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 . . . 

Onefer

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).

Twofer

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.

~~~

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?

~~~

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!

Forward! Spring!

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you well as we enter our first full week of spring in this part of the world! It is also "Happy National Puppy Day!," but more on that later.

This week is A = Anything Goes on the I.D.E.A.S. calendar, which is everyone's idea of a good time! Let's start with springtime in the meadow . . .

Onefer

And how about two joyful bunnies from MFT (liberally winked by Hammy) to welcome you? I found the banner in my Easter/Spring stash ~ it looks like it might be from Paper Smooches. I blended the background and then stamped rocks and grass and made the rocks look like tiny dyed eggs or maybe jelly beans. The pointy frame is from Poppystamps.

Playing in: CAS on Friday (Spring) and Little Red Wagon (Signs of Spring).

Twofer

Next up are painted tulips using a NBUS trio of tulips embossing folder from Penny Black. I forgot to use a piece of watercolor paper, so it's not my best painting, but hey ho. I usually biff it when I try to paint over a 3D embossed image, so that part makes me happy and Hammy's expert winking polished it off nicely. I diecut it with a stitched oval from MFT. 

Threefer ~ in celebration of National Puppy Day!

I think this is one of my favoritest cards. The very definition of QACAS, yet bursting with emotion. I used a NBUS die from Cottage Cutz. (It comes with a cat, too, which I'll save for National Kitty Day.) I didn't want to disturb the image with a sediment, especially since this sweet card can be used for so many occasions.

It's brilliant in person when it comes to the texture. On a whim, I used a piece of this thick black handmade paper with nurbles on it, which I've had in my stash since the last century:

When I ran it through the die-cutter it flattened the nurbles, but in just-the-right-kind-of-way because it left a wonderful thick head of hair on the wee pup.

Playing in: Alphabet Challenge (X -Ray - Black and White Only), AAA Cards (A/G w/ option zoo or animals), and Krafty Chicks (CAS).

~~~

Some of you may remember we had a black lab once. We actually started out with a yellow lab named Salty. When Salty was eight years old and slowing down, we thought it would be a good idea to get a second lab and we happened to get a black one. Because of the circumstances, the only choice for his name was Blackie ... no, just kidding! Of course, we called him Shadow!

Shadow remained Salty's shadow for the next seven years! Yes, that's right, it turned out that Shadow gave Salty a new lease on life! He lived until he was 16 and Shadow lived to be 15. And everyone said smoking and martinis would be bad for them! 

I managed to dig up a windy picture of me with them (cough) years ago on one of our Sunday hike/picnics:

~~~

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 Make-More-Cards Week!

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are doing well as we whoosh around to the last Monday of February! I'm pickled tink that I managed to post every Monday this month and I so appreciate of all of you visiting and commenting!

I have to admit I "stretched" the title of the post a bit. It should say, "Play More Cards Day" and it was yesterday and only for the day and they don't mean handmade cards, but in the pocket of my tan jacket in the back of the closet you'll find a creative license under the name Art Blanch which allows me libations.

So, hurrazah, let's make more cards this week! It is also the fourth week of the month on my I.D.E.A.S. calendar, so woohoo, A = Anything Goes!

Onefer

Goodness, I'll wait while you get your sunglasses! In fact, I'll grab mine, too! The sun turned my springy lime green into sassy Char Truz! I used a NBUS stencil from the "Rising Wildflowers" set from Pinkfresh Studio. The die was out of stock, but rather than tossing the stencil on Mt. NBUS, I went to work blending CP inks and then I went over parts of the flowers with my watercolor pencils for a little more dementia. 

The scalloped frame is from Pink & Main, the NBUS "birthday" die is from Poppystamps, and the tiny "happy" is ancient from WPlus9.

Challenges: Addicted to Stamps and More (Make Your Mark); Colorful Options (Pink/Purple); and Pinkfresh Studio (February).

Twofer

When I saw Lisa's Mood Board at Just Us Girls, this design quickly came to mind. When Hammy is over at Daphne's playing with Stanley (and Daphne's dwarf hamster Dwayne), she often gets out her tea set for make-believe. It all starts out well, but before oolong, the lads start scampering, sending everything arse over teacup ~ literally. Fortunately, Daph is a light-heated lass and their antics send her off into peals of laughter! 

I used a NBUS coffee mug die from Simon Says Stamp, cut from a snippet of pretty pp. The hamster stamps and dies are from Your Next Stamp and Your Next Die. The window die is from Poppystamps and I backed it with vellum patterned with silver leaves. It still needed a little sumpthin, so I added some silver baseboard as a ground and fern bits cut from silver using a NBUS "Dainty Ferns Die" from Waffle Flower. The NBUS sediments are from Pinkfresh Studio.

Additional Challenges: Alphabet (V for Volume); Inkspirational (Mug); Critter Crazy (Anything Goes); and Snippets Playground (Use Your Snippets ~ I remembered to take a photo!).

~~~

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! I'm becited to see all your cards this week!♣️🎴

*Life is too short!

     

Delicate Flowers

Hello Stamplings!

Welcome to the beginning of a new week! There's lots going on in the world and not all of it good, so thank you for coming to a safe space for a little ray of silliness and card fart.

This is week three of the June I.D.E.A.S. Calendar which means E = embossing, wet or dry. I had a spree doing both on my creations. I started by stamping and then heat-embossing these flowers and leaves in clear e/p and painting them with my Ziggies.

This stamp set was part of the Simon Says Stamp card kit in May 2019. Yes, that's right 2019. I'm among friends. The SSS kits are very popular and many of you may have seen this, if not own it. One of the stamps was stained, but I can't find that I posted it and the other stamps were all NBUS. 

What happened was (as near as I can figure), back in June 2019, there was a small 3.2 earthquake along the Hayward fault near here. There was no damage, but it was enough to cause everything on Mt. NBUS to shift and this set slipped into a deep crevasse. 

And there it remained until last week when Hammy and Stanley were crev-assing around and things shifted again. Never a dull moment here! I decided to use the whole set in one sitting before it disappeared again. The only funny thing that happened was realizing halfway through painting that I didn't have dies for this set. Not sure if SSS ever made them.

So I sent the lads off on another excavation, this time into the box under my desk that contains antique crafting tools ~ in this case, scissors. Remember scissors, or skizzers as we like to call them? That was a lot of fussy-cutting, but the old tool still worked fine. As did the skizzers.

Embossing folder is Sizzix 662765. Sediment strip from Memory Box. The pp is from Craft Consortium.

Alphabet Challenge: Embossing, wet or dry.

The Flower Challenge: Add embossing, wet or dry.

Seize the Birthday: A/G (no toppings).

The embossed oval and foiled sediment were gifts, so maker unknown.

Addicted to Stamps and More: Any occasion.

Allsorts Challenge: What makes you happy (crafting and painting) or A/G.

Embossed panel was a gift, so folder unknown.

SSS Wednesday Challenge: Fur, feathers, and/or flowers.

We Love Stamping: June: Nature or A/G.

Embossing folder by Darice. Sediment (v.o.) might be from PTI.

~~~

That was a fun spree! As you might be able to see in some of the photos, the stinkers had their winkers running overtime! Even though you may not have this set or be able to purchase it, there are many sets out there with similar images, so I hope these designs inspire you.

If so, you will find a linky tool below for you to share your creations using your wet and/or dry embossing! Your card, in turn, may help motivate others out of their creative schlumps or give someone a step-off for their own design! 

I love seeing what you create, visiting you, and pinning your designs! 

Enjoy your week! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* As always, thank you for coming by to visit and leaving a comment!

Hang in there!

*Life is too short!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Birthday Embossing

Hello Stamplings!

And Happy Monday to you as you begin your week with high hopes! Whatever they may be, I hope they come to fruitition. (Which makes more sense than fruition. What's a "fru?")

All around our neighborhood, hydrangeas are blooming with their many tiny little flowers all balled up into one huge flower. They are one of my most favorite flowers and I was inspired to bring out an old favorite stamp and paint.

Onefer

This stamp is Essentials by Ellen Mondo Hydrangea. I stamped the flower and leaf in black, heat-embossed in clear e/p, and then painted with my Ziggies before die-cutting. 

The lads went to town winking and then all three of us schplattered with diluted guache on the flower and leaf and with diluted purple ink on the background panel. That panel was embossed with an SU Sizzex e/f and attached to a lavender card base.  Finally, the flower was attached using foam squares. The sediment is a foil greeting from Memory Box.

Challenges

Beautiful Blossoms: Mood board with purple hydrangeas.

Cut It Up: Send me flowers.

Seize the Birthday: Flowers.

The Flower Challenge: Add spots or stripes. (Or both!)

Twofer

For this QACAS design, I used my NBUS gingko leaves 3D e/f from SSS with a panel of watercolor black paper which gives it a lovely texture. Then I simply swiped the raised bits using a piece of white chalk turned on its side. The circular sediment is also from SSS.

Challenges

Alphabet: C is for circles.

Let's Craft and Create: No patterned paper.

Little Red Wagon: D is for die cut.

~~~

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 or give someone a step-off for their own design! 

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!

Have a wonderful Memorial Day holiday next Monday. We will be with friends so I will not have a post. See in June!! (Another year whooshing by way too fast!) 

*Life is too short!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter