Let's hit the beach!

Hi friends!

Today is a fun day ~

It's a beach day!

This card is for Week 5 of the Summer Inspired card hop

organized by The Kellys!  

(That would be my sweet friend Kelly on Instagram and moi!)

How it works: 

Each week, we have a summer theme where you chose

1 or the other OR combine both if you'd like.

For Week 5, Kelly (the other one!) has chosen BBQs or favorite activity.

 

One of my favorite things is a trip to the beach!

I could be there all day every day if i could! :)

There's something so incredibly relaxing about a lounge chair 

under the shade of an umbrella watching the waves.

Add in a good book and it's absolute bliss!

This random photo I took outside while photographing cards

shows our gorgeous Florida weather!

The sky's are crystal blue and everything here is so green.

HOT HOT HOT but that's typical here :)

Wishing you a day filled with all of your favorites!

Lots of love,

Kelly

Mission (IM)Possible ~ Star bright!

 

Hello friends!

Today's card is for the Mission  Impossible Possible 

quarterly-ish card group

where we receive a mystery item from a hostess

and then create a card with the item!

This mission's mystery item was a beautiful star bright stencil

from Spellbinders and it was sent to both Barb and I from Jeanette.

She also  purchased one for herself and

 we 3 have the same stencil to create our own versions of cards.

Mine probably should have been a candidate for the Hot Mess card!

I started by taking  a sheet of watercolor cold press paper

and did a dry flat wash using Altenew watercolors.

Once it was dry (several hours naturally), I used the Spellbinders

Star Bright stencil over the top, my ranger distress inks and blending 

foam brushes from Scrapbook.com.

The last creative part was a dusting of ultra fine glitter after 

pouncing the stencil and paper with versamark.

This card has a great New Year's flair with the sparkle and shimmer!

I added the string for a bit more drama 

and as a reminder of how we always have streamers and horns 

that blow strings each New Year's celebration :)

The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions simple strips Crafty

stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink.

You can see Barb's card here 

and Jeanette's card here.

I'm up next Mission and the item I'll be sending them found me last week!

Honestly, I'm a little scared, LOL!

But a challenge it is!

Stay tuned for that mission -

 coming to a blog near you in the Spring '22!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Double Duty card #2 ~ Lawn Fawn

 

Hi friends!

Thank you SO MUCH for your super sweet words 

from this post - it is so exciting and so fun and you are awesome! :)

Another thing that is fun?!

  The Double Duty card challenge

where Barb, Jeanette and I create 2 cards with a chosen theme.

This is similiar to a series I did previously called Spot The Difference.

The spin off of this one is that Barb choses a stamp company

each month for us to create 2 different cards.

 February's stamp company = Lawn Fawn :)

YAY!

I adore Lawn Fawn and have many many stamps and dies <3

For my cards, I've used Lawn Fawn's Our Friendship Grows.

I adore sunflowers but decided not to go traditional with these cards.

And I just love them :)

It took forever and a day to create it because I started with just this!

A distress oxide background from Creative Chick's distress oxide class!

I wasn't happy with this one panel at. all. so I 'repurposed' it 

and ended up stamping directly onto the panel and die cutting it.

And then I did like it so much!

To create the card base, I added a die cut panel of Spiffy Speckles 

and used my LF stitched rectangles to Licorice cardstock.

I used nearly every millimeter of the panel with the flowers

and leaves and then had an idea - add some sweet ladybugs!

I followed the current Lawn Fawnatics #95 sketch for this card

and I love that it made a 'quad' with the sunflowers.

For my 2nd card, I kept it SUPER simple 

and had an idea to use just one of the sunflowers as a contrast to the

black and white cardstock and background.

No coloring and just popped up the watercolored sunflower

and added a quick sentiment.  

This year I'm 'stocking my stash' + now I have one more get well card!

Here is a final look at both of my cards:

One stamp company, 2 different cards!

I love LOVE that I was able to use something I didn't like so much

and made 2 pretty cards that I DO like so much :)

Tomorrow I have a lunch date with my 2nd daughter 

who has some pretty big life changes - and I'm super excited

to catch up!  We're going to one of our favorite restaurants

as well as a book store and the fresh farmer's market <3

Thanks for stopping by and making it to the end of this post!

Miss you *beary* much ...

 

Hi friends!

I saw a poem the other day that resonated with me ~

and I read it just at the time I needed it the most :)

"A bear teaches us that if the heart is true, 

it doesn't matter much if an ear drops off." 

~Helen Exley

So very true!

My friend's dad recently passed away and I was so sad for her

as that's a heartbreak I'm familiar with.

But rather than create sympathy cards, she had a card drive 

and asked for cards with a bear somewhere on it for him.

What a sweet idea to remember the fond memories and

 celebrate his love of bears <3

My card is using Lawn Fawn's Smooth Sailing and Life is Good.

To create this, I used heavy #120 Accent Opaque cardstock

and made a 'porthole' for the sky and waves.

I cut/colored all the pieces and layered them to my card

to create an ocean/beachy vibe.

I'm sure she will receive cards from all over the globe

and I wanted this one to say "Miami!"

And that's my card :)

Thanks for stopping by!

I'll enter this to:  Lawn Fawnatics challenge 94 ~ What's the weather (sunny here!!)

Simon Says Stamp Monday - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday - Anything Goes

Shaded Stencils ~ Day 5!

Hi friends!

I hope you are all doing well ♥

Spring card camp is still going strong - and fast!

This camp is kicking my cardmaking up a few (hundred) notches!

It moves quick and it's easy to fall behind 

so I created these two cards while throwing a little shade.

As in ... Stencil Shading!

It was taught by Lydia (from SCS) and

here's. where. it. gets. funny!

After camp #1, I placed some orders for new toys and they've all arrived ...

except for one, which has the flower stencils in it.

But no biggie ~ we are in a quarantine and safety first!

I figure if that is the worst of it then I'm good!

I have quite a few stencils, but no florals so I had to improvise ...

so I used a notebook ~ an older one from my stash from The Dollar Tree.

The plastic covers are cut through and they look like a stencil

so why not!

When in Rome, amiright?

I went from this ↑

 And got this! ↓

I used Ranger Ink distress inks and Picket Fence Studio Life Changing Brushes

(the tiny ones for nooks and crannies)

and lightly blended through the stencil (notebook) area.

In order to keep the colors from blending together, 

I blocked it off as I blended to keep the colors separate.

The THANK YOU sentiment is from Concord and 9th

and I popped it up on 3D foam and added a few sequins.

I love that these are made from things I had right here at home :)

Shelter in and shop your stash!

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

Marvelous masking ~ Day 1

Hi friends!

I hope you are all doing super!
I had a small biking accident over the weekend

and am supposed to be on limited bed rest.  

Impossible, I say!

So I'm calling it limited bed rest

and I'm so glad my friends live in my computer - all of you!

Your cards and creativity just keeps on inspiring ♥

Online card camp continues!
I loved Camp #1 so much 
that I signed up for the continuing camp!

This morning's class with Kristina Werner was fun ~
new to me supplies and technique! 

Here are 2 of the cards I made this morning!

The distress ink combos I used are:
Squeezed Lemonade
Spun Sugar
Dried Marigold
Shaded Lilac
Wilted Violet
Peacock Feathers
 

 .

I used these two letters specifically because Mother's Day

is right around the corner

and two of my favorite mama's start with J and K!

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

You make life brighter!

Happy Saturday!

Thanks so much for the anniversary wishes ~ you are all super sweet ♥

I have another set of cards for the FAN-TAS-TIC card camp!

I have enjoyed this camp so much

and in addition to learning new things, I'm always finding my comfort zone.

Today's card duo is written in the stars!

 For this class, I used 4 distress ink from Ranger Ink,

a Ranger Ink watercolor brush,

come chunky sparkly glitter to create a shaker card

and a reverse pop up card!

 For my cards, I've used the My Favorite Things stamp set Stars Above.

I used this because I wanted a bold die cut for my shaker card

and this set had both and some super fun sentiments.

Here's card #1 

 And my second card ↓

It's hard to photograph the glitter inside the shaker card 

 My house is pretty quiet at the moment which is RARE

so I'm excited to get inky and continue onward!

 Thanks for stopping by!
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

Mission ... Possible!

Hi friends!

Happy March!

I love March and the approach of the first day of spring,

and in just a few months, it will be summer

and our schedules free up a lot!

 And I also love that my birthday is in March
and my family always makes it a fun week/end!

I hope you had a marvelous weekend!

We've enjoyed some cooler temps here 

and spent nearly the entire weekend outdoors ♥

Today's card is an absolute mess!

But, let me 'splain!

 Mission ..... Possible is a new card group started by Jeanette,

and she graciously invited Barb and myself to join her in this mission.

The idea is based on a product she bought - and then 2 more - 

and she packed up the 'mystery' item and mailed it to us.

This will be a quarterly challenge and we 3 will attempt

the mission in a creative way. 

Jeanette's card is here +
Barb's card is here.

 And the mystery item is ....
 Ink on 3 Liquid Pixie Dust!

I confess, the only Pixie Dust I'm used to is what we see at

Walt Disney World in the Peter Pan ride, LOL!

 

 For my card, I decided to go in the direction of a brick wall with graffiti.
The melancholy bunny from Honey Bee Stamps
was my muse and my idea was: brick wall, stencil, paints, graffiti.

I just picked up some Tim Holtz distess oxide spray in Cracked Pistachio
and knew I was going to work with the brick wall stencil as a background.
My thought was:  The pixie dust and oxide would be a nice pairing.

yeah.

Unfortunately you can't see either very well
(what's that saying? Can't see the forest through the trees?!)
because I paired both with a matching color of distress oxide ink.
In hindsight, a hue in the same color wheel would have worked better
rather than the exact. same. color!
After distress oxide ink blending the background with the stencil,
I spritzed the oxide spray all over the cardstock.

Tip:  Let this dry overnight! 
It's wet like the Rio Grande, my friends!
I tried the heat gun and didn't like the result
so I spritzed several more and let them dry overnight = ta da!
Once I picked a panel I liked, I popped in a piece of snow hill stitched white cardstock as a base sidewalk and added the Ink on 3 Pixie Dust
by adding it to a paint brush and randomly flicking it onto the 'wall' piece.
 I added a frame and popped up the bunny on foam, added some dots,
stamped on the sentiment from a Paper Smooches set 
and there. you. go!

I stenciled,
distress oxided, 
spritzed distress paint,
spritzed again with some Pixie Dust,
colored,

glued,
stamped,
and this card did not self destruct!

 I'd say ...

Mission Accomplished!

The card actually turned out cute and the creative process was a fun one,
despite the mishaps and mess.
I think the jury is still out on whether Pixie Dust is for me...

unless I'm at Walt Disney World, of course :)

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