7.31.2018

Summer Series Week #1 ~ Winner!





Hi sweet friends!

Just a quick post to share the winner of the first week of my Summer Series
 "5 days of ..."

Thank you so much to everyone who came by
and left such lovely comments!
I wish everyone could be a winner - I do!

Week #2 winner coming up soon
and I'll still be posting my 3rd week summer series, too ..
so 2 more chances for a prize ♥

Without further adieu .......
JD/Jill7!


You're a winner!


Please email me at Kelnkids@aol.com
with your name/address details
so I can get your prize out to you!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥
~Kelly

 
 

7.30.2018

A piece of my heart! ♥


 
Good Morning, friends!

Happy Friendship Day! 

I'm certainly blessed to know each of you 
and share this bit of our world together ~
I'm so glad we're friends!


Today I have a post for my Find Your Inspiration series ~
blog posts I started earlier this year, 
finding random inspiration in the wonderful world around us.


My niece has autism and we truly love her to pieces.
She's such a sweet young lady ~ now 21 ~ with a contagious smile
and has a heart of a true champion :)
While we realize life for her won't include the complex things
like living alone, have a pet, drive a car ...
her alacrity and willingness is unmatched!

to try. 
to learn. 
to be present in the world ♥

 Since Monday's are the day I post on The Project Bin blog,
I knew I had to create a card for her using the very special



I thought it would be wonderful to CASE a card that inspired me
on Splitcoaststampers for the Featured Stamper this week.
Jenny's gallery is a new one to me 
but this card jumped right out and I was inspired to recreated it with a twist :) 
That was my whole vision behind F.Y.I. ~
finding inspiration often in unexpected places.

I made a porthole card for a little peek-a-boo surprise for her!
On the inside, I stamped the puzzle piece heart from Spencer's Set
and die cut it using my cuttlebug with the heart die from In My Heart.
These two stamp sets are interchangeable and a great addition to your stamps.
I glued a small black cut out circle to frame the opening of the porthole
and added a few enamel dots in a variety of colors.

Here is the card from the front:



 And the inside:


You can see both of these fabulous stamp sets in the shop.
If you click on any of the stamp set thumbnails,
it will take you to the wonderful galleries filled with photo inspirations!

Spencer's Set and In My Heart are full stamp sets/dies ↓


 So inspiring, just as I hope something inspires you 
out there in the great big world today :)



 *Tomorrow the winner of Summer Series ~ 5 days of ...
(week 1) will be announced!

Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly

7.28.2018

It's a Cool Day for watermelon!


 Hi friends!

YAY for the weekend!
I hope yours is off to a good start :)

And watermelon, pink and green snow?
Yes, please! 


Today's card is one I made for the Challenge Your Stash (CYS) 
 card group. This month, Barbara asked us to go to the Splitcoaststampers
color challenge master list and create a card 
based on any one of the color combinations.
 I chose the #688:
Smoky Slate, Watermelon Wonder and Old Olive

These colors ~ So gorgeous!
These polar bear cuties were pretty easy to color,
which was important in order to stick to just those 3 colors predominantly.
The premise of CYS is to use things from your stash, 
nothing bought, nothing new.
Check and check!
I've had them awhile now and it was so fun to dig for them in the middle of July!

The front of my card is using MFT Polar Bear Pals 
and MFT Cool Day, using the matching dies to cut them out.
I stamped the sentiment inside due to a space issue
and added it right to the pink snowbanks :)


Inside of my card ↓


To create the pink snow, I used the CC Designs stitched snowbank die,
including on the inside. 
The frame is from Avery Elle wonky cloud die.

A winter themed birthday card is exactly what I need in my stash!
With 3 daughters, and all 3 having a birthday in December,
I'm sure it will come in handy!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥
~Kelly

I'll enter this into: Cut It Up Challenge - Christmas In July
Fab N Funky - Christmas in July
Crafty Gals Corner - Christmas In July
 

7.26.2018

Celebrating National Refreshment Day!


 Hi friends!

Oh. Me. Oh. My!
It's been so long since I've been able to craft/blog/visit -
 but I'm hoping our summer is settling a little bit! 

Today I'm back with a card for the CCEE Stampers
and our hostess, Lynn, asked us to create a card for
National Refreshment Day.

Naturally, I have a Starbucks cup of coffee for my drink of choice! 

 This little cutie from a Love Cynthia stamp set
stole my heart when I saw her popping up on Instagram!
These stamp sets came all the way from France!
I ordered 2 sets (one coffee related, and one you'll see soon!)
and was able to get most of the shipping saved by a coupon offered
during National Scrapbooking Day - yay!



To create my card, I used Bermuda Bay cardstock from SU!
and dsp from American Crafts.
I stamped/fussy cut the coffee girl and the word coffee,
and the other part of the sentiment is printed right onto the dsp.
She's colored with Procolor markers and a few enamel dots 
completed the card.

And here's the inside look with another sentiment ♥ 



Be sure to stop in the CCEE blog and see what the rest of the DT has made!
It's bound to be refreshing!

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥
~Kelly

I'll enter this into:  Double D Challenge- Coffee or Tea
 

7.19.2018

RSG: My flowery friends in the springtime!


Hello friends!

It's springtime on my blog today!
There's a new theme for the Ready, Set, Go Challenge ~
a mountain of a challenge that Barb, Jeanette and I climb 
every third Wednesday of month.


These challenges are typically 'out of the box'
(some would say not for the faint of heart, LOL)
It's wildly creative and always tons of fun!

This month it's a spin off of Barb's fantastic theme last month
which I loved so much!
My husband - fresh out of surgery and quite loopy -
had me laughing with a rendition of Groundhog's Day :)

 Jeanette's challenge was similar in that we three - Barb, Jeanette and I - 
asked each other 3 questions and created our card based on the reply.

Since Barb was my partner, this is what she said:

1.  What is your favorite season?  Spring!
2.  What is the first word that comes to mind when I say the word fun?  Friends!
3.  What is your favorite embellishment to use on cards?  Ribbon!




Such a sweet theme, Barb!
You made this month's card easy!
 I chose my Hello Bluebird stamps for 2 reasons:
It's a springtime stamp set and it has 3 little animals friends ♥

For the friends element, I colored the bunny, lamb and kitty
using my promarkers.
Spring is represented by the springtime paper called Welcome Spring
by American Crafts and I've created little hills with it.
Finally, the ribbon was tucked behind the trio as green grass.
I stamped a sentiment onto the cardstock from another stamp set.

Thank you, Barb, for your wonderful answers ~
it was a lot of fun to create this card with YOU in mind!
 You can see Barb's card here and Jeanette's card here. 

I'm up for next month ~ and need to put my thinking cap back on!
Stay tuned! :)

Thanks for stopping by today!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥
~Kelly

 

7.18.2018

TPB is sponsoring Word Art Wednesday!



Hi friends!

I'm back with another card from The Project Bin :)
Yes, two cards in one week ♥
And that's because there is some super sweet news for The Project Bin stamps!
TPB stamps will be the sponsor for Word Art Wednesday inspiration blog
for challenge weeks #344-#345.

AND, this is card #2 on my summer blog series "5 days of"
FLOWERS!


Word Art Wednesday blog is a refreshing and motivational Christ centered
blog with challenges inspired by God's word!
As written on their blog ...

" This challenge blog is, first and foremost, all about sharing the love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  We hope that you will  use our free scripture/Word Art in your creations, but you are not required to do so in order to play along.  You can use whatever colors, shapes, templates and themes you choose, and may submit altered art, mixed media, digital projects, cards, layouts, etc.  Just let your heart guide you in making your art.  We believe that God has given each of us special gifts and talents, and we want to encourage you to use those special talents to make and share art here on our blog."
 

Such beautiful words!
 Thank you, Karen, for the opportunity to be a guest this week!
Using the stamp set from The Project Bin "Wise Men",
I've created this vivid floral tulip card:
 



 And here is the inside of my card ↓


Here is the stamp set I used:

 
We hope you link up your cards as well!
You can find more TPB stamps here in the shop,
including the galleries were you can see samples of each stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥
~Kelly 






7.16.2018

TPB: Rest, Recover ♥



Hi friends!

I love Mondays ~ I do!
 It's the day I get to share with you my card from The Project Bin!



This week's summer "5 days of" series is all about:

FLOWERS! 


 Each day (unless it's a DT card) I will be sharing something floral ~
either the image, the paper, or both!
This Many More stamp set from The Project Bin is so timely for me.
I've needed to make quite a few Get Well cards and a couple of baby cards,

so it's nice to have this very versatile stamp set on hand.
It covers a variety of occasions ~ all in one stamp set!



And since I almost always decorate the inside of my cards,
I love that this set includes a smaller sentiment that fits perfectly inside! 



This beautiful floral paper is from a 12 x 12 paper pad 
by American Crafts which was part of a huge Scrapbook.com giveaway
that I was very blessed to win!

I used a strip of the gold cardstock and turned it into a ribbon ~
both on the front and the inside.
I fussy fut the floral/petal from the Many More stamp,
colored it and popped it up on 3D foam.

Be sure to stop in at The Project Bin blog 
for more inspiration and to see the new Product Catalog.

 Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥
~Kelly

I'll enter this into:  Crafty Sentiments:  Add a sentiment

7.15.2018

DDD: It's a BEE-u-tiful day!


Happy BEE-day, friends!


There is a lot of buzz on my blog today!

It's the 15th of the month and
that means the Dueling Darlings post our cards with a chosen theme.
Our hostesses are 2/3 of "The Terrys" ~ Terry S and Terry A!




If you are new to my blog,
in a nutshell, the DDD is two teams of card-makers:
The Dueling Darling Divas and the Dazzlers!
There are 2 hostesses for each team every month and
they come up with the theme and send a card kit.
We in turn make a card based on everything sent,
 minus the basics like card stock and glue ...
because we nifty crafters almost almost have that on hand :)

It's on a rotating basis and this month's kit from Terry S is un-BEE-lievable!
Terry is truly such an amazing crafter.
She can take stamped images, one sheet of designer paper,
a string of ribbon and 3 sequins
and somehow make 10 cards :)

So in honor of Terry, I've made 2 cards this month.
I used everything except the ribbon and the alternate image 
and I'll hoard use those at a later time :)
The only thing I used that was my own is the cardstock, 3d foam,
tombo and wink of stella.
Her kit was filled with lots of yellow and black and bee inspired papers ~
it is just darling!

Card 1:   Including the inside ↓




Card 2:  including the inside ↓
 




 This was such an incredibly fun card kit!
Thank you, Terry!

You can see all the cards by the Divas and Dazzlers
over on Splitcoaststampers/galleries here.

Thanks for stopping by today!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥
~Kelly 


7.13.2018

Day 5: Friends in any weather!



Hi friends!
It's the final day of my weekly blog series
 "5 days of ..."

The Alphabet Game!

It's been such a fun week
and I'm already excited for the next one ahead :)


Today's card is based on letter "H!"


 
 This was such a happy draw for me as I have quite a few stamp sets
with this letter
and almost all of them haven't seen ink.
This darling set is by Hello Bluebird stamps and it just touched my heart 
when I saw this various social media sites during release week!

I used a background panel to create the weathered look 
with distress/oxide inks and popped the images up on the card with foam. 
I stamped the sentiment on the completed background piece
and popped up a die cut to frame it in - 
then added coordinating sequins.

 This card is part of my #kindess cards
(as per kindness being my word of the year!)
Each of the cards during this week's release
 is being sent to someone in particular!

While this rainy day card is vibrant and bright and cheerful in color,
so is she - my friend :)
We have weathered a lot together, too!

Thanks for stopping by each day!
Remember there is a prize for one lucky commenter,
and each winner will be annoucned at the end of the weekly series:  July 27th.

Thank you for your KIND and sweet words, your encouragement,
and inspiring me with each of your creations as I visit your blogs, too!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥ 
~Kelly

7.12.2018

Day 4: It's pretty SIMPLE!


Hi friends!

Here we are - Day 4 of my weekly series ~ 

The Alphabet Game! 

Since it's time for a new challenge at the CCEE,
I had to combine my card for the challenge as well as my series
and, as it turns out,
it's pretty simple! :)


Lynn asked us to create a card based on this challenge:
"July 12 has been declared National Simplicity Day in honor of Henry David Thoreau 
who was a devoted advocate of living a life of simplicity. 
So on this lazy day of summer it's time to simplify. 
My challenge to you is to create a clean and simple one layer card!"

 Thanks, Lynn!
How I adore Thoreau! ♥


 This was a perfect opportunity to ink up my new stamps that just
arrived from Kraftin' Kimmie
therefore, making today letter K! 
(I didn't get to chose a random letter as I randomly drew F and then J ...
and didn't have a single stamp company in those letters.)

So what's a girl to do?
Improvise!


 I was able to scoop up many of the stamps that I have wanted 
for FOREVER during their mega Canada Day sale last week ~ eh!
This stamp set called Adventure Time was at the top of my wish list!
{They are in stock but no longer on sale}
It reminds me SO MUCH of my son and his camping and adventures
AND all the indoor blanket tents we've made ♥

And this stamp set has an actual Thoreau quote! ♥
I used it for the inside of my card ↓
I really love the font, too - it reminds me of Winnie-the-Pooh and Christopher Robin in the Hundred Acre Wood :)



If you'd like to play along this week, please include keyword CCEE1828
or if you post your card to an online gallery/photo hosting site.

And you can see what the CCEE DT made by heading over the blog.

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly