Red and White Delights

Hello there, my friends!

Happy Saturday! I should be cleaning and washing windows and doing whatall and whatnot to get ready for Thanksgiving, but I'm also looking down the barrel of a Christmas Card Overseas Deadline, so there's a flurry of activity in the Playhouse. I've got the recent hamsterfall working in six-part harmony while Hammy orchestrates, so I thought I would take a break from them and post a cuppla creations.

First up is a tag:

The birch trees are a NBUS stamp from Purple Onions, heat embossed in black. The double sediment tag was made using a SU punch and a sediment from PTI's "Fillable Frames #8 Mini." The beautiful twill ribbon is also from SU. The little wooden reindeer was a gift from my friend Andrea.

Another friend is holding her fifth annual "25 Days of Christmas Tags" event where the DT members of several well-known companies are providing inspiration every day and I wanted to join in. That friend would be the lovable and talented Tracey!

I was inspired by this adorable tag made using Lawn Fawn products by Samantha Casey for Day Ten of Tracey's event:

Other Challenges

• Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge: Use a reindeer.
• Inkspiration Challenge: Photo Inkspiration.
• Loll's Twelve Tags of Christmas event. The linky closes tomorrow!
• The Sisterhood of Crafters: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.

Today's Twofer

Next I have a big beautiful poinsettia for you:

The stamp set is called "Poinsettias." It's made by Waltzingmouse Stamps and it contains several sizes of beautiful poinsettia images. The sediment is NBUS, also from Waltzingmouse Stamps ("Compact Sentiments"). 

I watercolored the flower and I'm sorry that the color came out looking a bit dull in the photo from the lateness of the day. In real life, it's quite vibrant and sparkly from winking. It also looks a little poofy because I used Loll's trick of rolling over the back with my stylist to stretch the paper and plump up the image. Wait. What? Is "stylist" the right word? The nice lady who does my hair? That can't be right.

Challenges

• CASology: Pretty.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Christmas.
• Uniko Challenge: Christmas ~ Optional CAS.

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New Friends Corner

The twofers make my posts longer, but I do want to introduce you to these five talented card artists!

Janice of My Craftroom Makes. Janice is literally a fresh new face in Blogland as she just started her blog in September! As always, I would love it if you took a minute to give Janice a special welcome to our warm and supportive corner of the World Wide Webatory! Even though she has just started, Janice is a prolific designer so there is lots and lots of stunning CAS and shaped cards already there for your inspiration!

Niki Garcia of Stampin'HI. Niki is from Hawaii and she started blogging in 2012 to be a more active member of this paper-addicted community that we all love. She is the mom of two and a full-time Registered Nurse. As always, I'm impressed by women who can mom and blog! Nikki not only manages both of those well, she serves on design teams! You will love her bright and cheerful cards!

Ka of Stamping Smiles Designs. Ka is from Wisconsin and although she only started blogging in January of this year, she is already well known to a lot of you. And rightly so! As she says herself, she makes cute and whimsical cards guaranteed to make the recipient (and her blog fans) smile. Ka is going to start her own challenge in January, so head's up!

Jennifer Loftfield of Caffeinated Papercuts. Jennifer started blogging in 2011. There is more testosterone than estrogen in Jennifer's household which means, as she says, she loves crafting because it gives her the chance to use pink! Jennifer is another designer and award winner whose art is so inspiring. In addition to creating her card art, Jennifer enjoys gardening and cooking and ... obviously ... coffee!

Dusi of Dusi Creates. Dusi is from Slovenia and she started blogging in 2013. She is not just a card artist, although you will be inspired and impressed by the card art she does create. She makes 3D projects, jewelry, ornaments, and brooches and pendants, so there is truly a lot to see. Dusi's special creations are colorful, fun, and full of life!

Thank you for joining, ladies, and welcome to the Playhouse!

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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! Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor!

*Life is too short!

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Jingle All The Way!

Hi There!

I'm taking a few days off for the Thanksgiving holiday so I'm here now to share a couple of creations before the challenges close.

As prolly most of you know, Tracey McNeely holds an annual "25 Days of Christmas Tags" event at her fantastic blog, In My Creative Opinion. Tons of stampers and crafters (even whole design teams) join in and there are lots of wonderful companies sponsoring prizes for the partipants!

I'm pickled tink to be finally joining in with a Christmas tag today. Since I have more than enough schtuff and such on Mt. NBUS, I'm entering just for fun to support my friend before the festagities are over for another year.

Why did it take me so long to join in, you ask. Well, first, take a look at my tag:

 

I ordered my outfit in August to prepare for Tracey's 2014 tag event. AUGUST! The leotard and the jumper finally arrived two weeks ago, but the belt and one elf shoe were missing. For heaven's sake! I spent I don't know how many hours on the phone getting to the bottom of it before I traced it to a feed store in Franklin, South Potato. You can imagine my relief when the Fed Ex box arrived with the missing pieces!

I immediately got dressed and the Mister agreed to take my picture. Now I don't know how your mister is with a camera, but I've watched spiders build entire villages waiting for mine to get ready to press the button. I know it looks like I'm being a tart and asking him if he wants to play some reindeer games, but just between you and me, that's NOT what I'm saying! God bless him.

And did you notice all the jingle bells adorning my rockin' bod? Three pairs of them! Well, I made so much noise stomping back into the house that every stray cat in the neighborhood is now in our backyard thinking they heard a dinner bell!

The NBUS bookmark/tag is "Stitched Bookmark Collection Die" from Papertrey Ink. The image and sediment are also NBUS, made by Art Impressions.

So there you have it, Tracey! That's how much I love you! Your event is always fun and it's a delight watching the entire community support you!

I'm also linking to Tag You're It! and with the "Christmas Elves" challenge happening at Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge.

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Next, I made this CAS card with jingle bell garlands:

The wavy garlands are cut from snippets of glitter paper using a NBUS Memory Box die called "Jingle Bell Border." The sediment is also NBUS from the Avery Elle set "Winter Wreath." Everything in this post is NBUS and this one is QACAS, to boot!

I am entering:

• Less Is More challenge. (Next week will be week #200!) The theme this week is "Jingle All The Way!"
• Fusion Card Challenge, where I chose the silver and red photo inspiration.
• The Cutting Edge Challenge. I'm sad to read that this will be the last challenge for them! Thank you, Jackie, and all the Design Team members and Guest Designers for your hard work!
• Pixie's Snippets Playground, where all you have to do is use scraps on your card.

The challenge links will provide you with details on rules, sponsors, and prizes.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is my favorite holiday meal! Old-fashioned oven-roasted turkey (yes, in spite of my work history!) with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and lots of yummy side dishes. 

We are supposed to have a beautiful warm day here tomorrow, which will add to the joy of having friends and family gather in this house as we've done every year since 1977!

Best of all, afterwards everyone will go home except for the twins! We get to play with them for a couple more days and I'm looking forward to them helping me decorate the Christmas tree!

I wish all my American friends and their families a very Happy Thanksgiving! And I want to take this opportunity to thank ALL of you again for your continued support and encouragement, no matter where you are in the world. You keep me keepin' on and I count each of you among my many blessings!

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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 leave a comment and/or join as a follower! Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor!

  

 

*Life Is Too Short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:

Click CTL + Home. 
Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post.
Click Page Down to reach the end of the post.
Click Comments and the pop-up box opens.
Click Jump to Comment Form; no more car pool tunnel!
Mwah!

[Mrs. O, I have no way to answer your question, so please email me.]