Pull My Arrow!

Hello Stamplings!

Sorry to hear that many of you had a rough week with extreme heat and storms. I hope you are hanging in there and staying safe. Here we have had unseasonably coo ... 🤫 whoa! I don't want to jinx it.

I had a little procedure last week. The battery in my ICD ran out of juice and the device had to be replaced. It's perfectly normal and, in fact, I've outlived two other ICDs since I was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy in 2007. The only thing is, I was told this battery would last until the end of this year, so when it started faintly beeping for 15 seconds every five hours during the day (always when I was sitting at my desk), I thought it was something on my desk or in the rolling carts under my desk that was beeping.

Long story short, it took me two days of tossing the joint before I figured out it was me! So dumb. Maybe you had to be there, but I must have looked like I was doing an I Love Lucy comedy skit! 

Anyflies, all went well and I felt good enough by Friday to make a card or two thanks to this being A = Anything Goes on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar!

Onefer

For this design, I turned to Freshly Made Sketches for inspiration and I went very literal with Jen's sketch. I immediately thought of a gift card holder, so I turned the sketch sidewayz. I used some beautiful sheets of flowered paper (I think from SU) which I've had for many years. Each color family comes in three monochromatic shades and different weights, which was perfect for this sketch composition.

When the recipient follows the arrow and pulls the vellum strip out, she will find this:

Fun to make and fun to receive!

Other Challenges

Cut It Up!: Monochromatic.

Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes option.

Twofer

Scrapbook & Cards Today held a wonderful Holiday Magic event on Saturday. The mittens and sediment are NBUS items from the kit. I embossed a black panel with the Stately e/f while Hammy and Stanley scampered to the top of their cages, poised for action. They did a stellar job of schplattering the base with diluted white acrylic paint before I added the mittens and warm wishes cut from snippets. 

Challenges

Addicted to Stamps and More: Christmas.

Rudolph Days: Anything Christmas goes.

Snippets Playground: Anything Goes using snippets.

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So what happened was, my friend Susan and I went shopping a coupla weeks ago. We thought it would be fun to buy identical shirts and wear them when we went out to lunch together with our husbands. We were curious if they would even notice. 

And did they notice? No, of course not! In fairness, Susan and I sat across from each other in the restaurant rather than next to each other, but still! You gotta love 'em! 

As we were walking to our cars, Susan and I sat next to each other on a bench and I asked the guys, "Do you notice anything?" 

Ask that question and you'll see a look of sheer panic flash across a man's face!🤣

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I.D.E.A.S. Calendar: A = 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! 

~~~

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!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Quick and Clean and Simples (QACAS)

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you're doing well as you start this new week! May Mother Nature be kind to you this week!

I ended up having a very busy week last week with ongoing birthday lunches and even some girlfriend shop-and-talk days. With this birthday, more than ever, I'm embracing my friend Cheryl's motto of, "Do it while you can!" DIWYC. No, leave it.

This is E = Embossing week on my I.D.E.A.S. Calendar and time necessitated that I keep things QACAS. 

Onefer

I used a NBUS 3D e/f from Simon Says called "Feathery Fronds" and just brushed swaths of different colors in approximate areas where I could see the fronds were located on the folder and then I ran it through the machine. It might have been easier to blend the swaths of ink on after wards, but I would have had to lay the colors on with a heavier hand in order to get down inside the narrow fronds. By swathing the ink on first, I was able to keep the colors pastel, but still summery. 

A simple matting and a NBUS sediment from Concord & 9th's "Everyday Expressions" finished it up.

I'm playing in the CAS challenge at Krafty Chicks.

Twofer

This card uses the same e/f, but I used the debossed side. I used another NBUS sediment from the Everyday Expressions set and a geriatric butterfly from BOB. Look at the smile on her face from finally being out of that box!

I'm playing in Just Us Girls Mood Board challenge, inspired by the teal-y fern fronds.

Threefer

Moving onto Christmas with this design because a) the curved panel, the conversation bubble die, and the polar bear were all in BOB, and b) I had a NBUS snowfall embossing folder to use from Simon Says called, "Soft Snowfall." 

You know how we all have certain things that we love and we keep buying, like butterflies or poppies? For me, it is snowfall embossing folders. I begged myself to stop over the years, to no avail, and I have a substantial collection. Well, I'm glad I kept looking because this one finally chills my blains and now that's crossed off my list!

The polar bear is from Trinity Stamps called "Have An Ice Day" and the NBUS sediment is from Uniko's "Simply Said Blocks Christmas Clear Stamps." Hammy and Stanley winked the bear's scarf, mittens, and socks and added snowflakes dipped in white ink to the frozen pp pond using an old rubber dowel stamp from Rubber Stamp Tapestry. They do make a great team as it takes two of them to hold the stamp upright and then plunge it down. I really must take a video one day.

Challenges

Addicted to Stamps and More: Christmas.

52 Christmas Card Throwdown: July theme challenge: Critters.

Christmas Kickstart: Merry-Go-Round. Congrats on your 100th Challenge!

BYSH Cardmakers: Christmas in July.

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I.D.E.A.S. Calendar: E = Emblossing

You will find a linky tool below for you to share your creations using some form of embossing. Your card may help motivate others out of their creative schlumps! 

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!

I'll leave you with a closeup of one of our crepe myrtle trees in full bloom.

Please 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!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

More Rainbow Daisies For Dieday!

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you had a lovely weekend! I was very productive in the Card Department because it was way too hot to be outside. That's normal for this time of year, so we just carry on, naked. 

Oh, sorry, you did not need that visual! 

This week is D = Die Cuts on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar and I went to town. I had to stop there and look up the origin of "went to town" because I can't stand not knowing where these idioms come from.

Plus, I like to know if what I imagine the origin to be matches, in any way, the truth. I think of the early settlors and how they had to "go to town" if they wanted anything store-bought. Or Reba McEntire singing about Ruby going to town. I love that sad earworm song.

Turns out there is no explicit origin for this idiom, but it is thought to be early American English. Boo. I built you up and then I let you down. But, wait, that could be the start of a country song!

Where was I? 

Oh, yes. You might remember that I recently cut a bunch of "Rainbow Daisies" from Pinkfresh Washi tape and made some cards with the wreath image cut. For this post, I'm sharing what I did with the rest of all those pretty floral die cuts:

These simple designs are self-explanatory and super EZPZ which is the awesome thing about the beautiful Washi tape designs made by Pinkfresh and other companies.

Challenges

AAA Birthday: Summer Birthday.

CAS Colours & Sketches. Sketch, flipped. 

Tic Tac Toe: Diagonal, top right to bottom left: CAS/free/flowers.

And the rest:

For these cards, I added The Greetery's "Pretty Pot" die and the "Garden Watering Can" die from Memory Box. It took a long minute, but it felt good to actually use up those die-cuts. (You can tell as the process wore on that I added more and more flowers to each card, lol!) It also felt good to use up BOBs and pp and now I have more cards ready to send!

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Hammy and Stanley are back home! Yay!

They worked very hard and they're bezausted. All they could muster was schplattering one of the card panels, but I'm fine with that. They deserve to be relaxing in their cooling pool, slurping their Burpees!

~~~

I.D.E.A.S. Calendar:  D = Die Cuts

You will find a linky tool below for you to share your creation using die cuts. Your entry may help lift a fellow crafter out of her creative schlump!

I love seeing what you create, visiting you, and pinning your design! Thank you to everyone who visited and linked to the gallery last week. Mwah!

~~~

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

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks if you take the time to join as a follower! 

*Life is too short!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Cut It UP #334!

Hello Stamplings!

Surprise! I know time is whooshing by, but don't worry, it's not Monday already! It's a fabulous Friday, heading into the weekend!

I'm delighted to pop in today as Guest Designer for the fun Cut It Up Challenge! The theme is Christmas in July!

Onefer

I used a NBUS "Drop Nativity" die which I received from a friend to create a white-on-white QACAS design using linen paper. The double die-cut sediment is from PTI's "Wonderful Words Christmas." I just love the simplicity.

Twofer

I went with mirror gold for my Twofer and I left out the center piece of the nativity die so you can see how it looks both ways. Again, super quick and CAS. 

(Hammy and Stanley are volunteering this week at the Rec Center Adopt-A-Pet, "Facts About Fur" summer program, showing children the ups and downs of owning hamsters. I'm so proud!🐹🐹)

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I hope you'll pop over to Cut It Up and join in the challenge! You will find all the rules and the wonderful DT inspiration on the website. As I said recently, Christmas will be here before you know it! And working on a wintry card always makes me feel cooler, especially now when it's our turn to be horrid hot!

~~~

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

See you Monday, maybe with your CIU creations because it's D = Die Cuts week! As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse! 

*Life is too short!

Mirrored Ovals

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you all enjoyed last week and you're ready to bust this new week wide open! Things slow down a little online this time of the year as we spend more time outdoors when the weather is fine. As much as we love paper flowers, there is nothing like the real thing!

If you do have time to garden and craft, this is the first full week of July, which means the motivation I.D.E.A.S. Calendar is I = Ink/Color Mediums.

Onefer

I was also busy last week with my birthday and America's birthday, so I turned to Freshly Made Sketches for inspiration and this is my take on the sketch. The "Lush Greenery" is from Pinkfresh. It comes with two halves, but I only used one-half and stamped it as a mirror image.*

*Edited: I can't change the title after publishing, but I wanted to edit the wording here so it's not confusing. I did not stamp the above in the traditional sense of the "mirror technique." Using my MISTI, I stamped the image once, cleaned the stamp, and removed it from the MISTI. Then I repositioned the stamp on the paper, so that it was "upside down" and butting up against the first image. I inked the stamp, closed the MISTI, and stamped a second image. In that way, they mirrored each other. I hope that makes sense! If not, let me know.

I used my Ziggies to color the greenery and the lads very carefully winked the wee leaves. I used Poppystamps NBUS pointed oval die for the sediment and their pointed rectangle die to add a frame. I used the "aloha" die from Your Next Stamp because it's perfect for a birthday card for my friend who spends half the year in Hawaii! Poor dear.😂🌴🥥

Other Challenges

CAS on Friday: Botanical.

Tic Tac Toe: Diagonal, top left to bottom right: foliage/free/any sediment.

TIME OUT: Travel.

Twofer

I liked how my first card turned out so much that I used the sketch and dies again to make a Christmas design. Like with the first card, I stamped the Magenta poinsettia trio, cleaned the stamp, turned it (the stamp) upside down and stamped it again. Then we painted, winked, and framed them using a sediment from Simon Says Stamp.

Challenges

Holly & Ivy: Anything Christmas Goes.

Jingle Belles: Poinsettia Perfection.

Merry Little Christmas: Anything Christmas Goes.

~~~

I.D.E.A.S. Calendar:  I = Ink/Color Mediums

You will find a linky tool below for you to share your creation using some form of coloring, inking, painting, etc. which might help lift someone out of their creative schlump!

I love seeing what you create, visiting you, and pinning your design! Thank you to everyone who visited and linked to the gallery last week. Mwah!

~~~

Enjoy your week! No seriously, enjoy! LITS!

Here's an example from my little friend on enjoying life, taken from the Playhouse window. As always, thank you for visiting and commenting!

*Life is too short!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter