Day Four - Stamplorations Spotlight Week!

Oh, you look so fine today! Thank you for stopping in for a visit!

I'm honored to be here on Day Four guesting for Stamp Spotlight Week at STAMPlorations along with Shery and her outstanding DesignTeam!

Here is a look at all the magnificent stamps in the new release:

Today, our spotlight is on HEAVEN SENT:

Once again, a very sweet set of baby stamps and sediments! 

After yesterday's wild foray into nonCASicity, the hamster and I went very CAS for our inspiration card today:

This card is pretty self-exploratory. I love the old-fashioned pram and so I used an old-fashioned ribbon treatment some of you might remember from the last century. Using the oval was intended to be provocative of old-fashioned portraits that hung in old-fashioned parlors. 

OTOH, I am hoping that keeping it minimal with lots of white space still gives it a fresh feeling. To that end, I will use one of the precious sediments on the inside.

~~~

And that's it, Bob's your Aunt, and Shery is generously offering PRIZES for this Release Week! For a chance to win one of the prizes, make sure you leave a comment here and on the blog posts of the fabulous Design Team members listed below. Each has made you stunning inspiration using "HEAVEN SENT."

Cornelia

Deepti

Maria

Monika

Sari

Shery

Shirley

Tenia

Vicki

Wei Wei

~~~

New Friends Corner

I'm pickled tink to introduce you to these new friends:

Shirley Wilkie of Greeting Card Heaven. What a wonderful name! Shirley is from South Carolina and she has been making greeting cards for about four years. She had a former blog, but this new blog has only been open since February of this year. I know you will fall in love with Shirley's dynamic card art!

Mayoori Jain of Butterflies and Buttons, Mayoori has been blogging since April 2014. (Happy First Blog Birthaversary!) Mayoori is a designer, an award-winner, and active in challenges. You will find beautiful scrapbook layouts, altered art, 3D projects, and cards on Mayoori's vibrant blog!

Dana of Crafty Couple. Dana is just starting her blog, but I think you will be seeing more of her as she settles in and plays in challenges. She is one-half of the Crafty Couple; her husband Glenn is an artist and woodworker. Dana loves handcrafts, especially quilting and making cards. Her cards are always on point and you can tell a lot of thought and care goes into each one. Here's another lady that I hope you will be able to visit and welcome to our wonderful stamping community!

Ilse of Greeting Cards and So. Ilse is from Wilrijk (near Antwerp). A wife and mother, Ilse has been blogging since 2011. Ilse makes such pretty cards. They are always fresh and CAS and very pleasing to the eye. You may have seen Ilse's lovely cards in challenges and I know you'll enjoy visiting her blog for a closer look!

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

~~~

Enjoy the hop and 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!

Color Throwdown Challenge: Black, white, and any shade of yellow.

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Due date.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Clean and simple.

The Sisterhood of Crafters: Monochromatic.

The challenge links will provide you with inspiration and rules, sponsor, and prize details.

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Day Two - Stamplorations Spotlight Week!

Greetings!

Well, now, Monday wasn't so hard was it? I love to see you greeting Tuesday with a smile!

I am thrilled to be joining the talented Design Team at Stamplorations for Day Two of Stamp Spotlight Week!

Here is a look at all the magnificent stamps in the new release:

The new release contains several stamps celebrating pregnancy and parenthood. Today, our spotlight is on The Bee's Knees "BABY BUMP."

I just love the sweet little onesie and cardigan/jacket so I used them and paired them with both the "Congratulations" and the "so happy for you" sediments from the new set.

A friend recently gave me the sweet e/f from Darice, which I thought was perfect to use with the adorable baby outfits. I had some OAD pp with little baby-related pictures, so I stamped the baby clothes over the pictures and then fussy-cut them.

The upper left-hand corner was bugging the hamster, so we sat there stumped for a bit, staring at it. I walked the card across the room like I like to do because sometimes having a long view will spark an idea. 

Sure enough, we thought, why not just cut off the offending bit in a swoop to mimic the line of the clothes line, which is a line I've never used in my whole adult life because we lived in apartments for many years so I got in the habit of using the dryer and then when we moved here, there really wasn't a place to put up a clothes line. But I hung a lot of clothes on the line in my childhood and a part of me misses that old-timey chore and the smell of those sun-dried clothes. Especially baby clothes.

~~~

Shery is generously offering prizes for this Release Week! For a chance to win one of the prizes, make sure you leave a comment here and on the blog posts of the fabulous Design Team members listed below. Each has made you stunning inspiration using The Bee's Knees "BABY BUMP."

Cornelia

Deepti

Maria

Monika

Sari

Shery

Shirley

Tenia

Vicki

Wei Wei

~~~

New Friends Corner

I'm going to introduce a few new friends here so they don't have to be kept waiting in the wings any longer. Please join me in welcoming:

Rupa S. of Together for Arts. Rupa is from Bangalore and she has been blogging since July of 2013. Rupa is a scrapper and a card artist. She is also an expert in altered art and mixed media and her 3D projects are mind-blowing and inspirational. Rupa loves challenges and has she has won many awards for her art. Prepare to be amazed!

Nessa of Nessa's Crafty Place. Nessa makes extraordinary card designs. She became familiar to a lot of us a couple of years ago with her blog and through playing in challenges. Unfortunately, she had to back away for a bit and close down her blog. Just a couple of months ago Nessa came back to blogging and sharing her works of art! If you've missed her, you'll be happy she is back and if you didn't know her, you will be happy to know her now. Either way, please visit and re-welcome her!

Sofia Andersson of The Eternal Phoenix. Sofia is a young woman from Finland who also just started blogging a couple of months ago. She has been making cards since Easter of 2013. Sofia is venturing into the world of challenges and sharing her cards and I know she would be over-the-moon happy if you stopped in to follow her and welcome her to our wonderful community in Blogland!

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

~~~

Enjoy the hop and 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!

Challenges

Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use Those Snippets.

(Happy Birthday, Sis! Love you!)

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Baby Girl Bear and DJKASE #21

Happy Friday!

I'm so glad you whooshed in here on that gust of wind whirling the autumn leaves in a dervish across the lawn!

I'm not up to much visiting or card-making yet, but while I was crafting it up with the BABES, I made a card that I can share with you today. Even in the midst of colorful autumn leaves and the onrush of Christmas, people continue to have babies. Imagine that! My very sweet and talented friend Lindsey of Occasional Crafting recently presented the world with a beautiful baby girl, so I made her this celebratory card. Congratulations to Lindsey and family!

I'm sorry I don't have the card ingredients as they came from the Lake House Lending Library! I can tell that everything on the card was NBUS to me, including my first-time-ever use of Copics! And I also got a tip from Anita BABE to apply Glossy Accents on top of Wink of Stella! Wait. What?! Just look at that sweet little bear, fussy-cut, popped-up, and sparkling to beat the band! 

 

This lovely classic design using tried and true stamping techniques is a straight-up DJKASE of this super delightful card:

It was so fun to get back to doing a DJKASE and the card artist I am featuring today is the immensely creative and enthusiastic LeAnne Pugliese of Wee Inklings. Thank you, LeAnne, for this adorable inspiration! If you don't already have the pleasure of knowing LeAnne, I hope you'll treat yourself with a visit to her!

~~~

Slowly my eyes are healing, thanks hugely to the Mister's ministrations. Mwah to him! And mwah to my friend Susan who came over yesterday and brought sandwiches which we enjoyed outside in the warm autumn sunshine. She was really considerate and didn't recoil in horror when I opened the door. (Although even with my puckered eyes, I did notice that she discreetly steadied herself against the door frame!)

~~~

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!

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A Baby? May Wee!

Happy Monday-It's-A-Brand-New-Week Hello!

Why am I still here? I meant to take a break and I AM going to take a break, I promise. In fact, this is my last post for at least a week, maybe two. I am taking a few days off to travel and have fun with a long-time girlfriend. If there is any down time, I'm hoping to catch up with some of your blogs which have been woefully neglected (honest, I'm woed about it), but there will be no new listings. A break for everyone! 

I actually hadn't planned this post except that I needed to make a new baby card for a young couple we know and since it fit into a couple of challenges, I thought I would go ahead and post it. 

The new mama and papa are French. We got to know them when the young man worked as a post-doc for the Mister until last year when he got a job and they moved back to France. (That's why I spoke some French in the title, in case you missed the Seq Way Significance.)

Now they have started their little family with sweet baby girl Alix and I made them a card.

This is my second time making a shaker card and I used the new SU shaker frame circles made of foam tape. They work great, but I wish they made bigger ones. My image, which (of course) I stamped and colored before fingering out how big the appleture needed to be, has only just made it through the port hole!

And I can see now that I was a bit stingy with the sequints. And that I forgot to chomp the corners which I meant to do so baby Alix doesn't poke herself in the face when rattling her little shaker card!

Crafting. It's a process.

Or at my age:

Thinking. It's a painful.

~~~

I'm squeezing into the current challenge at The Card Concept which is, "Oh, Baby!" My card for this challenge is Clean and Layered.

Over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, the theme is "Shake It!"

At the awesome Virginia Lu's fifth Virginia's View Challenge, the theme is "Die Cuts." Virginia's is a popular and fun challenge with famous and talented guest designers who come to visit with incredible tutorials!

Lastly, I'm going to quickly dash over to the Playground full of snippets run by a Pixie named Di so I can see my pals there before I take off!

Please join in the fun of these challenges! If nothing else, stop in to visit them and check out the sensational projects the design teams have for you! The links will also provide you with information regarding the rules, sponsors, and prizes.

~~~

New Friends Corner

I am pleased to also have another opportunity to introduce you to five more new friends who have joined our party!

AJ (Art Jypsy) of AJ's Creative Energy. AJ has been blogging since 2013. Her name suits her perfectly as she has loads of energy! She is a very productive and talented card artist so you'll get filled up to the brim with inspiration when you visit!

Connie of Grammy's Attic. Connie has been blogging since 2011. She is the proud Nana of six and Great-Nana to two! She is also a designer and a card artist who loves entering challenges and she is well-recognized for her happy, colorful, and often whimsical cards! Connie was also born with an extra aorta of energy because she blogs nearly every day, providing you with incredible inspiration!!

Bonnie of Stamping in the Light. Bonnie is the mother of two children and she's been blogging since 2009! The name of her blog comes from her love of lighthouses. Her love of cardmaking comes from her desire to bring joy to others, which I think we can all agree is our primary motivation. Lots of delight awaits you from this designer and award-winner!

Vickie Doswell of Okienurse's Paper and Ink Therapy. Did you guess that Vickie is a retired nurse from Oklahoma?! She has been blogging since 2008! Like many of us, Vickie has medical issues which are relieved somewhat when she gets into her happy crafting place. Vickie's talents are far and wide when it comes to creativity, so you will find an enormous range of fascinating and fabulous works of art when you visit!

Rahmat Gouse of Cards and Cooking Corner. As the name suggests, Rahmat will bring you wonderful inspirations of both card art and recipes! She's only been blogging since February, but she has already received lots of recognition for her fantastic cards! When you visit, please leave her an extra-special welcome to our blogging cardmaking community!

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

~~~

Thank you again for all your heartfelt birthday wishes and/or cards!!

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 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!

Project Details
Paper	PTI white; SU pink pirouette
Stamps	Booties-All Night Media (995G07); sediment-SU
Ink	Archival jet black; SU pretty in pink
Accessories	Dies: Spellbinders circles and scallop; Darice sequins

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Mwah!

Baby Card and The Wild Kingdom

Greetings!

After a lovely visit, my sister has left. I'm back in the Playhouse and my first priority was to make a new baby card for an attorney friend I used to work for. She and her husband just welcomed twins, Jack and Abigail! They join their two big brothers, so my friend has her hands full. I'm delighted she has a little girl now, too!!

I made a simple white-on-white CAS card, punctuated with a single shiny bow I happened to have in my stash that cornveniently has threads of both pink and blue!

The onesie die is from Papertrey Ink, the swiss dots embossing folder is Cuttlebug, the flat sequints are from my stash, and the ribbon is by Darice. That sit. I decided against a congratulations tag or banner, choosing to let the bow take center stage all by itself. The inside will have the sediment with lots of exclamation points for this blessed event!

Can I just say that w-o-w cards are terribly hard to photograph?! I know the one I'm showing is too busy against the flowers and the sun washed it out too much, but I took several photos inside against several different colored backgrounds (even black) and in the end, these outside shots were the least washed out. Maybe w-o-w cards are the one type of card where using a flash is best? I didn't try that option. Any advice is most welcome. Thank you!

I am entering my card in the current:

CASology challenge where the cue card word is "shine," which my ribbon certainly does!

Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge where the theme is "simple." Here is the inspiration photo:

Please make sure you click on the links for the details regarding rules, sponsors, and prizes. You will also find exceptional ideas and inspiration from the talented Design Teams for creating your own work of art to enter!

The Wild Kingdom

I have a few photos to share, including one of the raccoon I mentioned in my last post. Diana is a very good amateur photographer and photography is an interest we both share, as well as a love of trees, birds, and, basically all things nature. Even though I live in a suburban area, a lot of you know that we are fortunate to have a variety of hawks living nearby. Not to mention Hitler, the hummer. 

Well, during my sister's visit, all things ornithological were about and providing us with tons of entertainment and photographic opportunities. Hitler alone entertained her for hours on his swing and she got some amazing shots. I put my watermark on the photos to protect them, but all the photographs were taken by Diana, cept the ones of the two of us, of course.

Kites

Cooper's Hawk

Hitler

Yet another winged critter happened by.

We had lunch at a local winery where we each enjoyed a few glasses.

Just kidding, we each had a "flight" which consists of three little tastes amounting to one glass of wine. It's a fun way to try different wines.

We also enjoyed a Farmer's Market. These photos were also all taken by Diana.

Here we are taking a rest after the exercise we got eating the world's largest cinnamon roll. Each. I cropped the photo so just our faces were visible.

Diana and Darnell

My sister asked me why I cropped it. I showed her the full shot.

She looked at it and then looked at me aquizzically. I said, "For crying out loud, Diana," pointing to the screen, "I just wore an old bra and look, my breastesses are down around my elbows!" From seeing the photo now, I can see how my sister (older and smarter) wore her jacket just so in order to stimulate perky boobs. Clever.

The full photo reminds me of this image, shown here on a card I entered in the "Ugliest Card Ever" contest.

We weren't even trying to look like that. It just happens. Oh Vanity. Thank goodness it ceases to exist as you get older (at least in our family) and becomes just plain funny!

~~~

So. The raccoon. This all started about three weeks ago with footprints across the deck leading from one of the birdbaths. I showed them to the Mister and commented that the squirrel had been by. He cocked his head and looked at me aquizzically (I get that a lot) and noted that it must be a pretty big squirrel.

Turns out it wasn't a squirrel as a few nights later at dusk, a big ol' coon sauntered across the deck and went under it. Mister was after it in a flash with the garden hose, but didn't see where it went. A few minutes later I walked across the deck and into the house and as I walked I heard some scratching noises. Still walking, I glanced over my shoulder and there was the raccoon staring at me from the tree I had just walked under! GASP!

For a couple of weeks we were trying to coexist with the darn thing. After dark, I began traver singing between the house and the Playhouse armed with a large flashlight and an umbrella. Then things turned ugly when it started using our backyard as it's bathroom. That is not cute!

We blocked any access to under the deck and emptied the birdbaths and that seemed to help. Then one evening while Diana was here, we were sitting in the deck chairs and suddenly the Cooper's Hawk started screeching to beat the band. Diana grabbed her camera and we dashed out front. Several of the neighbors were out there exclaiming that the coon had gone up our maple tree and the hawk wasn't the least bit happy about it. When the raccoon came down, Diana was able to get a photo when it climbed on top of the fence.

So that was our excitement during her visit. (It doesn't take much to get us becited!!) Any advice on getting rid of a raccoon would be appreciated. We have no pets and the garbage cans are impenetrable. Oh, wait, you'll love this. One of the helpful hints Mister found online was that coons don't like mothballs, so he liberally placed mothballs in the two potty places. The next morning we got up and the dirty rac had pooped right on TOP of the mothballs! I took a picture, but since you're having a snack, I won't share it.

I'll leave you with this timely cartoon I just saw on Facebook.

Thank you if you stuck it out through this post! Here is a reminder that I DID make a card!

~~~

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!

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Mwah!