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!

August 25, 2025

Deep In the Wreaths!

Hello Stamplings!

Good to see you! I hope you had a great week and that you are enjoying the last days of August, wherever you are. I'm a morning person, so I love waking up to sunshine and goin' and doin'. Which means I'd better make the most of these days before the sleepy darker mornings roll in.

This week's I.D.E.A.S. Calendar is A = Anything Goes, which I turned into anything wreathy goes. 

Onefer
This is QACAS at its finest, if I do say so myself, with a chorus of agreement from the hamster gallery! I used more of that brilliant textured card I found which looks like Cord U. Roy's pants. The doubled-up wreath is made from Washi Tape die-cuts from Pinkfresh Studio. The gold-embossed sediment is from GKW. After wards, I ran my Galaxy Gold Dew Drop ink pad around the edges of the pants card.

I'm playing in the AAA Cards Challenge (Anything Goes CAS with the option of green); and the ABC Christmas Challenge (Q is for Quick).
Twofer
Guess what? This card features a NBUS Penny Black stamp and die set called "Winter Blessings" which I recently purchased! I'm trying to be better at that, realizing I risk NBUS Mountain erupting one day when I least expect it because of all the jealous stamps, dies, and stencils that have been stuck there for (cough) years.😱

Anyberry, I used kraft paper and three of the five stamps in the set and there you go. Trivia: in all my years of card-making, this is the first cardinal stamp and die I've owned! Thank you, Penny! It's a beauty and I can't wait to paint it, but this time I simply cut it from red paper and dressed it. Winking of the cardinal and berries provided by my wee helpers. I added three score lines to the bottom pursuant to Lesson 41 in the Book of Compositions.

I'm playing in Christmas Kickstart (Let's Wreath It Up); and Little Red Wagon (Circle of Life).
Threefer
If you play in Freshly Made Sketches, you'll recognize this layout from their challenge #700. They are celebrating 14 years of challenges! WOW! They went back in time to re-use Sketch #14 (below) for the celebration. It's my first time using this sketch because I didn't start playing in their challenges until my early days on March 4, 2012 with challenge #24! Where has the time gone?!

To build the sketch, I started with the wreath to keep with the theme and I cut it from a scrap of green metallic paper. The wreath is NBUS from Pinkfresh Studio called "Leafy Circle." Then I went through my stitched square dies to find the right size and die cut it from metallic gold. I cut a 4.25 square card base and covered it with a gold panel. 

Then the fun begin. Hammy looked through my gold flecked vellum paper, Stanley looked through window at the squirrels (he is still very young) and I looked through my dots and stripes pp. A sheet of gold stripes won and then we had to spend another hour doing the math and trying to attach the little panels so they were evenly spaced, but differently angled for more interest. Then we had a lie down.

To add the wee corner detail per the sketch, we found this cute little gingerbread cookie which my friend Bunny sent me back in January 2024. It was a happy rediscovering and there are five more little cookies in the envelope, so you will be seeing them again. (If the lads don't run off with them as little playmates!) Bunny included a note that the cookies were from Impression Obsession.

I'm also playing in Rudolph Days, an Anything Christmas Goes challenge that runs from the 25th to the end of every month.
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As we say in the industry, if you've made it this far, thank you!🫶 I actually made a few more cards and have some wreaths still to use, but it's Sunday and nearly Ni-Ni time, so I'll save them for another post. The fact that I didn't realize I had so many wreaths tells me it's time for a visit from Scour and Reorg, characters I love in the book of my life, weirdo that I am.

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I.D.E.A.S. CalendarA = Anything Goes

You will find a linky tool below for you to share your creations with no restrictions! It's a free-for-all and you never know ~ your creation may help motivate someone out of their creative schlump! 

I love seeing what you create, visiting you, and 
pinning your designs! 

Thank you so much to everyone who shared their designs last week! Mwah! 

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Enjoy your week! 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!

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