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!

July 25, 2022

Anemones And Snow People

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you're doing well and keeping cool! The temps have dropped a little bit here and any wee drop is very welcome! I pray for those impacted by the heat and the horrible fires.

Let's start today with a bright summer design:
I'm pleased with myself for making a watercolor card with this NBUS stamp within a few days of getting it, she says, patting herself on the back. The stamp is from Honey Bee, called "Framed: Anemones." I used my KGT paints and other than that, the stamp does all the work for you because the wide frame is part of the stamp. (Thank you, Emily Midgett.) Handsome little Hammy added liberal winking. In real life, the colors are more vibrant, the shading more pronounced, and the schparkle more schparkly.

Challenges



Twofer
And now to cool you off, here is a page from a photo album of the Snowfolks. I turned to my Christmas bits binder and found these guys already die cut. Score! I colored them with my Ziggies and made the album design using panels cut with an MFT die. The four panels were placed atop a piece of silver-embossed pp. Hammy went on a deep dive into Miss Elaine Yus's box of goodies and found this old glossy holly embellie which works perfectly in the bull's eye center!

Challenges
~~~

Oh, Blogger! 😕 Oops, here come's another ant. I mean rant.
  • I want to apologize if a bunch of my old posts suddenly popped up in your inbox last week. I didn't do it, honest. Blogger had some sort of mental breakdown again. And it didn't just impact my posts; a lot of your posts from months ago ended up in my inbox, too. No clue why. No explanation from Blogger.

  • Not only that, but I just learned from a friend via the NBUS gallery that Blogger deleted two of her posts with a terse popup saying they violated child safety guidelines ~ which, of course, is totally ridiculous. Worse still, get this: The email said that if she wished to "request a review" of their findings, she could click on a link. When she clicked on the link (in both instances), the popup said this: "400. That's an error. The server cannot process the request because it is malformed. It should not be retried. That's all we know." Seriously? 
  • Not only that, as I mentioned in a post in May, your friends comments might be in your Spam folder. It is located under Comments on your dashboard. At the top of the Comments is "All" with a drop-down arrow. There you will see All, Awaiting Moderation, Published, and Spam. Make sure you check all your folders occasionally. In addition to legit comments showing up in the Spam folder, unpublished comments are also still showing up in my list of "All (published)" comments on the dashboard of my blog.

    We always assume the comments in the All list are all published because they should be and, unfortunately, you can't tell by looking at the list of comment if some unpublished comments are lurking in there. So now every few days I have to scroll down the far right side of the list to make sure there aren't any checkmarks that appear as the mouse rolls down the column. If there are, I just click on the checkmark and a popup asks me if I'm sure I want the comment published. Duh! So frustrating.

    (This is so hard to explain. Please email me or call me if none of this makes any sense!) I managed to blog for over ten years without having this glitch with comments. Someone at Blogger caused it, so why has it been months without someone fixing it back to the way it was?  
Nothing can be done about these things, but I wanted to give you a head's up so that if it happens to you, at least you know you're not alone. Please share if you do know clues or answers to these things that are happening.  

~~~

After all that, we need a laugh:
~~~ 

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

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse, being a follower, and leaving me some love!

p.s. I'm happy to say my meds got sorted out Monday morning by the two parties involved without any further intervention from me! Imagine that! I appreciated your sharing your experiences and your comments of support. I'm sorry that so many of you have been in similar situations.💕

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrollingClick 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 a pop-up box opens. Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel! Mwah! (p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!)

55 comments:

Marcia Hill said...

Two great cards Darnell, and your 1st one would fit the current Double D challenge too, where they are also looking for purple, blue, & green. I know you said the stamp does all the work on that Anemone card, but your water coloring looks FABULOUS to me...great job my friend! And of course your snowfolk just couldn't be any cuter on their album page...love it!! I too have been having problems with comments not publishing until I go in and click on the check mark...grrrrr! And the worst part is it's always from friends that have commented on my blog for years and years and there's never been a problem, and now all of a sudden, they're banned from commenting! For that particular post...on my next post their comment goes through just fine! I give up trying to figure blogger out!! And thanks for the "funny" at the end of your post...haven't snorted in awhile and it felt good!!! Hahaha!! :0)

Karen said...

Anemones are one of my favorite flowers. We tried to plant some, and the bunnies or the chipmunks dug them up. We replaced them in a new spot and none returned after the winter. So, I'm really enjoying your beautiful anemones in my favorite purple color! That's the first time I've seen that stamp, and it's a beauty! The snowfolks are adorable, and make such a cute holiday card!

Cat Craig said...

Gorgeous cards Darnell. I did enjoy cooling off with your snow people. The first card is quite lovely and your watercoloring is spot on. The blogger glitches are annoying as hell. I swear they are using bloggers as guinea pigs. I have had problems leaving comments...mostly when I use my ipad. Its frustrating as all get out. thanks for sharing your rant...all is less stressing when we know its google and not user error. Hugs. Glad your meds got straightened.

Leslie Miller said...

Darnell, when you look at comments on your dashboard, click on that tiny downward pointing arrow that is above the list. You can then choose just spam comments and publish or delete accordingly. Big cheers to you for coloring your anemones so soon after you got them and doing such a beautiful job of it! I do love a stamp that does the whole layout for you. Sometimes I think the coloring is easier than designing the card. Love LOVE your little snow people! So cute. I feel cooler already. Not that we're having a heat wave on the coast, thank goodness. It is forecast to be hotter this week, but still in the pleasant range. Take care!

Liz said...

Two fabulous cards, Darnell. The watercoloured flowers are beautiful on the first card and your little snowmen are so cute on the second.
Blogger is certainly being a pain at the moment with all the glitches. I check for new comments in the editing page on my blog and there are still a few most days which end up as spam. I have to remember to check the spam folder and click to say I want them published. However, I keep reminding myself that if it wasn’t for blogger, I wouldn’t have made so many online crafty friends, so perhaps I’ll forgive them…… as long as they sort out these glitches soon! Lol! xx

Aquarius said...

A lovely floral card and the quirky snow folk are such fun - love them. A fun dog cartoon at the end as well - made me smile. Interesting reading your rant - wondering how long before it is all sorted out - not holding my breath here though, just keep checking through the 'All' list now and then also the 'spam' list where random and quite valid comments from regulars sometimes appear.

Sue's Crafty Corner said...

Two fabulous cards Darnell. I love the Anemones stamp and the colours you've used. Your Christmas card is so cute and I love the way you have fussy cut the snowmen. Thank you for joining in the fun at Rudolph Days this month.

Sue xx

Cathy said...

Such a pretty floral card Darnell and perfect in blue purple and green, sweet snowman card too, thankyou for joining in at Seize the Birthday, Cathy x (lavatory retriever lol!!!)

mamapez5 said...

Those anemones are beautiful, but I came here from the Christmas theme Snippets Playground, so moved on to the snowman. What fun characters. I loved the layout and the little holly embellishment is just perfect. Kate x

Carole said...

Two fabulous cards Darnell. Love those pretty flowers...fabulous watercolouring and your cute snowmen look very chipper, clean and cool you might say! xx

Linda said...

Gorgeous cards, love those pretty blooms, your watercolouring is just perfect! And your little snowmen are just adorable.
Don't get me going about Blogger!!!! Goodness knows what they're up to there. I'm having to check all my comments too, quite a few are going into spam which is strange because they're from people who comment regularly. glad to know it's not just me though. Take care hun xx

Dotty Jo said...

Hi Darnell, so good to see you playing at Christmas Kickstart again! Love your card, and such a fun way to use those cute snow guys, Jo x

Jeanne said...

Your cards look terrific, Darnell! I own those snowmen! I should pull them out and use them. This summer I have barely made any cards! Will have to really gear up once school starts again. I'm so sorry Blogger is being such a pain. That has got to be so frustrating. I have no answers. The only thing that happens to me (knock on wood) is that I occasionally get a random comment from a phisher. Maybe because I'm not active with my blog anymore? It sure looks like Blogger would rather you leave the platform with all they annoying changes happening. Such a shame. I hope you get a few answers. Hugs!

Carole Pollard said...

Stunning cards Darnell just so pretty Sorry no5 been around in a while life just got in the way Hope you are well hugs Carole x

Marilyn said...

Your cards are beautiful Darnell! Great job on the water coloring and love those snowmen. I have had trouble with Bloglovin for a long time now. Most of the time when I tr y to get in on my Pc it comes up say we will be back shortly. Not sure what is happening there. When I am on my iPad and try to leave comment on certain blogs it say to sign on with google. When I press the blue rectangle to sign in it doesn’t bring me to google. I know I am already sign in but not sure what is happening there. I have tried going into the settings and still have trouble. Just wondering why when I am able to get into Bloglovin I can leave comment on son blogs and others I can’t. Very frustrating!!
have a great day!
Marilyn❤️

Em Louise Fairley said...

Gorgeous cards, as always, Darnell. So glad I'm not alone with the ongoing frustration over blogger! Another issue for me and a few others has been the sudden disappearance of most of the dashboard... with only Posts, Comments and Settings visible. Then everything reappears a day or so later. Grr!

cuilliesocks said...

Hi Darnell, what lovely cards, the floral card is beautifully coloured and I just adore those little snowfolk, they are so sweet.
hope all is well with you and yours, hugs Kate x

Brenda in IN said...

Your watercolor looks wonderful That stamp is awesome and I like big stamps, I cannot lie. Those snow people melted my heart and what a great design. I've had several comments pop up from long ago too. I don't think things should be this hard to deal with. Seems like a new problem rears it's head every day. Not life threatening but just so annoying. Those fires are devastating. I hope everyone got out okay and I was hoping you weren't getting any of the smoke from them. I love the joke you posted and I'm so glad you got the meds straightened out. Don't rest on your laurels, something new will come along!

Di said...

Hi Darnell - good to see you and your snow people in the Snippets Playground! What a lovely card and the pop of holly in the centre is just right! Aaah, and the anenomes are fabulous! They were my Mum's favourite flower and they bring both happy and sad memories.

Hugs

Di xx

Di said...

PS - I forgot to say - Blogger is a pain in the rear end and if they would stop tinkering as well as getting us users to do their testing then life would be a lot simpler.
xxx

Jenny L said...

Hi Darnell,
Happy Rudolf Days.
Your cards as always are very wonderfully created and look fabulous.
Love the flowers on your first card and the watercolouring is gorgeous.
What a very super Rudolf one I love the sweet images and their cute scarves and hats.
That holly was a great find by Hammy too it sets it all off perfectly.
Not sure what's been going on with blogger as I have not been blogging for a while, but it sure does some funny things at times that's for sure.
Thank you for joining the Rudolf Challenge.
Lots of crafty love. Jenny L. DT

Sarah said...

Beautiful anemones Darnell and I can see the schparkle just fine!! Loving those cute snow peeps too, cheeky fellas. The blogger commenting thing is driving me crazy, it's almost like some conspiracy to stop us using the platform at all in favour of others :0( Still, I'm not going anywhere I very much enjoy reading about my blogging buddies' crafty adventures and like sharing my own!! xx

Loll said...

LOVE your framed anemonies, Dolly! Amazing watercolouring to bring them to life. Gorgeous colours and your shading adds lots of visual depth. I have this image and have only used it once and need to start going through my stamps and using them again instead of buying lots more that sit and wait to be used. :) The snowpeople are adorable. Love the sweet holly in the center to add some shine. Blogger has had a lot of issues lately. I wonder if it's been hacked to display those nasty messages. Either way, Blogger IT needs to get on the problems and get them fixed. It's been nothing but trouble ever since the revamp last year to create an App. Love the comic ... wish I had one of those fancy retrievers! :) Love, Lolly

Linby said...

Your first card is so bright and pretty. Just love those snowmen = adorable.

Nancy said...

Hi Darnell, First off your watercolored card in all shades purple, green and blue is beautiful. I can imagine that this is so sparkly in real life. Your snowman card is just as adorable as it can be. Love the separate quadriants. As for Blogger...I have no answers and am just as frustrated at times as you are. I do hope it gets ironed out soon and am thankful that my personal blog is on Wordpress, however, I am dealing with it twice fold on the challenge blogs. HUGS and stay cool!

Donna said...

Fab cards Darnell, the first is beautifully water colored and the second is so darling! My blogger is haunted in the same way as yours.Take care!!

Alice (scrAPpamondo) said...

Amazing anemones Darnell, great colouring and design! The snowmen's photo album page looks so unusual, fun and cute! Love the glossy holly in the centre!
Blogger perhaps wants we go away... there are a lot of bad performances, bugs and unlike news with the last update and no better changes for months! They didn't fixed nothing, it seems.
Hugs

Sue Jackson said...

Your watercolored card is stunning! I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog, viewing your playhouse, and your dog cartoon. I started following you, so I am looking forward to reading more of your posts. Thanks for joining us at Cardz 4 Galz! Hope to see you in the gallery again soon.

Bonnie said...

This anemone stamp is lovely, but your coloring made it fantastic, Dolly! Don't sell yourself short! And Hammy's schparkle adds to the fun! Your gallery of smowfolks is such fun! I love their fun personalities! Blogger certainly has been having fun with us. I think they must have some bored people that look for things to play tricks on us for their entertainment. I'm glad they got your meds straightened out. That can be so frustrating and dangerous to our health. Mwah

Lisa Elton said...

Your Anemones are perfectly lovely, Darnell! I can see Hammy's winking. Please let him know he did a bang up job! Cute little snow people. The egg shaped one is a hoot! Speaking of hoots, I need to send that laugh off to our son for some veterinary humor!

Pat said...

I love the sparkly flowers so beautifully watercoloured Darnell, and your quartet of snowmen are so cute and the embossed paper works brilliantly as a background and the glossy holly is the perfect centrepiece. There do seem to be lots of glitches with Blogger lately but I have been lucky that recently there have been very few instances of comments going into Spam, but I do always check regularly, funnily enough poor Loll ended up there today but that is the only one in the last few days. It is infuriating when they take down a post, which has happened to me once and it did return after about a week, but then to get the'400' message makes it all the more ridiculous. I did have a laugh at your funny cartoon..one of those would be very useful when you don't have a spare handy...lol. x

Susan said...

Glad I wasn't the only one who had those ridiculous issues with Blogger sending out posts from months ago!

Love your cute snowfolk, but even more, I love your anemones card - fabulous watercolouring with my favourite watercolour paints! Gorgeous shades of mauve and purple.

TK said...

Beautiful -- love your pretty flowers and colors! Fun -- your plump snowpeople are just fun!

I too am getting a few blogger comments, but I found quite a few "stuck" the first mention. Frustrating is correct!!!

Lynette said...

I love your cheery flower card, and the cute snowmen card, too! Glad your meds issue got resolved with no further intervention from you - yippee! Sorry about all the blogger issues. Thanks for the heads up on them.

LesleyG said...

Love your cards and love your descriptions, and took me a second to figure out miss Elaine yes 😂😂😂.
Hope Blogger is not getting too old and cranky, coz we need it, but thee glitches sure are annoying xxx

Sarn said...

LOVING both of these cards. The anemones are so pretty.

The snowmen card is really fun. Thanks for coming to play in the Snippets Playground after following your nose! I'll treat you to a few cocktails up in the Treehouse later! xxx

Sandra H said...

Aww you have done it again both cards are just fabulous the snowmen are just adorable beautiful water colouring with the floral card it too is beautiful, l wonder if it was the extreme heat that effected the internet and that blogger was acting like he did???? hopefully all is well now, take care sending lots of love and hugs xx

Barbara said...

A fabulous card for two challenges and congrats for coloring it up so soon after receiving it. I love this flower and it is on my wish list at Honey Bee. It is bewitching and just lovely. I thank you for sharing with us both at Double D and Seize the Birthday Challenge.

Darlene said...

Your cards are awesome my friend and I especially like your water coloring on that beautiful design for our challenge! YES, blogger has been doing all kinds of crap lately and it just keeps getting worse ... who knows what they are doing behind the scenes! Why can't they just leave things alone ... like you, I've been fine for YEARS and now every time you turn around it this or that they are screwin' with. Grrr Anyways ... off my soap box lol ... Thanks so much for joining in the fun at our Double D ‘Purple, Blue & Green’ challenge! Good Luck and we hope you’ll come back often. We appreciate your support!!

Darlene
DOUBLE D CHALLENGE
DAR’S CRAFTY CREATIONS

HilaryJane said...

Love these 2 Darnell, those framed anemones are particularly special. Yes, I agree re blogger. I keep checking the comments and regularly find some that haven't published. there seems to be no rhyme or reason for it. I have also noticed random posts being emailed out again, but on the plus side they have started emailing the post on publication again. That stopped for ages and now it has started again xx

Linda W. (ScrappinBari) said...

Gorgeous anemone card, Darnell, and I love your sweet quartet of snowmen! Ugh, that Blogger - sorry we're having trouble! Glad your med issue resolved!!

Colleen said...

YEAH!! Thank you for joining STB with your stunning watercolor anemone card! Wow, that is a beauty, and so big it fills the whole card, love that! And of course I would be remiss if I didn't mention your adorable snow guys! who doesn't love snow in July when it is in the high 90's!

Nice to see you at STB!

kiwimeskreations said...

Gorgeous cards Darnell - love the anemone one in particular - I wonder if that is the Hammy effect...
Sorry to be late but life is a bit busy at the moment, I am house sitting, and there is no internet, so I am using data from my phone, which is limited... at least the home owner is a fellow card maker an I have been invited to use some of her stash :)
Blessings
Maxine

Bonnie Lynn said...

Oh goodness Darnell!! Blogger is sure giving you a hard time. I didn't even get the email that this post existed. I'm so glad your prescription meds got straitened out. BTW - I love your cards and desperately needed the cartoon laugh. Thank you.

Barb Ghig said...

OMGosh, what a great cartoon! Two fabulous cards, too...Beautiful watercoloring on the blooms and I love your cute little snowmen! Thanks so much for making me smile, Darnell! It's ALWAYS a treat to visit your blog! xx

Stamps and Paper said...

Your floral cards Darnell are stunning, such beautiful colours...love your quirky little snow people card....love your cartoon Darnell ..you always manage to bring a smile to our faces in all your posts

Anne

Carol L said...

Your cards are marvelous, both of them! I just love those gorgeous blooms on the first and those whimsical little snowmen are the cutest too!
Thanks for the detailed explanation of how to sort through the comments. I thought I'd been diligent in posting those comments marked as spam that showed up in my published list UNTIL you mentioned the little arrow at the top of the page! I never clicked that to see where comments were sorted into categories but when I did just now, I was SHOCKED to see some comments from JANUARY up until now were sitting there unpublished! Now I know how to sort through all this and I tip my hat to you once again for keeping so many of us well informed! I learned something very valuable today and now all my wanted comments are published and separated from the spam which has all been deleted. Fresh start! Thanks for taking the time to help all of us. I'm a grateful blogger - even if I don't blog as often as I once did :) I shall always remember now to click that little arrow at the top and double check! THANKS :)

Cheryl W. said...

Your watercoloring is gorgeous and your little snowpeople are so chill. Hammy did a nice job of picking out a holly ornament for the center.

I've had troubles with Blogger of late, too. Glad it's not just me!

dj said...

Way to go shopping your stash…thanks for playing along with our WTHeck embellishments challenge over at SOS! You are right...That plastic holly makes a great bulleye!!

Pia S said...

Loving the framed style flower image and th3 spot you picked for the sentiments. And your snowfolks card is so cute, just the kind of images I love.

lauren bergold said...

super cuuuuuuuuute snowpersons, and the funky-but-fab holly embellie is the perfect accent! thanks for SHOPPING YOUR wht embellishment STASH with us this fortnight!

Helen said...

Fabulous cards Darnell - love all those little snowfolk!
Thanks so much for playing with us at Christmas Kickstart!
Helen x (Guest Elf)

JD/ Jill said...

Your water coloring was so beautifully done And your snowmen did make me feel cooler on this very hot day.

And thank you about your comment about the spam folder. I knew that sometimes some of my unpublished comment's end up there...but it was a surprise when two days in a row ALL of my comments ended up there. So it's not just me..
smile...

My Paper Epiphany said...

Hi Darnell. Gorgeous cards! Not sure if you know, but you have a prize at Christmas Kickstart:)

BożenA said...

Old, never used stamps ??? Do you have such ?? Thank you for not judging anyone for something like this :-) I have piles of them. I am glad that you used yours, because thanks to this, such beautiful cards were created. I love the way you color the flowers and the background.
xx