Sandcastle Stamper

Calendar Girls - January Remakes! :)

2012-01-27T21:00:00.000-08:00

Hi there! First, let me announce the winner of a FREE stamp of your choice from the January 2012 Riley release and by random selection, the winner on my blog is:

Heather: Joemamainks

I'll be contacting your for your mailing information and stamp of choice -

congratulations and thank you, everyone, for hopping with Riley and Company!

It's time for another Calendar Girl's post and this month, our fantabulous hostess is none other than the Calendar's Girls fearless leader and creator of the group, Jeanette!! And in her words, This month her challenge is .............

Something New Using Something Old!

What do I mean by that? This isn’t exactly what it seems. It’s not a vintage theme, though you can make your card/project vintage if you’d like. What I do want you to do is look back over your Calendar Girl posts/creations from the year 2011 and choose one of the images you used. Then I want you to create something entirely different with the same image. It cannot look at all like the previous Calendar Girl creation; nor can you use the same papers/embellishments/etc. When you post to your blog – on January 28 – I want you to also post a picture of your 2011 card/project that used the same image so we can see the two and how different they are.

And here is the card I posted last year ... the stamp I chose back then is a Sandcastle, of course! :) It's from Inkadinkado

and the sandcastle + papers really reflect my Miami life!

Here's the Original card :)

And the remake card using the same stamp but different papers/layout/embellies ...

Here's the NEW card!

A wee side view :)

And of course I did the inside of my card :) I used a different stamp on the inside this time, too ~
I love this very old PSX stamp. I actually watched this stamp on ebay for DAYS back in the day!

I switched out the paper on the new card to SU's "jersey shore" (I think!) I wish I had bought more of this darling paper because it's a perfect match to a scrapbook I'm planning from a beach trip, but we all know how that goes! I have so many of my SU paper packs kept away for "special pages" and take a piece or two out now and again for cards :) I also used some super old Wild Wasabi (as in vintage, when SU first came out with this! Membah that?! ) And yes, I stapled it on purpose, lol! And the layout on this one might look a bit familiar, too! I often make a card I like and then mail it to a dear friend, and wish I'd kept a template card, ROFL. This is one of those times :)

So ........ that's my January card for the Calendar Girls! Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to take a peek at the Calendar Girls - you can find them in my sidebar and stop by and see what paper yumminess they created this month!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

~ PLEASE READ! IMPORTANT news! ~ It's a RILEY Blog Hop!

2012-01-26T18:59:00.000-08:00

***EDITED!*** Important news!

FREE shipping is now working and a prezzie for the inconvience....

Yep - we moosed up.
I guess it happens.
We are only mooses.

Apparently we had a little glitch with the free shipping last night on our website. We are SOOOOO sorry! The issue is now fixed, and any domestic order should have no charge for shipping.

For those of you who ordered, and shipping was applied, we will be contacting you, and reversing your shipping charges.

NOW, here is the good part. If we moose up, we always make up for it. Because of the inconvenience of our little moosetake - any order in the first 24 hours will not only get ONE free travel sticker stamp but THREE FREE travel sticker stamps!

It's just our way of saying we are sorry and have a moosetastic day!

Psst - the blog hop is still going on and you have a TON of chances to win some free Riley goodness just by leaving a comment! Start at our blog and follow the links!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Moose hugs!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Happy Riley Thursday! Welcome to the new stamp release BLOG HOP! We are happy to bring you 12 new stamps from Riley and Company! You should have arrived here from Frances fantastic blog! If you need to find the beginning of the Riley and Company blog hop, please start HERE!

*You have the chance to WIN a free rubber stamp!* Just complete the hop and at each stop on the way, one winner will be drawn ~ how fabulous!!

I have 2 cards I'm showcasing for you today.

First up, Mixing Bowl Riley! I am pretty sure he's mixing up a wonderful batter for a birthday cake - don't you think! I matched Mixing Bowl Riley with warm papers to give it that old country feel and colored him with my prismacolor markers in a similiar pattern. The sentiment is available at Riley and Company, too!

Card Front :)

Card inside!

For my 2nd card, Swinging Riley is nestled in a peek-a-boo frame! I wanted to showcase Riley on the inside so I created this window that when opened to the inside shows him in a flower garden wonderland :) This Riley just makes me smile!!

Swinging Riley

Be sure to check out the rest of the DT blogs to see the new Riley stamps that they are showcasing for you today!

And our guest DT this month is Jamie Rogers Moore ~ From here, you next stop on the blog hop is the amazingly talented SILLI!

Here are the DT blogs to view:

Riley and Company Blog

Kelly (you're here!)

Our Guest DT: Jamie Moore

Happy Hopping!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Follow your Bliss! {Riley Sneak #4}

2012-01-24T19:07:00.000-08:00

It's Yoga time! I'm back with another sneak peak from the upcoming 12 new Riley stamps from Riley and Company! And don't forget the big Riley Blog Hop this Thursday, January 26th!

Today's card is using Yoga Sophie, colored in prismacolor markers and overall, a pretty CAS card. I kept it simple and this isn't my traditional tons of layers, detailed cards. And see those tiny pearls? They were the very last two that I had, and as luck would have it, I dropped one on the floor while putting this together - eeek! And I was practically stretching my chakra while trying to find it, down on hands and knees saying "come out come out, whereever you are!" (I'm funny like that!) And as luck would have it, my dh had wandered in to ask me something and sees me on the floor playing hide and seek (or so he thought) with absolutely no one else and decided he'd ask me later, ROFL!! I'm sure those moves will come in handy one day when I get my real Yoga on! ;)

I'm heading out in a little bit to Open House for my son. He will be returning, prayerfully, to his same christian school next year and they are completely changing around the curriculum. We're nervous, yet confident that he'll continue to thrive and excell as he tends to do!

Please stop on by on Thursday for the big hop!

Remember if you leave comments at EACH blog post of the DT, you'll have even more chances to win a stamp of your choice from the new release! HOW FUN IS THAT!!!

Soooo exciting!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Riley Sneakie Peakie #3!

2012-01-23T17:02:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday! I'm happy to show you another one of the new Riley stamps to be released in the 12 new stamps of Riley and Company! This stamp is sewing Sophie :) The sneaks are going on all week at the DT blogs and our big blog hop will be on Thursday, January 26th! SEW much fun! :)

Love you SEW much! :)

Inside of Card - left blank for sharing :)

Close Up of Sewing Riley

Be sure to check my side bar for the DT list and see what sneaks they have for you to peak at :)

Thanks for stopping by! Sorry this is such a quick post -- today was Girl Scout booth cookies for me and my youngest, plus Tae Kwan Do class and homework and everything in between! I think I"ve been home a whole hour today! LOL!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Shop til you drop, Sophie! (Sneak #2)

2012-01-21T17:28:00.000-08:00

Sophie is having so much fun shopping! Here's another sneak peek at the new Riley and Company stamps that are being released on January 26th - how cute is she! She's got her big girl high heels on and shopping to her hearts content (hmmm, wonder if she has any stamps in those bags? *wink!*) This new release is just so full of fun and unique images, and this one was perfect for a much needed birthday card :) I turned it into a gift card holder on the inside to include a gift card.

My card design is using the sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday #137 ~ very inspiring! To keep the girly theme, I used Cosmo Criket's Upcycle paper - so full of girl dsp and wonderful colors!

I wonder what Riley and Sophie will be up to on the next card! Adventures await! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Entered into: SweetSketchWed #137
Pile it on Challnge: Animals

Deets: Shopping Sophie from Riley and Company stamps;
DSP = Cosmo Cricket; SU cardstock; PTI ribbon; Cuttlebug
nesties, prima flowers; SU buttons; Twinery twine; Got flowers small flower; prismacolor markers; Tombo, MM brads
Giftcard: macys

Bonjour, Riley! {Sneakie peakie #1!}

2012-01-20T19:56:00.000-08:00

Bonjour! Je m'appelle Riley! {I actually only speak about 25 words of French, lol} I have been SO BLESSED to have visited Paris a few years ago and it was truly a 'bucket list' moment of mine that I will cherish forever. The first time Dh and I took the kids on a tour of Europe, we made sure to include France. We stayed in Paris for 5 days and it's an absolutely enchanting city! Oh la lah! It was also quite a hilarious leg of the trip, I can assure you ~ not speaking the language, touring with 4 kids that were 9 months old, 7, 9 and 11! The Eifel Tower was all that I dreamed it would be and more :) Ok, Ça va! back to the card ... luckily, Riley has his cell phone and he's calling his chéri, Sophie! I'm showing you a small snippet sneakie peakie using the new (soon to be released) Cell phone Riley from the upcoming Riley and Company new stamp release on January 26th! Sooo much fun!

I used the sketch from TMS#129 and I also used the awesome color combination of black, white and red (well, burgandy!) from my Faith sistah, Miss Jackie! Thank you, sweetie! The paper is from the My Mind's Eye mat stack Lost and Found: union square and MME chipboard letters so spell out HI :) This lil Riley is so versatile, from our teenagers on their cellphones to us chatty, texting mommies! The flower is one I made from a scallop punch and scrunching them to form a flower - easy breasy!

The sneaks will be here alllll week so I do hope you'll stop back by and see what's coming for this fabulous new stamp release! And don't forget the blog hop that will be on January 26th, 10 PM EST where each blog will have a stamp winner and stamps will go on sale :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Au revoir!! ;)

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

I got into a scrap today .........

2012-01-18T18:57:00.000-08:00

And absolutely LOVED it! :) I finally sat down, albeit for 15 minutes or so, and scrapped!! As in a real life, for goodness sake scrap page! I'm soooo far behind in this area of my life! Cards and paper crafting have taken over, even though I have an entire section in my scraproom dedicated just to scrapbooking shelves full of papers, embellies, and photo boxes. Part of my "take it off the shelf in 2012" will be to scrap 3-4 pages a month - baby steps!

Funny thing, I have an elephant's memory when it comes to seeing the pictures and remembering where we were or what the kids said. I tell them funny, cute, embarrassing stories all the time of when "so and so was a baby." They LOVE it. But they also like to razz me and say things like "Mommy! Okay, so tell us about that time when we were 3 and four quarters and it was a sunny day that one time in ..... April, yes, and I had on that pink dress with polka dots and yellow stripes with a green ribbon and black shoes and I was on the left side of the east bound sidewalk near the tree that had green leaves but now it has none and we were close to Coconut Grove by the one restaurant ....." HA. HA. Hi-lar-i-ous. Keep it up, and it's Chef Boyardee for dinner!! Not hatin' on the Chef - they hate it, so that would be a horrendous fate in their eyes ;}

But back to the memories!!! I remember my lil man was always sooo dramatic when it came to wounds. Is this a boy thing?!! My girls would have half a limb hanging off and they'd keep on biking, hiking, running, jumping ..... my son sees A SCRATCH and he's practically screaming for an ambulance. My Goodness. Well, that was back then ........ now he's a 7.5 year old who only sometimes, kinda sorta, needs an ambulance depending on the amount of blood is gushing, and from whom ;)

I also decided that I'm really not able to commit to making fancy schmancy scrap pages that take me HOURS. I obsess over them until they are shadow box quality and that's just not feasible IRL :) I need to do more "get 'er done" style and I realize years from now, my babies won't mind how fabulous the scrapbooks I leave behind are - they will care about the memories and the legacy I'm leaving behind. My kids have always been so proud of me and my scrapbooking, and my daughters have said how sad it makes them not to see me scrapbook anymore. (In fact, upon seeing this, my dd12 said "You're scrapbooking?!! *huge smile!*" So I guess I will be - more often now!

Thanks for stopping by! And just a lil bit of fun news - the new Riley and Company sneak peeks start on Sunday!

Entered into: Catered Crop - Use Buttons!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Angels all around us :)

2012-01-17T08:39:00.000-08:00

Good morning to you! I hope you had a lovely long weekend :) It went by in a flash, it seems and the alarm clock went off waaaay to early today!

And I'm so excited to have seen in blog land this morning that I won a Gift Certificate from Our Daily Bread! What an unexpected but delightful surprise :) I just purchased their new Grunge Cross at release time so I can't wait to ink that up, and then head over to OBD to see what's there is to oogle over!

I wanted to share a card that I made for a special friend as part of a rubber stamp exchange. Our fearless leader, Kadie, put a card swap group together a few years back called the Sisterhood of the Traveling Cards (S.O.T.C) and we're still swapping today :) She had a wonderful idea to dig out our unused, neglected stamps and send them to another sistah in the group to ink up, make a card, and mail them both back! So we'll all send a card, receive a card, using stamps that (hopefully!) we didn't have. In my case, I have a basket full of C.C. Designs as they are just as yummy but luckily didn't have this angel set! And who says angels are just for Christmas :) I made a cheerful, happy card because friends are truly the angels that make this world a better place and they are around us all the time. Thank you, Kadie, for the use of your wonderful angels - I was a bit nervous having to make a card for "the boss", lol! *smile!* I just hope I did justice to the Christmas angels and they work for a cheery card, too! :)

I do believe there are real angels all around us all the time :) I have felt the power and miraculous touch of a guardian angel TWICE in my children's lives and to receive such a gift is immeasurable. And I know that I have seen a real angel ~ although I didn't think it was possible. I am convinced that it was not in my imagination and remember the feeling of pure peace and a magnitude of awe so pure and intense, it brought me to my knees right there in the middle of where I was standing. One day I will share that story :)

Card front - wee angel friend!

The inside of the card :)

In the meantime, here is a beautiful and touching angel video by Bliss - it's long but wonderful and just made my morning! I hope it shows up for viewing :)

A Hundred Thousand Angels by Bliss :)

Thanks for your visit today!

Big Hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Card entered into: Simply Create2 - Layers!
Anything Goes Challenge - Anything Goes!
Flutter By Wednesday - Brights, Orange

Dueling Darlings love the "Little Things" :)

2012-01-14T23:23:00.000-08:00

Happy SONday! It's the 15th of the month, and that means the Dueling Darlings are back for a friendly duel - the Divas -vs- the Dazzlers with a card kit theme! This month, our fabby hostess for the Divas was Miss Joan - who sent us a whopper of a kit that stretched my mind, creativity and at times, patience ;) Don't get me wrong - I loved this kit :) It was unique, interesting, special in a way that made me really think way outside the box and that is what us crafters, artists, creators should do! What an awesome learning experience this was :)

She sent to us a card kit filled with stamped inchie images from Lockhart stamps - in a vegetable theme! When I saw them on hangers - resembeling dresses - my mind went straight to a clothesline ;) I added the twine 4,5 different ways and just ended up wrapping it haphazardly through the window panes in the gorgeous paper that she sent to us to use :) I really loved the Country Fresh trading card that she sent but added it to the inside since I couldn't find a way to make it work on the front. Hopefully the Divas and Dazzlers won't be too disappointed in my card this month - it gave me a run for the money, but my mind is wrapped around a million little things and my mojo (which is running low) will be back from the garden soon, LOL!!

As part of the challenge, Joan asked us to post the first thing we thought of when we heard the title "The Little Things" and what came to my mind was children! I thought of all the small things my kids have said and done and I would always think let me write that down - I want to remember the little things! :)

Be sure to stop on over to see what each of the Darlings have created using their card kits :) And Melina, hostess for the Dazzlers this month, will direct you to her card kit recipients :) I'll be back later to hook up the links *smile!* It's currently 2:20 in the morning and I have to be up in a few hours for church - oh la la, another all'nighter! LOL!!

Blessings to you - thanks for stopping by!

Big Hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Are you smarter than your phone?!!

2012-01-13T10:51:00.000-08:00

Yes, as in smarter than a 5th grader?! I am going around and around with my smart phone, though grateful I am to have it and treasure all the wonderous things it can do! But truthfully, if it weren't for having 3 teenagers at home to ~~bail me out!!~~ constantly show me how to use it, I'd be so lost! Okay, who am I kidding .... even my 7 year old son has it mastered! Doh!

Then there's me ;)

What has me so perplexed it even though I have adjusted the auto correct, It's NOT correct! And I have learned to LOOK BEFORE I LEAP as it pertains to Swype.   I think I'm a pretty nice person. And I certainly don't say bad words!!

But my phone is a very bad girl. It says bad words. I don't. It does! I tell the truth and nothin' but the truth and this phone is naughty! Naughty, naughty, naughty!! Let me give you some examples {well, the ones I can actually post in public.}

* I said to a blogger who's scrapbook layout was just breathtaking - "Nice layout," My phone said "Nice rack."  {Glad I caught that one, how embarrassing. Especially since I was blurfing and didn't know her!

* "She looks like a princess!" Phone said "She looks like a pineapple!" ooooof.

* Hubby: "at the store - need anything?" I typed "I need butter", which promptly told me "I need beer."   It was a good day, I promise!  But the theme song of Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" starting playing in my head .......

* and probably my personal favorite to my friend inviting me to breakfast,
"I have to be .... " which my phone told her "I hanged the beef". Yep, she called me on that one - being that she knows I'm a vegetarian and just HAD to know what that one meant. I had no words.   Yikes. She told me to tell my husband to take my phone away. Not my fault! :)~

Anyway, it's Friday and that means Fun-day!  My dh is coming home tomorrow after a week long absense with our baby girl who's performing with a big name international choral Conductor and she made it to All-State Florida choir! She's there with out 1,200 other Floridian students who made it to the "top" and they are proudly representing our sunshine state! So proud of her and all the singers!

No special reason for this card - I had the image colored up and thought I should put it to paper :) This adorable lemonade image is from Pixie Dust Studios :) Have a fabby blessed weekend and I'll be back this weekend with the Darlings Challenge :) x0x0

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

I did it, I did it! :)

2012-01-11T21:50:00.000-08:00

Woohoo! I did it, I surely did! And I'm sure you might be wondering, what exactly did she do?! *Smile!* Last year, my motto of using what I have worked so well that I decided to carry it over to this year with a bit of a twist - "Use what's on the shelf in two thousand and twelve!" It kinda sorta rhymes, hee hee! But most importantly, I took inventory of my vast SU stamp sets that I've collected over the years and realized that most had not seen ink at all. And that was so sad to me! So I made a decision to pull 6-8 stamp sets a month and see how far I get with that stack pulled at random. I will also try to showcase each card and I'm going to try hard to stick to the plan ... and I took a picture! :)

But first, I thought I share with you the card I made using one of those 'forgotten sets' - the uber adorable Hedgehog Happiness. I kept this card pretty simple so I could follow the SC367 sketch over on Splitcoast. I also found a good use for the MME Lost and Found Union Square mat stack I had on hand - I have a hard time using this color scheme but new that I wanted to pull from the rich colors of the papers. One of the things I do need to learn - hopefully this year! - is to fill in the white spaces. I actually love it - I'm a clean and crisp kinda gal, but somehow it always looks like my images are just floating about, ROFL! So, that's a technique I'll have to practice.

Here's the card front!

Sneaky peaky side view!

And the inside view!

Hmmm, which one will be next?! :)

And that's about it! Here's my monthly stack up ..... it's a true cache of wooden yumminess, dusted off and ready to play!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Found these challenges to submit my card :)
Simon Says Stamp - Spots and Stripes
Sweet Stampin - Spots and Dots
Alota Rubber Stamps: A, B, C - (Birthday, Balloon!)

Card deets: SU Bravo Burgundy; Creamy Caramel; Chocolate Chip, PTI White;

Image - Birthday Hedgehog; Colored with prismacolor markers;

MME Mat Stack Lost and Found, Union Square; 3d dots, Tombo, CB, Nestie

SU Border punch, SU Buttons, twine

Winter Fun with Sophie!

2012-01-09T20:38:00.000-08:00

Hi there! I'm excited to be back to show you a new card from Riley and Company (Elizabeth, this post is for you! Tee hee!!) For this bi-weekly challenge, the first one of the brand new year, the hostess is none other than ....... ME :) To celebrate the wonders of January, we'd love for you to create a card of Winter Fun! Show us your Riley/Sophie having fun in a Winter Wonderland, and don't forget their new penguin friend, Percy!

Here's the inside of my card :)

For my card, I used Ice Skating Sophie showing off her ice skating skills ;) My oldest daughter was an ice skater - yes, here in Miami! - and was a natural on the ice from the first step. I miss her ice skating days, but am one of those eyes glued to the tv whenever the Winter Olympics are on or I'm lucky enough to catch ice skating on tv. LOVE!!!

Be sure to use the code Riley keyword0112 if you upload your card to a gallery or picture sight and your blogs - we'd love to stop by and visit you! Want to see what the DT made with their Winter Wonderland inspiration? Click on the DT blogs on my sidebar, and make sure to link up your cards at the challenge blog HERE!

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Draw Water from the Wells ...

2012-01-08T21:41:00.000-08:00

Good SONday evening, friends! I had a few free moments this evening to whip up a card :) My motto last year was "use what ya got!" and try to use some of the items in my crafting Cabana. I found that when I went "shopping", it was often in my own craft room and I was amazed at the things I had on hand to play with! It was such a successful year that I am keeping that same motto this year, too :) And one of my treasured and favorite stamp companies for many reasons is Our Daily Bread so what a treat to get inky and play with papers and buttons and make a much needed card at the same time :)

For this card, I used the sentiment stamp from the Never Thirst set. I can't wait to ink up the rest of this set! But for now, I just used the sentiment so that I can play along with a challenge at SCS for scripture sentiment cards, and enter this in ODB challenge:  "In with the new....out with the Old"
The team challenges you to create a card using something new and something old on your card.  I've used several elements on the card that are older - the sentiment, crinkle ribbon, the Tattered Angel spray ... something new, this MME mat stack Lost and Found paper :)

This card is entered into: Our Daily Bread designs: Old/New
                                     Crazy 4 Challenges: Something New

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Deets: SU Card Stock, Soft Subtles; MME "Lost and Found" Market St Mat Stack;
Stamp: Never Thirst, Our Daily Bread; SU Stazon Black ink;
Crinkle Ribbon, pearl brads; BG button; SU twine; Cuttlebug, Nestie, SU Corner Punch;
Scallop die, Tombo

You MOOSE be my type! :)

2012-01-05T20:52:00.000-08:00

TGIF! Been a long week here, trying to get back into the swing of things school wise! But all is good and I'm back into my craftin' groove! And I bring you a new Riley and Company challenge that I "moosed" while away on vacation - brought to us by the uber talented moosemate, Cindy! She challenged us to make a Riley and Company card with a matching envelope - how adorable!! I used writing Riley and paper-pieced his small letter he's writing with Jillibean soup dsp - LOVE!!! I can show you my card and envie, I can't show the inside of this one, though I always decorate my card insides :) It's going to be heading off to a very sweet and special friend of mine so I want to keep part of it hidden so it will be a nice suprise when it makes is moose-landing! :)

I'm sorry for the washed out pictures! Santa was super sweet to me this year and brought me an ipad, so I'm hoping to figure out how to post from one location very soon! My camera is shot, I'm taking pictures with my cell phone and really need to get everything down to one, organized location so thank you for bearing with me while I "get acquainted"! :)

Remember to link up your Riley and Company card/envelope creations here at the crafting challenge blog - we'd love to see what you create! Here's some inspiration from the Moosemates:

Cindy Haffner
Frances Byrne
Silke Kittman
Laurie Clout
Michelle L
Kelly Santi {you're here!}
Jovita Torres
Margie Cortina
Joy Stagg

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Deets: PTI Artichoke, Chocolate; White; Joanns Pink cardstock,

Stamp = Riley and Co, Writing Riley

DSP - Jillibean soup Sweet n sour; felt ric-rac, Tuxedo Momento Black ink;

prismacolor markers; prima flowers, Basic Grey button, SU Twine; Tombo

Basic White envelope, Cuttlebug, nesties

Happy New Year, 2012!

2012-01-03T12:28:00.000-08:00

Hello there!! We are home again from such an amazing trip, one that I know God shined upon in many ways :) And I send to you wishes for a beautiful, blessed and bountiful new year ahead! I am still so amazed at how fast time always seems to go, and I welcome - and embrace - this new year. For me, I always start out the new year with a scripture that I keep close to heart and chose a word for the year that I try to incorporate into what I'd like the year to include. On New Year's Eve, I knew exactly what it would be because I know how much He is at work in our lives, even when we might not see or feel it - that's when He is there the most :) I hope to take this year as time to reflect on my strengths and weaknesses in my faith-filled journey, one of those is learning not be discouraged when faced with things that are out of my control.

So for me this year, my word to carry me along is grace. I know that as I journey through this new year, I want to conquer all things with grace in my heart and the strength to do all things he asks of me, even in moments of despair, humility, discouragement. "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need." Hebrews 4:16 I look forward to sharing many joyous, grace-filled moments with you this year!

Now how about a card to go with? Hee hee! I am so late in posting the Calendar Girls 28th of the month card due to our travels :) This month, our hostess was none other than the founder, creator and owner of the Calendar Girls idea - Miss January, Jeanette! Her theme for this month's card creation was secrets! In other words, she asked each Calendar Girl t0 send a card creation word to the assigned person and create with that idea! Here is her idea: December - Who loves a secret? I know I do! Let's have a secret ONE-WORD challenge. This is how it will work. Each Calendar Girl will come up with a one-word challenge for the Calendar Girl who follows her on the list. It can only be ONE WORD, but it can be any word (glitter, three, apple, blue, holiday, sponging, friendship.... whatever word you choose!) Then secretly email or PM that ONE WORD challenge to the next person on the list and she will create a card that in some way represents that word. And guess what word Jeanette sent to me? Hospitality! Oh the possibilities!! I actually had to google the word to come up with some ideas ad my mind only drifted to Pineapples, lol! :)~ I have an old SU stamp set with a pineapple in it but it wasn't working for me, so I regrouped and remembered my neglected Penny Black Teddy Bear set which I just LOVE!! I inked it up and knew I wanted to go with a floral sentiment to match - get it? Thanks a bunch? LOL!!

But the original card prototype had the sentiment on the front in the corner and just didn't look right either ....... regrouping again, I finally managed to make my idea sort of come to life on paper! And here we go - Teddy Bear flowers being ever so thankful :)

So sorry for the blurry pictures, but I'm in desperate need of camera repairs!

I have many pictures to share from our trip, which I'll be doing soon. I quickly realized that most of them were coming out not so clear and switched to my phone and wow, it was one less thing to juggle ;) Be sure to stop in and see what the other Calendar Girls created!

I'm entering this card into: StampsRUs Challenge - Anything Goes

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings :)

~Kelly

Hello, "Deer" Friend! :)

2011-12-20T12:40:00.000-08:00

Hi out there in blog land! I pray all is well with each and every one of you :) We just returned from a quick trip to the Magic Kingdom which is always magical, fun and there was snow!!! Well, as best as we can get here in Florida, rofl -- Main street was beautifully decorated for the holidays and has snow falling :) It's definitely my favorite time of the year to visit Disney! And as of today, we have our 3rd December birthday girl under wraps - hee hee! I'm officially baked, shopped, wrapped, gifted, finding creative places to move The Elf, birthday'd and concerted out! And I still have to pack for the 8 day, 1,600 mile car trip - oh heaven help me. I asked my dh to just medicate me and wake me up when we get there, but he informed me that he's going to fill a jumbo thermos with Starbucks to keep me up to help him drive, lol!

And I actually managed to make a card today! While laundry is piling up for washing and packing, I squeezed in a few minutes to make a card for my Secret Sister in the 'hood exchange :) She's truly a deer friend indeed, and I was excited to ink up this adorable Elzybells (LOVE!!!!) reindeer again with the matching sentiment. I sooo miss this company :( I made it pretty simple overall with one of my old card layouts and love this paper - so rich and elegant. I do hope she likes it, as I sure love her!! *muah!* :)

And I am SO SORRY that I haven't been to visit you!! I try to visit a blog here or there while I'm out but on my phone it's impossible! I'm off to see you today, though :)

And ............ drumroll please! ..... I know you are all probably wondering about the stamp giveaway ....... So without further delay, a random winner was chosen using the number my birthday girl gave me to chose and going back to count ........

DARLENE!!!

Congrats on your blog win - you are receiving a surprise in your stamp package to keep an eye in your mailbox - "Santa" is arriving early! :)

Thank you everyone for stopping by, for your love, your comments - as always, I wish everyone could win but I give candy away often so please be sure to stop by again :)

Blessings to you,

Big hugs!

~Kelly

Riley's Holiday Challenge & BLOG CANDY!

2011-12-13T11:09:00.000-08:00

Happy Tuesday!! It's time for another bi-weekly challenge at the Riley and Co blog This week, our hostess is DT member Joy, who asked us to create a holiday card using a Riley/Sophie stamp - easy breazy! There are so many fun and wonderful winter/Christmas stamps at the Riley and Co store, especially with the fabby new release we just had - my head is still spinning! :)

My card today is using sledding Riley, one of the activities I hope that we'll be able to do this Christmas :) I've never wished for anything so hard that I can remember but hopefully the upcoming travels will include a little (or a lot!) of it - what bliss!

And since it's the holidays, how about a little candy? Today's post has a FREE Riley stamp giveaway from Me to one of you! It's not a hop, not a R and C stamp giveaway, just one that I bought with my lil 'ol money as a giveaway so all you have to do is leave a comment below so I know where to find you when a random.org name is drawn - woot woot! Inside the stocking (which is plain for now!) is an UM Riley stamp and I won't show you just yet which one it is *wink!*

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Thankful for Mud Puddle Pies :)

2011-12-11T18:57:00.000-08:00

Hiya friends! Whew, what a month it's been so far - nonstop fun, events, activites, birthdays, getting ready for our trip, running around and not much room to craft! But lucky me, I was able to sneak in a bit of craft time today to make another birthday card for my sweetie :) She was actually due on Christmas day. I remember thinking "Oh Please Be Early!" - I didn't want to be delivering her when her 2 year old sister was at home waiting on Santa Clause :/ She must have heard/felt my wishes and arrived early, and I was discharged just before Christmas Eve - whew!

My son actually found this cute pail for making Mud Puddle Pie and I thought it was the cutest ever. She's the sister that does exactly this with him outside ~ they play for hours in the sandbox and outside turning the Little Tykes kitchen, playhouse and forts into a bakery of sorts! She carts off all my old pots and pans, soda bottles for mixing, bowls and spoons and what not and everything from sticks to rocks to shards of grass would become entire make belief buffets :)

I paired her pail (it came wrapped in plastic, I unwrapped it for a photo op) with similiar colored cardstock to make her a Riley birthday card - always fun and festive! I used some Pebble paper scraps that I had in my bin and colored it with prismas to match the colors pulled from the paper. The balloons are propped up for some 3d effects and I added a handmade flower from my huge prima stash topped off with a multi colored button display. Of course, I have no idea what this recipe for Mud Puddle Pie is or what it will taste like - and chances are we won't make it until we get back from our trip, but I'll be sure to post a review and photos when they make it! Not so sure those gummy frogs are going to do much for me, LOL, but the merriment should be in the making! :)

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Happy Birthday!!

2011-12-06T16:46:00.000-08:00

I'm just way too tired to think of a witty title :) Busy time of year for me, Ye Mom of THREE December birthday daughters, has been given an even more busier schedule than usual! But I am reminded daily of all the blessings being busy brings, so no complaints! Sleep would be good though, lol!

For this month swap in the 'hood (otherwise lovingly known as the S.O.T.C on SCS - that's a tongue twister right there!), our lovely hostess Maryann asked us to create a girl birthday card in honor of her g'daughter's birthday and with a twist! That's right ... a twist - any twist! twisted ribbon, twisted flowers ...... I was so caught up in festivities and rushed my cards to the deadline so my idea fell to the side and I went with twisted TWINE .... original and creative I am not this month, hee hee!

Using this adorable PI bday girl, I just paired it with some SU papers and cardstock, run through the CB swiss dots - YEP!! Same one you might have seen me put an APB out on on Facebook. After these were mailed off, I needed it again and looked ALL afternoon - until I picked up a mat stack off the floor and there it was, under that. How it got THERE ... not a clue but stranger things have happened in my scraproom! ;)

My dd's have their concert #2 of 3 in about an hour and they brought two extra kiddos over and they are all getting ready. 5 girls in one room. Can we say big time fun! :)

Big love, big hugs

and Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

2011-12-01T19:53:00.000-08:00

Hello! Right about now, I soooooo wish I were back in Germany - the wonders of the season ... the snow ... the Christmas markets ... the snow ... the cathedrals celebrating the Savior's birth ... the snow! :) I am mailing a package to my brother for the holidays and wanted to put in a small Christmas tag, and ended up with a card somehow :) Although he's a typical guy and not into cards, I still wanted to personalize it just a bit with a "guy" image and knew I wanted to ink up my lonely CC Designs "Hansel with Lederhosen!" He's too cute! I also knew I wanted to use non traditional colors just a bit and pulled from the blue and orange in the papers. I doubt he will even notice that Hansel doesn't have a mouth, ROFL!!

Wishing you a most wonderful weekend! We are starting the holiday shows with our daughters and their schools - several performances this weekend, combined with a birthday celebration. The busy-ness has officially begun!

Blessings to you!

Big hugs,

~Kelly

Riley Challenge - Warm winter friends :)

2011-11-29T14:54:00.000-08:00

Hi friends! I hope your week is off to a great start! Today was definitely a fun and uber busy day - and it's only Tuesday! ;) I volunteered at my son's school working in the week long holiday store that we set up for the kids to come in and shop for their mommies and daddies and families :) It's so cute seeing their faces, some of them as young as 3.5, saying "mommy really wants this soccer ball! Really, she does! I just know it!" LOL!

It's the bi-weekly challenge for Riley and Company and this week's challenge is a fun one - a side step card! Silly me, I read "easel card" when I saw the post awhile back and created the little rounded easel card style - ooops! Hopefully Riley and Percy snow dancing will be just as cute in this style as they would have side steppin' *smile!*

I used another mat stack from MME to keep with the festive, fun theme of the Riley image, colored with prismas and some glitter for snow - pretty CAS overall, but what fun! I really enjoyed putting this simple but creative card together and could easily see making this style as an invitation, etc.

Want to see some more DT inspiration and link up your side step card? Check out the Riley blog here, we'd love to see what you make! If you use a gallery or post to SCS, use the keyword Riley2411 so we know where to find you :)

Have a great rest of today!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

"SNOW" much fun awaits you! {Calendar Girls - Nov!}

2011-11-27T22:44:00.000-08:00

Hiya! I hope your long weekend was a marvelous one and your Thanksgiving was filled with bountiful blessings :) Ours was so nice, spending it with extended family members and eating way too much! My wonderful-in-every way hubby and I shared with the children a little surprise we've been keeping secret from them. Our 3 daughters all have December birthdays and we planned their dream come true and something they wished upon .... and our daughter hasn't been well for months and it's been hard for her to give up some of her "normal" life, changing her diet drastically and going thru appts and tests and PTL everything is treatable, but at 16, it's not a 'normal' life when even the small things like sitting thru Breaking Dawn leaves her in tears because the lights + sounds are piercingly painful. We shared with them on Thanksgiving Eve that we are off to find snow during the holiday break! We rented a cabin in the mountains of Tennessee and I absolutely CAN'T WAIT!! I think I will remember their expressions forever - from the blink, blink .... stare .... look at a sibling .... look back .... blink, blink and then the utter squeals and teary eyes {from me most of all!} Good times await! We went to the outlet malls yesterday and stocked up on our "winter outer wear" and snow boots and I just pray, pray, pray that this will be a year that the snow falls and they can experience the beauty of a white Christmas! :)

I'm sooo excited I forgot to share a few things! First, the random chosen winner of my Riley and Co Blog Hop post has been contacted and announced here on the blog so congratulations again to Margaret of Black Shadow Creations - woohoo! Enjoy and happy Riley stampin'!

This month, the Calendar Girls are celebrating Christmas Cards! I knew right away what I would be making when I saw the monthly theme - a card for the kids and the upcoming trip. Using my sweet Elzybells stamp (how I miss this company so very much!!), I kept it pretty simple over all with the layout.

I have held on to this last sheet of dsp from October Afternoon for forever ... but it was time to put it to good use since it was exactly what I was looking for to match the image with the rows of holiday houses adorned with wreaths and snowman and falling snow, I'm apparently out of clear ice stickles but I forgot to remind myself of that *snort!* so I went with MS super fine glitter :)

And, of course, I had to keep the theme going and do my card on the inside, too, but added a computer generated sentiment to match the news!

The other Calendar Girls have created Christmas cards, too, so be sure to see what they made. Thanks for letting me share this most blessed news and I'm beyond excited to be mostly done with the planning stage! My dh and I jokingly say this will either be the trip that memories are made of for them and their snow-filled wishes or a Chevy Chase remake, LOL!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Entered into: Crazy4Challenges - Crazy for Snow!
Paper Sundaes #97 - Winter Wonderland
Simply Create, Too - All About Christmas

Riley's Thanksgiving Blog Hop & Candy Give-away!

2011-11-24T18:38:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I hope your day has been a bountiful, blessed one! I am grateful for so, so many things - including the blessings of knowing all of you! And I'm sure you are ready to hop! Today begins the Brand New Riley and Company Winter Stamp release and the introduction of a brand new Riley friend, Percy! I hope you've enjoyed the DT sneaks this week and are ready to sit back with your coffee, tea and full bellies to hop along!

And for the really exciting news! In true holiday spirit, a FREE limited edition MINI Riley stamp with every order in the first 24 hours! Wow!

There's more! As an added gift for all of you, we are going to give you Free shipping Thursday, November 24th until Sunday night, November 27th on your entire purchase!!!!! Wow again! :) Make sure to complete the entire hop - one lucky winner will blog candy at each DT blog stop :)

You should have arrived from the AMAZINGLY talented Frances blog.

I'm sure you are ready to see some Riley creations! I have two cards to share with you -

First up is the amazingly adorable Elf Riley!

Next up is Old World Riley and I just love him in his cap and bedtime gown with matching mousie!

Now here is the entire blog line up if you need to start from the beginning. Make sure to complete the entire hop - one lucky winner will blog candy at each DT blog stop :)

From here, you'll hop on over to see SILKE!!!!! You won't want to miss it!

Kelly {you're here!}

Kelli Hull – Guest Designer

Thanks for

stopping by today!

Enjoy the HOP, blessings to you!

~Kelly

And they call him ...... Riley Grinch! :)

2011-11-22T20:02:00.000-08:00

Ohhhh how I adored that movie growing up! I remember huddling around the tv in my jammies sooo excited to see it again each holiday when we lived in the U.S.! And how sweet is this Riley as The Grinch!! LOVE!!! NGL, I think this one is my fave of the new stamps being released at Riley and Co in ....... 2 more days!! SOOO exciting!!

Now here's some REALLY cool news for you! ***

Where: Riley Web Site

When: Thursday, November 24th, 10 pm EST, 9 pm CST

Free Gift If you order in the first 24 hours!

Free shipping Thursday Nov. 24th through Sunday Night, Nov. 27th!

I hope you can join us for the Hop! And, since we are in the holiday spirit - we are giving away a FREE limited edition MINI Riley stamp with every order in the first 24 hours! Woohoo!! :)

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Riley #3 - Sharing a cuppa love :)

2011-11-21T20:57:00.000-08:00

Woohoo, onward to sneak peak #3! What a fun-filled Riley-icious couple of days this has been introducing Riley and his new friend, Percy! Just in case you are just joining the DT blogs, on Thanksgiving Day - the 24th - Riley and company will release the new Riley and Sophie Winter Wonderland stamps and a brand new stampie friend, Percy the Penguin!

For today's post, I have a super simple holiday gift card holder - perfect for the number of "little" gift cards we'll all be handing out this holiday :) I have had this template saved in my files since last year and it's perfect again! I paired Hot Cocoa Riley with some holiday striped paper, paired it with holiday buttons and twine, and super simple - under 15 minutes of crafting!

A couple more days and we are at the home stretch of the Thanksgiving Hop!
You won't want to miss it!

Big hugs!
Bigger Blessings,

Kelly

Sneak #2 ~ There's "Snow Buddy" like you!

2011-11-20T20:59:00.000-08:00

Evening!! Just a quickie post tonight as dh and I are in the midst of planning a VERY special holiday gift for our children! But I could not wait to show you another sneak peek of the new soon-to-be released Riley and Co Winter stamps - Riley and Percy fishing! I'm SOOO Lovin' this new little sweetie, a perfect bff for Riley who's adventurous soul often matches my own *wink!*

Here's Riley in his Winter Wonderland ice fishing - what a wild sport that would be! I paired it with some MME winter papers in hues of brown and blue - I purposely cut the image small enough to fit around a cut out to make a "frame" - paired with some super fine glitter and shimmery snowflake. FUN!!

Keep on stopping by the DT blogs located here if you can to catch a glimpse of all the new Riley and Sophie's being released at the Thanksgiving Day Blog Hop! The new stamps will be available that night after the hop on Thursday, November 24th! We know this will be a really busy day for most of you, but the fun thing is there will be a blog candy stamp win on each blog for one lucky hopper! Woohoo!

Have a blessed day!
~Kelly

Riley Sneak #1 - Let the Winter Fun Begin!

2011-11-19T21:10:00.000-08:00

Happy SONday to all! What an exciting start to the week - a brand new Riley and Company sneak peaks week and stamp release! And let me just say, in addition to being the cutest lil Rileys, Riley is introducing a brand new friend - Percy!

Today starts the new sneaks and you'll be seeing a lot of adorable-ness on the DT blogs, and a Thanksgiving Blog Hop on Thursday, 24 November 2011 @ 10 PM ... woohoo!

For my card today, I used Wreath Riley and he'll be one of the new stamps released - 17 in all, along with some word sentiments. SO exciting! I paired it with some MME holiday paper and kept it in a circular frame to accentuate the round wreath. I used some lighter canary greens to go with the red to pull from the paper's colors. The inside sentiment is from the new winter words collection ... you'll be seeing a lot of wonderful holiday sentiments this week! :)

Wreath Riley and all the stamps will be available on the 24th but you can starts seeing some new sneaks by checking out the DT blogs! Enjoy!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Happy Snow Day! :)

2011-11-18T08:16:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness, where is the "hold" button on life!!? Wow, it's been a whirlwind here and no chance of slowing down anytime soon! I've been assisting at my son's school (love!!), activities, rehearsals, church, bible study - my plate runneth over :) It keeps my mind and body very busy, lol ........ but I did want to stop in since I have a CAS card to share from a swap and some blog candy winnin' to announce!

Barb, our wonderful SCS supah swap hostess of the year, was the hostess for this "mystery round" image swap - which means the hostess of the month picks a stamp and sends the stamped images to the swappers to create a card around it! FUN! FUN! This month, Barb chose her favorite Whipper Snapper company and sent us this adorable Prescott! I know, I went pink :) It just screamed pink and red when I first saw it and made a card around the idea I had, although now even with the embossed snowflake background and the red holiday ribbon, it looks a little like Valentines! Hee hee!

There is also a sentiment on the inside, but I'll let the swappers be surprised by that one if they should receive this one ;)

And, thank you for your patience in waiting for the candy winner .......
drumroll .......... Lucky winner #15 .... who really is Lucky! And his mommy, Kathy, too :) Kathy and Lucky said...

Oh this is just adorable. Love this image and your card! Your friend is going to love it. Sounds like a great weekend, I got my son's room ready, he comes home next week, can't wait to see him :)

Congratulations, Kathy and Lucky - I will be in contact with you shortly and thank you everyone for stopping by! Have a great weekend, everyone! I'll see you back Sunday when the new Riley sneak peeks start - Can't wait!! xoxo

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

DDD ~ What not to wear { to the Holiday Party!}

2011-11-15T04:00:00.000-08:00

** Blog Candy now Closed **
Winner will be announced shortly in my Riley post! :)

Good morning! It's the 15th of the month and that means the Dueling Darlings duel it out with mystery card kits .... and what fun!! It was my turn to host for the Divas and Jeanette was hostess for the Dazzlers! That, in itself, should have had all the Darlings running for cover - ROFL! And did we ever have a grand 'ol time this month planning a doozy of a theme - What not to Wear (based on the hit tv show) with a twist - what not to wear to the Holiday Party! We put together a cah-razy mishmash of holiday papers tossed in with some argyle, stripes, pinks and purples ... all the wild outfits that you see them start the show with before they dress 'em up! Lastly, our CHALLENGE part this month was to show off an old picture of ourselves wearing one of those crazy outfits ~ I wore day-glow, neon clothes ala Madonna style in high school, so atrocious I can't believe that we walked around looking like humor highlighters! But it was style - big hair, glam rock, flashy clothes, big shoulder pads ......... Hi-de-ous! I didn't get a chance to head over to my mom's to scoop up an old photo album but I did sneak this one out of my husband's old photo album from when we met - IN HIGH SCHOOL, lol. We've been together for like 100 years :) We were collecting those Flintstones glasses from P.Hut and stopped in to find one ~ and he snapped a picture ... Oh my, that was a lifetime ago :) But as you can see from my cropped half shirt (gasp) I still had those bright colors going on ;) I also had just cut my hair - it was always long and teased and HUGE!! Oh what a decade ........ LOL!!

I went around and around with what image I wanted to use, and finally remember this sweet little In Style stamp called Lilah. I bought a few of these for gifts and kept one intended to make cards for my daughters - and never did *smile!* But she's ready to rock around the Christmas tree now, paired up with papers from MME, DCWV and CI - buttons, bow, twine and more. I added a sentiment inside and the paper that was one of the requirements - use one of the non holiday papers in some fashion. Rambling ...... NOT happy at all with my card, but it was due so now it's done, rofl :)

Be sure to check out what the other Divas 'n Dazzlers have going on with this What Not To Wear kit!! I'm so proud of them for taking on this challenge - I know for some of them it was not easy and am so proud of them for stepping up to a difficult challenge and hope it was a fun and creative process thinking outside the box! You can see the diva's blog creations:

Barb * Carol * Judy * Jamie * Joan * Kelly (me!) * LauraJean * Tami

and the Dazzlers can be viewed when you go to the Team Leader, Jeanette's blog! WOOHOO! Sit back and enjoy the show!!!! :)

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Blog Candy giveaway :)

2011-11-12T08:58:00.000-08:00

Afternoon! I hope you are enjoying the splendors of the long weekend - we are enjoying the gorgeous temps outside and combining it with catching up on home projects and running around doing early holiday shopping :) I was able to squeeze in a little card for a friend a day or so ago - she's my prayer partner, bible study fellowshipper and partner-in-crime for my Starbucks addiction! She loves everything zoo animals and I found this sweet little High Hopes giraffe when organizing my crafting Cabana and wanted to ink him up! I found the matching sentiment and wanted to try to combine them both to the front but not make it look too cluttered ...... and NOT add a flower, ROFL!

I ordered some holiday paper the other day and realized I added this gorgeous My Mind's Eye paper twice - I don't need two of them, so I thought I'd add it as a little mini blog candy giveaway :) I've also added some of my favorite BUTTONS!!!! and some red flowers that you might be able to use for the holiday time ;) I'll pick a winner at random one day next week (tba!) and leave this up for you to leave a your name in the comment section :) That's it - all ya have to do - no need to post or reblog :)

Off to catch up on the blogs!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly
Card entered: Featured Friday - Anything Goes
CRAFT challenge - something cute
Totally Stampalicious - Anything Goes

Reindeer wishes this holiday!

2011-11-09T14:16:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness ... Anyone remember me?! :) I've been soooo neglectful of my blog/ing ... I just can't seem to catch up in the craftroom and am sooo mojo-less. I've tried revisiting my old cards, trying sketches, looking at color combos ... nada! I think my brain just has too many irons in the fire to focus on cards - which is not good with the holidays right around the corner and 2 swaps due soon on SCS!

I did get a few minutes today to color at the table while waiting for the towels to wash and the floor to dry (mopped myself into a corner, lol) so I decided no matter what, I'd force it onto a card and be one more card into the holiday ;) I love this reindeer image from PDS called Socket - isn't he sweet! And guess what I did! I chopped this by accident AFTER I had it colored up! Oh. My. Word. See - my head wasn't into this card making, lol! I had to take a picture to show you my blunder. I was NOT planning on putting one more flower on one more card. Buttons? Yes, absolutely!! But not a flower, hee hee! The sentiment is from one of my SU stamp sets.

I started with this boo-boo blunder ......

and ended with this - not ideal, but it works :)

Big hugs all around and happy crafting!

Blessings!
~Kelly

Deets: Pure Poppy, Green Galore, PTI white: DSP scraps - Image from Pixie Dust Studio "Socket the Reindeer"; Cuttlebug; nesties; prima flowers; misc buttons; twine; tombo; 3 d dots;

prismacolor markers; metallic pen; stickles; SU stamp sentiment

Entered into: PaperTake weekly - christmas card
I did it Creations - Christmas
A Gem of a challenge - Cold and Frosty
Penny Black - All creatures great and small

Sweet Birthday Wishes :)

2011-11-04T19:25:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday! I pray you had a good week and off to a wonderful start to the weekend :) I'm still not back into crafting mode yet as we've been meeting a lot of dr's for dd16 and spending hours upon hours in dr's - eek!

Meanwhile, December becomes a CAH-RAZY month for us -- with 3 daughters with 3 December birthdays (no, we did not plan that, rofl), it's busy season! I got a jump start on one birthday card already - my baby girl LOVES her some pink and unlike her mother, loves bling and glitz and glittery stuff :) Using this digi from Pixie Dust Studio, I crafted her an early bday card using her favorite color of pink (again, unlike her mother, lol!) I love little girls!!! She's not so little anymore, but she's been so much fun as she's grown up - so much a little girl, all cutesy and girly and sassy to boot ;) This digi is perfect for dd's birthday card because it's from the Pixie of the Month collection - December Pixie!

And, sadly, it was time for me to say goodbye to the PDS team as my term ended - I have loved every second of being on the DT and working with the uber talented and wonderfully sweet Kathy - owner and illustrator of PDS :) I'm so thankful for the time I had on the PDS DT team! But do keep your eye out on the challenge blog and beyond - so much wonderful stuff ahead! I would have loved to stay on but chose to take a step back from a new DT term to focus on my family and get my dd16 comfortable and confident again :)

Blessings to you this wonderful weekend - I hear we are having temps of 50's tomorrow - wishful thinking on my part, but I certainly hope we do - how glorious that would be!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Hey Ya'll!

2011-11-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

Happy November! I truly love this season - the change in temps, the slight crisp feel in the air and the promise of all the wonderful things coming up in the next few holidays! I'm so far behind in my blogging .... and crafting :x Life has just jumped up 100% into busy mode ;) I hope you had a marvelous Halloween! We enjoyed the rain stopping just in time to take the kids out in the neighborhood and quite a haul they brought home - 3/4 of it to be donated. And our church Harvest Festival was so much fun - my littlest daughter won the "Guess the Pumpkin Weight" and brought home a 32.4 pounder! Too fun!

Speaking of Harvest, it's time for another bi-weekly challenge at Riley and Company! This challenge is old is new again -- use any Riley stamp that is at least a year old. I chose to use Wheat Riley since he fit the season at hand, not to mention he is as cute as can be with his overalls and bit of wheat he's chewing on ;) I paired him with this MME paper since I had it handy from another recent card and made it work - added some flowers from a recent Tuesday Morning haul and of course, had to do my card on the inside in the same theme .... I had to ROFL when I saw my finished card .... I started singing "Oh Susannah", lol! :)-

You can link up your cards on the Riley Challenge blog and also see all the fabby creations from the DT ..... take a peek here! 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 RILEY2211.

Thanks for stopping by -

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

I want my MUMMY! :}

2011-10-27T23:12:00.000-07:00

Good Morning! TGIF! We have a whopping busy weekend here - from the Opera tonight (our oldest 2 daughters are in the cast of 'Pirates of Penzance'), 1 Sweet 16 and one birthday party, and our Harvest Festival at Church on Sunday of which I was "volunteered" to work the Soak The Scarecrow booth ... at least I'm not the scarecrow, hee hee! I just get to stand there and run after slopping wet sponges for 2 hours - YAY! ;)

I'm babbling, so let me just start that it's October 28th and that means the Calendar Girls are back with the monthly post! Our hostess this month is the sweet Tami and her chosen theme is Halloween ;) I LOVE LOVE C.C. Designs Sugarplum stamps! I have a little drawer full of them and have so little time to ink them up! But this lil cutie is from last year's Halloween (or maybe '09?) She gave us these requirements for the October challenge:

Theme: Halloween

Layers: At least three layers somewhere on the card,

one layer being a designer paper {I love me some DP}

Colors: Somewhere on your card please use the color purple

Embellishments: Two for sure - and are you ready Carol.....one needs to be a glitter product *gasp*

Well, layers are no problem for me, LOL! I actually went with more of a CAS

attempt with this one - I usually have hoards of paper on one card, inside and out and really love how my friend Kathy makes the most elegant cards using fewer supplies :) My little Trevor Mummy has very little coloring but I did add small areas of distressing and ..... ta da ... glitter just to give it a little pop :) The embellishments were just a few scattered buttons ... I'm sure you have all noticed that I love me some buttons! They are my favorite embellishment and I just love to "pet" them, lol. I'm a very tactile person - which is why I could never be a digital scrapbooker ... I have to feel the products, touch them all and pet them! :) For the purple, I used my very last sheet of Concord Grape - sniff, sniff! And the mummy ribbon wrap under the DSP was an idea I saw on my fellow DT member's blog - Joy .. she used

seam binding with her Riley card and I just thought it was so creative!

And this last picture is just for kicks - when lil man was 3-ish, we went to the Scholastic Bookfair at the school and he thought this book was hilarious.

Not a clue why, maybe it was the "pun", which at 3 was probably funny, lol!

I was looking at my completed card and it came to my mind, so I went to his bookshelf and dug thru some books to find it - pretty remarkable!! :)

Lastly, Miss Tami asked us:

Blog Post: Please share what your favorite candy is to receive in your trick-or-treat bag and if you participate in this holiday, please include what fun things do you like to do for Halloween

Not a fan of Halloween (but quite pleased to have actually made 3 H'ween cards this year!) but we do let the kids dress up and wander the 'hood ... now that the girls are older, they go to individual parties and we take the younger two :) My favorite candy of all times is Swiss chocolate .. Toblerone! YUMM-O!

Sadly, you won't find that in the Halloween candies! LOL! If you pass that out, I'm SOOOO heading to your front door!! :) So I do like to sneak a Toosie Roll or two ... or six *grin* ....

Be sure to stop in and see what the other CG's have created this month!

April * Barb * Carol * Debbie * Jeanette * Kelly {me!}

Michelle * Paola * Tami * Terry

::: Whew! ::: Did you make it this far? LOL! Bless your heart!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Deets: CC Designs Sugarplum Mummy Trevor; cardstock = SU Concord Grape; PTI True Black; PTI White; DSP - K I Memories Fall Harvest; Martha Stewart "Elegant Witch" mat pad; martha stewart super fine glitter; prismacolor markers; misc buttons; white grosgrain ribbon; 3 d dots; Tombo; martha stewart clear glue; computer sentiment

Toooo cute to spook :)

2011-10-26T18:39:00.000-07:00

Hey there, friends! Things are settling down in our home -- back to school(s), Opera rehearsal, Karate, etc ... I'm sure by next week we'll be more at ease. I had a free hour in between kid activities and squeezed in a Halloween card :) Raise your hand if you are ready for Halloween!! The kids have finally narrowed down their eclectic mix of costumes and not a single one of them matches with the other, lol ... but I guess that's what the fun is all about ... being who you might want to be for two hours.

I had a chance to play along with the new challenge this week at Pixie Dust Studio Challenge #98 - Spooky! I colored this delightful Pixie Witch of the West from the Oz Collection for my card and she is smashingly perfect for Halloween!

I left the inside blank for a small note -- my daughter's are HUGE "Wicked" fans and this might end up going to one of them this Halloween :)

Be sure to stop by the Challenge Blog and link up your

*Spooky* cards!

Thanks for stopping by today --

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Deets: Cardstock: PTI Orange Zest; Green Leaf; White, Joann's Black; Image =

Pixie Dust Studio "Wicked Pixie of the West"; prismacolor markers; Cuttlebug, nesties;

DSP = KI Memories "Haunted"; Kaiser pearls, green; SU border punch; misc buttons;

tombo, 3 D dots

Entered into these challenges:

If the Shoes Fits: Spooky Fall

Wags 'n Whiskers - Fall Colors

Stamping for the Weekend - Spooky

Color Me Creative - Halloween

Scrappy Frogs - things that fly (like witches, LOL!)

Fresh Brewed Designs 70 - Spooky Treats

Dancing with Happiness!!

2011-10-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

First, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the prayers for Kaitlyn -- I am so blessed and grateful that you prayed with me through the worry (and fear) and knowing that you are all just a call, text, email away is such an incredible blessing. Thank you! So far, all looks good from the initial tests and scans and we're awaiting the neuro/MRI to see what the next step will be, but I'll be sure to keep you posted ..... thank you, thank you SOOOO much! x0x0x0

And I'm certainly Dancing with Happiness! I had my card ready for yesterday, but then as you already know, life sort of stopped on a dime real quick and instead of posting, it was head to the Emergency Room. But I'm here today and wanted to show you a continuation of the 15 Pixie Days of Christmas in which Kathy, designer and illustrator, has made an adorable digi image for each of the letters in PIXIE DUST STUDIO! And D is for Dancer :) Our oldest two girls, including Miss Kaitlyn, were in years of ballet and I remember so vividly the deliciousness of their recitals and ballet performances -- their tiny tutus and the sound of The Nutcracker music still ebb through my memories :)

This digi is available in the shop along with many other wonderful ones -- you can see them HERE! And don't forget this week's challenge which is Birthday - you can link up all your birthday card/creations, we'd love to see them!

Blessings to you this day!

Big hugs,

~Kelly

Entered into: TotallyPapercrafts - Lots of Layers

Our Creative Corner - Fabulous Faces (ballerina)
Wee memories - Anything Goes

Card deets: SU Really Rust; PTI Blueberry Sky, Harvest Gold, White: DSP = Cosmo Cricket;
Image: D is for Dancer, Pixie Dust Studio; Cuttlebug; nesties; Prima flowers; AC button; Twinery Twine; PTI Aqua Mist Ribbon; BG Brads; prismacolor markers; 3d dots; tombo

There's Gnome one like you!

2011-10-20T20:07:00.000-07:00

Evening friends! It's almost Friday - woot, woot! Today I bring you a fun birthday card a wee bit late but here we are! :) Super quick post tonight but I had to stop in and share with you Pixie Dust Studio's new challenge: Birthdays! For my card, I used this fun gnome on his swing called "gnome playtime." How cute is this! I paired it with some fun papers I've had from Nikki Sivils ~ I distressed the papers so it wasn't so crisp and clean, added a simple ribbon and flower/button combo. It's super fun and festive, perfect for a birthday! For the inside of my card, I just printed a generic gnome saying with a Happy Birthday twist :)

Be sure to link up your Birthday themed cards HERE at the challenge blog!

Thanks for your visit today!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Card deets: PTI Pure Poppy, New Leaf, Royal Velvet, White: Image: Pixie Dust Studio "Gnome playtime"; DSP - nikki sivils "blueberry hill"; prismacolor markers; cuttlebug; nestie;

embroidery floss; prima flowers; AG buttons; grosgrain ribbon; 3d dots; tombo

Entered into: Tip Top Tuesday - Layer it up!
Charmed Cards: Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp: Inspired by FairyTale {Grimm's Fairy Tale - The Gnome and Gnomeo and Juliet!}
St. Luke's Charity- Let's here it for the boys!
Sweet Stampin' - For the Males!

Riley Goes Black 'n Orange!

2011-10-18T20:19:00.000-07:00

Happy late Tuesday! Are you ready for Halloween? I'm not a H'ween person myself but the kids have so much fun at our annual church Harvest Festival and dress up to visit the neighbors. I'm SOOOO excited about my dd14's costume in paricular - this year, she's dressing up as the Black Swan. Her costume is TDF!! I hope to take pictures to share with you soon - she looks absolutely AMAZING :) DD16 is going with a group of friends and they are all vampires, and the other two are still undecided though time is a tickin'!

So .... today is the day that Riley and Company starts a new bi-weekly challenge! This week it was brought to us by the fun and talented, Margie! She challenged us to make a card using Orange and Black! I used the newly released Bridezilla, colored with prismacolors and added some super fine glitter to her hair and outfit, tucked into a super easy layout. I have had this paper from SU for forever and forgot I had it until lil man needed a paper for his pirate map last week and I found this skull and crossbones (on the flip side!) SUPAH COOL!

Please stop by the Challenge blog and link up your cards to the challenge using Orange and Black ..... we'd love to see your creations and stop by and visit you! If you would like to play along using a card/project and upload it to a Gallery like SCS, use the keyword Riley2111.

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Deets: Cardstock: PTI Orange Zest; Joanns Black; PTI White; SU: Dsp;

Stamp - Riley and Company Bridezilla; Momento Black ink; prismacolor markers;

CB, Nestie, ric rac die, Twinery Charcoal Twine; Misc Buttons, 3 d dots, tombo

Entered into these challenges: Hanna and Friends - Halloween
The House that stamps Built - Halloween
Fussy and Fancy - Halloween
Paper Sundaes - Halloween
The Crazy Challenge - Halloween
One Stop Craft - Halloween
Creative Card Crew - Spooky Fun!

Operation Write Home Fundraiser :)

2011-10-17T09:28:00.000-07:00

Hi there, blogging friends! Today is a special post as I'm able to share with you a post for something near and dear to my heart - our military :) Two wonderful designers, Katlyn Traxler and Deedee Anderson worked together to create special images for this fundraiser and they will just melt your heart! They are wonderful, spirited and perfect for so many occasions. You can see them here: K & K Designs Blog and I hope you're able to stop by and support this wonderful cause :)

For my card today, I have used the digi Kolar's Friends - a truly humble gift He gives to us! Friends make the world go 'round, right? :) And I'm so glad you are all one of mine! {{{ Hugs! }}} I wanted to showcase this image not only due to the sheer sweetness of it (which, imo, totally embraces Katlyn's personality perfectly!) but because love and support and having that friend beside you during times of military service make the difference! I chose not to color the image but paper piece it instead. I will have to redo this image, first to remove the bling - cards with glitter and bling and anything shiny could pose a possible danger. Like many families, I think we all know someone in the military or our lives have been touched by it. But did you know that there is a huge cost behind the operations of Operation Write Home? Here is their mission statement from their blog ...

Our Mission: Supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them.

Operation Write Home is a not-for-profit organization that collects and sends handmade greeting cards to American soldiers for their use in keeping touch with their families back home. They need to raise $13,000 to cover holiday shipping costs.

K 'n K Designs will be selling 7 new digi sets designed exclusively for this cause. These include 4 sets by Katlyn and 3 sets by DeeDee Anderson and each set includes an image and some greetings, in both Jpeg an PNG file formats, all in a zip file. You can see them here on the design blog! These sets are available for just $2 each or in various value bundles with all proceeds being donated to Operation Write Home, minus paypal fees.

THanks for stopping by today - your visit is a special one always!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings :)

~Kelly

Card Deets: SU Creamy Caramel, Pixie Pink CS; GKD Orange zest: PTI White; Image from

K n K Designs: Kolar's Friends; DSP from K and Co, Penny Lane "My Minds Eye", Sweet Always by SU;

Kaiser bling, SU Chocolate Chip ribbon; AC button, embroidery floss; Tombo, 3d dots

Dueling Darlings: It's Harvest Time!

2011-10-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

T.G.I.F! The Dueling Darlings are back with another friendly "duel" with card kits with a theme - Fall Harvest! I LOVE this time of year, though we aren't as fortunate to get changing leaves and cooler weather ... I do have wonderful recollections of the places I've lived and the memories I still have of those times :) So it's always a tremendous joy to create a Fall card - and they have been on my bloggie all week! YAY!

The hostess this month for us Darlings was Tami! She sent us one mind-boggling, gorgeous card kit with the stamped image and the papers, embellies and instructions to create a Fall card and accompany it with our favorite Fall recipe. For my card, all I did was add cardstock and color the image - the rest was provided (except the big flowers in the upper left corner - that was a boo-boo when a big glob of glue when sploosh on my image I had JUST colored! Rather than re-color it, I had to get creative and "cover up" that space - how'd I do? LOL!!) And, I do apologize for the lighting - it's after 11 pm here and my eyeballs are crossing! *g*

The image Tami sent to us is from Stampin' Up's "Sweet Season" and I just love the nostaligic look to it :) Did anyone else notice the wheels of this wagon image - it has smiley faces on it! I don't know if that was intentional or known, but I saw it and just cracked up! Love it!

For the challenge part of the duel, Tami asked us to share one my favorite Fall recipe. No, it won't have anything to do with Pumpkin Spice Lattes :P

::: SHOCKER, I know! ::: LOL!

I actually an am avid cook - I LOVE to be in the kitchen and cooking/baking is one of my favorite activities. One of my favorite Fall recipes is one that I make just ONCE a year - yep, one time and that's it 'til next year! I make a home-made beef stew cooked into a pumpkin - delish! I cook it right inside the pumpkin so not only it is rich and flavorful, its' so festive for this time of year! The kids love it ~ me, being a vegetarian, won't actually eat it but it's still one of my all-time favorite recipes of all times!

I don't have a picture handy of mine but it looks similiar to this one here:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Pumpkin-Stew

(**I have not tried this recipe, just showing you a similiar picture!)

With a loaf of Rustic bread, this is absolutely a YUMMY Autumn meal

and fills the belly with a bowl of nice, warm soup! One tip: Scoop some of the insides of the pumpkin when you are serving for a small helping of the pumpkin along with the stew! Delish!

I will be back with my own Pumpkin Stew recipe soon - I make it from scratch and will have to scribble it down :) In the meantime, I hope you can stop by and see what the other Divas made using this identical card kit!

Barb * Carol * Jamie * Joan * Judy * Kelly (me!) * LJ * Tami

and you can see what the Dazzlers made with their Fall

Harvest themed car kits here on their blogs:

April * Darlene * Debbie * Jeanette * Melina * Michelle * Paola * Terry *

WHEW! You made it to the end of the post! Hee hee! Cardstock: SU Summer Sun, Dusty Durango, Close to Cocoa; DSP - Jenni Bolin; Image: SU Sweet Season;

*Next month, Jeanette and I are dueling hostesses and we have a doozy of a theme planned for the girls - bwawahahahaha! I even have a little guessing game contest going on to see if any of them can possibly guess what the TWO OF US could possibly come up with - hmmmmmmmmm! Not tellin! :)

Big hugs!

Bigger Blessings! :)

~Kelly

brown glitter paper: Gsilk bronze; Offray ribbon and American Crafts; yellow embroidery floss;

prima flowers; Misc Buttons; prismacolor markers; Cuttlebug, nestie; ric-rac; 3d dots; tombo

Color Challenge Time with PDS

2011-10-12T06:59:00.000-07:00

Good Morning! I can't believe it's Wednesday already - this week is going by in a blur! Wednesday also means a new challenge for the week for Pixie Dust Studio - and this week, we had some wonderful colors to work with - and perfect for so many of the Autumnal cards I'm seeing in blogland :) Using Harvest Mouse, I decided to paper piece the pumpkin instead of color it since I had a swatch of Haiku sitting on my desk - impromptu inspiration! I actually love how it turned out, and built the card around the colors in the challenge and paper I had on hand. This card came together in 15 minutes or less - easy peasy!

Here's my card for today, using these colors:

You can link up your color challenge cards here at the Pixie Dust Studio Blog ~ use the color chart as a guide and we'd love to see what you create! Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Entered into: Pile It On #41 - Just Because
One Stop Craft - Anything Goes
Crafts and Me - Use a Digi
ABC DT Challenge - Pumpkins

Deets: Cardstock: SU, GKD, PTI ... Image: Pxie Dust Studio; DSP - Jillibean soup;

Cuttlebug, nesties; prismacolor markers; pearl brads; tombo; gingham flower

Gobble 'Til you Wobble! :)

2011-10-10T18:27:00.000-07:00

Hi there! This is a super exciting post for me today -- my wonderful and amazingly talented friend, Lorie, has designed and created her own stamp line!! I *always, always* knew she would one day - I promise you! But her line of Country Bumpkin Stamps are finally here and just as joyous as she is to all of us! In a recent blog hop, I won this delightful Tanner Turkey and couldn't wait to ink him up :)

I knew I wanted to pair him with some Fall papers and went through several choices before settling on one I forgot I had -- SU's Haiku! (*Funny sidebar - I took a calligraphy class in my Senior year ~ I was dating my hubby who was my HS sweetie and every time I said Haiku, he'd blurt out "You're Welcome!" LOL! It became a little joke after awhile *g*) I just love this paper ~ but really love Tanner Turkey!

Card Front!

Here's the side :)

Inside: Stamped sentiment is including with Tanner, plus 2 more!

Isn't he just wonderful! I'm already half way through a second project using Tanner Turkey and hope to showcase that soon, too! Although I am delighted to have won this at a blog hop, I wanted to also let you know that he is available in the Peachy Keen Stamps shop if you want to take a lil peakie!! :)

Well that's all from me today! Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Entered into: TPE 120 - Photo Inspiration
Paper Play - Autumn
Fussy and fancy - Halloween or Autumn
Stampavie 153 - Autumn
Dolce Stamps - Fall
CCR - Giving Thanks
Deets: GKD, SU and PTI cardstock: SU "Haiku" dsp; stamp: Country Bumpkin Stamps from PKS "tanner turkey"; prismacolor markers; Cuttlebug, Nesties, scallop border; brads, prima flowers; ribbon; button; twine,
3d dots; tombo

It's Max! "S" is for stocking with Max ;)

2011-10-09T14:52:00.000-07:00

Hi there! We are finally seeing the sunshine peek out from the clouds after an entire day of torrential rain yesterday - wow! I was about to suggest the kids take the floats out of the pool and have them ready for getting around town via boats and floats! It was a good time to catch up on crafting though and I was able to color up Max! He is beyond cute - and reminds me of our Buddy, our 2 year old Jack Russell :) My dd12 is in love with everything puppies so this will be her Christmas card this year. Her favorite color is pink, so I colored/paired Max with some pink/green themed cardstock and dsp. The inside verse is one I made up just to be ....... punny... *hee hee!*

Does this look a wee bit familiar? Here's my card .........

and my little Buddy- Cmas '09 (just for 4 mos old!)

So cute! Here's a side view:

Ruh-roh .... cheesy, right?! She's 12 - so it'll work, ROFL! :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Deets: PTI New Leaf, Hibiscus Burst; White: Pink Pirouette from SU; American Crafts DSP;

Image - Pixie Dust Studio "S" is for stocking full of Max; CB; Swiss Dots folder; Nesties; scallop nestie; colored with prismacolor markers; twine; 3d dots; tombo, bling

CraftyBoots Challenge - Animals

C.R.A.F.T Challenge - Bright Colours

Raise the Bar - Furry Friends

Totally PaperCrafts - #87 Animals

PDS's anything but a card ....

2011-10-05T17:56:00.000-07:00

Evening, friends! Been a long, long day here so I'll just jump right in and share with you this lil treat bucket that I made for the new weekly challenge at Pixie Dust Studio - Anything but a card! How fun is that theme -- so many ideas, especially now during the Halloween time :)

One of my best BFF's from High School has a Halloween birthday - she has always disliked her birthday because of the date - not the "spooky" part, but that all of her friends were always out T or Ting or at Halloween parties instead of celebrating her birthday! I always felt so bad for her and plan to send this along filled with goodies :) She's not a crafter {GASP! lol!}

I found this little green tin bucket in Target in the $1 section back in the Spring and I scooped up 4 of them for different ideas I had at the time. Lucky me, I was able to use the green one for Frankie Boy, this adorable lil guy from PDS! I gave it a simple covering with Halloween dsp, a purple border, Halloween chipboard letters, Halloween pearls and a whole lotta ribbons in coordinating colors!

And that's it for me tonight, sweet friends! I'll be sure to stop in and see what you are doing in a bit but be sure to check out the PDS challenge blog and link up your awesome ABAC creations, too!

Thanks for your visit today!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Entered into: Saturday Challenge - Halloween
Stamp with Fun -- Halloween
Pile it On #40 - Do it for Fun!
Paper Playtime - Black, Orange and Purple
Really Reasonable Ribbon - Halloween
My Craft Spot - Too Cute to Spook!

Bucket - Target; Image - Pixie Dust Studio "Frankie Boy", RIbbons - varied;

Halloween pearls; Tombo, 3d dots, prismacolor markers; SU border punch;

K and Co DSP

We're FALLing for Riley! :)

2011-10-04T10:14:00.000-07:00

Happy Afternoon! I'm getting a late start with my post -- my son took a little nasty spill at school yesterday and came home with a knee the size of cantelope and it was turning all shades of blue. The pediatrician confirmed nothing broken or sprained ... just bruised and painful and he limped off to school today like a trooper. And right thereafter I was "volunteered" to help with the AR testings and book selections for the 1st graders. Fun stuff!

But I'm finally up and posting - and using the most adorable Popping Pumpkin Riley - he's definitely among the top faves of all my Rileys! The bi-weekly challenge this week is brought to us by the warm and wonderful Laurie!
She asked us to create a card: As fall is in the air, Laurie has given us a leaf challenge, include a leaf or leaves on your card or project! I made a port-hole card using Fall colored papers - the Pink front one is actually filled with little pumpkins ... I added flowers at the last thought to fill in the white space as I didn't realize there was as much until the card was done! It looked like Riley was just floating in mid-air so I gave him so faux leaves :)

We'd love to see your Leaf cards and projects in our bi-weekly Riley and Company Challenge! You can link up your cards here. 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 RILEY2011. We can't wait to see what you create!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Entered into: StampsRUChallenge - Fall
Meljen Challenge #73 - Circle and Square

Going Grey with Scrap Creations - Fall
House of Gilli - Fall

Deets: Cardstock: GKD Pumpkin Spice; SU Summer Sun; Really Rust; DSP - K and Co
Stamp: Riley and Company Popping Pumpkin Riley; Prima flower; SU button & twine; Kaiser bling; colored with prismacolor markers; CB, nestie; ric-rac, 3d dots, tombo

WinnerS!! and some Coffee Love! :)

2011-10-03T06:02:00.000-07:00

Good morning! I hope your weekend was marvelous! We had gorgeous weather - we biked, had a Karate Tournament with lil man, some serious yard work and a wee bit of crafting in my Cabana for moi!

Since I know the exciting part is blog candy, let me just jump right in and list not one, but TWO blog candy winners today :)

Thank you all for joining me on the Riley and Company Blog Hop - hope you were able to pick up some of your favorite Riley Goes to the Movies stamps!

The random.org winner from my blog is ...........

Kathy B. of Entering Kathyville!

Congratulations!

You have your choice of a new Riley UM stamp from the new release!

And random.org #2 from the OWH Holiday card Blog Hop is .......

Tammi of BlueInks Designs --

woohoo! You will receive the gift pack of Anna Griffin products!

Congratulations, Ladies!

Please stay tuned, it always breaks my heart that there can only be one name chosen but check back soon -

because I have some big news coming up! :)

It's no secret that I LUVS ME some coffee! And not just any coffee - I LUVS ME some Starbucks coffee. I probably have paid a Barista's retirement by now or at least put his/her child through a year's worth of college, but hey - it's my one vice and I'm spoiled that way - what can I say :)

*True Story* ... After dropping the kids at school a few months ago, I swing by S'Bux drive thru - amazingly, I'm the only one in the lane - place my usual order and realize "Oh man, NO WAY, my casharoo is in my pants pocket from yesterday!" I dont carry ANY bank/cc cards anymore and of course, the one time I want to use my back-up stashed car cash, ~~we already used it~~ there isn't any .... here I am, digging in the center console, in between the seats, jump out and look in the kid's seats, under carpets - finally I dig up enough pennies, dimes and nickels to make it and jump up triumphantly from the back of the car with a "YES!!", sweaty as all get up, hair all amuck .... but still triumphant. Jump back in, drive up to the window to see the barista just staring at me wild eyed like "are you FOR REALS?" Yep, they saw THE WHOLE THING from their tv monitor. I started to say "Wait, I can explain .... " but thought it would be better off to hand him the baggie of change {collected in someone's PBnJ bag that I also found *g*} and get out of there! Let me tell you, no cup of coffee was EVER finer! Liquid Gold! :)

So ... when my supah fabby gal pal, Barb, opened her second caffeine swap over on SCS, I just had to join! First, if you haven't swapped with Barb, YOU MUST! Her swaps rock da house!! I had to grab two spots in this swap, and am cuttin' it close to the due date - eeeek! Hopefully the girls won't mind that these will arrive just in time for the deadline :)

I'm so blessed that my wonderful husband takes the oldest girls to High School now at 6 am ::ouch!:: and then swings by S'Bux to bring me a coffee each morning for when I wake up - awwwwwww! He's a GEM!!
Maybe S'Bux has told him "please don't have your wife come by here anymore. Seriously."

I won't show you the inside views so they will have a little

suspense .... and they really do look so much better IRL :(

For my first card ..... this wee lil Java buggs stamp from Stampingbella was a birthday gift from my other gal pal, Sweet P! {muah!} Thank you! I can't tell you how happy I was to see it and PET IT, lol! I was so excited to receive it and couldn't wait to ink it up and this swap was perfectamundo!

I actually ran a wee short of dsp after 4 cards, rofl - so I switched one out and made 3 more with slightly different dsp. These cards are chocolate and blue, mostly hues of blue with a teeny bit of stardust glitter on their wings, bakers twine and regular embellies.

Here are the card fronts:

And my 2nd spot in the swap I used my gorgeous Stampavie coffee girls stamp with some Fall colored papers - PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE anyone!!?!! ;)

{did I mention a slight addiction to a certain place! *G*}

This is a simple joy fold and again, gold stickles for the coffee/tea steam

and colored in autumnal colors to match the paper.

And that's it for today! Thank you, Barb, for some awesome crafting inspiration - COFFEE! Mmmmmmmmmmm! LUVS me some coffee!! :)

*Cheers!*

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

OWH celebrates WCMD w/ a BLOG HOP ( + BLOG CANDY Give-away!)

2011-09-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

Happy World Card Making Day 2011!

I'm so excited to be taking part of the HUGE Blog Hop sponsored by the amazingly wonderful Operation Write Home! There are 150 blogs in this hop and that's a lot of cards for our troops! As a child of a military family and a brother currently serving, I'm extremely proud to be part of the OWH with card donationson a regular basis. Their mission is such an admirable task!

Please start here at the beginning of the hop so you won't miss any of the wonders along the way :)

Also, I will have a little Candy Give-away to one random commenter

to thank you for supporting our troops and for stopping by in this huge hop.
Candy winner will be chosen Monday, October 3rd @ 9am EST!

Here is my holiday card to share with you!
It's a little bright, a little Florida Sunshine-y Happy Holiday card, a little non traditional but I hope to that wherever this may go, it will bring cheer and happiness and be as upbeat as I pray they can be during the holidays.

A wee side view :)

Inside of the card :)

Be sure to head over the OWH WCMD post (see link above!)
to see all the participating blogs which will be up all weekend!

To thank you for stopping by,
ONE random commenter will receive this package of Anna Griffin goodies,
in (mostly!) red, white and blue colors! :)
Hugs!!

Big hugs,
Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Card deets: SU: Melon Mambo, Summer Sun, Kiwi Kiss; PTI white: K and Co DSP
Image - Greeting Farm; inside sentiment from Inkadinkadoo Clear stamps; SU border punch; Cuttlebug, Nesties, MM brads, BG button; Baker's Twine; colored with prismacolor markers;
Tombo, 3d dots

"E" is for Eskimo! :)

2011-09-30T07:52:00.000-07:00

**If you are looking for the Riley and Company Blog Hop, please click HERE! **

Good morning!

Today's post is dedicated to my wonderful Alaskian friend, Debbie! :) She's blessed to live in one of the most exciting and adventurous places - though I haven't seen her dressed as an Eskimo ... yet *wink!*

Today is day 5 of a Pixie Christmas! Today's letter of the

P-I-X-I-E D-U-S-T S-T-U-D-I-O is E! If you want to follow the letter release with the most fantastic images, you can catch up here at the blog and see the great creations thus far!

For my "E" Eskimo, I created another recipe card for my daughter's ongoing

recipe book that we started last year :) (It's all April's fault, but don't tell her!) Tee hee! I colored the Eskimo is subtler colors to match the paper's I'd already chosen to work with and added one of the recipes we tried when my niece/nephew were visiting. It's positively yummy and got rave reviews at the recipe site we found it (bbl with that link!) Except it's rich and delish and all things naughty so mommies, have a glass of water nearby and believe me, your kiddies of all ages will be wanting "s'more!" :) I also gave it some blinged out buttons and flower as my daughter is all about her bling - part of her Taylor Swift fixation with all things sparkly!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Riley Goes to the Movies BLOG HOP!

2011-09-29T18:49:00.000-07:00

Hi!! Welcome to the Riley and Company September Blog Hop where Riley is "Going to the Movies!" I'm sure you have seen many of the sneaks this week and they are just delightful!! *This is a LONG post, but tons of fun!* If you are hopping along, you should have arrived here from Juliet's blog - if not, and you want to start at the beginning, HERE! You won't want to miss this hop tonight! You'll see some crafting inspiration using the 18 new rubber stamps released tonight AND you'll also have a chance to win some free blog candy in the form of one (1) Riley stamp giveaway at each blog for one lucky person! Woohoo!

I have two cards to share with you today ~ First up, Spidermoose! How delightful is Riley dressed as Spidey! I created a candy holder/treat bag ~ The candy bar in it's wrapper nestles down inside the SpiderMoose treat bag.
Here are several views!

Isn't he dreamy! But there's one more thing to show you -

Sophie as Scarlett O'Hara!

Sophie O'Hara is dressed in her finest Southern dress,

waiting for Moose Butler to come on by for a spell!

I think soooo many of us were absolutely in love with Gone with the Wind - such a classic and wonderful novel/film!

I had so much fun creating this one ~ left it blank so I can cater it

to the friend that will receive it :)

Thanks for stopping by! From here you will go to the amazingly talented

Silli!! You won't want to miss her gorgeous creations!

Also, how fun is **THIS NEWS!**

FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING on any new orders until Sunday night! (Use coupon code FREESHIP)

All orders placed within the first 24 hours will receive a FREE NEVER RELEASED limited edition - Witch with Broom for Halloween!!

Purchase the entire set - get 10% off!

Here is the entire blog hop line up if you should need some help along the way :) Have fun hopping!

Tanya

Cindy

Sarah Gough

Frances

Juliet Huang

Kelly (you're here)

Silke

Heather Prince

Laurie

Jovita Torres

Margie Cortina

Michele L

Joy Stagg

Gina Lindsay – Guest Designer

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Sneak #5 - I'm Batty for you!

2011-09-29T04:34:00.000-07:00

Morning! Off to take the kids to school but wanted to share another sneakie peakie before the big HOP tonight! Are you soooooooo excited! It's almost time! I wanted to share this card with you using Riley Batmoose ~ He's ready to take on the craftin cities with his adorable costume and handsome stance against paper cuts! :)

Oh, a quick reminder!

FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING on any new orders until Sunday night! (Use coupon code FREESHIP)

All orders placed within the first 24 hours will receive a FREE NEVER RELEASED limited edition - Witch with Broom for Halloween!!

Purchase the entire set - get 10% off!

See you tonight at the Riley and Company new stamp relase BLOG HOP tonight! Can't wait!!! :)

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Card: CS Pacific Point; Joanns Yellow and Grey; PTI white;
Stamp - Riley and Company Riley Batmoose
Dsp - Martha Stewart, corner punch by SU, pacific point ribbon,
Fancy Pants ribbons, CB, nesties, 3 d dots; twine, tombo

Calendar Girls - September Choices!

2011-09-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

Afternoon! Today is the day that the Calendar Girls - an SCS group of fabulous friends - post our monthly creations with a theme ...... and this month our hostess was none other than the absolutely vibrant Sweet P! (she does have a real name, rofl! It's Paola, but she's always going to be our Sweet P!) And she was sweet enough to give us 3 choices this month for our September cards -- Music, education or children - I chose children :) This is what she challenged us to do:
*choice 3* CHILDREN: Your card should reflect anything a child may like to do: playing, reading, toys,sports etc....but with a twist!
It should be both cheerful and also reflect the fast approaching Fall, a colorful season I love very much. )

I would also like YOU to gift your finished card to a child (other than your own!) that could use a little lift, a lil smile.....just because....

I wanted to share a card that I made using the "toys" part of the theme. When I was little, I loved school - it was a happy place for me, but for a little while, I would run home every day to play with my prized Raggedy Ann doll. It was made for my by hand by my amazingly talented mom. She used to stay up til the wee hours of the night sewing these little dollies by hand. We lived in Europe at the time and I couldn't figure out why she would make one after the other, but I later learned that she was making them for an orphanage in her hometown in England, one for each child (the boys got an Andy, the girls got an Ann) :) I secretly wanted one SO bad and would tell her all the time that it was my turn .... at 6, I thought they should have all been mine, lol. That same year, I was lucky, too and there was a special one waiting under the Christmas tree for me ~ I loved it, treasured it, and cherish it still to this day. I would run home from school for months and play with her. She is worn, beat up, and as raggedy as her name, but I love her all the same. Even my daughters have played with her and even redressed her in one of their little brother's infant outfits, lol!

I used some 7Gypsys brightly colored paper that reminded me of the primary school papers. I've been hoarding this one piece since our LSS closed down and MUST find more - love it! I used a Buggaboo image that I colored last night at 2 am - how'd I do? LOL! I even added a small heart button that was the only one in a jar of misc buttons I found at the store and I think it is the perfect addition. I used some ric-rac as that is the ribbon my Raggedy Ann's original clothing has all around as the trim and for my school related supply, staples! Yep! I stapled the card on purpose! :) Now the inside just melted my heart -- I found this poem online a day or so ago and added it because it looked fitting. I found it here at this site -- too cute!!

My card will join the others that I keep in a basket and take once every few weeks to Baptist Children's Hospital in Miami, Florida for the parents to take from the admit office. I leave them blank and unsigned and know that in that moment, sometimes getting to the gift shop downstairs might be 5 minutes you just don't have to spare. BCH also holds monthly events that rally the community and just bring such a commitment to our community - this hospital is near and dear to my heart for personal reasons and I give back in ways of my time and volunteering as often as time allows (like the Relay for Life coming up in October!)

Wow, that was a long post! Would you like to meet My Rags, as I called her?

Here she is! Her little eye is a bit wonky thanks to my parent's Bassett Hound needing to eat all of my toys, lol! But I loves her :)

If you made it this far, BLESS YOUR HEART!

Thank you! But wait, there's more! :)

Be sure to stop in and see what the other Calendar Girls have made using their choice of theme!

April * Barb * Carol * Debbie * Jeanette * Kelly (you're here!)

Michelle * Paola * Tami * Terry

Big Raggedy Hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Card entered into: Lexi's Creations - Card for a child

Card deets: Cardstock; Blueberry Sky, Pure Poppy, White; SU Summer Sun;

DSP 7Gypsys; Image from Buggaboo; CB, nesties; SU Border Punch; Ric-Rac,

Staples; Misc Buttons; Twine

Pixie Dust Studios ~ Favorite Book/ Movie AND a snowman! :)

2011-09-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

Hi there! It's almost Wednesday and I'm already in much need of the weekend! Not that those are any slower, lol, but at least we don't have to get up at 5:30 am **eek!**

Today I'm back with TWO cards for the new Pixie Dust Studios Challenge - make a card or project with your favorite book or movie. Lucky me, they are the same - my favorite book series, Twilight, are now movies - woot, woot! I actually read Twilight when it first came out and before it became popular, so when I'd say something off the wall like "So the Lion fell in love with the lamb" I'd get blank stares and a HUH? LOL!!! I was so thrilled when it finally made it to the screen! Being a huge fan of the Twilight series, I am as anxious as many of you are for Breaking Dawn to hit the theaters! I actually had this image colored up previously - my brunette version and this one blonde - but didn't have a chance to use it til now -- so lucky me (again!), I added it to some floral papers - you know, when Bella was in the field of flowers thinking of Edward. My dd12 saw this one on the table and said "Is that Bella .... going Goth?" ROFL! Guess she could be going Wolf! :)

And, before I get to my card - have you seen the delish 15 days of

P-I-X-I-E D-U-S-T S-T-U-D-I-O going on at PDS and the blinkie on my side bar? Superbly sweet, I tell ya! Kathy, owner and illustrator, has been releasing an image a day with each coordinating letters of PDS ..... and today's letter is X! So, I bring you a 2nd PDS card using her image called "X-rated Snowman!" He's really harmless - just missin' his hat and scarf and a few buttons but still cute as can be! You can find the DT samples and link up your Book/Movie cards at the challenge blog right here!

Favorite book AND movie - Twilight Series

Sideview

"X" is for X-rated Snowman! :)

My X-rated snowman card is using the Cute Card Thursday sketch and paired with SU winter papers.

Thanks for stopping by!

Big Hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

card deets: TBA

Sneak #4 ~ Hopelessly devoted to you ....

2011-09-27T05:20:00.000-07:00

Good Morning! Who remembers the movie Grease?! I do, I do! I think my girlfriends and I sat in our rooms at tweens and sang every single song on this record! (woah, did I really say RECORD?!) :) Today I'm back with sneak peak #4 and it's using Sophie as Sandy and I am humming "Hopelessly devoted to you" as I type! Classic!

I paired with lovely Riley and Company soon-to-be released stamp with some Basic Grey papers with pinks (Go Pink Ladies!) and some LOVE papers - as she was dreaming of her Danny! (he's also available in this release!) Super cute - what fun memories she brings back!

Be sure to stop in the Challenge blog and see what the other DT girls have made using the new stamp release from Riley and Company!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs!
Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Entered into: Stamping for the weekend - What a cutie!
Fuzzy Wuzzy Challenge - Pink!

Sneak Peek #3 - Riley Potter-moose!

2011-09-25T21:28:00.000-07:00

Happy Sunday to you! Today the sneaks continue in the upcoming release of 18 brand new "Riley goes to the movies" themed stamps and today I am showcasing one of my faves in this release - Riley Potter-moose! He is just fantastic and I'm sure this lil Riley would love to help you find the golden snitch and join you in a friendly game of card-making quidditch! Hee hee!

I kept Riley in a card using the Hogwarts colors and used those as my base colors ~ found some of my 7Gypsys paper pack that went well with the theme and added some gold stickles and fine glitter to the wand's magical waving. I do so love this card :) Riley Potter-moose will go perfectly with your cards and scrapbook pages - I know he will be adorning mine, soon!

Thanks for stopping by, as always! Please be sure to stop by the DT blog and check out all the wonderful cards and sneaks that have been up thus far - you won't want to miss them all! We also have a guest Designer this month - Gina!

Hope you can stop by later - I'll have another card to show you soon!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Challenge: Lollipop Crafts - Anything Goes!
Southern Girls - Anything Goes!

card deets: GKD Black Onyx and Sweet Corn cardstock; SU Bravo Burgandy; PTI White;

Rubber stamp: Riley and Company: RIley Potter-moose; Sentiment from Riley and Company rubber stamp Circus collection; DSP = 7Gypsys; Scallop border punch SU; Cuttlebug, nesties; Prismacolor markers;

Martha Stewart super fine glitter; Gold stickles; burgandy grosgrain ribbon; ACbutton, twine, tombo;

3 d dots; Basic Grey bling brads.

Sneak #2 ~ Anyone for the MOVIES!?!

2011-09-24T21:02:00.000-07:00

Evening! We just rolled in from a fun afternoon of window shopping, a yummy lunch at Fridays and the movies - we saw Dolphin Tale .... oh my! What a sweet, uplifting and WONDERFUL movie for the family - if you haven't seen it, bring some tissues, mommies! :)

Speaking of movies, I'm back with sneakie peakie #2 - Popcorn Riley! Isn't he charming, sitting in his movie chair - hot, buttered popcorn and ice cold soda! Yum! You might be thinking "the same dsp again?" I have created this card, and yesterday's card, using up little scraps of dsp and I absolutely love it! Not only are they going to good use by creating a card (rather than get tossed!) but they are festive and fun enough for these lovely movie Rileys :)

I also added the admit and ticket stubs from the Circus release. Too cute! This card is also and oblong shape -- 6.5" x 3".

In this release, there are 18 Movie themed Riley stamps soon to be available! They will be coming this Thursday, September 29th! And a fun part of this collection is they are interchangeable with many of the Riley sentiments, including the accessories from
the Circus collection.

Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to stop by and see the DT sneak peeks, too!
And don't forget you can still link up your distressed/shabby chic cards for the bi-weekly challenge at the blog :)

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Entered into: Paper Sundaes - Anything Goes!
Tip Top Tuesdays - One for the Kids
Deets: Turquoise Sea; Crush Curry; Pure Poppy, PTI White (image)
Stamped Image: Riley and Company, Popcorn Riley; Ticket stamps - Riley and Co;
DSP - SU, SU seam binding, misc buttons, twine, 3 d dots, Tombo, Prismacolors,
Cuttlebug, nesties, sandpaper, Bubble dots folder

Sneak #1 - Gentlemen prefer .... Marilyn Moose-roe!

2011-09-23T20:04:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Sneak Peaks of the Riley and Company

"Riley Goes to the Movies" Sneak Peeks!

Where: All Design Team Member Blogs

When: Saturday, September 24th - Thursday September 29th

and then the Riley and Company Blog Hop!

What: Blog Hop with FREE Blog Candy!

Where: All Design Team Member Blogs!

When: Thursday, September 29th, 10 pm EST, 9 pm CST

For my first sneak peak today, I used the Marilyn Moose-roe stamp ...

isn't she a dream! I just love this look ~ platinum hair and all :)

After all, Gentlemen prefer blondes! *s*

This is a tall card - 4" x 6.5" as it seemed to fit this layout better.

I kept it pretty simple, making use of some wonderful scrap pieces!

Card inside! Sentiment from the Circus Release

Be sure to stop by the blog here to see the line up of DT Sneak peeks! There are so many exciting and fun new rubber stamps about to bring back fond memories of your movie moments! :)

And I'd be delighted if you stop back by from now until the blog hop!

I will have a sneak peak for you every day for the next 6 days!

Thanks for dropping by today!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Card deets: PTI white (cardbase) : So Saffron; DSP from SU: Rubber Stamp: Riley and Company

"Marilyn Moose-roe"; Sentiment from Riley and Co; Ink = Momento Black; prismacolor markers;

Cuttlebug, nesties, lace; felt flowers; BG buttons; twine, 3D dots; tombo

Entered into:

Paper and Such - Tic Tac Toe (I used: Lace, Designer Paper, Button)

Paper Sundaes - Felt (my flowers!)

Totally Gorjuss - Not Square

Paper Players -- Animals or Plants

"No Lion!" ;) It's Release Day at PDS!

2011-09-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

Hi! YAY for Friday! That means it's release day at Pixie Dust Studio with the new Pixie of Oz release! You might have seen a few sneaks and we're so excited that today the wonderful Pixie of Oz series is available in the shop :)

Introducing .... Courage the Lion!

For today's card, I tried something a little different - a "sepia" no coloring technique. My 12 y/o daughter had some of her friends over making a faux Constitution and Bill of Rights for a school project and we had to do 'tea-dying'. On a whim, I decided to try it with a digi image printed on white PTI cardstock and love the look that it had ~ so I continued the vintage, circa 50's feel to this one with muted colors of cream and beige. The ribbon is one I have had from scrapbooking and overall, this was an interesting technique to try!

Here is the entire release in one glance ..........

And another look :)

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

If you get a chance to stop by the challenge blog,

you'll see some incredible and wonderful card creations by the DT -

you can find them here!

(and you can link up your Round + Round cards, too!)

And wait! There's more! How about a FREEBIE!!?! Or two! :)

Head on over here and check out these adorable cuties!!

Big Hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Entered into these challenges:

Shopping Our Stash - No coloring

Papertake Weekly - Creature Comforts

Card deets: SU Creamy Caramel, Very Vanilla; Soft Suede, PTI White (image)

Image: Digital "courage" Lion from Pixie Dust Studio; tea bags *g*;

"Together" cotton twill ribbon from LSS; misc buttons; Cuttlebug, nesties; dsp - DCWV and misc scraps,

tombo; sandpaper

I'm going Round and Round ...

2011-09-21T21:02:00.000-07:00

Hi! It's Day 2 of the Pixie Dust Studio sneaks AND a brand new weekly challenge starts today! For my sneak peek today, I used Pixie D and Prince Toto :) And the new challenge of the week is ......... "Going Round and Round!" Circle theme - think polka dots and layers of circles!

I just love this Pixie D with her expressive eyes and sweet little dog, Prince Toto! I gave her some ruby red slippers and think all of us dreamed of these magical ruby slippers when we were little girls! To keep with the new challenge this week, I made this sneak peek with circular patterned paper - all 3 pieces have polka dots on them, added a button for a little textural element and some brads and voila! This card was so quick to come together as I'm sooo inspired by this new Pixie of Oz release! I hope you can stop by on Friday for release day, you won't want to miss it!

Please entered your "Going Round and Round" cards here on the challenge blog - be sure to link up your cards so we can stop by and give you some blog love!

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Card deets: TBA

Entered into these challenges:

Creatalicious Challenge - Anything Goes

Digi Design Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

If I only had a brain ...... PDS sneak!

2011-09-20T21:01:00.000-07:00

Ohhhhhh am I just giddy - GLEE returned to tv tonight! It was worth the wait and I just loved the coincidental duo with Rachel and Kurt singing "Ding, Dong - the witch is dead" from the Wizard of Oz -- superb!

And there's more! Today I have my very own Oz card to share :) The Pixie of Oz sneaks from Pixie Dust Studio start today and they are absolutely adorable! For my first sneak, I used "Brainy" and he's just a delight to color. I remember watching the WOZ over and over as a child and am just tickled to see it again here in digi form! I tried to keep him as close to the original movie as possible yet also colored him to match Fall colors and designed the card to do the same to give it a Autumnal feel. I even used a smidge of rafia for my "hay" :)

Without further delay, here is Brainy, the Pixie of Oz scarecrow!

Be sure to stop in tomorrow to see another Sneak Peek from this delightful

new Pixie Dust Studio series!

Also be sure to check out the DT blogs to see what image they used as well -

you won't want to miss it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Card entered into the following challeges:

Pile it on - The colors of Fall

Digi Doodles #76 - Autumn Colors

Really Reasonable Ribbon - #32 Autumn theme

Friday Mashup - Autumn theme

Penny's - Fall

Card Mad Fairys - Layers and layers/use a digi

Always something creative - Autumn

Our Daily Bread Designs - Colors of Autumn

Card deets - SU Chocolate chip; Really Rust; Pumpkin Pie, PTI White:

Image = Scarecrow Brainy from Pixie Dust Studio; dsp from K and Company;

colored with prismacolor markers; cuttlebug, nesties, grosgrain ribbon; prima flower; scallop die;

Basic Grey Button; rafia; MM orange brads; 3d dots; tombo

Riley's Lots and Lots of Layers ...

2011-09-19T21:42:00.000-07:00

Evening! It's time for another Riley and Company Challenge - this week it's brought us by DT Member, Heather! Her challenge this week is to create a distressed/shabby chic card with at least 7 layers (matts are counted as a layer) but the more layers the better! Absolutely my fave style card to make - lots and lots of layers! :)

I used Coffee Riley for my card this week - perfect for me :) I paper-pieced the chair that Riley is sitting on to match the dsp I used for the card backdrop. This card was SO much fun to make! I left the inside blank with just a tiny pocket to add a coffee gift card at a later date.

I also distressed the edges of the cardstock and dsp with sandpaper and just love the soft, Parisian feel to this card. Thanks, Heather, for the wonderful inspiration to create this Riley card this week :)

Remember, you can link up your distressed/shabby chic/layered cards here on the Challenge blog. If you use a gallery to upload your card, please remember to use code Riley1911 so we can find you and leave you some love :) You can also stop on over at the blog and see what the DT have created using this wonderful theme this week! Happy crafting!

Thanks for stopping by!

Big Hugs,

Bigger Blessings!

~Kelly

Card deets: Cardstock: SU So Saffron; Certainly Celery; Pink Piro; PTI White;

Image - Riley and Company Coffee Riley; Ink - Stazon Black; DSP - unk;

Fiskars border punch; Cuttlebug, nesties; prismacolor markers; prima flowers; MM flowers;

Kaiser Bling; misc grosgrain ribbon; tombo, aileens

Entered into these challenges: Cuddly Buddly - #12 Layers

Disney and a Peace 'n Quiet card :)

2011-09-18T22:47:00.000-07:00

Helllllo blogging friends! Happy Monday to you! :) We are home from Disney and had an absolute fabulous time, albeit a short getaway. We are so blessed to live close enough to hop over for the weekend and we enjoyed every second of lil man's birthday weekend - his face was just as priceless as can be because he knew we were celebrating HIM. On every ride, I would shout out over the noise "Happy Birthday, T!" - except Space Mountain was in the middle of a drop so it sounded something like "Happy Birthyeeeeeeawwwwwwwwomgoooooooooooooooosh!" ;) Dh asked him several times if he was having fun and his answer? "Of course! I'm in Disney World!" That pretty much says it all :)

Disney and Peace 'n Quiet? I know, quite the oxymoron! LOL! Actually the P 'n Q is from my card - I bought this Penny Black stamp when it was first released - I knew I *had* to have it! It's perfect for memories of my past (brother!) and my wee one's now. I didn't get the chance to ink it up til this past week.

I remember trying to set up a toy section for lil man on the dining room table but wanted him to be surprised - so the only thing I thought of was to tell my oldest daughter that I was going to send him down the hall to her room. I told her to keep an eye out for him and to entertain him until I called for him. She gave me a wink and a "cool!" and then I told him something I won't soon forget - just playing around. She came down the hall a few seconds later and asked "what did you say to him? He's all sad and distraught! He said "Mommy said to get out of her hair for a little while, but I don't know why - I wasn't anywhere near her head!" Oooooooops! Yes, I felt SO VERY BAD! That was one of those mommy-isms that you wish you could rewind and can't ;) Well, I had that fiasco in mind when creating this lil card!

Here's the front:

Inside card w/ sentiment from the stamp set!

Side/inside

And that was our happy little weekend! It's good to be home even though the week ahead looks like I'll need a personal planner just to get through it all!

Thanks for stoppin' by!

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings!
~Kelly

Card deets: Ballet Blue, Turquise Sea, Leaf Green, PTI white; Stamp: Penny Black;

Sentiment: Penny Black; Momento Black ink; paper was a giftie for my bday so unknown;

Gingham ribbon from AC from my friend Deedee Anderson; misc buttons, twine; colored with

prismacolor markers; cuttlebug, nesties; tombo, aileens

Sandcastle Stamper

Calendar Girls - January Remakes! :)

*~* PLEASE READ! IMPORTANT news! *~* It's a RILEY Blog Hop!

Follow your Bliss! {Riley Sneak #4}

Riley Sneakie Peakie #3!

Shop til you drop, Sophie! (Sneak #2)

Bonjour, Riley! {Sneakie peakie #1!}

I got into a scrap today .........

Angels all around us :)

Dueling Darlings love the "Little Things" :)

Are you smarter than your phone?!!

I did it, I did it! :)

Winter Fun with Sophie!

Draw Water from the Wells ...

You MOOSE be my type! :)

Happy New Year, 2012!

Hello, "Deer" Friend! :)

Riley's Holiday Challenge & BLOG CANDY!

Thankful for Mud Puddle Pies :)

Happy Birthday!!

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Riley Challenge - Warm winter friends :)

"SNOW" much fun awaits you! {Calendar Girls - Nov!}

Riley's Thanksgiving Blog Hop & Candy Give-away!

And they call him ...... Riley Grinch! :)

Riley #3 - Sharing a cuppa love :)

Sneak #2 ~ There's "Snow Buddy" like you!

Riley Sneak #1 - Let the Winter Fun Begin!

Happy Snow Day! :)

DDD ~ What not to wear { to the Holiday Party!}

Blog Candy giveaway :)

Reindeer wishes this holiday!

Sweet Birthday Wishes :)

Hey Ya'll!

I want my MUMMY! :}

Toooo cute to spook :)

Dancing with Happiness!!

There's Gnome one like you!

Riley Goes Black 'n Orange!

Operation Write Home Fundraiser :)

Dueling Darlings: It's Harvest Time!

Color Challenge Time with PDS

Gobble 'Til you Wobble! :)

It's Max! "S" is for stocking with Max ;)

PDS's anything but a card ....

We're *FALL*ing for Riley! :)

*WinnerS!!* and some Coffee Love! :)

OWH celebrates WCMD w/ a BLOG HOP ( + BLOG CANDY Give-away!)

"E" is for Eskimo! :)

Riley *Goes to the Movies* BLOG HOP!

Sneak #5 - I'm Batty for you!

Calendar Girls - September Choices!

Pixie Dust Studios ~ Favorite Book/ Movie AND a snowman! :)

Sneak #4 ~ Hopelessly devoted to you ....

Sneak Peek #3 - Riley Potter-moose!

Sneak #2 ~ Anyone for the MOVIES!?!

Sneak #1 - Gentlemen prefer .... Marilyn Moose-roe!

"No Lion!" ;) It's Release Day at PDS!

I'm going Round and Round ...

If I only had a brain ...... PDS sneak!

Riley's Lots and Lots of Layers ...

Disney and a Peace 'n Quiet card :)

~ PLEASE READ! IMPORTANT news! ~ It's a RILEY Blog Hop!

We're FALLing for Riley! :)

WinnerS!! and some Coffee Love! :)

Riley Goes to the Movies BLOG HOP!