Christmas Cards - using scrapbooking kit

I bought an 8 x 8 scrapbooking kit when I went shopping last week. There are cardstock, designer paper and die-cuts in the kit. I have never done anything using a kit before so I decided to give it a go. There were 8 pages of die-cut greetings and tags which I made I used for my card toppers. There was no stamping involved in all. It was quite a challenge for me not to stamp anything. I did do some inking and outlining with a Signo white gel pen for one of two of the cards. 

I end up making 15 cards to fit into a box I made using Craft Companion's Top Score. This is the first time I am using the tool and I must say, it is very user-friendly. I only needed to figure out the size of the box I wanted and cut the paper accordingly. The lid of the box was made with paper of the same size. The tool automatically adjusts the size of the lid by about 2mm or so for a good snug fit over the base. 

I decorated the box cover by wrapping it with one of the designer paper I used in the cards. There was a frame left over from making the cards and a few pieces of the journalling tags and greetings so I layered those over the frame to complete the cover design. The ribbon I tied around the cover is an organza ribbon. I have tons of these cut for a previous project and they all hang on an S hook. I am trying hard to use up all the cut ribbon. =)

Now for the cards. I mixed and matched the designer paper and cardstock for the 4 x 4 cards. I cut the 8 x 8 papers into two, getting two cards per sheet of cardstock. There are enough for 30 cards. I kept the other 15 for another project. These are the 15 I came up with after playing around with the die-cuts from the kit.

In the first photo, the extreme left cards got a little cut off when I took the photos. The card base colours are red and deep olive green. The second photo showed a light cyan and light green cardstock. The last group of cards were made using a pale yellow/off white cardstock.

I am amazed at how fast I could finish all the 15 cards. It was all relatively easy. I spent more time mixing and matching than actually assembling the cards. Most of the elements on the cards are popped on foam tape to give some dimension. 

I didn't have any 4 x 4 square envelopes and used the Craft Companion's envelope maker to make custom envelopes. It was also relatively easy and quick. The final thickness of the stack of cards and envelopes came up to just under 3 inches and so my box had to measure 4.5 x 4.5 x 3 inches. 

i am quite happy with the effects of using ready-made elements such as the die-cuts to complete the cards. I may make more if I can find more bargains for small kits like this one.