Hashtag (#) Cupcake!

How's it going? The world's kind of a mess right now and it's still Hades hot in my neck and around my woods, so let's escape to card land.

Today I'm popping in here like Jack, both the box and the rabbit, because I suddenly had this idea for a card for the adorable sketch at Case This Sketch and the doors to the challenge are closing in a matter of hours. Slam! Plus, I've got August staring down at me with both barrels and we all know what that means.

Here's my card:

And here's the sketch by the supremely talented Sam Simpson:

I'm sorry Sam, but I had to move the sediment position up to my cupcake to ground it. Nobody likes their cupcakes flying off the front of a card just when they're getting ready to take a big ol' lick of that yummy colorful washi frosting in fun stripey summer colors.

There is a birthday blog hop and party happening over at Merry Monday Christmas Challenge in honor of team member LeAnne Pugliese's birthday celebration! #Happy Birthday, LeAnne and many, many more! 

And over at Addicted to Stamps and More, the theme is everyone's favorite "Anything Goes!"

Please click on the links for the challenges to find details on rules, sponsors, and prizes.

~~~

New Friends Corner

Please welcome our newest friend, Rema of RT Impressions. Rema has been blogging since 2010. She works full-time and unwinds with her paper crafting and card art, which is fantastic! Rema is the proud grandmother of Levi and she loves reading, gardening, and the company of her two Jack Russell terriers.

That got me wondering why terriers get to be named after a person, like Jack Russell, and we don't, for instance, have Billy Wilson greyhounds or Frank Johnson beagles. I won't retype the answer because it's quite lengthy, but it's also quite interesting so here is the Wiki link all about Parson John Russell and the milkman's little female terrier named Trump who mothered the breed.

Thank you for joining, Rema, and welcome to the Playhouse!

~~~

For those of us who are wives and mothers, you know how it is that once your babies starts walking, you are never allowed to go to the bathroom in peace again, right? Okay. I just want to know why little boy babies who grow up and get married continue that trait with their wives no matter how old they get!  I mean, seriously?!

~~~

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!

Project Details
Paper	PTI white, unknown pearl embossed
Stamps	Verve sediment
Ink	Versafine onyx black
Accessories	Freckled Fawn Washi tape; cupcake and frosting die by Serendipity Stamps; hashtag embellie by Chalk Studio

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:

Click CTL + Home. 
Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post.
Click Page Down to reach the end of the post.
Click Comments and the pop-up box opens.
Click Jump to Comment Form; no more car pool tunnel!
Mwah!

Be You ~ NBUS #144

Greetings, Crafters!

How are you this fine day? It's hotter than granny's cast iron skillet on Fried Chicken Fridays around t' here. And Hugh Mid has been visiting, too, which is weird because he doesn't usually come around these parts. Everyone's a bit out of sorts.

I always wondered where the phrase "out of sorts" orginated. My Aunt Alzada, who you've heard about before, always said Uncle Bill was "out of shorts." When I was a girl I used to think he went commando under his overalls and that's why he smelled like old shoes. I was a grown woman before I learned the correct expression and realized that Uncle Bill just smelled like old shoes because he wore old shoes.

But that's not why you called, we'll save the origin for below. I'm here with a card I made just for fun for challenges. However, now that it is finished, I have just the person in mind to send it to. Here tis:

These are the challenges that I'm playing in:

• The Cutting Edge. This is my first time playing in this new challenge by the famous Jackie Rockwell.

Isn't that a sweet card by Melania Deasy? You know me, I just had to think of some design element that wasn't flowers. I've been dying to use those NBUS puzzle pieces from Spellbinders on a card and so shazambam, twas what I did. I think it's deep. The "Be" (Simon Says Stamp) is a die cut opening and the green card is adhered behind it. The "you" (Papertrey Ink) is a die cut placed over the card twice.

• The Card Concept. The current challenge is a beautiful color challenge:

• Less Is More ~ Anything Goes in celebration of the birthday of the fabulous Chrissie!!
  
  

• Pixie's Snippets Playground ~ Just use those snippets!
  
  

Please join in the fun of these challenges! If you click on the links, you can find the details on rules, sponsors, and sometimes even prizes!

~~~

New Friends Corner

I'm squeelited to welcome another new friend today! Please meet:

Adele Holcomb of Bits and Pieces. Adele has been blogging since 2010. She is a wife, mother, grandmother of eight, retired, and busy with her card art. If you click on her post of July 26, 2014, you will see a video made by Operation Write Home wherein a box of cards by Adele is being opened. A BIG box of cards! I am very bad about finding time for this wonderful organization and I'm so impressed and so appreciative of all the cards Adele creates to make up for slackers like me!

~~~

Word Origami

How many of you know where the expression "out of sorts" comes from? It has come to mean "mildly unwell, not in one's usual health or state of mind." Back in the 17th century, typographers referred to the letter and number typesets as "sorts." Each letter was a different "sort" according to the Printers and Founders Language. Thus if type blocks were out of order ~ or "out of sorts" ~ it would clearly be unwelcome to a typesetter.

To be continued: "out of kilter," not to be confused with "out of kilts." 

~~~

We haven't had an update on the wildlife around here for a while. I opened the patio door yesterday and almost stepped on a decendent of Lizzie the fence lizard so I had to go grab my camera. The hummers are always a treat. The hawks you see are the new youngsters from the photos I shared earlier this year. There are two, but I wasn't able to get a photo of the two of them in the same shot. I also wasn't able to get a sharply focused shot, sorry. I was a bit becited.

~~~

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!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:

Click CTL + Home. 
Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post.
Click Page Down to reach the end of the post.
Click Comments and the pop-up box opens.
Click Jump to Comment Form; no more car pool tunnel!
Mwah!

Happy Birthday Surprise, Geri!

Happy Sunday Funday and Happy Birthday, Geri!

A wonderful and sweet little lady is having a birthday today! Her name is Geri Greening and her delightful blog is Manitoba Stamper. If you aren't familiar with her, you are in for a treat! I sent Geri a different card in the mail, but I made her another to share with you:

Here is the inside:

I think if you click to enlarge the inside of the card, you can read it. Someone let me know if you can't, and I'll insert it as text in my post.

Our mutual friend, Bev of Happy Dance is the party hostess extraordinaire and once again, she put on an affair to rifle even the caterers to the stars in Hollywood!! Thank you, Bev, for another fun party! Happy, Happy Birthday, Geri, and many, many more! You are a great friend, an exceptional card artist, and an inspiring adventurer. It's a privilege to know you and call you friend!! Mwah!!

Challenges

Addicted to CAS, "Celebrate

Seize the Birthday, "Anything Goes"

Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday

New Friends Corner

Speaking of friends, I believe this post will bring you up-to-date with all the new followers who have joined since I reached the 500 milestone in June. If you have joined since June and you haven't seen yourself in any New Friends Corners, please leave a comment or email me to let me know.

I'm thrilled to introduce you to these wonderful new friends:

Cindee K. of Flower Shoppe Cards. Cindee is another brand new blogger in our community! She started her blog in June and it would be so considerate if you took the time to stop in and give her a special welcome to Blogland. Cindee has already posted a wealth of inspiration for us on her blog with her lovely and impeccably-made cards!

Em Louise Fairley of Creative Em. Em has been blogging for a long time. "Creative Em" was started in June 2013 to reflect all aspect's of her creativity: card art, photography, and writing. She is an uber-talented award-winner who loves joining in challenges and sharing her inspirational works of art!

Lynn Kopas of Just My Style. Lynn has been blogging since 2008! You'll find oodles of inspiration when you visit this extraordinary paper artist and scrapper. Do you need ideas for layouts? Mixed media canvases? Art journal pages? Tags? ATCs? You see what I mean? It's all here for you!

Pam Sparks of Expressions With Heart. Pam has been blogging since 2009. She has been making card art since 1994! She is a wife, mother of three, and grandmother of sixteen! When she isn't loving on all that family, she is providing you with incredible inspiration through her delightful blog and through her work on many, many design teams!

Sharon Keanly of Sharon's Kardz Korner. Sharon lives in South Africa. She is an award-winning designer who has been blogging since 2009. In addition to her love for rubber stamps and card art, Sharon loves knitting, crocheting, sewing, and teddy bear making when she isn't at her full-time job. She is taking a bit of a break right now while she organizes her photographs, but please stop by anyway as she has years' worth of card inspiration, blogging tips, and tutorials to share with you!

Coni Longley ("Conil") of Which Craft? Such a cute title! Conil has been blogging since 2011. She, too, loves to participate in challenges and has won recognition for her card art which is CAS and outstanding! She is on a bit of an hiatas to play with her granddaughter, but just like Sharon, Conil has lots of inspiration to keep you busy until she returns!

子葳 王. I'm not sure, but I think this is Wei of Wei Wei. Wei is from Taiwan and she has been blogging since 2013. She makes the prettiest CAS cards, if you are looking for inspiration for CAS. You have probably seen her works of art on challenge winners' galleries because she wins a lot and rightly so!

Thank you for joining, ladies, and welcome to the Playhouse!

~~~

"404 Error"

Normally, when you join a blog by clicking the blue "Join This Site" button and follow the popup instructions, you will be added to the thumbnails and your face or shadow will then appear. When the blog owner clicks on your face, and your popup appears, normally your name is underlined. When your underlined name is clicked, the link will go directly to your blog. Awesome when it all works that way, right? However, for dozens of the last followers to join my site, when I click on their underlined names I get this message:

"404. That's an error. The requested URL was not found on this server. That's all we know."

Hmmm, yeah, no, I don't think that's all you know. And I don't think it's nice that you say so. I think it's another ploy to get us to switch to Google+. I have reported the issue to Google Help. Oh, hahahahahahaaha. Sorry. Gasp! I karack myself up!!

Seriously, though, if you do join a blog as a follower, please also take a second to leave a comment on the last post of that blog, even if it is simply "Great card," or the like. Usually the blog owner wants to find you, in turn, and perhaps join and comment on your blog and if your follower thumbnail doesn't lead them to you, perhaps your comment will. It is so much easier and less time-consuming than trying to do a detective search for you through Google. It's preshiated.

Follower Button

Many of you have no doubt heard that new Blogger blogs will no longer be able to add the "Join This Site" blue button of follower thumbnails to their salad bars. Sure enough, when you do the "add a gadget" and then scroll through the options in the popup box that opens, this is not an option.

BUT WAIT. When you first click "add a gadget" and the popup opens, please notice the column in the left-hand side of the box that says "more gadgets." If you click on that and scroll aaalllll the way down to the end of that first page of options, you will see "Followers!" That's it, there it is!!

I must say I enjoyed that discovery and I'm happy to share for those of you who dinnit already know about it. Sorry for another epic post, but I have been wanting to mention these two things.

~~~

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!

And if, like Geri, today is also YOUR birthday, I hope you have a blast!!

  

 

*Life Is Too Short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:

Click CTL + Home. 
Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post.
Click Page Down to reach the end of the post.
Click Comments and the pop-up box opens.
Click Jump to Comment Form; no more car pool tunnel!
Mwah!

End of July, Beginning of Christmas ~ NBUS #143

Hello, my wunnerful friends!

Thank you for whooshing through your week to arrive here today where we are celebrating Christmas in July! If we look over our shoulders, we'll see August crouched in a "GOTCHA!" pose, so we have got to get on it, people! I usually precipitate in the PTI blog hops that happen on the 25th of each month, but this month I am happily taking part in a Christmas in July blog hop brought to you by The Inspiration Crew.

I made two cards for this fun event:

The Inspiration Crew is a group of online card artists who love being creative. The ladies taking part in today's hop are listed below. I hope you will click on the links and check out the inspiration which these talented card artists have in store for you today!

Donna Bowman 

Rachel Kleinman

Lalo Ik

Jen Cuthbertson

Lynn Kopas

Ardyth Percy-Robb

Susie Craft Happy

Darnell Knauss -  you are here

Ceal Pritchett

A number of the designers in today's hop are awarding prizes!! My prize today is the Darice embossing folder called "Brick Pattern." I will select a winner on Friday, August 1, 2014, from the comments on today's post.

~~~

Here is a close-up of my cards which were inspired by a number of challenges.

The buttons on the garland are all from my huge button stash. I'm happy to be using some of them! The brick embossing folder is NBUS and so is that cute NOEL with a button in place of the "o!" It is part of a stamp set from My Favorite Things called "Stitched Stockings."

The stockings are buttons which have been shafted. They and the burlap are from my stash. The sediment is from the PTI set "Holiday Button Bits."

~~~

Between the two cards, lots of challenges came together:

Festive Friday

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday
Challenge ~ Emboss It

SOSS ~ B is for Brads or Buttons

Merry Monday 

Rudolph Day

City Crafter ~
Christmas in July

Please feel free to click on any of the challenge links for details regarding rules, sponsors, and prizes. I hope you get a chance to join in the fun or at least stop in to see the wonderful works of art provided by the design teams and guest designers!

~~~

New Friends Corner

It's been so wonderful to have carload after carload of new friends joining us this month! Here are five more introductions for you!

Helen Gullett of Creating Joyfully and Living My Given Life. Helen started scrapbooking in 2008 and then in 2010 her supportive husband gave her a Silhouette and she also started making beautiful cards and card embellishments. Helen is well-recognized and published and she is happy to share both her faith and her crafting talents with you!

Rachel of Inky Fingers Are Me. Rachel gets the prize as the newest blogger in our community, having just started her blog this month! PLEASE go visit Rachel to make her feel at home! Rachel, please feel free to ask me or any blogger any questions you may have. We all love helping out each other. I have a tab at the top of my blog with a list of challenges that are my favorites. Challenges are a great way to meet new friends and get your cards out there so they can inspire others!

Donna Ellis of Creative Smiles. On the other end of the blogging spectrum is Donna, who has been blogging since 2010 and working and playing the stamping life since 2004. You are going to need a full weekend and a picnic basket just to get an overview of all the tips, tutorials, recipes, and card art that Donna shares! Her enthusiasm and sheer talent will inspire and amaze you!

Tammy Whitley. Tammy, after searching on Google, I was able to find your Google+ profile, but I did not see a blog listed. I don't belong to Google+, so I couldn't find any further information. If you have a blog, please let me know so I can pass on the information to everyone and follow you, too. Thank you so much for joining me!

Elizabeth Harms of Queenartoypia. I met Eliza through WOYWW and always enjoy visiting her blog where she shares what's happening in her world of art and with her rescue cat Yoda. She brought Yoda back from the brink of death and it has been a marvelous journey of love and recovery which she continues to share with us. Now healthy, Yoda is often the star of her posts!

Thank you for joining, ladies, and welcome to the Playhouse!

~~~

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

Happy Christmas in July

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!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:

Click CTL + Home. 
Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post.
Click Page Down to reach the end of the post.
Click Comments and the pop-up box opens.
Click Jump to Comment Form; no more car pool tunnel!
Mwah!

Beside the Sea ~ NBUS #142

Greetings!

I was going to welcome you to a fresh new Monday, but Monday has already slipped its way into Tuesday for many of you, so may I just say I hope your week has started off well and stays well throughout!

We had a busy weekend of household mediocrity followed by the exciting arrival of company in the form of long-time-old-timey-friends. We're at that age where conversation consists of half-present-day and half-bygone-day dialogue. It's a nice balance, but without saying so in so many words, we all feel the pull into Geezerville. It didn't help when I asked the nice young waitress if they could turn down the music.

And that's how it begins. We four looked at each other in horror, Mister called me a cranky old bag, and then we burst into raucous laughter. You see how I purposely used the word raucous there because in common dalliance the word is usually followed by "youths." I'm a rebel like that. A delusional one.

I had a full calendar lined up this week, but today's activities were cancelled at the last minute so I enjoyed an unexpected play in a couple four challenges. In honor of summer, I made this:

The vision for this card was born from the current sketch at Case This Sketch where the spectacular Kay Miller (My Joyful Moments) is the Guest Designer:

I immediately pictured this awesome deck chair as my card focus pocus, with two loops of wave on each side. Then, since I'm trying to excavate Mt. NBUS, I had Hammy go through the embossing folder binders and let me know if the card needed a little embossing interest. 

And here is where the hamster shines. He hands me this NBUS embossing folder which is meant to be long grass. I cocked my eyebrow and he laid flat out on his tummy with his paws stretching out front and back. Ah ha. I turned the folder sideways and saw what he saw.

Ripples in the sand left by receding waves. 

Do you see it now? I have to say I thought it was pretty cleaver myself.

The deck chair is made by Technique Tuesday and the NBUS little wave is from a Paper Smooches set called "Surf and Turf." As it happens there is an "Anything Goes" challenge happening at Paper Smooches Sparks challenge blog. I admit it's stretching things a bit to enter with just this wee itty-bitty wave stamp, but hey, it's a stamp and I'm happy to let you know about this fun set which includes an ocean wave, just when you need one.

Paper Smooches Stamps website

I'm also playing in the current ColourQ Challenge which is a photo inspiration challenge. We are to use black and white and one of the featured colors or all five of the featured colors. Check out this outstanding dress. My alter ego looks mighty fine in this dress. (Yes, there are more characters besides the hamster up there in the party in my head.)

And over at Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge, the brief is "A Mid-Summer's Challenge."

And, finally, the current theme at Addicted to Stamps and More is CAS (clean and simple), which I love.

I hope you can join in some or all of these challenges! The links will take you to the challenge headquarters where you will find all the information regarding rules, sponsors, and prizes.

Edited to add: So a few of my eagle-eyed crafty friends told me that the "grass" e/f is really supposed to be horizontal and it is supposed to be "branches," not grass. Apparently we were vertically challenged while looking at the e/f and not even paying attention to the direction it was going when running it through the BS! Oh, well. We thought we were really cleaver there for a minute! But we still think the branches make great looking ocean ripples in the sand!

And, my friend Diane of 1 Card Creator has invited me to join in the Craft Hoarders Anonymous challenge, "Who's the Boss?" Thank you, Diane! It's my first time joining in this fun challenge!

~~~

New Friends Corner

I am so happy to welcome five more new friends today! I'm especially delighted because three out of four of the blogs being introduced today are all brand new bloggers!! So I do hope you will take some time and pop in to leave some love for these newbies. We never forget how scary it is to start up a blog!

Laura Jane of After-Hours Ink and Flowers. What a fun name! LauraJane is from Missouri and she only started sharing her creations on her blog this past April, but she is already an award winner! She's an excellent card artist and challenge participant who has lots of inspiration to share with you. I would love to have you take a few minutes to visit LauraJane and make her feel welcome!

Colleen. Welcome, Colleen! There is no link from your name in my follower thumbnails to a blog and I don't see an email comment from you, and with only your first name, I can't find you on Google. If you have a blog that you would like me to share, please email me to let me know. If any of you recognize Colleen's smiling face and have any information, please let me know. My email address is on my profile page which you can access via a link following the text under the photo of the Playhouse.

Riette of Red's Card Corner. Riette has been blogging and amazing the stamping community since 2011! She is a designer and award winner and I love the designs she creates from the challenge briefs. She also has a thoughtful page regarding getting started with card making. I think you will enjoy your visit and return again and again!

Sandy Iverson of Sandra's Creations. Sandy gets the prize for newest of the newest bloggers today as she just started her blog in May ~ only eight posts ago! I may be closing in on my 700th post, but I still remember my first few posts like it was yesterday! Sandy is an Australian transplanted to Texas and the mother of two adult children. She and her husband are transitioning to empty-nesters and this is a great opportunity for Sandy to become immersed in this fulfilling hobby!

Janis Woolbright of Her Peaceful Garden. Janis is also a newcomer who has only been blogging since February of this year, so your encouragement would be terrific! Janis lives in Idaho and loves making cards and cats. I mean, she doesn't make cats, but you know what I mean! I think you will enjoy your visit to Janis and she will make you feel most welcome there!

Thank you for joining, ladies, and welcome to the Playhouse!

~~~

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!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:

Click CTL + Home. 
Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post.
Click Page Down to reach the end of the post.
Click Comments and the pop-up box opens.
Click Jump to Comment Form; no more car pool tunnel!
Mwah!