Know your worth....

Hi friends!

I hope your weekend is going super :)

I can't stop smiling ~ my son is home!

Oh how we've missed him!

He's regaled us with stories from camp and 

aside from missing his mama's cooking and his 'own bed',

 he missed internet! :)

I've been a long time fan of Catherine Pooler Designs

and have several of her ink pads and they. are. marvelous!!

I loved this stamp set when I saw it

as it is very different from any stamps I currently have.

The fern is inked up in Catherine Pooler Grass Skirt ink

and I masked it to create the two leaves.

I saw the Inspiration Challenge at SCS and quickly put my card 

together after seeing this funky high top shoe!

The green, black and white became my springboard.

I love the foresty feel that this has ~

the crisp image of the stamp, I can almost smell the pine and woods!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly 

Entered into:  Simon Says Stamp/AG

Alice's sunshine ♥

Hi friends!

Yay for Friday!

Yay for sunshine outside my window,

shining brightly after days upon days of rain.

And Yay that my son is finally heading home this weekend

after nearly 3 weeks of Boy Scout camp! 

  Every 28th of the month,

the Challenge Your Stash card group post our cards with a theme.

Our hostess this month is Maggie and she said:

Celebrate the start of summer by making a card

 with Yellow and Sunshine.

The CYS card group literally means to challenge your stash

of supplies, meaning nothing new can be used/bought!

It helps us to stretch the supplies that we purchase,

especially if a stamp has only seen ink once (or not at all!)

Today, I'm using the stamp Sunshine by CC Designs,

 stamp I bought over 2 years ago.

I created this card with it in April 2017 :)

The yellow requirement is the base color for the overall design

and the sunshine is in her little balloon hand.

The gingham paper is from my scrap pile 

and the dies I've used have been in my collection for a long time.

And the sweet little lemon sequins are from a win over on Instagram:

Doodles Paper Playground (Sparkle blend: Limonade)

This one is for my little granddaughter, Alice,

and she's definitely my little ray of sunshine!

She's the absolute joy of our lives and we're all just completely smitten.

She's too young for the card at 8 months old,

so I'll have to put it away for her ♥

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

National Catfish Day!

Hi friends!

The CCEE Stampers have a new challenge this week,

the last one for Lois, our hostess for the month of June.

Her challenge this week:

  I discovered that Tuesday (June 25th) was National Catfish Day.

 I ask that you create a card that has some kind of fish or sea life on it.

I've used Stampabilities Peanuts Sportsman,

one of the stamps from my Snoopy collection.

Charlie Brown is doing a great job fishing!

I've colored it with promarkers and added it to a basic kraft card base.

This card will be heading to my son at Boy Scout camp.

Oh how I miss him terribly! :(

His bubbly personality and chatterbox self

has made the house SO. VERY. QUIET! 

I know he's having a marvelous time, fishing included,

so I thought this would be a cute card to pop in his mail-from-home box ♥

Be sure to stop in here to the CCEE Blog

to link up your cards with a 'fishing' theme

AND see some absolutely gorgeous cards from the Design Team!

I'm still coloring each and every day - mostly late at night! - 
for The Daily Marker 30 day.
You can see my daily coloring here on Instagram!
 

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly 

Nautical Tuesday :)

 Hi friends!

Welcome to Tuesday!
Although it's almost over here ..
and it's rainy and dark and gloomy.
 I'm already laying in my bed
 under the comfiest blanket,
 a gift from my son ♥ 

It's funny when I sit down to make a card ~

sometimes I have a plan, 
sometimes I don't :)

By happenstance, I wandered into Hobby Lobby last week
and saw this beautiful sign hanging in the front
and had an a-hah moment.

The Project Bin has one of my favorite stamp sets:
Anchor's Away!
I knew right away I was going to use it ...
came home and got to work! 

  Just like that ...

~ by chance ~ 

sometimes inspiration is right around the corner!

I was going for a nautical look with both of the cards,
choosing one red and one blue.
I have a 3rd card lined up as well ~ 
it just won't be shown today!
 

And that's it from me today!
You can find this stamp set in the shop at The Project Bin
and inspiration posts daily on the blog.

Here is the set:

Beautiful!
Makes me want to set sail :)

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

Adjust Your Focus!

 Hi friends!

I hope your weekend is off to a wonderful start!

How is your daily coloring coming along?

We're up to day #8 of the coloring challenge!

And as they say ...

if life gets blurry,

adjust your focus and capture the good times!

 

 I love 

- LOVE! - 

 stamped images with girls 'n cameras!

 I took photography in high school 

and spent hours developing my 35mm film in the dark room.
I had visions that I'd travel the world with my Nikon FA

taking black and white photographs like Ansel Adams :)

I even won First Prize and 25 bucks at the county fair

 for a picture of my kitty cat, Tiggy!

 ♥

But somewhere between developing fluids and figuring out the f-stops,

I think either my teacher,

  or perhaps my parents,

told me to quite daydreaming and go to college and get a real job.

So, there's that!

 My card today is a masking of 2 stamps.

I adore the images from Picket Fence Studios and font of their sentiment stamps!

They quickly caught my eye when one of my dear and very talented friends, Angela, started posting her design team cards.

I quickly purchased this camera stamp, called Beautiful Girl ~ Karen

at a time when life was on hyper-drive! 

This week, a new order arrived and I decided to add two stamps together

and spent the afternoon coloring all the little houses

 from this background stamp :)

While I debated adding a sentiment to the top,

it looks busy enough so I thought it would be better inside the card.

The inspiration challenge at SCS today was a great springboard ~

I saw this sensational Venice, Italy toile and my mind started clicking!

And yes!

I still take photographs ...

just on a digital camera now!

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

CCEE1925: Pink Day is ..... flamboyant!

Hello friends!

Did you know that a group of flamingos is called a flamboyance?

Indeed!

 A group of flamingos is, most amazingly, called a flamboyance. 

They are such fun, graceful birds with a quiet understanding 

so it's quite something that they have such a name :)

Lois is our hostess for the month of June at the CCEE Stampers blog

and her theme this week:  Think Pink!

This Sunday (June 23) is National Pink Day.  

Easy challenge - make a pink card.

You may have noticed, it's Lawn Fawn week on my blog!

My son, before leaving for camp, chose a letter from a jar for me and it was "L"

so I've challenged myself to use my Lawn Fawn stamps to make cards.

Starting tomorrow, it's a free-for-all and lots of different stamps get to play!

For this card, I've used the set flamingo together and the matching dies

as well as distress inks/blending tools and a background die for this card.

I've actually paired together two different background panels - 

one white, one pink 

and layered them just slighty askewed to have a tiny white peeking 

through for 'dramatic effect' :)

I blended with Ranger blending tools and distress inks and an elbow work out!

This is the 6th day of the challenge and the 5th card I've made.
Remember, the premise of The Daily Marker with Kathy Rac is to color
for about 10 minutes a day.

You can see what all the teammates have created by heading to the blog.
You can also link up your PINK cards, too!

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

I"ll enter my card into:  Simon Says Stamp - Travel (to the beach!)
 Lawn Fawn - Mood Board/Summer

RSG = National Dairy Month!

 Hi friends!

Cow's it going?!

Did you hear the rooster this morning 

waking. up. the. entire. farm?!

Yeah ... me neither!

That's why I'm late posting today!

LOL!

I'm mooooooo-ving fast to get this card posted

because it's the 3rd Wednesday of the month 

and that's the day the 3 Musketeers card group posts our themed card.

                                           

June is National Dairy Month,

we're creating udderly adorable cards with cows!

Barb gave us the theme this month and this is her request:

  June is Dairy Month and being from Wisconsin as well as

 growing up on a farm, this was always a fun month.   

 As 4-H member, we had an Ice Cream Social every year during June.  There are also many Farm Breakfasts that are held to honor the farmers. 

 Culvers Restaurants was founded in Wisconsin in 1984 

and they honor farmers all month long with special events and contests.. 

 So—please create a card or other project that honors Dairy Month.

  Farmers, Food, Animals, etc. ~ anything that reminds you of dairy. 

 Easy-Peasy. 

 Ready? Set. Go!

 It's Day 5 of The Daily Marker challenge and I just finished coloring these cuties.

I started thinking of this theme a few days ago

 and am surprised at how many cow stamps I own.

Since it's a personal challenge to use only Lawn Fawn stamps for one week,

this Hay There stamp set is the only set I had to purchase. 

I have other farm/cow stamp sets but it had to be Lawn Fawn ♥

('cuz a challenge is a challenge!)

But am super thrilled to have added this to my collection.

I used only the cows in the set 

~ and 3 of them ~

because these 2 girls are truly a treasure to me

and I consider them dear, dear friends!

(or would that be bovine friends?)

Hee hee! 

 We take turns each month challenging each other

 with a wild and wacky and WAY outside the box challenge.

This month was cows ... and pretty laid back
and you can see Barb's card here and Jeanette's here.

I'm looking forward to seeing what we'll be doing for next month's theme :)

This is the 5th day of The Daily Marker coloring challenge
and my 4th card ~ yay!
You can read about the challenge here
or stop by my first post and catch up :)

 Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

Day 3 ~ Coaster Critters!

 Hello friends!

Wheeeee!

It's Day 3 of The Daily Marker coloring challenge 

and these coaster cuties are having such fun!

 

I'm continuing my first week of the 30 days with a personal challenge

 of using only Lawn Fawn stamp sets.

Today, it's theme park and balloons day!

Our son is away at Boy Scout camp

and we're surprising him with a trip when he gets back ~ woohoo!

There's one roller particular roller coaster he's always wanted to go on.

I've been on that coaster and, in general, love them.

My motto is "the higher, the wilder, the better!"

but this particular one ... eh ... not so much!

 

 I used my distress oxides again by sponging the background clouds

and the grass (twisted citron) and blending it before adding it to the base.

I colored/die cut the critters and added them around the coaster

and added extra balloons for the CAS challenge on SCS today.

 Here is the inside:

 I'm looking forward to our trip to the Gulf Coast with him!

I'm sure he'll come back with a "I survived

 and all I got was a lousy t-shirt"

 :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly 

 I'll add my card to Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge - transport it 

 

30 Day #2 ~ a BIRTHDAY treat!

Hi sweet friends!

Happy Father's Day to all that are celebrating!

My dad passed away some years ago

and while he is greatly missed,

it's nice to have a husband, brother, son-in-law all close

to me that are some of the most wonderful dads I know!

It's POURING here in Miami ...

just coming down in buckets!

I decided to sit at the table a little bit ago

to create for Day 2 of The Daily Marker Challenge

and my mind drifted to our vacation in the Carribean.

White sandy beaches, crystal blue waters and the cutest little white stone

homes with brightly colored rooves, doors and shutters!

Just so sweet!

 

Since this week for The Daily Marker is all about Lawn Fawn 

(my son pulled out letter "L" from the 'what's it gonna be' jar!) 

I knew right away I would ink up Village Shops.

I've had this set for so long and it's never seen ink ....

which is what most of images will be during this 30 day journey :)

Here is the inside with the matching sentiment

and the image left uncolored - 

a little trick I learned years ago from the talented Frances!

While I won't make be making a card each day during The 30 Day,

I'm super tickled with how this one came out!  

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly
 I'll enter this to:  Stamping Sensations/True Colors

The Daily Marker Day #1 ~ There is a rainbow!

Hello friends!

It's time, it's time!

This is one of my very favorite times in the crafting community ...

The Daily Marker 30 day coloring challenge!

I've participated for the past few years

 and it always brings me great joy to color a little

 - sometimes a lot! -

 each day ♥

For the first week of the challenge,

I've decided to have a themed stamp week!

My sweet son left this morning for Boy Scout camp

and before he left, I asked him to draw each week's letter out of a jar :)

 Today was 'L' so I'm choosing different Lawn Fawn stamps this week.

This is my card that I quickly colored after he left at 4:30 am :(

He'll be gone for nearly 3 weeks ....

While I miss him so very much,

it's long awaited crafty time for me!

Here's my card using 3 different Lawn Fawn stamp sets:

 

I've used rain or shine, Upon a star and butterfly kisses

to complete this card.

I've colored the images using promarkers

and the dies are from MFT Stamps and Pink and Main.

It was an honor to be chosen as an ambassador last round

and most likely one of the highlights of my stamping journey ♥

The idea behind The 30 Day is to color/paint/draw something

 - anything - 

for 10 minutes each day to spark creativity,

melt away the stress, try something new ~ whatever works best for you!

You do not need to make full cards

(I doubt I will be! LOL!)

You can color stamped images and have them on hand

for when you need to create a card ...

Just color!

Thanks for *hopping* by today! :)

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly