Ready, Set, GO ~ Tall and Skinny!

Happy Wednesday, friends!

It's a quirky kind of day!

It's the day we post our cards for the Ready, Set, Go Challenge!

The R, S, G is one of my "3 am ideas" 

where a card challenge isn't standard - it's out of the box extreme!

For January, Jeanette was our hostess

and asked us to create a card that is Tall and Skinny ~

to fit inside a business size envelope ..

AND to use something new to represent the New Year.
Here is what Jeanette said:

↓

Here it is, the beginning of a new year. I’m not sure if any of us make New Year’s Resolutions (I know I don’t, although I do set annual goals) but research tells us that the most common New Year’s Resolution people make is to lose weight. For this, our first Ready Set Go theme of the New Year, I want our cards to lose some weight. No, we are not going to weigh our cards… but we are going to make them skinny. Instead of making a typical A2 card or even a square card, we will be making cards that are the perfect size to fit in a business-size envelope. Tall and Skinny! (Oh, how I wish that were my body type.) Oh, I guess you realize, to be tall and skinny, your card will also need to be vertical and not horizontal. We don’t want to be short and fat. ;)  

A second part to this month’s theme is to use the newest paper-crafting item you have while making your card. Maybe it’s a stamp you recently purchased, a tool/gadget you received for Christmas, or some other treasure you’ve acquired. Whatever is the newest. (And remember, newest could be months ago… but hey! It’s not for me! I get new toys way too often.) 

Here’s to the Newness of a 2019!   Ready? Set? Go!

My card, created at midnight, 

hoping that I get an A+ on the first card of the year! :)

What I used new:

This is the first time I'm using this darling Hello Bluebird

stamp/die set called Moose and friends - so it's NEW to me! 

The idea was to build-a-scene by going upward with the images ..

I think, should I attempt this style again,

I'd create linear division lines next time :) 

I am smitten with this card, though!

It was a lot of fun to make and really stretches the comfort zone,

hence, the Ready, Set, Go challenge!

 You can see Jeanette's tall and skinny card here

and Barb's (not so tall and skinny!) card here!

I'm up to chose our challenge next month ...

So Thinking Cap:  ON!

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings! ♥

~Kelly

I'll enter this into:  2CraftyCritterCrazies
Pile it on: Land Animals 

TPB: You're greater than cupcakes!

Hi friends!

Happy Monday!

Cupcakes are great ...

Cupcakes are AWESOME!

But what's better than cupcakes?

YOU!

I've used the amazingly yummy Really Hungry stamp set 

from The Project Bin to create:

Big Girl Valentines!

 

  

I love punny cards! 

I've always loved the Valentine's the kids would bring home

in their little homemade boxes!

The super fun stamp set is so versatile

and has so many play on words :)

You can make cards so many different ways.

For today's card(s), I've made a set of 4 ~

one for each of my girls

 (3 daughters and my new granddaughter!)

I've made 4 identical cards and just switched out the colors

using the cupcake stamp in the set.

The You > Cupcakes is paper-pieced on all 4 cards

with matching paper for the cupcakes and the background.

Are you sending Valentine's Day cards this year?

This fun stamp set will get you off to a great start!

You can find it here in the shop.

Introducing ........ my granddaughter, Alice!

Hello friends!

*(Very picture heavy post!)*

There's a new little someone in our family ...

my granddaughter, Alice! ♥

With her birth, I went from the title of mom to 4 children to grandma!

Our oldest daughter and her husband blessed us with the gift of her

in October of last year and she is already the light of our lives :)

She is the first grandchild and is the delight to our hearts ...

 There is MANY arms for snuggling and a lot of hearts she's already filled!

Here's Alice!

 Alice with her mommy, our oldest daughter, at Christmas:

  

Alice and I opening the album!

 

I wanted to share with you all an absolutely beautiful gift

 I received from my very sweet and special friends

 ~ a baby album!

Each of the pages were lovingly created in the album for Alice ♥

I love that each of the pages are so unique and have her little name on them,

show the seasons for her first year of growing up,

and the love that was layered into each of these sweet pages!

From:  Lorraine

From Barb

 From Jeanette

 From Lynn M.

From Liz

 From Liz

From Kadie

 

From the Texas sisters, Suzy and Debby

 From Tracie

From Pansy

 From Susan

From Shelly

6 lovely pages from Carol!

And Laura Jean's 4 beautiful pages!

From Darlene!

From Terry A

And from my 'boss' at The Project Bin, Denise!

I'm so very toughed and grateful for this gorgeous gift!

It will be cherished and loved!

Thank you all so much!

Big hugs, bigger blessings!
~Kelly

CCEE1902: Happy Birthday, Elvis!

Hi friends!

 Liz has another fun challenge for us at the CCEE Stampers ~

Elvis Presley's birthday! 

 Liz is challenging us to make him come alive in some way on our cards this week.

(Maybe a rock and roll theme, records, an Elvis or guitar stamp,

 or perhaps even “Blue Suede shoes.”) 

Anyway you can think to let the world know “the King” of rock and roll.

Thank you, Liz!

What a fun challenge! 

For me, this was a challenge!
I don't own a single Elvis stamp.

I know, right?

What kind of self-respecting stamper am I!?  LOL!

And it didn't occur to me {in time} to find clip art ...

so I thought fast on my blue-suede feet and went with an Elvis song.

I think many of us remember Hound Dog!

"You ain't Nothing But a Hounddog!"

For my card today, I used my adorable Gerda Steiner puppy stamps

Howl are you and the sentiment is from another GS set, Gopher It!

I stamped and colored the image, then ran it through the Cuttlebug

with the matching die to get this hound dog ~ his expression is priceless!

I used a variety of dies and papers to create the card base,

and then popped the sentiment and image to the front.

That's my take on the hip-gyrating King of Rock 'n Roll!

You can see a delightful cache of Elvis cards on the CCEE blog ~

so. much. fun!

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

~Kelly

3M: Sweater Weather!

Happy middle of the week, friends!

For this month's 3M card group, I was the hostess

and chose the image to create our cards.

 This card - this stamp - this company just warm my heart! 

 (and not just because she's wearing a sweater!) 

  

During the holidays, I was reorganizing and rotating most of my stamps

and I spotted my never-been-opened Some Odd Girl Sweater Kaylee stamp.

I wanted to use a stamp in my stash that hadn't been used,

and chose a company that I wanted to highlight :)

I remember purchasing these and thinking this is out of my wheelhouse!

But that's the fun thing about this craft ...

the challenge!

 I reached out to Kristy to clarify the sharing/angel policy,

and her response was absolutely heartwarming!

(The angel policy does state no sharing, etc!)

She wrote me back with the kindest and sweetest words!

She said she understood in the internet age, crafty friends

aren't always close enough to stamp together 

and that you may want to send you friend a stamped image to try it out ~

a way to introduce them to the company.

Thank you, Kristy!

I so appreciate your blessing and encouragement!

I sent Kaylee to Barb and Jeanette, 

the other two thirds of the 3M.

This is my take on the card - going un-traditionally pink!

I do, however, love pink, black and grey together as a combination :)

Here's the inside of my card:

I stamped/cut the image and added it the card with nordic print 

sweater designer paper.

I added the sentiment to the front and the inside of my card,

and added a few buttons for texture.

 Barb's take on Kaylee is here and Jeanette is here!

I hope you are all staying warm and cozy,

my close knit friends!

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

Blog Series Premiere: Christmas Cheer All Year!

Hi friends!

We made it through Monday!

  YAY! :)

You may remember from this post 

that I have several new creative adventures planned for my blog this year ~

Like this one! 

 Christmas Cheer All Year!

December was a month of merry chaos with so. much. going. on!

Since I missed getting holiday cards in the mail 

:::: insert crying face! ::::

 I thought it would be wonderful to create cards all year!

That way, I'll be ready!

At least that's the plan ♥

 This card was created by using a stamp by STAMPlorations 

called Caffeinated Zen.

It stamps so beautifully and crisp and I loved coloring 

the middle of the cup to look like a holiday cup from Starbucks!

The rest of the cup is paper-pieced ..

and the rest is paper and glue and a heat embossed sentiment

from MFT Stamps.

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

~Kelly

TPB: .... from my tomatoes!

Hi friends and happy Monday!

Did you hear?!

  There's a brand new stamp set in The Project Bin shop 

and it's delicious!

Literally!

It's called Really Hungry 

and it's all about food :)

 

My grandma was an amazing woman ~

versed in homemaking, child rearing and canning!

They lived on a peach orchard and constantly canned her own fruits

and vegetables.

Oh my ~ I remember wooden baskets stacked HIGH in the kitchen

and grandma singing choir hymns and canning tomatoes

into mason jars to store away!

I love that!

Me? 

I didn't inherit that gene .....

My tomatoes are either in a ketchup bottle or cans of Hunts sauce! :)~

For my card today,

I used designer paper in plaid and blue jeans ~

just like a farmer's overalls and shirt ;)

I was inspired by this photo

and love the handfuls of fresh tomatoes and

the vivid contrasting colors.

But most of all, this sentiment!

I love all things punny and this one just makes me smile:

I love you from my head tomatoes!

 

You can find this stamp set and more in the shop!

Here is the stamp set in it's entirety.

Lots of possibilities with this fun set!

You may have seen my black and white striped heart card last Monday,

the day I post for The Project Bin.

We were on holiday ~
but it's on the blog today, too!

You can see that card here.

Thanks for stopping by and 

I hope if you are really hungry - even for cardmaking -

you'll scoop up this stamp set!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

Color and shake me happy! :)

Hi friends!

I hope you are having a good start to your weekend!

We're in the last days of our winter break from school ~

Monday is not going to be snow much fun

but my card sure is!

 I LOVE this week's color combination at MFT Color's Challenge!

The colors are so serene and winter-y ♥

And making cards just for fun makes my heart smile!

 

 It's no secret that I love, love, LOVE snow ~

but I also love my My Favorite Things stamps and dies!

They are the near and dear to my heart

and I find myself reaching for them often.
 

I also like using the 'oldies but goodies!'

This stamp is Warmest Wishes by Birdie Brown, circa 2014!

To create this card, I've paired it with the peek-a-boo heart die-namics

to create a shaker card - filling it with snowflake and iridescent sequins.

For the front, I added a few of the snowflake sequins and

popped a crystal gem in the center.

Since this stamp is a little older, from 2014, I used my SNC to

create the cut out and added her to front with tombo.

I'lll add my card to the current color challenge 108 :)

Sending you a flurry of love!

 Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings! ♥

~Kelly

 

CCEE1901: Something new ~ Black Ice!

 Hi friends!

We are still on winter break from school and oh my ~ 

 I don't even know what day of the week it is!

But I do know that today has two fun blog posts:

this one for the CCEE and one coming up later this afternoon ...

so. so. soooooooo excited! ♥

The CCEE Stampers are back after a break for the holidays 

and Liz is our hostess for January!

Her challenge this week:  Black Ice! 

 

 

Liz lives in a place where winters are relatively mild, 

but her greatest fear is driving in icy conditions.

 “Black Ice” is a very hazardous condition she has heard others mention.

 And she discovered in the tutorials on SCS ,a technique called “Black Ice” technique in stamping. So even without much experience at the icy driving or this technique, she is challenging us to give that technique a try. 

WOW!  Thanks, Liz - what a great way to look at card making

and a terrific challenge!

Here is my take on this super fun technique:

 My card is a little off from the traditional way of creating a Black Ice card.

I followed the tutorial on Splitcoaststampers but realized too late

that my embossing powder was silver, not clear!

The order came in and I set is aside ... 

Note to self:

SELF! 

Check the envelope the next time your order arrives, please! :)

I did, however, use a silver cardstock base, Stazon, Versamark 

and black embossing powder.

The image for today's card is from Stampin UP

called Love is Kindness.

I also added a few crystal clear sequins to give it the 'ice' element, too.

 You can see all the Black Ice cards on the CCEE blog today ~

it's a beautiful vision!

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly