Calendar Girls -- Shop 'til you drop!

 

 Happy post-Thanksgiving!

 

 

Did you brave the stores and head out for shopping?

This year, I did not ~

I'm not a big fan of the crowds, long lines, or parking woes!

I'd rather be comfortably in my home, jammies and coffee pot on ♥

 

 

Today is our Calendar Girls posting day

and the theme is Black Friday shopping.

Jeanette and Barb decided together a theme of shopping to commemorate.

My card is using one of my favorite stamp companies - Bugaboo!

I went with the funny JJ Shopping digi and the matching sentiment

I added to the inside of the card ♥

Be sure to visit the other CG posts and see what they've made

with this fun theme ~

you can find them in my sidebar!

 

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

 

 

Riley and Company: 3-1-3 Recipe Challenge!

Wow ~

 only a few more days and it will be Thanksgiving ♥

Our kids are already salivating and waiting on the scrumptious dinner,
telling me daily, almost hourly,

that they can't wait for the big Thanksgiving meal.

As a mom, that makes my heart happy and I know we are so blessed ~

definitely rich in love and faith above all things.

My heart aches for those that won't have a table to sit at,
or missing loved ones that are seated at the table of Our Father.
Indeed we have much to be grateful for.

 Today's card is for the new Riley and Company challenge:

a Recipe challenge with 3-1-3 ....
3 designer papers, 1 ribbon and 3 of one kind of embellishment.
That's my kind of challenge!
I love layers, using designer paper and embellishments
and naturally chose .......... buttons! ♥

 

 

For my card here, I used the Funnybones sentiment
"Coffee Keeps me Busy"
paired with paper I had in a leftover mat stack.
I didn't want to use tons of paper on my card so I used the "3" papers
as smaller squares (and continued it to the inside as well)
The "1" ribbon is a jute type ribbon from A/C and I swirled it under the image
where I added "3" buttons ...
completing the 3-1-3 recipe :)

If you'd like to play along using a Riley and Company image,
please link up your cards here to the challenge blog.
If you use a gallery, please use the keyword Riley2414.

Thanks for stopping by
and have a blessed, wonderful Thanksgiving!

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Tip Top Tuesdays - Buttons or Bows
Inspiration Destination:
Sweet Stamps:  Bordered Sentiments

Cornish Heritage Farms: Grateful ♥

 

Good Morning!

 

It's time for a new challenge at Cornish Heritage Farms

 and I'm the hostess of this week's challenge choice :) 

With Thanksgiving is right around the corner,

I challenged the team to create a card with theme of Gratitude

and a bonus to use the color brown.

 

Thanksgiving is a pretty big deal in our home ♥

It's my husband's very favorite holiday

and we are the hosts each year, a tradition I

inherited after my mom tossed in her apron saying she'd paid her dues, LOL!

I love the prepping and baking and cooking and watching the Macy's day parade and all that comes with our special day.

But I confess I also crack up at the memory of being HUGELY pregnant

with our 3 daughters,

all born in December, 2 years apart :)

Every time I look back at those pictures,

 I was ginormous and so very, very pregnant

and looked like I was as stuffed as the poor birds were!

At least our son cut me some slack and was born in September ♥

 

But I digress! 

 For my card, I used the adorable digi

turkey in the pumpkin patch to create the card front ...

 used miminal dsp and kept the card design fairly simple.

I continued the same pattern/style to the inside of the card

with another digi, Happy Thanksgiving.

Brown is a beautiful color, especially at this time of year,

so for the bonus, I chose that as my cardstock base.

Both of these digis are available in the CHF store and

are immediate downloads.

 

Want to play along in our challenge this week?

Of course, we'd love if you did!

You can link up your cards using a Cornish Heritage Farms image,

either stamp or digi, to the CHF Challenge blog.

If you chose a gallery, like Splitcoast, please use the keyword CHF66.

And stop in and see what inspirations the DT has created as well!

 

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Dueling Darlings - Saying Thanks!

Hi friends!

  

It's time for a brand new duel between the Dueling Darlings

Divas and the Dazzlers!

Our hostesses this month are Kadie and April
 and they have the perfect theme for this month's duel:  Thank you!
Our challenge this month is to create a thank you card with no image,

just a sentiment .... I love that!

Sometimes just saying thank you is enough ♥

and the inside of the card:

This kit was elegant and fun wrapped into one ~
but my eye went straight for the greys and, unsual for me,
I based my card around the striped grey paper!
We had a couple of color choices for the stamped Thank You
sentiment and I chose the blue one since it seemed to match.
My card seems fairly plain, but it was so busy from all the
different patterns that I just let the image be the main focal point.

Thank you Kadie and April for a wonderful theme
to create a card with this month!
Be sure to stop in and see what the rest of the Divas and Dazzlers
have created -
you can find them in my sidebar!

Thanks for stopping by ~
Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly



So thankful ♥

Hi friends :)

It's time for another Riley and Company Challenge brought to us

by DT member, Heather ~ "Be Thankful" ♥

It's perfectly timed for the beauty of this month,

Thanksgiving soon upon us. 

 

I have a humble card to offer this challenge ~

using the Thanksgiving Funnybones stamp.

My card is using mostly circular shapes all cut from Fall colored

cardstock and dsp that I had in my scrap basket ~

and the stamp is the focal point

with a few scattered buttons :)

If you would like to play along with us,

 of course we would love to have you! 

Please create a card using Riley and Company images

and link it up to the challenge blog here.

If you upload your card/project to SCS, please include the keyword Riley2314.

We can't wait to see what you create! 

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

 

I'll enter this into:  CraftingByDesigns - Give Thanks

Sisterhood of Crafters - Thank-ful

Stamping Royalty - Thanks!

Colorq #267 - colors



I'm a 3 Musketeer! ♥

Hi friends! 

Hopefully blogger will behave and launch while I'm

away either canoeing, doing archery, hiking and much more!

 

I'm excited to announce that I'm a 3 Musketeer!

 

I'm delighted to have been invited by Jeanette,

creator of a new mystery group,

 to be part of her 3 Musketeers image swap group.

How fun is that!

Thank you, Jeanette :)

 

Barb, our other Musketeer, had a fun

idea to put our heads on this image as funny bobbleheads

so my daughter got to work on one and this is what we got!

So you'll see off to the right hand screen a new blog badge - hee hee!

Hilarious!
 

The 3 M's - Jeanette, Barb and me! :)
 

What's this group all about?

Once a month we'll share a 'mystery' image and create a card due

on the 9th of the month to post our vision w/ that image.

Easy breazy lemon squeezy!

 

Jeanette is our first hostess as creator/founder of this group

and she chose a delightful Autumn image from Sugar Pea Designs

called Bountiful blessings.

 

Here's my card, inside and out:

 

Be sure to stop in and see what the other two Musketeers

created with this gorgeous image ~
Thank you Jeanette for your image this month!

 

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

 

 

We're going camping!

 

It's finally here ~

 the weekend of camping with my brand new Cub Scout! ♥ 

My son just joined up this school year with and has been SO EXCITED

 for the past month, cheerfully marking down the days on his wall calendar - lovingly called 'C-Day' ♥

 

Now we've camped before, and did the Girl Scout thing as well,

but that was a bit cushier - nice cabins, bedding, amenities!

While we aren't going full on rustic, it's pretty close -

 out in the Florida Everglades!

Bugs!  Snakes!  Wildnerness!  Rickety tents + cookin' outdoors over the fire!

No cellphones, laptops, ipods or electronics ~
we are unplugging and connecting to nature!

 

Oh. Me. Oh. My.

 

My son is one of the sweetest little boys with a gentle soul,

a constant smile and shares goodness everywhere he goes.

How could I not be excited to go along, after all :)

(I just hope the weekend goes by swiftly and safely, LOL!)

Other than my son, I won't know a soul on this campout
and hope to make new friends, great memories and home in one piece!

 

 

I've used an image I purchased for a swap and it's from Sassy Cheryls

and I followed the wonderful sketch from Poppy Sketch #16

and use the Pop of Pattern - Chevron

so I'll enter my card there to the challenge :)

 

 

I have a card to commemorate my trip to the wilderness to share :)

I have another post scheduled for Sunday

and I'm praying it launches without a hitch ~

just like our camping trip!

 

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

 

 card entered into:  Poppy Sketch 16

CHF - It's Fall!

Good Morning, friends!

 

Quick post today as I'm going 900 mph - even on today's day off of school!

Love those Teacher Planning Days! ♥

 

The kids and I are off for shopping later as they've

managed to outgrow just about every pair of jeans,

shoes, socks and warm weather clothes they own!

If I'm lucky and time permits,

we'll squeeze in some lunch, too :)

 

Today's new Cornish Heritage Farms challenge is brought

to us by the amazingly talented, Maureen.

Her challenge is the colors of Fall ~

oh, what a beautiful theme ♥

Here is my take on the challenge ~

using the digi pumpkin wheelbarrow, colored up with

prismacolor markers and some scraps of paper in Autumn tones.

The card design is using an old Deconstructing Jen sketch (#174).

 

Want to play along???

 

If you would like to play along with us of course we would love to have you!
To play create a card using CHF images. You can use either CHF digi or rubber stamps to create a card or project.... anything you like as long as the stamps are Cornish Heritage Farms. (Yes, they can be older stamps).
Once you have created your card/project come back here and use inlinkz to link to your card/project so that we can see what you created. If you upload your card/project to Splitcoast Stampers please use the keyword CHF65. We can't wait to see what you create!
Don't forget to check the Cornish Heritage Farms Design Team's cards on their blogs:

                                      Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly



I'll enter my card to: 
 PDE Linky Party - Autumn Colors
Shopping our Stash - Use Leaves
Try it on Tuesday - Colors of Autumn
Cheerful Stamp Pad -- Autumn Colors
Sparkles Forum - Autumn/Fall





I'm the Sandcastle Stamper! :)

 

One of the fun things to see while visiting in blogland

is to see the creative, wonderful and often witty titles
people have come up with for their blogs ♥

Me?
I'm the Sandcastle Stamper!

 

When I was new to blogging, I knew I wanted to combine my love
of the ocean and playing at the beach with my kids ~
 collecting shells, swimming, surfing, and making sandcastles, of course! :)

My card today reflects a few 'favorites!'
Jeanette is the hostess of this round of card making in the SOTC,
a crafty group of friends over on SCS.
She challenged us to make a card based on her words:

 

 

My theme for September/October is inspired by those very thoughts. The theme?

 

Favorite and Fabulous!

Let me explain:
Favorite = Use one/s of your favorite things on your card. It might be your favorite stamp/image, your favorite embellishment, your favorite color, or any other “favorite” that you choose.

Fabulous = I know we always use at least two layers and one embellishment, but for this time I want you to do something a little extra to make your cards fabulous. It might be simply adding another layer to your card, using a handmade embellishment, creating your own designerpaper,using a unique fold, or any other “fabulous” feature you choose.

 

And here's my card based on that theme -

a Sandcastle with a fancy fold paper card design!

Another favorite:  This gorgeous Sandcastle die-version die was a gift

from my super sweet friend, Carol! ♥

It's so me and I love love LOVE it ~

 Thank you so much! ♥

 

I let the sandcastle die cut be the focal point of the card

and the different scraps of paper, folded into a design,

became the 'unique fabulous fold'.

I hope that's what Jeanette meant and I won't be in the 'sand' doghouse :)

A few little tiny pearls scattered in the dsp finish it off.

 

 

And the inside of my card, of course!

I kept the same design going for the smaller layer and left it blank

so the recipients can write any message they like :)

And that's my contribution to the SOTC cards this month ~

Sandcastle Stampin :)

 

We're out to the park today enjoying this GORGEOUS 60* weather!

Definitely not beach weather but it's still fabulous!

I hope you are enjoying it, too!

 

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly



 

Card entered into:  Dragonfly Dreams - Girly and Use a Die Cut!

Quirky Crafts - Film "Beaches"

Sentimental Sundays - Anything Goes

Sunshine Mail - Anything Goes

 

 

It's picnic time! :-)

It's Fall, it's Fall!

The weather is just absolutely beautiful here,
a nice contrast from our scorching hot, humid summers  :)

I was driving my son to his Boy Scout pack meeting
the other night and just couldn't get enough of the lovely night.
 The sun was just setting, creating a
kaleidoscope of colors, a most gorgeous Indian summer eve ♥
We had the windows down and a faint, familiar smell waifed in through the open
windows and I could tell his curiousity was peeked.

In the distance, somewhere out wherever, we could smell
smoke and fire drifting on the wind, probably miles and miles away
from burning piles of leaves and brush.
Oh, that smell!
It's such a *Fall* smell - burning leaves ~ it's pure bliss ♥

It's time to be outdoors, every day, all day!
It's the perfect weather for nature walks,
biking, playing in the park, and having a lovely little picnics!

It's my day to post on the Just For Fun Rubber Stamps inspiration blog :)
I was inspired by one of my creations from some time ago
to create a little picnic basket w/ a set of notecards
and tried my hand at another one :)

I made this picnic basket out of cardstock, brads and tombo -
super easy!
It stands upright to hold notecards,
perfect for a teacher's desk, office or church colleague!
I made simple notecards to go inside
w/ space to write a quick message - even easier!

Here is a list of the stamps I used to create this set:

To create the cards for the basket:
Stamptangle Fancy Pear,
Stamptangle Macintosh apple,
Let's talk sentiment, and
We're a perfect pair sentiment.
On the front is the sideview butterfly (what' a picnic without bugs!)
I stamped it twice and
then propped up with 3d foam dots
and topped off with a little piece of twine!

All these gorgeous, deeply etched fine rubber stamps are
all available in the shop.
You can also find us on Facebook and 'like' us there
for more inspiration and trunk shows and more!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Be safe out there this weekend
and enjoy the festivities if you celebrate Harvest/Halloween :)

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Riley and Company + Calendar Girls = 1 card, 2 challenges!

                                         Hello friends!

 

Do you remember playing with Spirograph as a young child?

Me, too!

It kept my brother and I busy for hours playing with it,

creating intricate designs and zig-zag pictures in a variety of colors.

I was so nostalgic when I saw the TLC Spirelli challenge on SCS

 and just knew I had to play along ♥

 

My finished card is actually a two-fer ....

The Calendar Girls and Riley and Company built into one!

 

Barb is the hostess for our Calendar Girls this month

and challenged us to make a card using Black and only one other color

(white in the image base was acceptable!)

and ....
Kerin is the hostess for the new Riley and Company Challenge this week,
which is create a pink monotone card in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness.

So in order to create this card,
I chose pink as the color to work with and nestled the Funnybones
sentiment into the Spirelli inspired floret.
(you can find the tutorial on SCS here:)
The sentiment really resonates that any battle,
especially one with a life changing diagnosis of cancer,
takes courage.

Here is my finished card, inside and out -
 

 



 

Here's the wonderful beginning to the Spirelli technique ~
embroidery twine and a scallop edge.

 

The finished floret!



 Isn't this a fun technique!

I know I'll be using this again and again :)

 

Please be sure to check out the Riley and Company DT creations -

you can find them listed in my sidebar!

Also, if you want to upload your card to play along to a gallery,

please use the keyword Riley2214.

 

And of course stop on over and see what my Calendar Girl sisters

 have created, too!

 

That's it for me!

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

 

Pumpkins everywhere!

I love this time of year! 

 Pumpkins are bountiful and at every corner,
there's a pumpkin something :)

Now I'm in love with Pumpkin Spice Lattes, Pumpkin stew, pumpkin bread,
 pumpkin cheesecake and so much more!
I love the flavors and scents of Fall ♥
We're picking up our pumpkins for carving from the patch today ~
a little late in the season for us but we just ran out of time.

This week, the Cornish Heritage Farms girls have a new challenge ~
Maureen is our hostess and asked us to create anything with a pumpkin.
Today's creation is a card.
I adore this image of this sweet little boy carrying the pumpkin from
grandma and grandpa's farm ...
at least that's how I imagine him!

And the inside of the card:

Want to play along???

If you would like to play along with us of course we would love to have you!

To play create a card using CHF images. You can use either CHF digi or rubber stamps to create a card or project.... anything you like as long as the stamps are Cornish Heritage Farms. (Yes, they can be older stamps).

Once you have created your card/project come back here and use inlinkz to link to your card/project so that we can see what you created. If you upload your card/project to Splitcoast Stampers please use the keyword CHF64. We can't wait to see what you create!

Don't forget to check the Cornish Heritage Farms Design Team's cards on their blogs!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big Hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Happy Autumn ♥

Good Morning, friends!

  Happy Friday and Happy Autumn!

 

This is such a wonderful time of year,

the promise of all the gorgeous Fall activities ahead!

There is something so incredible soul-searching about

the crisp new nip in the air, the leaves changing their colors

and all the smells of pumpkin and spice - yum!

It makes me want to bake like crazy!

 

Today's card is using a lovely stamp from Just For Fun stamps

called Corn Husk Swag. 

I've paired it with some Crate Paper paper I've had for

ages and pull out every Autumn, it seems!

Colored with my prismacolor markers and adored a little with ...

 

buttons! ♥

 

 

The inside is using a "thinking of you" sentiment from the

UM Words Set and completes this card ~

Perfect for a little gift giving or just to show you care.

 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Tonight is Homecoming for my Senior-year

and the hair and make up soon begins :)

 

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

I'll enter this into:  Stamping Sensations: Warm Autumn Colors
My Sheri Crafts - Autumn Abundance
Docerela - Fall Colors
 

DDD: Eat, Drink and Be Scary!

 

Booooooo! 

Did I scare you?

 I'm sure I didn't since this sweet little witch is just too cute too spook!

 Even with her green hair! :)

 

Today is the the day the DDD group post our cards! Yay!

I'm using a card kit sent from the Divas' hostess, Laurajean
and the Dazzlers have a kit from Terry.

Their super fun theme this month is:
  Eat, Drink and Be Scary!

LJ's kit was quintessentially Halloween and oh so fun ♥
I colored up the cute witch from MFT {Birdie Brown, Witch Way is the Candy?}
with prismacolor markers and added buttons -
I love buttons!!
My eyes zeroed right in on those when I saw LJ's kit :)
I added them haphazardly around the image so it would remain the focal point
and followed the fabulous sketch from TMS {see below} to complete the look!

So here's my card, inside and out!
I'm really tickled with how it turned out ♥

 

Part 2 of this challenge was to talk about our favorite H'ween candy
when we went Trick or Treating, if we did.
I remember mentioned that when we lived in Europe, the custom didn't exist.
We found that out the hard way, lol!
But here in the US, we went T or Ting on military bases where
'back in the day' everyone knew everyone and life was simple and good.
None of this craziness you see now :(
My very, very, very favorite candy to receive while out was
to see a honest to goodness, freshly made Candy Apple hit my sack!
Oh me oh my, those were the good 'ol days!

Thank you LJ and Terry for the Hallo-scream fun
for this month!
Only 15 more days 'til Halloween!!

Card entered into:  TMS #221 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Please be sure to visit my other DDD gal pals -

you can find them in my sidebar :)

 

Big Hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Shiver Me Timbers!

 

Sail ho! Avast ye! 

 If ye be looking for some mighty fine fun and costume party attire for Halloween then ye've come to the right starboard blog, mate! 

 

Shiver me timbers!

Did you know September 19 was "Talk like a Pirate Day"?

Arrrrrrrrrrrrr! ♥

Imagine walking around all day being pirates? LOL!

 

It's also time for Riley and Company's brand new challenge for the week
 - Halloween -
 and it's brought to us by Joy.

Not a huge fan of Halloween, but when you have kids, it's par for the course
that Harvest fun is going to sneak in :)
I do get a kick out of seeing the kids pick or make a costume
 and go Trick or Treating.   I LOVE passing out the candies and seeing all the little costumes coming up to the door!

 

So, I went the non-traditional Halloween route w/ my card -

after all, dressing up in costume is (mostly!) for Halloween :)

This is Captain Hook Riley, paired with one of the newer FunnyBones sentiments.

I think this paper is a really old SU! stack - it fit :)

The inside of the card has bones as well.

 

 

Yarrrrr!  Me hearties, be sure to add yer cards to thee challenge blog.

Yo-ho-ho!

Ye can find it right here!

 

Oh! And if you want to link it to a gallery like SCS,

please use the keyword Riley2114!

 

Big hugs, Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

 

 I'll enter this into:  My Craft Spot - Too Cute to Spook

 SFC220 - For a Man or Boy

Scrappyhands - Use 3 (sequins)