Scrapping Our Stash blog hop *Christmas in July*

HELLO!!!  Welcome to my blog!  Today I'm participating in a blog hop with some amazingly talented ladies.  You should have arrived here from Cheryl's blog.  If this is your first stop and you want to hop along, you can start at the Practical Scrappers blog.

*Christmas in July!*

This month, we thought it would be fun to play along with the theme Christmas in July!  Seems kinda silly to me that I'm using words like "brrrr" and "chilly" in my projects when it's 85 degrees outside.  LUCKILY, my hubby likes to keep the AC super low so it was easy to channel the inner me that's freezing all the time.  (Yahhh!  Brrrrr!)

I've pretty much depleted my holiday stash over the years, and never replenished, so I didn't have much to work with.  I did have these kraft tags from Martha Stewart though that I still had never opened (seriously, have had these things at least TWO WINTERS!).  After I ran across this pin on Pinterest, I knew I wanted to make some pretty gift tags.

I filled these tags with lots of layering and some cutie cute stickers and die cuts I had leftover from other kits.  The little starry-eyed snowman above is from a collection by Moxxie.  I paired it with strips of paper by Dear Lizzy (for American Crafts).

Stamps are awesome because you can use them over and over again.  The "chilly" stamp above has gotten some good use so far!  Aren't those little skates cute too?  I'm pretty proud of myself for using purple since it's my least favorite color.

The "love" circle above is also a stamp, from Elle's Studio.  I "love" their stamps!  (hehe...see what I did there?!)  These little tags were awesome because I was able to use a lot of scraps.  The ribbon and the patterned paper are both scraps.  Look at those cute little sugar dots!

Penguins are my FAVORITE!  My whole family knows it and my sister just got me a big fat stuffed penguin for my birthday.  (He has yet to be named so if you have any ideas, CHIME IN!)  These penguin stickers were from Wal-Mart that I purchased several years ago, so I'm THRILLED that those are finally gone!

GIVEAWAY!

Of course I have to have some fun goodies to send to someone!!  They include some tags from American Crafts, vintage ric rac ribbon, and a brand new snowman stamp from Great Impressions.  I'm also going to through in a few Elle's Studio Christmas-themed tags (not pictured).  For a chance at the goods, you can do any of the following:

• Leave a comment.
• Follow kelsterjean designs on Bloglovin.
• Follow kelsterjean designs on Facebook.
• Become a follower via Google Friend Connect. 

I'll choose a winner on Friday, August 1st.  (Open to international readers!)  Please make sure to leave a place for me to contact you if you are the winner!  Your next stop is Kristy's blog!  This is her first blog hop so make sure you show her some love.  (And can I tell you a secret?  SHE'S MY SISTER!)

xoxo,

Kelster Jean

lots going on at Just Two Midwest Girls!

Have you checked out the Just Two Midwest Girls blog lately?  Even if you haven't had a chance to play along with our fun challenges, there's lots going on over there!  Heather and I have been sharing lots of awesome inspiration and projects all month!

*Heather's awesome layout that included a mini album on the layout!

*Pretty project inspiration using journaling cards.

*My Tiny Memories in a Tin Mini Album.

*Currently loving... which shares some links to Heather's and I's current favs.

*And today, I'm sharing our first entry for "Diary of a Scrapbooker."

Whew!  It's been quite busy over there!  Hope you will check some of it out!

xoxo,

Kelster Jean

crafting and life-ing.

<recents from my Insta feed>

click to enlarge.

(top)

>My guy.  He makes me smile every day of my life.  Even when I turn into a monster cuz I'm sleepy and threaten to make him sleep on the couch.  (haha. Sorry baby!)

>Murphy likes to fool people with his cute good looks.  Really, he's the biggest troublemaker in the house.  His new favorite hobby is teasing the dog...

>have fun and scrap on!  (Enough said).

>I created a quick Pinterest-inspired card last week for my Grandpa's birthday.  This is the only photo I have of it.  He loved it!

>Some days, I feel so fancy!  I wore my newest thrifty find and felt cheery ALL DAY!  Also, the bathroom mirror at work is perfect for selfies! 

(bottom)

>The best our "nice photos" get.  We took this at a secret rendezvous.  Shhh!  Yeah, we're badass!

>So many crafting photos in my feed lately!  Washi tape and beer, that goes together perfectly, right?

>Baby, you're a FIREWORK!  One of the main reasons I love the 4th is because I get to exhaust the use of this song lyric.

>  Remember *smashing?  I've been getting into that again....I'm loving it!

>One of my Thursday three photos.  I tried to include the dog this week but she would NOT stop licking me!  So this is the best I get.

>A happy craft table.  Very sad, though, that my local scrapbook store is closing down so no more group meet-ups.  We will continue: someway, somehow!

Follow me on Instagram at @ kelsterjean

xoxo,

Kelster Jean

 

 

birthday wish list.

(click to enlarge)

T minus 1 day until I can start referring to my age as "the late 20s."  I've been dropping subtle little hints to Alex for a while now as to what I might want for my birthday.  (haha, yeah right).  More like "Baby, add that to my list!"  I wouldn't be all too upset if one of these beauties showed up at my doorstep!

 REALLY THOUGH, I'm just happy we both have Friday off to hang out and maybe find some trouble.  Time with my hubs will always be numero uno on any wishlist!

one/two/three/four

five/six/seven/eight 

xoxo

Kelster Jean

a look back: The Memories of Us mini album

 

Anyone else spend some time looking through old albums and projects?  I've been doing this alot lately.  It's interesting looking back at the early days of my scrapbooking career and seeing how my style and documenting has changed.  (I'll admit: some of it makes me cringe, but oh well).   I found this little mini book that I originally shared here.  (Elizabeth Kartchner left a comment on this post.  I am beyond honored!)  I had a good laugh at the randomness of this album.  Really, why did I think that "me with someone else" was a great concept for this album?  Regardless of the silliness of the reason, I am happy I took the time to document these photos.  I was extremely pleased to see that some of my favorite people in the whole wide world were in this album.

You can see the full album here.  I decided to go back and re-photograph this album, and also re-wrote my blog post that it was featured on.  This will be happening alot in the near future as I realized that most of the content on my blog needs to be restored.  I could just go back and delete it all, but I really love reading the self that wrote these posts.  AND, if anyone pinned my projects or posts, it makes them un-usable and I don't want to do that to my readers and followers.  This is a HUGE project and undertaking for me, but I'm hoping to have everything restored by the end of the year.  (Wish me luck!)

What is your favorite project that you've looked back on?  Share links in the comments so I can take a peek!

xoxo

Kelster Jean

 

trading nuggies for marriage advice.

I know I sound just like my Mom when I say "What happened to my sweet little boy brother?"  It's hard to believe that cute little guy up there is now married and well on his way to starting a life and family of his own.  Yep, I've swapped giving nuggies (spelling, anyone?) and harmless teasing for marriage advice and praise.  (Ahhhh, I'm growing up TOO!!)

 

 

These two rolled into town for a short road trip/honeymoon celebration/meet the family.  I really already LOVE this girl like she's my sister.  She's beautiful and intelligent and super talented in the photography department (yeah free lessons!).  The best of all is seeing her with my brother and how well they compliment each other.  She brings out an even better and brighter him, which is how marriage is supposed to go down.  Watching them interact reminded me so much of me and Alex when we were young and in love.  (Well, we're still young AND still in love, but you get the gist).  I tried schooling them with my best marriage wisdom: number one key is learn to compromise cuz you'll be doing lots of that, apologize quickly, and try to be up when the other person is down.  This, I have learned from own marriage, are truly important!  And when all else fails: take a day off from everything, sit in your underwear together, watching movie re-runs and eating popcorn and ice cream! (haha!)

 

As a marriage gift, Chicago offered them lots of beautiful weather and adventures.  One of them, a boat ride on Lake Michigan, we got to tag along for.  If you ever come to Chicago, THE BEST way to see Chicago is on a boat ride through the Chicago River into Lake Michigan.  DO IT!  You'll get the best view of this beautiful city EVER!  Every day they were in town the weather was beautiful.  Even this day, it was supposed to rain like crazy and cleared up!  Of course, when they left, they took the wonderful weather with them and it poured like crazy most of the day yesterday.

Now that it's back to normal life, it's major catch up time!  I will be posting my Just Two Midwest Girls project on Tuesday, but if you want a preview, check out this video I shared on my Instagram.  Heather has also been AMAZING with keeping up with our blog while I've been away.  Check out her project for our challenge and some journaling card inspiration to get you to play along!  I'll also be revealing this month's prize, so stay tuned and make sure you follow our the Just Two Midwest Girls blog!

xoxo

Kelster Jean

Murica!

"Let's celebrate America's freedom by blowing up a small portion of it!"  This is how my hubby describes the celebration of America's independence.  He also refers to our country as "Murica!"  In all seriousness though, while we don't bleed red, white, and blue all the time, we are definitely aware and appreciative of how good we have it in this country.  We love where we live and we love our freedom.

Usually I play along with tons of other scrappers that create red, white, and blue-themed projects around this time.  But, since the holiday just absolutely crept up on me, that didn't happen.  Oh well.  So instead, here is a layout I created in July 2011 of me and two of my siblings.  My brother is in town for the holiday and we'll be partying it up tonight with all things Americans love to do: barbequing, swimming in the pool, eating good (and unhealthy) food, sitting around a fire, and yes, even watching some fireworks (and blowing some off).

I wish everyone a safe and happy fourth of July filled with lots of happy memories!

xoxo

Kelster Jean