Hot Mess Success ~ Water blaster painting!

 

Hi friends ~

I'm home!

My husband has been in the hospital for almost a week

and I stayed with him right by his side.

That meant missing everything outside the hospital walls,

including the beginning of summer and about 15 cards/blog posts.

But we are now home and he's recovering

and I'm trying to navigate the balance of where I left off

and where I need to be.

I did manage to make some time to craft while he slept today.

In fact, I made a MESS!

It's another edition of the Hot Mess = Success card 

and I KNOW I say every month that THAT month was the messiest ....

but .....

this one just might have take the messiest award :)

It's summer ....... it's HOT!

 Remember how we'd cool off with squirt guns? 

 We called them water (squirt) guns and

We use them in the pool and backyard and just goof off with them :)

I had an idea .... summer water blasters!

I thought "use them to watercolor with!"

So I did :)

Here's the video!

For now, here's what I started with:

I'm in LOVE with the flamingo!

And here is the final a couple of the panels that you'll see 

on the video once it's up.

I made quite a few and just chose this one at random

and you'll see more with different colors and patterns soon!

          And here are the first two cards with this set of panels.

I decided to use a die cut letter "K" 

thinking of the thank you cards I need to send.

K = Kindness!

                                Here the are individually:

I decided to alternate the front panel with the background

as the focal point

and then the letter K as the focal point on the second card.

There's about 15 more panels - so a lot more cards ahead!

Was this month a success:  YES!

Would I do this technique again?  Absolutely!

Thanks for stopping by!

Send it Saturday ~ Card #1

 

Hi friends!

Today's card is a little bit of this ...

and a little bit of that!

I hope I'm not the only one who starts a project ...

then puts it on hold before completion :)

I think for me it's that tale as old as time ...

only a few minutes sometimes!

I was SUPER EXCITED to play with the new Salvaged Patina

last month or so that I made so. many. flowers!

So for Send-It-Saturday, I decided to look through my half projects

and container of sentiments and put a card together.

It = forgotten bits and pieces and Send = add it to the post.

I used a background piece that I made with Ranger's Twisted Citron

and pounced the ink onto the paper - and didn't use it.

It became the perfect backdrop for this floral from Altenew

and the flower was watercolored the same way with the Salvaged Patina.

I ADORE this color!

I plan to do this many times a month :)

It's a great way to clean up the clutter, get the stuff off the desk

and out of files (or bowls!), onto a card and in the mail!

Thanks for stopping by ~

have a great weekend!

Whooooooo loves you?

Hi friends!

I will OWL-ways love you! :)

I'm up on the blog at The Project Bin blog 

where you will see inspirational cards posted during the week!

And if you have been around my blog long enough,

these cuties will look familiar as they are among my faves!

My card today is TREE-mendous ...

 a slimline tree filled with autumn splendor :)

To create this card, I used these stamp sets from The Project Bin:

The pumpkin is from Eat Pie, the owls and branch stamps are from New Leaf and the sentiment (top part masked off) from Pumpkin Spice!

All of those together created this beautiful tree card!

To create the background (inside) I used a watercolor panel

that I created using my Altenew watercolor brushmarkers in sunkissed, paper bag and fresh lemon.

Once it was dry, I stamped the sentiment with Lawn Fawn Walnut ink

and assembled my card.

I already have a second one in the works that I'm super excited about ~

you'll see that one on October 12th!

You can find all these stamp sets in the shop here

and I've also included a few photos for a quick glance.

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings :)

~Kelly

Day 5 ~ Joyful Winter!

 Hi friends!

Oh how I love snow!

It holds a magical, memorable place in my heart of growing up in Europe

and the adventures my brother and I had :)

I can still close my eyes and see it all ♥

We have a snowy mountain vacation planned for this Christmas

but with Covid19, it just might be on hold ...

Like most of us, plans are at a standstill until we know it's safe. 

Onward to the next class at the #OCCSpringCardCamp card class ....

This one was taught by the talented Debby Hughes.
Yes!

That Debby from Lime Doodle Design - she is so inspiring! 

When I have that (rare) free moment, I love watching her YouTube videos ..

they are so relaxing and serene and her cards are so beautifully done. 

Well ... I'm calling my cards today the Old College Try!

I tried.  That's it.

LOL

 For my 'stencil', I didn't have the one anywhere close to what I needed

to I did the next best thing and used a die cut. 

I created the sentiments from a Lawn Fawn stamp set 'winter village'

and spritzed it when dry with a little hint of Ink on 3, 

a gift from my friend Jeanette.

And done and done!

I'm SUPER excited for the next class set of cards ....

and hopefully I won't sit in the corner long for these two!

I adored the class and the watercoloring process ~ just not the result.
It looks a little like a fallen tree in the middle of a lake - LOL!

BUT!

I'm posting anyway because it's all about learning

 ~ love it or not ~

and finding that happy medium ♥

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings!

~Kelly

He is risen!

Good Morning, friends ♥

One of the things I love so much about this craft (hobby!)

 is creating with stamps of faith!

My faith is something that I keep close to my heart ~

and in trying times, let it encourage and guide me.

And The Project Bin has just a perfect stamp set for creating cards of faith!

Spring Zen is a brand new stamp set that is perfect for spring,

Easter and the bold and powerful message of Christ!

One of my favorite scriptures has always been Matthew 28:6

"He is not here; he has risen, just as he said"

So in creating my card today, I knew I wanted a cross on a hill with a sunset.  

I got out my watercolor pans and watercolor paper and 

made bold brushstrokes across the paper with vibrant colors.

Then I stamped out the zentangle cross onto another

watercolor piece and fussy cut that out with scissors.

To give it a bit more of an edgy look, I die cut the panel

to give the card more dimension with a seperated-die idea.

Not sure if it's a technique, but it just came to me when I was 

about to glue the panel down!

The sentiment is the perfect addition and really finishes off the card,

as well as on the inside.

This style of card is perfect for your pastor, church staff, and more!

You can find this fabulous stamp set here in the shop ~
perfect time to get a head start on your Easter cards!
And remember! If you click on any photo, it will take you to a gallery
with wonderful samples made with the stamps - tons of inspiration!

Thanks so much for your visit!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

3M: Birthday Candles ...

Hi friends!

It's a little ironic that today's post features cards with a candle on them ~

as that's exactly what life is for me now in this moment :)

Burning the candle at both ends, 

each day blurring into the next with the busy-ness of our family life.

 

I'm holding fast to my year of Abide,

and with that, I'm embracing this busy time for us and learning to

 balance it with God's grace ♥

I take a few moments here and there to refresh ...

“Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

~Mark 6:31

and then I keep on going! :)

My card today is tons of fun!

It's the day the 3M post our cards ...

and that would be Barb, Jeanette and I whom all have this same image,

and we make a card without knowing what the others are making :)

Barb was our hostess and she sent us another interesting Tim Holtz image 

(you may remember this one with the coffee theme - yum!)

First, my card went off course.

Like.  Way.  Off.  Course!

You probably know that I'm a HUGE fan of watercoloring ~

I just love it!

I decided to go "old school" since I had school supplies out already

and use some good 'ol fashion 8 count Crayola watercolors.

{*Shout out to Office Max who had these paints on clearance for .10 cents!}

Unfortunately, I didn't count on the fact that the paper wouldn't hold

the weight of the water.

While I normally stamp/watercolor on watercolor paper,

this time it went in all kinds of directions from smears to major warping,

even with ironing.  Shucks!

 But I did get some really cool blending!

I made on in the 'cool colors' and 'warm colors' spectrums.

You will be delighted to see what Barb and Jeanette have made, too!

And here we are ~ aren't we purty?

                                 ↑ that's me!

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly

New Stamp Release continues - Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps!

I scream, you scream,

we all scream for Ice Cream!

I had so much fun using the new stamp sets and dies from

 Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps.

One of the many cards I've made is this one,

a watercolored background with the stamps nestled on, wonky on purpose :)

I added sequins and twine to give the card a little more character :)

I sure could use an ice cream like this one right about now ♥

 

Here are the supplies that I used:

 Ice Cream stamp set and coordinating dies! 

 Be sure to see what the rest of the DT created with this super fun

and versatile stamp and die set :)

You can find more inspiration on the PPRS blog.

The new stamps and dies will be continuing on,

so keep watching for all the wonderful surprises ahead!

Big hugs, Bigger blessings!
~Kelly