2013 - Card Year in Review!

 Farewell, 2013!

This is such a fun post every year, one that I really adore!

For my 2013 cards Year in Review,

 I'm doing it a little bit different than previous years ...

 rather than pick a 'favorite' card from each month,

I thought I'd reflect on crafting goals that I met, adventures I took,

sidesteps that didn't go quite as planned, friendships made and sustained :)

In all - many blessings!

January

 I began the year with a mantra to use my un-inked SU! stamps

and my crafting goal was to try new techniques.  I succeeded with both!

While I didn't use all of them, I sure put a dent in my unused/unloved SU stamps!  And tried new things.

Like this one. 

 I dusted off my aqua painter and my water color crayons!

February

For 3 wonderful months,

I was a guest designer for Bugaboo stamps ~ total fun!

March

I got lucky in March!

Okay ... um .... let me rephrase!  :D

I'm lucky that I have a great group of friends for the Dueling Darlings group,

 a group I dreamed up years ago and here we are - still dueling!
This card was created from a kit from sweet Kadie!

 

April

 This card was created from the generosity of a special friend

who sent me this fabulous birthday stamp! Thank you!!

She's also in one of my other fun card groups - The Calendar Girls.

  Hi!  I'm Miss February! ::: waving :::

Thankfully, there is NO swimsuit competetion ...

Just sayin'!

May

 My firstborn daughter graduated High School and 

jumped right in and started college in the summer term!  

So proud of her!

 

 June

I tried my hand at continuing my year of simplifiying ~

I drooled over a dahlia stamp in the SU! catty but couldn't afford to buy it 

at the time and found a digi stamp that was almost spot on for $2!

What a bah-gain!

AND this turned out to be my favorite card of the year :)

Who knew!

 

July

 The kids are officially out of school ~  I love having my babies home! :)

There is such great joy in having them close by and

 doing all the silly, fun, happy things kids do -  and they sometimes join in! :P

 

 August

Another fun card for a special group I'm in - the Stamp Addicts!

What a special, wonderful group of ladies - welcoming right from the start

and throwing down a guantlet of challenges. This one was probably my 2nd

favorite card of the year - the spotlight technique :)

 

 September

The Crafters of Faith, another wonderful group of faith-filled women, and 

another group I dreamed up after I had one night after a long night of prayer

and particularly grueling bible study I could not grasp.

I think God truly whispered in my ear "Try, try again .."

We had a free month to create an Anything Goes card :)

 October

 Spooktacular greetings brought to you by Riley - 

my favorite Moose EVER!!!

He just could not be any cuter!

I'm SUPER blessed to be on this DT :) 

 November

Earlier in the year, my dh rec'd a beatiful box of fruit from one of his Dr. colleagues.  When it arrived, all my crafty eyes did was

zero in on the gorgeous box!  The kids had yummy pears and plum and more, but what did my crafty self see?  The fuax stamped images on the box :)

Here is one small piece I saved .... and a lovely card it made!

Tis the season to be grateful after all.

December

Alas, due one super crazy life, my laptop dying and virtually

zero access to the internet/blogging, my December craft life

was pretty dismal! 3 cards people.  3!

In.  one.  month.

  Here's to a better next year!

However, one of the cards that culminates how the year was overall,

and the future ahead, was this one.  Amen!

Blessings and CHEERS to 2014!!

Thanks for your visit today

and I look forward to another year of crafty, friendship goodness

in the year ahead.

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

I'll link this to Just Add Ink link up
and Debby's ( Scrapjourney's)  Favourite Five here!

Calendar Girls - Anything Goes!

Oh. My. Goodness.  

It's almost a brand new year!  

Can you believe it!  

I truly think this is one of the fastest moving years I can recall ~ 

I blinked and nearly missed it, it went by so fast!

My husband's busy work schedule has kept us close to home

this holiday and let me just say, God is good and knows

our needs, even long before we do.

While I dreamed of a white Christmas, romping in the snow

and hiding in some cabin in the mountains,

we are home and resting, relaxing, rejuvenating :)

Since today is the 28th of the month,

that means the Calendar Girls post a card with a chosen theme.

This month's post was optional as was a theme of Anything Goes.

I was so excited when I spied the November issue of Papercraft Inspirations

(back in October!)

with a free stamp set of Forever Friends inside!

I literally squealed out loud and did a little hop right there in 

the magazine aisle of Joanns! 

I love Forever Friends stamps!!

So of course I had to ring in the end of this year with

a shout out to Christmas-time with this little Christmas Forever Friends teddy.

I am in LOVE with this stamp ♥

  

 

The inside is stamped with a TAWS stamp sentiment
and I chose this one because it truly represents my heart's feeling
towards all the gals in the Calendar Girls - I'm thankful
for them and another year of wonderful card making, challenges
and a friendship lasting through the years!

I'll see you back again in a couple of days with another
card and then it's countdown to the new year! :)

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

I'll enter this card into:

Little Red Wagon:  Anything Christmas

Word Art Wednesday - Christmas 

Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes/Cmas
Southern Girls - Christmas Wishes

Merry Grinch-mas! :)

Hello friends!

Can you believe it - just 4 more days until Christmas!

  Wow, this month is just flying by, much like Santas sleigh :)

Most of it for me has gone by in a blur since 

I'm going about 1,000 mph!

It's nice to finally get into the home stretch of Christmas

with the family and enjoy the beauty of this holy week!

I absolutely LOVE this Riley and Company stamp! He's truly

one of my very, VERY favorites - Riley as the Grinch :)

I loved the movie as child and still to this day

and literally squeeled when this Riley was released.

Speaking of Riley and Company releases,

stay tuned for January - you will not want to miss

the yumminess coming up ahead in the new year!

I'm SUPER excited!!

 

The latest Riley and Company challenge is

to create a card/project using snowflakes.

My paper is an old SU! holiday paper pack with snowflakes.

I do love the use of color and even enjoy making

non-traditional cards ~ adding in a touch of pink, or brown,

or orange or something with a twist of fun to a holiday card 

always makes me smile!  

I adore green and red Christmas cards but added

a small touch of brown in this one to coordinate with

the Grinch - I mean, Riley :)

You can find the challenge here on the blog,

along with the DT samples using Snowflakes!

We'd love to see what you create, of course!

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

I'll enter this into:  Alphabet challenge "W for whatever you wish"
Craftyhands Challenge - Happy Holidays

A Little Bit Crafty - Christmas Cheer
 

Dueling Darlings/WOYWW #237

Hi, beautiful people! 

 I'm baaaaack!!! 

After an excrutiatingly long time without a computer 

or ability to blog (properly),

 my laptop is back as the best holiday gift :)

Not to mention the almost unfathomable busy-ness life has

been the past few weeks with the schools, activities, shows, birthdays

and more!  

5 minute prayer, 5 minutes to enjoy a Starbucks, 5 minutes to shower ..

that's all I got! :)

 And ...

thank you SANTA in the form of my absolutely fabulous

brother-in-law for fixing my baby ... you absolutely ROCK!

 I'm so very grateful!

Angels we have heard on high!

 

Now for my very, very, VERY late Dueling Darling card!

I wanted to play along with the WOYWW #237 again

so I'm linking up there as well ~ if you aren't familiar with

Julie at Stamping Ground, you can find her here.  It's a wonderful

peek at the creations around the globe and

always makes me smile to visit and admire :)

 

My kitchen table, doubling as a craft haven/desk this past week!

 

 For my card today, Jeanette and I were the hostesses

of the card kits this month.  Our chosen theme was 

"A Christmas Story".

For this card kit, I really wanted to reflect the beauty of the birth of

Christ, Our Savior, and the significance during this holy season.

I love, LOVE my very old Inky Antics stamps and thought

it was time they see ink this holiday.

I stamped up both the Angel Gabriel and Away in a Manger

and allowed the others who rec'd this kit to chose their favorite.

I also included in the kit Carta Bella "winter fun" papers in 

a variety of colors and patterns - oh how i just love this stuff!

It wasn't 'religious' per say but that was part of the challenge - 

make it work! :)

I chose Angel Gabriel for my card and the matching sentiment.

My card is pretty simplistic over all because ...

I didn't make myself a kit, LOL!!

I competely forgot when I was buying everything and packing it up

to make one for me!  

I'm improvising from having at least the paper on hand!  

 

The inside of my card!

Another part of the challenge was to share a special Christmas

memory from past or present.

Honestly, as a mommy now to 4 kids of my own,

there are just too many memories to have a favorite,

including from my childhood.

I'm blessed that even having had 3 of my children born in December

so close to Christmas, causing quite possibly one of the 

most choatic and busy months a mom could possibly handle,

we know that they are an absolute blessing.

I'm lucky to have such good kids, kind at heart and strong in faith.

They are wonderful children, good friends to others, and bring great joy to my life in so many ways!

So while they were Christmas gifts and mere newborns just days old

under the Christmas tree 3 times, 

I would not change a single thing in my crazy life :) 

Sending blessings to all of you!

I'll be by to visit you now that I have the means to do so!

Please stop by and see what the rest of the Dueling Darlings 

have made with "A Christmas Story" kits from Team Jeanette 

and Team Kelly - you can find all of us in my sidebar!



I'll enter this into Papertake Weekly Challenge "Christmas Cards",
and Tuesday Throwdown "What Cmas means to you"
and Cute Card Thursday's #299 Christmas Catch Up.

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Crafters of Faith: Going back to Childhood ;)

Blessings, friends! 

I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful!  Our home is always the "hostess" home so I spent 2 full days shopping, prepping, cooking AND eating! :)  

My daughter and I ventured out to do Black Friday shopping at 11 pm and finished at 4 am! 

We gave new meaning to shop til you drop, armed with flyers and lists and good attitudes!

We had minimal lines, shockingly, if any at all, hit all our stores and even snuck in a 4:30 am breakfast at Denny's ... Good times!!

So, what's my card all about!

If you are new to my blog, the Crafters of Faith is a Christian blogging/chatting

group on SCS that I created after yearning to meet other christian crafters.

And I'd like to give a great big welcome to the new members of the COF ..

Shelly, Zella and Sharon!

Our hostess this month is Darlene!

Her is all that she wrote, followed by my card :)

November theme!

Hostess: Darlene!

Matthew 10:13-16

"People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14 But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them."

I have always loved the image that this brings to mind. The culture of the day was such that children were valued even less than women were, so once again, Jesus is teaching that he came for the least ones in society. My biggest pleasure in teaching Sunday School is always experiencing God's love and grace through the accepting eyes of children. 

So, with that in mind, look through your treasure trove. What do you have that shows the innocence of childhood? The pleasure in simple things? The wonder of nature? The pure fun of our world? What speaks to that child-like spirit that you remember from your childhood? Try to create something that takes you back to your childish, unquestioning, innocent faith in God. Create a little bit of heaven on paper!

Thank you for your theme, D!  
I have fond memories of ice skating as a young girl on the pond by our house. We had just moved from England back to the US for 8 months or so to the middle of nowhere Maine! I remember the pond freezing over and wishing to skate on it like the other children. But we were rich in love but certainly not money, but somehow my mom made the most beautiful pair of white Reidells show up under the Christmas tree. She even crocheted these adorable bright pink Pom poms to wear on each skate. She said they were what my idol Dorothy Hamill wore but the reality, I learned later, was it was easier for her to see me out on that ice with those big pink Pom Poms :*)  For my card, I used skater Sophie and added her to a card of traditional olives and burgundy holiday colors and this yummy whimsical paper I've had in my stash forever. The inside is blank since I'm not sure where this card will go yet :)

I'll enter this into Color My Heart challenge (Ponderosa Pine and Cranberry)
Jelly park challenge: Christmas
TotallyPaperCrafts: ho ho ho it's Christmas

Be sure to stop in and see what the rest of the COF gals have made ... You can find them in my sidebar. 

Big hugs, a Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Calendar Girls are Grateful!

*Happy Thanksgiving!*

I pray today brings you blessings and the wonders of family, food

and Thanksgiving festivities :)

I'm still without a computer so please bear with me through these rough

iPad posts without photo editing, etc but ....

I love my iPad!!

I am thankful for my iPad! :)

Today is the 28th, 

which means the Calendar Girls post the cards we make with a chosen theme!

I hope you don't mind, but my card is doing double duty this round as

The Riley and Company stamps challenge blog has a new challenge up

And our hostess Michelle thought as Terry did and gave us a theme of

grateful  :)

Using the Riley and Co funny bones stamp "gratitude" and happily continuing

On with my goal this year to use stamps and supplies that I've had on hand ...

like this very old Green at Heart basic grey paper :)

And you know I have to decorate the insides of my cards!

So I used another Riley and Co stamp which I just love!!

You can see it here ....

Be sure to stop by the Riley and Company blog and link up

your cards ...

And of course, see what the Calendar Girls have made.

You can find their blogs in my sidebar!

Happy wishes to all, today!

Big hugs, Bigger blessings!!

~Kelly

Warm winter wishes :)

Good morning!

It's been raining cats and dogs here

which was wonderful for some crafty Cabana time!

I loved the new sketch from Newton's Nook Design

Challenge #5 this week.

I needed to get a few more holiday cards done and

think this cute little mitten freebie is just adorable!

I wanted to use up a few squares of Cosmo Cricket from a recent project ;)

I colored it with my prismacolor markers in coordinating colors

And decorated the inside for future note writing.

Here is my card:

And the sketch:

I'll enter this to the Newton's Nook Challenge this week.


Thanks for stopping by!
Big Hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

WOYWW #233 .... Winter :)

Happy Wednesday!!

It's another week of WOYWW #233, always a fun trip around
the globe starting with Julia's blog!
This has been a wonderfully busy week, but blessed by the busy-ness 
of it, including getting crafty!

And guess what I did ... crafted outside!
I had my temporary table going into the shed and thought ..
The weather is positively gorgeous, the light is perfect,
The doggies love being outdoors with me ...let's color!

I went with a non traditional holiday card this week ..
Using this cute Whipper Snapper stamp
And following the Mojo Monday sketch :)
I love LOvE this vintage Jersey Shore SU! Paper and it's always
Fun to use it.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

It's a Mystery - revealed!

Oh me oh my, how did it get to be Monday already! ;) 

I hope your weekend was wonderful!

Today's post is a crazy, fun post!

There is a sweet and special group of gal pals on SCS

that rotates sending a "mystery" image to work with, 

create cards and post the results ... 

And that's today!

Our hostess this month is Sweet P, who sent us this sassy as all get up

image from Mashi's Muffins called "Mrs. Claus."

Va va va voom!!

I secretly colored mine to look like gorgeous Paola ...

Isn't she fab-u-lous!

I colored her with my prismas in a brighter palette rather than 

traditional Christmas because the image just screamed FUN

to me! I gave her a hot pink dress and glitz it with a teensy

bit of Wink of Stella, silver. 

I forgot to snap a picture of my cards before the flew to Canada

and recreated this from memory (and the slivers of paper left

in the Cabana to remind me what I used! ;)

Thanks for stopping by today and oh!

36 more days until CHRISTMAS!!! <3 span="">

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Dueling Darlings .. One for the guys!

Hi all! 

Here's my first attempt at posting from the iPad!

*Crossing my fingers!*

The Dueling Darlings hostesses this month, Tami and Darlene, 

asked us to create a card with the theme: masculine.

Our hostess, Tami, sent us this a kit with a beautiful tag, paper and embellishments and a challenge

with an extra twist: stamp of your choice on the tag!

I used my Crumb Cake and Cranberry Crisp cardstock

that I had on hand to accentuate the scrumptious colors of the dsp :)

For my challenge stamp, I inked up the "hello" stamp from the new

'spell-check' from The Alley Way Stamps.

For my card, I followed the sketch at Retro Sketches.

Sadly, the challenge ended by the time this posted,

but stop on by - they are quite inspirational!

They also asked us to share a funny story

regarding the men in our lives.

One of the best memories I can remember

from growing up was my dad

'being in charge of' the turkey.

As in mom bought it, prepared it, cooked it,

but dad was in charge of carving it.

Which was fine, except the one year he left it on the table.

And our Basset Hounds got up on the chairs, 

sniffing after what was quite possibly the best trail

their noses had ever encountered and found ....

yep, an unmanned turkey!

For the taking!

Oh it was such a NOT pretty scene!

Mom was madder than a wet hen,

dad was in the dog house,

we kids were hungry

but the dogs were happy as can be!

Now, be sure to pop on over to the rest of the Darlings

with Team Darlene and Team Tami in the lead

to see what they created with the guys in mind!

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

One word ....

One kind word can change someone's entire day :)

I just loved this stamp from Riley and Company's

new stamp release when I first saw it.

  There is something so profoundly wonderful in sharing a kind word,

 offering a smile, 

 blessing someone's day.

Much to my daughter's dismay, I'm the mom 

that talks to everyone.

My dad used to joke that if there wasn't anyone around,

I'd talk to a tree stump!

I can't recall talking to any trees, seriously :)

But I'm of the mindset that if I'm going to stand in front of you 

at the grocery line, or sit next to you at the dr's office,

I'll say hello and ask you how are.

It's kind of funny how at the end of a exchange of any sort

... be it at the bank, the store, the movies, etc ...

I say thank you and have a blessed day!

8 out of 10 times, the reaction is a nice one :)

I always tell my children that you they need to carry enough 

faith and grace to not just last through-out their day,

but to share with others as well.

The new Riley and Company Challenge is up and this week,

it's brought to us by Joy. 

Her challenge is to use sentiments on your cards.

Here is mine, using One Kind Word ...

I used the sketch from Mojo Monday #139 and
I'll enter this to their challenge.

If you upload your card/project to SCS, 

please include the keyword Riley2313.

And be sure to stop by the Riley and Co DT to see
what they made for this challenge - you can find them in my sidebar :)

I hope someone shared a kind word, smile and blessing

with you today!

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly


card deets:  PTI cardstock White: 
SU Cardstock: Rich Razzleberry, Lucky Limeade, Chocolate Chip;  
Stamp:  Riley and Company; DSP = Crate Paper 'Acorn Avenue'; 
Cuttlebug, nesties; scissor bees; Tombo, 3d dots

Card also entered into:  
Make it Monday Challenge #166 , Artistic Inspirations #67
and Tuesday Throwdown - Gratitude.