Polly! Guest Designer Jess - 2 Cards using Raspberry Shortcake

Hi there!!  Thanks for taking a few minutes out of your day to say hi to Guest Designer Jess Hawkins. Jess is using our January Raspberry Shortcake kit, grab a bevvie and take a look!

Hi I'm Jess I have just turned 30 and I live in the ACT with my wonderful husband, and 3 beautiful girls. I have always been creative in some way, but it got serious 3 and a half years ago with my first papercraft project; my wedding invitations. Probably not the best project to start with, but I was happy with the finished product, and even today, I still would not change them. I am primarily a card-maker and Copic colourer, although I have dabbled in scrapbooking. I love working beyond the page, and I keep telling myself 'next week' will be the week that I start Project Life, lol. I was so excited to be asked to join Polly! as a guest designer for January. I have been a subscriber for almost a year now, and I love these kits.


Confession time, I am not a Project Lifer (yet), I am a card-maker, and have been since my crafting journey began 3 and a half years ago. But I could not resist the Polly! PL kits when my Polly! Scrapbooking subscription was up. They appealed to me because the largest goodies in the kit are the 6" square papers included each month, not to mention the fact that it comes with gorgeous co-ordinated embellies, all I needed to add is some cardstock and a sentiment, and there is a beautiful card made in minutes.



For my "What an amazing day" card, I made this with either a male or female in mind - yes, wooden spool included! I was lucky enough to get to play with the stamp that came in the January scrapbooking kit, and thought it would be perfect with a little paper-piecing and heat-embossing. I like my heat-embossing a little grungy, so I am a bit "slap-dash" with the embossing powder. Except for the black pearls around the card edge and the cardstock, everything you see on this card came from the January PL kit. I loved the little wooden spool that the washi tape came wrapped around, and couldn't resist adding it to the card with a little Tombow glue to keep it in place. A feature you will find on all of my cards is that I like to decorate the inside of the card as well. It's a great way to use some papers that you can't put down, and it also balances out the weight on the front of the card. One of the many things I love about the January PL kit, is even though there is such a wide range of colours, it co-ordinates so well together! I usually struggle with the colour yellow, but when I saw the beautiful papers, I just knew my colour scheme for this card would be black, grey and yellow.



For my "All about you" card, I wanted to showcase how this gorgeous kit can be used in conjunction with your colouring medium of choice. I'm a Copic girl, and this kit was sooooo easy to add Copics to! This card is entirely made of the January PL kit, with the exception of cardstock, white pearls, and the clock die used to make the rainbow die-cut. This card even features the twine that the January tag was attached to the kit bag with! I loved the cute little jar of sparkly stars included in this kit, and I just had to use the jar as well. I Tombow-glued the lid shut, attached the twine, and ran it through the die-cut. The 'play' veneer has been coloured with Copic RV13 and had some Dimensional Magic added, to co-ordinate with the cute little wine glass paperclip. I have used the green alpha stickers for my sentiment, and used my Copic multi-liner to doodle. The great thing about using alphas is that you can personalise your sentiment, rather than have the usual phrases you find on stamps. I have distressed all the edges, and inked them with my Copics for a distressed, yet fresh finish. Copic markers used are: C5, BG13, RV13. The inside of my card features the same Copic markers and some distressing. I have used one of the cute cards as a writing panel, and another card for the front to adhere my alpha sentiment to. 

These kits are so versatile, whether you are Project Lifer, or a card-maker. So I hope I have inspired you to stretch your kit a little further!

Jess