One Stamp Four Seasons ~ and a SURPRISE!

 

Hi friends!

Happy 1st day of spring 2021!

Today is an absolutely gorgeous day here in Miami.

The sun is shining, the weather is breezy and the birds are chirping :)

I love spring!

You may remember from this post at the beginning of the year

that I have several monthly/quarterly posts planned.

This is one of them :)

I've spotted this idea on Pinterest last year and thought I'd give it a try.

The idea:  Use ONE stamp for each of the FOUR seasons!

And the stamp I chose for 2021 One Stamp Four Seasons is ....

this very sweet House Mouse Dragonfly Ride!

Of course, it has a dragonfly :)

First, here's my card:

I just love the fresh spring colors!

I paired this image with papers from Lawn Fawn and used

oval stitched frames from My Favorite Things and colored with copics.

You may notice from the thumbnail that the dragonfly wings

have a bit of sparkle from some Wink Of Stella.

So ...... what a WONDERFUL surprise I had today!

While I was outside photographing this card for this post,

an actual dragonfly was fluttering around me and landed in the tree.

I was able to take a quick video (watch to the end!)

and this beautiful dragonfly's visit was perfectly timed :)

Here it is with my card, circled in white!

Wow - so thankful for that unexpected gift today :)

I'm excited for summer, fall and winter :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Card entered to:  House Mouse and Friends challenge - bugs

Inspiration Saturday - Sweet Gifts!

Hi friends!

Today is double duty - I'm hosting TWO challenges 

at Splitcoaststampers that just happened to land on the same day :)

Later today, I have a challenge in the Snow Globe VSN

but first ...... it's Inspiration Saturday!

It is a great honor to be the co-host with the amazingly talented Angela Bode!

The chosen site is LTD Commodities and it has a little something for everyone.

In a nutshell, the idea is you look through the site, 

find a page/item that inspires you and create a card based on that photo.

I love this site in the forum as it's a wonderful springboard

for many of my cards that I come up with over the weekend :)

 

What did I chose?

Peppermint candy!

 I was inspired by my recent haul of House Mouse stamps 

and spotted this peppermint  jar in the catalog. 

  I remembered this stamp in my haul:  Carrying Mints 

and put the card together after coloring it with my copics.

The sentiment is from another stamp set ;)

 

If you'd like to stop by and play along,

head on over to the SCS forum!

10 more days until Happy Christmas!

Big hugs, bigger blessings!

~Kelly

 

3M: Take Me Home, Country Roads ............

Hi friends!

It's the 9th day of the month which means it's time

for a new card creation with the Three Musketeers!

This month, as the July hostess,
 I had the honor of choosing the stamp.

Since it's summer, and many are traveling or are on holiday,
I thought it would be fun to color this Stampendous travel trailer!

One thing that brings me great joy is traveling.

Oh the places I'd go!
I have wanderlust ~ no doubt about it.
In fact, that's my favorite word ♥

 A little confession!
I really had no idea what to do with this stamp :/
I did have fun coloring all of those little states across America!

I remember years of watching dad read the old Rand McNally maps
to get us from here to there and everywhere in between.
Long LONG before GPS and iPhones and Siri helping with navigation ;)

 

I channeled the memory of those colorfully planned atlas/maps

and did a multi-colored USA and carried the color scheme through-out the card. 
Second, this stamp is HUUUUUUUGE!
↓

  I kept the card clean and simple and A2 size ~
the stamp alone is 4" x 5.25" ... pretty large!
 It's colored with prismacolor markers and the card front is popped up

on 3D foam ~

so from the side, this is a pretty thick card.

 

Since we are the 3 Musketeers,
you can see Barb's card here and Jeanette's card here with this stamp.
Every month, we post something new and different ..
it's always a surprise and iit's like a little treat in the mailbox each monnth!

 
Jeanette, Barb, me! ↑
 

I hope this summer gives you the chance to hit the open roads,
take a little time out for traveling (or a lot!) 

 I'm lucky to be able to micro-adventure around our diverse city and state ♥

I'll be canoeing in our tropical mangroves instead of white wate rafting,
rock climbing with a lead belay (my daughter!) instead of mountain hiking,

and I won't make it to the Taj Mahal but I can make it to The Mall :)

Thanks for stopping by :)
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥
~Kelly

3M: Santa's Coming to town ..

... and he's riding in a pick up! 

Happy Fri-Yay, friends!

The 3M - that would be Barb, Jeanette and I, 

post cards once a month based on an image.

This month, I was the hostess and chose this darling Santa and reindeer

image and sentiment from Stampendous called Santa's pick up.

 

They were on time posting on the the 9th ...

I've been swamped with family/commitments/events

but hopefully I'm still on Santa's good list!

I'm sure I am!

*wink! wink!*

 

If I had to decribe my card making style - 

I'd have to say I'm drawn to whimsical, colorful, and critters!

Anything that has cute animals, I am immediately pulled in

and start looking for it ♥

This stamp found me!

I was wandering through a store, waiting for my son to finish school,

and there it was - a ton of new stamps from Stampendous, each a delight!

Here is the inside of my card:

You can see what Barb created here and Jeanette's card here!

Thanks for stopping by today!

 And just in case ~ only 39 days left until Christmas!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

Namaste!

Today is World Meditation Day!

 

I try to keep up on my obscure holidays because I think they are hilarious!
They are also a great way to springboard an idea for a card!

 I did know it was chocolate chip day

 so I was excited to hear that today we get our Namaste on! :)

I remembered a few months ago I purchased these Yoga frogs 

from Stampendous and set them aside.

Today, I went through my stamps looking for them - it was perfect!   

I know if I were a yoga frog, 

I'd be the one dreaming of pizza :)

*Peace!*

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

CCEE1801: Waddle I do? + *GIVEAWAY!*

Hi friends!

I have a card and a *Giveaway* for today's post ...
make sure you read alllllll the way to the end ♥

The CCEE Stampers are back after a long winter's nap :)

We took the holidays off to celebrate with our families ~

and are starting off the new year with a new challenge: Penguins!

Liz is our hostess and asked us to create a card with the theme:

Waddle I do in 2018? 
 Use a penguin or other cold weather animal on your card.
 I do love penguins!
I have many penguin stamps and chose to ink up my Neat and Tangled 
stamp set again because I didn't get to use it enough this Christmas :-(
It was one of my favorites for making holiday cards this year ♥

Waddle I do in 2018?

My wish for this year is to embrace my Word of the Year (coming tomorrow!)
AND it starts today ~ with a giveaway!
I purchased several stamp sets after Thanksgiving for this Christmas
and ended up not using most of them.
Since today is all about penguins,
I thought I'd send you some sunshine-y happy mail
 in your mailbox to one lucky winner :)

But first ..... my card!

  Using Santa's Wonderland from Neat and Tangled,
I stamped/colored/glittered the penguin and then ran it through the cuttlebug.
I made the snow banks using Pink and Main scallop dies and used the same 
circle die as the penguin to round out the snow banks ~ then added glue/glitter.

For the card base, I used cardstock, rounded the edges,
and added the dsp and paper circle and border.
The inside (not shown) is stamped with the North Pole and snow balls :)

I hope you are staying warm and bundling up!
Speaking of snuggling up, I'm giving away to one lucky winner this stamp and die
set today by Stampendous.
Just leave me a comment and if you like, share your favorite thing about winter!
And yes - 
I will ship worldwide!

Good Luck, friends!

Lastly, please be sure to stop in the CCEE Stampers blog
and check out the adorable line up of penguins.
You can find them here -
and of course, if you link up your card to a gallery or other site,
use the keyword CCEE1801.

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥
~Kelly

Santa Claus is coming .......

.... to town! 

And he is checking his list - and checking it twice!

But I know all of you, my friends,

are all on the nice list ♥

Isn't this image darling!
I really, really, really, REALLY love images of Santa!

This darling Stampendous "secret santa" stamp was sent to the 3M

this month by Barb, our hostess for December.

When I saw it, I was instantly smitten!

I actually colored up this Santa at 1 am,

waiting for my daughter to come home with her boyfriend from a date.

I was sleep deprived and seeing cross-eyed ...

so imagine my (pleasant) surprise to wake up the next day

and see how beautifully it was colored - ROFL!!

Guess I found my perfect time to color and the conditions to color in! :)

For the inside of my card,

I used one of the fabulous sentiment stamps from The Project Bin.

The stamp is from the Maybe Christmas stamp set

and a perfect match to this - and any - holiday card ♥

Be sure to stop on over to see what Barb and Jeanette made

with this secret santa stamp! 

Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly

Simple Sundays :)

Happy SONday blessings to you!

Some of my very favorite moments are is remembering the nostalgia

 of my childhood abroad.  I was blessed as a child to travel

 and see so much of the world, painted so vividly in my mind

 in a kaleidoscope of colors and scenes! 

Car trips didn't mean just getting from one country or popular attraction ~

they often meant a new scene for me to sketch, even as young as 6!

My little box of crayons, a sketch pad and I drew pictures and

stories to match :)

 

I was SO drawn to the Scenic Serenity Series of stamps from Stampendous when I first saw them a couple of years back.

Yes, years :)

  I bought a couple of the stamps in the series and they are every bit

of gorgeous as the artist intented them to be.

 This stamp deserves to be the focal point of the card,

so I kept the design pretty simple overall ~

 I'm drawn to the almost animated yet bold look they seem to have.

The artist did a wonderful job designing these ~

You can see more of Kimberly's earlier work here on this post :)
 

I wish you a beautiful day!

Although much of the country is buried in snow, 

Spring isn't too far away :)

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

I'll enter this into these challenges:
 Stampendous Challenge for January(my card = find your purpose *button*)
Addicted to Stamps:  Flowers
The Squirrel and the Fox - Use Embellies (ribbon, button, pearls)
The Crafting Cafe - Anything Goes
One Crazy Stamper - Anything Goes

Card #30/100