The C.O.F. gets monochromatic!

Hi friends!!  What a fun time to post - it's the last day of the month which means the Crafters of Faith blogging group post our themed cards :)  
This month, our hostess is Liz W. - one of the most gracious and faith-filled ladies I know!  She is an amazing lady, volunteering so much of her time to help others in need through her ministry and my heart just beamed at knowing how many lives are touched because of her work through Our Savior.  We  ♥ you, Sister Liz! :)  

This was her theme: This is my birthday month, and a peridot is my birthstone. It is one of my favorite shades of green. My challenge for you is to use your own birthstone color and make a monochromatic card. If you have an April birthday you can make a white on white card and use diamond bling for your embellishments or clear buttons. If you are a June birthday, you could make a white card and use pearlized paint or pearls to add some pazzazz!! Use whatever neutral color you would like with your birthstone color and have fun dazzling us. 

My birth-month is the gorgeous color of aquamarine!  So for my card, I went with a monochromatic, aqua colored card to represent March :)  I used a stamp from MFT ~ the P.I. girl called "Bloomin Good Day".  My card design is an old MFT sketch  (I substituted the circle for the labels 1 nestie instead)  and kept the same theme through with the aqua colored papers.  I paper-pieced lil Bloom's dress :) and added the sentiment to a very simple inside!  

I hope I passed the monochromatic challenge (which is a big challenge for me since I love color! Lots and lots of colors!) :)  Be sure to stop by and see what the other Crafters of Faith girls have created this month!  

 Patti ~ Stampersize
Carolina -Cardolina Scrapolina
 LizW - Right Brained Madness
Mary Rose -  Mary Rose Cafe
LizD - crafts4thesoul
Carol - Bills Favorite Stamper 
Sharon -  a piece of the heart
 Kelly - Sandcastle Stamper (you're here!)

                             Thanks so much for your visit today!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

It's an Olympic Post! :)

Hi blogging friends!  Today's post is so special to me because I made this card for my daughter :)  She is one of the sweetest kids but truly loves life ~ always smiling, such a fun-loving, adventurous soul.  She has a full schedule of classes this semester including 2 AP classes, plus choral requirements and both Opera and All-State auditions coming up this week.   And she is battling a horrendous sore throat - they won't postpone or reschedule so it's "do or die", to quote the director :(  Well, in her rare "down-time" one of her favorite hobbies is her archery.  She is an absolute natural!  She fell in love with it back in the days of Princess Diaries 2- long before Katniss in Hunger Games - but that trio of books inspired her to ask for a bow of her own, lovingly dubbed by her as "the Green Goddess", LOL!!  

So .... this month, the Calendar Girls were asked to create a card with the theme:  The Olympics!  Our hostess is Debbie and she challenged us to use the Olympics as a guide, use one of the 5 colors of the Olympics (I chose blue, my daughter's favorite color) and one embellishments in that same color.   I hunted far and wide for just the right archery stamp and was so excited to see this one called Artemis.  It was perfect!  I used blue hues through-out the card and picked dsp that worked well with the image - I knew it was going to have blue on it somewhere for her and the bow had to be green :)  And she - unlike her mommy! - loves her some bling!  So I added some tiny rhinestones for a bit of dazzle.  And on the inside, I left it without a sentiment to include a journaling tag I have had that is so her ... it reads 
LAUGH as much as you breathe and love as long as you live." :)  I love how this card came out!  And I don't say that often about my cards ~ by then, with her as my muse, I get warm fuzzies anyway :)

The other part of the challenge was to share our favorite part of the Olympics.  Honestly, I didn't see a lot of it but what I did love was seeing London!  We had the blessing of visiting London a few summers ago and it was nice to say "we saw that!  we went there!  We ate that!" :)  My favorite sport to watch during the summer Olympics is usually a toss-up between swimming and gymnastics, but this year we tuned in to the Archery and TaeKwanDo a little more!  Such absolutely amazing talent and I'm so proud of all the young people that stood strong and worked so hard to represent their countries.  Kudos!

**Post edit** ~ Back to school tomorrow!  We had some serious howling winds and monsoon rains that would beat on the shutters all night ~ seriously creepy!   I am glad we had all our hurricane shutters on!   Although the storm wasn't so severe for us, it caused some damage - part of our wooden fence was pushed over and internet service was interupted (due to the towers, not loss of power - woohoo!)  We had the generator ready but never needed it or the candles or flashlights - my son was actually disappointed!  :o   My heart goes out to those affected and we're on vigil for those still in it's path. Thank you so much for the well-wishes and good thoughts - you are beautiful people!

Be well!  Please stop by and see what sport the other Calendar Girls chose this month to work with!  You can find them in my sidebar.  And thank you, Debbie, for the awesome theme this month - loved it!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Entered into:  Kraftin' Kimmie - Create a Scene (Archery)

I'm FALL-ing for you!

Wow!  We are keeping a close eye on the weather and watching to see what Tropical Storm Isaac plans to do!  It is pouring torrential rain here and it's not even due until Sunday!  Fortunately, we are ready and have our hurricane supplies, plenty of gas, generator is ready to go 'just in case' and the kids will be close to home.  I keep checking the NHC and it gives us more clarity that it might steer away from us so that's a blessing but a little bit of watch and wait.

Speaking of weather, do you have gorgeous Fall like weather?  This is a beautiful time of the year with the changing of the leaves, the promise of the wonders of Autumns in the crispness of the air ........ and Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes!  Hee hee!  (I actually have not have a Starbucks for nearly 3 months now - huzzah!!  Yep, I gave it up at the onset of summer!)  

With Autumn in mind, I created this fun and wonderfully creative card using dies from The Scrapping Cottage, Cottage Cutz Harvest Patch bear.  Isn't he just the cutest!!  I added him in various shades of brown sitting in a pumpkin patch of the little variety ~ sunflowers all around.  The papers are from MME and had Fall hues to them and I kept the embellishments to a 'bear' minimum (I couldn't resist!)  I also added the grass border to give the bottom of the pumpkin patch some more elemental design.  

You can see these dies and more in The Scrapping Cottage.  Thanks for your visit today!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Riley's Favorite Fairy Tale! :)

This week at Riley and Company is all about Fairy Tales!  The challenge is to show us your creations with your favorite Fairy Tale!

I’m an avid reader – I read pretty much a book a day.  Yes, a day! :)   I have a voracious appetite for books and have since I was a little girl.   Whenever we moved, which was often, the first thing I’d do was peddle my bike around town to find the library and join up!  Books are truly one of the most magical gifts we can give ourselves.

Truly, my ideal Fairy Tale would be a stack of ‘to be read’ books beside me on a chaise lounge at the beach under the first palm tree I find!  You can have the Castles and Prince Charmings (I already have one of those, too!) and I'll take my books!   I take a weekly trip is to the library where I’ll browse through the selected titles of the books on my long list, usually from my Goodreads lists.  Yes, I am OBSESSED with Goodreads and have been since I joined a few years ago :)  I spend hours at the library and browsing bookstores – new and secondhand – for hours on end just getting lost in the books  … some of which just happen to jump into my basket :)

Okay, I digress!  For the new Riley and Company Challenge this week, the theme is Fairy Tales.  I made 2 different types of bookmarks ~ one corner bookmark for the books I read in vast quantity and one kid's bookmark for my son. 

I used Sophie's waiting for a prince.  And my son is so crazy about Riley - he always asked me to stamp out a few extra images for him to color up as well so I created a bookmark of his very own.  He loved it!  We read every night without fail and it's a joy to pass on the baton of reading to my little ones (and the teenagers that aren't so little!) :)  For this one, I used Riley and the beanstalk.  

If you want to add your card to a gallery, please use the codeword Riley1712. And to see what the rest of the DT have created, please see my sidebar!  TFL!

Happy Reading, Happy Crafting!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Entered into:  Pile it on Challenge:  Cuddly Critters

Dueling Darlings ~ Are you Game?! :)

Hello dear blogging friends!  I've missed crafting and visiting!  With lil man's school starting back up full swing and the girls being on the go-go-go with their last week of Summer, there hasn't been much time to craft and blog/hop!

First up .......  It's the Dueling Darlings back with another card kit creation and this month, the hostess for the Divas was .......... me! :)  I had so much fun putting this card kit together!!  Our theme for this card kit was "Are you Game?"

Here's the card front - I'm Game!

A wee side view :)

The card inside - I continued the theme here, too!

A Close up of the Diva Challenge ~ my snow shimmered glittered Flourish wooden die!

Now, gaming can be anything from sports to board games to just plain 'o takin' a risk!  So for this card kit, I thought it would be fun to bring back playing cards - Whipper Snapper style!  I fell in love with this WS image (okay, ALL the WS images!!  tee hee!) and added them to the card kit filled with papers with red, black, yellow hues.  I'm in love with the papers I found to match the image - Graphic 45's kraft paper "all decked out" (I think that was my fave part of the kit!)  I also added to cache of embellishments and ribbons including the challenge I put forth for the Divas:  Use their wooden die cut flourish in various shapes from the deck of cards and "be game" to craft it in a creative way!  I added some snow glitter from MS to mine for some added bling.  I'm actually really thrilled with how this card turned out ~ inside and out! :)    Be sure to stop in and see what the other Divas created with this identical card kit and then stop in and see what the Dazzlers were "game enough" to create with their card kits!  You can find them on my sidebar right off the side!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Love you Muchly!

Isn't that the cutest saying!   This is one of my favorite MFT stamp sets of all times and certainly one of my favorite sayings :)  It's always a fun time when I can bring it out and ink it up!

I haven't posted one of my SOTC cards in a loooong time!  Mostly because I'm always chasing the clock and rushing to get them in the mail and forget :x  Our July hostess was none other than hostess extraordinaire, Barb!!  Her challenge for us was to create a card using a 'fancy fold.'  I had been hoping to try one of these gift card standing boxes for awhile now and this was the perfect opportunity :)  It lays flat for mailing and the card is actually an A2 size but springs open into a box when received ~ cool beans!  For the insert, 
I added a gift card to Starbucks as a Summer sweet treat to the swap 
recipients :)

So here we go!  Here is the card standing up ...

And here it is, flat for mailing :)

Be well, friends!  We are so enjoying this last week of Summer and soaking up the gorgeous Florida sunshine. Yesterday was a full day of the water park and canoeing and enjoying some beauty of the Florida Keys :)  I hope to have some pictures soon!  

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Entered into: 7KidsCollege ~ Shaped Cards

Riley Challenge Time - Back to School!

Good Morning :)   As I sit here typing in the solitude of a very quiet house with just a small table lamp to keep me company, and the kids slumbering from their busy day, my mind is just baffled that Summer is nearly over :(  It truly has been an event-filled, wonderful one and I just adore having my kids home with me.   I secretly count the days before they get out for the Summer each year and relish being so near them all day, every day in the summertime.   By this time next week, lil man will be back in school and the girls will follow him the week after to their prospective Middle and High Schools.  And mommy will be teary eyed ~ not to mention being back in the 'taxi' mode of to and from all their schools, activies, rehearsals, meetings, etc!  

Since it's time to think about Back to School, I wanted to share with you two things ...
1.  I apparently can't read very well - LOL!  {I misread the Riley Challenge for the week ... oopsie!  Rather than not have a card to show you at all, I'm showing you the card I made for the challenge I thought we were having and showcase for you a sample from the new stamp release, LIfe is a Fairy Tale!}
2.  The Challenge blog is located HERE and you can load all your Back to School with Riley and Company cards/creations!  {And I'll be back in a day or so with another fun Back to School card, too!}

Since I misread the challenge theme and created a whole different card ... here's my story for you using the adorable Cinderella Sophie and matching sentiment from the Fairy Tale Word Set :)

Sophie is an amazingly talented Moose!  She's a busy school-Moose juggling her friends Riley and Buster and Percy (etc), her school work and her after school activities!  Including Drama. Sophie likes Drama.  Not that kind of drama - the acting kind!   In fact, she wants to be Cinderella in the school play!  She tried on her dress ~ which is paper pieced IRL :)  She tried on her sparkling, glittery shoes and crown ~ which is dazzle dusted IRL :)  She even has the fabby up-do!  I'd say she should get the part, hands down!    And just in case, she wants to remind you that the sentiment on the inside is also a stamp available from Riley and Company ~ with the right shoes, anything is possible indeed! 

 

Are you ready to create your Back to School cards using a Riley or Sophie stamp from Riley and Company? If so, we'd love to see them!  If you post to a gallery, please use code word Riley1612 :)

Thanks so much for your visit!  

{{{ big hugs to all the Back to School kiddies and parents! }}}

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Entered into:  Paper Play - Layer it up!

I {heart} You :)

Happy day to you!  Our weekend is off to a full swing and we had an action packed back-to-school day kinda day :)  The girls and I shopped til they dropped, squeezed in some lunch ~ then took lil man to see the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie (Hilarious! 2 thumbs up!) and dinner at P.F. Changs ~ Yum!  I am so glad that I have my small group bible study done for tomorrow's church service or I'd be pulling an all nighter! :)


For today's post, I decided to embrace a CAS card :)   I am always in awe of the CAS cards I see out there and just can't seem to pull them off.  I am definitely a lover of layers :)  The more layers, the happier I get!   I had a good friend of mine ask me to make a basket of misc. cards for her to keep on her desk at work ~ she wanted a variety of all types of cards to give out when her co-workers were sick or need of a pick me up, etc.  I made a bunch of cards that were quick and easy ~ including this one!  And since it's my turn to post at the Cottage Cutz blog today, I thought I'd showcase this one.  Using my Tropical Trio flower die and the Ornate Circle frame die for the leaves, I literally kept this card CAS :)  I added a sentiment in a variety of messages - this one says "I {heart} You!"  

Be well, friends!  It's crunch time here with the girls enjoying their last days of summer!  My son has one week left ::: sniff, sniff! :::  I apologize for the lack of lighting in my picture - I'll have to retake this one tomorrow in the daylight :)

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly


Entered into :   Divas By Design - flowers
Cute Card Thursday - Clean and Simple
CAChallenge - Dies and punches

I'm late for Christmas!!

Hi there!  I hope you are having a great start to the weekend :)   I'm finally getting a chance to post my very belated Calendar Girl card.  Our lovely hostess this month was Carol who asked us to create a Christmas in July card .... and now it's officially August so I'm late for Christmas in July, early for Christmas in December!  

My card is pretty simple ~ I wanted this adorable Whipper Snapper reindeer to be the focal point of the card and didn't realize what a big stamp it is!  This card is a 5.5 x 5.5 and as you can see, it's still taking up most of the card.  I ADORE these wonky nestabilities and love when they pair nicely with a whimsical image, like this one.  Since Carol loves glitter *smile!*, I wanted to make sure I added some to the card and found this super cool backless brads from Martha Stewart and added to the snowflake center and off to the side :)  

The inside verse is computer generated but I think it's also available at Whipper Snapper!  Thank you, Carol, for a most joyous card challenge!

As part of our challenge, we are to share one of our favorite Christmas memories.  For me, it's not one of my favorites, but definitely my most memorable!  When we lived in Germany, we loved playing outside in the snow and we asked Saint Nikolaus to bring us a sled.  And he did!  And true to my tomboy nature, I decided I was going to STAND UP on this sled going downhill - really dumb move!  I flew over the top of the sled, slamming to the ground, and the sled ran me over right after that, cracking my wrist in two.  I had to be pulled home by 2 friends on that very same sled, crying and holding my wrist.  Now we lived in a very remote German town with the nearest hospital 2 hours away ... and this being Christmas, well, my mom was quite beside herself.  She had a neighboring dr confirm the fracture and off we went to get my cast.  
And I didn't learn my lesson either, ROFL!  I broke that same arm skateboarding the summer after ~ my skateboard hit a rock going DOWNHILL and yep, kaboom, break.  I think my parents were just grateful I survived childhood! My brother and I were the cause of many scares and grey hairs!


Many blessings for a great weekend!  We will be close to home as our daughter is still recovering from her 4 wisdom teeth surgery :(  It's been slower than anticipated and she's on uncomfortable camper! And, coincidentally, our son has been at Karate camp this week - a great percursor of school about to begin (the back and forth, lol!)  I can't believe his summer is over already! :( :( :(

Please check my sidebar for the other Calendar Girl posts and see what yummy Christmas creations they made :)

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly