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

You lift me up! :)

Hi friends!

Flying by with a quick hello

with the sweetest puppy!

I can't resist a puppy stamp 

and the moment I saw the Gus and Gertie set, it was 'gotcha day!'

For today's card,  I knew I wanted to make a whimsical flying card

so I thought why not make a sky background :)

I knew I'd use this set many many times so on release day over at Taylored Expressions, I purchased the limited time special for the stamp and die

and I'm so glad I did!

To create the sky background,

 I used the new Speckled Egg distress ink from Tim Holtz/Ranger Ink. 

 It's such a unique and lovely shade of blue!  

It's like a cross between Stormy Sky and Tumbled Glass, if I had to pick :)

I added the sentiment and popped it up 

just as I did for the image to give the card some dimension.

I just realized Gertie didn't make it onto the card ~

but it sure won't be my last!

Thanks for stopping by today!

I hope everything is okay where you are ~ 

the world sure needs a great big hug right now.

Sending mine to you!

Big hugs, bigger blessings!

~Kelly

You have my GNOME heart ♥

 Hiya friends!

I have a simple CAS card creared for today's color challenge

at Splitcoaststampers.

Well ~ I was actually just super happy to finally play with some GNOMES!

 Not just any gnomes ~ the new fun stamps and dies from Birdie Brown

at My Favorite Things.

This set is called Hanging with My Gnomies and it's. just. too. cute!

 I've paired it with a peek-a-boo heart die and the MFT stitched wonky die.

 I've also stamped the inside ~ which I normally do and just don't show it :)

I kept it plain and uncolored - a trick I learned -and loved - years ago

from my Design Team days with Frances Byrne!

The "sun really needs to come out tomorrow!"

It's been raining here torentially 

and our town even had a 2 am tornado!

In Miami!

We huddled in the bathroom and hall until about 3 am

and it was just absolutely crazy!

Praying you are all safe and well!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

You make life brighter!

Happy Saturday!

Thanks so much for the anniversary wishes ~ you are all super sweet ♥

I have another set of cards for the FAN-TAS-TIC card camp!

I have enjoyed this camp so much

and in addition to learning new things, I'm always finding my comfort zone.

Today's card duo is written in the stars!

 For this class, I used 4 distress ink from Ranger Ink,

a Ranger Ink watercolor brush,

come chunky sparkly glitter to create a shaker card

and a reverse pop up card!

 For my cards, I've used the My Favorite Things stamp set Stars Above.

I used this because I wanted a bold die cut for my shaker card

and this set had both and some super fun sentiments.

Here's card #1 

 And my second card ↓

It's hard to photograph the glitter inside the shaker card 

 My house is pretty quiet at the moment which is RARE

so I'm excited to get inky and continue onward!

 Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

Let's Fiesta!

Hi friends!

 Today my cards for the #OCCSpringCardCamp are all about a fiesta!

I have a Bestie who has a birthday on May 5th ~

and her son was born just a few days shy of that date,

so we lovingly call her Cinco de Mama :)

I think she may end up with one of these as a birthday card!

When I was doing my cards for the next class at the #OCCSpringCardCamp,

I new the date would align with our anniversary

so I chose one that had a party theme.

I don't own a lot of 'word' metal dies so it was kinda slim pickings!

I remembered I had this fun fiesta die-namic from My Favorite Things

(I think it's retired now - I couldn't find it to link to the die.)

I used an MFT framework stencil to create a background,

blending with my Taylored Expressions Blender Brushes.

I found that they glide very smoothly over a stencil easier than

my Tim Holtz blending tool (which I love!) and I used 3 distress inks:

Squeezed Lemonade

Mowed Lawn

and Fired Brick.

 If you have visited my blog this week,

you've probably noticed a theme :) 

↓

 

And I'm super excited for the next set of cards!!

 

Have a great weekend, friends!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

Anniversary wishes and crafty friends ♥

Hi friends!

27 years ago, my husband and I said "I do!"

We met as teenagers

 and had a long dating and engagement before we got married

and have been together for 36 years ♥

He jokingly tells everyone "I should get a medal!"

 And I didn't know I married a comedian :)

#OCCSpringCardCamp continues!
 

 And this is my homework from the last class taught by Kristina Werner.

I loved her class so much!

She takes her time and is very detail oriented so it's easy to follow

and I just love the set of cards I made with this class.

  

It's no secret that I love bright, bold, whimsical colors ~

the more colorful, the more cheerful they are ♥

 I chose these 3 patterned papers from an Echo Park 

Summer Loving paper pad.

For the sentiments, I've used Simple Strips at Taylored Expressions.

The stitched dies are from My Favorite Things and

here's a close up on one of the cards ↓

  

 I'm smiling HUGE because I chose 3 of the simple strips at random

and I noticed at the time of blogging that they all start with H!

Just like Happy ♥

 

 Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly