VSN: Stay Cool !

 Hi friends!

I'm over the moon happy to be one of the hostesses 

at Splitcoaststampers for the summer soiree' - VSN

 (or Virtual Stamp Night!)

The overall theme is rocks ~

from rock 'n roll, engagement ring 'rocks', mountains, etc!

 I went with a really bold choice ....

My theme for the challenge was:

PoP RoCkS!

 
One of my favorite candies growing up was Pop Rocks!  We'd tear open the little packets, excited for the candy to melt in our mouths and release the bubbles to hear the loud POP! The original Pop Rocks came in delicious flavors of cherry, strawberry, and grape!

My challenge is for you to create a card showing candy (or any image with any treat!) on your card and to use at least one of the 3 colors from the original packaging: Red, Pink or Purple!

 

Here is the card I made for the challenge as the hostess:

I"ve used Chloe: Stay Cool from Stamp Anniething.

Thanks for your visit today 

and wherever you are, Stay Cool!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

Happy 4th of July, USA!

Hi crafty friends!

Here in the USA, it's Independence Day!

The kids are enjoying our gorgeous sunshine and the pool,

the hubby is getting the grill ready and prepping the buffet he has planned,

and I'm back and forth and back and forth cleaning and cooking ♥

And I also got into a scrap!

Not that kind of scrap!

Just my scrap PILE!

There's a new challenge at the CCEE Stampers this week:

Freedom Week!

Vicki is our hostess for the month of July 

and she's starting us off with this theme:

Hi, Vicky here . . . it is my turn to play hostess for the month of July.
Since both Australia and the USA have red, white and blue for their colors,

 let's use those colors to make a card. 

  It does not have to be for a holiday, just red, white and blue....

but, of course, if you send out patriotic cards, go for it!

Thanks, Vicki! 

I used paper left over in the scrap pile and ran it through my die cutting machine

using a Pretty Pink Posh die to get the stripes.

The square is another die from Spellbinders

and the outside frames are from My Favorite Things. 

The sentiment is from the Moose and friends stamps from Hello Bluebird ~

it was fun to find it hidden among the celebratory sentiments 

and ended up being just perfect! 

You can link up your cards celebrating

Freedom Week

by heading over to the blog and scrolling to the end of the post.

Thanks for stopping by and wishing you a safe, wonderful holiday!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

Entering this to SSSWednesday Challenge 

:  Stars and/or Stripes

One Plus Twelve - Blustery Day

Hi friends!

I have a fun card to share that is part of a card series I started this year ~

it's called One Plus Twelve.

You can read the first post here 

and the basic idea is to use just ONE stamp, once a month, all year!

I chose Honey Bee Stamps Warm Wishes 
and have had fun coming up with different ways to use 'Foxy'
in his adventures through 2019!

I am actually so far behind showing you the card for May :(
I've missed May and June
 - among many other card events - 
 due to a crazy busy fun life we have ...
school ending, college/middle school graduation, a grand-daughter!

For May, I had planned April Showers/May Flowers ...
and created a window scene with Foxy watching a blustery spring day outside.
His shirt is paper-pieced - but I colored Foxy yesterday for day 18 
of The Daily Marker Coloring Challenge.


 I added the sentiment "Hang in there" from Honey Bee Stamps set
called Blah Blah Blah ~ such a fun set!
The last addition was a few coordinating enamel dots.


 I invited two friends to join me in this crafty endeavor 
and you can see Barb's card and Jeanette's card ~
they've both chosen an earthy stamp to use.

 I'll also have June and July One Plus Twelve coming up shortly ~
Foxy sure has been doing some traveling!

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

 

Ocean tribute for Joanne

Hi everyone ♥

Today I'm participating in a special 'In Memoriam' blog hop for a design team sister
that sadly passed away.
We are joining together to celebrate the life of a beautiful soul
and sharing cards inspired by the things she loved in life!

If you are hopping along, you would have come from Rebecca's blog.

As many of you may have already heard by now,
 our friend and fellow Design Team member passed away suddenly on the 25th May 2019.
Joanne had been battling a few health issues recently 
so she hadn't played along with the challenges for a few months,
 but she was looking forward to getting back into her stamp cave to play again.

Joanne was very much loved in the stamping community and was very active on Splitcoaststampers going by the name of Jojot. 
 Joanne had two blogs The Inky Ocean Gazer and The Inky Ocean Gazer 2.

 Today we have asked the members of the two challenge Design Teams 
she was in ~ the CCEE Stampers and Crazy 4 Challenges ~ 
and a few special stamping friend to join us
 in this special tribute blog hop to our stamping friend by either.

It's humbling to offer a card in her honor today and I went with a sunset at the ocean. I've used 2 Unity stamps to create my card today ~
Not be perfect and the sentiment from A Chance Every Day
as I thought they went lovely together.
I masked the image and created the sky/sand with distress oxide inks.

Here is the entire hop list if you'd like to stop by and see what was made for Joanne!

CCEE Stampers 

Frances Byrne

Lois Bak

Karen Ostergard

Liz Williams

Vicki Garrett

Rebecca Ednie

Kelly Santi

Karen Aicken

Vicky Gould

Maryann Einam

Anne Harmon

Nicky Foden

Lynn McAuley

Kathleen Adams

Crazy 4 Challenges 

If you'd like to create a card, on the CCEE Stampers blog

there is a linky spot where you can create a card in her honor.

 From here, you'll head to the talented Karen's blog.

Rest In Peace, Joanne ♥

Thanks for stopping by ...
Big hugs, bigger blessings♥

~Kelly

Tuesday's BOOMing with fun!

Hi friends!

I love a good Tuesday :)
Mondays often get a bad rap,
Wednesdays have everyone just trying to get to the weekend,
and Fridays are everyone's favorite!
Tuesdays are just ........  well, Tuesday!

BUT ...
It's a super fun day for me!
 Starting this week, I'm posting on a new day 
over at The Project Bin blog.

This week's Tuesday is bursting with fun and creativity ~ 
it's the week of Independence Day in the USA!
I've used the festive stamp set Red, White and Boom
and it's such a perfect stamp set for this week 
since the 4th of July - USA is a few days away.

I've used the sentiment in the set 'Happy Independence Day'
stamped in Momentio Tuxedo Black Ink.
The background is using distress oxide inks from Ranger
and WOW Embossing powder in white.
And the final touch - tiny little sequin stars, a gift from a friend!

Here's a look at the entire set
and you can find it at The Project Bin shop.

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

I'll share my card at:  Simon Says Stamps- Make Your Own Background 
 

Know your worth....

Hi friends!

I hope your weekend is going super :)

I can't stop smiling ~ my son is home!

Oh how we've missed him!

He's regaled us with stories from camp and 

aside from missing his mama's cooking and his 'own bed',

 he missed internet! :)

I've been a long time fan of Catherine Pooler Designs

and have several of her ink pads and they. are. marvelous!!

I loved this stamp set when I saw it

as it is very different from any stamps I currently have.

The fern is inked up in Catherine Pooler Grass Skirt ink

and I masked it to create the two leaves.

I saw the Inspiration Challenge at SCS and quickly put my card 

together after seeing this funky high top shoe!

The green, black and white became my springboard.

I love the foresty feel that this has ~

the crisp image of the stamp, I can almost smell the pine and woods!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly 

Entered into:  Simon Says Stamp/AG

Alice's sunshine ♥

Hi friends!

Yay for Friday!

Yay for sunshine outside my window,

shining brightly after days upon days of rain.

And Yay that my son is finally heading home this weekend

after nearly 3 weeks of Boy Scout camp! 

  Every 28th of the month,

the Challenge Your Stash card group post our cards with a theme.

Our hostess this month is Maggie and she said:

Celebrate the start of summer by making a card

 with Yellow and Sunshine.

The CYS card group literally means to challenge your stash

of supplies, meaning nothing new can be used/bought!

It helps us to stretch the supplies that we purchase,

especially if a stamp has only seen ink once (or not at all!)

Today, I'm using the stamp Sunshine by CC Designs,

 stamp I bought over 2 years ago.

I created this card with it in April 2017 :)

The yellow requirement is the base color for the overall design

and the sunshine is in her little balloon hand.

The gingham paper is from my scrap pile 

and the dies I've used have been in my collection for a long time.

And the sweet little lemon sequins are from a win over on Instagram:

Doodles Paper Playground (Sparkle blend: Limonade)

This one is for my little granddaughter, Alice,

and she's definitely my little ray of sunshine!

She's the absolute joy of our lives and we're all just completely smitten.

She's too young for the card at 8 months old,

so I'll have to put it away for her ♥

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

National Catfish Day!

Hi friends!

The CCEE Stampers have a new challenge this week,

the last one for Lois, our hostess for the month of June.

Her challenge this week:

  I discovered that Tuesday (June 25th) was National Catfish Day.

 I ask that you create a card that has some kind of fish or sea life on it.

I've used Stampabilities Peanuts Sportsman,

one of the stamps from my Snoopy collection.

Charlie Brown is doing a great job fishing!

I've colored it with promarkers and added it to a basic kraft card base.

This card will be heading to my son at Boy Scout camp.

Oh how I miss him terribly! :(

His bubbly personality and chatterbox self

has made the house SO. VERY. QUIET! 

I know he's having a marvelous time, fishing included,

so I thought this would be a cute card to pop in his mail-from-home box ♥

Be sure to stop in here to the CCEE Blog

to link up your cards with a 'fishing' theme

AND see some absolutely gorgeous cards from the Design Team!

I'm still coloring each and every day - mostly late at night! - 
for The Daily Marker 30 day.
You can see my daily coloring here on Instagram!
 

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly 

Nautical Tuesday :)

 Hi friends!

Welcome to Tuesday!
Although it's almost over here ..
and it's rainy and dark and gloomy.
 I'm already laying in my bed
 under the comfiest blanket,
 a gift from my son ♥ 

It's funny when I sit down to make a card ~

sometimes I have a plan, 
sometimes I don't :)

By happenstance, I wandered into Hobby Lobby last week
and saw this beautiful sign hanging in the front
and had an a-hah moment.

The Project Bin has one of my favorite stamp sets:
Anchor's Away!
I knew right away I was going to use it ...
came home and got to work! 

  Just like that ...

~ by chance ~ 

sometimes inspiration is right around the corner!

I was going for a nautical look with both of the cards,
choosing one red and one blue.
I have a 3rd card lined up as well ~ 
it just won't be shown today!
 

And that's it from me today!
You can find this stamp set in the shop at The Project Bin
and inspiration posts daily on the blog.

Here is the set:

Beautiful!
Makes me want to set sail :)

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

Adjust Your Focus!

 Hi friends!

I hope your weekend is off to a wonderful start!

How is your daily coloring coming along?

We're up to day #8 of the coloring challenge!

And as they say ...

if life gets blurry,

adjust your focus and capture the good times!

 

 I love 

- LOVE! - 

 stamped images with girls 'n cameras!

 I took photography in high school 

and spent hours developing my 35mm film in the dark room.
I had visions that I'd travel the world with my Nikon FA

taking black and white photographs like Ansel Adams :)

I even won First Prize and 25 bucks at the county fair

 for a picture of my kitty cat, Tiggy!

 ♥

But somewhere between developing fluids and figuring out the f-stops,

I think either my teacher,

  or perhaps my parents,

told me to quite daydreaming and go to college and get a real job.

So, there's that!

 My card today is a masking of 2 stamps.

I adore the images from Picket Fence Studios and font of their sentiment stamps!

They quickly caught my eye when one of my dear and very talented friends, Angela, started posting her design team cards.

I quickly purchased this camera stamp, called Beautiful Girl ~ Karen

at a time when life was on hyper-drive! 

This week, a new order arrived and I decided to add two stamps together

and spent the afternoon coloring all the little houses

 from this background stamp :)

While I debated adding a sentiment to the top,

it looks busy enough so I thought it would be better inside the card.

The inspiration challenge at SCS today was a great springboard ~

I saw this sensational Venice, Italy toile and my mind started clicking!

And yes!

I still take photographs ...

just on a digital camera now!

Thanks for stopping by!
Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly

CCEE1925: Pink Day is ..... flamboyant!

Hello friends!

Did you know that a group of flamingos is called a flamboyance?

Indeed!

 A group of flamingos is, most amazingly, called a flamboyance. 

They are such fun, graceful birds with a quiet understanding 

so it's quite something that they have such a name :)

Lois is our hostess for the month of June at the CCEE Stampers blog

and her theme this week:  Think Pink!

This Sunday (June 23) is National Pink Day.  

Easy challenge - make a pink card.

You may have noticed, it's Lawn Fawn week on my blog!

My son, before leaving for camp, chose a letter from a jar for me and it was "L"

so I've challenged myself to use my Lawn Fawn stamps to make cards.

Starting tomorrow, it's a free-for-all and lots of different stamps get to play!

For this card, I've used the set flamingo together and the matching dies

as well as distress inks/blending tools and a background die for this card.

I've actually paired together two different background panels - 

one white, one pink 

and layered them just slighty askewed to have a tiny white peeking 

through for 'dramatic effect' :)

I blended with Ranger blending tools and distress inks and an elbow work out!

This is the 6th day of the challenge and the 5th card I've made.
Remember, the premise of The Daily Marker with Kathy Rac is to color
for about 10 minutes a day.

You can see what all the teammates have created by heading to the blog.
You can also link up your PINK cards, too!

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

I"ll enter my card into:  Simon Says Stamp - Travel (to the beach!)
 Lawn Fawn - Mood Board/Summer

RSG = National Dairy Month!

 Hi friends!

Cow's it going?!

Did you hear the rooster this morning 

waking. up. the. entire. farm?!

Yeah ... me neither!

That's why I'm late posting today!

LOL!

I'm mooooooo-ving fast to get this card posted

because it's the 3rd Wednesday of the month 

and that's the day the 3 Musketeers card group posts our themed card.

                                           

June is National Dairy Month,

we're creating udderly adorable cards with cows!

Barb gave us the theme this month and this is her request:

  June is Dairy Month and being from Wisconsin as well as

 growing up on a farm, this was always a fun month.   

 As 4-H member, we had an Ice Cream Social every year during June.  There are also many Farm Breakfasts that are held to honor the farmers. 

 Culvers Restaurants was founded in Wisconsin in 1984 

and they honor farmers all month long with special events and contests.. 

 So—please create a card or other project that honors Dairy Month.

  Farmers, Food, Animals, etc. ~ anything that reminds you of dairy. 

 Easy-Peasy. 

 Ready? Set. Go!

 It's Day 5 of The Daily Marker challenge and I just finished coloring these cuties.

I started thinking of this theme a few days ago

 and am surprised at how many cow stamps I own.

Since it's a personal challenge to use only Lawn Fawn stamps for one week,

this Hay There stamp set is the only set I had to purchase. 

I have other farm/cow stamp sets but it had to be Lawn Fawn ♥

('cuz a challenge is a challenge!)

But am super thrilled to have added this to my collection.

I used only the cows in the set 

~ and 3 of them ~

because these 2 girls are truly a treasure to me

and I consider them dear, dear friends!

(or would that be bovine friends?)

Hee hee! 

 We take turns each month challenging each other

 with a wild and wacky and WAY outside the box challenge.

This month was cows ... and pretty laid back
and you can see Barb's card here and Jeanette's here.

I'm looking forward to seeing what we'll be doing for next month's theme :)

This is the 5th day of The Daily Marker coloring challenge
and my 4th card ~ yay!
You can read about the challenge here
or stop by my first post and catch up :)

 Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly