Smooching With Cling Wrap

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are all doing well and that my American friends had a warm and delicious Thanksgiving holiday weekend! We had a great time and enjoyed seeing the grandtwins again! (It's certainly time to be thankful for stretchy fabrics!) And now we only have 27 days until Christmas! You're welcome. Do you need some help getting up? 

This month our Group of Seven Cardmakers enjoyed smooching with cling wrap and alcoholic inks. It's been a few years since I've done this technique and it was inky and fun. You can find instructions, video links, and lots of excellent examples over on the website. Here are my results:

I decided to use some gloss acrylic sprays that I've had for a long time and never used before. One set is called Splash and the other set is by Dina Wakley. I used glossy paper, so it was doubly-glossy! Then it was fun figuring out how to make them into much-need Christmas cards in unexpected colors.

When you get a chance to try or re-try this technique, there is a link over on the Group of Seven site for you to share your results. We always love it when you show how we have inspired you!

 And speaking of Christmas cards, here are my completed cards, so far. 

They are mostly one or two layers to make it easier and more economical to mail. I only have another inch to go and I can start the not-as-fun part of finishing the insides and envelopes. (Didn't we decide that it would be okay to just send the front panels, like post cards? Hmmm, no, I guess they would be pretty messed up going through the mail machinery, huh? Never mind.) It feels good to have most of them done and to have made a huge dent this year in my stash of Christmas die-cuts and patterned paper! 

Taking a Break

It feels silly to let you know I will be taking a break when I haven't been blogging that much as it is! We've had a lot going on this year with traveling, visitors, and not feeling great, so things around here have gotten neglected. As energy allows, we are going to take care of some home and garden projects. Plus, Hammy always makes the rounds visiting his family over the holidays, so it's a good time to clean, paint, and purge the Playhouse.

I plan to keep NBUS active, however. I love that it keeps me connected and your fantastic gallery entries tell me how much you love being prompted to use your unused schtuff! I also love seeing what you snagged at holiday sales and/or got for Christmas!

~~~

Enjoy your holidays, however you celebrate, and thank you for your friendship and support! Mwah from me and Hammy!🐹💕

Life is too short!

Fall Into Winter

Hello Stamplings!

I'm looking through welcome raindrops and hoping you are doing well. These raindrops would not be happy drops for those of you in the UK, Italy, and France where everyone is sick of the incessant rain and wind. My sympathy to all those who have experienced flooding and damage.❤

I'm straddling the holiday tables in the Playhouse these days. Usually I like to finish one holiday before I start another and if I'm honest, I think I need to go back to that way of designing. Or maybe I'll start a trend and next year everyone will be putting fall leaves on their Christmas trees! 

Fall

1. This photo should be in the dictionary under QACAS (quick and clean and simple). I used some beautiful rub-on leaves from Taperlogy and a sediment from PTI stamped in copper ink onto hammered card. This is my first time using these rub-ons and the color and detail of their images is amazing.

2. For this card, I used a fall leaf e/f and Hammy picked out a piece of schplattered pp for the background. The autumn sediment is from Technique Tuesday stamped with fall-colored inks. The leaves were cut from pp or from snippets from old smooching or alcohol inking in my stash. You know how alcohol always leads to smooching ... that's all I gonna say about that because you know what I mean.

3. This card is also uber QACAS, using the same pp and a found sediment strip from my stash. The leaves were die-cut using a friend's dies and pp from her stash!

Challenges

• Cardz 4 Galz: #3 Thank you, Thankful, or Thanksgiving.
  
• Four Seasons: #1 Fall.
  
• Paper Funday: #2 A/G optional: Grateful, Thankful, Thank you. 

   

Christmas

Another simple design, except for the hours it took for the layers of Glossy Accents to dry on the sediment! I think the snowflake circle die is from Hero Arts, but I can't find it at the mo. The joy die is definitely from Hero Arts and it's definitely cut from the same dark purple paper as the card base, even though the photo makes it look black. 

Challenges

• Color Hues: Light blue and purple.
  
• HLS Christmas: A/G with option of bah humbug.
  
• Peace on Earth: A/G Christmas with option of mood board.

~~~

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 join as a follower! 

*Life is too short!