Double shot of my blah blah tonight . . .

Wow, hope you can handle a double shot . . . of me and my blah, blah tonight. I actually was inspired by Kristine (fellow SBS4 member) when I saw her card from the featured stamper challenge, and although I should be addressing envelopes for morning (swap cards on their way out the door to my girlfriends--*wink* You know who you are), I actually played in the featured stamper challenge instead. This card was inspired by Danielle's card here, but much more simplified. I like hers better, but I cut back a bit (ya know . . . less is less). See below--postage gripe.

I FINALLY used my Sandy Claws stamp set that I JUST HAD TO HAVE before Christmas this year from Gina K Designs (link to the right), and stamped off a couple of the cute little guy in the sleigh. I used puffy paint, stickles and some pretty gold wrapping paper that has snowflakes on it (which you really can't see in the pic) to dress this up a bit, but I am really keeping most my cards light and less bumpy this year for my mailed Christmas cards. I put an extra 17 cent stamp on about 40 cards this year. . . ugh! See it's expensive to keep things "pretty." Crazy, huh?!

Anyway, here are a couple of cards I made for the stampers challenge and getting a jump start on Christmas Card Challenge 2008. Hope you aren't too sick of Christmas cards to take a look below. :) Thanks for dropping by! Kelly

Been a while since I posted . . .

but it was a great Christmas! We didn't have a lot of money to spend, but we still had a little something for everyone. We also had a GREAT time with family and friends this year. My parents totally loved the sign we made for them. I couldn't get a decent picture of it, but here is one from the kitchen table. It is about 3 feet long, so hard to get a picture by myself of it. I have to get a copy of the pic from Mom that I took of them holding it. (btw, they loved the coasters too). I had lots of help with this. I printed the letters on my computer in a long banner form, then used an Exact-O knife to cut them out, taped it on the wood after my husband measured to get it perfectly centered and we both traced the letters on. Then all 3 of us tried our hand at the Wizard dremel tool on a scrap piece of wood, and DH was the best, so he got the job of etching most of the letters. I finished up a few when his hand got too tired. Then I painted and lacquered during the week prior to Christmas with a little help from my guys. The final touches were the crosses on the corners, again etched by DH and actually used Stickles in the groove then clear lacquer over that. The top was sponged in white to make it look like clouds. Oh, did I say they LOVED it?! They both got a "little teary" as did we after wards. I was (and still am) thrilled that they enjoyed it so much! I can't wait to see it up on the barn--maybe when we go up again! I will be sure and take a picture to show you. Can you believe I forgot my camera when we went up. So I have to wait for Mom to email me her pictures. We all took turns with the camera on Saturday, and I know she has LOTS!

My hubby got me a Cricut (big surprise, because we were not going to get each other anything this year), and I feel so guilty having it, but he got a pretty good package deal on this one with 2 cartridges, cutting mat, 2 replacement blades and a spatula . . . well, I won't go on and on.

I just wanted to show you some really simplistic looking cards I made with it this past week. They are not my best work mind you, but it was fun to play around with it. I am having some trouble with it cutting all the way through SU cs though. Guess we really get our money's worth with that stuff, because it is tough! lol The "Miss You" card is an exact duplicate (well, okay with different dp and cs) from the example in the booklet that came with the samples cartridge, but the other is all my own. The images are from the Paper Pups cartridge. The "Love" card needs a ribbon/brad still, but I haven't decided what yet.

With a Little Help from My Friends . . .

I am finally getting caught up with my long list of "to do's." I have a few more things to wrap and cookies and fudge to make, but I AM getting there, really. lol

I hope no one minds, but I used two of my HM ATCs today to make a card for my parents and one for my husband. They were so darn cute, I even hated to put them in a folder and leave them there in the dark . . . (well, you know what I mean).

So, I used this little cutie from Tracy (megjoralys on SCS), added a black piece of cs behind him, trimmed with my Fiskars scissors, which are very neglected now that I have my Nesties :) then placed on a piece of red and green dp that I first embossed with my cb Divine Swirls folder. I added a little red button/holly leaf 3D embellishment at the bottom that my friend Deb (Dcorder on SCS) sent me in an elf package.

Next up is a cute little HM that looks so content. This ATC was sent in a swap to me from Andrea (Littlekid11 on SCS). She is quite the little crafter like her mom :) I layered this one on black cs as well and tried the scissors the other direct to get the points to stick out a little more. I experimented a little bit with the vanilla cs base of the card and inked up the canvas bg stamp with old olive then sponge on some ruby red. It wasn't quite what I imagined, but it didn't look bad either. I used a strip of the red and plaid dp I have been using a lot this season and layered that on a scrap of green. Underneath the HM is a punched hole to thread my wasabi ribbon through, again received from Wish RAK (hmmm, I believe from Jessica/Jlazarski on SCS). The wasabi ribbon was then tied and a piece of organdy burgundy was added. I really wanted a red, but couldn't get the shade quite right. I think this will do. A small 3D package embellishment was also used from my friend Deb (Dcorder on SCS) to balance it out a bit.

The two cards above were truly labors of love by me and my friends. Again, I hope they don't mind that I used their ATCs for my family cards, but I know the receivers will truly cherish them and NOT throw them away. My mom has every card I have ever made her, and well . . . my hubby knows better than throw them away (I usually *save them for him* and display them in my office--lol).

I also have a card I made for my Grandpa (also entered in the WishRAK challenge on SCS).

The details are here.

and this saying truly fit my son ( a WishRAK image sent to me from Nancy P/crooked river at SCS) . . . Kept it pretty simple for Cody's with a few layers and the Merry Christmas twill tape from Jlazarski (thanks again, Jess!)

I received another precious Christmas card from a good SCS friend. This time it is from my little sis/divine secret sibling--Kelly S (gadget19). Thanks so much, Kelly. This set is gorgeous, and I was hoping to purchase it before Christmas, but I don't think it will happen. I love how she colored in the gown and can you see the shimmer on the angels wings? Just gorgeous. I will be displaying this one for a while too!

This will no doubt be my last post before Christmas, as we are leaving tomorrow morning for my parent's home to celebrate then my IL's on Christmas day, and work in between, so . . .

Wishing you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS from the "Little family home" to yours !

With love, Kelly

Christmas card RAKs and Card for Mom

Well, I finished one card today and then got some other things done around the house for Christmas. I just wanted to share this adorable Sugar Nellie image with you. She is actually called "Nellie sitting with heart." My mother is rather blue and missing family, so I wanted to send her a card (even though we will see her this coming Saturday) to try and cheer her up a little. These sweet images were sent to me from Nancy P (crooked river at SCS). The card base is barely banana cs with the blue patterned paper (get this . . . from a Kleenex box--got this idea from Gina K, and it was too pretty to throw out), certainly celery stamped with Floral bg stamp and clear embossed to add some texture. The sugar nellie image was colored with my prismacolor pencils and gamsoled, touched up with some markers here and there to add more color, and then stickles for some sparkle. She is sitting on a sentiment from the Sincere Salutations set layered on black cs. A little paper piercing at the bottom, 2 pale yellow MM brads, and white satin ribbon added to add some softness to the card as well. I sure hope it cheers Mom up a little. She just misses us all right now, and I CAN'T WAIT to go up and see her and Dad soon.

Couple of Christmas tree pics for y'all to see too. We haven't used tinsel since my son was a baby and couldn't touch the tree. Now with animals it is not practical either, so . . . may be a little plain, but I love it just the same. These were both taken with the lights out, and on the nighttime setting. I was trying to get the pretty glow of the lights. The second pic was touched up in Photo Shop (as I was trying to make it look dark).

Guess Buddy thought his toys looked good under the tree too. LOL That is him off to the left there. He's our big furry baby.

The rest of these pics are from my good friends and now adopted sisters from SCS. See my homemade Christmas cards below. . . Thanks, again, ladies! :) Kelly

Too old for Teddy Bears?

What do you think? Are we ever too old for teddy bears? I don't think so. I think my old pink teddy bear was my first love, and I still collect them to this day--okay, usually the more expensive ones like my Boyds' bears, but I still LOVE bears.


I put together a couple of bear cards I have had here that I made and a couple of card fronts from a swap I hosted a while back to give a set of 4 cards in this cute little folder for a white elephant gift. Every year our church group gets together and has a white elephant exchange. When your number is called, you choose a gift from the table, and then you open it in front of everyone. The next person's number is called, and they can either choose your gift already opened or another one from the table. It gets to be so fun, because people are trying to hide their gift or tell you that you don't want to take it from me *sad puppy dog eyes*--usually helps here. LOL Once the gift is taken twice, you cannot take it again, it is done (belongs to the 2nd person who takes it from someone). This usually works well if you have your husband help you then. (Hmm . . . now to come up with something for my husband and son to play along.)


So anyway, I am going on and on about what we do . . . would you like to see what I am giving away?

First the folder part with a little stuffed teddy bear:

• I stamped the Button Bear (retired stamp but new to me from Ebay) with Timber Brown StazOn and then colored with my prismacolor pencils and gamsoled. Then I stamped the honey jar on a piece of shimmery vanilla cs and colored the honey a golden brown (or close to it). The jar was then put on a piece of foam to pop it up. Bees were added around the bear and colored in with yellow pencils and a glitter sakura pen. The border piece was part of the stamp set too (difficult to keep straight). Lastly, I added 2 hole punches and tied with brown polka dot ribbon.
• I included a small stuffed bear after adding a piece of lace tied around her shoulders with ribbon to look like a shawl and a little straw hat with a flower on it). The bear stamp on the folder is my new Button Bear (retired but new set to me from Ebay).

These two cards are from Christine66 who participated in my swap. I only used these, because I have 2 of them. I have been hoarding my teddy bears (shhh).


This last one was my own creation, and I had a couple of these as well. the other one is slightly different with the flower basket instead of a cake and a few eyelets (don't seem to have a picture of it, and it is all packaged up now). I hope they go over well. My husband says, well, 'the girls will like them . . . ' Guess I need a guy gift then too.

Glass Christmas Tree Ornaments

I mentioned these on SCS, and I just thought I would share them with you all. These ones were made last year at a workshop at my SU Demo. These were old pictures of when my son was little. Mine did not require any stamping really. Some of the ideas I have seen this year on SCS were to stamp your image in black StazOn and then color the back of the image with markers--terrific idea too, but I have not taken the time to do those as of yet.

For these ornaments, we first cut a circle a little bit smaller than your glass ball (in my case using my Coluzzle), but leave a little stem at the top of your circle to keep it centered and keep it from turning inside the globe when finished. Then you cut your pictures of family or winter scene, etc with the coluzzle the same size and tape to each side of the acetate circle. You then curl up the picture and acetate in a small tube so it will go through the stem of your glass ball (careful if there are any rough edges, these will scrape your picture and cause white marks on them). Then take either a popsicle stick or wooden handle of a paint brush and uncurl the picture by pressing on one side then the other until it flattens back out most of the way. We used long handled tweezers, which works well too, but again you have to be careful you do not scratch your picture. Finish off with fake snow inside the glass ornament and on the outside add fluffy snow paint, glitter, a small tag telling who is in the picture, and gold cord to hang it from. These also make excellent ornaments for family. I gave my mother one last year with Cody and Mom on one side and her holding me shortly after coming home from the hospital on the other side (now that was an OLD picture) . AC Moore had pretty curly hangers in gold that you could sit on an end table to display, and she kept hers up all year long.

I just had to show this adorable card/ornament that was sent to me today. What a wonderful RAK (random act of kindness). This picture does NOT do it justice. The penguins are covered in glitter (I believe the dazzling diamonds technique). The circle is a card with a little slit to hold the green top, which I believe was made with the designer label punch, a couple of gold brads and a gold cord to top it off. I added a staple at the top to make sure that the gold ribbon did not pull through when hanging. It now hangs on my Christmas tree for friends and family to see. Thanks so much, Tina! I am so glad to have met you and your mom, and you are both very special to me! (Tina is one of the ladies of the Tackertwosome mother and daughter team on SCS)

Thanks for dropping by! It was a little difficult getting a good picture through the glass, but I hope you enjoyed seeing them. =) Kelly

Completed set

Hello, ladies! I hope you had a terrific weekend! I made some more gift sets for family. I did a few more tiles like I have shown you already, and I am working on a few gift card sets still, but I just had to show you one of the finished notebook/tablet sets that I am giving to my niece, Shannon. I modge podged the notebook, but the tablet I did not. I thought this way if she wanted to write on here, she could.

I also have some mini calendars to make, but those did not get finished this weekend due to work and other responsibilities (mostly decorating here at home and making bows to decorate the church). I hope to post them in the next few days. Take care and keep crafting!! The Christmas holiday is fast approaching! :) Kelly


I notice now that the picture is a little blurry due to lighting or batteries needing charged. I will try and replace the pic tomorrow. Meanwhile, I guess you get the idea.

Notebooks and coasters

Here they are as promised . . .

I made these cute notebooks for my neices. I believe they are 8 and 14 years old. I do hope they like them, as they took a while to get them done. I jokingly told my husband, if they don't want them--I will "take them back!" I think they are so stinkin' cute!

I stamped the ww cs with TAC girlz and boyz stamp set, colored them in with prismacolor pencils and gamsoled them to blend the colors. Then I modge podged the $1 notebooks I got at the Dollar General and placed the paper on them with a little bit hanging over to curl around the front of the cover. I used different shades of purple on the binding and vanilla on the back. I stamped their names and a small accent stamp on the colored piece that covers the binding and wrote on the back--Created for you by Aunt Kelly (Dec 2007). This was then covered with modge podge, and I read somewhere if you spray the modge podge after it dries with clear coat spray they are not tacky, so I did that as well. They were right. I have laid the books on top of one another, and now they are not tacky or sticking at all. Terrific! (I had a little smudge on Elizabeths around the teddy bear, but I hope she still likes it. I tried to make it look like a picture frame around him). I found some terrific pens with stick figures on them to go with these, so I won't be making them, but I did make covers for matching small legal tablets for them to write in as well.

As for the tiles/coasters, they are stamped in StazOn black ink and then colored with markers. One was done with the Frosty SU set, and the reindeer singing coaster was done with a stamp set from Studio G clear stamps $1 Michaels' set. (I purchased mine on Ebay though, as there are no Michael's around me).

For some reason the swirls around Frosty ran a little bit (maybe too much clear coat all at once), but I think he will be okay too. I think the key is to lightly spray the first coat on these marble tiles and then spray another 2-3 coats of clear spray to cover well and protect them from drnk spills and condensation. I have been using one of these all week, and the only problem I seem to have is if a glass is nice and flat on the bottom, it sticks a little bit to the coaster. Other than that, I find them very useful, and I love mine on my desk :) I hope you enjoyed seeing them as well, and if I inspired you to make some coasters or notebooks, please comment and add a link so we may see them too!

Did you see?! Oh my gosh!!

This is so awesome, that I just had to share it with you!! For those of you who have alcohol inks (and I don't YET, as I never knew what to do with them), Tim Holtz has a blog!!!! Yep, he has time for us stampers, can you believe it?! Anyway, he is doing a 12 days 'til Christmas theme, and I wish I had found it sooner--but he is giving away something every day. Okay, today there were 630+ comments (so my chances of winning are slim), but . . . check out his blog at http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog

You will not be disappointed!! I just adore today's Christmas tag. It is SO pretty in shades of blue. Okay, I will shut up so you can get there QUICKLY!! Hurry! :D

I joined the Sisterhood . . .

After seeing this around on a few blogs recently I decided to take a look at the Sisterhood of the Blogging Stampers last night. It looks like fun and a great way of finding more blogging buddies! If you are interested pop on over, there is still space in group 4 but they seem to fill up fast!

I found SBS through Jeans Inky Hugs blog, and I just had to check it out. What a terrific way to uplift others in the blogging community. I usually try to check out the blogs of those who comment here, but this way, I can check out a whole group of girls as well. So, if you blog--check it out! :)

As for some info on me for the group: I am a wife and mother to one teenage son. I work from home (so I am constantly on the computer) as a medical transcriptionist. I truly love it, but it doesn't help me lose weight much sitting at the computer for 13+ hours a day. We have a pretty busy house with 1 child, 1 dog, and 1 cat (oh, yeah and 1 husband). LOL We like to keep it simple with one of everything I guess. I have been stamping for the last 3 years or so, but I have been keeping busy with Splitcoaststampers.com (SCS) for the past 1 to 1-1/2 years now. I have met so many terrific friends on there, I wish we all lived closer (maybe we need a small stampin' community/development IRL--that would be cool). Okay, I will be talkin' to y'all a little later.

P.S.--I will be back later (hopefully this afternooon if everything is dry) with a post of some altered items. Keep watchin'!

What were you up to this weekend?

Well, I did a "little bit" of decorating. I don't have all of our stuff out, but since we don't have our tree yet I will be more in the mood to decorate then. So for now, I did this . . .

I purchased the wreath at Sam's Club for just under $15 and I had all of these cute little goodies left from past wreaths and decorations. The Santa Claus has been in my family since I was a tiny little girl, and he is getting a little tattered, but I can't resist using him. I should have gotten a better angle, but there are tiny presents on there, small gold balls, candy canes, snowmen, reindeer, and lots of different pine cones. Two large pine cones were already on it when I bought it, but I added a few more with plaid bows. I was really proud of myself for dressing this up a bit, and hubby likes it too. :)

And my good friend Michelle (Shelle for short) has a birthday tomorrow, so I sent her this card this morning. The first time I have played with my Hanna Stamps. I just love these stamps. Check them out by clicking on the link. I only purchased the first set so far. Maybe after the holidays I can get the other two. They are pretty reasonably priced, and I love that they are clear acrylic--so easy for stamp placement. I used Taken with teal cs, some teal dp given to me by a good friend, apricot appeal cs, certainly celeary, and ww. Hanna and her accessories were stamped in black StazOn, and then colored with--you probably already guessed prismacolored pencils and gamsoled. (this is truly my new favorite technique). I love my SU markers, but they usually come out darker than I would like, and then I lose the detail. I also added some faux stitching and some added bling. Since Hanna is a shopping girl, I am sure she needs a diamond on her hand and some jewels on her pretty shoes, so I added a few tiny rhinestones as well. I really wanted to ink distress it, but I think the clean, clear cut lines is ideal for my friend Shelle. I really hope she likes it. I popped up the sentiment and the large heart for added depth. The sentiment inside reads, "hope you have a shoppin' good time on your birthday."



I really wanted to say . . . remember when we looked this good and loved to shop? . . . well, I don't know about you, but I still love to shop! (after some consideration, I didn't want her to think I was saying she was fat . . . turning 36 can be stressful enough, and she has two children compared to my one, so . . . well, I didn't want to put her over the brink). KWIM? LOL