Christmas bells are ringing!

Hi friends!

Christmas in August?  

Yes, please!

There is officially 133 more days until Christmas!

Just in case you didn't know :)

  

On Mondays, I have the joy of posting a card at The Project Bin's blog,

always filled with wonderful card inspiration ♥

Today's card is part of challenge ...

I looked at it, loved it, and said sure, why not!

While I can't say a lot about it until after August 15th, 

I can show you!

This technique is called finger smudging or finger "painting",

using oil pastels or pan pastels and just smooshing around.

In this case, since I used a warm palette,

I wanted to create a forest of trees ... without using trees!

With the warm colors of the setting sun as a backdrop,

twinkling snow in the forefront,

I decided to create a unique and non-traditional card ♥

In order to create the 'trees', I smooshed upwards :)

After using curvy dies to make the snow drifts,

I stamped a sentiment from Joyful Song right onto the paper. 

I must mention ...

 this. was. lots. of. FUN!!

If you'd like to give this a try,

you can find the tutorial I used here.

You can find this wonderful stamp set in TPB shop here,

or here's a quick view:

 If you like to try fun things and new techniques in your crafting,

this is highly entertaining and you achieve so many different results!

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

~Kelly

A little different holiday magic .............

Morning friends!  

 Hard to believe in just 6 more sleeps, it will be Christmas.

I'm.   Not.  Ready! 

Just 3 weeks ago, I was going full steam ahead and 3/4 of the way finished ....

and then hit a wall.

December is just TOO busy!

But, one important reminder I had this holiday season

was to think (way) outside the box
and creating a card that was not in my comfort zone.

I needed a card for someone close to me that hasn't had it easy ...

nothing has been handed to her and life has been hard.

And she's not the sunshine and unicorns and rainbows type of girl!

She does, however, enjoy skulls and crossbones :)

I thought of a perfect card for her using the Prickley Pear 
 sugar skull stamp set (Day of the Dead) and matching die

and my watercolors for a bright pop of painted color.

The vellum was a perfect way to add a sentiment 

yet keep the integrity of the splash watercolors in tact ~

as well as create a perfect pocket for the ornament on the inside!

 The inside of the card - with the ornament

I don't know if she will have a tree at her little place she calls home.

But I want her to know she's thought of ♥ 

Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly