Happy Scrabble Day! And a Pop of Poinsettia!

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are doing great as this year is whooshing by ~ again! For heaven's sake, nearly the middle of April! And our crazy March weather continues into April with summer heat one day and winter cold the next. Bing-bong! 

And what crazy holiday are we celebrating this week? It turns out that today is National Scrabble Day! Who decides these things?! I think I would have loved to have that job. 

Onefer

I spent many happy years playing Scrabble on Facebook with my sister, Doris, until some fool decided it would be better if Scrabble were steamed, er, streamed or something, so this card will go to her. (Now we play Words With Friends.) She will see it on my post, but we are all getting old, so I'm hoping she will forget she saw this by the time her birthday rolls around next December! 

This design took a bit of doing. I started with the perfect size Dreamweaver stencil which I've had for ages. I carefully masked each square or group of squares and blended on the Scrabble colors with brushes. 

I used a NBUS set from SSS called, "Games Tiles Letters" from (cough) years ago. It was a challenge trying to figure out the placement of letters so they interlocked in a fun way. I searched the webs and the attics for ideas, to no avail. After a wodka for me and a ginger ale for Hammy, we nailed it!

Playing in Just Add Ink (Colours - used all five), and Seize the Birthday (A/G).

Twofer

This week is D = Dies on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar. I haven't made a Christmas card yet in 2026, so I was inspired when I saw the "Spring Into Christmas" challenge at BYSHC Challenge! I reached for "Up Goes the Tree," a NBUS stamp and die set from Penny Black. I used my Ziggies to paint the pretty stylized tree and Hammy was beside himself with glee at how much winking he got to do!

This set allows you to add some dementia with a second poinsettia stamp which you can paint, die-cut, and pop-up over the stamped image. And, yes, I painted the one underneath, too, in case there is a gust of wind. Here is a close-up:

I'm not sure if you can see that I blended some light tan ink around the edges of the front panel, ala Penny Black, before attaching it to a red panel and then to the card front.

Playing in Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers, Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round (H is for Happy Holidays), Penny Black Saturday Challenge (A/G), and Krafty Chicks (Christmas).

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Speaking of flowers (what?), I will leave you with pretty pink carnations and multi-colored calla lilies, freshly watered after a spring rain. Our yellow day lilies are just starting to open, so I'll share those soon. 

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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! 

*Life is too short!

Colored Dry Embossing

Hello Stamplings!

How are you? I've got a cooler full of frozen neck scarves, so let me know if you need one while you're reading this. I really feel for all of you who have been under the heat dome for days and weeks now and my prayers are with the people of Greece, Canada, and Europe where there are both raging fires and heat.🙏

Group of Seven Cardmakers

This month the Group of Seven Cardmakers turned to 3D embossing folders for fun and Bonnie provided videos and examples for us to try, including sponging, watercoloring, and inkpad swiping. Several beautiful examples and the links to the videos are on the Go7 blog.

I wasn't feeling well earlier this month, so I only made one card, using watercoloring:

If I'm honest, I struggle with adding any sort of color, paint, or ink to my embossing folders or embossed panels. It's just one of those things. Fortunately, I love the look of embossing folders without color! Nevertheless, I'm not a quitter, so I tried watercoloring an e/f again. 

I used a 3D folder from Simon Says and colored the bits with my Ziggies. As in the past, I thought it turned out meh. It sat there for a few days. Thankfully, Hammy came back from his bowling league championship bus tour so I could ask his advice. I'm going to take a pee break here while you get over laughing hysterically as you visualize eggplant-shaped hamsters bowling with those little tiny arms and legs.

After he ran around his wheel for five minutes, looking at the panel from every angle, Hammy saved the day as usual and we ended up deeming the card sendable ~ and that's what counts! I fussy-cut the panel and then outlined the bits with my fine-line pen. To add more interest, I popped it on another embossed panel, but I placed it too far to the right, so I added a strip of Washi tape for balance.

Please check out the amazing cards the other ladies have created using their embossing folders and all the various coloring methods! 

Group of Seven Cardmakers!

Challenges

• HLS Birthday: A/G.
  
• Seize the Birthday: A/G.
  
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: A/G.

Twofer

I made this simple design for the July Rudolph Days Challenge. I missed last month and need to catch up on making Christmas cards. I plan to use this design for batch-making, changing out the stamp. I'm also going to unearth my cache of Christmas pp, which should also work as backgrounds.

I don't have the packaging for this evergreen stamp and die, but it's a favorite. I stamped it twice on the card base and then once separately, so I could die-cut it and use it as a brooch in the upper corner. They're coming back, you know, brooches. The Picture Frame dies are from Waffle Flower.

 

Challenges

• Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers.
  
• Peace on Earth.

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This appeals to my dark sense of humor.

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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! As you can tell, I finally feel more like myself again. Thank you all for your ongoing thoughts and prayers. Stay cool and well!

*Life is too short!