Fall Birthday Card

Hi Folks! I'm excited to share this Fall birthday card on the Winnie & Walter blog today!

 

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

CFS Release - Powerful

 

Hi Folks! We've got our last CAS-ual Fridays stamp set being released today, and this one is packed with large, brush-stroke words centering on encouraging thoughts. This card uses quite a few of them, which is nice because there are many different combinations for you to create your own custom sentiment. A tiny pink butterfly from yesterday's stamp set called Be has just landed on "Faith".

 

   

I wanted to see if I could make a card that had a message other than encouragement, specifically one using the "miracles" sentiment. While I was dropping my youngest off at religious ed, it hit me. A perfect card for any one of the numerous Chicago Cubs baseball fans in my family!! For those of you lucky enough to not be burdened by the Cubs' 108-year world series curse, being a Cubs fan has been a frustrating experience. There is no fan alive on this Earth who remembers the last time the Chicago Cubs won the world series. There are any number of incidents that make up the Cubs' curse landscape - black cats, billy goats, and poor Steve Bartman who reached for a foul ball in ill-fated game six more than a decade ago (who I used to work with, incidentally). The word "miracle" is often associated with the Cubs doing well in baseball, and this card is more of a humorous thinking-of-you card for any Cubs fan. 

 

It's practically the same as the first card, on purpose, except I've swapped out "courage" for "believe" to make it more appropriate. Another difference is instead of the pink butterfly for an embellishment, we have a stitched baseball background. I was excited to make the stitching from the triple arrow stamp used multiple times along two circular, penciled lines.

So there you have it! This set works for those needing encouragement, and for Cubs fans!

 

 

Check out the rest of the Ink Squad to see more awesome projects with these stamps. Feel free to use my code "KELLY2016" which will save you 15% off any purchases at CAS-ual Fridays Stamps.

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

CFS Release - Be

Hi Folks! There's a second stamp set being released today, called Be, and it could have my most favorite CASual Fridays Stamp sentiment ever in it:

Be Badass
every. single. day.

Now that's something I would love to have next to my bed if I needed encouragement so I could see it every morning.

I sponged distress ink in a couple circles, and spattered them with water. The sentiment is embossed in gold twice (using a MISTI) to make it nice and thick. I was going for a card with contradictions here. One one had you have the sweet butterflies, pretty sequins, and a paper doily tucked under the left edge of the panel.

And on the other hand you have distressed edges on the white panel,  the bold, black & white pattern and, of course, that sentiment. Hahaha, it makes me laugh thinking of the recipient looking down the card at the pretty colors and butterflies, and then reading the bold sentiment on the bottom. I'll bet they weren't expecting that!!

   

   

Check out the rest of the Ink Squad to see more awesome projects with these stamps. Feel free to use my code "KELLY2016" which will save you 15% off any purchases at CAS-ual Fridays Stamps.

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

Calling All Sistahs Blog Hop and New Release

  

Hi folks!

  

We have a special hop this month; not only is it breast cancer awareness month, but Michele, owner of CASual Fridays Stamps, is going for her one year check up today. We're all sending big prayers for a cancer-free diagnosis!

 

 

There is also a mini-release of a new set in the Calling All Sistahs line called Word Ribbon. It has lots of encouraging sentiments, like the one on this card.

     

 

With this awesomely fierce sentiment I wanted an equally fierce background, so I combined several strong patterned papers, including this delicious gold dotted vellum from American crafts. 

The circle dies are from CASual Fridays Ornament Tag Fri-Die.
  

We have a few changes for this month's hop. One person will win the new CASual Fridays Stamps release for commenting along the blog hop, including the new Calling All Sistahs Word Ribbon stamp set!

Another change is that from now on you only need to use one CASual Fridays Stamp or Die to participate in this blog hop. It does not have to come from the Calling All Sistahs line. So if you have been wanting to join the hop but don't have a Calling All Sistahs set, now you have nothing holding you back! Just visit the Calling All Sistahs page for more information on how to join.

If you haven't already, feel free to join our facebook group. Also, don't forget to do your monthly self-exams AND schedule your yearly mammograms if it's your time.

 

As always, feel free to use my code "KELLY2016" which will save you 15% off any purchases at CAS-ual Fridays Stamps.  

 

Next on the hop is the fabulous Kimberly Rendino.

 
Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

Winnie & Walter WCMD Challenge for You!

Hi Folks! Are you ready for some fun? I've got just the thing ... head on over to the World Card Making Day festivities at Winnie & Walter were you'll find a ton of different challenges, blog hops, and prizes, including a challenge hosted by me to Stretch your Stamps!

       

This card uses a portion of a tree stamp to make the graphic background. Not at all difficult, but still gives you a completely different look than using the stamp as a tree, as it was intended.


   

Sure hope you get a chance to play along in the challenge! I'd love to check out what fabulous ideas you come up with!

- Kelly

Winnie & Walter WCMD Blog Hop!

Hi Folks! Welcome to Winnie & Walter's World Card Making Day Blog Hop, which is only part of the festivities happening today throughout the rest of this month at the Winnie & Walter blog. You may have come from Laura Bassen's blog, one of my all-time favorite card makers!

Along with the hop, there are several challenges on the Winnie & Walter blog, including my challenge to stretch your stamps by using a stamp in a way other than it was intended. My card below does just that.

    

     

Can you guess which of the following stamps was used on the card, and where?

  

  

Yes?

No?

Here's a hint:

   

OK, that was a pretty big hint, especially since it showed the actual stamp! I used the large, circular tree from Kindness with Evelin T Designs to make the rainbow-ish border on top. This was done by inking only the top half of the tree and then stamping in alternating directions.


 
Then I used my watercolors to loosely fill in the channels. The sentiment is from a classic set, the Big, the Bold and Party.

Quite a different look than a card with a tree on it, eh? After you finish hoping, I hope you consider playing along with some of the challenges at w&w, especially my Stretch Your Stamps Challenge. I can't wait to come see what you've made!

Your next stop on the hop is Rubeena Naz who will wow you with another w&w creation.

Be sure to comment along the way for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the Winnie & Walter shop; there will be three of these prizes given out!

 

Happy WCMD!

-Kelly

Hello World Blog Hop

Hi Folks! It's my pleasure to be a part of Catherine Pooler's Hello World Blog Hop, which is raising money to buy computers for middle school children in Boston, MA. Not just any middle schoolers in Boston, but the ones in my friend Jingle's husband's under-privileged social studies class. Now that's some awesome community spirit right there!

    

You may have come from the lovely Lisa Harrolle's blog, and if so, welcome! If not, feel free to start at the beginning on the Stamp of Approval blog.

I have two cards today. Both use the same ink colors and stamps, but have a slightly different feel. This one is more graphic and modern using the stripe from the newly released Yay Stripes set. I love that the spacing on these stripes is just wide enough that you can easily ink them up separately with mini ink pads and get a ton of different colors! So fun! Using a Misti, I inked several different greens and blues and stamped four columns of stripes across the card.

The gorgeous sentiment was designed by Chaitali Narla. Swoon! To make things a little interesting I cut away one of the white rectangles with an exacto knife and stamped the rest of my sentiment on the inside of the card. When I'm ready to send this, I plan on also incorporating the word "friend" in my written message on the inside.



Let's talk about the darling butterfly who just perched on the end of our Hello! He's part of the Butterfly Notes stamp set which is also being released today. I glued his body to the card, and then bent his wings up for some extra dimension (a plus that it will lay flat for mailing!)

My second card uses more of the butterflies from the Butterfly Notes set. Love that the set includes small and large butterflies so you can get the illusion of depth here, where the small butterflies are off in the distance. 

The sentiment is another cutie from Hello World, layered onto the card attached with the Tim Holtz mini attacher, with a piece of a paper doily underneath.

My first card had a modern, graphic feel, and this card has a more feminine, frilly feel thanks to the dotted chevron strip from Yay Stripes. Like the stripes, I stamped the dotted chevron in several different blues and greens down the front of the card. I like how the bottom is left white so you can see the delicate chevron shape even better. The inside of the card is lined with a blue stripe patterned paper.

Blog candy alert! 

Several of the stops on today's hop are giving out prizes in honor of the charity to buy computers for the under-privileged school in Boston. I would be happy to send these two awesome stamp sets to one of you! Just comment on this post and I'll draw a name at random on Saturday, October 8th.

Your next stop is my friend Kimberly Wiener who I'm sure has something lovely for you to look at!

Thanks so much for supporting our fund raiser!

-Kelly

• Catherine Pooler  
• Maureen Merritt  
• Amy Kolling  
• Laurel Beard  
• Miriam Prantner 
• Kristie Goulet  
• Amy Sheffer 
• Heather North
• Donna Mikasa 
• Allison Cope  
• Amy Tsuruta 
• Lisa Harrolle 
• Kelly Griglione <- here you are
• Kimberly Wiener 
• Chrissie Tobas 
• Ingrid Blackburn 
• Michele Kovack 
• Stephanie Klauck 
• Chaitali Narla
• Dana Joy 
• Jessica Frost-Ballas 
• Laura Bassen
• Jennifer Ingle