TEAPOT TUESDAY - Watching Over You

This card went in the mail to a sweet lady and her husband in AZ. Sandy broke both of her feet. Her dear husband, Dave, has taken a leave of absence to care for her. What a sweetie.

I haven't used this stamp set before but when the critieria called for horses and that they were artistic people, I knew this was the set I wanted.  It's called Country-Born from the Seasons & Nature collection by Close To My Heart during their 30 Years celebration.  The stamp set has since been retired.

For the artistic aspect I attempted some sponging. Daubers are not the way to go for larger areas. I used Pool Party and So Saffron for the sky. Then I punched out a scallop circle and went inside of that with more So Saffron and Daffodil Delight. The ground is sponged with Garden Green. I stamped the horses and the tree in Early Espresso then went back over the grass and foliage area with Garden Green. This was all done on Whisper White then mounted on a Mossy Meadow card base.

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - #SSJJC

Happy Monday!

First off, I have to say I am sooooo enjoying just playing for the sake of playing and these junk journal challenges really have me digging in and USING my stash!

For Mini-Challenge #2 we were asked to make 6 items for our journal. Each must use the following parameters:

Something OLD
Something NEW
Something FAVORITE
Something BLUE

Well, OLD covers a lot of territory in my stash. NEW was something that was added to our stash PRIOR to March 1 (since this over all is to be a 'no buy' challenge - to use what we have). My FAVORITE was easy. BLUE was a bit trickier. I mean... when you're talking about St. Patrick's Day in a spring journal, where do you put BLUE.. except maybe if you add a rainbow?

So here is my collection:

Since I will have the girls all next week, I was determined I would not be uploading these on Friday when they're due. I'll have all weekend to think about what the last challenge components are then put signatures together next week. My plan is to introduce the girls to 'glue books' then they can work while I'm working.

Okay.. individual tags with a few details:
My FAVORITE- is the fibers on all the cards. NEW  is Stampin' UP! items.. the catalog images and the Gingham Gala dsp.

Transfer bunny. This was done using an image from the Spring Occasions catalog from Stampin' UP! called Fable Friends. I cut the bunny out, colored him with Stampin' Blends then heat set with my heat tool. Finally, used the packing tape transfer technique to add him to the card. Easter Greetings is also from that set. I glued that to a piece of cardstock for stability then covered in Dimensional Glaze and let dry overnight before adding to the base. The circle behind that is a piece of Navy Blue sparkly felt that has been in my stash for YEARS!  

this is the other tape transfer from the Occasions catalog. I used the squirrel and the Happy Spring, using the same process as for the first tag.

While getting the dimensional glaze unclogged I wound up with a puddle on my silicone mat. I used this 'egg' shaped gem to swipe up most of the puddle then adhered to the tag. The words are 'Chat Stickers - Seasonal' from Tim Holtz

Because this is a spring journal (and with a name like Kelly Shawn Fitzgerald) I have to include St. Patrick's Day. This is one of 2 items I created. The 'blue' is blended in that fiber. The tag is part of a package I got eons ago. Can't take credit for making that one ;-)

While we're talking St. Patrick's Day, this one uses paper from DCWV - French Country pad. The gorgeous glittery medallion that was a single sheet from Green Day by Reminisce. I added an acrylic shamrock to the center. That thing is near 1/4" thick! Here's a close up of the medallion:

This last one is an Easter Egg Hunt tag with 2 adorable bunny brads and some blue 'rain drop' rhinestones over a flowery meadow. 

I'm scheduling this a week ahead of time so I can't tell you any more about what our 'current' challenge is. I also may not have a post next Monday as I will have just taken the grandgirls back and may be recuperating ;-)

Creative Blessings!

FRIDAY FREEBIE - Meet Zoey

By now you all know I am a magnet for animals... especially dogs. Well, a couple of weeks ago we were blessed to have a visit from this sweet girl:

This is the face that met me on the porch

We found out a couple of days after she'd been here that her name was Zoey. Bob posted her on FB and the owner's mom contacted us. Apparently, she had gotten loose (or he'd turned her loose). She was in heat, which might have explained her adventure. We also found out that she was 'supposedly' 1/2 pit bull, 1/4 Neo Mastiff and 1/4 Australian Shepherd.  Yeah, I'm not seeing it. I'll explain in a minute where we went from there.

This shot gives you an idea of her size.

She is just beautiful!

And of course, she showed up in the yard the day Bob was coming home LOL. Talk about timing.

The lady attempted to get a hold of her son but he wouldn't return her messages nor contact us. So she told us it was up to us what to do with her.

We REALLLLLY wanted to keep her. She and HoneyB got along well and would play together... until she would overtake him and stand over top of him. He'd growl, she'd growl then the fight was on.

Then there was the whole lap dog thing!

Just like HoneyB did when he arrived, as soon as I sat in my chair Zoey was in my lap. That was okay.. until we brought HoneyB in. He got in my lap first and Zoey tried to talk him down. Near dog fight in my lap!  We decided then as much as we'd love to keep her, we just couldn't. HoneyB was here first.

Bob contacted a halfway house in Birch Tree for strays. Kim put us in touch with a gal willing to foster Zoey until they could find a home for her... she is actually Wienerimer.  She is smart. Apparently, she broke her back left leg as a puppy and the guy never had it taken care of. She can't sit square on her butt, but leans on her right hip when she sits. Other than that, you'd never know there's anything wrong with her. She can run like a greyhound and jump like you would not believe!

Bob said when I was in the back yard, he was in the front with her and she heard my voice. She went running down the yard and SCALED a truck bed liner we'd been using for firewood. Never touched the liner as she landed on the bank on the other side. 

Zoey was here for a week. Sending her away about broke my heart but I knew we just could not keep her. I hope the people can find her a loving home. 

CARD CHICKS - March

Our hostess this month was Roxie. She and I share a love for the Tea Together stamp set from the Stampin' UP! Spring Occasions catalog. She included embellishments and papers from the Share What You Love suite (Stampin' UP! All Occasions catalog) The items were stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock. I used Stampin' Blends to color the images. On the one, you'll see gold edging. That was done with a Recollections perma marker. 

I put together two cards from the kit. This first one will go to a lady in WV who just celebrated her 106th birthday! The other is winging it's way to a dear friend who enjoys a good cup of tea as much as Roxie and I do. Roxie included a tea bag in the packet so I am going to do the same.

Here are my cards:

For this first one, I used the thread from the Share What You Love Embellishments Kit. I stamped the flower on the tea cup and used a die to cut out the pre-stamped tag. Roxie included the Night of Navy Mat. I used a Crushed Curry card base.

 For the inside, I did a 4th generation stamp of the lace from Southern Serenade with Calypso Coral then topped with the sentiment from that set in Memento Black.

Here is my second card:

I tore a strip from the patterned paper in the kit and used the Layering Ovals framelits set to cut out the sentiment then a scallop mat from Old Olive.

I look forward to seeing what our April packet includes. Hard to believe we are less than two weeks away from having the new kit in my hands!

Creative Blessings!

WOYWW #511

Just so Jan knows she's come to the right desk.... :-D

I have put things back.. eliminated a couple of things from the original layout to make room for others. 

Don't mind the sofa beyond the desk. Still need to clear that off... and the floor. LOL

From left to right, you can just see my card base box, embossing folders and that little book holder Bob made me for holding the embellishment boxes, bling and sketch files.

In the middle... a piercing mat, triple corner punch, retired SU Christmas catalogs to pull images from for tape transfers, a Card Chicks kit to get done today and the new Paper Pumpkin. Also, card sketches for the Quilted Christmas die set. Needing to get some done for the quilt shop hop coming up first weekend in April... and the pretty envelope the card chicks kit came in.

I promised pics of my new die storage. First, this is what I was using:

These worked great but once they were full, they were bulky and when I opened one up, the whole thing wanted to flop.. and they were heavy. You can see my blog post about this storage HERE

Then I saw THIS video by Ann on Youtube and knew this was the answer. I'm a FLIPPER so this was the solution best for me.  Here  are side and front views:

I used SU cardstock and a Sizzix tab die to create file tabs. All the current SU are up front then by season or theme from there. The container is an old tupperware keeper the lid gave out on years ago.

Finally, I heard from Kelli.  She WON the blog challenge! Here's what she shared:

Oh gosh, I have been running ragged and forgot to update - I did win! By just 2! Barb came in 2nd.. SO CLOSE ,,, with 89 new followers, and I had 91. It was outrageous! Nerve wracking!

The prize was a gift card to Amazon but it was never for me. The Scout leader just told me Friday that they have narrowed down the wishlist to mess kits and cooking utensils, items for the Scout trailer! All thanks to a little click of a button from dear friends like you! I can't even begin to express my gratitude - just to be a follower but by doing that, it helped someone else ♥ (I'm assuming the 'boss' is hoping it draws traffic to her store - sales) but to me, it means THE WORLD ......

It was a pay it forward and the accomplishment benefitting so many little guys doing a great thing out there - scouting!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For real 

That's it for my desk 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

TEAPOT TUESDAY - Easel & Scene

I'm a couple of weeks behind in the teapotting but as soon as I heard the challenge specifics for Tonda's card, I knew I wanted to do the garden scene image. I don't know who makes the stamp. I've had this one for years and all the identification on it is a K-2182 and that it's from a company in CA but made in China.

Here's the stamp:

I've always loved playing with this stamp. Here is the image stamped in Memento:

I left a wide border around the image while I colored everything in using my Stampin' Blends. I actually stamped the lower half of the image a second time so that I could fussy cut out the watering can and the terra cotta pots.  All products except for the main stamp is from Stampin' UP!

Here's the finished card:

I ran the front half of a Balmy Blue card base  through the Pinewood Planks  Dynamic Textured Impressions embossing folder.

I used a piece of Smokey Slate (4" x 5-1/4") and ran that through the Hexagon Dynamic Textured Impressions embossing folder.  This was the closest I had to a stone pattern.

After coloring the scene, I trimmed it down to the edge and mounted on a piece of Crumb Cake (3-1/2" x 4-1/4")

The cat and the potted plant are from 'Sitting Here'. The welcome mat is from 'At Home With You'

I colored the second copy of the watering can, the flower pots as well as stamped the cat, the welcome mat. I used the die to cut out the welcome mat once as well as three other pieces in plain white. I glued each of the mat layers together to give them a 'chipboard' dimension. This way I didn't have to use dimensionals on the mat... the 4-layers of cardstock created enough of a lip for the easel card.  The four other fussy cut images are layered with Mini Dimensionals.

I hope this card cheers Tonda up. If you'd like to know why cards went to her, you can see her story HERE.

Anyone is welcome to join us for the tea parties. You don't have to send cards, but the challenges really get you thinking. Besides, who doesn't want to receive Happy Mail? 

Know of someone who could use a bit of cheer? Go HERE and you can request a card shower :-)

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Spring Stashbuster Junk Journal Challenge

dearjuliejulie on YouTube has started our next junk journal challenge round. This time we're doing a Spring Stash Busting Junk Journal Challenge (#SSJJC) ... aka No BUYING for this one. We are to use what we have in our stash to make one (or more) junk journals.  The No Buying is our only stipulation. I think I speak for a lot of us when I say, I have plenty here to work with.

I just found the papers on Thursday that I want to use for the signatures so I hope to have those put together to show next week. In the mean time, this post is all about our first mini-challenge. We were challenged to make 6 embellishments. Our only parameters were the following:

Each embellishment must include:
     Metal
     Circle
     Lace
     Something from our right.

Well, since my ScrapRack is to my right, I had lots to pick from. My stamps and embossing powders are also to my right. All of the words were from Tim Holtz Seasonal Chat Stickers

Here's a close-up of each tag:

the bunny is stamped in Chocolate Chip then clear embossed

I've had this dress cut out for at least three years. 

The metal pin fastener is in the Stampin' UP! catalog

I cut the circle from an Easter Egg sticker

While the button is a circle, so is the base... with part of it folded in to 

show the book page on the back

This is the second one I used the tulip image on. 

These were in my stash from a swap I did 8 years ago or more.

The image is from a retired Stampin' UP! set

Bob left on Saturday. I've spent the weekend crafting so I can get some posts ready to go. I'll have my granddaughters at the end of the month and we'll be doing stuff. Not a lot of computer time for Grandma that week. ;-)

Tomorrow I'll have a couple of Teapot Tuesday cards to show then Wednesday I should be back on WOYWW. I've missed the past couple of weeks. 

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - #FFJJC completed

Okay.. so the journal itself is not 'done' but I have completed all of the challenges - and On Time! I'm hoping to start a new trend.

I had planned to upload this over the weekend but my sister and I were just having too much fun setting things up for the March challenge... the Spring Stashbuster Challenge  #SSBC  I only got on the laptop once in five days!

Aside from little tasks around the house on this glorious day, putting this slide show together on Kizoa has taken me several hours.

First, I learned how to add text to the images! That helps a long way in showing you what each slide is about.

Then, after a call into their help line and clearing my cache, I was able to finally get all 30+ photos set to a movie slide. This is the result. I hope you enjoy my journal. I love how it turned out. Now that the challenge is over, I'm still finding other things in my studio to include. The final product will be a work in progress.

FYI - I'd recorded an actual video for YouTube but my clipchamp editing program isn't recognizing the MOV.file  I have a call into Alex at clipchamp to see if I can get that fixed. Otherwise, this is the only visual of the completed album. I suggest clicking on the full screen icon in the bottom right corner of the video to open to a larger view. 

WOYWW #509

 First off, THANK YOU! to everyone who visited Kelly and gave her a follow. I haven't had the chance to see how she did in the competition. When I know, I'll pass on the info.

Do you see what I see?

Yep, the work table is completely clean.  

I finally got to a point where I could move everything off the table, sort through, pitch and ready to be returned in an orderly fashion.

Before putting stuff back, I spent the weekend making the storage pockets for all of my die sets. I'll show that next week. Pressed for time this morning.

After I completed that task, I went to work getting the cards made that I need on the Stampin' UP! blog for the week. I'm on the go from today through Sunday and I didn't want to miss a beat over there. 

I'm headed to a hotel for the next four days. Part of the time my sister and I will be working on our next Junk Journal challenge. She's new to all this and we're having a blast together. Then I'll spend a couple of days in silence working on the novel. 

Oh, I met all the challenge requirements for the February Fabric Junk Journal Challenge. I'll have a slide show up on Monday showing what I've done.

That's it for my desk 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