Hi! Happy Summer!

Hi friends!

and HELLO summer!  

School is officially out and this is such a glorious time of year ...

The good 'ol days of summer.

 

Yesterday (and today - at 1 am!)

 I had a fun crafter-noon with uninterupted card making

after I dropped my son off at a  ....... yep, pool party!

And just in time, my new Pink and Main stamps arrived to play with ♥

These sending waves cuties are such a delight ...

the minute I spied them, I said let's make a pool party ~ on paper! :)

Here's how I made this trio of friends card:

I really wanted the look of a pool with a thick white border 

so I taped off the 4 sides of the cardstock,

 then sponged out different shades of blue distress ink and oxide ink

in Broken China and Evergreen Bough.

Once that was finished, 

I stamped and colored the 3 friends from the stamp set,

alternating different colors of skin and hair,

and arranged them around the pool.

I had another spontaneous idea while creating this card,

so in the end I didn't add the sunshine but put a sentiment in it's place!

A few clear and aqua color sequins and this pool party 

is ready to begin!

Because summer looks good on you!  :)

If you want to peek back again,

you'll see more of this Pink and Main stamp set soon ~
it's my next stamp set in my 3/3 series ♥

 I've been playing along with the Kathy Racoosin's 

#thedailymarker30 day and already we're up to day 10 ~ woohoo!

I'll enter this into her coloring challenge here.

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

3M: Friends are sweet!

Hello friends!

We are home from the hospital

and the hubby is resting and recovering ♥

I recently heard a beautiful quote that has been resonating with me.

 It read "When life throws you a curve ball, learn to bend so you can reach it."

This week, I've bent.

And I've prayed, comforted, nurtured and sat in the silence of worry.

And in that same bending,

 I've also had the blessing of friends showering us 

with love, prayer, friendship, support ♥

I'm so, so, SO grateful for that!

 

It's the 9th of the month and that means it's time for a new 3M image.

Jeanette sent us this month's image to create with 

and it's a little cutie called Honey Pip by Nellie Snellen.

When I saw the stamped image, I saw blues and yellows,

so that's what I went with.

 

My card is VERY simple ~

 the image was so large and bold and took up so much of the A2  card front 

that I had to think a little bit outside the box.  

I remembered my MFT speech bubble dies and thought it would be fun

to use one of those, so I double cut cardstock using that die.

The sentiment is one from my stamp sets by CC Designs ~

I thought it was a pretty sentiment to match the card :)

And that's it for today.

Be sure to see what Jeanette and Barb made this month 

using Honey Pip on their blogs. 

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

CCEE1826: Sea-prise Sha(r)ker card!

Hi friends!

It's almost summer!

One.  More.  Day!

I think that's FIN-tastic :)

 

It's time for a new challenge at the CCEE Stampers blog

and Joanne challenged us to use our un-inked, never used stamps!

I knew right away that I'd be using this new cutie.

My son loves loves LOVES sharks!

Anytime I see a shark stamp, I'm giddy for the cards that I'll be able to make.

This Avery Elle shark looks like the happiest-shark-on-the-planet!

I knew I'd have to scoop up the stamp set and elle-ments die ♥ 

This card is a shark-er card - hee hee!

I mean a shaker card :) 

The something new I tried with this card was using frosted acetate

instead of clear to give it a slightly murky water look.

I also ran the Avery Elle wonky scalloped frame though the Cuttlebug

6-7 times to create a glued, super thick frame (this resembled a chipboard feel).

Next, I added some teal confetti/sequins to the inside and fastened it closed.

Next, I stamped/cut/colored the shark and added a sentiment.

I wanted to make waves for the outside of the acetate

and created a watercolor background using Royal and Langnickel watercolor paper and RL watercolors to create the ocean waves.

I'm off the school where I like to watercolor and then let the piece air dry

 for 24 hours but you can always use a heat tool for faster drying

 if you like to work all in one go!

 I die cut them with a stitched wave die as I was aiming for 

lots of movement and dimension in the waves.

This card was a lot of fun to MAKO! :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Be sure to stop over at the CCEE Stampers blog to see what the rest of the design team

has made using the un-inked stamps challenge!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

F.Y.I. ~ Everybody ....

 WHOOOOOO's a good friend?

You are! ♥

Hi friends and Happy Monday!
I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

This is our last week of school and then it's summertime!

Today's card is one from my F.Y.I. series,

inspired by my daughter's kitty. 

She's misses being outdoors and one day while outside on her leash,

we kept hearing a crying noise.

I looked for the sound, to no avail.

Finally, she spotted it in a nearby tree ~ a mama bird protecting her little nest. 

She watched curiously for a little while, disinterested in causing any harm.

Eventually we moved on to another part of the yard :/ 

It as such an awesome reminder of truly living in harmony.

It would be so beautiful if we were all surrounded by peace and unity!

And the idea for this card was born!

I said to myself ........ The Project Bin has a stamp(s) for that :)

I've created a simple framed card using not one ..

not two ...

but 3 

different The Project Bin stamp sets!

 For today's card celebrating togetherness,

I've used New Leaf, Feline Good and Bazinga.

How sweet if Everybody could love everybody!

Thanks, Andy Warhol ♥

Thanks for your visit today!
What inspires you?

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly 

 

I'll enter this into:  The Paper Players - Animals

Lawn Fawnatics #29 ~ Life is good!

Seas the day!

Indeed, life is good :)

 

 

One of my favorite places to be is practically right outside our door ~ the beach!

Lounge chair, umbrella, a good book  ...... 

well, kinda sorta :)

  I DO bring books to the beach

but to be honest, 

I get lost staring out into the beautiful blue sea, 

tilting my head back and

breathing in the salty air,

 and feeling the sand in my toes ♥

Next thing I know, 2 hours have gone by and I'm still 

on the same page, same chapter, same sentences :/ 

I LOVE the Lawn Fawn Challenge #29 mood board!

I knew right away I'd have to ink up LIfe is Good and play along ♥

I'm blessed to own this stamp and die set

and I wanted to make a beach scene inspired by the top middle photo 

↓

How I made this card:  I started with a palette of distress oxide inks

and sponged broken china, squeezed lemonade and wild honey 

 onto white cardstock and then ran that through a scallop die with the Cuttlebug.

After gluing that down, I stamped/die cut/colored each of the images

and popped those up with 3d foam.

Finally, the sentiment - stamped right onto the cardstock.

 This card truly makes me smile ~

and I hope in a few days that will be my for real view.

4 more days of school and then it's summer! 

I'll enter this into the Lawn Fawnatics challenge!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

 

Sunday Funnies ~ Giveaway winner ♥

Kapow!

Hi friends!

Thank you all so much for joining me in my 

Sunday Funnies ~ Comic series!

I so enjoyed having a fun month of comic strips

and taking that trip down memory lane ♥ 

(image courtesy of dreamtime - photo stock)

While it always makes me sad to have a giveaway

where only one friend can win,

I wanted to share that this is my year of kindness!

I have already had many giveaways over on my Instagram 
and I also send surprise, unannounced happy mails! :)

It might be a card, a package, or a combination of both!

So if I already have your address, it could be you!

Without further adieu, the winner of the new The Greeting Farm stamp set

(and other goodies!)

       is .......

Scrap and C!


Congratulations! 
Please email me at Kelnkids@aol.com
with your name and address
and I'll get this right out to you!

Thank you, everyone ...
For your visits, support, friendship ♥
Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly

CCEE: You're the em-BOSS!

Hi friends and Happy Thursday ...... I think! 

Heavens to Betsy,  I love me a 3 day weekend 

but I can't for the of me remember what day it is!

I ran around all day today thinking it was Tuesday!

The CCEE Stampers this week have our final challenge with our hostess, Anne.

She asked us to create a card using embossing folders.

That's not a crafty element I use very often, if ever :)

I remembered I picked up 3 new embossing folder/stamp combo packs

at Michaels, one being a cactus folder/stamp ♥

I am so in love with succulents!

I have been going crazy for succulent stamps ~ 

anything with a cactus, potted plants, monstera leaves ♥

Naturally, this background called for a cactus so I used my 

Newton's Nook Cuppa Cactus stamps and dies
and colored it with my Zig clean brush markers.

Then, I heat embossed the funny coffee sentiment from the set.

I added a few colorful enamel dots and then let the card be ~

showcasing the embossing folder!

 

I'm not a big fan of embossing folders 

but I have to give props where they are due :)

These are not big 'name brand' embossing folders but definitely do the trick!

The responded very well to both #65 and #110 cardstock

and the stamps are an added little bonus.

I paid $1.10 in store (love those coupons!) awhile back

but they are online right now for $1.oo.

I bought 3 planning to do an review on my YouTube channel ..

stay tuned!

To see what the rest of the CCEE Stampers created,
stop by the blog ~ you'll be im'pressed' ... 
hee hee!

 Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

 I'll enter this into the Spring/Summer Coffee Lover's Hop!

Memorial Day Mouse ♥

 Happy Memorial Day!

To my friends and family near and far,

I hope this day brings you a moment of reflection

 and happiness and remembrance ♥

 

And to my 'boss', Denise, at The Project Bin stamps,

thank you SO MUCH for the day off! :)

 My card today warms my heart as it's one I recreated after receiving

the sweetest message via Facebook!

That's what I love so much about this craft of ours ~

the friends we 'bump into' by happenstance ♥

I was chatting with a sweet lady about the military and us growing up

all over the world in an Air Force family.

She mentioned her son is a new US Marine and stationed in Hawaii ..

and I sent her a package to her and one for her to send to him.

She received it as she sent the sweetest message via FB.

It prompted me to recreate a card that I had made 

previously, which you can see here.

i quickly got to work and changed a few things around

to meet a patriotic theme instead ...

and voila!

In case you were wondering why a mouse on a card for a soldier?

Glad you asked!

LOL!

Today's the day that we post our "Challenge Your Stash" cards

and Pansy - hostess for May - asked us to add a mouse to our cards.

It's her signature since she's C-Mouse - isn't that cute!

I used Harvest Mouse stamps and dies from My Favorite Things

and then added a sentiment from another MFT stamp set "Adventure is calling."
  The star designer paper was the requirement for the CAS challenge on SCS

and the sequins were added to finish off the look.

Now I just hope they make it on their long flight to Hawaii ♥

Be blessed today, friends.

Hugs your loved ones and thank a soldier ♥

Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly

Sunday Funnies ~ 4th Edition: You're SUPER, girl!

Hey girl! ← in my best Ryan Gosling voice,
 LOL!

 

You're SUPER, girl!

I so loved the soft, subtle colors from this week's MFT Card Challenge #94!

I normally make a bee line and zero straight in on brights, bolds, vivids!

This was such a refreshing change to color/create with a softer palette.

These colors - so yummy!

 

This is my final blog series in the Comics Sunday Funnies ~

it's been so much fun coming up with different themes

and the nostalgia of picking up the Sunday papers for the comics section ♥

 I grew up in the Wonder Woman era (go Linda Carter!)

and love how inspiring she was to my generation :)

I used my a My Favorite Things stamp You're Super by Birdie Brown

that I was super lucky to get during their $10 sale back in February.

Then I had to go back and buy the matching dies during another sale :)

 I've wanted this set since forever so I'm happy to know have both!

 I made this card by creating a 'city' with the city-scape stamp twice,

 stamped with mint green ink and 

then die-cutting both to make an elongated city in the background. 

 Then, i stamped/die cut and colored supergirl and her shield, 

coloring both in the colors of challenge #94. 

 Lastly, I stamped out the sentiment that best fit the friend

 that will be receiving this card from me ♥ 

 Thank you all for your visits, especially during the Sunday Funnies series!

 It was really SUPER!

Big hugs, bigger blessings!

~Kelly

 I'll enter my card into the current @mft challenge.

CCEE1821 ~ N.E.W.S!

Hello friends!

It's time for a new challenge at the CCEE Stampers 

and Anne has a new challenge for us.

She writes:

I wake up in the morning to the NEWS.
  Make a card using each of these letters ..... N, E, W, S.

Thanks, Anne!

Here is my card feauting the news:

N = Night

E = Evening, enamel dots

W = Windows, WHAM!

S = Superhero 

To make this card, I used a night time city space idea

but creation a cityscpape with the Tim Holtz dies.

I ran it through the cuttlebug twice, once in black and once in yellow.

After popping out the small squares for windows, I let the yellow shine through like light.

Next, I popped up the tiny hero from Mama Elephant

and added some glittery silver enamel dots.

 And if you'd like to be in the running for blog candy giveaway from me

with the comicbook/Sunday comics theme,

you can read about it in the first series post here!

Be sure to stop by and see what the other CCEE Stampers
made with this theme ~ it will be fantastic!

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

TPB ~ It's Summer somewhere!

Hi friends!

Happy Monday!

I hope your weekend was spectacular ♥

Today's card is channeling summer!

When I made it last week, we were packing our bags to head 

to the beach ourselves for our weekend getaway :)

 

This card was such fun to make.

It's a collaborative card using products from Eyelet Outlet

and The Project Bin from the Instagram hop they had this weekend. 

I used the Summer Fun stamp set, one of my favorites!  

I chose products that reflected a beach/summer theme

since I knew that's what my card would be.

Here's how I made this card:

I started by masking and blending my Tim Holtz Distress Oxides

in Broken China and Squeezed Lemonade and my mini blending tool.

I wanted to create the illusion of sand dunes 

and in order to do that, I created a template out of chipboard.

The palm tree brads were a bit smaller than I planned for

so I went with a 'in the far distance' look :)

And to finish it off the beach scene, I added seagulls,

the quintessential bird at the ocean!

 

Finally,  I created a frame to go around the image and 

popped the whole card onto 3D foam.

This card is really thick, measuring almost 1/4 of an inch!

I really love this card ~  it's so peaceful, serene, calming ♥

I do love living so close to the beach and visiting often ...

hence, the name of my blog :)

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

~Kelly

Sunday Funnies ~ 3rd Edition!

Hi there, friends!

KAPOW!
You're really super!

I got such a late start to the day for posting my card :/

We just got in from a vacation weekend

so I'm finally editing this post :)

I made this card using the tiny heroes from Mama Elephant ~
cute right?
I have so many ideas for this stamp set!
I wanted the super hereos to 'fly' in the scense I'm creating so 
I fussy cut the images.
The die cuts are from the massive Hobby Lobby clearance hall ~ $1.25!
It was a 3 pack of Momenta cityscape dies and a really wonderful find!
It was a perfect match for the scene building ..
I went with one in darker black for the background, 
and a lighter grey for the forefront.

And that's today's card!
Leave a comment below and I'll add it to the random selection 
after next weeks' card!

Big hugs, bigger blessings! ♥
~Kelly

and it was a 3 pack of Since this is a weekly contest and giveaway,

I didn't want you to miss out on an extra chance to win!

 

Kelly