OK, Who's Going?!

Hi all! I'm really looking forward to meeting some awesome people at CHA in a few days:

Julie & Shay from Winnie & Walter

Susan Opel
Zoey Scarpelli

Tenia Nelson

Who else is going?! I don't want to miss a single person!

I've only been to summer CHA before, and that was when it was in Chicago. Here's the ubiquitous self portrait with Tim Holtz:

  
I really hope to see Dyan Reaveley in action. I'm not going to be there on Friday so I couldn't sign up for her class, but I'm hoping to catch her at the Ranger booth. Here is her art journal that I drooled all over:

She's in the black bandana, whipping out a few projects like they were nothing.

Anyway, I'm counting down the hours!! In addition to crafty paradise, going from -30 wind chill to 75 and sunny is a whole other sort of heaven : )

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

2014 Year in Review

It was interesting going back to read my 2012 and 2013 Year in Review posts, so I figured I should keep the tradition going and post a 2014 Year in Review. I picked 15 for the upcoming 2015 year.

• 2013 Year in Review
• 2012 Year in Review

Still Playing with Barn Stars

First post for this new company called Winnie & Walter ... beginning of a love affair : ) Color blind test.

Getting mileage out of a snowflake die set

My favorite ... an easel card that you hold to light and see the Big Dipper.

embroidery hoop decor for Valentine's

50 Lego valentines for my kids (with a gem turned upside down for a potion bottle)

 

Die cut vintage postage stamps

Rotate Mom stamp to make Lorax flowers

Chain link die into a charm necklace

Washi tape jelly fish

Altenew giraffe with mane, and sunset

My attempt to be a little artsy with water colors

Scribble and color in, just like childhood

Card candy swap with friends

Trying a collage style

tone-on-tone with nice, thick paper

Thanks for stopping by to check these out! It's been a wonderful year being inspired by so many talented artists in our community. The bottomless support we all have for each other is very special, indeed. I'm really looking forward to what 2015 holds for us.

Loving wishes for a Happy New Year!
-Kelly

CFS Release: Smitten

The final stamp set in this release for CAS-ual Fridays is Smitten. And how appropriate, as that's exactly what I've felt about these large, scripty words! This card is pretty simple, but I though it would make a good masculine valentine that's got a bit of sass to it. I tried to make it more masculine by choosing dark purple for the heart.

Thanks for checking out these three days of the CAS-ual Friday's release! You're not going to want to miss checking out the other Ink Squad girls:

Marcie | Jingle | Virginia | Deepti | Zoey | Angie

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

A Challenge for You!

Even if you don't pay attention to give-aways very often, I'd HIGHLY recommend taking a look at Winnie & Walter's Birthday Bash Celebration.

• A chance to win all the stamps from 2014
• ten different challenges, giving away $50 gift certificate each (they're open for a MONTH!)
• A chance to be an April guest star (with stamps of course)
• freebies

It's big, folks!

My challenge is to pick a stamp and rotate it multiple times to see what you get. Sometimes you can imagine it ahead of time, sometimes it's a happy surprise.  

Here are a couple examples of what I'm talking about, but head to the Winnie & Walter blog for more details and to link up your own creation. I really, REALLY can't wait to see what you talented folks come up with!

Here's the scarf from Stampets: Penguin. The two ends of the scarf make the sides of the petals, and the neck of the scarf makes the orange center.

You can rotate a word to come up with a fun design that's also part of the sentiment.

This is a card I made awhile ago, but it uses the same rotating technique to make a compass-like design.

Really hope you can check out this celebration, and enter a challenge, or two, or four, or ten!

Happy Birthday, Fusion Challenge!

Happy New Year, everyone!! 

 We're celebrating the one year anniversary of the Fusion Challenge with a twist! Each of the team members has chosen someone to play in the challenge with them. When I heard about this, my mind started racing trying to figure out who to choose. Luckily, I didn't have to think about it too long, because I saw the inspiration photo, and immediately thought of Wida Miller. She's fun, she's sassy, she totally knows how to throw a party on a card. And that's just what she did ...

Wida's card looks amazing in pink, gold, and a variety of pretty patterns. Don't you just love it?! Thanks so much, Wida, for joining our celebration. It's wonderful to have you here!

Like Wida, I loved the pinks and gold from the photo, and had to do something similar. The charcoal paper is actually really thick wrapping paper that I found for half price at TJ Maxx after Christmas. LOVE the subtle shimmer it has. Score!

 
My mother-in-law gave me my first set of Copic markers for Christmas this year (YAY!!) I put them to good use right away and colored the strips of muslin I cut for the party banner. Such an easy way to get custom-colored fabric.

Then sentiment is from Avery Elle's Aim High set, and the patterned paper inside is Pebbles.

 

I'm also linking this up to Darnell's NBUS Challenge since it's the first time I've used this fabulous Avery Elle set. It was part of the generous prize package from Stamping Royalty.

Here are some fabulous cards by our design team!

Amy Tsuruta

Betty J.

  Danielle Robeson

Deepti Malik

Julia Aston 

Katie Brooks

Lynn Mangan

Kimberly Wiener

Lyndal Higgins

Michelle Williams

Michelle Lupton

Stephanie Severin

Winners: Will be chosen by all of our teammates in two weeks. We each will choose one favorite. The winners will be announced at 4 am (PST) in two weeks!


Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

CFS Release: Tic-tac-toe

Oh what fun ... a tic-tac-toe die! I couldn't wait to see how it would cut felt in hopes of making a travel tic-tac-toe set for my kids. By George, it worked! The super-thin lines stayed together after cutting with the new tic-tac-toe dies from CAS-ual Fridays.

Is it strange that I played a game with myself after I got the game board ready?! I won! The great thing about using felt, aside from the relative stiffness, is that it naturally sticks to each other. You can turn the board on its side and the pieces don't slide off (which would come in handy with antsy kids on a long car ride, I'm sure).

I made the game board long so that I could fold the bottom up and use that for a pocket to store the X's and O's. To give a little more finished look I stitched the edges all around but you certainly don't need to do that. You could just use mini staples to hold the pocket sides together and leave it at that.

The ribbon is sewn to the end of the game board so when it's folded up you can tie it all together.

Here's a card with this die set too. Two of the grid dies are arranged to create a star of sorts, kind of like a quilt pattern. Talk about quick to make! And it definitely is not limited to Valentine's, or even love-themed cards.

You're not going to want to miss checking out the other Ink Squad girls:

Marcie | Jingle | Virginia | Deepti | Zoey | Angie

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

CFS Release: Mwah

Big Happy New Year wishes to you all! I've sure missed everyone in blogland over the holidays. Hope you had some wonderful times with family and friends!



 

What better way to start the new year than with some new stamps?! The next three days we'll feature new Valentine and love-themed sets from CAS-ual Fridays.

This project uses every single stamp in the new "Mwah" set (obviously I just couldn't decide which ones to use!) I was going for the subway art style, mixing text and objects, as well as different fonts. Really love how it turned out, and am considering leaving this up after Valentine's Day.

 I left the glass off the frame so I could pop up the stamped panel on two layers of chipboard. The background paper is from Crate Paper. I think the pattern works well since there isn't any white in the design, so the white panel completely stands out.

I know most people like seeing cards, so here's what it would look like as a traditional card. 

You can laugh at me, but I almost always stamp everything ahead of time on a quarter sheet of copy paper. I have to know if it's going to work or not, right?! So for a different project, I folded this quarter sheet in half and cut out a heart to use for a template. When I was cleaning up my desk, I threw this and some other scraps away. The next day I saw it in my garbage on top of some solid red paper and thought it would make a pretty decent card as it was. Indeed! Sometimes you can't think too much about it : )

[PS. since it's on copy paper I'd probably only give this to my kids, but one day I may stamp it again on "real" paper]

I'm SO in love with the large script font in this set! It mixes so well with other heavy, solid fonts. And, it's large enough to stand on its own. Here it's just been stamped across the flap of an envelope. So easy, but I can totally see myself doing this on all the cards I send.

The glitter heart is from a set that's debuting tomorrow, so please come back to check it out if you're in the area!

You're not going to want to miss checking out the other Ink Squad girls:

Marcie | Jingle | Virginia | Deepti | Zoey | Angie

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly