Santa G. Claus ~ MUSE#41; Merry Monday; NBUS#67; Pixie's#96

Whoosh!

You know it's a Friday again when you see that!  Woot!

The Mister and I enjoyed seeing the little neighborhood darlings who came to the door last night.  I hope you had a wonderful Halloween walking with your trickertreaters or dropping huge fistfuls of candy into their collection vessels while their eyes widen with delight!

 

Our DIL sent us this photo showing how the grandtwins were costumed:

Adorable!  It's fun to see how siblings imaginations are so individual!

 

~~~

 

For this week's Merry Monday, we are to employ a Santa on our cards.

As the days shorten and speed by, Christmas is barreling down on us.  Don't say I didn't warn you.  This site is a great go-to site for inspiration, and no wonder, since the Design Team and gallery cards are always outstanding!

I'm finally using snippets this week, so I can go play with my friends at Pixie's Crafty Workshop!  It's so nice to have our beloved Head Mistress back from vacation.  She still has no idea about the cabbages. 
 

And if you haven't seen this week's MUSE Card Club inspiration card, check this OUT!

Is that not the coolest card?!  Janet Ribet of Swanlady Impressions is the wonderful MUSE this week and I couldn't wait to play along!

Here is my card:

This is Santa G. Claus.  The G. stands for Gnome.  I love that he is dressed in nontraditional Christmas colors.  [In the comments below, Sammy tells me that one of her blogging buddies Mina (Pinkpuds) told her that traditionally Santa's suit was blue or green, depending on what country you lived in. It was changed to red by a certain soft drinks company for their seasonal ads! So technically, I did make a traditionally-colored Santa!  Thanks, Sammy!]

My gnome is NBUS and it's from Paper Smooches.  I can't take credit for the genius idea of turning a gnome into Santa.  I saw it recently on this post by Elena on her Just Me website.  Thank you again, Elena!

 

I placed a hill of snow onto my card and overlaid it with piece of snowy vellum.  I didn't even have a whole sheet of the vellum in my stash and, boy, do I wish I knew where it came from so I could get some more of it.  The snowy vellum was placed over the card and the word "peace" (also NBUS) from a PTI set was stamped onto the vellum.  Then my fussy-cut Santa ganome, colored with SU! markers, Wink of Stella, and Glossy Accents, was popped on top.

 

It is hard to capture the sparklyness of the Wink of Stella in Santa's beard and mustache.  I see now that I forgot to color his little cheeks, nose, and ears in a rosy pink.  Oh well, let's just say it's SOOO freezing cold where he is that all the color has drained away! 

 

Next I popped on Santa's hat ball made from a circle punched from more VOS in my stash, a sort of brushed velvet that I've had since forever and only use for Santa's hat ball and Easter bunny tails.  Normally Santa's shoes would be shiny black, but I had to make them lushilicious blue orbs to mimic Janet's droplets of yummy color.

 

As long as we're talking about MUSE, I'd like to thank all of you who either participated by CASEing my card last week or left me sweet comments about the card and post.  Mwah!

 

~~~

 

Which brings me to a request for prayers for a dear friend of mine, and possibly yours, as well.  Her name is Anne and her blog is Redanne.  Another sweet friend, Jenny, from Pushing the Right Buttons has written so well about what's happened, I will let her tell you:

"Hi everyone. I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating; you can make some wonderful friends through crafting/ blogging, and I'm lucky enough to have some of the best on the planet. One of those beautiful people is Anne (Redanne) who I'm sad to report is poorly at the moment. It is a measure of her incredible selflessness and thoughtfulness that, lying in hospital after a fall at the weekend, one of her first concerns was to let her blogging friends know that she wasn't ignoring them deliberately or falling behind on commenting on their work.

"Knowing Anne, she'd be mortified that I'm letting you know and asking you to send your thoughts and prayers her way as she never seems to think she is worthy of attention. Knowing you guys, you'd be equally mortified that you'd been left unaware of Anne's plight and the opportunity to send those thoughts and prayers her way. On the horns of that dilemma I thought it right to keep you all 'in the loop'.   

I'm sure there'll be lots of you out there who will be putting those crafting skills to good use creating a little something for Anne. For those [in the UK] who would like to contribute to a collection for some flowers on Anne's return home, please contact Brenda Brown (another of my 'rocks') who has incredibly kindly offered to coordinate this; brenda_brown25@hotmail.com."

Thank you for sharing so beautifully, Jenny. 

If you could take a moment to send Anne your positive vibes or prayers for a smooth and speed recovery, I would appreciate it very much, as I know she would.  If you would like to send Anne a card, please email me for her address.  (My email link is located on my profile page.)  Thank you!

 

~~~

 

I'd also like to thank our newest friend Viv of Viv's Visuals for joining us!  Viv has been blogging since 2008 which means you could lose yourself for days and days enjoying her wonderful works of art!  Welcome Viv, we're so happy to have you join the party!

~~~

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

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment and/or join as a follower!  Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor! 

 

 

*Life Is Too Short!  

Paper:  SU! Bermuda bay; PTI white;
  unknown velvet and vellum
Stamps:  Paper Smooches "Forest Whimsy";
  PTI Think Big Favorites #9
Ink:  SU! Bermuda bay
Wink of Stella white; Glossy Accents