SUMMER RETREATS

I am loving having the granddaughters here. We are doing so much together. But I also need a little 'me' time so I'm taking part in not one but TWO art retreats this summer. I'm not sure how much I'll accomplish on either one but it least I'll have something creative to contemplate in a quiet moment here and there.

One begins in July. I'm talking about The Reset Girl 'Camp Reset' with Cori Spieker. I love her retro vibe and I think camp with her is going to be a lot of fun.

The other one is a Full-On soulful journey with 25 amazing ladies. The Women Unleashed On-Line Retreat is totally FREE!

This retreat is filled with sessions on art, movement, and all kinds of mini workshops to help you slow down and nourish yourself. Sessions are led by world renowned artists, teachers, speakers, authors and healers from all over the world. 

When you attend the Woman Unleashed Online Retreat you can...

•Attend the retreat sessions around your schedule.
•Wear your favorite comfy yoga pants. No need to brush your hair!
•Drink tea (or wine) from your favorite cup.
•Be a part of a global tribe of women who are saying YES!! to themselves.

You’ve been taking care of everything and everyone... now it’s TIME FOR YOU!

Reserve your spot in the retreat today.

I hope you'll join me for either... or both.. of these artful journeys.

Creative Blessings!

Kelly

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Art Journal Page

The girls had fun using ink on glossy cardstock yesterday. They puddled ink, spritzed with water, tilted paper, blew with a straw (grandpa's suggestion) and had a really good time. Abby's came out a bit muddy but blotting with a roll of paper towels revealed a very pretty background.

Unfortunately, those pictures are on my phone and not on my regular camera. But, I do have a plan for those backgrounds so I'll show everything in a couple of weeks.

Now that the girls are acclimated to their new surroundings, this week we begin a regular routine. A routine that requires integrating their 'summer schooling' and weekly library trip in with my already established household routine.

So in the business, it's nice when I can take some 'me' time as I did yesterday.

Using some of the negatives from items I'd cut out to include in ATCs (which I will show as soon as recipients have seen them first), I created the second layer of an existing background (sunflower yellow)

I also used the relief from the labels that go on the backs of unmounted rubber stamps from SU.

I love using the negative spaces to create journaling and doodling blocks on my pages. 

I taped the edges down with blue tape...

and got busy with (Folk Art)  Red Violet, Light Blue, Yellow Citron and Podge Pink

After drying, I removed the stencils and started doodling with my Precision Pens from American Crafts. 

I outlined everything except the burgundy tag in the bottom left with a 08 and did most of the lettering with a 08. The tag was outlined with a signo white as well as the embellishments to the pink floral doily at the top. I colored in the doodle snake with Studio G paint markers from Michaels.

Not much of a page but was relaxing to just sit and play while we watched tv before bed. 

Do you doodle? Art Journal? play with paints? Link me to your creative goodness in the comments below. Inspire me!

Creative Blessings!
Kelly

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Shaving Cream!

I'm late getting in here but it's a bit busy around here. LOL The girls are having a good time so far. They even totally forgot about asking for their tablet/ phone yesterday!

Today, I've had several webinars so they've had their devices part of the day.

So what have we been doing?  Well, yesterday I introduced them to the shaving cream technique. They used them to make card bases which became Father's Day cards they could mail to their daddy. We used all Stampin' UP! reinkers

I took the opportunity to make bases for my bases for the WOYWW 8th Anniversary ATC's. The full sheets are mine.

Abby (age 5)

She used Melon Mambo, Old Olive and Gray

We added mats from the SU Color Theory Designer Series Paper

Heart - SU

Sentiment - SU - Sentiments

We used the Stitched Framelits dies from SU for the small squares

Adrian (Age 9)

Adrian chose Real Red, Marina Mist, Black

Adrian used inks to color the edges of Whisper White cardstock.

She used the Stitched Framelits dies.

She chose SU - So In Love for her flower/ sentiment

 and SU - Wonderous Wreath for the bow

Because Adrian is older and been playing with my toys since the age of 2, she had a bit more freedom to be creative such as using the dauber to color the edges as well as learning to use the Watercolor Pencils. She thought those were pretty cool. 

Both girls got to use the Vagabond to cut their dies with plenty of supervision. Adrian will be using the Vagabond more as the summer progresses. 

I know you guys have been waiting to see the paper cabinet. I hope to have pictures on Wednesday.

TIME OUT!

As much as I tried to avoid this, I have to take a Time Out with this blog. I was hoping to get some things scheduled to carry me over until the girls got here and we found a routine. A vehicle breakdown and trying to get the house ready for two additional little girls has really cramped my creating time.

On the upside, Adrian LOVES to craft so we can stamp together and I'll have stuff to share from both of us.

I haven't forgotten to show the paper unit. That should happen a week from Wednesday. I'm not planning on being away from the blog very long... just not going to happen this week.

Creative Blessings!
Kelly

WOYWW - 417

It is what it is. I'm showing you my desk this week. The paper cabinet is almost organized. I just have the current SU stamp sets to move over there. Should have a picture for you in two weeks. I won't be posting next week because I'll be picking up my granddaughters from the airport. I've not seen the girls (9 and 5) in almost 4 years and this grandma isn't missing a minute of time with them. We should be settled in to a routine by the following week and I'll be back.

In the mean time, I have the May Paper Pumpkin kit from Stampin Up. They are donut cards complete with sprinkles in the stamp set. I'm going to finally get this kit put together today and posted on my Stampin Up blog.

The day my kit arrived I was on day two of a super high fever that came and went over the course of four days. Bob came in the bedroom to tell me I had happy mail. I mumbled something and went right back to sleep. I just had a fever, nothing else, and lost 5 pounds over the course of the virus.

The stuff in the center back all gets a new home this weekend. The stuff to the left will stay as will the white box in the back to the right of the Paper Pumpkin box. That holds my needle pad, stamp cleaner pad and cutting mat as well as my card kit from a group I belong to on SplitcoastStampers.

Remember, I have a Color Challenge here the third Monday of each month. There is still time to play in the May Challenge.

That's it for my desk this week. Who's Miss Julia and why am I here?  That's my desk? What's on yours? When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground where Miss Julia has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you.  Please leave your number and you'll be among the first on my list.

FRIDAY FREEBIE - REALLY - FREE!

 Last week I received this in the mail - truly HAPPY MAIL!

When I opened the card ,this is what I found inside....

I waited a couple of days then decided to place my order before I lost the GC and they were offering Free Shipping. (I learned later it was for $35 and over orders)  

My luck, Oriental Trading was redesigning their site to include their new Wedding line and there were issues. When I got to the cart, everything crashed and I couldn't remember everything I'd put in there. 

A phone call to customer service got me in touch with the nicest person I've ever come across in Customer Service. She volunteered to read through every description if the catalog if I needed her to. LOL Well, I didn't have to go that far and in the end, I only wound up forgetting one item. Not too shabby.  She gave me the Free Shipping on my $21 order for the inconvenience plus emailed me a $5 coupon as well as Free Shipping on my next order.

Three days later, this box arrived:

30"x17"x4"

And this was greeted me when I opened the box:

Everything could have fit in a box half this size! 

I had ordered 2 sets of one brad design and the invoice reflected my order but they only shipped one. A quick call to a CS that wasn't near as nice as Laurie has my absent set of squirrels on their way.

A note that I thought was surprising. They are discontinuing their scrapbook line. They are seeing scrapbooking and card making not as popular. Hmmm... maybe not for them, or in the way they are marketing. So unless they do a major clearance on SB product, I won't be ordering from them any time soon.

COLOR CHALLENGE #5

The office is coming along. I finally have all of the Stampin' Up supply unit finished with space to spare :-D Not sure how that happened but the new catalog launch in two weeks should help take care of that little issue. LOL

We had some link issues last week but I think we have those fixed. Won't know for sure until someone jumps in on the challenge.

I found a picture this week from ICB (In Color Balance) that has a sneak peek at variations of the new 2017-2019 In-Colors. Not all but a couple... the top one is a little more red than Berry burst and the bottom is a bit more blue than Tranquil Tide. The other 3 colors do not even come close... just liked the spectrum of this poppy.

Here's my card for the challenge:

I found the first color in the selection was closer to Cherry Cobbler. So I chose Cherry Cobbler, Soft Sky and the Tranquil Tide from Stampin' UP!'s new In-Colors. I also chose to highlight the new Eastern Palace Suite bundle, using the Dies, Stamp set, DSP and the gold sticker trim with Very Vanilla as my Neutral. I also added a clear Glitter Enamel dot for the center of the diecut. I am looking forward to playing with this set more.

This is the inside:

Okay, I've shown me mine, let's see yours!

RULES:

There aren't any rules. You may use any company product you like. My only request is if you use a stamp or something special, link to the company so we may add to our stash, too :-D

Remember... you can add a neutral light color to any of the color challenges. You also don't have to use all the colors from the Inspiration Photo. Pick a minimum of THREE and have some fun. Link to your post (Please use a direct link to THE POST - not to your general blog link. Need assistance, just email me and I'll help)

Show us your COLORS!

KEYWORD: KCC5