Hug a Friend!

Hello Stamplings!

How are you doing? I hope you've had a great week and that you were lucky to see a friend yesterday for Hug a Friend Day! Actually, there are a few huggy days in the year: there's National Day of Hugging on January 21st, and, of course, Hugging Day on February 14th. I'm a hugger every day, so look out!

Naturally, I made a card to celebrate!

This week is A=Anything Goes on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar, so we are free to move about the craft room in any direction our mojo happens to take us.

I noticed a few challenges with "rain" as the prompt, so that's how it started. Hammy pulled out one of our favorite older stamps to play with. He thought it would be fun to have the ballerina frog holding an umbrella. (He's so clever!) And if you're going to be a frog-bearing umbrella, why not make it polkie-dotty? Wait. What? 

And, while you're at it, why not make it a pink frog? And add a googly eyeball? And what shall we call her? Umbra? It's nice having an unusual name, she says, wryly.

The umbrella die is from Memory Box, the sediment is from The Stamps of Life and you just know ~ even if you can't see it ~ that Ms. Thing is winked everywhere! You might be asking yourself what does rain have to do with hugging?

The answer is on the inside:

The sediments are from Happy Mail by WPlus9. Yes, they are still NBUS and the set is dated 2015. No shame. 

Playing in Inkspirational (Rain), Retro Rubber (Singing in the Rain), and 613 Avenue Create (A/G with option of Spring Rain).

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From rain to snow and hey ho ... my second Christmas card of the year! For this little scene, I put old and new together. The older critter in the foreground is from Purple Onion. I'm not sure what critter he is spose to be. Those ears and that little cotton-ball tail have me compounded. 

The little penguin and snowballs are NBUS from the set, "Flurry of Fun," by Pink and Main. You'll be seeing more from this cute set!

I colored the critters with a mixture of Ziggies and colored pencils and Hammy added the schparkle. I did a light blue wash for the sky and drew on the snow hills. The scalloped frame is from Pink and Main and the sediment is from SSS. 

Playing in ABC Christmas (H or I - H is for Hat), Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round (G and H - H is for Hat), Christmas Kickstart (Brimming with Style: people or critters in hats), and Rudolph Days (A/G Christmas from the 25th to the end of the month).

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Enjoy your week! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* I have a friend visiting this week, so I might not be able to post next Monday.

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! I'll leave you with a hug!

Mwah!

*Life is too short!

Go Fly a Kite! And Have a Birthday Burger!

Hello Stamplings!

I mean that title in the best way, of course! Yesterday was Go Fly A Kite Day! I know many of you weren't flying kites, however, and I hope your property wasn't damaged by the nasty line of storms and tornadoes over the last several days.🤞 

I brought a little friend of Hammy's to brighten your Monday . . . 

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As it turns out, I gave my kite dies and stamps away (or they're in the wrong cupboard🤪), so this beloved Stampingbella stamp is standing in with his heart balloon kite! His name is Milton. I think you can see why Hammy loves him!

It's E = Embossing week on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar. I stamped Milton with Versamark and then heat-embossed him in copper e/p. Hammy waited on board with his winker while I painted Milton with my Ziggies. 

After wards, I used my SU Subtle e/f to emboss him and the yellow background panel. Someone might have mistookenly stamped Milton crooked, so I cut down the panel and placed it an angle, so his left foot is level now. And then what happened was, we loved painting, winking, and embossing Milton so much, we did it again:

It's especially easy making two when you use the same colored brushes. I wish I would remember to do doubles (or more) of all my cards every time. Slap! I stamped this guy level, but a little too far to the right, so I used metallic stickers on the left to balance him.

I'm playing in the Alphabert Challenge (Z is for Zoology - any animal) and Krafty Chicks (CAS).

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I noticed a couple of challenges which reminded me I have this excellent NBUS Washi tape from Alexandra Renke for making easy manly birthday cards. For the sketch challenge, I used a circle die to cut out the bbq kettles and then backed them with black circles, so they would stand out against the texture of this SU e/f.

I used the sketch from CAS Colours & Sketches, flipping it horizontally, and AAA Birthday wants us to use Washi Tape.

Here you can see the Washi tape uncut:

Alexandra Renke's papers and Washi tapes are incredibly artistic and detailed. And beautiful. For this roll, there are actually seven different paintings of grills and a set of grilling tongs before the images repeat! If you've got a griller (male or female) in your family, it's a great design! 

Or, if you don't plan to make 1500 cards, I'd be happy to share my roll with you. They peel on and off paper easily, so I can stick a few pulls on a coupla card panels and pop them in the mail to you. Just let me know.

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If I had the energy and if I knew 20 years ago what I know now, I would have started a Clearinghouse for our hobby. You could send in the NBUS or gently-used products which you don't want any more and get a credit, which you could then spend on other people's discards.

Wouldn't that be a great idea? Especially more so now with the cost of everything being so high. I'm sure all the famous designers and companies read my blog🤣, so maybe someone will take the idea and run with it! Or maybe someone has and I've never heard of it?

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Enjoy your week! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* Go fly a kite!

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! 

p.s. I just realized it is Earth Day on Wednesday this week! Give the earth a hug!!

*Life is too short!

Happy Scrabble Day! And a Pop of Poinsettia!

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are doing great as this year is whooshing by ~ again! For heaven's sake, nearly the middle of April! And our crazy March weather continues into April with summer heat one day and winter cold the next. Bing-bong! 

And what crazy holiday are we celebrating this week? It turns out that today is National Scrabble Day! Who decides these things?! I think I would have loved to have that job. 

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I spent many happy years playing Scrabble on Facebook with my sister, Doris, until some fool decided it would be better if Scrabble were steamed, er, streamed or something, so this card will go to her. (Now we play Words With Friends.) She will see it on my post, but we are all getting old, so I'm hoping she will forget she saw this by the time her birthday rolls around next December! 

This design took a bit of doing. I started with the perfect size Dreamweaver stencil which I've had for ages. I carefully masked each square or group of squares and blended on the Scrabble colors with brushes. 

I used a NBUS set from SSS called, "Games Tiles Letters" from (cough) years ago. It was a challenge trying to figure out the placement of letters so they interlocked in a fun way. I searched the webs and the attics for ideas, to no avail. After a wodka for me and a ginger ale for Hammy, we nailed it!

Playing in Just Add Ink (Colours - used all five), and Seize the Birthday (A/G).

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This week is D = Dies on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar. I haven't made a Christmas card yet in 2026, so I was inspired when I saw the "Spring Into Christmas" challenge at BYSHC Challenge! I reached for "Up Goes the Tree," a NBUS stamp and die set from Penny Black. I used my Ziggies to paint the pretty stylized tree and Hammy was beside himself with glee at how much winking he got to do!

This set allows you to add some dementia with a second poinsettia stamp which you can paint, die-cut, and pop-up over the stamped image. And, yes, I painted the one underneath, too, in case there is a gust of wind. Here is a close-up:

I'm not sure if you can see that I blended some light tan ink around the edges of the front panel, ala Penny Black, before attaching it to a red panel and then to the card front.

Playing in Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers, Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round (H is for Happy Holidays), Penny Black Saturday Challenge (A/G), and Krafty Chicks (Christmas).

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Speaking of flowers (what?), I will leave you with pretty pink carnations and multi-colored calla lilies, freshly watered after a spring rain. Our yellow day lilies are just starting to open, so I'll share those soon. 

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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!

Happy California Poppy Day!

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are doing great! We had a lovely Easter and I'm writing this on Sunday night, stuffed to the gills! I don't actually have gills, so I don't know why people say that, but I'm stuffed to there, so this will be a quickie. 

The carrot cake for dessert did it. Next year I'm having dessert first!

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Today really is California Poppy Day. It is one of my favorite springtime flowers here. They pop up everywhere along roadsides and in yards and by the thousands at the California Poppy Reserve. 

This poppy is from "Creative Chaos" by Visible Image. It is the first Monday of the month which means I = Ink on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar. I used one of my favorite mediums ~ my Ziggies. I had my little helper add the schparkle with his winking and a simple black card base and Memory Box black and gold sediment finished it off.

Playing in: Allsorts Challenge (Springtime or A/G), CAS on Friday (Botanicals), Dragonfly Dreams April Challenge (CAS).

And there are two challenges where the theme includes "E" is for ?. I think the poppy is "E"nchanting" so I'm also playing in: AAA Card (It starts with E) and Inkspirational (CAS with option of E).

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The toadstools are from The Greetery called, "BotaniCuts Toadstool Garden" stamp and die set. I'm not sure who makes the postage stamp die; I think I might have borrowed a friend's die at one of my past craft retreats. 

The border uses some ancient dotted swiss paper which I cut with my old pinking shears. That's right ~ those huge pinking shears for cutting fabric! They haven't been used for that since the dark ages, but I pulled them out of the dusty sewing box because years ago I donated my 50 pairs of little colored skizzors that we all had with different teeth designs. Ah, the memories of the early craft days before die-cutting and dies and embossing folders.

Gee, boomer, you ask, just how old are you?!

Playing in: Addicted to Stamps and More (Any Occasion), Freshly Made Sketches, Krafty Chicks (Birthday), and Die-Cut Divas.

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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!

Happy Pencil (Stencil) Day! Happy April Fool's Day! Happy Easter! Phew!

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are feeling your oats, cheerios, or bran flakes, because as you can tell from the title, we have busy days ahead of us this week! You might think Happy Pencil Day is a joke because of April Fool's Day, but it snot. It's truly a day to celebrate the pencil. Which we know, sadly, is becoming obsolete.

I've made a card for the occasion and for S = Stencil on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar on this rare fifth Monday of the month. 

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I used a NBUS stripe stencil from Honey Bee Stamps for the notepaper background, inked in navy blue ink. Next, I sponged ink around the edges to draw your eyes to the hocus pocus sweet child in the center holding her mysteriously humongous pencil. 

The image is "tiny townie Penelope has a pencil" from Stampingbella. That sentence is a Double Alliterative, in case you wondered. I would have gone for a Triple by adding ... "poised pointedly."

I colored the image using my Ziggies and Hammy topped it off with his winker. I cut the image using a stitched oval die from MFT. The text panel is from my pp stash and the wee sediment is part of the stamp set. (Please ignore the splotch in the lower right. Sometimes hamsters have to sneeze.)

Playing in: AAA Colourful (Navy and Gold); Addicted to CAS (Stripes); Freshly Made Sketches (Sketch by Amy).

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I used a new set of ink pads which I received from The Mister yesterday for no specific reason. What a sweetie!♥️The image is dynamic and, as you can see, very emotionally evocative. I colored it with ... wait. What?! Oh, that man! He got me with an April Fool's Day prank ~ clearly the ink pads were filled with invisible ink!!

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This pretty NBUS stencil from Pinkfresh Studio is inked over its partner NBUS coverplate die called, "Petal Mosaic." The three inks I used are from Catherine Pooler and the sediment is an ancient PTI favorite. Bun E. Frogman came out for his annual hello to you!

Playing in: Just Us Girls (Stencil Week); Try it on Tuesday (Spring); and Pinkfresh Studio (March 2026 Challenge).

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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! 

Happy Easter, Happy Passover, and Happy Spring to all! Enjoy this time with your family if you are fortunate to be together!

Mwah!

*Life is too short!