CCEE2031 ~ Birthday cards!

Hi friends!

Today's CCEE Stampers challenge is Lois' final challenge for July.

Her challenge for this week:

Harry Potter!

 She said ..." As you are most probably aware, I am a big Harry Potter fan.  

Tomorrow (7/31) is his birthday.  

My challenge to you is to create a card to celebrate this event - 

something magical or just a birthday card."

I love this theme!

We love visiting Hogsmeade ~

the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Orlando!

The first time we rode Harry Potter and the Hidden Journey,

I about had a heart attack!

Sorry - I"m just a wee Muggle! :)

This week, I needed a birthday card (non Harr Potter)

and the request was for anything ocean themed

so I used the new shark stamp set from Sunny Studio Stamps

called 'Sea You Soon."

   I also created a water background by using the WCW on SCS for this week.

 I added some clear dew drops

and popped up the images and sentiment on foam.

The Happy Birthday is here,

on the inside:

Thanks for stopping by!

Stop by the CCEE Stampers blog and link up your cards, too!

Big hugs, bigger blessings 

~Kelly

Stamp What?! ~ Happy Camper!

Hello friends!

Today's card is for the Stamp What?! card challenge 

that my son came up with :)

It was a fun idea to get me to use my "Old Dusties" 

or the older wooden Stampin' Up stamps.

Stamp = STAMPin' up

What = what is he going to chose!

This has a hilariously entertaining challenge

 I started at the beginning of this year

and it's been great fun!

Each month, 

he wanders over to the stacks and pulls one at random.

I'm always excited to see what he choses

and, out of curiousity, ask him what he chose the one he did!

This month?

He chose Happy Camper!

Me:  "GREAT summer choice!  What inspired this one?"

Him:  I didn't get to go to my 2 summer camps or BSA High Adventure Camp,

and I was kinda bummed.  This one was neat."

Awwwww :(

So I am doing my best to bring CAMP to a card!

 Here's the stamp set, one I LOVE LOVE LOVE and forgot it was in the pile!

 The thing about the older wooden stamps,

even though this one was in pristine condition,

is they are harder to stamp with!

I have gotten SPOILED with my mini MISTI!

I can't stamp without it!

So for this card, I removed the red rubber from the wooden blocks

and added them to my MISTI.

I was able to go over the stamp with inks with several passages ~

lightening and darkening the bear.

I invited my friends Barb and Jeanette to play along this year

with this fun 'use your old stuff' challenge

and you can see their cards on their blogs, too.

For some extra fun, I searched my DSP pile 
(it's been awhile since I've used it and I'm falling in love with using 
designer papers again!)
I was happy to see this paper from 2009 ~ Sweet Slumber Party!
And thank you to my sweet friend Laurajean
for knowing the name of it!

This was so much fun ~

and I can hardly wait to see what he chooses next month!

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings 

~Kelly

CYS: Up Up and Away!

Hi friends ~
Happy Tuesday!

Today's card is from the Challenge Your Stash (CYS) card group
Each month, there is a new theme
and we create a card based on what the challenge is.
Fun, right!

This month, the theme was chosen by our friend, Jeanette
who said:

Create a card that includes something that begins with 

each of at least three of the letters in the word JULY.

I love it!

One last hurrah for July as we head into August.

I never know what day of the week it is

and can't believe we went from March to August - just. like. that!

So here is my card and the letters U, L, Y

U = Up (up and away)

L = Love

Y = Yellow

I created this card by making a watercolor background with
acetate and ink and the smoosh technique.
I ran it through a stitched rectangle
and added my favorite stitched cloud die from CC Designs.
The cute critters are from W Plus 9 stamp and die set "Going Places."

And here's the very simple inside:

And that's my card for today!

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

Flowers make a "Statement!"

Hi friends!

It's Friday ~ I can feel the weekend in the air :)

I absolutely ADORE flowers,
especially home grown garden flowers.
But my VERY favorite are literally the ones picked from fields
and growing in the wild.
My sweet husband brings me gorgeous flowers from the store
but I am crazy about one just handpicked :)

Flowers are also fun to color!
I had signed up for a couple of monthly subscriptions recently ~
Altenew's mini stamp club which is super cute,
and their Paint-A-Flowers stamp club 
which I haven't had a chance to color yet - but soon!
The 3rd one is a completely different company with something new to me 
that's a little out of my wheelhouse but since we are homebound
and it's a creative venture - I thought, why not!
  It just arrived and has me so nervous!
and saying HMMMM!
I'll be posting a video soon on YouTube ...
 although I'm slightly terrified, stay tuned for that!

My card today is for Watercolor Wednesday #5
which I missed when I was sick.
I'm finally inking up one of my favorite purchases ~ 
Statement Flowers from Altenew.  

I loved it when I saw the debut here on Therese Calvird's blog
and her no line coloring of the gorgeous stamp.
I did some watercoloring since I'm not that fancy, LOL!
I used my Zig Clean Color Brush markers
after white heat embossing the panel.
The WCW #5 was wet layer on layer
 so I went back and did a second layer of paint.

I had a lot of fun with this card!
I added a sentiment from another Altenew stamp set Amazing You.

And that's it for today!

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

CCEE2030 ~ National Zookeepers Week!

Hi friends!

It's a ZOO out there!

And on the CCEE Stampers blog this week, 

quite literally :)

Lois is our July hostess and has asked us

 to create a card with at least one zoo animal on it.

Today's card is a slimline card, 

a card style quite popular in the crafting community!

I can't say I've 'caught the bug' fad just yet 

but I'm loving the inspiration I'm seeing everywhere.

This slimline die set is from Lawn Fawn and I've paired it 

with the super fun Zoo stamp set from Gerda Steiner.

To create the sky, I used the MFT Cloud stencil and
Ranger Ink Distress oxides in Tumbled Glass and Broken China.
For the hills, I used a stitched die
and added it like a puzzle piece to layer it.
Finally, I stamped the sentiment 'It's your birthday ..."
and on the inside "Go WILD!"

I'll be making a video of this very soon 
and you'll be able to see it on my YouTube channel ~
which was my happy news to share before I ended up sick.

I even have a wee giveaway right now that ends August 1st -
head on over if you'd like to peek!
I'm really new, really novice but excited to start this new venture
and I'd love to have you subscribe!

Here's a final look at my zoo card:

Be sure to stop over at the CCEE Stampers blog
and link up your zoo cards, too.

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

TPB: You're A-GLAZ-ING!

Hi friends!

I'm back on the blog at The Project Bin stamps 

and today I'm bringing you a box of donuts!

Paper ones, that it :)

I'm using one of the fun stamp sets that is so versatile and fun

and it's called Hole Foods.

It's a very pun-ny stamp set, like many of the ones in the shop are, 

and there are so many creative ways to make a card.

The donuts are stamped first in a random pattern ~

and I colored them according to make a variety,

pretty close to my 4 kids favorites.

I added a 'lid' of a stitched frame and a piece of acetate.

The final touch - a piece of baker's twine

and the inside sentiment.

I've seen many similar cards on Pinterest 

so I can't credit any one person

and I'll plan to remake this card in the future with a different spin to it!

You can see this stamp set and more in The Project Bin store.

During the week, you'll see terrific cards

to inspire your creativity, too!

Here's Hole Foods in the shop:

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings!

~Kelly

RSG ~ What happened in .......... 1930?

Hi friends!

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

and this month, Jeanette gave us the theme:

What event happened in 1930?

 Here's her challenge: 

My dad's birthday is in July. He was born July 27, 1930. 

The Ready Set Go theme for July will require a little research. 

My dad will be celebrating a milestone birthday later this month 

so in honor of him I want you to find some fact about the year he was born (1930) 

and use it as inspiration for your card. Easy peasy, right?

Awwww!  Happy Birthday to dad!

My dad's birthday is also in July ~ although his is in heaven.

Funny thing!

When I was searching for events in 1930,

I did what almost everyone does - went to the internet!

And as soon as I typed 'what happened ...'

that's as far as I got before it automatically said

 'What happened to Monday?' in the search bar.

Haha! How many people lost a Monday that they needed to google it?! 

I know I never what day of the week it is 

so safety in numbers, I say!

So I did some searching and didn't really have stamps to fit the bill.

So I improvised.

In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh, an American astronomer,
 discovered the planet Pluto.
It was the 9th planet in our solar system until it was later
reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. 

Aw, poor Pluto!

Here's my card representing looking into the night sky at the solar system.
I've used Lawn Fawn's Wish Upon A Star
and Ranger Ink distress oxide inks for the background.
I'm sure in the middle of the star system there's a planet or two!

You can see Barb's card here and
Jeanette's card here and what they chose from 1930!

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

Christmas in July!

Hi friends!

Christmas in July is a fun tradition and it sure seems like

 we all need a little extra cheer!

This is such a fun time of year when Christmas 

is mingled with the blazing hot summers.

My personal favorite?

 Santa on the beach!

Everyone needs a holiday :)

The idea behind Christmas in July is a wonderful joy ~

it shouldn't be just one time a year.

Kinda like a half-birthday ...

twice is better than once!

My card is one that I did for Watercolor Wednesday at SCS

and it was somehow stuck in draft mode.

 I missed about 2 weeks of reality not even knowing my own name

so I'm sure it had a lot to do with that!

Hi. My name is Starbucks Kelly and I love coffee you!

For this card, I used the Altenew watercolor brush markers

and I am IN LOVE with these!

I'm still learning how to navigate the water and layer the colors

and I'm having fun in the process!

This is the layered Jolly Holly background from Taylored Expressions,

stamped with pigment ink for fast drying, no watercolor smearing.

I heat set this with the embossing tool in between each color 

(after the greens, then after the reds) to avoid any welling.

I usually chose my cardstock and/or papers first

(to make sure I have colors that will match)

so I was lucky that after it was waterolored, I found just the right ones.

The final touch was a sentiment stamp 

with a friendly greeting.

The joy in these big background style cards 

is even though they are large, they are super simple to mass produce.

And it was nice to dust off a stamp set that's been sitting in the bin

for way too long :)

I'm still doing card catch up and I'm way behind ...

baby steps!

Thanks for stopping by 

and, as always,
Big hugs, bigger blessings :)

~Kelly

CCEE: National Hot Dog Day!

Hi friends!

It's another challenge at the CCEE Stampers blog 

and this time it's celebrating National Hot Dog Day!

Here's the challenge:

Yesterday (7/15) was National Hot Dog Day.  

Make a card using something you would have at a picnic --

 a hot dog, a hamburger, a checkered tablecloth, or maybe some ants!

I went with a free clip art this week

and here's my super simple card ...

Stop by the CCEE challenge blog to see the DT cards

and the link to add yours, too!

Thanks for stopping by 

Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly

DDD ~ A bit of humor ...

Hi friends!

I'm still here ... just slower than usual!

I think I tried to get back to routine a little too soon

which sounds a lot like something I do.
I need to s.l.o.w. my row, as they say!

And today is the last time the DDD card group will be 9!

By this time next month,

 will we have been crafting together for 10 years ...

*~* 10 YEARS! *~*

And I'll let you in on a little secret!

There will be a month long party in our card group forum 

celebrating the 10 year anniversary.

Shhhhhh!

For this month's card kits, Barb and Tracie sent card kits with a humor theme.

Heaven knows we can all use some funny moments right about now ~

it's absolutely crazy out there!

My card today is made with the kit Barb sent to me 

and it was full of black and white papers with a Crackerbox/So Suzy image.

The moment I saw the image, I got 'old timey feels

from the Sunday comic section and left the image uncolored.

To contrast that, I used hot pink cardstock to give it a pop of color

and carried the theme to the inside as well.

Due to lack of time and energy 

I followed the card sketch on SCS from this week

 and flipped it to the side and made my card super simple.

Here's the sketch from Splitcoaststampers:

To find all the DDD (that's Dueling Darling Diva and Dazzler) cards,

please visit Splitcoaststampers and find the DDD card group in the forum.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings 

Kelly

Hot Mess Success ~ Pop Art!

Hello friends!

Thank you for your sweet words on my last post!

I've been in bed for a week and hope that I'm on the road to wellness.

I haven't had the energy to make cards at all

but today I just needed to pull up my bootstraps and just get. it. done!

I'm behind in creating at least 5 cards so today was crunch time.

I did take a quite a little time pull together this messy card

 for the Hot Mess Success card group.  

This month, I did a technique I call Pop Art!

Although I don't like messes AT ALL, I confess ~

I am LOVING this crazy card group!

Each month on the 12th, we find a technique 
- or in my case, create one -

and make a mess card.

So what's PoP aRt?!

One day, quite by mistake,

 I was playing around with my highly pigmented powders by Vicki Boutin.

Normally, it's meant to add to your mixing mediums

 like molding paste or glaze.

Since I've tried the CreativeFX iridescent glaze and stencils before, 

I thought it would be interesting to see how it would perform

 as a base color(s) when wet.

Low and behold - it stuck to the paper

and as I looked at it to see what to do next, it popped!

Pockets of air are underneath the dry powder
 and created a POP effect on the panel. Hence, Pop Art :)

 I wanted the paper to hold up to water, 

so I used #110 heavy weight cardstock.
It was certainly a cool effect and it gave me this card's idea :)

I normally prefer to dry my panels overnight but time was an issue

so I simply used my heat tool and dried the watery-powdery panel quickly.
The heat also activates the powder faster and more PoPing occured
giving the background panel amazing character :)

I made several A2 size card backgrounds 
and just chose one at random to use for this card ~ stamped in Stazon.

The cute birthday bear is from Penny Black and
 I've added sentiments from a Simon Hurley Creates stamp set.

My friends that also made cards today are:
Barb
Jeanette 
Terry

By using this 'Pop Art' technique, I was able to make quite a few panels.
I varied the colors and started with fresh water each time.
One it was heat dried, it sealed in the powder to the paper
but I did noticed if it's still wet, the dry part of the PoP Powder rubs off.  
Just a tip :)

This card took quite a bit of time and it's definitely not a quick card ~ 
 I kept getting tired through out the process,
but stuck it out and I'm so glad I did!
This card is just adorable and super-mess aside, I'm glad I made it :)
In fact, I am already planning uses for the other colored panels.

Here is another final look of the very messy birthday bear!

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