Meet Brittney! (CYS)

 

Hi everyone!

I'm officially on vacation - yay!

By the time this posts, I'll be far from home and unwinding with no laptop!

I'll be back Sunday night but a few days away, 

no cooking, the beach, activities, shopping, etc - yes, please!

Today is the Challenge Your Stash (CYS) card group challenge.

The theme this month is by Maggie and she chose:  Pets!

I decided to go with kitty cats and create a card for my daughter, Chrissy.

She's the one I'm away with on vacation 

and she's planned a super fun trip for us!

She is leaving her kitty, Finny, behind while we're gone 

as well as her pup, Buster and mine, Buddy!

So for today, I'm sharing a stamp from Stamp Anniething ~ Brittney Purr!

I LOVE this stamp and it's PURRfect for showcasing a pet!

Brittney is colored like my Chrissy - she's blonde with blue eyes

and Finny is a calico (so mostly orange).

The sentiment is from My Favorite Things Love You Furrever.

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings :)
~Kelly

Let's here it for Shenanigans!

Hi friends!

One more day and we're on the road!

In the meantime, I'm cleaning and cleaning and creating!

(One of those things is NOT like the other! LOL!)

The cards continue at the Dare To Get Dirty celebration

in the Fan Club at Splitcoaststampers!

We're up to challenge #30 right about now and it's been a blast.

Next up:  THIS CUTIE! 

 This adorable pup is from Whipper Snapper Designs

I just adore him.  He reminds me of our Buster, 

the rescue pup my daughter 

collected out of a busy highway, running in and out of traffic and screeching cars.

He's absolutely nuts got a lot of energy,

always bouncing around and he's such a goofball.

I was digging around in all of my WS sentiments (and I have A LOT!)

and thought this one was a cute match!

This card just makes me happy from my head to my toes.

Thanks for visiting today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly

You're the SALT to my PEPPER ...

Hi friends!

This is *one of those weeks* 

where I want to toss up my hands and say ... 

I can't even!

We're leaving for vacation Thursday bright and early ~

My daughter has a fun itinerary planned.

We'll be home late Sunday and school starts first thing Monday morning!

Online!

Praise. The. Lord.

My son got his schedule and *eyeball POP!*

It's a doozy.

I'm going to love. love. LOOOOOOVE homeschooling a Sophomore!

Said me never :)

I had a lot of fun with this card - playing along with the MFT Stamps sketch this week.  The Splitcoaststampers theme last week in the weekend inspiration was my springboard and the question was:  What do you miss that you can't do because of the pandemic.  

*This is not a Fan Club challenge where the challenges are hush, hush!

Truthfully, as much as I miss travel and church and seeing my friends for coffee or heading to the beach, I miss going out to restaurants!

 I miss going to eat at some of our favorite spots and sitting down to have a nice prepared meal.  I cook daily - sometimes 2-3 times daily - for a group of 6-7 of us.   I do love to cook but I miss some of my favorites out there but am perfectly happier staying home and staying safe!

Here's my card using My Favorite Things stamp set ~ Recipe for Happiness.    I just love this stamp set!

And that's it for me today!

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings!

~Kelly

I'll enter this today:  Cupcake Inspirations!

Gnomes ~ all the way from the UK!

Hi friends! 

 You are a friend like GNOME other!

(and you ... and you ... and you!)

Today's post is SUPER special to my heart!

I'm hosting one of the Dirty Girl DT Fan Club Challenges!

Splitcoaststampers hosts them once a year

as a chance to create cards, hold card challenges and interact with 

the design team and fan club members - together as one.

This year, we have 41 challenges ~  and I'm #17 and I think we're up to 20 something already 

   although I can't share with you all the details, I can share my card!

These sweet gnomes came all the way from England!

I saw them on the Hochanda website when TPB was hosting a spot

and said "come on gnome!"

 Okay ... home, tee hee!

   My card today is a Slimline and I've used Lawn Fawn slim line dies. 

 I created the background by using Distress Oxide Inks 

from Ranger and blended and blended.

I colored the images with prismacolor markers 

and just had so much fun with this card!  

Gnome kidding ~ I'm glad you stopped by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings!

~Kelly

CCEE2033: Celebrating Liz!

 

Hi friends!

Happy Birthday to our design teammate, Liz!

She is 70 years YOUNG!

Here it is the day after Liz's BIG birthday the BIG seven-o!

So, in honor of National Senior Citizens Day on August 21st, 

let's use some adorable old women (or men) 

still having fun and enjoying life on your cards today. 

Have fun and send your card to one of your senior friends in honor of their day!!

I've used 2 Art Impressions stamp sets - the image is from Birthday Wishes

and the sentiment is from Chocolate Therapy.

I thought they were super cute together!

I've spent the last 2 hours going 7 rounds with our internet - LOL

so I'm going to hop out of the ring and say a prayer that this posts!

The CCEE blog is here - hop on over and wish Liz the happiest birthday!

And you can also link up your old lady-old guy cards, too! :)

Thanks for stopping by ~

Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly

RSG: Hello Suns{hi}ine!

Hello friends!  

Today's post is the card-that-almost-wasn't!

I'm in such a cardmaking funk and coming up empty 

everytime I sit down to make a card - or half cards!

I finally sat down today ~ watching the rain falling outside -

so calming and serene and oh. so. green!

I stared out that window for the longest time ..

half daydreaming, half hoping to come up with a card idea :)

Once a month, the Ready-Set-Go! card group has a theme

and we create a card.

It all started here and we call it challenges that are 'outside the box.'

This month, I was the hostess and mailed out a chipboard WORD 

 and said "make a card!"

We all have a different word:  Happy, Hello and Love.

They were added to an envelope without me seeing,

closed up and I mailed it to the other 2 ladies ... sight unseen.

My word: Hello!

I love the word Hello ~ and had NO idea where I was going to go with it.

I just grabbed a ton of stencils and some Distress Oxide Inks,

blender brushes and some paper! And got to thinking ....

  Hello - Blue Skies!

    Hello - Sunny Days!

                                              Hello - Pool Time!

I decided to go with the sunburst Ray of Light stencil from My Favorite Things.

Because I didn't really have a direction of where I was going, I dug through my stamps until I found something 'sunshiney' and found this sentiment from my Paper Smooches stamp set:  Spectrum.   I love that it says {hi} in the middle!

I never even noticed until photographing this card that it's holographic!

It looked silver .... and twist and turn it a littl bit ... and it's rainbow!

Groovy!

You can see Barb's card and Jeanette's card on their blogs.

Oh!

And if you have seen my mojo,

please sent it back my way! :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings 

~Kelly

Card entered to:  Word Art Wednesday #452-3

Little Red Wagon - Use a Stencil

You brighten my life!

Hi friends!

It's Monday - again -  but hopefully this bright 

pop of NEON color will brighten your day!

And I'm pretty excited ~ 

I finally got to play with the NEON Karin markers

 which just arrived recently!

I have a slight obsession with all things neon 

as it brings me back to my inner 80's child :)

I created this card using Lawn Fawn's Our Friendship Grows

stamp and die set, and the sentiment is from Life is Good.

Once they were stamped and die cut, I colored them with the neon

Karin Markers - squeee!

They were as much fun as I expected them to be!

(The Video will be on my YouTube channel later today!)

The backgrond panel is an embossing folder from Taylored Expressions ~

I recently had an order arrived with a lot of goodies, including this folder!

I flipped it sideways to create an illusion of a wooden privacy fence ~

and the inspiration was from this fence photo ...

the IC from Splitcoaststampers this weekend!

In hindsight, they look like they are floating

and i probably should have added some stems! 

I was too mesmerized by the fun of playing with the neon markers, 

I suppose!

Here's a final look ~ and Happy Monday to you!

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings!

~Kelly

DDD ~ Mixed Up Cake Party - 10 Year Anniversary!

Today is a MOST exciting day!

The Dueling Darlings card group 10 years old today!

And in honor of that, we're having a 

MIXED UP CAKE PARTY!

We are 2 teams of card making friends - The Divas and the Dazzlers.

This month, I created and mailed out all 16 card kits to everyone.

The idea for a mixed up cake party is a play on cake and ice cream.

Our first duel was an ice cream theme so for this party, we're seriving cake! 

BUT!

To make it even more fun, 

the teams were mixed up!

 Some Divas were Dazzlers this month, and vice versa.

My children put the kits into random envelopes so I don't know who is where!

I'm kinda bummed that I stayed a DIVA,

 hee hee, but that's okay- it's all FUN!

For the Diva kits, I used The Cat's Pajamas stamps and we have the image:

Forget About The Cake.

I've used 3 of the patterned papers included in the kit

and as a way to pay homage to my cardmaking from 10 years ago,

I did 2 things:

I made a HUGE square card, measureing 5.5" x 5.5"

and added on tons of buttons!

My old cards always had buttons :)

My card has a TON of dimension ~ I popped up the bunny and cake, the buttons and the matching sentiment. This is SO me - go for the icing, LOL!

We've had a lot of fun games and prizes all month AND another suprise:

A GOLDEN TICKET!

In each card kit, there's a lottery ticket with a grand prize!

Here is mine ... and yes, it could be me, hee hee!

(I would have them redraw, of course, but it's fun playing along!)

What do you think - it's the winner, right?! :)

I absolutely can't wait to see all the cards this month!

Here's another look at my DIVA card:

This was truly a fun month and I hope everyone had a good time playing in the games and making cards! We're on Splitcoaststampers and in the thread called Dueling Darlings and we're also posting cards in the gallery, there!

Thanks so much for visiting and here's to 10 more years!

Big hugs, bigger blessings :)

~Kelly

CCEE2033: Everything's coming up roses!

Hi friends!

There's a new challenge at the CCEE Stampers this week ~

Everything is Coming Up Roses!

My rose card is using an image from Inkadinkado ~

heat embossed with black - a leftover image from a DDD kit!

It was perfect to use for this week.

I have a lot of flowers, and quite a few roses, but this was handy.

I watercolored the image with Altenew waterbrush markers

and then highlighted surrounded image with the aquamarine waterbrush markers.

I used the inside/out stitched dies from My Favorite Things for the image

and a rectangle stitched die for the outer base designer paper.

The sentiment is from Altenew and cut out with a small banner die.

That's it for me today!

Please stop by the blog for more inspiration from the Design Team

as well as linking up your rose cards.

Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly

Hot Mess Success ~ You Color My World!

 

Hello friends!

Today's a super fun day!

It's the day we post our cards for the Hot Mess = Success card group.

And ... it just got bigger by 2!

What's more fun than making messy cards?

Doing it with friends :)

Welcome Carol and Darlene!

So the Hot Mess = Success ... 

Here's how it all got started.

 I actually considered recreating this card, just slightly different.

But, I ended up making a different mess card instead 

as part of a new YouTube series I'll be doing!

I can't show you how and why I made this just yet 

(you'll see something like it soon if you are on Splitcoaststampers!)

and this is from The OOPS File *wink!*

Let. Me. Just. Say....

I don't like messes.

Nope.

 Not at all!

But during the creative process, making cards, it's a riot!

I decided to get out acrylic paint for this month's messy card

(acrylic paint?!  Someone ... anyone ... please take my temperature!)

It turned out to be SO much fun!

It took a few tries ... and this was a piece that didn't make the cut ...

until now.

I used Lawn Fawn's Color My World

and 6 different acrylic paints to create a rainbow.

I stamped the sentiment at an angle on purpose to go with the symmetry

of the card and cut/colored the crayons, then popped them up for dimension.

Surprisingly, this card turned out kinda groovy!

  

I know that my friends made x1000 better cards 

so be sure to check out theirs, too!

Barb

Carol

Darlene

Jeanette

Kelly (you're here!)

Terry

We'll be posting our Anything Goes cards every 12th of the month ~
the messier, the better!

And I'll be sure to post the other card and video when I can :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings

~Kelly

I'd love to enter this to:  Word Art Wednesday - AG!

Paeonia Japonica ~ Paint a flower series!

Happy Tuesday, friends!

You may remember from this post that I signed up

for a few creative new ventures. 

It was mostly to reclaim the creativity during this stay-at-home time

and just simply try. new. things!

 

That's always great fun!

Even more fun, I spent yesterday ....

1. Making a new video for my (teeny tiny!) YouTube channel

2. Making a TON of cards!

I won't dare say I've 'caught up' but I'm pretty close :)

This is one of the new ventures - 

Altenew's Paint a Flower monthly flower program.

I have a couple of them and they are just fabulous each month!

This is the Paeonia Japonica ..

say that three times fast :)

I actually did some research for this flower and what it looks like,

how it can be colored,

but in the end, decided to use this as my WCW card for Splitcoaststampers.

I think we are up to challenge #10 or #11 already!

Each technique has been very fun .. including the 'white flower' watercolor.

I've also combined it with the Color Challenge from a few weeks ago:

BUMBLE BEES  N' PEACOCKS EATING  CHERRY COBBLER!

That's it for me today!

Thanks for stopping by ~

Big hugs, bigger blessings!

~Kelly

Stamp What?! ~ YUKON !

Hi friends!

It's the start of a brand new week

and I hope your Monday is off to a good start :)

This week is going to be JAM PACKED with cards for me ~

I've got lots of craftingl and lots of cardmaking to do ...

yay!

Today's card is courteousy of my teenage son ~ in 2 ways!

He chose the stamps and he created the idea of this monthly challenge. 

We call them my 'Old Dusties!'

 Back in January, we started chatting about stamps and card making.
He's a sweet and thoughtful boy

and probably one of my biggest cheerleaders ♥

We spoke out Stampin Up and how I next to never use them anymore.

He said "I have an idea!"

I'll pick a stamp set for you, you won't know what it is, 

and you have to make a card with it.

Deal?

Deal!

This month, he chose one of my VERY favorite sets: 

Yukon!

Last month, he chose another bear set (though it was camping!)

and I always ask how he choses the stamp that month.

Me:  I LOVE THIS ONE!  THANK YOU!  How'd you chose this?'

Him:  'When you called me,  I was playing PS4 with my friends

and you said you needed one - 

so I grabbed the one next to the one I chose last time.

And I love the outdoors."

LOL!

This set is from 2002 

and only ONE stamp in this set was ever inked up. 

This is definitely a KEEPSIES!

Here's my card, 

created by masking the moose and bear and mountains

and coloring with copic markers.

The sky is harder to see as I colored it a very light lavendar 

and I just loved creating this beautiful scene.

 I invited Barb and Jeanette to jump in with this challenge

and these two friends are always down to join

the crazy ideas I come up with!

What's new since 2002 with this Yukon set?

1. I used stitched dies, which we didn't have back then

2. I colored this entirely with copic markers, which I didn't own back then.

I encourage you to look through your old stash, too!

Dust them off, take them out and let them get inky!

Thanks for stopping by ...
Big hugs, bigger blessings!

~Kelly

3M: You're my very best friend ...

 Hi friends!'

Happy weekend! 

I hope you are enjoying the weekend so far.

The new blogger is misbhaving at the moment, LOL,

so my post will be super short!

Today's card is for the 3M image group.  
The other two members are Barb and Jeanette 
and all 3 of us alternate chosing a theme. 
 For August, Barb is the hostess
 and sent us this gorgeous rose from Gina K Designs.

I colored mine with Altenew watebrush markers

and just love the vibrancy you can acheive! I layered the red and pink

markers and painted in alternating colors. 
I used a few dies to create a frame and added vellum to switch things up! 

You can see Barb's card and jeanette's card on their blogs today

as well as let the cards be an inspriation - or maybe even a springboard - for creating and making happy cards! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger hugs!

~Kelly