Know your worth....

Hi friends!

I hope your weekend is going super :)

I can't stop smiling ~ my son is home!

Oh how we've missed him!

He's regaled us with stories from camp and 

aside from missing his mama's cooking and his 'own bed',

 he missed internet! :)

I've been a long time fan of Catherine Pooler Designs

and have several of her ink pads and they. are. marvelous!!

I loved this stamp set when I saw it

as it is very different from any stamps I currently have.

The fern is inked up in Catherine Pooler Grass Skirt ink

and I masked it to create the two leaves.

I saw the Inspiration Challenge at SCS and quickly put my card 

together after seeing this funky high top shoe!

The green, black and white became my springboard.

I love the foresty feel that this has ~

the crisp image of the stamp, I can almost smell the pine and woods!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly 

Entered into:  Simon Says Stamp/AG

It's FIESTA time!! ♥

Hola, amigos!  

T.G.I.F!

I have been dashing about since yesterday

and came home to a wonderful package on my front porch today ~

My Monthly Hero April kit!

The minute I spied the sneaks coming out on social media sites, 

I knew I had to have this one!

 My husband was born and raised in Spain 

and we LOVE Flamenco music and dancers ♥

Although this kit has a bit of Cinco de Mayo feel to it,

I thought it was an absolutely delightful nod to the hispanic culture.

Not to mention how I love these darling chihauhaus!

They were an add-on to the kit but

 I. had. to. have. them! ♥

I'm a day late for the CCEE Stampers challenge

"National Pet Day"

but there's no way .... NOOOOOO WAY!!! ...

I could tell my Buddy - and Buster - and Finny the cat

that 

e.v.e.r.y.d.a.y

 isn't National Pet Day ...

tee hee!

I did some masking and stamping to create a little 

fiesta scene - complete with hot sauce and bones,

pups with a sombrero and guitar.

I can almost here the salsa playing!

This is my 2nd Hero Arts Kit ♥

My sweet daughter, Victoria, gave me the coveted winter one for Christmas

and I will love it for forever :)

This month's one is still sealed (the add on arrived seperately)

and I plan to have an un-boxing video soon!

Stay tuned!

 

 Cheers!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥
~Kelly

I'll enter this into:  4CraftyChicks - Raining cats and dogs
.Inspire.Create. - Masculine cards
Fairy Tale Challenge - Raining Cats and Dogs
Fab n Funky Challenge - Cute Critters

The 3:09 card!

 

Good Morning, friends!  

 

I can't believe it's already July!

And a little trivia for you ...

did you know at 12 pm today, we will be exactly half way through 2015!

Not only does that mean the summer is flying by,

but Christmas is going to be here before you know it!

 

I've been busy in the Cabana making tons of cards,

catching up on some overdue cards and creating the new ones.

This one is a very CAS card,

which if you have been a follower for awhile now,

will know this is so. not. me!

The inspiration, and challenge, for this card came from a friend on SCS.

Her challenge for us was to use the image/papers

and create a card in ....

 

UNDER 30 minutes!

 

The what what??

I literally loved her challenge!

Because it takes me 6 hours to make anything!

 

 

 I looked at the clock in the Cabana, and it read 2:51 ...

seeing the ocean feel of the precolored SU! image,

I reached for my Marina Mist cardstock and the swatches of dsp

and just made them work as a base for the image.

 

ah, you know how much I love my layers!

This wasn't easy, but somehow, I am happy with how it ended up :)

And I was done at 3:09!

I could get used to this :)

 

I'll enter my card into: 
Crafting for all seasons #105 - Cute and Summery

 

As always,

Big Hugs, Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

 

 

A flower a day keeps the ...... snow away!

Hi there!  This has been a productive and crafty weekend for me - rare but exciting none-the-less :)  It's so hot here, even with the beach and pool visits we have been making, it's soooo much nicer to stay in and ink and color! :*)

I thought I'd share the card I made for the SOTC (card group on SCS) ~ our hostess this month is Maryann.  Bless her heart, Maryann has had her share of snow and more snow -  and asked us to create a card with flowers to bring out the sunshine!   I actually created one, totally CAS, and then read her requirements to include at least one embellishments, so in order to keep the CAS look, I added a dallop of ric-rac and some tiny pearls in pale yellow.

      

Here was the original: just a subtle difference, right?

I'm still trying my hand at creating new things this year.  You may remember from this post, it's my LINY year!  I absolutely fell in love with this card and wanted to CASE it, however, as you can see, that idea fell way through!  I'm not really happy with how this turned out, but I had good intentions :/ 

 I'm trying to embrace the crisp, CAS look of cards and have these wonderful ideas - then put them 'on paper' and it just falls flat ... no pun intended! :)  I thought Bridget's card was stunning in blue, but really wanted to use yellow - to represent sunshine and to make it cheery.  I also had fun playing with one of my old stamp sets again as per my crafting goals, like this one from SNSS from their February flower of the month (Iris) collection.  

The color combo at Dynamic Duos this week is to use green and yellow, so I'll go ahead and enter this card there ...  

and Cas-ual Fridays Challenge #108 asks for a CAS card with a swatch of any material - I used ric-rac on the card so I'll go ahead and enter this card to their challenge as well :)

Thanks for stopping by today ~ have a great rest of the weekend!

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

It's the *Happiest* of Birthdays :)

Hi, friends!  

Today is a very *happy* day ~ it happens to be my birthday today :)

But most importantly, a few days ago we received some much anticipated news that brought us to our knees with gratitude and relief.  While it's not 100% what we'd hoped for, it was a ruling out of a lot of scary to rule in a lot more 'treatable'.  Praising God and giving Him all the glory!

And that is one of the BEST gifts a mommy could ever, ever hope for -

I'm humbled and thankful!

AND...  the 28th of the month is also the day the Calendar Girls post our monthly theme creations ~  our hostess is Tami - Miss March.

And did she ever give us a challenge - 

one that had me scrambling my creative little legs off ;)

Here is her challenge for us: 

 MARCH 2013 CHALLENGE

Um, I hope I do not hurt anyone's feelings here but we are all a little bit of paper hoarders!!! 

Well, we are going to have to give up the security blanket for March. I would like to see your best created card with NO designer paper. *gasp*.....*thud* {I think J just hit the floor}.

So go ahead and grab your 'old school stamps' - yep, like a set you have not used in years - and create a card for the Calendar Girls.

Oh, and let's try to keep in theme with 'use what'cha got', please no new purchases for this round. Use what'cha got...well, everything but designer paper that is!

I cannot wait to see what my friends come up with. It is always something to look forward to!

Whew!  No dsp?  Eeek!  What's a layer-it-up, love-my-designer-paper gal to do?!  Embrace the challenge :)  I was so inspired to try the "no dsp" that I made not one, but two cards!

Since this is the 'LINY year', and I'm following 

the MCC "use every stamp" challenge, I said to myself  "Self .. 

continue using stamps that haven't gotten to play and play along with new card challenges - it's a win/win!"

So first up, Happy Birthday Card #1 ~

I saw a similiar card while blurfing around awhile back -  please see the artist's original card here!  I went with a similiar layout - changing up to just one rounded corner and the stamp use and changed the colors to suit ones I wanted to play along with for the new ColorQ challenge.  My stamp - oh me oh my, I've had this for at least 6+ years and inked up the Happy Birthday stamp in this Alphabet Soup set.

 I'm tickled with how it turned out and absolutely plan to make a few of these in a couple of different colors :)  Next up, continuing along with the theme ~

 Happy Birthday card #2:

I went straight for Rich Razzleberry and inked up a Stampendous clear stamp set.  I used the balloon stamps and added 'to you' from the set.  This card made me just laugh and laugh.  I fussed over it longer than I would a card that had multiple layers and dimensions.  I actually added a ribbon after the fact and a few kaiser pearls scattered about and then convinced myself that CAS is okay - really, you'll be fine!  So I took it all back off and well, here it is ~ finished, at least!  I was inspired by the SCS CAS213 Limited Supplies Challenge: Use ONLY line stamps (NO solid ones!) *does not include your sentiment.

Tami, thank you for this fabulous challenge this month!

I enjoyed it so very much as I do all challenges 

but learned that yes, I adore my layers of DSP! :)

Please check out the rest of the Calendar Girls DT blogs 

in my sidebar and see what they've made this month.

Big Hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Card #1:  Entered into:  Color Q #182  challenge
CCEE Stampers - Oldies but Goodies stamps