Stamp What? .... Friend-ship!

Hi friends!

Wishing you boatloads of love of today ♥

This is my second card for my blog series called "Stamp What?" 

that debuted in January of this year.

My son had a wonderful idea to chose a stamp set for me at random

and I'd make a card

The plan is to use my old(er) Stampin' Up! stamp sets 

that have long been forgotten ~ called the Old Dusties! :)

I LOVE his idea!

Originally, I'd planned to post on the 29th of each month
but from now on, I will be posting on the 10th.

Sailing on .......

This is what he chose for me this month ↓

Stampin' Up! Boatloads of Love!

Oh he chose so well!

I have always loved this stamp set

(and see, never seem to use it!)

 

Release date: 2007

I've modernized my card by using more updated supplies ~

distress oxide inks, scalloped stitched waves dies, and copic markers!

My friends Barb and Jeanette have joined me in Stamp What?

but if you have an older stamp set,

dust it off, use it, too!

Let me know if you do - it's always fun to 'craft' with friends near and far ♥

 I'm also a very tactile person and, as of now,

will not can't unmount my wooden stamps.
I love the feel of them when I stamp!

Yes, they take up space but I love them the way they are ♥

 I wonder what he will chose for me next month :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

card entered into:  CAS on Friday - colors

CYS: Hello Lady(bug)!

Hello Lady(bug!)

 It's almost the weekend ~

and that's a pretty bug deal :)

March 19 is the first day of Spring!

The Challenge Your Stash card group has a new theme this month:
Old School!
Jenn asked us to create a card using an old school stamp or style.
My old school item ~ brads!

My card is spring inspired card ~ 

new growth and flowers, green leaves sprouting, and the return of life -

yes, even bugs! ♥

I've used the ADORABLE Hey Lady from Lawn Fawn for my card.

I adore this set and it reminds me of my little granddaughter, Alice ♥

I realized (too late) that this is a newer stamp

and the idea is to challenge your (older) stash of stamps

BUT ....

I'm playing along with the Lawn Fawnatics challenge #71

Bring it Back - old school crafting items.

I've made a slimline card and started with a base of white cardstock

and blended distress oxides in Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar

with my Taylored Expressions Blending Brushes to create the background.

I used a paintbrush and lightly ficked it with water to create the splatter.

Then, I stamped the images with Momento Tuxedo Black ink,

and colored them with copic makers.

I realized too late that I didn't add the matching dies to my order ...

so I used my Brother Scan n Cut and

 'scattered' the cut out leaves and sweet ladybugs onto the card.

For my bring it back and stash challenge (CYS), 

I've used my very old brads - circa 2008! - as the additional decor to my card.

I think these are from Doodlebug and are super glittery and sparkly cute!

 So this month,

 I'll have to just go with the flow and not get bugged about it! :)~ 

 Last, I added the matching sentiment and popped it up on foam, too.

I can't believe we are almost in March!

That's my birth month so I'm really looking forward to the new month ♥

I've also entered my card to:
Pixie's Crafty Workshop!

Thanks for stopping by!
Big BUGS, bigger blessings!

~Kelly

CCEE2009: Pocket Cards!

Hi friends!
 

Time for another challenge at the CCEE Stampers blog ~ Pocket Cards!

It's been forever and a day since I've made one of these

so it was super fun making one again.

And yes!
It's like a bicycle ....

this fancy fold card came together in a matter of minutes!

For today's pocket card, I've used the Picket Fence Studios stamp 

called Sunshine friends ~ I am a hugger.
I think this stamp set is just so adorable!

Here's my card before opening:

And after:

 

You can see all the DT cards here on the blog

as well as link up your pocket cards ~

follow the linky at the bottom of the post!

We'd love to see what you make ♥

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

TPB Wild Thing!

  

Hi friends!

Remember that scene in Top Gun

 (one of my favorite movies of. all. times!) 

where Charlie (Kelly McGillis) chases down Maverick (Tom Cruise)

on his Kawasaki Ninja?

Talk about a game changer :)

And, finally, after a 30 year hiatus, there will be a sequel ♥

Did you just hear me squee-quel?! 

 I can't wait ♥

Naturally, when I saw the brand new stamp and die release

from The Project Bin called Wild Thing, 

I smiled!

My husband had a Harley-Davidson for years

and it was a happy/sad day for me when he finally sold it.

Happy because oh how I'd fret when he rode it 

but sad because I know he loved it so.

But that's the wonderful thing about memories ~

we will always have them ♥

And now, the next best thing, create wonderful motorcycle cards!

I've made two today ~

one daytime and one nighttime card.

First up, a festive and bright card where I've left

the motorcycle intentionally uncolored because ...

 yolo!

It's a busy card with the stitched clouds

and the colorful designer paper background and green grass, 

which was made with a sitched hills die.

I added the fun sentiment to the front and inside of my card:

And the nighttime ride!

I had so much fun making these two scenic motorcycle cards.

You can easily customize this for a man or woman

and the possiblities are endless!

Be sure to check out The Project Bin blog for daily inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings  ♥

~Kelly

Gone Fishin'!

Hi friends!

Happy Weekend!

This is another rare weekend for our family where we have

 nothing. on. the. calendar!

I love lazy weekends of not having to be here or there.

Today, I watched the sun rise with my warm cuppa,

hearing the birds happily chirping their morning wake up call.

It was a chilly 65* this morning ~ bliss!

Today I have a quick card that I made for Splitcoaststampers ~

Memory Lane and the inspiration challenge.

My brother (a little over a year older than me) and I had an amazingly adventurous childhood, often leaving at dawn and returning at dusk.

Different times indeed! 

We'd spend hours having adventures in our towns,

including fishing on the docks and lakes and ponds

with twigs and sticks and a spool of mama's thread!

We didn't catch much of anything but we had the best of times ♥

I've made a CAS card with my Stampabilities Snoopy Stamp

and aqua and white colored cardstocks, run through the Gemini Jr with a die.

The clouds are from My Favorite Things

and, as of now, the inside is blank until I figure out where this will end up!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

CCEE2008 ~ Paper Piecing!

Hi friends!

One more day until Fri-YAY!

I know ... I can't wait either!

There's a new challenge at the CCEE Stampers blog:  Paper Piecing!

That's a tried and true and favorite papercraft technique 

that I've always enjoyed doing.

I think it's reminiscent of when we'd play paper dolls

('membah those?!)

and could change up the outfits 

and outings of the little dollies with just paper.

For my card today, I'm using the Tim Holtz 

Stampers Anonymous Bird Crazy set.

These birds are hilarious!

I think if I could be a Tim Holtz bird,

this one that I've made is probably about what I'd look like :)

Bright colors and those big 'ol eyeballs ♥

Here's my card and I paper-pieced the birdie.
The rest is a clean and simple card and the sentiment comes in the set ~
and I love that it matched her expression so well.

You can see what the design team created by heading here to the blog
as well as finding the linky at the bottom to link up your cards, too.
We'd love to see what you make
with the paper piecing theme.

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

RSG: Stop, Drop and Roll!

Hi friends!

It's the middle of the week ~
hang on ... the weekend is almost here!

It's time for another Ready, Set, Go card challenge.

That's the card group where we have extreme challenges ~

ones that are a bit out of the box!

I'm the hostess this month and thought up this lovely challenge at 2 am.

Or maybe it was 3 am?

Either way, it sounded amazing!

at 3 am.

My challenge was to use the old childhood adage: Stop, Drop, and Roll

when we were in trouble.

I've never forgotten those words ~ so those field trips to the fire stations

and visiting firemen must have made an impact!

This month, we're taking that same slogan in a crafty direction ...

Stop:

 Chose a color using a letter in S-T-O-P as your primary card color

(I used Orange and Pink) 

Drop:

 Use something on the card that had to be dropped 

(I used water droplets to splatter on the Distress Oxides

and Nuvo Mousse mixed with water for white splatters)

Roll:

 Use anything that rolls/comes on a roll (I used a roll of washi tape

and his skooter has wheels that roll AND I used a rolling hill die)

My card is using the adorable new Avery Elle 'Sweet Swines!' 

and added it to a festive background made from just distress oxide inks.

I wanted to experiment with a few colors and used

 Worn Lipstick, Dried Marigold and Abandoned Coral, 

blended with my TE Blending Brushes. 

The rolling hill is a die from My Favorite Things

and unfortunately, I didn't buy the matching dies to this set 

so it's cut out with my Brother Scan N Cut :)

 And lastly, the washi tape is a bold color of teal 

as I wanted to break up all the pink/orange tones that were marrying together.

And that's my Stop, Drop and Roll!

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

It's always fun to pick a challenge and just give it a try ~

just to make a different kind of card 

or find something that inspires you ....

like this older children's rhyme :) 

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

I'll link my card to: Pammie's Inky Pinkies AG
Simon Says Stamp - Add a sentiment 
2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Add a Critter! 
Creations in Pink - Add mostly Pink!

GNOME place like home ~ February's leftovers!

 Good Morning, friends!

Today's card is my second card in my new blog series:

"Room for leftovers," 

a blog series goal I gave myself for this year :)

You can see the first post here

and it's a fun way to incorporate my new year's goal:

to use up the scraps and the bits and pieces from card making

because there's always 'Room for Leftovers!'

Some pieces are just so pretty, you use them twice!

For today's card, I used the adorable Lil Gnome from Simon Says Stamps.

Did you know that Garden Gnomes are a symbol of good luck? 

Yep, it’s a little gnome fact!

I love this die! 

 It makes such a cute gnome ♥

 I didn't even realize how many gnome stamps

I owned until I recently started organizing my stamps :/

 I know .... gnomes are everywhere!   

And this one is the perfect size to create a card with just one small bit of paper.

Here's how I repurposed it for this card.

I had a small piece of leftover alcohol ink Yupo paper from a previous card.

I knew to use it this piece, I'd need a die that's pretty small since

this leftover is maybe 4" x 1" in size and not much wiggle room for error. 

I ran the die set and the Yupo strip through my Gemini Jr and 

assembled the pieces to create 2 gnomes - one black, one white.

I wish I'd remembered to photograph it while it was whole,

but I did quickly puzzle piece the parts back in for a quick visual :)

And my completed card!

I kept it simple and CAS for the challenge at Splitcoaststampers.

Here's a look at the cutout pieces from that small strip:

Enough to make two little gnomes!

I'm so glad I didn't throw it away.

I'm sure I'll use this die set over and over - 

I already have a couple more ideas sketched out for him!

I'll enter my card to AAA Card Challenge - One corner
UnStampaBellas - no stamps, bright colors

I chose bright colors because I'm drawn to bright,
 vivid, rich colors that just burst -
they are so cheerful to me!
And I love using up scraps and recycling - waste not, want not! 
.

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

DDD: Let me call you sweetheart!

 Hi sweet(heart) friends!

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day

and beautiful weekend ♥

This blog post should be called "Let me call you late!"

Our DDD - that's the Dueling Darlings Divas/Dazzlers

post our cards on the 15th with a kit sent to us.

I took some time to unwind and 'find my focus.'

We've had a full plate as a family and so much all at once.

After my son's amazing drama show on Thursday night,

my husband and I just sort of decompressed.

We had wonderful home cooked meals, 
snuggled up and watched some old movies 
and he tinkered around the house/cars while I slept!

I mean SLEPT.

I was reading in bed on Saturday afternoon 

and woke up and it was pitch black!

 As mentioned, the hostesses for this round of dueling are Carol and Shelly.

They chose a wonderful and romantic theme for February ...

Let Me Call You Sweetheart

I wish I could say this is the total kit that Carol sent ...

but I'm not quite sure where it is, to be honest.

My sweet little granddaughter Alice LOVES to help her Oma (me!)

tidy up and she ran off down the hall with my card and remaining card kit.

And NONE of us can find where she put it after looking for 2 days straight!

True Story.

I'm sure one day it will be funny.

Or cute.

But it's not ...

So here we are :/

I did, however, use ribbon and buttons Carol sent me previously 

from another card kit!

It was a perfect match to this lovely image she chose ....

and I found a single sheet of designer paper that I thought matched both.

 You can see what the rest of the Divas and Dazzlers

created by visiting Splitcoastampers!

The group is listed in the forum as the DDD.

.

 Thank you Carol and Shelly for your LOVE-ly theme this month.

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

Happy GAL-entines Day!

Hi friends!

Happy Valentine's Day to you all!
I hope today brings you love and sweetness ♥

 Today's card is a view from the window!

 .

 

I made this scenic card for my middle daughter, Chrissy ♥

 One of my other loves, when I'm not cardmaking, is writing.

I'm often tapping away at the typewriter,

usually transcribing what I've written in my journals. 

For Christmas last year, she bought me a new typewriter

and it's mint green ~ similiar to this one!

I've used the absolutely darling Lawn Fawn 'You're Just My Type!'

and Lawn Fawn's Tropical Backdrop for the view.

I do stare (a lot!) out of the window when I'm lost in thought

or planning/writing something out in my head.

I do live in Miami, but this isn't quite the view from my window :)

 .

To create the scene, I started with an A2 size piece of white cardstock

and used my distress oxide inks to emulate the sand and ocean.

I started by die cutting the backdrop with white cardstock as I knew

I wanted to color the palm trees.

I used Ranger distress oxide inks in Mowed Lawn and Shabby Shutters

for the leaves and Lawn Fawn in Walnut for the tree trunks.

I did some masking with washi tape so I keep the ink contained while blending.

.

 

For the inside panel, from top to bottom, 

the sky/wave inks are Salty Ocean, Broken China

and the sand is a mixture of Scattered Straw and Dried Marigold,

all blended with my Taylored Expressions blending brushes.

 Here's the view with all the dimension:

 And the inside:

I love being a mama to my 4 kids

and beautiful little granddaughter ♥

While my son isn't so crazy about Valentine's Day this year,

we girls had a fun Galentine's Day out this week

with shopping and dining and good times!

 .

I'm really tickled with how this came out ;)

And .... I'm wishing you a day filled with all of that and more!

Happy Valentine's Day, my friends ♥ 

Big hugs, bigger blessings!

~Kelly

CCEE2007 ~ Non-traditional Valentine!

Hi friends!

There's a new challenge for the CCEE Stampers challenge.

Anne is our hostess for the month of February

and this is her challenge for the week:

 Tomorrow is Valentine's Day (also my DH's birthday!). 

 Make a masculine valentine in non-traditional colors (no RED or pink).

I thought I'd have fun with my card this week

and use a super cute stamp from Taylored Expressions.

I think this stamp might be retired now but it's a good one :)
.

 

.

This funny Valentine is perfect for my husband!

We met at an Air Force Base where our dads 

were stationed with the military

and he and I had after school jobs at the commissary.

Every day, without fail, he'd ask me out on our break.

He would always order this big burger with everything

and me, already vegetarian, would just eat a plate of fries with mustard.

He always thought that was the most bizarre thing he'd ever seen

and it soon became our joke.

You're the mustard to my fries :)

 

And oops... my cardstock is unintentionally red :/ 

I saw non-traditional challenge and not the color requirements so

 I guess I'll go sit back in the corner this week!
.
 

Please stop by and see the DT cards for this week's challenge ~
you can see them here on the CCEE Stampers blog.

As always, if you want to like up a card, we'd love to see it!

Just use the linky at the bottom of the post,

or use the keyword CCEE2007 in your online gallery.
.
 

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

~Kelly