Happy birthday, Heidi!

Happy birthday, Heidi! You are....SO very....sweet....cute....and loved! To one of my favorite bloggers on her 24th birthday! Love, Kelly

Thank you, Suzanne!

It was such a serendipitous moment when I checked my mail this weekend, at first wondering who had mailed a package to me, then realizing who it was. Someone who visited my blog, Suzanne from Florida, had bought a Mikey's stamp from me, and she surprised me with this adorable goody bag. Not only that, but she sent this beautiful card as a thank you note along with it! My loot included some Making Memories alphabet charms, some tiny silk flowers, some clear wedding themed stamps, and small clear blocks to USE the stamps, summery-colored bobbin ribbon, and some "slide-shaped" window framed borders. It was presented festively in the celophane bag, punched with a double slit punch, then finished off with the "cheater" bow in pink and green, with the sentiment, "just because." This stamping community is so nice. Thank you so very much, Miss Suzanne, for your generosity and random act of kindness. It truly put a smile on my face.

Suzanne used the "Doodle This" and "Doodle That" sets that are in the current spring mini catalog ($29.95 and $11.95) and did a lovely job in the coloring of the flower. Maybe when she reads this post, she'll explain how she did it....I could use some pointers from her!

So Very Sorry, Virginia Tech

This sympathy card is for a family member of one of the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting rampage that happened last week. This card combined the "Levi" tag challenge and the color challenge this week on SCS. I'll be sending this off tomorrow, to someone I've never met, but for whom my heart and prayers go out to. To get specifics of my card, take a look here.

How do you like my new blog banner?

I'm as pleased as punch with this fabulous new blog banner and want to give a round of applause to Beth Silaika for her design talents. Thank you, Beth, for listening to my input and coming up with this lovely piece of art!

Happy birthday piggy

I'll get right to the point with the details here on this cute little piggy birthday card I designed:

Paper: Creamy Caramel, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Whisper White by SU

Ink: Basic Brown, Certainly Celery and Pixie Pink Stampin' Write markers, Pretty in Pink refill using aqua painter by SU

Stamps: unknown, pig and hogs and kisses possibly old D.O.T.S. stamps, HB stamp is from SU Country Greetings set, chicken wire background stamp by SonLight Impressions

Accessories: ribbons in matching ink colors from special order ribbon sale, Stampin' Dimensionals, narrow white organdy and silver cord by Stampin' Up!

Tools: Small Tag Punch, Tag Punch, handheld rectangle punch, cutter kit scoring blade

Aaron and Jaime's wedding

Last week was Aaron and Jaime's wedding and next week is their reception. Congratulations! The wedding cake stamp is a Michael's $1 stamp. The background stamp is from Stampin' Up's Delight in Life set. Here are a few more details:

Ribbon: rose grosgrain, narrow white organdy, and pink ribbed "Flirty" ribbon, all by Stampin' Up!

Paper: Cool Caribbean, Taken with Teal, Regal Rose, Whisper White, "Loves Me" designer paper, all by Stampin' Up!

Ink: Close to Cocoa, Versamark, and Regal Rose Stampin' Write markers by Stampin Up!

For the scallop, I used the handy technique using the slit punch and the 1/8" handheld punch on the bottom paper layer. The round paper clip is from Target.

Birthday card for my mom

Happy birthday, Mom! Good thing she doesn't look at my blog. The color challenge on SCS this week was to use these colors: Cool Caribbean, Whisper White, and Basic Black, so I came up with this design, featuring the flower from Stampin' Up's Looks Like Spring and the flower punch and word window punch. For the background, I used two awesome classic stamps that it's hard to go wrong when paring these two, Print Pattern and French Script, both by Stampin' Up. The tiny, hard to see sentiment, "to my mom" is from Stampin' Up's All Year Cheer III. The handy cutter kit tool roughs up the edges easily on the featured stamp image papers.

This was my first time to use the velvet ribbon from my Flirty ribbon pack. These ribbons are so gorgeous that it's sometimes a challenge to use them because you want them to last forever. So my special occasion to break open the "good stuff" is for my mom, and I know she'll love it.

Simply Scrappin' 6" x 6" album was easy and so much fun

Cardmaking is my thing, but scrapbooking overwhelms me. Jini told me how easy the Simply Scrappin' is to use, and how much she's been enjoying scrapbooking through Stampin' Up's shortcut method. Tomorrow, my husband is flying out of state to get a root canal by my brother-in-law, so I'm sending him with a few gifts for my sister and the family. (He'll swap professional services with him by building them a new computer.) The coolest thing I'll be sending is my first Simply Scrappin' scrapbook album that I put together for my niece, Morgan, for her birthday. It's very elementary, and completely not elaborate. But it's a start for me and I loved making it. If you'd like to take a look at Morgan's 6 x 6 album, click here. You'll see me with my husband on page six, and throughout, there are pics of our kids, nieces, and nephews. It's a sweet memento for Morgan to remember her far away cousins and auntie and uncle who love her. Happy birthday, Morgan! Stamp used: Simple Sayings II (you make me smile).

Received my first RAK

A big *THANK YOU* to Simply Pink's Melissa, aka Princessmsk on splitcoaststampers, for being so thoughtful, and surprising me with two of her lovely cards! This was my first ever random act of kindness from anyone on SCS! What a gem--from an otherwise complete stranger! I'm touched by sweet Melissa's kindness. Again, thank you.

Target $1 Turquoise Merci

Pictured above is a gift idea for the note card set, using an organdy draw string bag.

This note card and envelope starts off using a bargain Target $1 Spot find, a set of 8 cards and envelopes for a buck. Can't beat that. To jazz it up, I've stamped the square image from SU Carte Postale with SU Basic Black ink on SU Whisper White cardstock, punched a hole in the center, then added clear crystal brads from Making Memories (on sale right now for $1.77 for 42 brads). Next I stamped the "merci" with SU Tempting Turquoise, used the ticket corner punch, and adhered Stampin' Dimensionals to the four corners underneath. My favorite element is the Basic/Basic Simply Satin auburn ribbon--from 15 yards of 3/8" width on sale now at Michael's for $1.87 for the spool. What a quick and affordable card this makes. Better head to Target now before someone buys them all, because their inventory of this item is temporary.

Morgan's birthday card

Quick, easy, to the point. I made this card a while back and never posted it, so here you go. If you know the name of the set that this image is is from, please let me know. And I love sewing on paper. Enjoy your weekend.

K.I.S.S. anniversary card

While I love the multi-layered cards, I also love simplicity. This was definitely a quickie, using the Michael's $1 "{heart} happy anniversary" stamp by Kolette Hall and more of my Dutch Girl papers by Cosmo Cricket, on true thyme colored cardstock, finished off with bargain hemp twine from Hobby Lobby. Since it's Friday, be sure to K.I.S.S., that is keep it simple, sweetie! --Kelly

It's my anniversary....

...on splitcoaststampers, that is. One year ago, I discovered this gold mine of a website for inspiration, sharing, and ideas. I love it. PLUS, it is my one week anniversary for starting this blog, dedicated to my little hobby that I've been crazy about for several years. Here's my story of how I got hooked.

Long ago, I met a new friend, Gwen, who had relocated to my area and was a successful demonstrator for D.O.T.S. (Dozens of Terrific Stamps). Gwen wasn't sure she wanted to get her business going again after the move and considered joining me in my business. I saw her incredible art and how amazingly talented she was at card making. Gwen's beautiful paper creations were so enjoyable to look at. I convinced her that she'd be crazy to give it up, then hosted a huge soiree to get her stamping gig kick-started again. Her business took off from there, and Gwen became THE stamping goddess in the area.

For a time, Gwen had even recruited my sister as a D.O.T.S. demonstrator while my brother-in-law was specializing to become an endodontist. All the while, my passion for card making grew. Gwen moved away and my life got hectic, and my stamps and supplies were tucked away collecting dust. Some time later, Stampin' Up emerged, and I rediscovered the art, found out that D.O.T.S. became Close to My Heart, and Gwen had moved away again.

Now my passion for stamping is as strong as ever, my stash of stamps and supplies have multiplied exponentially, and the possibilities and ideas are limitless. I love my little hobby and hope to be able to share the fruits of my labors with money others, as he or she opens a card and smiles, knowing it was hand made and one of a kind. Today's creation is for a friend of mine, "just because," as the Simple Sayings II sentiment implies. See my Just Because Dutch Girl card on SCS for details if you'd like. Thanks for checking out my new blog! Happy anniversaries!

My first Sketch Challenge

Today I've completed a sketch challenge, my first one on SCS. It was my third challenge of the week and I'm having fun with it. It's like a little homework assignment to improve in your card making art. I like that I've used papers and stamps that I've been wanting to, but haven't. This card was using more of my Dutch Girl paper kit, and a stamp from Delight in Life and the cherish stamp is from a little boxed set by Nostalgiques, the Attic Collection. I always keep any random buttons that I come across or that come as extras with clothes, and I nabbed this red one from my surplus stash. I'm off to lunch with Carol now.

Carte Postale

The fleur-de-lis stamp and floral stamps from this Carte Postale set give a nice French toile look. I made this card layout several months ago in different colors and thought I'd incorporate the SCS color challenge today which uses these colors: real red, sage shadow, and basic black. I would love to give credit to the person whom I copied this from and when I do, I'll edit it back in. I love the long sentiment in the Simple Sayings II set too.

"If it ain't Dutch, it ain't much."

Having spent a year and a half living in The Netherlands, I learned this cute phrase from the wonderful Dutch people, who tend to have millions of cute little expressions, "doe maar net alsof je thuis bent," "klein maar fijn," and so forth. When I saw this new 2007 Cosmo Cricket designer paper, it was truly love at first sight, with the paper kit titled Dutch Girl. The luscious prints remind me so much of Holland, that I had to buy some. There was a challenge on SCS that I wanted to try using this layout, by a contributor who goes by HB. Take a look at her card, and see what inspired me. She's got some other gorgeous creations to look at. I needed a hiatus from working on my taxes, and this card was such a nice break to create.

Karina's baby card

It's past midnight and at 9 am, I'll be at a baby shower for Karina, who is expecting her first baby and it's a girl. Karina was previously in my Laurel class at church and is very unique, bold, cool, and unconventional. Therefore, I didn't think pink was in order. My friend, Michele, (also a leader in the Young Women's program at the time with me) and I decided to get Karina a gift together. Michele agreed to do the shopping from Target (picked up a portable, musical swing from her registry) as long as I agreed to make the "cute card." So I asked her to drop the gift off and I could wrap it to color coordinate with the card--which I love to do.

My inspiration for this card was from Chris Smith, who is an experienced card artist. She has made a lot of fantastic card creations. I love her version of this card and have been wanting to use the B-A-B-Y stamp from the new "That's Nice" set and have not done so until tonight. I had the patterned paper (paisley) scrap left over from my Valentines.

Tickled Pink

There's something in the water here because a lot of my friends are pregnant! I loved this quick-to-make card designed by Kristina Werner and have been wanting to make her version of it. It's hard to tell from this picture, but it's a smaller scaled card than the standard 5.5" x 4.25" in a size of about 4.7" x 3.5". I've made a couple of cards using Kristina's detailed, well written tutorial, and recommend it highly. She is extremely talented. And in addition to being a wonderful designer, she's a great photographer and the lighting on her card is much better than mine. Happy Good Friday!

Polka Dots & Paisley

Finally, I'm using some of my Flirty ribbon! I saw this card by cdrhoades on SCS that I wanted to recreate and was blown away by the new technique I learned. A B*I*G thanks to Carrie for answering my "how to" inquiry. For the pretty in pink scalloped strip at the bottom, you start with a strip of cardstock about 1 1/4 inches wide, then use the SLIT PUNCH repeatedly to make the scallop design. Then punch holes using the 1/8" hand held punch for the little dots inside. Mine turned out a bit crooked, but I didn't want to start all over. The next time, I'll pencil in dots in a straight line as my punching guide. I'm planning to keep playing this game of "do as I'm doing" until I have my epiphany for a fabulous original design to share.

In the beginning...

My first post to my new blog. I should say something profound or add something that I'm really proud of. So my goal today is to create a card "worthy" of being in my first post. And because I'm not very creative YET when it comes to original design, I will attempt to copy the works of others. I think I'll start off with a birthday card I saw on SCS a couple days ago that I fell in love with by stamping_KML, using the ribbons that I have on hand.

{Later that morning...} My card turned out similar to the original, and I'm pleased with it. The next time I am out shopping, I'll pick up some ribbons like hers. After all, copying is one of the best forms of flattery. Why reinvent the wheel?