Hi Drangea!

Happy October!

And Happy World Card Making Day! I know it was October 1st, but I think we should celebrate it every day, don't you? We are part of a era from yesteryear continuing to carry on our hobby so peoples find Happy real Mail in their mailboxes now and then! Pat yourself on the back! And if you can do that, then going to that yoga class is paying off!

I scheduled this post so I could make sure and take part in two new challenges that I'm becited about in Blogland. Here is my card:

I very lightly embossed the card with We R Memory Keepers Next Level quilted e/f. The hydrangea from Essentials by Ellen was cut from a snippet of watercolor background I made from Brushos and stamped in black Versafine ink. The sediment is a gold peel-off. I added a gold organza ribbon and shazambam a lovely fall birthday card done!

Oh, and I lightly sprayed some Perfect Pearl Mist "biscotti" over the the flower for a little schparkle.

So let me tell you about the new challenges:

• CAS Watercolour Challenge. My friends Loll Thompson and Bonnie Klass already have a card challenge we love called "CAS Mix-Up." They have now started another monthly challenge with an emphasis on watercolour ~ and a theme. The first challenge is to make a CAS (clean and simple) card with an autumn theme. There is also a DT call. I hope you can join in!
• The Flower Challenge. My friend Aileen Ryan has also just started a new challenge and, as you can tell from the title, the brief is all about flowers! The first challenge is "Anything Goes." I hope you can join in!

Other Challenges

• Addicted to CAS: Watercolour code word.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use those snippets! My snippet is my flower.
• Retro Sketches: Head for the archives. I chose #75.

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Speaking of flowers, I totally forgot to share these sunflowers photos with my sunflower card post the other day. Total senior moment as I rushed around getting ready for my travels. I didn't even know you could buy sunflowers in pots with multiple heads. Maybe it's an ornamental sunflower plant, but that's okay, it was so cheery with lots of baby buds!

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Happy Fall Y'all! 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! Mwah!

*Life is too short!

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Hammy's Birthday!

Hello and welcome to Monday!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and you are becited to see what this fresh new week has in store for you! I have special company arriving tomorrow so this will be another awesome week in the Playhouse!

It started on Sunday when we celebrated Hammy's birthday! I thought you might enjoy this photo of the happy event:

Joining the celebration is Hammy's old girlfriend ... oh, sorry, that word gets people in trouble! I should say Hammy's former girlfriend/baby mama. You all remember Ms. Thing! Well, some of you won't remember her, but you can go back and meet her if you have time. The whole shebang is liberally awash with Stella, but natchrally, it doesn't show.

[Both stamps are NBUS: "Birthday Hamster" from Stampingbella and "Hamster" from Deep Red (thank you again, Sam!). The sediment is a sticker from SRM.]

Here is another photo of Hammy, this time with Freckles and Sofia.

Wait. What? Who is Sofia?

Well, Sofia is a lady mouse my friend Ros sent to me following my trip to England. It was lovingly and meticulously made and hand-stitched by Ros's 89-year-young Aunt! Thank you again, Ros!

So with the addition of little Cisco, The Real-Life Dog, we had a festivas time celebrating Hammy's birthday! In his famous words, "May all your cupcakes be crumby!"

Challenges

• ColourQ: Below.
• {PIN}spirational Challenge: Hammy!! (My first time here! How could I not play?!)
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Clean and simple.
• Virginia's View Challenge: Splatter.

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New Friends Corner

Please join me in welcoming these lovely new friends to the Playhouse!

Gwendolyn of Desperate Housewife Craft. Gwendolyn is another blogger brand new to our community! She only started her blog in February of this year, but you may have already seen her exceptional work recognized in some of the challenges you enjoy. Originally from Singapore, Gwendolyn has lived in New Zealand, France, and now Germany. Retired from the corporate world, Gwendolyn is enjoying being at home with her children and exploring her creative side. In addition to her love of paper craft, she also loves to paint, crochet, and make soy candles. I know you will enjoy sharing Gwendolyn's journey!

Brenda of Floral Fantasies. Brenda started her blog in 2009! She really needs no introduction as she is a well-known and well-loved lady in Blogland! Even though Brenda suffers from MS, she creates the most extraordinary card art imaginable and she is a source of great inspiration to those of us with health challenges! (And I love her doggie profile photo which reminds me of our Salty who was with us for 16 years.)

Isabelle Siry of Izzy Scrap. Izzy is from France and she just started her blog in May of this year at the encouragement of her supportive husband and children. She has been scrapping since 2010, but she bought her very first stamping supplies about 20 years ago in order to make her own Christmas cards. I think a lot of card artists did that! In addition to paper craft, Izzy enjoys traveling, reading, and spending time with her family and friends. I know when you pop in to welcome Izzy to our fantastic community, you will be enchanted and inspired by her beautiful work!

Cathy Cates of Cathy's Creative Corner. Cathy is from Adelaide, Australia and she also started blogging in 2009! In addition to paper craft, Cathy loves photography, quilting, beading, knitting, crocheting, and cross-stitch. She is one busy lady, so she hasn't been blogging as much this past year, but there is still plenty of beautiful card art and inspiration for you to enjoy on her blog!

Sam of Whispers Cards. Sam is from the UK and she has been blogging since 2010. Sam is a huge Penny Black devotee and you will see that represented throughout her blog as you scroll through and see how she makes those images sing. Adorable, colorful, cheerful, and expertly made are words that best describe Sam's delightful card art and I know you'll agree once you've seen them for yourself!

Thank you for joining, ladies, and welcome to the Playhouse! It's nice to have three bloggie experts and two bloggie newbies!

~~~

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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Mwah!
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Paper Towel Brusho Art + Last NBUS Reminder!

Hey, how's it goin' out there?

(I'm not even going to talk about the fact that we have whooshed into September. Maybe if we ignore it, it will stop galloping towards Christmas.)

Are you feverishly tossing never-before-used-schtuff (NBUS) onto your desk from every drawer and plastic container in your drafty corner, sorry, crafty dorner? I sure hope so! Goodness, there is already SO MUCH incredible inspiration in the gallery below! Thank you, everyone! I'm very proud of you!

If you don't know what I'm talking about, pahlez click HERE for all the deets on NBUS Challenge #7 which ends at the end of the day, September 5, 2016.

Also, I have started a Pinterest Board, brilliantly called "NBUS Challenge #7." If you'd like to follow it, you can click here.

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Now for today's inspiration from me:

The potted plant is "Fancy Potted Flower" from Memory Box. The NBUS sediment is from Simon Says Stamp's "Birthday Balloons" set.

So what happened was I made a lot of Brusho stencil art when I was at the Happy Little Stampers Retreat, which I will share soon and which involved using paper towels to blot up the Brusho paint. The cast-off towels were so pretty that I scooped them up and brought them home to use. Here's them:

I will be sharing later other makes I come up with using the paper towels. Today's card was my first effort. What's neat about them is that each panel is two-ply, so I carefully separated them and ended up with double the delirium! 

Here is a closeup. It's quite sheeny in person from an acetate layer.

Challenges

• City Crafter Challenge: Birthday
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.
• Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday: Use a stamp.

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New Friends Corner

Are you ready to meet more friends? Of course, you are!

Debbie Yoder. Debbie is known as "swldebbie" at Splitcoast Stampers. Debbie has been showcasing her brilliant cards at SCS since January of 2009. That means Debbie has a 41-page gallery of pretty and/or adorable cards for your viewing pleasure! You'll lose all track of time when you visit, but you won't care!

Debbie L. of Cat Card Crazy Lady. Debbie is from Scotland. She just started her blog in April of this year, so welcome to Blogland, Debbie! I love her blog name! I think there are a lot of us card crazy ladies and a fair amount of ladies crazy about cats, too. Debbie's card art is sensational! She does a lot of one-layer cards and Brushos, so check her out for inspiration and let her know how welcoming we are in our little community!

Toni Maddox of Frankie Helps Craft. Speaking of cats, Toni is another card artist who loves cats so much she gave her cat Frankie top billing at her blog! Toni lives in the Seattle area and she has been blogging since September 2013. She is an avid challenge player and winner and she currently serves on several well-known design teams. Toni has lots of spectacular card art to inspire you!

Regina Kolebabchuk of Catchy Sketch. Regina was born in Siberia. She is now a journalist living in California. Regina started her blog in March of this year, so she is also new to Blogland. Welcome, Regina! Her cards are beautiful and often very personal for members of her family back in Russia. Regina has been slowly entering challenges, which is a wonderful way to meet fellow bloggers. Please visit and leave Regina some love, too!

Trina Pham of My Crafting Closet. Trina also started blogging in April of this year!  I don't know when Trina started making cards, but they have the professional look of someone who has been creating card art for many years. Trina started her blog to enter challenges and she took to them like a duck to water! Trina is amazingly talented when it comes to her masking and coloring, and the execution of her fantastic designs!

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

~~~

Enjoy your day! Enjoy the NBUS #7 Challenge! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

*Life is too short!

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An InLinkz Link-up

Age Is a Number and Pumpkins are Puzzles

Greetings!

Welcome to the freshness of a Monday morning, carrying you towards unknown adventures this week!

You are all doing such a fantastic job dusting off your Never-Before-Used-Schtuff and giving it some love! I know you are feverishly crafting away, so I won't keep you. I just have a coupla NBUS cards of my own to share.

My Onefer is:

How's that for a profound sediment?! It's NBUS, of course, and made by Rubber Dance Stamps. The PP is from GKW. I double-diecut my numbers so there would be a black shadow for depth. I'm not sure if you can see it, but I also added a smick of black border on the left to mimicate the number shading.

And my Twofer is:

This fun puzzle pieces die is from Spellbinders and I've only used it once before two years ago. The pumpkin stamp belonged to my late neighbor, Rae. It is from an OOB company called "Hook's Lines & Inkers." On the side it is dated 1993, which, Frank Lee, doesn't seem that long ago to me. I spose some of you weren't even born yet, eh? Cough.

Challenges

• CAS(E) This Sketch: Sketch challenge. (Both)
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use snippets. (#1)
• Rubber Dance Stamps August Challenge: Black and white and one other color (yellow). (#1)
• Shopping Our Stash: Stand up and be counted. Use numbers. (#1)

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NBUS Challenge #7

Thank you so much for playing along in NBUS Challenge #7!!

The response already has been AWEmazing! I'm so proud of you for using your NBUS with such relish! You all make my heart smile!!

Enjoy your day! Enjoy the Challenge! LITS!*

*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. 
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Click Page Down to reach the end of the post.
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Click "Jump to Comment Form" and walla, no more car pool tunnel!
Mwah!
If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me
your email address so I can respond. Thank you!

An InLinkz Link-up

Exoticity, Simplicity, and Felicity

Greetings, Stamplings!

The critters have climbed up and over the Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday hills to take over the blog today for Wednesday Hump Day.

Let's begin with this:

I made this card after seeing the CASology challenge where the cue card is "Fun" and the Less Is More challenge for something Exotic. There are wonderful examples made by the Design Teams at both challenges!

I looked up "exotic" and it basically means "not native." Well, that opens the door to a whole slew of flowers and veggies and critters. Since I had the NBUS "Panda Can't Even" stamp set to use, I went with it, because pandas are certainly not native to California. As luck would have it, I own an unmarked v.o. bamboo stamp, so wallah-wallah-ding-dong, two extatic and exotic panda bears happily chomping away! The NBUS sediment is from the Hero Arts "Live & Laugh" stamp set.

Twofer

It was Hammy's turn to pick the next challenges and he chose the CAS on Sunday challenge where the brief is "Balloons" and the Inkspirational challenge where our friend Kathy K. is the Guest Designer and where the brief, briefly, is to use PP:

What's better than a balloon? A balloon made of balloon PP!!

What's better than a boozy chicken on a swing holding the balloon? Absolutely nothing!

The PTI fine linen card base was embossed with a Darice e.f. The chicken is from Whipper Snapper Designs. The NBUS sediment, balloon, and string are from the "Smirthday" stamp set by Technique Tuesday.

And, hey, that balloon is a snippet so I'll also take this card over to Pixie's Snippets Playground.

Frog Naming Contest

Thank you all for your really clever and fun suggestions for a name for Hammy's new English frog friend. Froggie was the most obvious choice, but I couldn't call him that because I already have a beloved Froggie. A shoutout to my sister Dood who came up with the winning name! Ta da:

FRECKLES!

What do you think? It's unique and appropopo considering his delightful fabric design!

Freckles and Hammy

New Friends Corner

Due to my holiday, it's been a while since I've introduced my new friends to you, so please take a few minutes to meet:

Maria Illsley of Ivy Leaf Crafts. Maria has been blogging since September of last year so she is coming up on her first year anniversary! Maria makes the most exquisite cards, usually in a gorgeous square shape. As is often the case with so many of you, Maria's cards are gifts unto themselves and I know you will find lots of inspiration when you visit!

Elizabeth Robinson of The Crafty Robin. Elizabeth is from North Wales and she has been blogging since 2009, so you should be prepared for a long visit to her! Elizabeth's love of paper and ink developed in her mother's print studio. Elizabeth teaches art and serves on many design teams, not the least of which is Craft Stamper Take It Make Challenge. You will find Elizabeth excels at every kind of wonderful art from fabrics and felting to layouts, cards, and canvases!

Jan Appleton (LLJ) of Lunch Lady Jan's Fabric Frenzy. LLJ has been blogging since 2011. She doesn't make cards, but she works magic with fabric! LLJ and I met on "What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday" (WOYWW) where I met a lot of my long-time British friends. I've been enjoying her fun posts and drooling over admiring her sewing skills ever since. I was so delighted to meet Jan in person while I was in England!

Diane Bromilow (Morti) of Mad Ramblings. Morti has been blogging since ~ can you believe it ~ 2006! She's not prolific, but still, that's an accomplishment! Well, it it is to me, at least, since I wasn't even aware of Blogland until five years later! Morti is a self-described magpie and jack of all trades. She enjoys making jewelry, papercrafts, strawsilk, and stitchery. I had the pleasure of also meeting Morti on my visit to England!

Helen Lindfield of Stamping by H. Helen started blogging in 2009. She is also a friend who I met through WOYWW in 2012, although I sadly didn't get to meet her on my recent visit. Helen's well known over at WOYWW because she does all her beautiful works of art on the floor! Helen's journaling and her expertise with color are amazing!

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

~~~

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!

Sadly, as I mentioned the other day, something is wrong with the Blogger Follow gadget and so I am currently unable to follow my new friends back. I’ve cleared my cookies, cakes, and history. I am writing again to Blogger Help as this issue has been ongoing for at least a month, which is ridicustrating, and I hope you’ll do the same if it isn’t working for you. The squeaky wheel gets the oil!

*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 a pop-up box opens.
Click "Jump to Comment Form" and walla, no more car pool tunnel!
Mwah!
If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me
your email address so I can respond. Thank you!

~~~

I'll be back on Saturday for the opening day of NBUS Challenge #7!! 

See you there!