My Favorite 12 ~ Looking back at 2017 ♥

Hello, sweet friends!

A brand new year is almost upon us!

I'm so blessed to be on this journey with you all ...

together we are crafters, bloggers, friends ♥

Looking back at 2017, I'm delighted to not only have met my crafty goals

but surpassed them, including starting a YouTube channel 

and an exciting new Design Team. 

My 2018 crafty goals have a few surprises in store ~

hopefully bringing fresh inspiration, ideas, and a new blog series!

I look forward to blogging along with you next year

and can't wait to see what you'll be up to as well :)

Taking a little stroll,

here's looking back at some of my favorite cards of 2017:

{not always in order of the month created :)}

January

February

 

March

April

May

 

June

July

August

September

October

November

 

December

It's always hard to chose a favorite card ~  

like asking what's your favorite stamp!

Say.  What?!

But it definitely makes me smile when I reflect back

on creating these in particular ... 

remembering the stamping, die-cutting, coloring ♥

Did you make a favorite's list, too?

Cheers ~ and for the new year ahead!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

CYS ~ Celebrate the New Year!

Hi friends!

Happy Fri-Yay!

 I am just in awe of how fast this year is coming to an end ~

and before we know it,  it will be 2018!

For this month's Challenge Your Stash (CYS) card group,

our hostess, Maggie, asked us to create a New Year's themed card

without using any images of alcohol.

 

 The minute I saw the theme, I was super excited!

I literally squealed when I saw this Mama Elephant stamp set

during their release week and scooped it right up.

And then it sat and I didn't have the chance to use it ~

until I saw Maggie's New Year's theme.

Squeeeeee!

It was hard to sit and wait but as they say ... all good things :)

 For my card, I wanted to stamp out a traditional Lion Dance scene

with the performers in various parts of the scene.

I colored them with prismacolor markers and due to vivid, bold colors,
I left the scene alone as to not crowd the card with other elements.

I let the card tell it's own story :)

 This is the inside of the card ↓

 

Fun facts!

 *The Chinese Lion Dance is a form of traditional dance in Chinese/Asian culture

 in which performers mimic a lion's movements

 in a lion costume to bring good luck and fortune. 

It's different from the Dragon Dance in that the Lion Dance only has 2 performers inside the costume whereas a Dragon would have many 

and they hold it up with sticks.

 *The Chinese lion dance is closely related to kung fu because they often perform stunts on tables and stacked wooden chairs!

*The Chinese New Year starts in February ~ on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

I'll enter this into:  ColourCrazy Challenge #51  ~ AG
PolkaDoodles - AG

 

The Project Bin ~ Happy Birthday, Denise!

Welcome to Denise's *Happy Birthday* blog hop!

I'm so glad you stopped by my blog today ~

because today is a fabulous day to celebrate!

Denise is the owner and beauty AND brains behind 

the amazing stamp company, The Project Bin.

In honor of her birthday,

the design team is hosting a blog hop to showcase her wonderful stamps

and celebrate her special day!

Let's get the party started!

To follow the full hop, you should have arrived here from 

the sensational Stasia's blog!

{the FULL HOP ORDER will be linked below!}

Using the fabulous Born Yesterday stamp set,

I created this card for Denise ♥

This is one of my favorite and go-to sets from The Project Bin ~

 I use it all. the. time!

And here is the inside, using the same stamp set Born Yesterday ↓

From here, I hope you hop on over to Kelly's serendipity blog
and see what she has made today.

And in case you want to start from the beginning, here's the blog line up:

Stasia Sloma

Kelly McKown- Santi

Kelly Clark

Dawn Mercedes Barrett
Dawn Bennett
Nancy Nickel
Angela Bode
Barb Deichl
Tamie Jubinville-Camp
Andrea Jacobsen
Jeanette Cloyd
The Project Bin

Be sure to stop by The Project Bin and wish Denise a Happy Birthday!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥
~Kelly 

3M: Fox friend!

Happy Friday, friends!

I just love this time of year!

The holiday excitement is in the air ~

the Christmas music, the sparkle, the wonder!

Our home is filled with laughter and merriment

 and all the joys that Christmas holds.

My heart is full ♥

 

Something else that I love ....

the 3 Musketeers!

We often call ourselves the 3M for short -

because we are either too tired, too old to remember,

 or going 200 mph to type it out!  

Just sayin'!

:-)

I'm the hostess this month and chose the image to send out.

I spotted this wooden Stampendous stamp at Tuesday Morning for just $3.99!

I'm pretty sure I squealed out loud 

because two of my favorite-est things ever are on ONE stamp!

Snow(man) and woodland animals!

Oh, be still my heart!

This is my card with Fox Friend from Stampendous, 

using plaids and holly berry paper as an accent.

I created a small frame to pop up around the image

with 3d foam for dimension.

 In the sky, there are faint embossed snowflakes

and some Wink of Stella on the ground and stocking.

This card just makes me smile when I see it ~

the artist did a wonderful representation of happiness and harmony

in the snowman and fox -

just what the meaning of friendship truly is ♥

The inside of my card is using a sentiment from Pretty Pink Posh
Winter Woodland:

The second part of the challenge was to share what we hope to see in our
stocking this year since this cute image has one in it.
For me, my sweet husband and kids always sneak a Starbucks gift card 
in mine each year - they know what makes my heart smile!

You can see Barb's card here and Jeanette's card here!

Thanks for stopping by today.

I'll enter my card into these challenges:

Sweet Stampin' - Last Minute Christmas card
Fussy and Fancy #202 - Christmas 
DLArt - Christmas
 

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

*Exciting news to share!*

Oh friends,

today's the day!!

I have been keeping some super exciting news

 under wraps and can finally share! 

First, today is my daughter's 21st Birthday ♥
Yes, 3 daughters, and all of them with a birthday in December!  Gah!

Happy Birthday to my *baby*, Chrissy!

We have a fun afternoon planned and her birthday party at a restaurant this evening and we are all looking forward to the celebratory night of 20-fun!

*My news!*

I am over the moon excited to have been chosen to be on the 

Drive By Crafts Design Team!

Annette, owner of Drive by Crafts, is such a sweetheart 

and has an amazing online store filled with products

 from so many companies on the market.

There is truly something for everyone 

and she ships lightening fast!

Starting in January, I'll be posting on the Drive By Crafts blog

so stay tuned to see some inspiration made with products that you can buy.

I'm absolutely thrilled to be on the DBC team 
and honored to creating along such the other talented designers.

 Be sure to grab your favorite cuppa and stop on by 
and check out Drive By Crafts and browse and shop ♥ 

Today's also the day that the Ready, Set, Go! Challenge cards are posted

with Barb, Jeanette and myself.

The R, S, G challenge isn't an ordinary card challenge - it's out of the box!

We think of ways to REALLY stretch our creative minds,

and this month, Barb chose a theme of:  Fancy Folds.

 I made a fancy tent :)

I went with a tent fold style card because this card is for my daughter.

It's a super fun and a fairly easy fold and props upward as a keepsake

yet folds flat into an A2 size envelope.  

Brilliant!
The rest of the card was die cutting the heart shapes with an MFT die,
stamping and die cutting the Cool Day bear, and
fastening it to a card base.
Super quick coloring with my prismacolor markers and then it just assembly.

 

Since there is not an inside to this card, I added the sentiment
to the back and a little matching heart ♥

Thank you for taking this exciting journey on my blog today!
I'm truly humbled and walking on Cloud 9 ~
and I hope today's card gives you some creative inspiration :)

The holidays are fast approaching ~
be well, be merry, be wonderful!

 Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥
~Kelly

Patchwork Christmas ♥

Good Morning, friends!

Just one more week and it's Christmas!

How fast this year flew by.

But I am happy to say, this year I'm ready :)

Today's card using The Project Bin stamps is a little bit different.

I've seen quite a few of these types of Christmas tree cards

and decided to try one, putting my own touches on it.

Since I've been making Christmas cards, I've had a lot of little holiday scraps.

And buttons. 

Oh, I have lots and lots of buttons!

 

I'm so guilty of tossing the scraps most of the time due to limited space.
However, here's a way to use them up!
Using those smaller pieces, odds and ends and tidbits,
add them to a card in a creative way.

 

I created this card by gathering up all the little tidbits of papers
that had been collecting in my little basket.
I first cut white cardstock in A2 size, then ran kraft cardstock through 
the cuttlebug with a die cut.

Carefully layering the papers in a random pattern,
I measured out the angles and cut those to size with my trimmer.
Once in place, I added tombo to keep them from moving
and added buttons from my big container, again, just randomly.

The wonderful Merry Christmas sentiment is on the inside of the card ↓
and it's from Maybe Christmas stamp set from The Project Bin.
It's stamped out using the stamping platform
 and Altenew Crisp Black ink for a bold look.

This card reminds me of how unique the holidays are ~

different for everyone. 
As I was creating this card, I kept singing to myself a song I grew up with

that has special meaning to me.
The song Coat of Many Colors by Dolly Parton was on the radio so often

when I was a child and I could often relate to it ~

sometimes not having enough WAS enough ♥

 
The true meaning of Christmas often gets lost in the shuffle
and giving from the heart is what matters most ♥
 

 To see more inspiring cards from The Project Bin,
stop by the blog here.
I hope this week brings you merriment and holiday wonder!

Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly

Blah Humbunny!

Hi friends!

It's time for another challenge with the CCEE Stampers,
but this will be our last challenge for 2017.
We're taking the rest of the year off to enjoy the time

with our family and friends over the Christmas Season.

 We will be back in January 2018 with more challenges, cards and inspiration!

Today's challenge is short and sweet:
Create a card based on your favorite Christmas stamp!

Oh. me. oh. my!

Favorite?
No way to pick a favorite, especially with a Christmas theme ~
I have so many!

I was so lucky to win a very generous gift certificate from Honey Bee Stamps
recently and bought several stamps sets on my wish list ♥
Thank you, Honey Bee Stamps!
I had already bought Blah Bunny during release week awhile back
and I was excited to see they have a Christmas version out now 
called Blah Humbunny.
It's such a riot and I knew I had to get him to go with my Blah Bunny ♥

The minute my package arrived,
I knew I was going to make a card for my brother with this set.
We have the same sense of humor and were two peas in a pod ~
and now he's so far away~ Bah humbug indeed!

 For my card, I made a simple card base with a spellbinder circle die,
and added some gold glitter paper behind it.
It's just as easy to add a circular one to the front
{originally this was going to be a shaker card!)
I stamped, colored and fussy cut Bah Humbunny and the santa hat and gift,
all from the same stamp set and popped those up on 3d foam.
The final addition was embossing the sentiment with ranger embossing powder
and versafine ink and some 3d foam.

The inside is very informal with one of the sentiments: Missing you
along with part of the image stamped again.

If you're wondering what the other design team's favorite Christmas stamps are, you can see them here on the CCEE blog.
It will take you to each of their cards and blogs.
And, if you'd like to play along, remember to use the keyword CCEE1750
in your post and link back so we can find you!

Big hugs, bigger blessings! 
~Kelly

A whole LLAMA Christmas goin' on!

Hi friends!

 

It's TOOSday and I thought I'd share a fun and festive card!

I am absolutely obsessed with llamas lately.

They are just so quirky and funny and have such 'chill' to them :)

From stamps to 12 x 12 paper stacks to socks and now, thanks to one of my daughter's, I have a pair of pj's with llamas in pajamas on them ♥

I recently went on a trip with my daughter and while she worked,
I created! 
I made a plethora of llamas! :)

See! ↓

That's a whole llama Christmas going on!

I'll enter my card into the Simon Says Stamp challenge:  Winter!

Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly

You're beautiful ♥

Hi friends!

It's Monday ~  and that means I share with you a card from 

The Project Bin stamps.

Today's card is my 'artwork wonder' :)

It's always fun to try something new ~

not only does it keep you from getting stuck in a rut,

but you just never know what you'll create.

This vivid and bright card is exactly that!

 For today's card, I used the #bff stamp set

and ....  a notebook!

Recently, I spied several notebooks in a store that caught my eye. 

While I didn't need another notebook or journal, these were quite different :)

The front covers reminded me of stencils ...

and an idea was formed! ↓

 I had some Yupo paper in a stack on my desk and 

decided to use a few sheets for water coloring.

With the orange sunburst notebook (stencil),

I used my Kuretake Gansai watercolors and splashed the colors around,

let it dry and added some coordinating enamel dots.

 

While it was drying, I stamped out the sentiment 'You're beautiful'

from the #bff stamp set in versafine ink and white embossing powder,

and set it with a heat gun.

It's diagonally cut to match the angles of the pattern,

and propped up on 3D foam for dimension.

And that's it for me today using The Project Bin stamps!

You can find all the stamp sets and card samples in the gallery

by clicking on each of the stamp sets.

Thanks for your visit today!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

 

CCEE - Christmas Carols

Hello friends!

Time for a new challenge at the CCEE Stampers ~

Christmas carols!

I wanted to ink up a new stamp from Stampendous that I was lucky to find

at Tuesday Morning for just $2.99!

This stamp is sensational.

I love the Santa and reindeer flying around the globe ~

promises of the visits he will make at many houses, 

fulfilling the dreams of children everywhere ♥

I went with "Joy to the World!" as my christmas carol 

for this week's CCEE challenge.

Be sure stop in at the CCEE stampers blog

and see all the cards made by the DT!

Big hugs, Bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly