And the Monthly Train Rolls On ...

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are doing well wherever you are! Now that I've gained five pounds Halloween is behind us, I have a final fall birthday card to share and from hereon, the lads and I will be frolicking about making Christmas cards!

Onefer

I had the SSS Feathery Fronds e/f and the Altenew Autumn Bounty Die Set on my desk from earlier makes. A little blended ink on the fronds and intentional color matting brought them together like that's what I intended all along. 

Hammy and Stanley added the frost on the pumpkin as this year's harvest draws to a close. Playing in Inkspirational Challenge: Visual Prompt Fall Photo.

Twofer

I stayed with fall colors, but made them bold and bright to break out my NBUS stencil from The Greetery called, "Deco Triangles." I used Concord & 9th ink and paper, also for the first time, coupled with an ancient sediment banner from PTI.

Playing in Little Red Wagon: "S" is for Stencil; and Seize the Birthday: Geometric and Word Die/Dies.

Threefer

This simple Christmas design uses my NBUS stamp bundle from Hero Arts called, "Color Layering Holly Branch Bundle." The sediment is also from the same set and the diagonal strip and mat are cut from red glossy card. The lads added more gloss by dropping SU Shimmery Crystal Effects onto the berries and their toes! 

Playing in ABC Christmas Challenge: "U" is for Unused Stash; Color Hues: Red and Green; and Freshly Made Sketches: #760 by Jen B.

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

My posts will be hit or miss in the coming weeks and I'm taking a break in December for sure. We've lots of appointments coming up, my physical therapy has started, and we are having landscaping done to both the front and back yards beginning this week.

Oh, and a coupla hunnert Christmas cards need to be made! I think I may just do card fronts again this year; like post cards in an envelope. It saves a lot of time and paper and I believe the message is still appreciated.

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse! Take good care of yourself!

Mwah!

*Life is too short!

Autumn Strawberries

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this brand new Monday finds you doing well! I had a busy week enjoying company as we sight-saw and shopped . . . two activities that are never boring, especially with friends!

So a quick post today with a couple more examples of the blackout technique, which is the current brief at CAS Mix Up Card Challenge, where I'm delighted to be the October Guest Designer. The technique also happily correspondence to the E = Embossing week on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar!

Onefer

For this fall/autumn card, I used Simon Says 3D gingko leaf e/f. After running it through the machine, I blended autumnal colors into the shapes on the debossed side, ran it through again, and then applied black ink over the whole panel using my brayer. 

To make the design CAS (clean and simple), I cut down the full panel using my Stitched Dome Frames from MFT. (The inner dome is popped up on 3D foam.) I hope you have time to give this cool technique a try and join the linky party at the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge! Don't forget to include stamping.

The sediment is from PTI. I love that I can use this card for birthday or thinking of you, anniversary, etc.

I'm playing in CAS Colours & Sketches (Colours); Crafty Calendar Challenge (Autumn/Halloween); and The Paper Players (Happy Autumn).

Twofer

Now, let me say first that this is not CAS per the CAS Mix Up rules. When trying out this fun technique, this was one of the first embossing folders I used. It is from Gina K's Sunny Days kit and I fell in love with how it looked as a full panel, so I left it. 

I'm showing it, however, to let you see another example of the blackout embossing technique and how gorgeous the results are. I plan to use this e/f and do it again ~ cutting it down to get at least two summer cards made. I want to see how it turns out making the strawberries red and using a different color for the braying. That's another thing, you don't need to use black ink for the blackout technique. You can use any dark color for the background contrast!

I'm playing in Addicted to Stamps and More (Birthdays); Freshly Made Sketches (Sketch); and 613 Avenue Create (A/G with option of pink).

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Enjoy your week! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse!

The past coupla weeks the lads have been having a blast "volunteering" at the local pet pumpkin patch in the mall! (EEK! It looks like that pumpkin is trying to chomp down on Stanley!)😄

*Life is too short!

Rising Wildflowers and Silver Poinsettias

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are enjoying October, so far, whether you are seeing the leaves turn autumnal colors or they are just budding out in spring greens. I think I've mentioned before that I'm a Leaf Person and, of course, that includes trees. If you had to pick one stamp/die set ~ one being flowers and the one leaves, which would you levitate towards?

Having said that, I do love flowers and I'm posting two today! This is D = Die Cuts on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar.

Onefer

This set is called, "Rising Wildflowers," by Pinkfresh Studio. When I first purchased it, the die wasn't available. As soon as it was, I got it and last week I had fun stenciling fall colors onto the dies. The background coverplate die called, "Diamond Delight" is also from Pinkfresh Studio. The "Pointed Rectangle Frame" is from Poppystamps and the vertical birthday stamp is from Stamps by Judith.

Playing in: A Cut Above (A/G with a die-cut); Beautiful Blossoms (Anything Floral Goes); and Mix It Up (A/G; option: Embossing).

Twofer

I love poinsettia images and have so many. Even so, I found one that was NBUS! And since I haven't used silver embossing in ages, I went with that. For the border, I silver-embossed the "Holiday Border Cling Background" stamp from The Ton. It's an all-around-border, but I wanted only one side, so I cut it and got two cards out of it! I used a silver metallic strip to edge the image. 

The NBUS poinsettia is from "Up Goes the Tree" from Penny Black. I die-cut and added another poinsettia to the back and popped it up to make it more fulsome. Another word I've always wanted to use in a sentence.

I liked the CAS design just as it was and because it's obviously a Christmas card, I decided to be a rebel and not add a sediment! The above photo doesn't capture the beautiful shine, so I took a closeup. 

Playing in: CAS Christmas (Poinsettia); Krafty Chicks (Christmas); and Merry Little Christmas (Anything Christmas Goes).

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse! 

The Mister is home from his motorcycle tour! Everything was wonderful and he had a blast! Thank you all for your prayers and good wishes! 

Mwah!

*Life is too short!

Cheers! Joy!

Hello Stamplings!

Quick! Come in! Welcome inside from the triple digit temps we are having for a week! I'm not complaining because I know many of my European and American friends suffered with extreme heat for a lot longer this past summer.🫠And we are blessed to have air conditioning.

And, hey, it's October! We've made our way through ten cars on this twelve-car train called 2026! As it's the first Monday of this month's journey, the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar is I=Ink, so I revisited a couple of my favorite inky techniques.

Onefer

The leafy panel was made by smooching a NBUS Watercolor Resist Paper from Spellbinders into a pool of fall colored Lindy Magicals watercolor powders. Hammy and Stanley took turns manning (?) the spritzer pump to create just the right pool consistency for smooching the leafy resist paper. 

Then the fun continued when they donned their fluffy slippers and polished the panel after it was dry, which made the glossy leaves shine. You can see in the upper portion where it looks like the ink didn't cover well, but that's actually the schparkle magic that happens when you use Lindy's Magicals! 

I added die-cut leaves from SSS ("Lush Leaves") cut from glossy paper to keep the shine going and the die-cut sediment is from The Ton ("Easy Expressions Birthday").

Playing in: Color Hues (Amber and Burnt Red [two Clairol colors I tried out back in the '70s!👱🦰]); AAA Birthday (Big and Bold); and Little Red Wagon (Autumn Colors).

Twofer

I'm panicking a bit realizing that I have to mail my overseas Christmas cards in November and this train isn't stopping because I'm way behind. Gulp. But you do what you can and everyone is in the same boat. Erm, train. (I can't keep up with my own Ana Logies.)

The pretty pine cone image is from a NBUS red rubber stamp from Prickly Pear ("Pinecone ATC"). I colored it direct-to-stamp with markers, spritzed, and then stamped it on watercolor paper. There is a lined rectangle frame that's part of the image, but it didn't ink well. Then I biffed it further when I tried to draw it with my ruler and a marker, so I covered all that mess with a dark green pierced frame from Papertrey Ink. Then I added a mat of corduroy dusty coral paper to add even more dementia and interest. After flipping a carrot, Stanley had the pleasure of adding the heart punctuation.

Playing in: Addicted to Stamps and More (Christmas); and Snippets Playground (all snippets were used for the image, frame, and mat).

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

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse! 

I'm sorry I haven't been around to visit and comment very often. I've been dealing with pain down my left leg since March. First, we checked the hip, next we checked the knee, and next I also developed something unpleasant called 'drop foot' on my right side. (At least now I list to both sides evenly, lol!) It turns out to be a compressed nerve in my back and I'm waiting for a date to start physical therapy, so hopefully things can decompress soon. 

I'm thankful I can still manage to make a couple of cards and a post once a week and I'm thankful for your kind visits to me even when I don't reciprocate as often as I'd like.❤️

Mwah!

*Life is too short!

CAS Mix Up Challenge Guest Designer!

Hello Stamplings!

It was an honor for me to win the August CAS Mix Up Challenge and, as a result, I am thrilled to be posting today as the Guest Designer for the October CAS Mix Up Challenge.

Blackout Embossing!😶

As it happens, any time I get ink anywhere near an embossing folder, it turns into the dog's dinner. (An expression I've never understood because my dog's dinners are pretty good!)

But I'm not one to back down from a challenge and I'm so glad I didn't! I had fun with this technique and I'm so tickled it worked for me!

The 3D embossing folder I used is from Simon Says Stamp called, "Feathery Fronds." It's unusual as an autumn foliage choice, but I like unusual choices and the folder has deep indentations, which is what you want. The NBUS sediment is from "Autumn Bounty" by Altenew. The banner is from MFT. (Don't forget to add stamping to your design!)

Before embossing I blended CP fall colors all over a panel of Strathmore Mixed Media paper. I lightly misted the panel and then ran it through my Gemini. For the blackout-ing, I used my brayer, running in both vertically and horizontally. My hands and arms sometimes get to dipping and swaying, even without wodka, so asking them to carefully swipe an ink pad back and forth over paper is like asking me to land an airplane. 

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I have to tell you, this was one of those magic moments that happen with crafting! It is really cool to see the result in person. Not only did the brayer give me needed control, it allowed me to smoothly add more ink to places that needed it for a really polished finish.

There are several excellent videos posted on the CAS Mix Up Challenge blog. I found them very helpful. In fact, I got so into it, I ended up making three different designs. The other two are full-panel designs, however, so I will save them for another post. 

Which reminds me to remind you not to forget the "CAS" part of the CAS Mix Up Challenge. The easiest way to accomplish this is to cut down your mixed media artwork as I have done with my card. 

To the left is the definition and there are also amazing DT designs on the main blog as examples of how to use the blackout embossing technique to make beautiful CAS designs!

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Thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse! And thank you to Lolly and the Design Team at CAS Mix Up Challenge for their hard work each month and for always expanding my creativity! I look forward to seeing what you create this month using this fun technique!

*Life is too short!

CASlicious Seasons

Hello Stamplings!

Thank you for stopping by today! Last week went by very slowly, which is something you rarely hear me say. I think it is the changing of the seasons that does me in. I'm an early riser and I have a hard time getting up when it's dark outside. 

While I adjust, I'm thankful I can use this wonderful hobby to combat the darkness by making light and bright cards to lift my spirits. This is A = Anything Goes week on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar and I went uber CAS = clean and super.🤭Ha, that was a slip of the ginfers, but I might be onto something. Very few cards we make are really simple, are they? Even if they don't have a lot of elements, they can take time or be difficult. So how about CAS = Clean and Super?!

Onefer

For my Onefer, I used Donna's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and brought out one of my favorite fall stamp sets. This rake and the autumn sediment are from the "Fall" set (2012) by Technique Tuesday. I stamped the autumn using a Kaleidoscope ink pad. The rake was stamped, clear heat-embossed, painted, and fussy cut. Oh, and, of course, winked by Hammy and Stanley! I add some rusticity by lightly inking the border. The circle sediment is from Memory Box.

Playing in: Allsorts (Anything Autumn); CAS on Friday (Autumn/Fall); Freshly Made Sketches; and Seize the Birthday (Use Fall Colors).

Twofer

For my Twofer, I was inspired by the September challenge at Pinkfresh Studio. Both the beautiful wreath and the gold-embossed sediment are from my NBUS Pinkfresh Studio set called, "Seasonal Sprigs." I painted the wreath using my Ziggies and, as with my Onefer, the lads were delighted to have lots of tiny areas to wink!

The Pinkfresh Monthly Challenge also has a theme and you are welcome to link your design using just the theme, or just the colors, or either/neither. They just want to see you have fun and link your new creations using their products. I used just the colors and I loved painting these hues on a Christmas wreath where you might not expect to see them!

Playing in Addicted to CAS (Circles); Pinkfresh Studio; Rudolph Days; and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday (Christmas in September).

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

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse!

*Life is too short!