Penny card slider w/ The Project Bin!

Hello friends!

Monday's are always fun for me because it's the day I post 

over at The Project Bin blog!

And today is even FUN-ner because I'm sliding along giving my 2 cents worth!

Literally! :-)

The minute I spied the new stamp set from The Project Bin called Classic Man,

I envisioned a scenic drive (that card is coming up!)

and one sliding along with an older technique called the Penny Slider

or rolling penny card technique. 

The penny is the currency for the USA but whatever country you're in,

that works just fine, too!

The penny slider/rolling penny technique was pretty popular a couple of years ago 

in the stamping community and was always such fun to see on card.

How fun to bring back a classic car card with a classic card technique!

I'm a self proclaimed bargain shopper and LOVE a good deal ~
and I think I literally squealed when I found this WRMK set

complete with zippered pouch and magnetic sheet for $6.99!
This was such a wonderful find and sparked this idea to make the car travel :)

If you'd like to see a quick video I made sliding the card,

here's mine ♥ ↓

To make the card, I started by stamping out the classic car with SU! ink

and fussy cutting it and then set it aside.

This stamp set doesn't come with a matching die but remember,

you can always fussy cut your images with a pair of good scissors :)

Then, I stamped out the sentiment with versa-mark 

and white embossing powder for contrast and die cut it with a banner die.

 To build the card base, you'll need an A2 size folded card stock.

To make the 'sliding' portion, you'll need to adhere thick 3d foam

to the bottom of the decorative panel but not around the slider area.

Add the penny (or coin) and then a small 3d foam square and then another penny, making a sandwich of them.

With one penny under the slider base and one above, it should slide back and forth ~ test this before adding your car (or image).

Then fasten that to your card base and slide away!

I'm super excited for my next slider card you'll see soon ~ it's adventurous! :)

This set is absolutely perfect for Father's Day,

masculine cards and birthdays for boys.

 Here's the set in it's entirety ↑

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly

 

C4C431: I ♥ Puppies, sketches, and faith!

Good Morning, friends!

We're having internet connection issues here at home

so I'm bouncing by more like in the afternoon!

*Crossing my fingers Comcast has it fixed now* 

Today starts a new challenge at Crazy 4 Challenges and it's a fun sketch challenge.

The sketch looked like a perfect one to use as a base for a CAS card

to use as a foundation for my Crafters of Faith card, too.

Tracie is the hostess for the Crafters of Faith for April

and gave us this scripture/challenge theme:

 For my challenge I decided to use the Scripture "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your Heart" which is from Psalms 37:4.  I love hearts so I asked everyone to have a heart somewhere on their card.

Based on her challenge and the wonderful C4C sketch, I came up with my card.

I knew I wanted to use "You Have my Heart" from My Favorite Things,

a stamp/die set I was very lucky to scoop up at their huge retirement sale.

Truthfully, anything with puppies has my heart ♥

This funny thing happens whenever I see a puppy stamp set,

it magically falls into my shopping cart!  

And here's the inside of my card:

If you'd like to play along with the Crazy 4 Challenges,

you can find the blog in the link and here's a peek at the sketch ↓

The fun thing about challenges is they can often springboard your creativity!

Maybe you are stuck in a rut or can't quite come up with putting together

a card idea and make the card come together.

Sketches are a great baseline to do just that!

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

CCEE1816: National Bicycle Day!

Hiya friends! 

 Did you know today is National Bicycle Day? 

 Yes, it WHEELY is!

:-)

 The new CCEE Challenge for this week is hostessed by Lois

and she challenged us to add a bicycle somewhere on our cards.

I have a couple of bicycle stamps, 

however, I went with a digital stamp instead as I really wanted 

a total card that created a scene like a story book :)

I adore Sassy Cheryl stamps and knew when I saw the theme

exactly where I'd be looking for my card image.

I chose to use Taking the Scenic Route which is this charming 

instant download stamp and 4 cute sentiments.

 It also comes pre-colored if you prefer that option.

This card is a hybrid - half markers, half pencils.

While I started out intending to color most of with markers,

I mostly used my colored pencils to give this image a softer,

 more storybook look to it ... my favorite, of course :)

*One crafty tip!  
Use a #2 pencil if your marks are too dark, outside the lines,
or simply not what you wanted them to be!
Most of the standard colored pencils will react to a regular eraser
much as the lead to the pencil does.
Just for kicks and giggles, I used the color blender but as you can see,
it didn't react to the waxy colored pencil ~ but the eraser did!

Remember, you don't have to be PERFECT when coloring,
you just have to PRACTICE ♥ 
Grab your pencils and color, practice, and have fun!
 

Be sure to stop in and see what the rest of the team

has made with bicycles for National Bicycle Day.

You can find them here on the CCEE blog

as well as the linky to play along!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

RSG: Been farmin' long?

 Good Morning, friends!

Today is the 3rd Wednesday of the month which means 

the Ready, Set, Go! Challenge is due. 

 The RSG is a challenge where Barb, Jeanette and I think WAY outside the box and take turns proposing challenges that are not for the faint of heart :-)  

For this month's challenge, Jeanette is the hostess and asked us to reflect a bit on our grandfathers.  For me, that was indeed a challenge, as I was not fortunate to know either of my grandpas.  We grew up in a military family and while we were very fortunate and very blessed to travel often and see so much of the world, that always took us far away from our extended family.  The alternative was to reflect on another ancestor who's birthday is the closest to today, April 18th, and create a card/project that in some way reflects that person, so I went with that.

I chose my dad ♥  

His birthday would have been in July, the closest relative with the next birthday.

My dad passed away in March 11 years ago at the way-too-young age of 63,

but his memory and legacy will live on for many, many more years. 

 He and I were very close and were so much alike!

  We had so many similiar traits and the same sense of humor and often finished each others sandwiches jokes! ← That's something he would have said!

Dad was a HARD worker - born and raised in rural southern California on a farm with Irish immigrant parents.  He was 3rd from the youngest of the 12 children my grandma birthed, but tragically lost 3 young siblings when they were very young. He often told us growing up with 8 other siblings (9 including himself) was HARD ... food was sometimes scarce, work was long, hard and in the scorching sun, and it was a difficult to stay in school when the farms needed tending.  His job, among many, was the chicken coop!  He said it often gave him great joy to tend to the chickens and devise ways to keep the foxes and coyotes out.  He has ONE photograph of him as a child, maybe 4 or 5? - as a little toehead, wearing his jean overalls and squinting into the sun trying to see the camera.  It's a tattered old black and white photograph and on that rare occasion that we pulled it out to look at it, he and I would crack up and say that one famous line "Been farmin' long?!"  He did two things that brought pride to his family:

1.  He graduated high school, and a year early!  That was not an easy feat back in the day.  Dropping out was not only acceptable, but often necessary.

2.  He joined the Air Force at 17 and served our country proudly,

 retiring at 26 years.  I am so grateful for our veterans,

 but my favorites are my brother and my dad :)

I miss my dad .. so so  SO much.  Every day.  He left us too soon, and I know my greatest joy will be when I see him again on the other side.  

So here is my card, in honor of my dad :-)

 

 I dug through my stash of stamps to find the one that best represented him, 

his chickens, farm and the bibs :) 

 I colored my CC Designs Sweet Chicky.  
*Edited - I replaced my photo and will try a skin coloring technique another time :)
  I am DIGGIN' this farm paper that has been in my stash called Heartland Farm from American Crafts ~ it was a perfect match! 

 

You can see what Barb and Jeanette have created with this month's 

RSG! Challenge. 

I have a few missing from the first year of challenges but 

they are already in the works or done! ♥

Stay tuned!
 

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

TPB: Happy Father's Day ♥

Happy Monday, friends!

Wow, where did the weekend go?!  I blinked and missed it! 

 We were that busy - enjoying the gorgeous sunshine and tropical glory

 of living in Miami, Florida :)

Speaking of gorgeous, today is the day I post on the blog at

The Project Bin stamps.

 Denise has been busy behind the scenes creating wonderful new stamps sets,

two of which were just debuted and they are indeed gorgeous!

One is a summer/4th of July inspired stamp set 

and the other is a unique and fabulous classic car set ~

both are incredible and available in the shop!

For my card today, I'm actually combining two different stamp sets 

that shows you how you can mix and match to tailor them to a specific purpose.

I'm using:

1.  Deer Mom ~ a deer and Mother's Day themed sentiments

2. Classic Man ~ a vintage car and masculine sentiments!

First, my card was inspired by this stunning one in the gallery at SCS.

I try to play along with the Featured Stamper as often as I can

since it was a great honor and humbling experience for me when I was chosen ♥

Her card stood out for a couple of reasons ...

the bold, rich patterned paper which I had just seen in my stash.

Oh my goodness, I tore up my RÅSKOG looking for it 

because it was a single sheet not with the rest of the paper pad.

 It was spot on perfect and I knew I had it .. somewhere ..

and finally, near the end of the final row :)

Back to her card ... I was drawn to the deer as a focal point 

and I knew that Deer Mom would be a great choice to CASE her card.

You can find these stamp sets and more in the shop over at The Project Bin.

Remember, if you click the photo of the stamp set, 

it takes you to the gallery to see insprational cards and ideas 

on way to use the stamp/die sets.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

 

DDD ~ April Showers!

Hi friends!

It's the 15th of the month and that means the Dueling Darling Divas (DDD)

 and Dazzlers have our friendly "duel!"

Our hostesses this month are Barb for the Divas

and Tracie for the Dazzlers and they came up with a theme of: April Showers!

Barb sent us on Team Divas an adorable kit with her signature stamp choice,

Whipper Snapper, called "Umbrella and Slicker" 

along with gorgeous paper and embellishments.  

I tried to use at least one of everything in the kit,

sans the twine and clear gems, I did! :)

Here is my card, based on the kit:

I looked all through my files to find a picture of the inside of my card,
but it looks like I didn't take one *gasp!*

But I did one to share on thing about the planning of my card.
One thing I learned is using the 'white space' around your image.
For instance, I was immediately drawn to a circular shape when
I saw this image, probably because of the half moon shape of the umbrella.
That shape, however, really didn't blend with the card design.
Once everything was colored and in place,
I added some wink of Stella for shimmer (rain!) and buttons ♥

Sometimes it's good to look at the image and chose a 'spacial' balance.
In other words, how MUCH white (or empty) space you want.
My original plan to was to have a smaller image for the card base
(so as to not cover up so much of the pretty paper!)
but it looked too constricted ↓
It cuts right up on the lines of the image,
so I went with a larger die for a bigger empty space.

And that's it for this round - Happy April Showers!
Be sure to check out the rest of the Divas and the Dazzler's dueling cards ...
you can find them in my sidebar :)'

Thank you, 
Tracie and Barb,
for your wonderful hostessing and the super fun card kits!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥
~Kelly

Crazy for Coffee! ♥

Oh yes!  It's true!

 Coffee and I ...... we go hand in hand!

Especially when it comes to Starbucks.
My cup runneth over ♥

 I think I whisper these words to my macchiato every time 
I stop into Starbucks and the barista hands it to me - LOL!  

 

This week for the Crazy 4 Challenges,

the theme is coffee in the forms of colors, stamps or dies.
Naturally anything with a coffee theme makes me happy!

 I'm a guest designer for the month of April

and this is what I came up with to play along with the theme.

 I used two stamp sets from Honey Bee Stamps:  Coffee Break and

Oh, Snap! (pssst - this one is retiring!)

You may remember this card that I made with Coffee Break ~

I absolutely LOVE it ♥ 

After stamping out the sentiment and getting a card together,
I stamped out the coffee cup from that set.
Remember, if you don't have dies to match your stamp sets, just fussy cut!
I stamped it again on designer paper and cut just the portion to go around
the cup to create a 'sleeve'.
It's popped up on 3d foam for dimension
and pretty simple!
I'm really happy with how this card turned out with it's cheerful colors 
and, of course, coffee theme!

Here's a peek at the inside, with a small flap to tuck in a gift card :)

 Be sure to stop in the Crazy4Challenges to see more coffee themed
inspired cards!
Cheers!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥
~Kelly

I'll enter this to:  Crafty Gals Corner/Buttons