Hot Mess ~ Wishing you luck!

 Hi friends!

 It's time for a new Hot Mess ~ Success card.

(Here's how this card challenge got started on my first messy card post.)

And, just like the name suggests, we make messes!

This month, Terry's challenge is to use the color green and a shamrock
with our messy cards.
Being that it's March, I knew I would use something rainbow-y :)
The news - and impact - about the Coronavirus has the world on edge ~
and I thought we could use some color and cheer!

For my messy card this month, I went old school - 

I used my granddaughter's Crayola watercolors! 

These are so rich and vibrant and the pigmented colors just POP!

The background was created by wetting the watercolor paper first,

and then adding the paint and letting it move around.

I added more paint to layer it and give it more depth of color

and the end result is really something.

Children's watercolor paints ~ who knew!

For my shamrock aspect, I've used an older My Favorite Things stamp

called 'Wishing you luck.'

These A La Mode MFT stamps are making a comeback, it seems ~

and the newer releases have had quite a few re-introduced!

Since the background was so vibrant, I wanted to soften it with 

the stitched bubble clouds

and I added enamel dots in similar colors spaced through-out.

and that's my card!

You can see Barb's card here

Jeanette's card here and

Terry's card here
and we've all made a different mess :)

Thanks for stopping by!

 I hope you and your families are all okay in your little corners of the world.
Thinking of you ♥

Stay safe, everyone!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

CCEE2011 ~ Party Favors!

Hi friends!

There's a new challenge at the CCEE Stampers  ~ party favors!
The challenge is to create a treat BOX ~

and the DT has created some gorgeously yummy treat boxes.

I went slightly off the beaten path with my party favors :)

I am part of a local, super fun book club 

and wanted to bring something to the table this week when we meet

so my contribution to the party favors are book marks!

These took forever to color!

In fact, over 2 hours and I'm still not finished.

 (and at the time I took photos, the green one was missing ..
and on St. Patrick's week - can you imagine!)

I needed to add the sentiments on but ran short on time

and will probably decide to skip the ribbons at the all together.

Here's the collection, minus the green :)
 I've used the ADORABLE reading dragon stamps from MFT Stamps
called Magical Friends.  
I just love love LOVE this stamp set.
I've cut out the characters with my Brother Scan n Cut
and colored with both prismacolor markers and copic markers.
The little clouds are from an MFT die-namic
and the rectangle scallop and straight dies are from spellbinders.
I am also in love with the beautiful watercolor paper from Lawn Fawn - 
and plan to buy another pack soon ♥

Here's a close up view of just 3 of them ↓

Stay tuned .... I'll add the sentiments later today

and will show another peek before they are all given out :)

This was also my day 11 of coloring for The Daily Marker 30 Day ~
a coloring challenge that last's the month.
You color a little, you can color a lot!
Today was a lot :)

 You can see the DT inspiration blog here
as well as link up your projects.
If you use a gallery like Flickr or Splitcoaststampers,
use the keyword CCEE2011.

  I'll enter this into:  Happy Little Stampers - AG with dies

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

Stamp What? ~ Frogs 'n Flies!

Hi friends!

I'm back with another fun card in the Stamp What? blog series

and the card for March is all about frogs ~

and flies!

You can read how this started on the first blog post here,

[although I've needed to change the posting date to the 10th of each month.]

I asked my son this weekend to chose the newest Old Dusty

(what we call my long forgotten Stampin' Up sets)

and when he brought this one down the hall,

we both started cracking up!

He said "I chose this one because these frogs do be swag!"

Huh?

::: cue the teenager translation subtitle:  'Cute frogs!' :::

 

Ooooof.

I'd long forgotten this one!

I LOVED it when I saw it and thought it was hilarious.

The labels are now long gone but I do know it's circa 1998

so it's been around the pond for quite some time ♥

 

And here's my card :)

I had a very hard time coloring this 

and not so happy with my color choice for the frog.

In hindsight, I'd have colored it differently but moving on!

I decided to use some older Stampin' Up designer paper as well

to keep the feel of using older forgotten supplies.

This is from the 2008 Stampin' Up! Muirfield collection.

The updated twist is that I've used the newer dies on the market

and banner dies to pop up the sentiment.

I masked off with washi tape the flies to have just the wording

and the sketch is one from this century last week at Splitcoaststampers! 

 Because we 3 are crazy, Barb and Jeanette were

totally on board for this challenge as well.

This is Barb's card +

 this is Jeanette's card.

I've purged so many of my Old Dusties through the years

but always have those 'favorites' that I'll part with last

when I'm done with stamping and paper crafting.

It's so much fun walking down memory lane and seeing stamps

that I haven't seen in awhile.

Even more fun is the surprise element since I can't pick the stamp set!

Give it a try, if you haven't!

Have someone reach for a stamp set or just pick one at random,

dust it off and modernize those Old Dusty stamp sets!

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

~Kelly

TPB:: My one phone call ...

Hi friends!

 I have two cards to share with you today ~

this one from The Project Bin stamps

and one that will be up later in the day.

My card for you today from The Project Bin 

is using one of the newer stamp sets:   Just Sayin'

There is so much to love about this stamp set ~

from the wonderful messages to the beautiful font.

I've used one of the sentiment stamps to make today's card

and this is one of the very things I say to my daughters all the time ♥

I love that Denise, owner and designer of The Project Bin stamps,

creates some of the most unique stamps on the market.

This is such a sweet way to remind someone how very much you care ~

and in times of thinking of you, times of comfort,

 or reminding a friend or loved one that you're just a phone call away.

For my card, I've stamped the sentiment in Brutus Monroe Raven ink

and used a piece of designer paper, cut into a speech bubble pattern 

with a stitched die.

I've used the negative of this for the inside of my card.

I wanted to switch up half of the sentiment (you are my)

 by stamping it separately and popped that up on foam.

I also popped up the outer frame with foam ~

this triple stitched frame die is from Reverse Confetti.

For the inside, I masked off part of the sentiment

 to onlyhave the words I love you.

Here's the set in it's entirety:

It's available here in the shop

as well as browse the cards created with this stamp set.

Thanks for peeking at my first card for today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

3M: Lumberjack Heidi :)

 Hello friends!

You may have to cover your eyes ...

Monday has returned :/

The weekend FLEW by ~

and with the daylight's saving time,

it's just going to be all kinds of crazy today.

I heard the alarm go off a few hours ago at 3 am 

and jumped out of bed, thinking you gotta be kidding!

I know we just had the time change but I just went to bed!

My silly son set his alarm 3 hours early.

ouch.

So there I was.

up at 3 am. 

and the dog was up,

the cat was up.

I'll be leaving the house with undereye concealer 1000!

Hello, Monday!

 Today's card is for the 3M card group

~ Barb, Jeanette, and I ~

and this group was created by Jeanette.

The idea is to alternate months chosing an image and mailing it to the others

and on the 9th of each month, we post the cards we created.

So it's the same image, 3 different cards!

Jeanette was the hostess for this month and sent us this adorable

CC Designs Swiss Pixie Lumberjack Heidi.

At first, I thought she was doing some Riverdance moves, LOL!

Hey, I'm Irish!

I got excited :)

Turns out, she's a lumberjack!

I'm still not sure what she's doing with her right hand?

I did my card a little different this time around.
I was completely stumped on a card design and used my MFT Wonky stitched dies

to cut around the image.

Once I did that, I set is aside and worked on the card base first - 

something I never do!

I always color first, build second.

I spotted the wonderful challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week 

for '3 parts' and it just clicked.

My card is just a base layer of Taylored Expressions Cookie Monster cardstock

and a sheet of dsp from my scrap pile.

I cut both of them into patchwork pieces and alternated them,

gluing them directly to the cardstock.

Once that was dry, I colored the image to match,

added some enamel dots and foam and popped it onto the card.

 and done!

You can see Barb's card here

and Jeanette's card here.

How are you doing with The 30 Day Coloring challenge?

This was yesterday's (day 8) coloring for me.

I knew this round I would not be coloring every day ~

and that's okay!

The creator behind The Daily Marker 30 Day, Kathy Rac,

 encourages you to do what you can, when you can, how you can!

I've colored in the still of the night,

while watching the sunrise,

in the car!

I took notes from her recent online coloring class I took

and colored my lumberjack Heidi with markers but highlighted it with colored pencils as she's suggested in many of her videos.

I've a long way to go with much to learn,

but I am loving the journey!

 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

COF: Sending Love ♥

Hello friends!

I hope your weekend if off to a good start!
I was up early and drove to a beautiful part of the Florida everglades ~
how magnificent!
God definitely was in a painting mood when He created
the South Florida sunrises ♥

Today's card is for the Crafters of Faith card group
where Sue's theme is to create a card showing how you
shine your light for God.

I chose to use a beautiful stamp called Happy Mail
that I won from Taylored Expressions giveaway!
It was a win from their Send a Card to a Friend Day link up! 

The direction I chose to go wasn't a literal 'shining light'

 but more of the quiet, behind the scenes card.

 

For me, it's working with the youth ministry at church 

and making cards for shut ins and having cards on hand for the elderly

 to grab and fill out and mail to their loved ones ♥

I stamped the large flower line from Happy Mail and colored it with

my prismacolor markers, and did the same for the sentiment

from the stamp set Snail Mail.

 

The prize pack was so huge and so full of wonderful goodies!
I'm so happy to have won and will be making cards upon cards ♥

I love that these sets can be added to your MISTI or stamping platform

and just make a card assembly - and make more to share! 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

One Plus Twelve - March

Hi friends!

It's time for another One Plus Twelve card :)

  The 1 + 12 idea is to take one stamp 

- just one - 

and use it once a month on a card.

 I call the challenge:  One Plus Twelve!
 .

The one = the stamp I've chosen this year

 is Beautiful Bloom by My Favorite Things stamps (now retired)
and The twelve = the twelve months in the year.

This is my March card ↓
.

 .

 For this month's card, I decided to do some embossing and distressing ~

shake things up a bit!

I first stamped the Beautiful Bloom with WOW white pearl embossing powder.

It's a beautiful pearl, almost champagne color.

Once that was embossed and heat set, 

I used my TE Blender Brushes to apply distress oxide inks:

  Carved Pumpkin, Scattered Straw and Worn Lipstick in a gradient pattern.

I ran the panel through my Gemini Jr with my Stitched Mod Rectangle die.
.
 

I kept a smaller piece for the die-cut HELLO and although you see the 

stamp set Well, Hello in my photo, I didn't use it.

I used only the sentiment My Sweet Friend 

as sentiments are the only other stamps allowed in the challenge :)

But, I did use the Sweet Hello die-namic from this set and popped 

that up up on foam and added some matching enamel dots.

There is a whole lotta MFT products on this card!

 .

I'd previously asked last year if my friends, Barb and Jeanette,

wanted to join in this crazy adventure and they said yes...

and we're back for year 2!

You can see Barb's card here and

you can see Jeanette's card here.

If you made it this far, and

if you could spare a hug, I'll take it ♥
.

Today is the anniversary of my dad's passing :*(

This is always a difficult day for me and I find myself really struggling

knowing this day is always approaching, every year.

It's so hard missing the loved ones that aren't here with us anymore

but I also know it's a blessing to keep the memories strong.

And as our family grows, it's not just in size - but in love, too ♥ 

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

Stamp What? .... Friend-ship!

Hi friends!

Wishing you boatloads of love of today ♥

This is my second card for my blog series called "Stamp What?" 

that debuted in January of this year.

My son had a wonderful idea to chose a stamp set for me at random

and I'd make a card

The plan is to use my old(er) Stampin' Up! stamp sets 

that have long been forgotten ~ called the Old Dusties! :)

I LOVE his idea!

Originally, I'd planned to post on the 29th of each month
but from now on, I will be posting on the 10th.

Sailing on .......

This is what he chose for me this month ↓

Stampin' Up! Boatloads of Love!

Oh he chose so well!

I have always loved this stamp set

(and see, never seem to use it!)

 

Release date: 2007

I've modernized my card by using more updated supplies ~

distress oxide inks, scalloped stitched waves dies, and copic markers!

My friends Barb and Jeanette have joined me in Stamp What?

but if you have an older stamp set,

dust it off, use it, too!

Let me know if you do - it's always fun to 'craft' with friends near and far ♥

 I'm also a very tactile person and, as of now,

will not can't unmount my wooden stamps.
I love the feel of them when I stamp!

Yes, they take up space but I love them the way they are ♥

 I wonder what he will chose for me next month :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

card entered into:  CAS on Friday - colors

CYS: Hello Lady(bug)!

Hello Lady(bug!)

 It's almost the weekend ~

and that's a pretty bug deal :)

March 19 is the first day of Spring!

The Challenge Your Stash card group has a new theme this month:
Old School!
Jenn asked us to create a card using an old school stamp or style.
My old school item ~ brads!

My card is spring inspired card ~ 

new growth and flowers, green leaves sprouting, and the return of life -

yes, even bugs! ♥

I've used the ADORABLE Hey Lady from Lawn Fawn for my card.

I adore this set and it reminds me of my little granddaughter, Alice ♥

I realized (too late) that this is a newer stamp

and the idea is to challenge your (older) stash of stamps

BUT ....

I'm playing along with the Lawn Fawnatics challenge #71

Bring it Back - old school crafting items.

I've made a slimline card and started with a base of white cardstock

and blended distress oxides in Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar

with my Taylored Expressions Blending Brushes to create the background.

I used a paintbrush and lightly ficked it with water to create the splatter.

Then, I stamped the images with Momento Tuxedo Black ink,

and colored them with copic makers.

I realized too late that I didn't add the matching dies to my order ...

so I used my Brother Scan n Cut and

 'scattered' the cut out leaves and sweet ladybugs onto the card.

For my bring it back and stash challenge (CYS), 

I've used my very old brads - circa 2008! - as the additional decor to my card.

I think these are from Doodlebug and are super glittery and sparkly cute!

 So this month,

 I'll have to just go with the flow and not get bugged about it! :)~ 

 Last, I added the matching sentiment and popped it up on foam, too.

I can't believe we are almost in March!

That's my birth month so I'm really looking forward to the new month ♥

I've also entered my card to:
Pixie's Crafty Workshop!

Thanks for stopping by!
Big BUGS, bigger blessings!

~Kelly