Butterfly ~ Butterfly II

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you're doing okay as another week whooshes by. I walked by a store yesterday and they had Halloween costumes in the window! 

Mmm, no. That's a lie. I'm not going downtown and, hence, I didn't walk by a store with Halloween costumes. But the way this year is flashing by, perhaps it is happening! 

I'm here to remind you that there is only one week left to enter your cards in the 29th showing of the Twofer Card Challenge, where the prize is ten million dollars and the prompt is:

🦋BUTTERFLIES!🦋

What? Wait. No. Move over. You see what happens when I let Hammy type my post! What a liar he is! (Well, that's a bit harsh. He thinks of it as teasing.) There is no prize other than the possibility of seeing your name up in lights on the winner's post! But, hey, that's always fun!

We made these two designs to inspire you:

These are a bit artsy-ish for me, aren't they? You could say I've spread my wings! 😆 This time the item my two cards have in common is a NBUS stamp from Docraft Papermania called, "Square Urban Stamp."

Onefer

For this encouragement card, I simply stamped the image with Versamark and heat-embossed it in gold on black card. The gold-embossed sediment is from STAMPlorations. To focus your eyes, I added gold border strips on each side. QACAS.  (Wouldn't this image be perfect stamped on coasters?)

Challenges

• Happy House: The treasure of nature.
• NBUS: Any never-before-used-schtuff.
• Stamping Sensations: July: All creatures great and small.
• TIME OUT: Peaceful.

Twofer

For this birthday card design, I placed a square card over a piece of scratch paper and verrrrrry carefully stamped the image in black four times around the corners of the card (after first stamping off once to mute the black ink). Then I had a lie down and asked myself why I hadn't just used my gray ink pad.

Then I cut two circles out of the center. I replaced the center circle after gold-embossing the sediment from Stamps of Life, "Sentiments4Circles." I colored the butterflies in oranges and Hammy added his winking, even though you can't see the schparkle nor the juiciness of the oranges. Finally, for a little dementia, I ran an orange marker around the inner rim of the outer circle.

Challenges

• 613 Avenue Create: A/G (Optional twist: sediment is the focus.)
• Butterfly Challenge: The letter "A" with options. Mine: butterfly + apricot.
• Seize the Birthday: Anything birthday goes.

~~~

I hope my cards have inspired you to make two butterfly designs per the rules and join in the fun at the Twofer Card Challenge! Mwah!

~~~

I will leave you with a photo of one of the butterflies I am blessed to see enjoying the butterfly bush outside my Playhouse window. It's not a Monarch visiting this time, but the large tiger swallowtails are equally mesmerizing!

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! I'm slower at visiting now, however, because I'm older and I look out my window a lot.

*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 wallah, no more car pool tunnel! Mwah! (p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!)

More Flutterbies

Hello Stamplings!

Surprise! Feast or famine with me. But what happened was, I let all my butterflies out of the drawer when I was making my Twofer cards and it seemed a shame to just choose a couple of them and put the rest back in the drawer without playing with them. 

Onefer

In the last post I used a sediment from PTI's, "A Bit More: Butterfly Blooms." This butterfly and the little circle blingies are also part of that set. I masked the section where the sediment would go and then used Catherine Pooler inks in fun summer colors to stamp the butterflies. 

I don't know if you can see them, but in order to delineate the sediment area, I added score lines. To make the matching die cut, I vertically blended the same colors onto a piece of scratch paper and then die cut the NBUS Thanks Folksy Script from Poppystamps.

Challenges

• NBUS #16: Any never-before-used-schtuff.
• Stinkin' Inkers: I see spots.
• Sunday Stamps: Bright and beautiful.

Twofer 

For this card design, I used a NBUS stencil from Darkoom Door. I sprayed the stencil with Pixie Spray after first spending ten minutes patiently trying to explain to Hammy that the light tack glue was NOT, in fact, made from pixies. 😲 He was quite distraught until I assured him that pixies had formed a union (UPAG = United Pixies and Gnomes) in 1963 which protected them from such mistreatment.

With the stencil in place, I used my makeup brushes to color the butterfly with CP inks. After wards, I used my Pilot Precise ink pen to trace the stencil in black. Thank you, Nancy, for this great idea! It was uber easy and gives a really cool effect!

The sediment is from MFT. As another design feature, I planned to add score lines or a piece of Washi tape to the area between the image and the sediment. The score line was meh, I didn't have a Washi tape that worked, and since the technique I used for the die cut on the first card worked so well, I did it again. I simply blended the inks onto a snippet of paper and then cut a narrow strip to add to the card. 

Challenges

• Butterfly Challenge: Alphabet letter A. (Butterfly and apricot color.)
• CAS Mix Up: Stencil tracing.
• Inkspirational: Painting or coloring.

~~~

I've got to run. I opened a can of worms mentioning UPAG. Hammy's been on the computer and discovered there is no mention anywhere of any union representing hamsters.

What have I done?!!

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* Keep safe and well and wear your mask!

This is so true, especially if yours are 44 x-long like mine!

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!

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 wallah, no more car pool tunnel! Mwah! (p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!)

Thyroid Awareness Month Blog Hop

And Give Away!

Hello Stamplings! Happy Funday Sunday and I hope this finds you feeling well!

I have a very special post for you today. You may not be aware that January is Thyroid Awareness Month. My friend Crafty Milka has gathered 26 card artists from around the world to support this cause and to raise public awareness of how important your thyroid is and the problems it can cause when it is not working properly.

Onefer

Source

In 2012, a blue paisley ribbon was launched by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists as an icon for thyroid awareness to emphasis the silent epidemic of thyroid disease. That's why I used an ancient snippet of paisley paper as my background panel for the W Plus 9 butterfly frame. The base card is a lovely textured paper from my stash and the NBUS sediment is from MFT, probably also from 2012 (cough). Bits of bling were added by you-know-who. I am entering this card in the Butterfly Challenge.

I was first diagnosed with thyroid disease in 1995 and had half my thyroid removed. This surgery is known as a "lobectomy" and you can imagine the fun I have with that word since it is so close to "lobotomy!" But in all seriousness, I suffered for years from the very long list of symptoms caused by an improperly working thyroid. They are no fun, but fortunately there is synthetic thyroid that's easy to take which brings your body back into balance. Milka has put together a very in-depth blog post detailing the symptoms. She provides numerous important links for you to check out so I won't repeat them here, but I do encourage you to take the time to read her informative post. Thank you, Milka!

Twofer

Because the thyroid is shaped like a butterfly, a butterfly is also a recognizable symbol for campaigns about thyroid health awareness, so I made a second card.

 Here you can see the shine of the silver embossing.

Wait. What? A butterfly on a Christmas card? Well, why not? That's the fun of making our own cards! I wanted to play in the CAS Christmas challenge and I had started my card for that by silver embossing the tree on linen paper. I also wanted to make a butterfly card for this post and I had that pretty blue Brusho butterfly from my Bits Box on my desk to make a second Thyroid Hop card. Hammy waddled over and looked from one to the other and up at me. Down at them, up at me, down at them, up at me, and finally I went Shazambam and there you have it!

I used my ancient and gorgeous Blue Moire embossing powder for the sediment from The Ton. A little something something needed to be added to that right side, so I added a strip of Washi tape and a strip of textured bold blue paper from The Ol' Stasheroo. Please don't Google that, it's not a real thing, although I definitely have enough stash to open a shop called that!

Challenges

• CAS Christmas Card Challenge: Blue and silver.
• City Crafter: Clean and simple.
• Fusion Card Challenge: Challenge graphic. Happy 5th Anniversary!!

Give Away

To thank you for stopping and making it through this post about how important your thyroid is and how important it is to have it checked, I am giving away a Dream Butterfly die. On January 24, 2019, I will choose the winner from my followers who leave a comment. Please make sure I have your email address, either in your comment or via the Contact Form on the side bar, just below where you can double-check you are a follower. Thank you.

Poppystamps "Dream Butterfly"

BLOG HOP LIST

The Hop is running from January 5th to January 30th and all the very talented card artists are listed below. Some of the other designers are also having giveaways on their blogs, so be sure and visit each artist.

• Milka Gubo (January 5th)
• Imke Ludwig (January 6th)
• Jane Taylor (January 7th)
• Kaja Vezenšek (January 8th)
• Samantha Mann (January 9th)
• Andreja Lampe (January 10th)
• Анна Коссаковская (Anna Kossakovskaya) (January 11th)
• Ksenija Rizova (January 12th)
• ValentinaBizjak (January 13th)
• Alexandra (aka Ale) Suta (January 14th)
• Kristina Pavlović (January 15th)
• Tanja Kabel (January 16th)
• Željka Jurkovic-Grizic (January 17th)
• Donna Mikasa (January 18th)
• Sabrina Lamarina (January 19th)
• Darnell Knauss (January 20th) ~ you are here
• Nonni Niskanen (January 21st)
• Larissa Walgemoed (January 22nd)
• Dunja Trautmann (January 23rd)
• Neha Bhatt (January 24th)
• Beverley Brown (January 25th)
• Ishani (January 26th)
• Maja Macura Sakač (January 27th)
• Naz Sasayakiglitter (January 28th)
• Sue Hastead (January 29th)
• Preeti Datta (aka Dutt Preety) (January 30th)

~~~

Enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy!  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. 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 the pop-up box opens. Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel! P.S. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Mwah! 

For Melissa

Hello Stamplings!

I'm slowly getting back to my routine after dealing with unpacking two suitcases and climbing Mt. Laundry. Unloading my "craft suitcase" and putting everything away took the longest, especially since I stopped with most items and enjoyed the memory of my time at the lake house.

I'll have more photos and fun to share another time, but today I wanted to share a card I made in honor of my friend, Melissa Lane, who passed away suddenly on October 2nd at the age of 47. You can read a very beautiful tribute to her by Shery on the STAMPlorations blog. Thank you, Shery, for putting this link up for us to contribute in memory of Melissa.

Here is my card.

The flowers are "Fancy Flowers" from MFT and the sediment is from "You're My Person" by Concord & 9th. I used my Clarity Brushes to color a stencil by Kaiser Craft (a gift from Lolly) for the background panel, which I stitched with a Paper Smooches die and backed with an aqua panel. I used my Ziggies to color the pretty flowers and Hammy wanted to join in, too, with his winking speshceeality!

I first met Melissa online in January 2015 when she joined in one of my NBUS challenges and then I had the absolute pleasure of meeting her, her husband Chris, and their four wonderful children in person at the Swindon Retreat in the UK in 2016. Of course, I had to make an entrance the first night by coming into the hotel dining room decked out in a Miss USA sash, white gloves, and a tiara! All the ladies took turns wearing the tiara for photos, but Melissa wore the whole package because she was a fellow American who loved having fun!

Rest in peace, my friend. You will be greatly missed. You have a lot of Blogland keeping your grieving family in their thoughts and prayers. 💖

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* Tell your family and friends how much they are loved.

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!

Challenges

• Back to Basics and Beyond: Stencils or Masks.
• Butterfly Challenge: Spin the wheel with the letter "B." Butterfly, burnt orange, border.
• Double D: Stripes and dots. The straws inspired me.
• STAMPlorations: A tribute to Melissa and a celebration of her life.
• The Flower Challenge: Add schparkle.

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 wallah, no more car pool tunnel! Mwah! (p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!)

Encrusted Embellies

Hello Stamplings!

If you aren't into mixed media, you might be thinking, "Oh, dear, that is too bad. She's left her embellishments out in the rain and now they've all become encrusted." Or you might think I have some new medical condition and you're hoping it's not contagious!

I'm good, thank you, and I'm tickled to share some playthings with you from my recent holiday adventures:

Onefer

I should have taken a photo of my beautiful encrusted birds from the side so you can see the stunning texture and dementia from another angle. The colors and schparkle are really bedazzling IRL. This is a cool technique I played with during the ESCR get-together. It's not the kind of card you can send in the mail unless you want to ship it like a teacup made of the finest china and pay a small six figure ransom. Instead, my little friend Verna is sadly back in the hospital again so I will give it to her when I visit tomorrow.

Making encrusted embellies for your cards involves lots of layers of embossing powders and glitters and flakes of anything ranging from red pepper to snow. I mean, if you want. There are no limitations and if you can't get the pancake griddle out of your husband's sight, you can use your heat gun. For more information, Mr. U. Tube can help you or, better yet, you can visit Lolly and she'll explain it better than I can. 

Challenges

• CAS Mix Up: Layered embossing powders, stamping, and die-cutting.
• CAS(E) This Sketch.
• Less Is More: Friendship

Twofer

Here's a birthday card with an encrusted butterfly I made using the same technique:

And here's a closeup so you can see all the spectacular marbling:

Challenges

• Butterfly Challenge: The letter M. I have a butterfly, mint green, and marble effect.
• CAS on Friday: Embossing.
• Watercooler Wednesday: Gail's All About Occasions NOTE: They are having a DT call!

Finally, here is a photo of all the beautiful encrusted embellies we made at the retreat:

~~~

Editorial: Well That's a Fine Kettle of Fish

By now we all know about the Blogger issues with comment notifications no longer appearing in our inboxes, but has anyone noticed that we all now seem to be "no reply bloggers?" A "no-reply blogger" is a blogger who hasn't entered his/her email information in settings and that means their readers are unable to click on their underlined names in a comment to send an email reply in response to any questions.

I noticed this week that all of you who have left comments are now classified as "no reply bloggers" when I know some of you weren't before. I'm assuming this is another protection we have been given by Blogger thanks to GDPR even if we didn't request it. I know I shouldn't complain because it's a free service, but it would be so easy for them to send out a mass mailing to let us know when changes are made, why, and if we can override them.

Having said all that, my research is not scientific and I could be wrong. To test whether my suspicions are right or wrong, I would like to know what happens when you click on my name in any comment I leave on your blog. I'm way behind in my visits, so the next time I leave you a comment, when you click on my name a normal email box should open. I have set up my settings so that my email address should appear in the top line. Does it? Or on the address line does it say my name, followed by "noreply-comment@blogger.com" for my address?

I hope I'm wrong and my email address appears as it should. I'll feel like a silly old fool, but I'm okay with that. If it doesn't appear, then my (and your) settings have been circumvented!

Sorry for the rant, but I enjoy the social aspects of blogging as much as I do sharing my cards and I'll be very sad if the new rules impact us innocents and reduce or prevent us from being able to easily connect with each other as we've been able to do for many years.

~~~

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!

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 wallah, no more car pool tunnel! Mwah! (p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!)