12 Favorites of 2020!

 Hi friends!

Looking back at 2020 in a creative way, it was certainly challenging.

 I'm certainly grateful that I was able to stay crafty ~

maybe not as often ... but still creating :)

This is always one of my favorite posts of the entire year ~

looking back at a year at a glance and choosing 12 cards.

For me, 2020 reflects a card style of "simplicity meets messy"  ..

either Clean And Simple with lots of white

or bursting with color and painted/blended ~

 a wonderful mix of this and that :)

I have my Top 9 on Instagram here

and 12 cards on my blog, one card for each month!

(not necessarily in order.)

I'm very surprised to see how much BLUE I used all year!

So here we go ...

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Here we go ~ off to 2021,

where I'll spent 3 months forgetting and still write 2020, LOL!

 I'll be back on New Year's Day 

with my annual Word of the Year.

Stay safe, friends, and Happy New year!

Big hugs, bigger blessings :)

~Kelly

Skating around the tree!

 

Hello friends!

I'd love to be in this scene ~

a quaint little town, skating on the ice pond 

with the twinkly Christmas tree ~ and snow! :)

What a happy scene that would be!

My card is for the Challenge Your Stash (CYS) card group

and the theme this month:  a tree!

I fell head over heels in love with this set from

Clearly Besotted Stamptember at Simon Says Stamp 

and it has taken me until this challege to ink it up!

I was so lucky to get both the stamps and dies with this set ~

they sell so quickly and I stalked the SSS each day.

To create this, I stamped and die cut and then colored these cuties!

I also stamped out the circular scene and added glitter for the snow,

coloring it and adding a bright green Christmas tree in the town centre.

Finally,  I added this sentiment because I always wish for snow,

 most of all :)

We're almost in 2021!

It almost seems surreal ~ 

2020 went by in a blur and now here we are :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings :)

~Kelly

entered card to:  Word Art Wednesday

SimonSaysStamp Wednesday Challenge ~ Shine and sparkle

Happy Birthday, Denise ~ Blog Hop!

 

Hi friends

Today's blog post is a FUN one!

Today's post is a birthday blog hop for Denise at The Project Bin!

The Design Team is hopping along today to 

 celebrate this wonderful lady on her special day ♥

Denise is the owner and creative genius 

behind this amazing stamp line :)

 Her stamps are zany and funny

and there are stamps and sentiments for all occasions ...

 from the ones that make you split your sides laughing

 to ones that make you sentimental and all warm and fuzzy!

I've been on her design team since the onset 

and it's been an absolutely awesome-sauce 'job' 

Here is my card using one of my favorite stamp sets: 

Birthday Girl!

I used some fun patterned papers from Illustrated Faith

and let the image be the focal point of the card

and just love that this is as cheerful as Denise always is!

Here's the stamp set:

Here is the entire hop list if you'd to see

what we've created for her:

Kelly Santi ~ me!

Dawn Mercedes-Barrett

Lynn McCauley

Tracie Clary

Barb Deichl

Vicki Ducher

Jeanette Cloyd

Kren Kurts

And that's it for me!

To keep hopping, next up is the talented Dawn's blog 

as she's next up in the hop :)

I'm so happy you stopped by today!

Happy Birthday, Denise!

I'm wishing you all the wonderful things today :)

Big hugs, bigger blessings :)
~Kelly

Merry Christmas!

 Hello beautiful friends!

Wishing you the Merriest Christmas, from my home and heart to yours!

I am SO VERY blessed to know so many of you through blogging

and wish you all the wonderful things for 2021!

Christmas has a fun, whimsical tone in our house.

We chose a theme each year and 2020 was "The North Pole,"

so naturally my card for a special guy in my life was a fun one!

I fell IN LOVE with this gnome in a truck stamp set

from Simon Says Stamp and just knew when I saw it - that's the one!

I colored it with prismacolor markers and added it to a fun background.

I wasn't able to get the dies so there was a hole lot of fussy cutting!

Stay safe out there friends while

visiting with your loved ones and sharing this holiday together.

Big hugs, bigger blessings :)

~Kelly

card entered to: SSS Wednesday Challenge

More *Christmas Crunch* cards!

 

Hi friends!

Today I'm sharing another set of *Christmas Crunch* cards!

I call these holiday cards in a jiff :)

With just a few days left, sometimes it's nice to make a pretty card -

on the fly!

Use something right there in your stash to make a WOW card ....

Designer paper!

These cards took maybe 10 minutes ... total!

I found some lovely papers in my stash ~ the snow filled town

is from October Afternoon's Very Merry.

I added a simple strip sentiment from CZ Designs

and done and done!

And another quick card using dsp from Crate Paper,

similiar design and products!

These cards were fun to make

and sometimes, CAS cards are the way to go!

Santa is almost here - 3 more days!

I'm SO looking forward to the wonders of the holiday

and enjoying the food, festivities and family after this crazy year!

I'll see you all on tomorrow's blog post!

Big hugs, bigger blessings :)

~Kelly

Christmas Crunch cards!

Hi friends!

What do you call 4 caroling mice in the snow?

Cold.

They're called COLD!

:)

How's your Monday going?

Only 4 more sleeps until Santa!

My cards today are last minute ideas for Christmas Crunch Cards!

If you're just getting started or need extras or cards for neighbors,

make them simple, make them quick! 

 I used the adorable Waffle Flower Crafts Fa-La-La combo 

stamps and dies to create these snowy and festive cards.

First, using Ranger Ink distress oxide inks in a variety of blues,

I blended a quick background.

Using white acrylic paint, I used a new toothbrush (dollar tree!)

and flicked the paint on in a random splatters.

With some Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L foam, I popped up the images

and just love the look to these. 

They would look great with different colored backgrounds!

I'm super excited this year - 

being done with shopping, wrapping, and decor so early.

It's nice to sit in the still of the night watching 

the twinkling colorful christmas lights!

And ... 

that's about the only time my house is actually ever quiet :)

I have another {different} set of cards to show you tomorrow!

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings :)

~Kelly

Entered into:  Simon Says Stamp Monday

One Plus Twelve ~ Peppermint flower!

 

Hi friends!

It's almost time for Christmas 

and I'm sending you winter hugs and peppermint dreams!

This year, I chose Beautiful Bloom for my One Plus Twelve

card challenge that I started as a way to stretch my stamps.

It's a wonderful challenge indeed trying to take ONE stamp

 - and just one -

and make 12 different cards each month :)

For December, I watercolored the bloom and placed it into 

a frame with irredescent sequins for a shaker card.

When the flower was still wet, I sprinkled it with extra fine

irriedecent glitter to match so it doesn't show it - 

but it's super sparkly!

And that's it from me today!

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings :)

~Kelly

Ready, Set, Go ~ The winter blues!

Hi friends!

It's snowing again on my blog :)

Snow is on my wish list every year!

Although the only way I'll see it is probably in paper form :)

Today's snowflake card is for the Ready, Set, Go card group

where we have challenges that are a little outside the box!

This month, Barb wonderful challenge:

 

My challenge this month is pretty simple.  Please make a winter card, using various shades of blue.

  Be sure to add some sparkle or shine to your card.  Extra credit if you use a stamp that has not been inked up or one that has been neglected for a few years. 

 .  Ready?  Set. Go!

I wanted to make the snowflakes really unique and different

so I tried the die cut duo technique.

It's a unique way to use smaller pieces of designer paper in a creative way

but laying them out, connected side by side, and then die cut.

For these snowflakes, I used the snowflake die trio from My Favorite Things ~

now retired and quite neglected!

Once those were cut out, I popped them up on foam for height.

The paper is SO CUTE and from Doodlebugs Winter Wonderland collection 

and I had just enough bits and pieces to make 4 x4 pieces to use.

For the shimmer, I used silver embossing powder from Simon Says Stamp

and glittery enamel dots.

This was such a fun card to make 

and I'll definitely try this again ~ thanks to the winter blue's challenge!

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

we will continue next  year in January with another extreme challenge!

And that's it from me today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings :)

~Kelly

 

Mission Impossible ~ Take 4!

 Hi friends!

Welcome to another edition of a hot mess card making,

where glue misbehaves and glitter flies all over!

These cards are actually last Mission Possible card

of the year but not THE LAST.

 We had a lot of fun this year and I think we're planning to continue 

in 2021 because my friends are crazy like me really creative!  

Jeanette sent us a gorgeous stencil from Taylored Expressions,

one I've eyed many a time but only drooled!

I didn't do this stencil justice - let me just toss that out there ...

but I had so. much. fun!

First, I thought it would be a creative idea to use

distress oxide inks, pixie-ish type spray and glitter

to make a sparkly, glittery snowflake.

My plan:

 use the colors on a woodland scene I stenciled this summer :)

For this card, I used Ranger's distress oxide inks in Tumbled Glass,

Blueprint Sketch and Mermaid Lagoon and blended randomly.

For my first try, I thought I'd use pixie spray on top of the oxide ink

but it ended up feathering a little bit.

It actually kinda grew on me and reminded me 'snowflakes are unique.'

This stencil is larger than an A2 frame so I die cut a portion of it

and added a simple sentiment strip from C Z Designs.

For the second card, I wanted to make one in pink/purple tones 

AND try the stencil/glitter WITHOUT pixie spray -

success!

This one is using Wilted Violet, Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar

and the difference is I spritzed it with a light mist of water 

and then added the glitter.

This was a super fun Mission Possible this time around,

and although my cards underwhelm, I had a lot of fun playing!

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

And if you head over to my Instagram, I added these to my reels.

I'm still learning and having a blast :)

And that's it from me today!

Thanks for stopping by ~

Big hugs, bigger blessings :)

~Kelly

BLOOMing in 2020 ....

 Hi friends!

In just a couple of weeks, a brand new year will soon be here, 

along with the chance to start fresh and new.

Looking back at the Word of the Year I chose last year,

 I remember how much I reflected on if it was the one.

It was!

I have loved my word ❤

My word for 2020 is BLOOM!

And I can't say that 2020 was really a year in which that lended the ability.

So many changes, a crazy pandemic, restrictions and sheltering in place ...

But!

  In order to bloom, one must be firmly planted.  

And that was a definite for me, steadfast and still standing!

So I did bloom ....  

Just a bit differently :)

So today's card is naturally a floral one ~

a quick watercolor card I made with Altenew's half pans,

gold embossing powder and lots and lots of coffee!

And peep this!

This is one of the picture out outakes that didn't make the cut but

 LOOK AT THIS BLUE SKY!

God is as wonderful with His paintbrush!

The sentiment is also from Altenew

 and both of these words are amazing ~

but they won't be mine :)

I already know what it will be for next year ...

it already found me ❤

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings :)

~Kelly

Hot Mess ~ Success: Acrylic Pour!

 Hi friends!

Today's cards are part of an acrylic pour I did last weekend.

I did some Christmas crafting with my 2 y/o granddaughter, Alice, 

making several handmade gifts with the acrylic pour technique.

Oh ...  is it ever messy!

"We" made several different gifts from planter pots to wooden 

frames and there was a TON of leftover paint.

Like a scandelous amount!

For this month's "Hot Mess Success," 

I decided to simply swipe up the gobs of leftover paint onto cardstock.

Heavy acrylic paint + cardstock?

I was worried!

But ... it held up to the #110 paper BEAUTIFULLY!    

Although they were dry in just a couple of hours, 

I waited 48 hours and then made several cards, 

playing around with different styles.

             

               Sorry this photo is really washed out and grainy - they are SUPER vibrant and bright!

For these cards, I'm using Gerda Steiner Design's Sportsy Santa

and used my Scan N Cut to cut out the images and then colored them.

I used a stitched frame die and stitched circle die to get

the front panel, added snow 'mounds' with another die to set the scene.

This background is crazy busy

so I left the rest of the card pretty simple. 

 Here is Santa snowboarding, in case you ever wondered

what he does in his off time!

The effect is amazing!

I see now it looks similiar to the simple shaving cream technique.

It's not! 

Do. not. be. fooled! :)

There's no shaving cream, no food coloring, and no swipie card thingie!

This was CRAZY messy and a product of "I dont wanna waste that!"

Exhibit A:

I decided to try another one of the paint puddles for a second card.

For card #2, I used only the INNER circle and tucked it behind.

I also had to stamp it first directly to the paper because the scan n cut 

wouldn't recognize his motion of the blades.

So stamping, popping it up did the trick. 

Here is Santa iceskating:

The Hot Mess chicks made cards this month

and you can see their cards here:

Barb, Carol, Darlene, Jeanette and Terry and then lil 'ol me!

A quick recap ....

This was literally just cast off acrylic paint and boxes that were 

heading to the recycling and I ended up with unique backgrounds!

Was this month a Hot Mess = Success? Yes!

Would I make this again?  Absolutely!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings :)

~Kelly

I'll enter this to: SYD Gerda Steiner December Challenge