World Elephant Day!

Hi friends!

The universe is celebrating World Elephant Day ♥

Oh, how absolutely gorgeous these magnificent creatures are!

In honor of World Elephant Day,

I knew I wanted to make a card ♥

 

 

I have quite a few elephant stamps,

so choosing one .....

just one!

... was quite hard :)

I finally settled on this sweet Ellie and friends

becauase it has it's named Mama Elephant -

it was a 'have to' moment!

This sweetie just steals my heart ~ she's so cute!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Think positive thoughts for the elephants in the world :)

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

Christmas bells are ringing!

Hi friends!

Christmas in August?  

Yes, please!

There is officially 133 more days until Christmas!

Just in case you didn't know :)

  

On Mondays, I have the joy of posting a card at The Project Bin's blog,

always filled with wonderful card inspiration ♥

Today's card is part of challenge ...

I looked at it, loved it, and said sure, why not!

While I can't say a lot about it until after August 15th, 

I can show you!

This technique is called finger smudging or finger "painting",

using oil pastels or pan pastels and just smooshing around.

In this case, since I used a warm palette,

I wanted to create a forest of trees ... without using trees!

With the warm colors of the setting sun as a backdrop,

twinkling snow in the forefront,

I decided to create a unique and non-traditional card ♥

In order to create the 'trees', I smooshed upwards :)

After using curvy dies to make the snow drifts,

I stamped a sentiment from Joyful Song right onto the paper. 

I must mention ...

 this. was. lots. of. FUN!!

If you'd like to give this a try,

you can find the tutorial I used here.

You can find this wonderful stamp set in TPB shop here,

or here's a quick view:

 If you like to try fun things and new techniques in your crafting,

this is highly entertaining and you achieve so many different results!

Thanks for stopping by today!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

3M ~ Friendship!

Hi franz!

(thanks, Barb, for that!)

 I've been blessed to live all over the world,

but I was born in the south ...

so I'm claiming that auto-correct text typo greeting! :)

Today is the day we 3Mer's post our cards with a mystery image.

This month, I was the hostess and sent this cah-ute!!! image

called Group of Friends from Whipper Snapper ♥

This darling stamp is one (of many) I picked up at Creative Pals 
while on the gal pal trip to Wisconsin :) 
Barb lead Carol, Shelly, Terry, herself and I into Creative Pals
and that register didn't stop Cha-chinging!
  LOL!

I also bought a few single loose sentiments

 and I thought this one was a good match ...
 friendship truly warms the heart!

 Since I added the sentiment to the front,
the inside is a little plain
but it did have a hand-written note to the person it was mailed to :)
 

You can see Barb's card here
and Jeanette's cards here ~
and we'll be back next month on the 9th with another mystery image reveal.

Thanks for stopping by today!
Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly

CCEE ~ World Lion Day!

Hello friends!!

It's that time again for the CCEE Stampers to create a card

with a chosen theme by the hostess, Frances!

Since tomorrow is World Lion Day,

our cards are to show a lion somewhere ♥
 

Lions are such magestic and interesting animals!

It's easy to see from their raw power and size that they are 

definitely "King of the Jungle." 

 

For me, my sweet boy and I love, love, LOVE listening to 

the christian radio station when we are out and about in the car.

One of his favorite groups is Big Daddy Weave!

Yes, that's the name, LOL!

They have a song called the Lion and the Lamb 

and we know it - and sing it - by heart!

I can hold a half way decent tune,

but between the two of us, we can belt it out when we're inspired!

The lyrics that I sing over and over, even when I'm in the shower!

I'm cooking or cleaning or singing without music :)

 Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah
He's roaring with power and fighting our battles
And every knee will bow before You
Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain
For the sin of the world, His blood breaks the chains
And every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb ...

Isn't it beautiful!

When I saw the theme for this week's card,

I knew I wanted to use the Lion from the Caring Critters stamp set and the matching SugarCut die set from Sugar Pea Designs.

It's one of my favorites ♥ 

I've paired it with a sentiment from another stamp set:  Kindness Matters.

Oh ... this stamp set! 

It speaks to my heart!

I colored the lion with prismacolor markers and added a tiny bit of 
wink of stella to his main and tail.

There is a fun sketch/inspiration picture over at the Sugar Pea Designs blog

for the mix-it-up challenge #46 so I'll enter my card there.

To see the rest of the Lion Pride,

be sure to stop over at the CCEE blog to be inspired by different lion creations!

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

The very best birthdays ...

Hi friends!

I hope you had a marvelous weekend ~

mine flew by!

We did get to see the opening showing of Christopher Robin/Winnie-the-Pooh

and if you plan to see it, take some tissues!

Oh did we ever sniffle!

(it was the salt .. in the popcorn ... that got into our eyes ...)

♥

 

Today, I have a card to share that I made for The Project Bin.

using the wonderful stamp set "Many More".

Many More is truly a wonderful stamp set in that it covers

quite a few occasions.

 It's a set of 10 stamps that includes birthday, baby,

thank you and get well greetings, all in one stamp set.

  

 I've always been drawn to bold, vivid colors ~

gravitating to colors that POP,

like this poppy red, teal, and sunburst yellow. 

And with a sentiment this sweet,

it's bound to be a wonderful birthday!

 

You can find this amazing stamp set at The Project Bin shop,

and the inspiration blog here!

Until next time!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

How do you catch a unique parrot?

Unique up on him!

Hee hee!

Hi friends!

and happy Fri-YAY!

   

 Today's card is celebrating friendships!

One thing I adore in card making is combining stamp sets

to create a whole new look.

One night - WAY WAY late into the night! -

I was looking at these stamp sets on the desk laying side by side.

They landed there by happenstance, 

and I tilted my head to one side,

then tilted it to the other ...

and a-hah, an idea! ♥

I've used two stamp sets from Heffy Doodle:  Wingman and mewniverse.

 The white panel with the stamped images is propped up on foam,

giving it an 'off the shoulder' look.
I let that be uncolored to give a more pronounced looked

to the other side with bold, vivid colors.

A stamped sentiment and some enamel dots completes this card ♥

I hope your weekend is filled with wonderful things and crafty moments!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

Card entered into: Simon Says Stamp:  Wild Things (macaw)
 ARTastic Challenge - things that fly
Sunny Day crafting - add an animal 

 

CCEE: Coloring Book Day :)

Hello friends!

Today I'm sharing a card with you for today's nationally celebrated day ~

Coloring Book Day!

Coloring?

Yes, please!

That is one fun day to celebrate for us card makers :)

Frances is our hostess for the month of August 

and she has a month of FUN planned!

For today's challenge, she asked us to use an image on our card

that needs to be colored.

And I do hope a little forgiveness will be allotted ...

I colored this card previously for a very dear friend of mine,
but I hadn't posted it here on my blog.

But, I can report - she loved the card :)

I used my Neat and Tangled stamps 

called Better Together 

The colors are a little whimsical as I based them as stuffed animals

rather than a real puppy and bear.

Be sure to stop in the CCEE blog and

see all the coloring inspired cards this week.

You can find them here on the blog!

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly