Christmas in July!

Hi friends!

Christmas in July is a fun tradition and it sure seems like

 we all need a little extra cheer!

This is such a fun time of year when Christmas 

is mingled with the blazing hot summers.

My personal favorite?

 Santa on the beach!

Everyone needs a holiday :)

The idea behind Christmas in July is a wonderful joy ~

it shouldn't be just one time a year.

Kinda like a half-birthday ...

twice is better than once!

My card is one that I did for Watercolor Wednesday at SCS

and it was somehow stuck in draft mode.

 I missed about 2 weeks of reality not even knowing my own name

so I'm sure it had a lot to do with that!

Hi. My name is Starbucks Kelly and I love coffee you!

For this card, I used the Altenew watercolor brush markers

and I am IN LOVE with these!

I'm still learning how to navigate the water and layer the colors

and I'm having fun in the process!

This is the layered Jolly Holly background from Taylored Expressions,

stamped with pigment ink for fast drying, no watercolor smearing.

I heat set this with the embossing tool in between each color 

(after the greens, then after the reds) to avoid any welling.

I usually chose my cardstock and/or papers first

(to make sure I have colors that will match)

so I was lucky that after it was waterolored, I found just the right ones.

The final touch was a sentiment stamp 

with a friendly greeting.

The joy in these big background style cards 

is even though they are large, they are super simple to mass produce.

And it was nice to dust off a stamp set that's been sitting in the bin

for way too long :)

I'm still doing card catch up and I'm way behind ...

baby steps!

Thanks for stopping by 

and, as always,
Big hugs, bigger blessings :)

~Kelly

Carded, Twice ... January's card

Hi friends!

Happy Middle-of-the-week!

 Don't let my blog title fool you .... it's still really February  :)

And I also haven't been carded ...

And certainly not twice!

But, last week, taking my little granddaughter, Alice, to her gym class,

where we interactively jump and play and bounce around,

 I was called a 'Cool Grandma!"

So there's that  :)

This year, one of my main 'crafty goals' was to find ways to recycle with my cards.

Not necessarily using old cards you get in the mail and creating new cards ...

more like all the things we open and use and finish and toss.

Cardboard, boxes, ribbons, package inserts and so. much. more!

My brain works in strange, strange ways.

We were recently at a restaurant, enjoying a celebratory meal,

and everyone was laughing and smiling and it was wonderful!

But, I was also looking around the table at 'stuff' and I kept seeing cards!

"I can use this, I can use that ..."

You'll see a lot of the ideas later this year ...

... if I can remember where I put things!

Today's card is for January and the first in the series.

It was done, photographed, and then life happened so it wasn't blogged.

Until today! 

Can you spot what was recycled?

For my first card, I collect Starbucks You are Here/Been there City mugs.

They are so near and dear to my heart!

Many came from my travels or my brother/kids as they traveled,

and a few were sent by treasured friends ♥

(tip: airports are ah-may-zing places to find these!)

Sample photo!  Photo courtesy of Amazon

I cut down the box and used the front 'BEEN THERE" panel as the focal point.

Since it was jagged from the box, I ran it through my Gemini Jr with a 

stitched die from My Favorite Things and it fits nicely into the scallop frame.

The red/kraft cardstock are the card base 

and are secured under the Starbucks panel.

I used My Favorite Things ALM Miss You a Latte

for the image to match the coffee theme and used my Brother Scan N Cut.

She's colored with a combo of Copic markers and prismacolor markers.

The coffee themed sentiment is from MFT's Friends at First Sip

and I used this one (over one in the ALM set) for font size. 

I think the panel definitely gives it an interesting vibe

and at least it wasn't thrown out and makes for an interesting design.

It was Card(ed) .. Twice!

And that's it for me with card #1 in the Carded, Twice series!

I'll be back later this month with the one for February :)

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

Celebrating National Refreshment Day!

 Hi friends!

Oh. Me. Oh. My!

It's been so long since I've been able to craft/blog/visit -

 but I'm hoping our summer is settling a little bit! 

Today I'm back with a card for the CCEE Stampers

and our hostess, Lynn, asked us to create a card for

National Refreshment Day.

Naturally, I have a Starbucks cup of coffee for my drink of choice! 

 This little cutie from a Love Cynthia stamp set

stole my heart when I saw her popping up on Instagram!

These stamp sets came all the way from France!

I ordered 2 sets (one coffee related, and one you'll see soon!)

and was able to get most of the shipping saved by a coupon offered

during National Scrapbooking Day - yay!

To create my card, I used Bermuda Bay cardstock from SU!

and dsp from American Crafts.

I stamped/fussy cut the coffee girl and the word coffee,

and the other part of the sentiment is printed right onto the dsp.

She's colored with Procolor markers and a few enamel dots 

completed the card.

And here's the inside look with another sentiment ♥ 

↓

Be sure to stop in the CCEE blog and see what the rest of the DT has made!
It's bound to be refreshing!

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

I'll enter this into:  Double D Challenge- Coffee or Tea
 

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Hi friends!

Today's the day! 

I'm flying off to meet some wonderful crafty friends for a 5 day getaway ~
oh, the shenanigans crafting we will be doing! :)

And that's just what today's card is ~

the 3 Musketeers card this week was this darling image from Barb.

And the CCEE Stampers theme this week from Liz

was "Baby, it's cold outside" so this card fits both needs ♥

These 4 friends are from Art Impressions and they sure

look they are bundled up from some cold weather -

hats, scarves, UGG boots and COFFEE!

I'm convinced I am the one in the green ~

just look at her face looking at that big 'ol Starbucks.

I have that same look when they hand me mine - LOL!

So here is my 3M/CCEE card ~ friends, crisp cool air, coffee ♥

Sorry my post is short and sweet today ~
I'm typing as I'm packing :)

You can see what the other CCEE  Stampers have made

with cold weather cards here. 

And Barb's card and Jeanette's card are here!

 

Big hugs, bigger blessings!

~Kelly