HOLLY JOLLY!

 Hey sweet friends!

Today's card is showcasing 2 things:

A huge OOPS!

and The Man in the BIg Red Suit!

This was a fun card to make!

If you would like to see the YouTube version,

here it is:

Because I made a rookie mistake when creating this,

I had to think of ways to save/salvage this poor Santa card!

I used the adorable Stamptember Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous

2023 set ~ cute, cute, CUTE!

.

I loved the background stamp by Hero Arts snowflake swirl

and I stamped it with Pool Party ink.

THEN

I had a misstep with the stamp and forgot it had ink,

set it down on  the panel and had a few Santas on it!

So this is the result!

Thanks for stopping by!
~Kelly

Easy Glue Printing - Wednesday Tutorial SCS!

 Hi friends!

Today I have the honor of being a guest designer

to host the tutorial of the week for Splitcoaststampers

so it looks like we'll be 'stuck' together for this one!

Hee hee!

I've made several samples (scroll, scroll away!)

and a whole video which you can see here:

It's fun, creative and easier than it looks!

You'll need some school glue (you know you got some!),

acrylic paints (or watercolors but mix them up THICK!)

and some cardboard (from all those Christmas packing you are getting!)

and this tutorial right here will help you create these amazing

backgrounds for your cards.

For this first card, I used tones of pink and peach for the background.

I added a tree from Tim Holtz Sizzix collection and added

it the front of the card as a focal point with a little sentiment.

The beauty of this technique is each one is unique

and different and none will ever be the same!

I've also kept the fun going and make a shaker card edition:

Here's a close up of the snow and the dimension

and for this card I've used Simon Says Stamp Gnome Peeking.

I stamped the trees and die cut those with the stamps and dies from the

SSS set and used one of my #inktober watercolor backgrounds.

No snow in Florida so I loved creating this shaker version!

And that's it for this one today :)

Thanks for stopping!

~Kelly

New technique card/ video!

Hello friends!

Happy Monday!

 I hope your week is off to a good start :) 

I have a new video up on my YouTube channel 

making quite a mess a fun new technique card! 

One of the joy of papercrafting for me is being adventurous

 in my creating and having fun in the process.

I found a random wall tile in Dollar Tree

and originally attempted to use it as an embossing folder.

It didn't work!

I tried again, this time with distress oxide inks.

Even then, there was a bit of a learning curve!

All is well that ends well!

LOVING how this turned out .......

after all :)

I love for you to check out my channel and subscribe!

Thanks for your visit - and for watching!

Be blessed,

Kelly

and then .......... people!

Hi friends!

 hAPpY HaLLoWeEn!

I can't believe October is almost over

and in a few hours, the kids will actually be Trick or Treating!

The past year(s) have been so ....different.

It will be a wonderful sight tonight seeing the children at the door -

in costumes, asking for little treats!

I can't wait :)

My card ....... eek!

I'm literally 2 weeks overdue in posting this for the CCL card group.

Mine did arrive much later than anticipated and then L.I.F.E

but at least it's still October!

Our hostesses for this round of card kit splendor was

LJ for the Diamonds and Darlene for the Pearls!

They chose a theme of humor / snarky cat

and LJ sent us the most fabulous card kit with Tim Holtz snarky cat.

And here's my card!

I couldn't agree more with this sentence most days when I'm out!

People here where i live just don't know how to be normal :/

LJ sent us several sentiments and they are a hoot!

I chose this one because I'll send this to my daughter

and it's right up her alley (cat) - HA!

The rest of the card making friends created cards

and you can find them on Splitcoaststampers - Classy Card Ladies.

Next month, we have one more round

and then it's ta-da - done until 2022!

Thanks for stopping by!

Classy Card Ladies: Spring sketch!

Hi friends!

Every 15th of the month, there's a new CCL challenge

and our hostesses this month are:  LJ and Darlene!

The CCL = Classy Card Ladies and we're divided into 2 teams:

The Diamonds and The Pearls and we 'duel' card kits once a month.

For April, our hostesses came up with a theme of:

spring sketches!

Our gorgeous kit is from LJ and we received the stamped image,

beautiful embellishments and pretty papers 

AND

 Team Diamonds were asked to create our cards using THIS sketch:

This is a beautiful sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches #592!

Here is my card based on this sketch 

and using the beautiful spring flower as a focal point.

This flower is part of the spring Tim Holtz collection

and I was inspired to go with the color yellow.

To follow the sketch, I used the designer papers as a base

and cut up one of the squares into stripes

and highlighted the flower with vellum underneath.

And here's the inside:

that's it for this month's card duel!

Here is the full list of the cardmakers on both teams:

Diamonds

Barb

Carol

Kelly (you're here!)

LJ

Suzy - in the SCS Gallery

Pearls

Darlene

Deb - in the SCS Gallery

Shelly 

Jeanette

Tracie 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Crazy Birds!

 

Hi friends!

Happy Saturday!

I spent the evening (3 hours!) tearing apart my craft area

and reorganizing/moving furniture/cleaning/purging to freshen up my space :)

It looks lighter and air-ier and just has that 'make something!' vibe!

Which I did .... a lot of!

I get to stamp and color the day away today which makes my heart smile!

My card today is using the adorably funny Bird Crazy from Tim Holtz.

I just can't with those big 'ol eyeballs! 

LOL!

This card is heading to my brother who is finally back in Germany ~

his military unit sent him to Poland and he was stuck there for awhile,

and then decided to add on time because he loved it so much.

I definitely miss him!

The bird is colored with  my prismacolor markers

and the background is one of background pieces using clear blocks and wet ink.

I trimmed it with the speckled edge die from Kat Scrappiness

and added a sentiment and dots and tada!

Tomorrow I'm debuting another one of my new blog series

and just love - LOVE - how it turned out!

Thanks for stopping by!

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

CCEE2016 ~ Fun with stencils!

Hi friends!

We have a new challenge at the CCEE Stampers - stencils!

Stencils are such a fun way to decorate our cards

and so many companies have fun ones out there these days.

Frances is our hostess for the month of April 

and her challenge is to create a card that uses at least one stencil, 

either for a background or focal image.

 I love this challenge because I love stencils!

They are a great way to create designs and scenes on a card ~ like this one.

I've used a stamp set by My Favorite Things called You Gnome Me.

I wanted this set for forever

and was sad that they retired it ~

 but super thrilled to get it when they did

for such an amazingly low price during their big retirement sale ~ yay! 

My stencil is from Stamp Anniething and one I love - burlap.

I created a little scene with the fun gnome

but making 'sky' and 'grass' and added some stitched clouds.

Originally, I stamped the HELLO directly onto the cardstock

and it didn't look quite right so I added an extra cloud with it stamped on it.

 I keep my stencils tucked into an OLD DUSTY album ~

originally designed for pocket journaling.

I bought it before my son was even born (and he's almost 16!)

The front opening is for a photo so I added a quick distressed panel

with a little sunflower stamp ~ I love sunflowers ♥

 And the deep 8 x 8 pockets are PERFECT for storing the stencils.

Since I'm still cleaning and purging and moving things around,

I keep it handy on my desk next to Alice's markers and colored pencils.

My little granddaughter has her own sets

so it's a nice balance between the cup and bin! 

 And that's a tiny tour of my stencils, LOL!

Be sure to stop in the CCEE Stampers blog to see what the Design Team

created with their stencils.

As always, you can link up your cards, too ~ check the bottom of the blog post.

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

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

CCEE2008 ~ Paper Piecing!

Hi friends!

One more day until Fri-YAY!

I know ... I can't wait either!

There's a new challenge at the CCEE Stampers blog:  Paper Piecing!

That's a tried and true and favorite papercraft technique 

that I've always enjoyed doing.

I think it's reminiscent of when we'd play paper dolls

('membah those?!)

and could change up the outfits 

and outings of the little dollies with just paper.

For my card today, I'm using the Tim Holtz 

Stampers Anonymous Bird Crazy set.

These birds are hilarious!

I think if I could be a Tim Holtz bird,

this one that I've made is probably about what I'd look like :)

Bright colors and those big 'ol eyeballs ♥

Here's my card and I paper-pieced the birdie.
The rest is a clean and simple card and the sentiment comes in the set ~
and I love that it matched her expression so well.

You can see what the design team created by heading here to the blog
as well as finding the linky at the bottom to link up your cards, too.
We'd love to see what you make
with the paper piecing theme.

Thanks for stopping by today!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥
~Kelly

Hot Mess Success #5 ~ Magic of the season!

Hi friends and YES!
It's Monday!

But only 8 more days until Christmas!

I'm super excited this year for many reasons,

including having a 1 year old granddaughter, Alice, who is loving it all!

And I love that every time I go into my formal living room,

it is transformed into a Christmas cabin and it makes my heart smile ♥

 

Today I'm sharing with you the 5th card in the Hot Mess Success card group ~

usually posted on the 12th of every month.

This is a challenge where we make MESSY cards ~

any technique that requires a messier product like watercolors,

paint splatters, alcohol inks, etc!

This month, I'm the hostess and in the spirit of the holidays,

I chose a theme of use some sparkle, silver or gold, or glitter.

I chose gold. 

I used gold foil DCWV background cardstock

and Gina K. Designs gold foil in my alcohol inks Christmas trees.

Now .... my card.

I have to say, I do love it - it came out just as I hoped,

but ....

how on earth do you photograph gold foil?!

I tried and tried and tried and tried 

to get a great picture of it but it's a process! :)

I started with a base of Yupo paper and used a variety of Tim Holtz Ranger Ink

alcohol inks and let them do their magic!

Right before it was completely dry, I added the gold foil and pulled it up

for a random look.
Once it was dry, I ran the tree die through my Gemini Jr and
glued it to the gold cardstock - painstakingly slow but worth it!
The I stamped out the sentiment and popped it onto the card front.

It's funny (now) - I threw a few of these away 

before I realized I had the gold foil UPSIDE DOWN 

*grin!*

You can see Barb's card here,

Jeanette's card here,

and Terry's card here!

 It's interesting how this Hot Mess Success challenge group

is really showing me what techniques I like,

and the ones that I don't :)

This was a success, I'd say ~

and I'd definitely use this technique again.

Thanks for stopping by today!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

DDD: National Aviation Month!

Hi friends!

*Note:  I have 2 blog posts today!

For my CCEE Stampers card, please go here!*

I'm flying by with this month's card from the Dueling Darlings card group!

Our hostesses this month, Darlene for the Dazzlers and LJ for the Divas,
 chose a wonderful theme celebrating the history of flight.

I'm on Team Diva so I received a fabulous it from LJ,

filled with a choice of vibrant airplane, papers and matching embellishments!

This is what they planned:
 
"National Aviation History Month is dedicated to exploring, recognizing and celebrating America’s great contributions and achievements in the development of aviation. Aviation history refers to the history of development of mechanical flight — from the earliest attempts in kites and gliders to powered heavier-than-air, supersonic and space flights"

Let me say ... 
I. Love. This. Kit!!
It was so earthy and uninhibited and inspires adventure :)
LJ gave us the most gorgeous papers - it was HARD to cut/cover them up!
I let the papers shine through - and centered the script paper to resemble 
a letter tucked underneath and then die-cut a circular pattern with the stamp paper.  The airplane is popped up on 3d foam and the adventure away
chipboard sentiment is fastened with ATG.

You can see all of the Divas/Dazzlers cards by visiting
their blogs as listed in our group here!

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