WOYWW #863

 Good morning, crafty friends!

I totally spaced last week. Bob and I got an early start into the city (2 hrs away) for a day of Christmas shopping. I remembered it was Wednesday on the drive home almost 12 hours later. LOL

I went back into the city on my own yesterday after Bob mentioned a couple of things.  Why couldn't he have dropped the hints last week? ::: smh :::

First off, Lynn. You asked about my writing. If you'll check the side-bar you'll see my Christmas romance that came out eight years ago (Yeah, I had no clue it was that long). If you like Hallmark style stories, I think you'll enjoy An Ozarks Christmas. I'm pushing now to have Book 2 released in May.

Okay.. my desk as I left it yesterday morning:

Nothing super exciting except the glue mat from Stampin' Up! where I was using a dauber to glue the snowflake and the cards those snowflakes went on.

Here's a close up of the card:

This is the last of the elements from the November 2019 Paper Pumpkin kit. I have a few items left over that I'll put in the Christmas crafting section of the ScrapRack. 

I hope to get back to Reindeer Club in 2026. I have projects I want finished and still more Paper Pumpkin Christmas kits to work through. I'll talk more about that next week.

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

WOYWW 858

 Good morning, crafty friends!

I apologize for not getting 'round last week. Seemed every time I sat down to visit, Bob would come upstairs needing something. This week will be better. LOL

Bob leaves in a couple of hours for our niece's wedding in OK. I'll be taking advantage of the place to myself for the next six days to really dig into this mess. I've listed five specific areas to target, one per day with a  little wiggle room.

I'll give you a list but first, here's the desk for this week:

I cleaned part of the desk off yesterday after making the Week 2 Christmas card. I worked from the same Paper Pumpkin kit as last week. There are two designs left in the kit. I want to get them made up this week, filmed and scheduled so they're out of the way. Here's a close up of one of six cards:

The original design had the sentiment Love And Joy stamped in Shaded Spruce on a white banner. I thought Peace went better with the snowflakes. I also heat embossed the sentiment. 

Okay.. the list. I find it more encouraging if I make a list of what needs to be done and push to accomplish each in one day. When that task is done, I'm done until the next day and the next item on the list.  Next week I'll embarrassingly show a before picture of items #2 & #3. for now:

Wednesday - Put away all the stamps/ dies from the #31days of Halloween AND catalog the dies. 

Thursday - Sort/ file all the Halloween crafting into their binder

Friday - Sort/ file all of the Christmas crafting into their binder

Saturday - Clear out the sewing corner (mind you, very little of sewing is in the bedroom lol) and put actually sewing stuff where it belongs

Sunday - Finish any of the above that needs finished (wiggle room day)

Monday - Read the book I need to review on Wednesday

I hope to pitch a lot of stuff. We shall see.

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

 

WOYWW 857

 Good morning, crafters.

Popping in to show what's on my desk.

After a crazy month of a video every day, I'll only be posting on Tuesday's this month. Time to  get Christmas cards done.

These are modified from the November 2019 paper pumpkin which was to be all tags. I made the first set of tags and put them on the card front. I still need to put the liners in.

Haven't decided if I'm doing another set from this kit or pull up another kit. Guess you'll find out next week. ;-)

As to my uploading of videos. I live in the middle of no where. Here in the states, it's referred to as "directions to my house include turn off the paved road". Between my internet provider, youtube and where I live, uploading takes a long time. a 30 minute video can take up to 3 hours. That's one of the reasons my videos are usually short. I also can not do lives because I pixelate too bad.  It is what it is. 

Not everyone has this issue. If I want to travel 2 hours north and stay at a hotel, my videos would upload in minutes instead of hours. 

That's it for my desk (and story) this week. Who's Miss Sarah and why am I here?  When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Sarah’s Craft Shed for all the details. Miss Sarah 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. It is what it is. LOL

 

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

DECEMBER DAILY with Festive Frolic - Album is DONE!

 Well, almost. LOL

Good morning, crafty friends!

I've spent six weeks finishing this December Daily album. This will be the first holiday season Bob will be home for the entire event. I hope to throw in some daily fun activities, places to visit, that kind of thing to truly complete an album from Dec. 1 - 31.

I say 'almost', because I want to put something on the cover yet. Something with dimension. I'm thinking creating something dimensional with a picture of our tree so that will have to come later.

Next...

This is the inside front cover and front page. I've been contemplating cutting another Santa out to create a chip board on that cover page.

Then the oops:

While setting the pages up to turn, part of the bottom ring broke. Which means... I'll be cutting the album apart and making it into a office ring album. But that's okay. I can add yarns, fibers, ribbons on the rings. I have until Thursday to figure it out. Why? 

Because Friday Premiere's are returning with Friday Flip-Throughs. So stay tuned. In the mean time, the video is available on my channel today. Just CLICK HERE. 

Creative Blessings!

 ~ Kelly

MERRY CHRISTMAS! - First Christmas Card of 2025

 Good morning, crafty friends!

Are you ready? Do you realize that Christmas is four months from today? Yikes!

This is the first Christmas card of the many I have to get made before November 15th. 

I used a Memories & More card pack from Stampin' Up! called Santa Express. I bought a couple of packs because they also include a sticker sheet that this could easily be turned in to a December Daily. I also have more than one of the paper packs, too.

So, are you thinking about Christmas? Might want to. If nothing else, thoughts of snow and the holiday season might cool you off.

Creative Christmas Blessings!

~ Kelly

CHRISTMAS IN JULY - Tag Tuesday

 Good morning, creative friends!

I'm home!!! No traveling until sometime in September when we go pick up the grandgirls for a visit.

I'm kicking off the CHRISTMAS IN JULY series. All this month, the posts will have something to do with a quick tag using a card kit from Stamperia. The kit was 'All Around Christmas' While I don't see the card kit listed on the Spectrum Art Creations website, you will find the papers and die cuts in the collection HERE

Here's the video to the tag for today:

I'm hoping to get back into my WOYWW posts. The girls razz me about starting Christmas so early. It's fun. LOL  Then back on Friday. I just want to spend a couple of days with Bob before I dive in hard!

Have you started your Christmas crafting? Let me know what you're working on.

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

MAJOR SPEED BUMP! - And Special Announcement!

 Hi friends!

I'm not posting any crafting videos for a few days. 

When I came home last week from the writer's retreat/ conference, I managed to re-injure a couple of ribs. I'm doing lots of pillow reclining for the time being. 

HOWEVER....

I did want to let you in on this MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT from Tim Holtz and Simon Says Stamps. If you a Timmy fan and LOVE CHRISTMAS you will want to check out the video below.

I've already ordered my kit. I will have to take the class during the perpetuity replay as I'm in a conference that day and won't have access to replays. But you can bet, I'm going to schedule a day to sit and play with my kit and follow along with Timmy and the gang from Simon Says Stamps! I hope you'll join us!

This is happening July 11th and kits are LIMITED so don't wait to get your hands on a couple of new products as well as an exclusive to this kit/ class!

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

MAKE IT MAIL IT MONDAY - Absent

 Good morning, friends.

I am sorry that there is no card today. I have been battling sinus' all weekend, trying to get stuff done AND get words written on the book.  I'm draggin' here LOL

I have to work through this. We are to have temps in the uppers 70s and DRY (which may account for my sinus issues) so my plan is to empty out the warehouse and start over as much as I can. I figure if I can get the crafting side organized then Bob can help with the trees when he gets home. We have several Christmas trees plus I have three Halloween trees that didn't even come out this year because I can't get to them.

I'll show before & after pictures. 

I did get most of the work table cleared (you saw that last Wednesday). I'm hoping to finish that this week as well.... AND STILL put new words to the book. 

So what I thought I would do is randomly pick a photo from a very early post. So I'll leave you with this card....

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

WOYWW #740 - Still Christmas!

 Good morning, crafty friends!

If you've not been buy in a few weeks then you are not aware I've been really busy getting the studio in order. Was a must as we had company coming - and will have in various interrupts through the first week in October. All of which required using the sofa bed. I made the decision to not just clear things out of the way but to pitch some and put the rest in the general area of where it needed to go until the sofa bed and the work table (now cleared and being used for actual crafting!!) back into place.

Yes, Julia, Christmas projects make an appearance yet again. I worked on tags for my #tagtuesday video as well as for the Spectrum Art Creations challenge. The video link is HERE if you want to see. I need to make two more tags then get them posted to the group... then I'm moving on to something REALLY Fun & Exciting.

On Thursdays all this month, both here and on my You Tube channel, I will be featuring projects inspired by our very own Tracy Easson!  I am soooo excited to play with her stamps. 

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

CHRISTMAS IN JULY - Let's Get Dotty!

 Good morning, everyone!

Coming off a busy weekend at an on-line writer's conference. Great convention and was nice to enjoy everything from the comfort of my home. With Bob's schedule, I have a difficult time paying for in-person conferences in advance. Most don't offer refunds. At least via zoom, I can plan ahead and enjoy.

This week, I played with the embossing dabber I purchased from Spectrum Art Creations. This is a super simple card that requires the dabber and your choice of embossing powders. I used Gold, Silver, as well as Red and Green glitter embossing powder.

All of the purchase links are available in the description box of my video.

Here's the cards I made:

Simply apply the embossing ink with the dabber, giving you the dot, then add your embossing powder and heat. You need to do one color at a time, otherwise when you dump the excess powder off, they'll all run together. 

Card Base - 4.25" x 5.5"

Embossed mat - 4" x 5.25"

The embossed mat is added with dimensionals, as is the sentiment. 

Here's the video:

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

#KCDJulyJJ23 - Inspired by Ardyth!

 Good morning, everyone!

I'm fresh off of a two-day migraine thanks to weather changes and trying to catch up. I also have a writer's conference on line starting today so busy busy busy... as always LOL

If I've not told you before, my guest artist this month is Ardyth. I so love her simplistic style with basic tools. 

For today's video, I followed her 2-minute cards idea using a stencil. I hope you enjoy!

Dimensions for the card:

4.25" x 5.5" white card base

4" x 5.25" patterned paper for mat

3.75" x 5" white cardstock

You'll also need:

1.75" x 1.5" piece of the patterned paper 

1.5" x 1.25" white cardstock

Links for products (if available) can be found in the description box of the video:

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

WOYWW #735 - ATCs have arrived!

 Good morning, everyone!

Whew! It's been a busy couple of weeks with Bob home. Not used to him being gone, then home, only 2 weeks. He was supposed to leave this morning then got a schedule change last minute yesterday... so he's home for another week. I think his retirement is getting closer. 

I'm not showing my desk this week because the surface has been recently cleared for a full day of crafting/ video production. However, I'm not coming empty handed.

For starters, I'm featuring Christmas in July projects all month long across my social media. I'm doing themed videos 6 days a week. aka very early morning hours/ long days.

Here's the tag I created for Week 4 of Tag Tuesday, yesterday:

You can see the video HERE where I linked the inspiration from Pinterst in the description box.

Monday's are all about Christmas cards. Keep in mind, card fronts make great journaling cards, tuck spots and pockets in junk journals.  The blog post is HERE, which includes the video link.

Okay... now, let's show off the beautiful ATCs I've received. (Susan, yours is going in the mail tomorrow now that I have an address.) This was our 14th year of blog hopping and making friends (though I've not been with the group the whole time)

Like card fronts, ATCs can serve dual purpose. Here, Susan applied a ATC clear pocket to the front of the card then added the ATC. Great dual journaling spot!

Susan

Our fearless leader, Miss Julia, created this one. She even made a pin for us! Thank you, dear friend.

Miss Julia

Jan made this lovely card & pocket. No project from Jan would be complete without fabric included!

LJJ

Nicely folded multi-pocket configuration. Angela also included a couple of patterned paper for me to use. I think I'll be learning this pocket fold, reminiscent of the wallet pocket.

Angela

This adorable ATC came from Tracy. She is an amazing artist and has her own line of stamps. I'll be featuring her all month long in August on my  YouTube channel and on August 31st, we'll take a tour of where she creates these fun pieces!  I am waiting anxiously for my stamps to arrive.

Tracy

This last one has me stumped. I can't read the signature on the back and there was no return address. If you see this, please let me know who you are. I love the art work! 

unknown

Finally, this is the ATC I created and shared. I still have a couple left. If you would like one, just email me. My email address is in the description box of all my videos or ask Miss Julia for it.

Mine

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

MAKE A CARD MONDAY - Christmas in July!

Good morning, crafty friends!

I started a new series on my YouTube channel. I'm featuring Christmas the entire month of July.  This is our first official Christmas card of the month.

I've heard some questions from junk journalers that didn't start as card makers. They have no clue where to start. I tried to take some of the mystery out of this puzzle in today's video... linked below.

I started with an 8x8 paper pad called This Miracle Night from Craft O' Clock (now retired) that I'd purchased from a Spectrum Art Creations Live Sale then added Stampin' Up! items from my stash.

You'll notice a touch of gray in the background foliage and ribbon so I used Smokey Slate cardstock for my base and matted the image cut from the paper on a piece of Cherry Cobbler. The Baker's Twine was from Stampin' Up! and the charm from Hobby Lobby.

Here's the quick instructional vide:

I'll be back tomorrow to make a couple of tags from this same collection.

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

MAKE IT - MAIL IT MONDAY!

 Good morning, crafty friends!

Today's project picture is not the best as it's a screen grab from my video. I filmed the video before leaving on Friday for a writer's weekend but failed to take a picture of the card. I'll try to remember to come back and replace it proper when I'm back home.

I'm still using products purchased from Spectrum Art Creations so I can get more entries in the monthly drawing challenge in the facebook group.

I was inspired by the Down Under sticker book from KaiserCraft. You will find the book HERE - and it's on SALE!

Here's the video so you can see how the card came together and a much clearer picture, overall:

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

WOYWW #725

 Good morning, friends!

My desk this morning:

Poor lighting but I'm trying to get a gazillion things done at once so I can get back to writing my book.

While this looks staged, technically it was... for the Reindeer Club video I shot this morning. I showed the 21 Christmas cards I made from two Stampin' Up! Paper Pumpkin kits. Now to figure out what I'll do for May Reindeer Club. Hmmm... maybe get some projects out of the way? 

Last week was super busy getting all the time I could in with Bob. He found out his very best friend since grade school will need a quadruple bypass. Since he doesn't know when the surgery will happen, Bob went up a day early just to spend some time with him... which meant I was doing everything last minute LOL. In spite of that, I made my way 'round to every desk yesterday in time to start over this week! 

But we're fine now. He's in Chicago and I put in most of a full day of work yesterday. Well - until I picked up a book for research and couldn't put it down. The book - The Unremarried Widow is an amazing story of a woman's journey from meeting The One she didn't even know she was looking for to feeling like an outsider amongst military wives then becoming a widow less than a year after they'd married. #heartbreaking.  I recommend the book.

Have any of you read, GreenLights by Matthew McCounahey?  Yes, THAT Matthew McCounahey.  I haven't read all of the book but Monday I had the opportunity to sit in on his The Art of Livin' webinar - all 4+hours! Amazing inspiration from him, Trent Sheldon, Marie Floris, Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi. Another book I recommend.

You saw my painted book pages in progress last week. Here is what I made with one of the pages. 

I took part in a challenge by Natalie from Line Dot Arrow to make a Stuffed Paper Bag. You can see my flip-through video here: (it's a short video.

As I mention in the video this is to be the front cover of my spring journal. I should have the full flip-through of that journal the first Wednesday in May for you.

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 toStamping 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

REINDEER CLUB - March

 Good morning, everyone!

Now that I have a filming/ crafting table again we can get back on track. I ran the Reindeer Club today because I was involved in prepping for an on-line writing retreat that ran last weekend.  I totally spaced getting the Reindeer Club project scheduled.   But here we go:

I made these two cards from the October 2022 Paper Pumpkin entitled Ho Ho Ho. I'm going to finish up the rest of the cards today before I clear the table off for the March Junk Journal Challenge. I'll show those cards next month when I also work with the November 2022 Paper Pumpkin- From the North Pole.

Here's the video where I put these two cards together:

I will be back Wednesday for WOYWW then again on Thursday for our final stages of the #KCDMarJJ23 Challenge.

Are you working on Christmas? Remember, one day a month can make a big difference in the serenity of your Christmas season.

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

CHRISTMAS CRAFT CHALLENGE - #sacs2

 Good morning, friends!

With eleven projects in my arsenal I thought I'd share another one today. With the cold air in a lot of parts of the country (did you see the snow in AZ?), I thought this tag was perfect to play with.

I used STAMPERIA - Cozy Winter. I added a double layer of Cathedral Lace ( Hobby Lobby), fibers I had in my stash and Crystal Stickles. I cut the tag using a Tim Holtz largest tag die.

In this side of the tag I cut the basket of gifts, the tree, and the individual presents from the fussy cut image sheet and layered everything. I added stickles to the ornaments on the tree.

For this side, I centered the die over the sentiment in the 6x6 paper pad and added stickles to the florals and cotton boles. This was actually the front. I chose the music sheet for the back based on the wording here.

I'll be back tomorrow with Week 3in the January Color Challenge. 

Creative Blessings

~ Kelly

MAKE IT MAIL IT MONDAY - August 1, 2011

Good morning, everyone!

Coming in a tad late but I was trying to get the author blog posts for the week done. That blog will always come first.

I'm still working on the studio as well as the bee journals so I'm resurrecting a Christmas card from August 1, 2011. You can see the full post HERE. 

I'll try to keep posts up this week but Bob comes home on Wednesday after having been on the boat for a month!  Yeah, this first few days are all about him. 

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

MAKE IT - MAIL IT MONDAY - Memories & More Card Pack!

 Good morning, everyone!

Today, I pulled out a retired Stampin' Up! Memories and More card pack from 2018 called Santa's Workshop. 

I had purchased several packs of these and the coordinating paper for plans to do a December Daily album. There's still time as I still have those photos to scrap. :-)

I made eight cards in about 20 minutes time using the cards, coordinating cardstock, adhesive and dimensionals. 

Here's the cool thing about Memories & More card packs as Christmas cards. They look great displayed for the holidays as well as great 'keeper' cards but if you send them to someone who doesn't keep the cards, you are not out a ton of money if they just toss them at season's end. Memories & More card packs make these Christmas cards a WIN WIN for everyone!

Aside from the eight I completed, you'll see in the video I have enough great cards for about twenty additional cards and still have others left over for actual scrapbooking.

Here's the video showing the cards and a SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

While the Santa's Workshop is no longer available (or maybe you purchased and never used?), the  SANTA EXPRESS Memories & More card pack in the current holiday catalog is only $10!! 

Add things you probably already have on hand such as cardstock, adhesives and dimensionals and you are set for putting together quick holiday cards. Even the kiddos can get involved!!

I'll be back tomorrow with a Card Chicks card or two.

Creative Blessings

~ Kelly

WOYWW #685 & Stamp Me Some Love cardmaking summit

 Good morning, everyone!

Wow! I can't believe I actually get to stay home for the next few days. Seems I've been on the go forever!!

Before I show you my desk, I want to share some information with you. I signed up for the STAMP ME SOME LOVE Cardmaking summit taking place on line the end of this month. There will be over 25 classes!! That's a lot of cardmaking led by talented artists. The summit is FREE with a couple of caveats. 

1 - Each class video is only available for 24 hours. Meaning Day 1 classes will be replaced with Day 2 classes in that same time slot. 

2 - You can have lifetime access plus a ton of other goodies not offered in the free version. 

I signed up with Tiffany Solorio's affiliate link (her info in the short video below) . I paid for the summit because, of course, Bob comes home the day before we start! LOL I try to not to 'work'  the first and last weekend he is home.

The platform is designed to get our Christmas cards done - or at least get our crafty brains in gear - for the holiday season. 

Here's Tiffany's video with all of the info:

Tiffany is going to be working with Lyndi's Magicals in her class, but she says you can use watercolors just as easily. Because I want to start collecting the Magicals, I ordered the Jingle Bells collection from Spectrum Art Creations. They should be here Monday.

Okay, on to what you really came for:

I wound up not getting anything done on the desk because on Wednesday I found out about a 3-day writing conference on youtube airing over the weekend. I know we have some writers on here so I'll share the link to the AuthorTube Writer's Conference. All of the videos from the conference are still available for replay. Just click on the YouTube icon next to the sessions that interest you. The dates for 2023 are already schedule. Somewhere around June 25th, I believe. 

Anyhow, I've cleared space here, on the ironing board and the floor to move all of my Little Golden Book collection off the shelf above the sofa.

I need to take all of them down, clean then rearrange to make room for this:

Bob bought this for me at an Antique Mall last fall. As best I can tell, nothing has ever been removed from the original packaging. Only the clear plastic has become brittle and coming apart over time. I still need to email Hasbro to see if they can tell me when this was released. I do have a Little Golden Book copy of Dr. Dan the Band-aid Man.

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