Kiwi Lane Design January Blog Hop

When Kristy over at Kiwi Lane Designs (KLD) asked me to be in the January blog hop at the end of the summer, I never thought I would go MONTHS without scrapbooking.  I haven't done a real layout since August.  I have made a handful of cards and now two banners, but that is about it for being crafty.  Life just got in the way - work, kids, homeschooling, etc.  Hopefully the next few months won't be as bad!  But, when the end of November rolled around and Kristy started getting the blog hop information out, I knew I had to do SOMETHING.  And then I found out we all were getting a designer template set I wanted -  the chevron set!  But, I still had no scrapbooking mojo, so I had to think of something else.  I was working on a banner for my kids' birthday party, and I decided a winter banner would be a fun idea.  The chevrons would allow me to use a variety of papers, and the shape looks enough like mountains to give it a fun look.

 

I started out with picking out the patterned papers.  I decided on Sweater Weather by MME six-by-six pad.  I love the dark colors with the bits of white and light blue for snow.  Using the two smaller chevron pattern sizes (you get three sizes, two of each with the set), I cut out a bunch of "strips" for the cards.  I then glues them onto solid navy blue cardstock.  I love how easy it was to create the background for the banner pieces with just the templates, scissors, paper, and my ATG gun.  Then it came time for the letters and matting.  I pulled out my Silhouette for this, cutting letters out of some CP Peppermint and snowflakes out of kraft cardstock.  I also cut two snowflakes out of the CP Peppermint paper for the first and last card. Then I just glued those on, and I was almost done.  The last step was to string them together and hang it up.  Total it took me probably 2 hours to complete this banner from start to finish- which isn't bad at all!

Here are some close ups of a few individual cards:

 

(Sorry for the not great photos - it is hard to get a good picture in winter with poor sunlight.)

Now for the fun part!  A random winner from ONE of the participating blogs (including the Kiwi Lane blog), will be given a $25 gift certificate to the Kiwi Lane Shop, for leaving a comment and will be announced on the Kiwi Lane blog on Thursday, January 9th.  So make sure you stop by and comment on each of the blogs.  Here is the list:

1. Kiwi Lane http://kiwilane.com/here/blog/
2. Jill  http://brought-to-you-by-the-letter-j.blogspot.com/
3. Julie Ann  www.ourlifeinscraps.blogspot.com
4. Melissa  http://abitofscrappygoodness.blogspot.com/
5. Stephanie  http://sucw.blogspot.com  <--- You Are Here!
6. Leslie .http://scrapsofmine.blogspot.com
7. Jennifer  http://craftingmoments.wordpress.com/
8. Jennifer  http://www.thingsthaticreate.wordpress.com/
9. Staci  http://scrapbookingischeaperthantherapy.blogspot.com/