WOYWW #625

 Good morning, friends!

My, I've not seen many of you in so very long. I do apologize. Way too much going on. Let's have a peek at the current desk situation... 

Not bad, but give me a few hours and the space will look like a tornado blew through lol

To the left front you'll see a stack of 3 signatures for the $tree junk journal challenge.

Above the signatures is a stack of patterned paper and the sizzix die cut to make a couple of cards. to the right of that is the stack of cards I made yesterday. Here's a pic of them:

In front of the stack of cards is a basket holding all of the tickets I died in various colors while I had the Easter egg dyes going for the papers for the $Tree journal. Here's the papers (as well as the tickets) that went into the journal:

Making the most of the dye, I chose a 10" square of linen fabric, a cotton strip and a couple of laces (one for the $ Tree journal):

Lots of miscellaneous items until you drop back to the far right front and see the index cards I dyed and turned into tags for the journal.

I'm super busy this week. I'm part of a #7dayssummerdigi2021 Collab with my design team leader, Dearjuliejulie and with CaraBrandonCreations.  We will be posting every day from May 27-June 2nd. If you'd like to see what we're playing with, you can search that hashtag on social media for lots of inspiration with the girls' digitals designed for this collab. 

Bob is gone for another 9 or 10 days so I'll have time to work and to visit y'all. 

That's it for my desk (and story) this week. Who's Miss Julia and why am I here?  When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground  for all the details. 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. 

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly 

I'M BACK! - May Make A Kit Make A Journal Junk Journal Challenge

 Good afternoon, everyone!

Wow - an entire month plus since I was in here last. To say I've been busy is an understatement.

Shortly after my last blog post, Bob came home. His first week in I took the opportunity to travel to Iowa to see Kassie, Matt and the adorable 'grandbabies' I had yet to meet. Mia and Lena are absolutely adorable. While they are twins, I can tell them apart - for now hehe. Mia's face is a bit rounder. Lena also has a couple of beauty marks but one is covered with her clothes and the other you have to look really close to see. I took our retired recliners up to them. Matt has always wanted a recliner and in my honest opinon, EVERY man should have a recliner, especially when they work as hard as Matt does bouncing around in a field all day doing AG work. The chairs will be seven years old this fall but still in great shape. If the kids get another five years out of them to the point they can shop for their own, then that's a win in my book.

I also took them the end tables that Kassie grew up hiding her toys in. While they were almost twenty-five years old, there wasn't a thing wrong with them! I purchased them when I sold House of Lloyd eons ago. We take care of our things and they last seemingly forever. Kassie recognized them as soon as she saw them in the truck. Now Mia and Lena will have their own hiding places in a couple of years when they're toddling around. 

I only stayed one night with the kids before heading home. I stopped in Muscatine IA for 4 days and did nothing but work on Book 2 in my series. Was great to not have anything to focus on except the story. I've been back since May 2nd and only managed to write one night - while Bob was at a lodge meeting.

He left Thursday morning, but on Wednesday I popped a muscle (as in I heard it POP) while pulling weeds in the garden. I've not done much of anything until today except take meds and sleep. 

I have recorded a couple of videos having to do with collabs I'm in and the May journal challenge with Dear Julie Julie.

I'm really excited about this one:

A few things have changed since recording the video.

1 - in the mini challenge 5.2, Julie had us use a napkin then we could put the rest of it into our kit. With that new piece of information, I'm swapping out the napkin for something else (had it in my head as I was typing and it was gone by the time I got to that point in the sentence - LOL)

2 - The flowers are out and I have a package of multi-sizes of paper doilies from $Tree

3 - she's allowing us to bring in 1 more tool of choice. I'll know more about what that tool is over the weekend as I finally get to put my journal together. 

Next week (hopefully Monday) I'll catch you up on the journal progress. 

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

WOYWW 619 - Surprise!!!

 Good morning, crafty friends! 

I do have a couple of things to show you today. Let's start with why we are here.

Slightly staged I just pulled things into the center I've been working on and show where I go from here.

Far left is my Happy Planner to Do sticker rolls. For some reason I had not set up my daily pages in my everyday planner for April. I really need a full planner day - maybe Sunday.  Far top is a retired Stampin' Up! catalog. I chose that one for my inspiration catalog this month for casing. Below that from left to right are my Sizzix sticker sheets and the remnants of die cuts on top. You can see the card I made with that HERE. The 2 stacks of Christmas cards and their inside liner sheets waiting to be stamped with the Christmas sentiment before I tuck them in the box until November. You can see that short video close-up HERE.

We have a cold week so I'm working inside during the morning hours then trying to get outside for garden work in the afternoon. At least, with the cooler temps I can work longer. I do not do well in hot weather.

Earlier this week, we had a visitor. I named him Chester. He was just here the one day, inhaled a bowl of food, napped, got loving (such a loveable boy) then headed back off into the timber. I think he may belong to the neighbor.

And finally, the surprise...

After spending Wednesday backtracking to every stop I had made, I came home with an 'oh well', they are are replaceable. Not like anyone could pick them up and know where they went. Wasn't worth stressing over.. was more of a 'where could I have dropped them' than an 'oh now, I have to find them'.

On the way home on Saturday I thought the only place I'd not looked was in my other car. I had leaned in over the driver seat to retrieve my favorite cassette to take in the truck with me. Keep in mind, I'd have sworn I already had the truck warming up when I did this. Apparently not. When I got home, I looked in the window of the Suzuki and there they lay. They'd been here at home the entire time! LOL

Prior to this I had replaced the house key as it's the only one I REALLY need on the ring as well as a different clasp that won't so easily give. 

That's it for my desk (and story) this week. Who's Miss Julia and why am I here?  When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground  for all the details. 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. 

Creative Blessings

~ Kelly

COLOR CHALLENGE - Granny's Doing A Delightful Mambo By the Bay!

 Good morning, crafty friends!

I do love a colorful challenge. Being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator I knew before I even saw the color swatch we'd be working with Granny Apple Green, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo and Bermuda Bay cardstocks. If we would like to bring Dessert to the challenge, then we need to add a Designer Series / Patterned Paper ingredient.

This color combination provides lots of opportunities for spring cards. So this is what I came up with:

I chose the swallow background designer series paper from Bird Ballad (Stampin' Up!) as my dessert. The thank you is stamped from Heidie Grace on to a Darice Banners die in Bermuda Bay. The flower border is a die from Lawn Fawn. I adhered a strip of the Sizzix Adhesive sheet to the back of each color of the flowers - Daffodil Delight and Melon Mambo. 

The border was first cut from Granny Apple Green. Then I cut just the flowers off of their strips and paper pieced them onto the green base. Everything is built onto a Bermuda Bay cardstock base.

I had the opportunity to interview a local bakery/ floral shop owner yesterday. This will make the perfect Thank You card for her. Psst... she's on Facebook at Sugar Lily Bakery & Floral. - Jennifer Connor. 

I'll be back tomorrow for What's On Your Workday Wednesday. Not sure what you'll see. Dealing with a pinched nerve again today so you may just get leftovers LOL

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

FRIDAY FUNNY - Crafting from the Male Perspective

 Good morning, crafty friends!

I found this video on Monday and thought I'd share. If you have a man in your life, especially if you find joy in crafting from things most people would throw away, you will love this video about a male's perspective on the things we just have to have. 

The male perspective of what we do can be confusing, infuriating and in this case, hilarious.

When Bob gets off the boat, I'll fix us each a cup of coffee and we'll start our day with a smile. I invite you to do the same.

If you've ever had a man in your life, I'm sure this will bring crafty memories flooding back.

Creative Blessings

~ Kelly

WOYWW #618 - In Between Projects and Lost Keys!

 Good morning, crafty friends.

I'm going to preface this post by saying I had a fabulous day yesterday. After getting a few blog posts written, I took off for a lovely day of bill paying and shopping. My main goal was a stop at a local quilt store called The Rusty Moon & Quilts. I love his shop - yes you heard me right. The shop is owned by The McKinney family. Kurt is the prominent figure in the store. He can help with everything from helping you select fabric to running the long arm (which is really his primary duty).  

If you need a shopping cart - and I mean, who doesn't when you enter a quilt store?! - this is what you will use:

Tool cart from Harbor Freight

I new the Rusty Moon carried Tim Holtz fabrics. Tim is revamping everything about his product and is using a different company for the new fabric line being released to stores this month. I still had a few of his original line that I didn't have. Kurt had five of them. I'm still checking other stores to see if I can pick up any more.

On the drive there I heard a radio commercial for a yard sale in the town I was headed to. When the announcer said 'vintage linens' I knew I'd be hunting up that sale! I came home with lots of yummies. Several I'll be using in journals as well as sharing in my Etsy shop in the coming weeks.

Aside from paying a couple of bills, I stopped at ACE hardware to visit with one of the gals I've made friends with there, a bakery to set up an interview with the owner for my current book in progress, a thrift store, the yard sale (which was more of a huge church rummage sale) and had the opportunity to snoop through this for research on another series:

While this isn't an official NASCAR tour bus, the bus is owned by a local hardware store owner. He and his buddies used it for a tailgate party bus at Nascar events. I had the opportunity to go through the bus, take tons of pictures. Mind you, I've been on a lot of tour buses doing interviews in my career as an entertainment writer but this is the first time I've been able to really look in all the nooks and crannies.

I'm thinking somewhere between the church and this sale lot is where I lost the ring of keys that held my house, storage and mail box keys. I didn't realize they were gone until I'd stopped closer to home for supper.  Not a major thing. All the keys are replaceable and relatively inexpensive to do so except for the mailbox key, it's just not knowing where they are LOL.

Oh... and here's what I'm leaving behind as I go on the hunt for those keys:

Remnants of my card for the color challenge yesterday, the quilt that I film on is rolled out of the way as I was doing some last minute gluing. and a general mess of stuff I really need to put away. I'll throw a white sheet over the lot this morning and film the haul video so that can be uploading while I'm out between raindrops looking for those keys.

That's it for my desk (and story) this week. Who's Miss Julia and why am I here?  When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground  for all the details. 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. 

Creative Blessings

~ Kelly

 

COLOR CHALLENGE - Back to Basics

 Good morning, crafty friends!

It's Color Challenge Tuesday at SplitcoastStampers. Today, LeAnn Skinner asked us to go back to basics with the following colors:

For dessert, we could add our favorite color. I chose Stampin' Up! Gorgeous Grape.

My stamp set came from the August 2019 issue of Cardmaking & Papercrafts called Summer Meadow

I subscribe to this magazine from the UK specifically for the monthly freebies. Most of their card designs are square but the stamps, dies and papers are made specifically for the magazine, making them a unique addition to my collection.

I have a dear friend who's brother-in-law passed away last week. This was especially hard for Linnie as he died of the same thing her husband dealt with prior to his passing a few years ago.  Here's the card I made for Linnie:

I began with a Basic Black cardbase. From there I stamped the background of fairy clocks (dandelion seeds) in Basic Gray. I added the stamped oval frame in Gorgeous Grape then the sentiment in Tuxedo Memento Black. The black satin ribbon is from my stash.

Here's the Color Challenge thread for this week if you'd like to play along! 

Want to see what others have done for this challenge? Go HERE

I'll be back tomorrow for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW). I warn you.. .it's a mess. LOL

Creative Blessings

~ Kelly