* He Did it!* So proud of my baby!

We have a brand new Black belt in Tae Kwan Do in the house! :)   We are so very proud of our son, who at just 7, has accomplished so very much.  He had his testing on Saturday - which was a nail biter! - and tonight was his ceremony.   Part of the ceremony was to include a speech of thankfulness.  My son started out his speech with a bible verse :)  He wrote his speech around Philippians 4:13 and said "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  He went on to say that God his Savior gives him courage to try his best every day and gives him strength.  His words were so heart-warming, I was so teary eyed!


Of course, mommy had to make him a card to celebrate the moment :)  When he saw the card, he literally squealed "oh wow!"  He read what we wrote on the inside and said "thanks guys, that was so nice!" Then he ran off and put it on his dresser in his room :)  Too cute!  I absolutely knew when I wanted to make his card that it would be from a Mo Manning Designs.  Her images are just delightful!  It was the right mix of whimsy and genuineness and I fell in love with this image called Nesto. I just had to color him up to look like lil man and gave him a black belt :)  Now the funny thing is my son LOVES to see me crafting & I asked him if he noticed anything on the card.  He ran back to his room and said "yes, the paper looks like my belts!"  Awwww, that's my boy ~ he got it :) 

For the brand new Black Belt! Congratulations Indeed!

Side view :)

Age 4, a tiny tiger white belt!

Age 7 3/4, a hard-working,dedicated, loyal, faith-filled black belt!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoying this amazing moment in our lives :)

       Cheerfully entering this into: 
 Mo Manning's Challenge Blog - Masculine

Do You Stack up:  Movies "Karate Kid"
SSCC #144 - something that reflects you (My kids! being "soccer mom!")

 Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Getting Krafty and Recycling!

Hi there!  It's time for another challenge at the Twisted Tuesday Challenge blog ~ Getting Krafty and recycling!   I just love the opportunity to reuse and repurpose any item rather than throw it away so this was a super fun challenge this week.  I reused almost everything on my card and made a matching envelope, too!  This week, we want you to use the color Kraft on your card and the twist is to use a recyclable item(s).


Here's what I recycled on this card :)  


* Butcher's Block paper {left over from VBS}
* The cardboard backing from a 12 x 12 dsp pack
* Valentine's Card Kit found for .10c at a Michaels clearance sale!


and the non recycled items are white cardstock, gorgeous crocheted flowers, a button, ric-rac, one sheet of DSP and some twine :)

We would love to see what you create with the Krafty/recycled challenge this week!  You can link up your cards here at the challenge blog!

 Submissions close Sunday at 9pm (CT)

~ You may combine your creation with as many other challenges as you'd like

~ Remember to link back to 2TC in your post

~ No back linking, create something new and exciting

~ If you link your creation to any online gallery, please use the keyword 2TC10

 ~ You may enter up to 3 times per challenge

Card Cheerfully entered into: Cutie Pie Challenge - Real or Faux sewing
  Make it Monday - Anything Goes
CPS  - Sketch (flipped!)

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Dryer Sheet Flower Fun!!

Hello there!  I have three posts for you today - hence, my DDD post launched a bit early to avoid a traffic jam on the blog :)  


I just love flowers!  I think it's part of my English mom's heritage in me that I'm always wishing I lived with a backyard filled with an English style garden with mazes and trellis' full of flowers :)   Any chance to build/craft/create with flowers is always a good day :)  And since it's my turn to post on The Scrapping Cottage blog, I thought I'd bring you a slightly different treat!  And one day last week I was zipping around on SCS and saw the tutorial on used dryer sheets and fell in love!  We - a family of 6 - definitely have mounds of laundry and dryer sheets are a must, so when I saw the tutorial, I was super eager to give it a try.  It was soooooo easy!!  You can see my step by step pictorial here on the Cottage Cutz blog, and here you can see the final product :)  I ended up adding my recycled dryer sheet flower to a collage.  This is one of my favorite past-times to create without any general direction - all the pieces in this framed collage are all scraps!  But if you truly want to some some collage-type inspiration, please stop in and visit my friend, Julie - oh my... she is an inspiration! 


So here is the final result, cut using the stitched flower die (love this die!), run through the Cuttlebug with a shim and dryer sheet.  After they are all out, I spritzed them with some Tattered Angels in Trunk Bay (the color :) - let them dry and edged them with some Stickles glitter glue.  After that was dry, I just built up the flowers and added one of them to this collage with a verse, scraps of material and buttons and added it to a small frame.  Easy and such a lovely result!

The Final Product - a flower collage in a frame! :)

Without the frame :)

Close up of the flower!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Dueling Darlings ~ How Great is the Love of the Father :)

 "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" ~ 1 John 3:1


Indeed how blessed we are!  It's the Dueling Darlings card kit of the month friendly duel, and this month, our hostess for the Divas is the lovely Jamie!   She sent us a very masculine kit with nautical stamped images, brown/blue theme papers & asked us to make a card for the 'guy' in our life.
Truly my husband in an angel on earth and a rare man ~ so loving and kind and never misses a single day without saying I love you to me and the kids.  The past year has been a tough one with many trials thrown into our path but truly we have also been humbled and strengthened by those trials ...  Each and every day, we are so aware of our blessings and the graces bestowed upon us. 


This will be the 6th year without my dad.  The kids still ask about him all the time, especially our son who was just 15 months when dad passed away.  I makes me sad to know that he will never know the wonderful man that he calls "Grampy" because his sisters do.  He won't remember how much joy he brought my dad in the tiny amount of time they had together on this earth.  But I see his smile in the faces of my kids and his quirky, cheeky sense of humor that comes through.  So much of "him" is still here, in each of them ~ and that the love still outshines the earthly presence. And I know dad is there, waiting on all of us, and I have no doubt when we all get there, he'll be on some bench, smiling and telling us he was "just readin' the paper" while he waited! ;)

I recently came across a beautiful passage while researching for my book and I wanted to share it with you as well :)  It reads  "There is love, immortal and unchanging love, in heaven toward you, which will never grow cold. You will be helped. God would sooner cease to be than cease to be faithful.  Be of good courage, for today He will strengthen your heart.”   Don't you just love that!  Well, on to the card ...  While the card kit had me stumped a bit at first, it quickly came together once I got out the cuttlebug out and just made a bunch of circular patterns around the stamped images.  I don't think I've made a CAS card quite as CAS as this - one sheet of dsp and some circles, lol!!  I added a verse on the inside as well and just love the saying ~ pretty simple all the way around :)


So be sure to stop in and see what the other Divas have created with this same image, they will be up and on their blogs off to my sidebar.  And the Dazzlers, of course, can be found there as well.   


The evening rain just rolled in and my 'non-drowsy' cough syrup just kicked in and it sure is making me drowsy! :x  

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Cheerfully entering into:  Amuse - Father's Day
Celebrate the Occasion:  Father's Day

For the Special Guy :)

Hi there!  I hope your week is off to a good start :)   We have 2 of the kids at VBS this week and the other 2 are at 3 weeks of musical theater camp all day so for the next 3 weeks it zoom zoom all around town, all the while trying not to cough up a lung :)  

This bi-weekly challenge at Riley and Company is brought to us by Jovita who asked us to make a card for the special guy/Father.  My sweet father has left this earth to be with our blessed Savior and I await our great meeting again one day - hopefully many, many years from now :)  And I already made my honey his Father's Day card so I thought I'd make another one 'just for pun' :)  He takes our lil man fishing from time to time which is a joy like none other for him so I chose Fishing Riley.   This has always been one of my fave Rileys to use for the guys!  I love his old fishing hat, how relaxed he is hoping to catch something other than an old boot ;)   Remember to load your cards to the gallery using the keyword Riley1212 and you can link them to the challenge blog  ~ we'd love to see what you create!

Thanks for stopping by today ~ have a fantastic rest of today!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Entered cheerfully into the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes (or Father's Day)

Pile it On - Go Outdoors!
Delicious Doodles - For the Fellas
Patti's Creations - #45 Father's Day/For a Guy
Phindy's Place - Father's Day
Secret Crafters Sat. Challenge - Father's Day

It's a Mysterious Fun in the Sun Post!

Hello, beautiful people!  Thank you for the well-wishes ...  alas, I can't report that I'm back to normal just yet but do get to add bronchitis to my cache of feeling yucky - ugh!

But I don't stay down long (yeah, probably my whole problem, lol) but that's a life of mom, I suppose :)

Seriously, I'm like SO excited to share today's post!  This post/image is a  spin-off of a traditional swap ... in this one,  6 identical stamped images are sent to all the participants in the swap - yep, we all get the same image to work with!  All 32 of us!  And this month, I was the hostess!!   I chose Florence from the Kraftin' Kimmie stamp line for a couple of reasons.  First, I live in tropical sunny South Florida and wanted to send an image that represented this area and to see how they all would come up with their own version of *Miami* Florence!  Second, sadly one of our treasured parks near my house is in a debate for the destruction of part of the nature pressures, mangrove trails and animal habitats.  They want to pave it over to make an industrial boat storage :( :(  They have already staged many rallies, hosted family park fun days, signed petitions and attracted the attention of national and worldwide  naturalist organizations.  They want to take acres of preserved, protected lands and mow them down 'for progress of building a huge boat warehouse' which would uproot thousands of local animals, destroy their habitats and homes and the ecological system that keeps them safe from harm :(  I have a friend who is a local Miami artist that plans to have an 'art in the park' day and I challenged the swappers to do their very best work as I plan to make a board with all the cards as an example of what the park is all about - soaking up the sun, for one thing :)  And let me tell you, they did NOT disappoint!!  You can see the smorgasboard of cards that they sent for their interpretation of Florence as soon as the gallery is up and running (I will come back and edit!)  Thanks ladies!  Be proud! And thank you for your support of Matheson Hammock Park!

Meanwhile, here is my version of Florence, sitting on the dock of the bay ... wasting time ...

:)  J/K!  She's enjoying a gorgeous sun setting over the blue bay waters and hoping and wishing they leave the park undisturbed :)  

Card front

Some of the card dimension

And the inside!  I used a sentiment from TGF :)

Thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy post!  If
you want to read about the park and/or the petetion, you can 
see it here :)


Big hugs,
Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Cheerfully entering this into:  Docerela Stamps:  Summer!

Card deets:  CS:  PTI Berry Sorbet, Summer Rain, SU Summer Sun
110 lb. White cardstock from Office Max ;
Image:  Florence from Kraftin' Kimmie, sentiment from The Greeting Farm
DSP:  My Mind's Eye Breaking Free Summer Series;
Ink:  Momento Tuxedo Black and SU Tangerine Tango;
felt ricrac, CB, Scallop die, prismacolor markers; BG buttons

Love for the animals :)

Hello!  Before I get to my card, I just wanted to share something that happened to me that strengthened my already intense crazy love for our two pups.  They are truly the happiness glue that bonds our very blessed family but until Wednesday night, I didn't realize their true capabilities.  My dh & I are still trying to make sense of it, but dogs are good that way, I think :) 


Tuesday, the 'flu like symptoms' I've been feeling hit me like a ton of bricks ... I knew I was 'tired' on Monday  {like ran a marathon and then run over by a truck tired!} and it was a bit odd ... but by Tuesday morning, I knew.  I couldn't even stand up - the pain, the fever, the shaking.  Through the night I was so miserable - chest congestion, pain, pressure.  My fever kept spiking from 101 to 102 - not the best, but not the worst.  But that night .... oh fun times.  My dh was running around the clock vigil with meds every 4 hours, albuteral tx & cough suppressants but it was all Kool-aid, in restropect.   At one point, my fever shot up to 104 .. and both doggies, who always lay beside my side of the bed all night long, kept barking and standing on their hind legs to peek over the bed to get to me and howling and Buster was dancing on his two hind legs {like he does when he wants a treat}.  My dh kept saying 'not now' while it turns out they were trying to tell him "she's not doing so good!"  That's when he did a fever check again and saw that it had shot up 2* more within 20 minutes and just stared at them. He told me later he should have known.  They never do that! And I said I wasn't surprised :)  Dogs have this eery 6th sense - our Dalmation told me every time I was pregnant AND when I was about to go into labor.  Our Mastiff used to stand guard next to my dad when he would every time his cancer returned and nudge him constantly.  But this was a first for me!  Needless to say, I'm on the mend but no where near healthy but better off than where I was at the beginning of the week.  I do not want to go through that again!  And our sweet pups are on their way to Pet Supermarket as soon as mommy is well enough for some very big treats and a trip to the doggie park!  I'm so proud of my fur babies, I just can't tell you.  I'm feeling sluggish and yucky today but at least I'm up and out of bed.  


Speaking of animals!  Well bugs!! My card ~  The SOTC card this month was all about monochromatic as the sweet and lovely April asked us to make a card using all one color.  I'm all about color, lol.  Lots of it - bright, vibrant, wonderous color.   So I stumbled with this one - going from Kraft, to pink, to green and finally settled on red.  I found this freebie while blurfing one day and decided to give it a try ... I never intended on making a red card, that's for sure.  I hope April likes the card ... it turned out pretty cute in the end :) This is a digi image that was a freebie from Whimsy Doodles!  Is that not the most generous!  You can find it HERE :) I was so enamored by the card sample that Melissa created that I scooped it up, too!  You can see her card here - I changed the colors of the papers to keep up with the monochromatic theme :)   

Peace!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Twisted Tuesdays go Twisted Purple!

Good morning!  3 more days of school here for the girls - woohoo!  Then it's VBS the entire week after that and we are all looking forward to the summer! :)  


Did you see that the Twisted Tuesdays Challenge blog has a new challenge and it's all about a touch of purple!  My card took a completely different direction from where I started and left it last night, came back to it again this morning and it just literally fell together - sometimes crafting mojo is like that!  I just love these PI girls and finally inked this one up!  I paper pieced her dress and kept the colors through out the image similiar to the dsp I'm using and added purple buttons and purple twine - the twist this week!

Be sure to stop by the Twisted Tuesday Challenge blog to see more inspiration from the designers and to enter your 'touch of purple card' with a twist - use twine!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Just swinging by!

Happy Friday! I love Fridays!  Today has been a fun-filled first day of summer for my son ~ his sisters have one more week of school, so we spent this very rainy morning building tent forts, playing board games and hanging out on Webkinz & the Nintendo 3DS - woot, woot!  


And what better way to start Friday with a fun Riley and Company card :)  This week's bi-weekly challenge is to use BOTH Riley and Sophie on your card.  I LOVE this stamp from the Circus collection and finally inked it up, paired it with some fun colored papers and put the matching circus sentiment on the inside :) This was a fun card to make and I could just feel my 'summer's almost here' inner self bursting through - LOL!

And did you hear the FUN news!  Now, when you enter your Riley cards to the bi-weekly challenge, a prize will be given!!  Here is what the news is!

If you enter our challenge you could be in the running to win free rubber ... One lucky person per challenge will win our Logo Riley image which isn't available for purchase. You will also get the chance to display a winner's button on your blog. So get stamping Riley fans :)

Once you have created your card/project come back here and place a comment with a link to your card/project to this post so that we can see what you created. If you upload your card/project to SCS don't forget to include the keyword RILEY1112. We can't wait to see what you create!**

So here we go!  Just swinging by to say hi! :) Be sure to post what you make with your Riley and Sophie stamps - and for more inspiration, hop on over to the DT samples ... you can find them on my right side bar.

Big hugs!

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Crafters of Faith: May Flower Baskets!

Hi there!!  It's the last day of the month which means the Crafters of Faith have a post for you today! :)  And this month, our hostess is none other than the wonderful Patti!


Before I get started, I have to say Patti is one of the sweetest friends I have met in blog land!  We started posting awhile ago and she answered 'the call' to join the COF over on SCS and I was so excited!  Little did I know then that I would be so blessed by her caring nature, her constant smile, unassuming gentle way and love of life. She is never without a kind word to share, a big hug to give, a hand to lend, and just all around one of the BEST gifts God has graced me with in my life!  A true blessing you are to me, Patti - and I thank you for being you! xoxo


So, off to our challenge this month!  I loved it!  Here it was her challenge for us is: 

"Ok I got it! When my kids were little they made May flower baskets. They would hang them on a couple of the elderly neighbor's doors, knock and run! It was so much fun! So I want to see May flowers in baskets... either stamped or 3D which ever you want! I can't wait to see what you come up with! {{{Hugs}}}"

Don't you just love it this challenge!  So I was a wee bit stumped on the basket part and had all these grand ideas in my head until I actually had to make them, hee hee!  I'm swamped this week with end of the school year and hope that I did okay by making a template of a flower pot (hanging on a picket fence) and my die cut stitched flowers with button centers using delicious dies from The Scrapping Cottage!  My card is fairly simple as I let the flowers be a focal point and propped them up on 3D dots for dimension.  

Be sure to stop by and see what the other Crafter of Faith sisters have created this month! You can find them off to the right in my side bar :)

Big hugs!

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

God Bless the USA!

Happy Memorial Day! 

God Bless our service men and women past and present for their sacrifices, dedication and love of our blessed nation - I thank you!

** Before I get to my Calendar Girl post, I wanted to announce the random winner of a free Riley and Company stamp from the Riley Blog hop ....

congratulations goes out to Kathy from Lucky Stamper!**

For a complete list of winners, check here!

It's the wonderful time when the Calendar Girls - a group of friends formed on SCS - post our monthly cards with a designated theme.  This month, our hostess was none other than the uber fabulous, Barb!

She gave us a theme of red, white and blue and showing our patriotric side since our posting lands on Memorial Day this year.

So naturally, I went with the new Riley called Grand 'Ole Flag Riley! 

He is an amazing representation of cuteness, glory, pride for our country and sure make you smile! :)

I paired Riley with a simple design of arrows, SU paper and of course, some buttons :)

And naturally I had to do the inside of my card - 

it's almost the best {funnest!} part for me!

Grand Ole' Flag Riley!

Barb also asked us to share what our favorite memory is of Memorial Day.

I absolutely love being mommy and always keeping traditions alive in my own family that I did with my own parents and brother growing up,

but we weren't stateside long enough to really celebrate as a country.

But I remember so strongly growing up that each Memorial Day, whatever AF Base we were stationed at, aside from 2 very remote locations, they always had a HUGE bash with music, bbq's, the Stars 'n Stripes playing,

heading to the pool to cool off and my mom stocking up on our clothes at the AAFES sale :)   I am so blessed to have had the childhood that I did and loved every minute, every hour, every year that we were a military family.

Now with my own kids, we host a BBQ and grill out and always make a trip to the beach on Memorial Day weekend with about a million other people! :)

Be sure to stop on over at the other Calendar Girl blogs to see what patriotic cards they made, too!  You can find them listed in my blog side bar :)

Big hugs!
Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Welcome to Riley's Blog Hop!

Hi there!  So happy you could join us this evening for the amazingly fabulous Riley and Company new stamp release Blog Hop!  I know you are excited to see all the new releases so we'll jump right in!  You should have arrived here from the amazing Frances' blog ... and if you need to start at the beginning, click here!


First up, I have a Recipe for Graduation card for you :)  It's an actual recipe card - a 7.5 x 7.5 cardstock filled with graduation paper, Graduation Riley ... the cutest Moose that ever was :)  I paired it with a graduation sentiment which makes for a wonderful keepsake - great behind glass in a frame or shadowbox.

Next, we have Marching Band Sophie with all her red and fancy finery!  I always tell my niece to march to the beat of her own drum :)  This card is so fitting!

Card inside, left blank :)

Now before you head over to Silli's blog, let me give you some details from Tanya's newsletter on some really wonderful news!!

Here is the scoop on the specials for tomorrow night straight from
Tanya's newsletter ....

All full sets will be 10% off from Thursday through Sunday!

You choose unmounted, cling mounted or wood mounted!

You can also get an entire set of Riley Notecards FREE

(a $6.99 value) during this release by simply placing an order

of $25 or more (before tax) in the first 24 hours of the release!

(One per customer please.)

But wait - there's more! As an added bonus, we are giving

EVERYONE FREE SHIPPING from Thursday night at 9 pm CST

until Sunday night at midnight CST!

Just enter FREESHIP in the coupon code section!

Thanks for stopping by today - remember to comment on the DT blogs as you hop around tonight!


Big Hugs,
Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Riley as a king - Sneak #5!

Hello blogging friends!  Have you have been enjoying the sneak peeks of the  Riley and company upcoming new stamp release?!  He is such a cutie pie and I'm delighted to share another new Riley stamp - King Riley :) 


This royal card *smile!* will be heading to a special friend of my daughter.  If you've read my blog for awhile now, you might remember my daughter was chosen to be Belle in the a stage production of Beauty and the Beast.  She rehearsed and sang and danced with friends old and new all summer long and in the end, grew very close to the boy who played The Prince (non-Beast version, there were two different boys who played the part ... one was Beast, one was The Prince.)  They became fast friends for two young people that just met.  She ended up going to High School in the same performing arts academy with the boy who played The Beast but didn't know The Prince would also be there in a different academy and oh my!   It made for a surprisingly happy first week of school :)  They have spent all year getting closer and are now inseparable at school.  I think they are both fighting trying to 'just be friends', but she isn't allowed to date yet at 15.  They do go out now as a group and we find him to be just a delightful boy.  Even though he's allowed to date, and they are only a month apart in age, he told her that he would wait for her - however long it takes, he would be waiting.  And he has.  All year!  Bless his heart!  

The front of the card ..

Inside of the card with the quote ;)

So, back to the card!  When I saw this stamp, my mind went instantly towards creating Riley as the Beast.   I found scraps of paper and made this card entirely out of pieces of dsp that were in my 'to use' pile.  I added a quote from the movie/play that was one of my dd's favorite lines and her eyes lit up like a Christmas tree when she saw it!  She got it, I got it ... and she is curiously awaiting whether 'The Prince' will, too :)  That's if she choses to give him the card or just holds onto it as a keepsake ;)


Be sure to stop by tomorrow night - starting at 10 PM, we HOP!!  You won't want to miss it!  The Riley and Company will be releasing 14 new stamps at that time and we'll be hopping at 10 pm EST.  Hope to see you there! :)

Big Hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Sneak #3 + #4 ~ It's Vacation Time!

Oh can you believe the summer is almost here!  I can't wait!!  I was at my daughter's NJHS induction ceremony tonight, so happy for her as they passed on the lit candle to her and thought wow, the year is over.  Let the fun summer begin!  We have a few sporatic plans, like camp for 2 of the girls for a couple of weeks, VBS {as always!}, Disney in June and lots of beach, down time, relaxing! :)


But how about a quick trip to the Carribbean! One of the best vacations dh and I had was our trip to Atlantis in the Bahamas - highly recommended, I must say!  Although we didn't get to parasail, we pretty much did one of everything else there was to do at the resort and in the area.  But Riley and Sophie aren't short of fun or adventure - as you can see with this postcard from the islands card I created ... I had so much fun with this one!  These two stamps from Riley and Company are called Sophie as Carmen Miranda and Parachute Riley.  My card is pretty simple - I tried to work it in a different layout but really wanted to keep this background textured travel paper as the backdrop, so I just let it be :)   Riley is zipping in with a paper-pieced parachute while Carmen - I mean, Sophie - practices her dance routine on the sandy shores :)   Inside, I carried over the theme with a stamped sentiment to let everyone remember to balance the joys and wonders of every day with the busy-ness of life :)

And since today is Tuesday, you know what that means - time to get your vacation on!  This week's challenge at the Twisted Tuesday Blog is all about

VACATIONS!!  

And this week, the challenge will run for the next 2 weeks rather than one, so we're super duper excited to see what you post!  You can find the challenge blog here! :)

Thanks for stopping by today! I'm super excited to show off 2 more of the upcoming stamp releases - we go live at 10 PM on May 24th, this Thursday!  You won't want to miss it!  You can see what other samples the DT have created by checking out the links in my sidebar - right over there! ---->

Blessings!

~Kelly

Riley Sneak #2 - It's all about the 'stash! :)

Oh me oh my, I missed the weekend!  I hope yours was marvelous!  We had 3 birthday parties, my son's black belt prep class in TaeKwanDo, VBS training and our church worship rally and chorus banquet - all at different times this wekeend, all over town .... and we still squeezed in time to finally see "The Avengers", which was well worth the wait.  I am glad I had this card done to share with you as there was zero craft time this weekend *smile!* 

For today's sneak peek of the new Riley and Company stamp release, I'm sharing with you the new Riley stamp called The Moustache - too cute!  He is perfect for the cards for the guys and our soon to be upon us Father's Day :)  My dh has been doing so many of the 'little things' that I normally would because I've been running all over the place, like picking up the groceries & walking the puppies in the evenings.  So I'll definitely leave this card for him as a 'just because' with a note inside :)

A different angle to show you the dimension and 'pop'of the layers :)

So here we go - Riley with his 'stash!  Please be sure to stop on by the other DT members - you can find them off the right in my sidebar - and take a peek at some of the other fun cards being released as sneaks! :) 

Blessings &

Happy SONday!

x0x0

~Kelly  


Entering this into these challenges:  
Chocolate, Coffee, Card Challenge - One for the boys  

Riley Sneaks #1 ~ Blowing Bubbles!

Good morning!  How exciting that the new Riley and Company sneaks are on their way this week!  For today's sneak, I'm showing you Blowing Bubbles Riley and I nestled him into a card layout from The Sweet Stop (SSS159).  Here's my card and the sketch :)

Be sure to stop in and see what the rest of the Riley and Company DT has made for you!  You can find them off to the right in my sidebar.  The new stamp release will be available on May 24th with 14 new Riley stamps!!  Stay tuned! :)

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings,

Kelly

Praying for you ....

And you, and you, and you! :)


I absolutely love the quiet days when I get a free moment to sit down and catch up on my bible study and my daily devotionals.  After mopping myself into a corner today, I grabbed my laptop and journal and just let the words flow that had been building up in my heart.  Nearly 2 hours later, my hand numb and my eyes still wet from happy tears, I felt such an incredible and refreshing peace. I thought I'd share with you a snippet of my praise journaling.  


I was reading "Traveling Light" by Max Lucado last night, snuggled in bed listening to the light rain falling outside.  I can't tell you enough how much I love this book!  I borrowed it from the library and know that I must get a copy to own :)  I could hear the girls howling and laughing in their rooms long after 'lights out' (kids are good that way, eh?!) and debated on whether to interupt my reading to 'put down the law' ... one more time.  And I decided to let the kids be kids - it will be their cross to bear when their alarms go off respectively at 5:30 and 6:45 am! ;)  And as I turned back to my book, I lost my place and glanced down and no more perfect words could have been staring back at me.  I was glad for the momentary distraction.


From what I know of the Psalms, the scripture tells us that God is leading us beside still waters.  But my waters aren't so still!  In fact, last month my waters consisted of crest fallen waves heading straight for the jagged rocks! But what a great perspective to have when you can remember that no matter what those worries are, God will always give you what you need, when you need it.  I find myself now in those quiet moments I call the 'after storm' - finding my way back after weeks of worry and torment, the not knowing, the uncertainty and being SO GRATEFUL to have a strong faith to fall back on to.  I know so clearly that this fear was never insurmountable - I had a surf board all along :)  That surf board was in the form of prayer - a life line to grab on to when those waves were crashing down, and it brought me straight to the floor, never forgetting what God gave me knees for!

I thought I'd share with you a card I made for a sweet friend who is going through a rough time.  She's not a paper crafter ::: gasp! ::: :)  so I kept it pretty simple and just let the verse pretty much do all the talking.  I pulled these papers at random from a stack I had on my desk and actually love them together but there is something off on the layout .... I think I'll go back and fiddle with this again and see what I can make, twice!


Big hugs to all - you are loved!!
x0x0


Blessings,
~Kelly


Card submitted to:  Word Art Wednesday

It's a Spring Time Duel!

Hello!  Busy day on my blog today, so if you are looking for my Cottage Cutz card post, it's HERE! :)


For Riley and Company's new challenge card, it's HERE! :)


And it's the 15th of the month and that means it's time for another friendly duel between the Divas and the Dazzlers!  The Dueling Darlings are a group of friends from SCS that send card kits to each member of the group with just a theme - it's always a surprise to us until it arrives!  The opposing team sends a kit to their members and this month, the hostess for the Divas is Judy!  She sent us one of the most scrumptious kits evah!  It was just bursting with Spring time goodness and so much fun to look through all the wonderful papers and embellishments :)  You might remember I made a COF card with this image that she sent but it was fun to color it up again and create a card using Judy's fabulous papers!  She adores butterflies and it was evident to see so much of her tastes all through-out this kit :)  Thanks, Judy!  I hope I did it justice!!


Here's my card:

Look at this ribbon!!  It's luscious!!

We were also asked to post what we love about the Month of May :)  If you've known me for awhile, you'll see my answer has always been the same and I post it everywhere :)  I absolutely LOVE having my babies home for the summer.  I miss them so much when they are at school and it's just bliss to have them near me and home!  We have so much fun when we are together and I've been dubbed 'the fun mom' by every one of their friends so I suspect they enjoy it as much as I do :)

And Tuesday's also mean it's time for another challenge at the

Twisted Tuesday Challenge Blog!!  

This week, Melina asked us to create a card:  long and tall 

  and the twist:  Make a chain!

I added the felt flower chain that Judy sent in the kit as my twist to my card

and inadvertently made the card 5.5 x 5.5 before I remembered the long and tall - ooopsie!  Remember if you upload your cards, follow the link to the blog and you may use the keyword 2TC7!

Be sure to stop by and see what the other Divas and Dazzlers have created using this wonderful vision of Spring!  You can find them listed in my

sidebar :)  

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly


Entered into these challenges for consideration:
Craft a Scene - Spring flowers
FairyTale Challenge - things with wings