CYS: This isn't merlot in my cup!

Hi friends!

It's raining here today ~ a good day to stay indoors, craft

and enjoy a refreshing beverage of choice!

Or at least that's what Suzy tells us --

 the hostess for July in the Challenge Your Stash card group. 

Her theme for this month's card group is 

"make a card showing off your favorite beverage." 

It's no secret that mine is coffee.

Preferably wrapped in a Starbucks sleeve ;)

But one thing I drink a lot of and is actually a favorite of mine is water!

Yep, water.

Which is technically a major component of coffee ....

so there you go.  
ROFL!!

Since making a card with water was a bit confusing for me,

I chose to make a card using my favorite beverage memory. 

When dh and I were first married - reaching our 1st year anniversary -

he had a great idea to take us camping.

me.

camping.

As in .... outside. In a tent.  

me?

Alllllright! 

 Always up for a good adventure, I was all in.

We actually had a great time,

but some reason, I kept trekking the 3 miles

 (barefoot, in winter, up a hill, carrying 20 pounds of coal to light a fire ...)

Kidding!  Just seeing if you were still here *wink!*

 up to the general store to buy grape soda.

I wasn't even a big fan of grape soda!

 But on our way in, I saw the old coke machine 

and new what the choices were.  

And I couldn't stop thinking about it - during the day, all night.

Grape soda, grape soda, grape soda .... 

And that grape soda may as well as had a neon sign,

buzzing "Pick me, Pick me!"

I was digging in the car seats, under mats, in the ashtray for coins

and plunking them down into the machine, guzzling those purple beauties.

Flash forward a week after we got home .....

at the Dr's office, he joked:

"Been having any cravings lately?

Because you, my friend, are going to be a mom!"

The funny thing is:

I wanted no part of it after that week 

and my oldest "grape soda" daughter isn't a fan either.

But we sure were back at camp - LOL!

So in honor of my oldest daughter,

this is truly NOT a glass of merlot .... it's grape soda :)

I'll enter my card into the Your Next Stamp challenge #67 -

I used their sketch, and color combo which you can see here!

I used a stamp set that might be retired - Quirky Animals.

These stamps are a riot.

I used a sentiment in the stamp set both inside and outside the card,

but my blog post is so long and busy, I'll skip the inside.

The first sentiment I used is a single line - 

I just masked and stamped, then turned it and remasked, restamped

to create the corner Happy Birthday.

  So cheers to you - 

whatever you have in your glass :)

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

Mondays with The Project Bin ~ Sail, repeat!

Happy Monday, friends!

It's a little naughti{cal} on the blog today ♥

I adore the nautical-ocean-beachy looks, including on cards,

so  today I'm featuring 'Anchors Away' by The Project Bin!

My son's recent adventures of boating and tubing were my muse :)

Since I typically try something new each week with my TPB cards

this week is no exception week:  Ombre ink!

I've spied these new Ombre inks from Hero Arts 

on several social media sites and, because I'm a curious sort,

was very intriqued. No time like the present to give it a try!

 For today's card, I inverted the ink pad from vertical to horizontal
 to have a gradual change in ink color.
Stamped the opposite direction, 
you'll get more of a striped version of the same look.
Equally pretty but stripes with stripes - I wanted a more uniform look.

The Anchor's Away stamp set is so versatile.
Take a peek at this gorgeous set and let your mind sail away with imagination! 

Now before you go ~ remember to save the date!
We have a wonderful Christmas in July blog hop planned
with holiday inspirations, cards and giveaways!!

A big thank you to the original artist who inspired my card,
 found on Pinterest!

 I hope you are enjoying summer to it's fullest ~
Be well, friends ♥

Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly

I'll enter my card into:  Dragonfly Journey #95 - Red, White, and Blue-tiful

National Flamingo Day!

Hi friends and T.G.I.F!

Today is National Flamingo Day ~ perfect for us Floridians! 

 It's one of my very favorite birds ~

magestic in color and grace and they have such a sweet temperment. 

We are so lucky to see them here locally ♥

 

They are also a great inspiration for art.

Today's card is using my new Lawn Fawn stamps and dies ~

not sure why I haven't bought this set before now :)

I know, my card is typically "Kelly bright"

but today called for festive colors and lots of pink! :)

I hpoe today is a pink-a-licious happy flamingo kind of day for you!

Even if it's the plastic one in your front lawn *wink!*

Big hugs, bigger blessings!

~Kelly

 

Exciting news!! CCEE1725 and RSG #2

Hi friends and happy World Music Day!

Today's card is super special to me for two reasons :)

First, I am so excited to share that I'm now 

a CCEE Stamper's Challenge DT member :)

Thank you for the gracious spot to join your team, CCEE ~
I'm beyond heart touched ♥

The CCEE Stampers are self described: Cheers + Challenges Eclectic Ensemble!

The amazing team consists of:

Frances

Joanne

Anne

Vicky

Lois

Liz

Lynn

Maryann
and me! :) 

I love how the CCEE finds things like quirky holidays and celebrated days

to use as a spring board for card making.

Right. up. my. alley!

Our hostess, Frances, gave us a theme for CCEE1725: World Music Day.

Thank you, Frances :)

  

My card is also the 2nd card for my Ready, Set, Go! Challenge group!

Barb, this month's hostess, and asked us to created a card using R, S and G! 

My R - Rainbow, ribbon

My S - Sequins

My G - Guitar

 

  

For World Music Day, I used Rockstar Anya from The Greeting Farm stamps.

I've had this stamp for FOREVER!

I chose this one to represent WMD for a very special young lady,

as talented with her voice as she is the electric guitar.

And her hair has been just about every color of the rainbow, 

so rather than color her hair, I paper pieced it with leftover dsp ~ perfect!

I added the follow your dreams sentiment, stamped right onto the dsp,

 as it better fits the purpose of the card for her.

  

 

 The RSG! challenge is with 2 of my besties: Barb and Jeanette.

We 3M group {created by Jeanette} - just taking it up a notch {created by me!}

Each month we will have a challenge that's really out there ~

we thinking outside the box.
Thanks, Barb, for your fun theme!

Whew - I appreciate you reading my long post today!
It's an exciting day for me,
to be able to share the creations made from the heart ♥
I hope you are able to find inspiration in all that is around you, too :)

Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly

Mondays with The Project Bin ~ Ink Blowing!

Happy Monday, friends!

This is by far my favorite day of the week for card posting ♥

Regardless of how crazy busy the week has been, 

I know I can always pull out my TPB stamps and just create ~

enjoying the adventurous and creative side of stamping.

It's Kelly² (yes, two Kellys!) day on the TPB Inspiration blog.

For my TPB cards, I try to incorporate a new technique, like today.

I saw a new-to-me-technique on SCS for the featured stamper

(and wow ~ her name is Kelly, too!)

It's called Ink Blowing and involves very few tools:

card stock, aqua painters, reinkers and a straw.

The fun part:  I had one of two of those available - the cardstock and straw!

I do have aqua painters but they are packed away, reinkers sold off ...

so what does a stamper do?

Improvise!

I used the fun Vitamin Sea image from Summer Fun,

perfect stamp set for this time of year!

I stamped that out in lime green ink from Kelly Purkey

 (this is shaping up to be a Kelly day! ♥), 

then die cut a few shapes and glued that together.

Then I got to ink blowing ....

I used a plain 'ol flat, size 10 sable paintbrush and ink ~ water combo.

Once I had the ink into my palette, I added a few drops of water 

and dipped the brush, then blew the air from the straw onto that 

to create the splatter effect.

Rinse, repeat with 2 other colors and the background is complete!

The only ribbon I had was the wide width so it had to do

(again, improvise is the key word!)

 and propped up the stamp with foam and ta-da!

I'm totally going to try this again and already have some ideas

on how to tweak this more to my liking :)

Here's another look at the stamp set - perfect, right!

Tomorrow, we're off to hike in the Everglades in one of Florida's elusive parks.

I'm half excited, half scared outta mah wits! LOL!

I'll be sipping my Starbucks all the way there to give me

super woman powers :)

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

DDD ~ Roses

 

Hello, friends!

June is a wonderful month ~

 known for the start of summer, warmer weather, beautiful skies ...

and and it's also Rose Month ♥

For the Dueling Darlings Duel (DDD), 

Barb is the hostess for the Divas and Tracie for the Dazzlers.

Since I'm Team Diva, I received Barb's bountiful kit 

full of blooming goodness!

In addition to the beautiful papers and embellishments,

we had two rose images to work with ~ I chose the Hero Arts rose.

I was channeling the yellow rose of Texas :)

Here is what I came up with:

 

         Here is the inside:  

I used a sentiment from The Project Bin Stamps -

love this scripture so much ♥

Flowers have become one of my favorite things to experiment with

in coloring ~

so I'm really excited Barb's kit was so generous.

With the second rose image, I'm planning a second card soon!

Thank you, Barb, for your kit 

and Barb/Tracie for your wonderful theme this month!

You can visit all the Darlings by visiting them via my sidebar →

 Thanks for stopping by today!
 

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

Mondays with The Project Bin ~ No coloring!

Hi friends!

HaPpY sUmMEr! 

Those two words are pure bliss,

and I couldn't be happier to have 'my babies' home! ♥

We're already enjoying fun summer moments and

I look forward to some "lazy days" ahead, too :)

  Today's card for The Project Bin inspiration blog is

 trying a new-to-me technique.

I decided to step outside the box and do something different.

My entire card is die cut and paper pieced ~ no coloring!

Using the fun stamp and die set Just Poppin',

 I die cut the cardstock directly with the popcorn die.

I added some patterned paper as the focal point under the die cut area.

The popcorn sentiment and a few of the kernels are "popped up" (haha!)

with 3d foam squares for dimension,

and the only 2 areas that are stamped (not colored!) for an outline.

I also wanted to share some really exciting news.

The Project Bin will be having a Christmas in July blog hop!

We hope you can join us

for holiday inspiration, stamps/dies and giveaways and more! ♥

Please save the date and join us!

 

 This week you'll see a few 'catch up' cards as well.

Last week was a blur and I had to refocus and regroup ...

sometimes you just have to be at peace with that :) 

For now, hop on over to The Project Bin shop

for the Just Poppin' stamp and die set and more!

 Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly