Crafters of Faith: Down on the Farm!

Hello there and Happy SONday! :)

Today the Crafters of Faith - a group of christian sisters from SCS - share the cards we've made with a chosen theme by our hostess of the month.  This month, our hostess is Barb - who graciously stepped up when we found ourselves without a hostess ~ Thank you, Barb!!   Barb's theme is so much fun this month ~ I had a ton of ideas swirling in my head and had a few stamp sets in mind to use.  Literally at the last minute, I went through my digi stamps and was eager to ink up this adorable little piggie from Bugaboo - that's farm related, right?!! :)

Here's what Barb's amazing theme is:

June is Dairy Month in Wisconsin. I remember when I was growing up there were dairy breakfasts at farms in our area and my 4-H club had a pie and ice cream social every June. Now--I am not sure that everyone has a dairy themed image. But--if you have something farm related--cow, chickens, ducks, barns, fields, etc. or dairy products related--ice cream, cheese, milk, eggs, cream puffs (the Wisconsin State Fair favorite!), or use your own imagination to honor the dairy farmer. Do you have some farm related DSP or an embossing folder? Chicken wire, barbed wire, farm animals, etc.--please be sure to use that.

I hope everyone enjoys creating a card or scrapbook page with a Dairy Farm Theme! Do you have a farm related story from your childhood to also share when you post your card? We would love to read about a favorite memory.

Have Fun--Enjoy the Challenge!

Oinkers, that's a fun challenge!  So here's what I came up with :) I used one of my digi stamps from Bugaboo called Bobblehead Farm Pig ~ isn't he cute!

I printed it out on DSP and cut it to size, then propped up his nose on alternating dsp for contrast.  As a second thought, I included the hooves in matching colors and the rest is pretty simple and let me tell you, I am LOVING the new Strawberry Slush!  I'll be ordering this again super soon!

And here is the inside of my card - sending hogs! :)

Barb also asked us to share any farm stories and I don't have many!  We were a very transient military family and station in England, once.  They didn't even have a base at that time for military and we lived clustered in the midst of a English town - how my heart was joyful to live there as a child!  We would walk/skateboard/bike down steep hills to a neighboring town that had a vast lands and farm animals roaming about.  One particular elderly couple used to wave to us and invite my brother and I onto their farm and visit with the animals, give us milk from the cow and homemade breads and pastries :)
Such is the gift of hospitality given to us by strangers that became friends :)

And that's my COF card for today! 

 Please be sure to stop in and see what the rest of the girls have made this month with our Farm theme - you can find their links in my sidebar!

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Calendar Girls ~ Summer dreams :)

Good Morning, friends!

It's the 28th of the month and that's when the Calendar Girls blogging group 

get together + create a card around the challenge given to us by our hostess.  

Last month, I was running on 3 hours of sleep a day and 

read June's challenge for May ..  boy, was my face red! :)

But lucky for me, the wonderful Cally Girls said switch months - 

make June May and make May June ... o-kay!  Works for me!

So the May now June challenge ... for me ... is as follows:

MAY 2013 CHALLENGE 

Miss May: April

My theme is easy I would like you each to make a card representing one thing you hope to accomplish over the summer. It could be a garden, a vacation, a weight loss, whatever, BUT you do have to tell us what you are hoping to accomplish!

Summer for me is a time of 

pure bliss ~  I love having the *babies* home!

With 4 kids, going 180 mph all day, every day during the year, 

the summer is the time of year when we unwind, relax, rejuvenate

 in the glory of all God's gifts around us. 

  I'm blessed to have them so near during this short time and we make the best of the time we spent in the summer - together!

Yes, we'll have those gorgeously lazy mornings, the long bike rides in the sunshine, catching waves at the beach, and hopefully me putting a dent in my long list of best-sellers that have my name on them :)  But most of all,  my wish for them - for us - is to do all the things that make them smile, bring happiness to their lives and to keep the dreams they dream soaring.

For my card, I inked up my Tweet Spots from The Alley Way Stamps - 

love, love this whimsical set!  I stamped the image and then re-stamped it onto the dsp to paper piece the birdhouse.  I LOVE gingham so I really wanted a bit of that in the card :) The fence is propped up on 3d foam dots for extra dimension.  I'm so happy with how this card turned out :)

I'll be entering this into TAWS Challenge 31 using this inspiring photo:

Thanks for stopping by today!

Be sure to stop by the Calendar Girl blogs to see what they created this month ... you can find them in my sidebar.

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

entered into:  TAWS Challenge

Our Daily Bread Challenges - Red, White and Blue
Paper Playtime -  Red, White and Blue
ChocolateCoffeeCards - 4th of July
WordArtWednesday - Anything Goes

Riley is seeing STARS! :)

Hi blogging friends! 

I'm looking out the window at the lightly falling rain, and my sweet doggie cuddled into my lap wondering if it's going to stop raining soon ..

and I'm thinking - when it rains, let's have an indoor play date!

Scooters, skates and bouncy balls up and down the hall!  

Wooooooooohoooooo! :)

And, of course, this week is the new Riley and Company Challenge, 

 brought to us by DT member, Jovita.  She's asked us to use Stars.

I was really star-struck by this stamp ... hee hee!

Adding some fun star paper, flipped to the uber cute words on the other side, too.  I cut the paper in smaller strips and arranged them in a

non-traditional, wonky way with a matching star punch + button + washi tape!

We'd love for you to join in!

To play create a card using Riley and Company images. 

Once you have created your card/project, come back here and place a comment with a link to your card/project to this post so we can see what you have created. If you upload your card/project to Splitcoast Stampers please include the keyword Riley1313. 

We can't wait to see what you create!

And be sure to stop in and see what the rest of the Riley and Co

DT have created - you can find their blogs in my sidebar.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, 

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Entered into:  The Paper Nest Dolls Challenge - Animal Love!
Sweet Stampin' - Cute and Cuddly
House of Gilli #53 - Bright Colors
Heart2Heart Challenge - Colors that make you happy

Dueling Darlings ~ Sunshine and Flip-Flops!

Hiya friends! 

 It's the 15th of the month and that means the Dueling Darlings 

post their cards, created from a kit sent by a hostess with a chosen theme.  This month our hostess is the lovely Carol (who, btw, is having a birthday today!  Happy Birthday, dear friend - so blessed by your friendship and wish you many wonderful things the whole year through!)  Carol for the Divas (us!) and Melina for the Dazzlers came up with the theme this month:  

Sunshine and Flip-flops ~ 

which is a theme right up my alley! :)

Carol's kit was bursting with fun-ness for the sun-ness!

Lots of yummy papers, cute sunglasses and flip-flops ...

and two images for us to chose from:  feisty Ethel or sweet little Anya.

I chose the Anya as it reminds me of my girls when they were younger,

always ready for the beach and summer fun ~ such fond memories we have :)

  Thank you, Carol, for your deliciously Summer card kit!

Be sure to stop by and see all the Dueling Darling cards ...

you can find their links in my sidebar :)

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

entered into:  
eclitic ellapu - celebrate summer sunshine
creatalicious challenge - all about summer
whimsical designs - Summertime Fun Challenge
Ribbon Carousel - Fun in the Sun
The Paper Nest Dolls - Summer Lovin'

Inspired by Dahlias!

Hi friends!

Are you just drooling over the new SU! catty?  

Ohhhh, my wishlist is so very long!

Today I had a chance to get crafty again and have been so anxious 

to create a card based on one I saw in the new catalog on page 90 :)

I'll have to wait before I'm able to order currently being on a budget 

so I did the next best thing and created the card using what I had on hand!

Using the dahlia digi set, I gave this base white cardstock a quick spritz with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Trunk Bay.

I'd normally jump through hoops trying so hard not to get any splootches

on the paper, but I actually spritzed and shook the bottle on purpose to get the drippings like in the catalog picture.

Small strip of dsp, some fun washi tape and a button/twine - Voilà!

 So how'd I do!? :)  Tee hee!

 I really love how this turned out ~ normally CAS is very hard for me to do

but this was tons of fun!

Coloring this image was a bit time consuming, but since I know 

that I could probably use this over and over, 

I'm SO ordering this set the first chance I get!  

 Tomorrow night I'm taking our baby girl to the concert of her dreams

 to see ...

 One Direction!

  That should be wild fun!  Maybe I can sneak in some 

markers and images and color a bit while everyone else is 

bringing down the house - hee hee!

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

entered into:   Word Art Wednesday - Anything Goes
CASology - use yellow

Riley's Challenge ~ Use your dies and scraps

Good Morning! 

 Ready for a new Riley and Company challenge? 

 Riley sure is!  He's wandering around London, stopping along the Thames River and checking his map to make sure he doesn't miss a thing - including Sophie, who is probably having afternoon tea near Buckingham Palace ;) 

 We had a most magnificent time taking our kids to Europe a couple of years ago, including a week long stay in London - most magnificent city!!  The highlight of the tour probably had to be our trek to Stonehenge - a place so magical, you have to be there to truly experience it ;)

I'd be back in London in a HEARTBEAT if I could be!!

This week, our hostess Laurie challenged us to:  

- Make a card using precut dies or scraps you've saved! 

Here is my card using Map Riley and some loose dsp from my bin.  

I used the cuttlebug and die cut to create the circle and colored him with prismamarkers, added some grosgrain ribbon - super simple!  I love to recycle and use up scraps - thank you, Laurie, for this awesome challenge!

To enter your cards for the challenge, click here!

If you upload your card to a gallery, please use the keyword Riley1213.

Thanks for stopping by!  I'm off to pick up my daughter from her campus sleepover college orientation and I'll probably look just like Riley on that massive campus - lost and confused, map in hand!

Happy crafting!

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly


Entered into:  HIMCR101 - Super Scraps!
Country View Crafts - die cuts
My mums craft shop - dies, dies, dies!

I'd rather be stamping! ;)

Hiya!  I hope your weekend is super fabulous!  

I had a little bit of crafting time now that school is officially out for the Summer :)  This is my favorite time of year - having the babies home and the lazy days of doing whatever feels like fun :)  

In continuing with my plans of simplifying the year, my Summer goals are pretty low-key.   Aside from a couple of weeks of camp for 2 of the kids, and a few days of vacation here and there, I'll be at the beach - a lot!  And reading, getting the Cabana turned into a game room, and catching up on scrapbook pages that are years behind!

My beautiful friend Barb is hosting a swap on SCS called 

"What Women Want" and I just love Barb's swaps so much!

I have so many stamps I could have chosen for this swap and in the end, I wanted to ink up this adorable Scarlette stamper from Bugaboo ~

we do all want more time to craft in our busy schedules, right?! :)

 I used the 2011-13 In Colors which are scrumptious!  I paired it with Everyday Enchantment paper pack that I've been saving up :)

Hopefully the swappers won't mind the bright colors - they reminded me of ones I'd reach for when crafting/stamping!

Blessings on this fabulous SONday ~

big hugs!

~Kelly

Let's go for a drive :)

Good Morning!  I used to jokingly tell my daughters "You drive me crazy!" and they'd howl with laughter saying "Yeah, and everywhere else!"  ;) 

 Which is so very true! Naturally, I remembered

 our joke and had her in mind as I created this very fun-to-make card.

  She graduates High School this week and we are so proud of her decision to jump start her college entrance this Summer rather than the Fall and yes,

she'll be driving a truck to school :)

Not quite this old fashioned, lol ... but a truck none-the-less.

I literally squealed with delight when my husband received a fresh fruit delivery from a colleague as a Christmas gift from Henry and David.  I do adore my fruits and veggies, but what made me super excited

 was the designs on the sides of the box!

It was stamped with a cute image on the rounded corner - not a full truck, but enough to create this gorgeous faux stamped image.  It was even already rounded off - just as you see it!

My card is very simple today ~ I let the wonderful cardboard be the focal point and just added a little bit of dsp and sparse embellies to accentuate it in earthy toned colors.  And how I love to recycle - it was a joy to add something normally thrown away to a card! And the dsp squares were leftovers from a swap - win/win! :)

Have a beautiful day, everyone!  The sun is finally peeking out from some very grey skies so my son and I are hitting the hiking trails before the girls need to be ....... yes ........ picked up.

LOL!

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Entering this card into: 

 Craft your Passion:  #165 - Haberdashery Items

Craft Room Challenge - Use your scraps