rest of my stickers to save for now. It felt good to finally use those supplies!

Thanks for stopping by today!