Et Wallah, Anything Goes!

Hello Stamplings!

Welcome to a new week! I hope it's a great one! We've been busier than ticks on a deer with appointments and lunches and seeing long-time friends. In spite of it, I managed to tuck in some relaxing crafty time. I hope you've had some, too!

It is A=Anything Goes on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar, which is always a fan favorite here! 

Onefer

Fortunately, last week my updated Artistic License arrived by post, so I was able to take an old favorite hydrangea stamp (Mondo Hydrangea from Essentials by Ellen) and color it in unusual colors. Normally hydrangeas grow in hues of pink, blue, purple, and I think white, but I thought this beauty would be a perfect candidate for the current Color Hues challenge of yellow and orange. Besides, I haven't painted with my Ziggies in ages and I so enjoyed it! 

Then a funny thing happened, which seems to be happening every time I create, which is fine since funny things are good. I stamped the hydrangea in Versafine black onto watercolor paper. When it was dry, I stamped it again using Versamark and clear embossing powder. I already had my embossing stuff out, so the image was powdered and dried with the heat gun. 

But as the powder was heated, it started turning a sort of funny white/gray color. "Ern?," I thought, laying my right ear on my right shoulder, "what's happened to my clear powder?" I was committed at that point, but a good attorney got me out. Wait. No. Different story. I finished the embossing and then I saw that the embossing powder I had out on my desk was white, not clear. Now that I think about it, since clear e/p and white e/p are both white powder, it's a wonder I haven't done that several times before! 

After I finished painting the hydrangea, I stamped the sediment from Gina K. and blended yellow ink around the rim to frame the image, bring your eyeballs into focus, and keep the card one-layer.

Beside's Marcia's Color Hues challenge, I'm playing in AAA Birthday (Flowers); Inkspirational (Word Prompt: Garden); and We Love Stamping (Summer Blooms).

Twofer 

For this quick Christmas card, I die-cut some pretty red cardstock using a NBUS die from Scrapbook.com called, "Nested Swiss Dot Rectangles." For the center, I used one of my favorite stamps from Simon Says Stamps set called, "Holiday Greetings Mix 1." I stamped it in Versamark and heat-embossed it in white. (After checking the label!) 

Sorry you can't see the shine from the embossing or the white gel pen I used to fill in the berries and leaves, or the white acrylic paint schplattered about by Hammy. I attached the finished panel to a snowy embossed background panel.

Stanley's job for this card was to punch out the red swiss dots. Needless to say, the little darling went about it with reckless abandon!

Playing in: ABC Christmas (R is for Rectangle); Addicted to Stamps and More (Any Occasion); and Allsorts (Embossing: Heat or Dry - both used).

~~~

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

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

Mwah!

*Life is too short!

Eclipse It!

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you well wherever you are! So many storms, floods, and fires. 

We had a grass fire only two miles from us last week that scorched a thousand acres. It was scary, smoky, and the acrid smell is still in the air days later. Considering it was such a small fire, I cannot imagine how terrifying and awful it is near the huge wildfires in France, Spain, Italy, and in many America states. Keep safe, my friends. Praying for those impacted and for all the brave firefighters, farmers, and individuals helping in ways large and small.🙏🫶

~~~

This week is A = Anything Goes on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar. Whoop! I wanted to play with the Eclipse technique at the newly reopened CAS Mix-Up Challenge. It's also known as Hidden Words, or as I like to call it, Camel Flodged.🐪I haven't done this technique for quite a while and it was great fun!

Onefer

This sweet NBUS image is called, "Birthday Presents Wrapping Paper" from Your Next Stamp. The NBUS happy script word die is from The Greetery. I stamped the image in black and colored the presents in red in order to play in the Color Hues Challenge.

I liked the idea that this could be an all-purpose card, but after wards, I decided it needed a second word. I looked through all my word dies, and now I have car pool tunnel but nothing fit the area, so I made another card instead! Go me!

This script die is from Simon Says Stamp. In addition to the above challenges, I am playing in the Anything Goes category at Seize the Birthday

Twofer

This image is NBUS from Spellbinders called, "Christmas Florals and Sentiments." It consists of five stencils and made me question again why I don't stencil more often? I find it very relaxing. The word die is from GKW. The berry nipples are blobs of Lawn Fawn schparkle glaze. (Have I said how much I miss Hammy and Stanley!)

The Eclipsing technique works perfectly for those large pretty images you have which you hate to cover over with a greeting.

To give the design a little extra nubbiness, I popped the tripled image over a panel embossed with a Park Lane e/f called, "Holly Berry." I also miss having a Jo-Ann Store. Actually I miss all of the stamping stores that used to be in my community. And the sweet ladies who ran them. I sound old. Well, duh.

Playing in: 52 Christmas Card Throwdown (Stencilling); Rudolph Days (A/G Christmas); Jingle Belles (Colors: Unicorn Holiday); Inkspirational (Word Prompt: Christmas in July); and Just Us Girls (A/G Stencil Week). This Eclipse card won't go in the CAS Mix-Up Challenge because there is no stamping. However, because there is no stamping, it can go in "N = No Stamping" challenge over at the ABC Christmas!

~~~

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! Mwah!

*Life is too short!

Sending Love From Our House to Yours!

Hello Stamplings!

Happy Monday from the Playhouse! I hope you are doing well! What a day for watching sports yesterday!

This is E = Embossing week on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar. Recently, my friend Hilary posted beautiful embossed cards covered with vellum on her blog, Fiddling About. She had gotten the idea from another friend of ours, Leslie, of Running With Scissors. I couldn't wait to CASE their cards!

Onefer

For my summery card, I used a NBUS e/f from Gina K.'s kit called, "Sunny Days & Breezy Nights." I chose a pretty pink color for the strawberry design and I covered it with thin vellum using a double-stick adhesive sheet. I've embossed with vellum before and sometimes it cuts right through in places if the vellum is thin. But I have never thought of adding the vellum to an adhesive sheet first, which not only gives it weight, it is easy to stick to the colored card without any adhesive showing or vellum flapping.

However, then I had my usual comedy of errors with basic embossing. For some reason, I am embossing-folder challenged. I look at a folder and decide which side is the embossed side and which side is the debossed side, run it through and more often than not, it comes out backwards. I do wish all manufacturers would put their company name on the front. Or maybe, "this side up." I wouldn't even mind if they added the word, "dummy." 

I'm not sure why, but some of my embossing folders looked better debossed in vellum and some looked better embossed in vellum, but either way, no loss. If the vellum gave me a bit of a blurry image, I just made a card using the other side of the panel face up, even though it does waste a piece of vellum and adhesive sheet. (I think of the person who decides to upcycle one of my cards and finds a pretty white slip underneath the front panel! Erf?)

Speaking of slips, I still have a full-slip and a half-slip in my "You Never Know" drawer. Styles change, history repeats itself. There are also old swimsuits, bras, and pantyhose. And knee socks for the day when I stop getting flushed and I'm cold all the time. Don't tell The Mister about this drawer or I'll never get him to clean the garage!

Where was I? Sorry. Anyway, that's why the above card is debossed. This one happened to be prettier debossed than embossed. I chose a simple NBUS sediment from Simon Says Stamp called, "Simple Sending Love" to finish it off without covering up too many juicy strawberries.

Playing in: Little Red Wagon (Pretty in Pink); Just Us Girls (Mood Board Week: Strawberries in pink = Summertime); and Allsorts (A/G).

Twofer

Using the same process for my Christmas card, I chose a NBUS e/f from Simon Says Stamp called, "Poinsettia Oval." The sediment is from Creative Expressions by Sue Wilson. This card is much prettier in person, but looking at it now, I'm thinking I might run off another one in just vellum or in white to match the sediment and then fussy-cut the poinsettia to pop it on top. Mmm?

~~~

This vellum embossing process was so fun and addicting! As Hilary told me, "You will love the thrill you get when you open the embossing folder." (Even if it is accidentally debossed!🙃)

Playing in: Inkspirational (Christmas in July); ABC Christmas (N is for "No Stamping"); and 613 Avenue Create (A/G, option of "Any Holiday").

~~~

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! Mwah!

*Life is too short!

Stenciling Through the Seasons

Hello Stamplings!

I sure hope this finds my European friends feeling much cooler! What a terrible heat wave in areas that are not used to it. (I'm not going to talk about how nice the weather has been here!🤫)

This is a rare fifth Monday of the month as we close out June, which means it is S = Stencils week on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar.

Onefer

I used a NBUS stencil from Papertrey Ink called, "Wandering Petals." Now, I don't do much stenciling, but I enjoy it. Even though they all sit organized in pretty stripey binders right to the left of my face, I tend to ignore them. It's like the thigh-bone-connected-to-the-knee-bone situation, but in this case, it's more of an organic disconnect from eye to brain. 

Which brings me to sharing a dumb thing I did when stenciling this card. I'm telling you because after I embarrassed myself, then I was amused. But, also, tell me the truth, am I just getting too old for this job?

This is a simple two-stencil stencil. Two. One stencil is the stems and leaves and the other is the petals. It doesn't get much easier than that. I inked the stems and leaves, picked up the petals stencil and the phone rang. After the call, I absent-mindedly lined up the petals stencil over the stem stencil ... and loved how perfectly they lined up! This was a revelation!

But then I lifted the petals stencil and realized why no one else had shared this wonderful technique. Like a do-do, I had simply inked the petals onto the plastic of the stem stencil!🫣

Once I properly inked the petals, I used the stencil to outline the flowers with my fine-point black pen.

And where were my little helpers, you might ask? I clearly need them, but this is their vacation time and they are off to see the cousins. Hammy is slowing down, so I'm glad we have Stanley back to help him on their travels.

Playing in: Addicted to Stamps and More (Die Cuts and/or Stencils); Just Us Girls (Stencil Week); and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday (Anything Goes).

Twofer

My Christmas design was schparked by the current sketch at Jingle Belles. I hope you can see the snowflakes. The snowflake stencil is without packaging so, you know, it fits in the above-mentioned binders. I didn't start out planning to go mono chrome, but one minty green thing led to another.  The sweet little snowman is NBUS from Pink & Main. 

Also playing in: ABC Christmas Challenge (L = Let It Snow); Christmas Kickstart Challenge (Snow Day); and Rudolph Days (A/G Christmas).

~~~

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!

I have a busy week ahead with a special July NBUS on the 1st, my birthday on the 2nd, and the 4th of July weekend, so I might not see you next Monday. Stay inky!

Mwah!

*Life is too short!

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).

Twofer

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).

~~~

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!