a little pick up ..........

Hi, friends! 
 I wish you the happiest of weekends ♥

I'm so glad it's Friday!

  Although 2 of my daughters have solo/ensemble choral performances all day tomorrow - @ the High School - on a Saturday! - 
I'm hoping the rest of the weekend will be peaceful :)

It's been a really stressful week but I have much to be thankful for :)

I am a HUGE fan on non-traditional Valentine color cards!

I get such a kick out of seeing blue, orange or yellow ...

colors adorning those cards of love that you normally wouldn't see :)

I had that in mind when I saw the fabulous new color combo

at SCS this week and had to play along.

This card has been done for 2 days!

I just haven't been home long/free enough to get 

a picture or blogged :)

Short and sweet today :)

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

34/100th card :)

I'd like to enter this card into these challenges: ABC Challenge blog - Z is for Zesty colors

 Fairytale challenge - Use more than 2 colors

Create with Connie and Mary - Colors

 

Sharing the Love!

I'm sharing the love today ♥

One of my favorite things to do in crafting is to use up scraplings ~ 

those tiny scraps of paper left behind from a paper craft session!   

I wanted to play along with the FS #364 over at SCS and ended up creating two cards.   Here is Doni's original card, her beautiful blue winter wishes.

I kept the design of her card but changed the color to pink.

I added scraps of paper in Valentine hues 

and added butterflies instead of snowflakes.

The sentiment is from a TAWS stamp set.

Now the fun part was I didn't have the same cuttlebug lined folder,

so I thunk ... and thunk some more :)

I used my score-pal!

(I know ... duh!) 

 

 

 

 

 The kicker of these two cards are they are both out of my normal style

of card making and that's pretty cool.

It's fun to create different, to craft 'outside the box'.

I send you LOVE today!

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Calendar Girls - "It's TOO salty!!"

  

Hi all!

Did you know that yesterday was National Bubble Wrap Day?  

and I'm sure you celebrated Squirrel Appreciation Day last week ... right!?

 I am convinced that if you want a holiday, make one up ~

 people will follow it :) 

 Seriously, there are holidays for everything!

And today, being the 28th of the month,

 means that we  - the Calendar Girls blogging group - post our cards

centered around a theme chosen by our month's hostess.

For January, Jeanette is up!

I decided to get REALLY creative and attempt the "Salt Technique" from SCS for my card today because it was the challenge from Darlene from the Stamp Addicts due .. like today!

And oh I had fun!!  Thank you, Dar!  This technique is way cool.

I gathered my sea salt, glossy cardstock, spray inks and made a beautiful

background w/ the salt technique for my card.

And set it to dry overnight.

And then I lost it.

True story.

I looked everywhere.  

E-VER-Y-Where.

Alas, I had to start all over and ended up using heavy based, matte cardstock

and the end result is really striking.  Not as nice as the glossy, but still pretty ~ up close it's so full of detail and texture. I didn't have any fading this time around but that's due to using the wrong paper :/  The cardstock held up nicely with the water and heavy inks/salt.

 I'm a March baby and the challenge states to go to our birth month,

pick a holiday the closest to our birthday and create a card with that theme.

I chose March 13th  *National Open An Umbrella Indoors Day*

Yay!

 

The technique gives such a wonderful pattern to the paper!

 

Little salty - see up there? :)

I used a SU! stamp set called Vintage Valentines

in order to continue my  'Ink Every Stamp' personal challenge

and Miss Jeanette gave us some leeway on how to use these quirky holidays.

Actually, I thought of the Morton Salt commercial from way back when

not too long back ... hee hee ... where the girl was pouring Morton Salt

over the umbrella .... remember that!?!

That's where my mind was heading when creating this Valentiney,

salty, open an umbrella indoors kinda card :)  Thank you Jeanette for a 

wonderful challenge and Darlene for suggesting this salty technique!

Be sure to stop by the Calendar Girl blogs to see 

what holiday they are obverving this month :)

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

This is my 33rd card in the 100 cards challenge :)

Simple Sundays :)

Happy SONday blessings to you!

Some of my very favorite moments are is remembering the nostalgia

 of my childhood abroad.  I was blessed as a child to travel

 and see so much of the world, painted so vividly in my mind

 in a kaleidoscope of colors and scenes! 

Car trips didn't mean just getting from one country or popular attraction ~

they often meant a new scene for me to sketch, even as young as 6!

My little box of crayons, a sketch pad and I drew pictures and

stories to match :)

 

I was SO drawn to the Scenic Serenity Series of stamps from Stampendous when I first saw them a couple of years back.

Yes, years :)

  I bought a couple of the stamps in the series and they are every bit

of gorgeous as the artist intented them to be.

 This stamp deserves to be the focal point of the card,

so I kept the design pretty simple overall ~

 I'm drawn to the almost animated yet bold look they seem to have.

The artist did a wonderful job designing these ~

You can see more of Kimberly's earlier work here on this post :)
 

I wish you a beautiful day!

Although much of the country is buried in snow, 

Spring isn't too far away :)

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

I'll enter this into these challenges:
 Stampendous Challenge for January(my card = find your purpose *button*)
Addicted to Stamps:  Flowers
The Squirrel and the Fox - Use Embellies (ribbon, button, pearls)
The Crafting Cafe - Anything Goes
One Crazy Stamper - Anything Goes

Card #30/100

Riley Challenge ~ Let's Go to the Movies!

 Hi friends!  

I hope your weekend was long and restful! 

 We had a mixture of both - some rest, some fun - including *scurrying* off to see the new animated squirrel movie "The Nut Job" - quite cute!

Speaking of movies, it's time for a new Riley and Company Challenge!

And this week, I'm the hostess and thought it would be fun

to create with just that theme - 

Let's go to the movies! 

Create a card around your favorite movie, movie character, movie scene, etc!

 

I created a variation of the flat back treat box

~ leaving the side open to use this as a card :)

The beauty of this card creation is that it folds totally flat!

I almost inked up some of my fave Riley and Sophie stamps

from the Riley Goes to the Movies collection

and in the end used Eating Popcorn Riley ~  IN the movies for versatility :)

Flat back treat card from the front

A view from the side ~ I left off the side tabs to create a card instead of a box :)

 

This is the card when it's folded flat! :)

 Want to play along????
If you would like to play along with us of course we would love to have you! 

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 Riley0214. 

We can't wait to see what you create!

 Be sure to stop in and see what the DT created this week!

Frances Byrne

Heather Bolli

Jovita Torres

Joy Stagg

Kelly Santi

Michele L

 Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

I'll enter my card to the following challenges:  Crafts4eternity:  Fancy Folds

Besties Challenge - More than 2 folds

Craftin'desertdivas - Shaped Cards 

Lexi'screations: Fancy Folds

Craftyhazelnuts - Use Patterned Paper

Eureka Stamps - Fave Embellishment (I LOVE buttons!)

 

It's a Mystery!! No, it really is ......

Hi everyone!

I'm seeing that apparently I like to shake things up a bit. 

 Like hide things from myself so I can spend all day looking for

 whatever I just had in my hand .... or mail a package in a SASE to myself instead of where it's supposed to really go ... or forget to take a picture of a card - like for this swap! :)  It's like a one person party!  

Just for fun, I should head to the kitchen and mix up all the forks with the spoons and call it a night - right?! :)

Hee hee!  

Indeed it is a Mstery - a mystery swap that is!

In my case, it's a double mystery ...

 darling Kate was our hostess this round and sent us a mystery image to create cards with.  The image is a surprise until all recipients have it and post on the chosen date - today!

Thank you, Kate, for this super cute Dinosaur image - 

I had not seen him before and it's adorable!

Sadly, I mailed my cards to Kate twice - and BOTH times

forgot to take a picture of my card so I had to recreate it from memory.

And if you see the above paragraph, my memory is not a very good one ;)

But, I did find tiny scraps of paper in my dsp basket and

had an idea that it was some of these papers in the mat stack.

And the colors/button ... I think!

The inside is just one I added with leftover paper.

 

 

 

And that's about it for me!

Thank you, Kate, for a fun image to work with

and we'll see you all next mystery round :)

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Riley and Company *NEW* Stamp Release BLOG HOP!

Welcome friends! 

 I know it's cold outside for most of you so pull up a comfy chair, 

your coffee or tea and hop along with us tonight as you enjoy the first

 NEW STAMP RELEASE of 2014 for Riley and Company Stamps! 

 Head Moose Tanya has simply outdone herself with 60 new Funnybones 

and 10 new Riley/Sophie stamps! 

*Bliss!*

I'll be showing you 3 cards tonight, introducing new stamps and sentiments.

If you are hopping along, you should have arrived from

 Heather's happy blog! 

 If you need to start at the beginning, start at the Riley and Co Blog.

First up, I have a card showingcasing the new Funnybones sentiment

"Fruit salad for dinner" that I've paired with Pointing Midge - already available in the store!

 Inside of the card:

Next up, is new release stamp Meditating Sophie!
This stamp could be used for a variety of cards
and a great way to start of the new year's personal journeys!

 The card inside with a new Funnybones sentiment "Its all good"

 Lastly, I've created a tent card with the new Funnybones
sentiment "Trust me, you can dance." ~ Vodka -
hee hee!
I've paired it with Staying Alive Riley, polyester
light blue suit and all! :)

Card was modified from the original tutorial I found at SCS
for tent cards to lean back a little better,
as you can see here ;)

 

That's it for this stop on the hop!

This new release is OVER THE MOON fantastic!!

From here, you'll hop on over to Michele's marvelous blog!

Before you go, I wanted to let you know about a few specials!


We will be giving away gift certificates to two lucky winners that leave comments on RILEY's blog!

Special #1: Buy the entire unmounted sheet of the new Riley for only $40! (Save $10!) (Offer not available to wholesale customers.) Limit one per customer. Offer ends January 20th.
Special #2: You can also get a set of 3 FREE Funnybones stamps (our choice) during this release by simply placing an order of $25 or more (before tax) in the first 24 hours of the release! (One per customer please.)

Special #3: But wait - there's more! As an added bonus, we are giving EVERYONE FREE SHIPPING from Thursday night at 9 pm CST until Sunday night at midnight CST! Just enter FREESHIP in the coupon code section! 

Happy Hopping!

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Riley Sneaks continue! :)

Hi friends!
  A mild flu bug seems to have knocked me off my feet

 so I'll have to post and run :(

But I do want to share with you that the Riley and Company 

*New Stamp Release* is still going on ending with our 

HUGE Blog Hop tomorrow!

60 - that's SIXTY!!! - new Funnybones stamps are being

released and they are hysterical!  Some are sweet, some are

sassy, some will definitely tickle your Funnybone - truly something for everyone in this mix of awesome stamps!

And ....  10 new Riley and Sophie stamps, too!

How wonderful is that!

Here is my card for you today using "telling a woman ..."
paired with Sophie in Wonderland (already in the shop!)
For the image, I taped off Sophie and just used the cheshire cat.
On the card inside, you can see the stamped image in totality!

A quick reminder :)
The blog hop starts tomorrow!! 

• Don’t forget to check out all the Riley and Company Design Team’s blogs for more sneak peeks everyday! You can find them in my sidebar.
• Join us for our release Blog Hop this Thursday 16th January 10 PM EST, starting on the Riley and Company Blog.
• 60 Funnybones Sentiments and 10 Riley images to be released
• New Release Stamps available in the Riley and Company Store from Thursday 16th January10 PM EST.
  
  Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
  ~Kelly
  
  
   

DDD ~ Angels among Us

Happy Dueling Darlings Day! ♥

 

This is the day that our card group, lovingly called the Dueling Darlings,

post our card kits from the dueling hostesses.

Carol and Melina paired up to send us all angel card kits!

This month, Carol sent Team Divas an adorable, soft, warm kit filled 

filled with a choice of two angel images and wonderful laces,

 ribbons, flowers galore! This was is what she shared:

Our theme for this month is Angels ( or as I like to think Angels among us). Whenever I think of Angels I think of peace, tranquility, and beautiful scenery/flower gardens so that is the trip I took... As you can see I couldn't decide on an angel so I sent you the two I had. They can be a little mischievous but they are good most of the time

 It was really hard to chose what to use, and in the end, I just went with a simplistic look. 

I have enough left over for two or more cards, due to Carol's 

generosity - thank you, my friend!

 

 I halfed one of the dsp squares to use as the front banner ~

the other half, I used here on the inside (plain, for writing!)

 

 For my card design, I followed the sketch from this week's

Tuesday Morning.  The sentiment is from TAWS

and says "You're my favorite!"  

The twist this week is tone on tone/monochromatic so 

I went with blue hues :)

 

A look from the front :)

Carol said:  "I personally believe in angels and as an extra challenge we would like you to share an angel experience--guardian angel story...or anything of that nature if you have one and are willing to share.."

Oh my friend, I am with you on this one!  

I strongly believe that we are wrapped in the loving embrace of 

protection of God's love and his angels are indeed around us.

I have felt their presence more than once,

and witnessed the blessing of their saving grace twice.

I believe one helped to save my daughter's life

when she was just 15 months old, answering the prayer 

I shouted desperately to God and echoed into my heart.

No matter how much I replay it in my mind, still 14 years later,

it replays exactly the same and it makes no sense other than to believe!

And I do!

Thank you for your wonderful kit this month, my friend.

I made me me teary eyed at how important our angel friends

are to us as well ~ years later, here we all are still dueling,

laughing, geeging, sharing, caring, loving.

You are a beautiful group of ladies and I'm blessed

by each and every one of you - my angels! x0x0

Be sure to stop in and see what the rest of the Dueling Darlings

have created - Team Divas (this one) has the same kit/image

and Team Darling (hostess Melina) has another one - 

so much fun and wonderment :)

I'll see you later on with another Riley Sneak Peek!

Big Hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

I'm entering my card to:  Word Art Wednesday - AG 

WOYWW #241 ~ Riley Sneak #3!

 Happy Wednesday!

This is always a fun day of the week - WOYWW #241,

a fabulous hop around the globe thanks to the uber wonderful Julia!

I hesitated showing my desk today as it is in need a serious

need of cleaning up and organizing! :)

And that's because I've been super busy - as a mom, volunteer,

crafter, etc!

 Alright - here we go!  

See, pretty messy right now!  

The pile of red rubber is the Riley and Company new stamps

that you've been peeking at this week. I'm going through 

paper scraps to use the up and creating cards!

  First up, one of the new Riley and Company stamps

being released is Lipstick Sophie!

I paired her with another new stamp coming out

for a funny take on it, LOL!

  

This is the card inside ~ left blank for now

 

 Next up, using the same scraplings of paper,

I inked up Wondering Midge - already available in the shop,

with one of the new Funnybones stamps

"Wine with Laundry!"

I've often wondered myself - hee hee!

 

  Here's a quick reminder!

 Release Date: Thursday 16th January 2014

• Don’t forget to check out all the Riley and Company Design Team’s blogs for more sneak peeks everyday! You can find them in my sidebar.
• Join us for our release Blog Hop this Thursday 16th January 10 PM EST, starting on the Riley and Company Blog.
• 60 Funnybones Sentiments and 10 Riley images to be released
• New Release Stamps available in the Riley and Company Store from Thursday 16th January10 PM EST.

Thanks for your visit today!

I'll see you tomorrow for another sneak and then the BIG HOP!!

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

I'll enter the 1st card into: 
Artistic Inspirations Challenge #74 - Girly
Card Mania #8 - Anything Goes Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
2nd card: Craftycatz - Pink