A site for my handmade cards, accompanied by my photos and written meanderings which are occasionally witty, often tongue-in-cheek, and rarely profound. Beginning in June 2013, you'll also see lots of NBUS, which is an acronym I coined for Never-Before-Used-Schtuff. Note: my Privacy Policy can be found at a tab below and you can find my NBUS Challenge online. I hope you'll join in the fun there! Thanks for coming by! Have a beverage and enjoy!

January 31, 2013

P.S. ColourQ #174 and Muse #2

Since time is running at the second challenge at Muse Card Club, I made a gift card enclosure tonight using this week's colors from ColourQ.
 

Aren't those delicious colors for Valentines?!  And that wreath!  HellO!

The guest designer this week for Muse is the incredible Suzanne Dahlberg of the card yard.  Suzanne's stunning card is very clever and very cheerful.

 
Suzanne has generously included a video on her blog showing how she made the rounded top.  It works very well, so I hope you will go and check it out if this is new to you, like it was for me.  You can see that I didn't get it prezactly right, but I like the idea, so I'll be using this design again.  Thank you, Suzanne!
 
 
 
I used pink vellum, and a Sizzix daisy die, along with designer series papers, vanilla, and early espresso from Stampin Up!.  This was the first time I added vanilla to my espresso and it was really zinging-dinging.  Tomorrow I'll serve it to Mister for dessert with crumb cake, as we sit on a bed of river rock.
 
Mr. Blogger keeps popping up a pop-up saying he can't do what I asked, but I haven't even asked yet, so I don't know what's going on or if this will post or what time it will post.
 
See you tomorrow!  If you are just waking up, enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy your day. LITS!
 
 

Clean & Simple Card Making 2 ~ Homework Day 4

And there's the first month of 2013  gone ~ whoosh!
 
I was going to start participating in Christmas card challenges all year long.  Not.  It feels like a speeding train.
 
Today's CAS class was again CASucational!  I CASEd Julie Ebersole with white ink on a dark background and I got another Valentine made in the bargain.  Yippididdle!!
 
Here you go:


EZPZ.  I think it would really be stunning embossed, but this shows that you can make a perfectly happy card in less than five minutes.  EZPZ.

~~~

I'm going to see if I can squeeze in a couple of makes for challenges tonight.  But first, please help me welcome Jean Manis of Right As Rain, another totally adorable blog and artist!  Thank you so much, Jean, for joining us!!
 
~~~
 
I'll leave you with a few *smilie* photos, whether you be a cat-lover, or a dog-lover, or a baby lover!
 
 
Karma, Baby

Smoochable!!

~~~
 
Enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy your day.  LITS!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!
Paper:  SU! Cherry Cobbler
Stamps:  SU! heart, unknown set
  sentiment:  PTI Birthday Bash
Ink:  Color Box frost white
Gold cord

January 30, 2013

Clean & Simple Card Making 2 ~ Homework Day 3

I'm doing a Post Drip today.

I'm no longer in detention at school.  I caught up on my homework.  Yahoo!
 
One time when I was prolly about ten years old, I reached across the space between desks for something on someone else's desk that wasn't mine, and I tipped my desk over.  Instead of sending me to the Principal's office, the teacher made me go sit in the Kindergarten class with the five-year-olds. 
 
It was all I could do to squeeze into the little baby desk.  I can still feel my cheeks burning when I remember all those innocent round-eyed faces staring at me in disbelief.  Actually, I'm the one that was staring in disbelief, they were staring in amusement!  It was such a genius punishment because it was extremely effective.  I'll bet you have a similar grade-school experience to share, hmmm?  No?  Oh.
 
The fun thing about taking an online card class is that it is self-paced.  I'm only kidding about being in detention.  It's just easier to keep up and do "funwork" the same day.  I have a better chance of remembering it if I stay on pace.
 
So without further achoo, here is my card with an off-set opening:
 
 
Today's class videos were again excellent!  Thank you, ladies!  I chose to CASE Jennifer McQuire's technique on gradient stamping.  I didn't have the best possible stamp for the technique, but I enjoyed employing it with what I had.  It's brilliant for making a few inks look like more!
 
~~~
 
Today I'm thrilled to introduce you to Colleen from One Smile Lifts A Spirit!  Isn't that a wonderful banner name?  I like the entire phrase on her banner, which I'll share here:

One seed can start a garden, one candle can light a room, one step can begin a journey, one conversation can start a friendship, one smile from a handmade card can lift one's SPIRIT!
 True that!  Thank you, Colleen, and welcome!

~~~

I hope you've been seriously enjoying your day!  See you tomorrow!
 
LITS!

 
Paper:  PTI Hawaiian Shores, white;
  SU! Certainly Celery
Stamps:  Unmarked clouds;
  sentiment: JRL Design Co. T122
Inks:  SU! certainly celery, Bermuda
  bay; PTI hawaiian shores
  Imprintz white embossing powder
Die:  Lil Inker Bow
Punches: EK Success little heart;
  Corner Chomper
 

Clean & Simple Card Making Homework; Hero Arts January Contest

Happy Humpty Dumpty Day!

I made that up because normally it is What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday, but I'm not going on the WOYWW tour today because I'm taking an online class and afters I have funwork assignments to do and this week there are domestic matters like a car tune-up and a washing machine recall repair and crafty matters like orders for Valentine cards, all of which will prevent me from stopping by other WOYWW desks, as I am wanton to do, and if I can't go visiting, then I don't go linking. 
 
But if you came to peek at why I'm not WOYWWing, then hello and thank you for stopping by!  That was really sweet of you, leave a note to let me know you were her and I'll be happy to return the flavor.  Let me know you were her.  Ha Ha, I like that one.
 
~~~
 
I am thoroughly enjoying the online Clean & Simple Card Making 2 series. Yesterday was the second class and I've already gotten so many tips, I can quit my other waitressing job.  The teachers are very generous with their knowledge.  (Thank you, ladies, if you happen to read this!)
 
For my homework last night, I CASEd Julie Ebersole again.  (I just found out from Maile that today is Julie's 50th birthday, so happy birthday young Miss Julie!)  Following Julie's lead, I masked and sponged and masked and glittered and, well, here:
 
You guys, I actually used Distress Ink and didn't leave lines!  First I masked the card and sponged the negative heart die cut and then I masked the heart while inking the "arrow."  It was a maskafest!
 
I put "arrow" in quotes because I don't actually have an arrow stamp of any kind to put through the heart, so out came my Thinking Cap.  Turns out one of the stamps in the Hero Arts Ribbon Borders set made a nice shaft and another from a tiny corner stamp set made a perfect point.  All made even more perfect courtesy of a Stampa-ma-jig.

So next thing I did was lay down a couple of strips of Scor Tape and, seriously for the first time ever, I poured out two solid strips of glitter.  I have several little containers of lovely glitter and have had them for years, but other crafters (Frank Lee) have scared me silly from using the stuff.  Last night I threw glitter to the wind and went for it.  It was pretty darn fun if you ask me.  I was very careful and used a big sheet of paper under the card and then I scooped up the excess like I do with embossing powder and it was all good!  Mwah!
Then again, I haven't gone back out to the Playhouse yet this morning, so ask me later if it's all over everything.  If that's the case, I'll take a picture and post to WOYWW after all!
 
The little heart brad is from Stampin' Up!.  I do have bubble tops, but I couldn't find a paper accent I liked; I searched for way too long before I opted for the brad.

And, finally, it's a one-layer card!  Don't you love it?!  You have to admit that's a lot of dementia for a one-layer card!

~~~

Since I used Hero Arts, I popped over there to see what the current contest is, and squee, it is "Try Something New!"  That Serena Dipity is a hoot.  I'm just getting in under the wire.  My new was Scor Tape and glitter and using two HA stamps that I have never inked!

~~~
 
So that's it.  I'm hoping to get on track with the rest of the class and post my homework card the same day as the lesson, rather than the day after, so I may be back later today with a second post.
 
Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy your day. LITS!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

Paper:  PTI white
Stamps:  Hero Arts Ribbon Borders
  and separate Corner set; Hugs is
  Hero Arts A1308
Ink:  DI Barn Door; SU! Night of Navy
Die:  Cuttlebug Classic Hearts
Glitter:  Sulyn Xtra Fine; Scor Tape
Corner Chomper


 

January 29, 2013

CASEing Klass and CASEing Class

Hey There, It's Tuesday!
 
A blog friend of mine, Bonnie, of Stamping with Klass, is the Featured Stamper this week at Splitcoast Stampers (SCS).  Congratulations, Bonnie, for the well-deserved honor!

Bonnie is a prolicorice clean and simple (CAS) card maker whose work is so inspiring to me.  I have usually missed the opportunity to CASE (copy and share everything) a card from the past SCS Featured Stamper's galleries, for one reason or several, so I'm happy that I was able to make a card this week as a tribute to Bonnie.
 
It was very difficult to decide on a card to CASE from Bonnie's outstanding gallery at SCS, but eventually I settled on this cutie patootie from September 14, 2010:
 
 
We are to change at least two elements when we create our CASE card.  Here's what I made:


I love Bonnie's little vase of flowers.  I flipped the card and made my vase by layering several small Cuttlebug ornament die cuts.  I used dimensionals, and patterned paper, and dotted swiss instead of the textured plate embossing.  I used the colors, which are favorites of mine, to play in this week's Color Throwdown Challenge:
 

Or not.  I just noticed the collection is closed.  Don't you hate it when that happens?  That's okay.  That challenge photo is so amazing.

Anyhoodle, I hope sweet Bonnie likes my VASE CASE card!
 
~~~
 
I have enrolled in my first online class!  The class is one I imagine a lot of you are familiar with.  It is Clean and Simple Card Making 2.  I enjoyed the videos yesterday very much and I learned several practical tips already! 

Our homework was to make a CAS card CASEing one of four sketches.  I can't copy and show you the sketch I chose for obvious reasons, but I can show you the card I made:
 

You'll have to trust me that it looks similar to the talented Julie Ebersole's card.

Okay, I know, I didn't follow the "Rule of Three."  But, shuckie cheese, there is also a "Rule That If You Mess Up, You Put Bling Over It," especially if the other tips don't work. 

So with the conversation bubble counting as one, I have five blings ... go ahead, count, I know you want to ... that makes six, which is doubly pleasing to the eye, right?  Three squared, right?  Rule of Six*?  Doubly pleasing or chicken poxish? 
 
Whichever which way, between the up and down chevron washi tap and the pops of spots, this card is just wild about you!
 
~~~
 
And that's about enough out of me.  I'm off to take my second class.  Oh, wait, did you meet Kay?  We are so lucky to welcome Kay Miller of My Joyful Moments today!  Don't you love that banner name?  Talk about a girl after my own heart ~ and just wait until you see her sensational cards!!
 
~~~
 
Enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy your day.  LITS!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse.  Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!
 
 
 *You know if you put on your blog that the Rule of Six is so on trend right now, we could start something.





January 28, 2013

LIM #104 ~ Sketch; DD #37 ~ Soft and Crumby

High!  High!

I love making muffins or cookies and then saying to my family, "Eat that with a plate under it, it's really crumby." 

Seriously, why put silent letters in words anyway?  I have this picture of the Alphabet Team sitting around the conference boulder getting ready to close up for the day.  As they're putting all the letters away for the night, Pete yells, "Hold up, people, there's an extra B here again!"
I took my crumb cake and a piece of soft suede from this week's challenge at Dynamic Duos,
and Chrissie and Jen's sketch challenge from this week's Less Is More,

and I made a quick passionate CAS card:


I used the textured version of the SU! colors, which I like because it gives the card, um, some texture, which seems fitting if you're going to live with passion.  I took some neutral flowers from a Hot Off The Press package of flowers and inked the middle one with crumb cake so it would look like a matching decorabre on a wonderful expensive jacket.

~~~

I am pickled tink today for a few reasons.  I woke up this morning to learn my card yesterday was this week's winner at CASology!  I did a little happy dance, imitating Tiny Tim Tiptoeing Through The Tulips, until one of the pictures fell off the wall in the hallway.  I'm thrilled to receive the honor!

And I'm thrilled to let you know that Tenia Nelson of Jazzy Paper Designs has joined us. Tenia is a crafter and, whoot, a jazz pianist!  We'll be really rocking the cards in the Playhouse, now!  Welcome, Tenia, and thank you!

Next, I am so happy to have Stephanie Lanzalotto of My Ink Well join us!  You'll see that Stephanie has a stunning heart card of her own when you pop over to welcome her.  Thank you so much, Stephanie!

~~~

We had a wonderful decadent fattening lunch and a fun time with the twins and DS and DDIL yesterday.  The pub had a shuffleboard table, which was a whole new experience for the twins and kept them happily entertained.  Of course, who didn't take any pictures?  None of us.  I mean, all of us.  Didn't.

~~~

But I did remember that I had a couple of pictures on my cell phone that I'd taken at an old-fashioned candy store (of all places!) a few weeks back.  Here's one that I thought you might enjoy:


Mister commented at the time that I could probably teach a class on motivational speaking. Wasn't that the sweetest thing to say?  I smiled, thinking it was a compliment.  You know those compliments that hit you the next day when you are alone and you whip around and say to the air, "Wait.  What did he mean by that?!"

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy your day. LITS! 

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!



Paper:  SU! soft suede and
  crumb cake; PTI vintage cream
Stamps:  SU! unknown set
Ink:  SU! crumb cake and soft
  suede
Flowers:  Hot Off The Press, Inc.

January 27, 2013

ATCASE #5; CAS(E) #12; CASology #28; Pixie's #57 ~ A Heart Martini

Happy Funday!

Thank you for taking a break from whatever you were doing and stopping in!  We got a last-minute call that the twins are feeling better, so we're heading out to meet the family for lunch.  Yippee! 
For my card today, I used this delightful sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

And thanks to the great ladies who bring us these fun challenges to fuel our imaginations, I am also playing in this week's CASology, where the cue card is "DRINK," and Addicted to CAS: ATCAS #5, where the code word is "HEARTS."  Thanks to Di and her encouragement to use up my scraps, I am joining the girls on the snowy playground at Pixie's Crafty Snippets.  I hope you get a chance to check out these great challenges!

Walla:

I turned the olive cocktail pick into a heart cocktail pick for you to stir your martini, baby, made extra icey cold so's not to melt your hearts too soon.  Slurp. 

Oh, and I used a marker to ink up my martini stamp, so I could leave part of the stem uninked in order to lay my sentiment in the middle of it.  Then, after stamping the sentiment, I just sketched in the stem by hand, so it ended up looking like one big image, instead of two.  Did I fool ya?
~~~
Speaking of parties, please help me welcome more new friends!  Today we have:
Maria of Crafty Cre8tions.  If you like dogs, her banner will have you kissing your monitor!
Diane McVey (let me know if you have a blog, Diane, so I can mention it)
Welcome, ladies, and thank you so much!!

~~~

Just real quick, for those of  you who have been praying for, or sending positive thoughts to, my blog friend, Bernie, I want you to know her bowl of onions is not quite as big as she feared, but she still does need us to help her get through her fight with cancer.  You do make a huge difference and she is so appreciative and so am I.  Thank you! 
You're the best!  In fact, here's a favorite song of mine, all about peeps helping peeps!  Bill Withers, singing "Lean on Me," here.

~~~

Okay, gotta dash for a twin fix!  You enjoy your day today, too!  No, seriously, enjoy your day.  LITS! 
Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse.  Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!
Paper:  PTI white; unknown ancient
  heart paper from stash; SU! real red
Stamps:  Mostly Animals, "Martini" 1199-S7;
  sentiment: The Rubbernecker Stamp Co.
Ink:  Marvy marker; Copics outliner;
  SU! real red; Sakura pens (turquoise)
Corner Chomper

January 25, 2013

PTI January 2013 Blog Hop Challenge; Retrosketches #47

And we're back around to Friday.  Whoosh!
Nichole Heady's {capture the moment} January PTI blog hop challenge for today is to use PTI true black (or smokey shadow) as a background or card base. I chose to make a card using true black card stock while wearing smokey shadow on my eyes. I think that counts double.
To make my black background card, I used sketch #47 at Retrosketches, which is is based on a card designed by the sensational card artist, Jen Mitchell.
My take on the challenge, using PTI's Harvest Berries stamp:

The sentiment looks like it might also be from PTI, but I'm not sure.  As so often happens, I chose my image and my sentiment chooses me.  Sometimes it's the other way around.  Does that happen to you?  In this case, I ended up loving how the berry stem appears to flow right through the "r" in "here."

I think you can see in the picture that I embossed the sentiment onto the card base, then embossed the berries on a separate sheet of card stock, cut it and trimmed it to line up above and below the sentiment (an introverted band) to reflect the sketch.  I don't make a lot of black cards, but I love the true black with the white embossing powder, so I'll be creating with this idea again.

Black does seem to be trending in cards.  That may or may not be true, I just always wanted to write a sentence like that.  What IS true is that there are a lot of cards being made with the "blackboard" technique, which makes your card front really look like a blackboard!  Well it might make YOUR card look that way.  I tried the technique, but I discovered it just wasn't for me.  What happened was, I kept getting carried away 'erasing' and before I knew it, I had removed my entire focus pocus.   Wouldn't it be funny if I submitted a card like that to a challenge with the front of it looking simply like an erased blackboard?   Like the janitor came in and erased my picture when I stepped out to go to the bathroom?
~~~
I'm so delighted to have you all meet our latest new friend!  Her name is Viv and her blog is Daizy-Mae's Crafty Blog!  Viv is talented in card and  jewelry making and like a lot of us, enjoys "all things crafty!"  Welcome to the Playhouse, Viv, where you can get as cray-cray crafty as your heart desires!!
~~~
Have a contented weekend, pups, wherever you are, hot or cold, in or out, up or down, far and wide, dru -- okay, okay.  It's supposed to be a rainy weekend here, so I'll be happily crafting Valentine cards.  And hopefully seeing the twins.

Enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy your day.  LITS!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse.  Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!




Paper:  PTI true black
Stamps:  PTI Harvest Berries;
  unknown sentiment
Ink:  Imprintz white EP
Bling:  from stash

January 24, 2013

MUSE #1 ~ Springtime in Winter

Hi There!

I spiffed up and cleaned off my desk in the Playhouse last night and set my heart stamps aside so I could join in the fun of another brand spankin new challenge called "Muse."  Its logo is cute as anything,
and it's Design Team is made up of delightful and super-uber-duper talented card makers a lot of you are already familiar with.  Here is the link for you to check out the details and play along. 

For the very first challenge, our Muse is the sweet Amy Kolling! Amy made this gorgilicious card:
 
Special3
 
We are free to draw our inspiration from any or all elements of Amy's card.  I've done some literal interpretations of sketches before, but I think this is the very first time I've done a pretty strict CASE interpretation of an actual card.  Amy's soft yellow flowers against the clean white really spoke to me and I know someone who adores yellow flowers, so this was a no-brainer.  Especially since I had a no brainer left after working yesterday. 
 
So there you have it.  Here's mine:
 
 
Amy embossed and colored her lemon-meringuey flowers with distress inks.  I used a Sizzix's Embosslits blossom to die cut and emboss the flower from patterned paper.  I'm not sure you can see that it's embossed.  I flipped my card on its side and used the same patterned paper for the card base.  (Since it is really too flimsy to be a card base, I reinforced it with white card stock on the inside.)  The top mat is made using Lil Inker's stitched mat rectangle and the bottom mat is embossed using a Cuttlebug EF to mimic Amy's striped paper.
 
This is a lot more layering and whatnot than I normally do with my CAS cards, but it came together very quickly and easily using Amy's "blueprint."  Thank you, Amy!
 
~~~
 
My friend's 96-year-old-mom fell and broke her arm, poor thing.  So my friend has gone to help her and I'm back to work today, which means no time for a rolling ramble.  Wait.  What?  Did I hear a sigh of relief?!  Not only that, but it gives you more time to check out Muse and support this fun new challenge!  The more the merrier, terrier!
 
Enjoy your day!   No, seriously, enjoy your day.   LITS! 

Thank you so much for stopping by to visit the Playhouse.   Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!





 
Paper:  SU! DSP, "Beyond the Garden";
  PTI white; leaves DCWV
Stamp:  SonLight Crafts 1499-C
Ink:  Marvy black; Copics Outliner
Dies:  Sizzix Embosslits; PTI leaves
EF:  Cuttlebug; Lil Inker Stitched Mat Rectangles
Gold bling Studio112; other from stash
 

 
 

January 23, 2013

WOYWW #190

A Wednesday Wello!!

One of the gals at work has had an emergency to do with her mom, so I'm off to help out.  I couldn't leave without linking a picture of my desk to share at the famous and fab Julia's What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday (WOYWW).

So here ya go then.

 
It's prolly too far away to see much, but I had to take a long shot or you wouldn't believe it.  In the long shot forefront you can see a card that you'll never see in a short shot because it looks like something I might have found in a cardboard box of keepsakes my mother saved from when I was five years old, cept I didn't never have that kind of mother and even if I had had, we certainly never had room for any cardboard boxes full of keepsakes from seven children.  Whaddayou, nuts?
~~~
 
Sorry I digested.  The truth is, I was making a card for a challenge using a new embossing technique and that went okay until I tried getting jiggy with washi tape, which I am new at using, and which turned my perfectly good card into a disaster. 
 
Turns out, no one told me some washi tapes don't pull right off.  Turns out, they sometimes take part of your card stock with them, so then you put the washi tape back where it was, which is stupid because if you liked it there, you never would have lifted it off and wrecked your card.  Then, after that, you put on more washi tape because everyone knows that if you don't like something on your card, putting on more of it will make it better.  Then, after that, you start taping up the sides of your card and by now it turns out, it's thirsty work.
 
~~~
 
Even after all that, you're still not sure this is my desk, are you?  Some of you who have been regularly stopping by the Playhouse for the better part of a year might be cocking your ear down to your shoulder, wondering if I photoshopped this picture.  That can't possibly be neatfreak Darnell's desk, you cry!   Wait.  Look there.  Yes, it looks ... yes, there's the large vodka ... yes, there's the large dish of chocolates ... yes, and yes, but the mess, oh my word, has she gone insane-er?
 
(BTW, did you know that you cock your ear over your right or left shoulder depending on whether or not you are right- or left-handed?  Uh-huh.  Unless you're a cocker spaniel.  Hence the name!)

~~~
 
So, yeah, that's my desk.  And just so you know it's really me, Mister took my pister:
 
 
As much as I love making cards for VD Valentine's Day, I will be cleaning off my desk after work so these hives can go away.  I have new admiration for those of you who can master creativity in the midst of chaos.  And you also have excellent eyesight.  I found that I couldn't, quite litterly, find things that were smack in front of my nose!  Nothing to do with the vodka.
 
~~~
 
Enjoy your day and your WOYWW tour!   No, seriously, enjoy your day.   LITS*!

As usual, I'll visit as many WOYWWers as I can, even if it takes me all week, and if you visit me first, I'll be sure and return the flavor!  Thank you so much for stopping by to visit the Playhouse.   Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!
 




*Life Is Too Short!
No source given for the picture; Mrs. Google had it in her image folder.


January 22, 2013

DD#36; CFC#86: PCS#56; LIM#103 ~ The Long and the Short of It: You Are My Valentine Friend!

Happy Tuesday!

Well, apparently all the peeps in my head didn't like that I complained about them, so they decided to play nicely yesterday in a LOT (for me) of challenges!  I know!  Shocked my biscuit, too, believe me!  I've decided it's because I heart doing heart cards for VD and I particularly heart white and red and black.  Let's get right to it.

Dynamic Duos #36.  Use real red and basic black with a Valentine option.  If you use fake red and advanced black, you will be delineated.
Here are two cards I made using the Stampin' Up! cards called "Designer Cuts."  Please note that this picture is a good example of the fact that cards have feelings, too.  Although these are card twins, the one on the right is much more of a camera hog, swelling up her little heart to appear more volumptuous and more starlettish!

Here's a close-up of the intricate cut-out:

~~~
Then I made another card for Dynamic Duos, which fits these additional challenges:
CAS-ual Friday #86.  No A2 (4.25 x 5.5) cards this week.  That's the long and the short of it.  Oh, and there is a Design Team Call if you're interested!


Pixie's Crafty Snippets #56.  Use up your crap snippets and link up.  (Di, you need a little logo!)  For the long card I used ancient spinnerts of polkie-dot paper.

Less Is More #103 is a Theme week. 
We'd love you to display our banner

Chrissie and Jen want us to make FRIEND-related cards. This is a good time to send Valentine cards to our friends so they know we don't take them for granite!

And here is mine for you:


For this 4x8 card, I used the tree trunks image from the CAS-ual Friday Stamps set "Calm and Gentle" (below) to make the trunks for my forest of Heart Trees.  The ribbon is SU! real red.  Frankenstein is the author of the quote.

~~~

I now have a blog address for you to visit for follower, Kristie Goulet.  It is Kreative Kristie.  Kristie is very new to blogging, so I know she will appreciate it if you stop in to see her!  Thanks again for joining the party, Kristie!

~~~ 

Finally, here's a cartoon you can copy and put in with your Mister's Valentine!


Category:  I'm just saying.
~~~
Enjoy your day!   No, seriously, enjoy your day.   LITS*!
As always, thank you so much for stopping by to visit the Playhouse.  Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

Calm and Gentle