Hot Mess~ Happy Easter!

 Hello friends!

Happy Easter!

Rejoice ~ He is Risen!

Today's card is for the Hot Mess ~ Success card group.

The group's name is a big giveaway - we make messes *smile!*

The idea is to create a card that requires the use of being creative

but in a slightly - or majorly! - messy way.

It's always great fun and I never really know what I'm going to come up with.

I'm the hostess this month and love neutrality without restrictions

and creative freedom so my challenge was 'anything goes!' 

And, if you are Splitcoaststampers and played along with the VSN Florapalooza,

you'd have seen this little flower card ♥ 

I used the watercolor tissue paper technique and it's a multi step process

but!

It's easier than it looks and you never know what the end result will be.

I started with a base of white tissue paper

and used my Tim Holtz reinkers directly onto the media mat.

Gently mixing up the colors with spritzed water, I repeatedly dipped

white (dry, this step is important!) tissue paper into the water/reinker mix

 and let it do it's magic!

I've done this technique before where I used it right away by heat drying it

and I've found you get the best result 

- a nice and sturdy to work with piece -

by letting it dry overnight but that's just what works for me :)

Once it's dry, it's sturdy enough to go through the die cut machine

with a metal die but be SUPER DUPER careful taking it out ~ it can rip!

I glued it to a base of white cardstock

and stamped the flower stamp from Elzybells (I miss this stamp company!!!)

and the sentiment stamp from Heffy Doodle in Stazon ink,

added a ribbon and glued to my card.

 I'd say my Hot Mess was a Success!

I even created several more of these background pieces in a variety of colors.

It reminds me of Easter egg dying, which we'll be doing later today :)

Since we are a group, you can see the other cards made here:

Barb

Jeanette

Terry

I wish you all a blessed day, whatever it may hold for you!

We are having an Easter feast at home with just our kids, my daughter's husband, and our granddaughter who will have games, an egg hunt,

egg dying and a few other Easter surprises.

During this time of sheltering in and social distancing, it's nice to BE together!

Big hugs and bigger blessnigs! ♥

~Kelly

CCEE1729 ~ Moon and Space Exploration!

Good Morning, friends :)

 Over at the CCEE Stampers, Maryann is once again the hostess

of the challenge at hand.

She chose for us to make a card based on another day on the
 *Days of the Year Calendar* ~ Moon and Space Exploration Day!

This is one area where my stamps are lacking, so

I chose the closest thing:  A moon, some stardust and moonbeams! ♥

The stamp is from Elzybells (retired) and I've had this set for forever and a day.

How I miss this stamp company!

Please stop by the CCEE Stampers blog 

and see what the rest of the DT has made.

And if you upload your card to a gallery like splitcoaststampers,

use the keyword CCEE1729 ~ we'd love to visit and see your creation :)

I'll be back shortly with my R, S, G card, too!

We've been going through the gambit of 1,000 things and are just coming up for air.

I'm sure you know the feeling!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

Ready, Set, Go! ~ Mix it, Mash it!

Ready, Set, Go!

There's a new challenge in town!

The 3 Musketeers (Barb, Jeanette and I) are about to kick it up a notch!

In the 3M, we take turns sending a stamped image out and we all create a card with that same image.  We're living up to the adventurous Musketeer name and adding on an additional challenge on the 3rd Wednesday of each month

 (courtesy of Barb's adorable Smoochy-the-Wednesday-camel.}  

The challenges will be bolder, creatively adventurous and artistically out of the box.

When thinking of our challenge name, we thought:  We got this.

"We're Ready.  Dates, challenges, hostess - all Set.  Let's Go!"

I'm up first to throw down the gauntlet!

I chose this theme for our 1st challenge:  Mix-it-mash-it-up! 

Taking the oldest stamp set that we still own and the newest stamp set that we have gotten, we have to create a card using both stamp sets.

Mix it, mash it, and combine the two!

If it has multiple stamps in the set(s), we pick at least one stamp from each set.

The added fun is that even if the two sets are polar opposite 

and don't mix and mash at all, we have to make it work.

Ready, Set, Go!

A craft room downsize has left me without almost all of my first stamp sets.      EXCEPT for my most cherished and treasured Elzybells from the UK in 2008!

I will keep these stamps FOREVER!

And lucky, lucky me ~ my Stamp AnnieThing order arrived last 

and in it, this darling Sam best buds stamp

 that I ordered to make cards for my son ♥

 I looked through my many Elzybells stamps

and pulled out just the dog ones.

I am crazy for anything with dogs, stamps included,

so, of course, these have stayed with me all. these. years! 

I had to make this stamp set match this stamp!

 What I did with the Stamp AnnieThing stamp set was mask off Sam and his pug, and stamped a few of the Elzybells to see which of the dogs would fit best.

** I got them all at the same time all the way from England - same box! 

I ended up going with the dog with the buzzing bee on his tail ~

masking it off, as it looked like the pup was lovingly looking up at him :)

The sentiment was a bonus, not required in the challenge :)

I loved the way the card looks without my usual layers of dsp

and embellishments and I let the challenge mix-mash stamps be the focal point.

I am in love with how this card came out ♥

                               Barb is up next in June with challenge #2,                                               followed by Jeanette in July with challenge #3 ~ fun!                             You can see what they both made with my mix-it-mash-it-challenge by clicking the links to their blogs. 

 We even have fun new blog badges!

Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly

Mystery revealed ~ I love Dogs! ♥

 

 

Happy Weekend! 

 

I'm watching the torrential rain falling outside the kitchen window

and am grateful today is an inside day!

I'm a coffee girl, that's no secret :)

But on rainy days, I love a cup of warm tea, snuggling up with a good book,

or heading to The Cabana to stamp, color, create!

 

 

 

Today is also the day we reveal the *Mystery Image*,

a progressive swap that I am in at SCS.

This swap was originally started by Jeanette,

and all of us take turns being a hostess and sending out an image to

all the participants to build a card around it ...

then return it to the hostess for swapping back out.

 

This month, I was the hostess :)

I sent out this adorable 'in the doghouse' Elyzbells stamp

as it remains one of my very, very favorite in my stamp collection.

I wanted to see what the other ladies

would create with this same image so this one was top pick!

 

This is my take ~ very 'primary colors',

pretty simple as I wanted the sweet pup to be the focal point.

The buttons just jumped out of my bin and onto my card :)

The inside is with another Elzybells coordinating sentiment stamp.

   

                                                       In our family, we love dogs!

My daughter recently had a fundraiser for a dog rescue organization

and I sold off 75% of my SU! stamps to donate to the cause.

As well as some VERY generous purchases through many of my

online stamping friends that were a beautiful blessing + contribution ♥

 

I hope today is a good one for you!
Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Card entered for consideration:  HIMCR - Lots of Layers!
Polkadoodles - 2 designers papers
Animals Friends - an animal on the card!