Gesso and Shine!

Hello Stamplings!

Look it's me again already! I have had a few good days and took advantage of it to play in some favorite challenges. Put on your sunglasses!

Onefer

This card is for CAS Mix Up. This month the challenge is hosted by Hilary and the prompt is to use gesso with a stencil. I'm not gonna lie, I bungled a bunch of paper having a play with gesso. It's not difficult to work with, just sometimes things go awry. Or amiss. Or askew. You gotta love words. Where awas I? Oh, yes, gesso. 

(The word gesso is red-underlined throughout the draft of this post, indicating it is misspelled. I right-clicked on gesso to see what was wrong with my spelling, only to find out that Blogger thinks I'm trying to type the word gestapo!)

For this make, I pounced gesso through a Funky Fossil stencil and let it dry. Like mashed potatoes, I over-indulged a bit with the gesso, but I still liked the result. Of all the videos I watched about various ways to use gesso, I chose to spray color over the dry gesso'd panel. I used my NBUS Wendy Vecchi Mica Sprays in cornflower blue, buttercup, and pearl. Well to be honest, since the bottles are small, Hammy did the schpraying. Both panel and hamster are ablaze with schparkle.

I'm not sure why, but some of the spray was not resisted by the gesso. Anyone? Anyway, as if that schparkle wasn't enough, I added the gesso panel to a shiny gold card base which I embossed with SU's Subtle e/f. The die-cut sediment was in my stash, made from a snippet of Brusho'd Yupo paper.

Twofer

I don't know if it was the black card background or what, but I couldn't capture the brightness of all that gold even in the sunlight. This is one of my favorite poinsettia stamps. It is "Festive Poinsettia" from Altenew. I made similar cards last year because it's very QACAS with the simple gold-embossed image and sediment. A stitched gold frame finished it off ... as well as allowing Hammy free reign with a wee paintbrush and pot of watered down gold ink.

Challenges

• CAS Christmas: Hosted by Hideko. Prompt: Sparkle and/or Shine.
  
• HLS Christmas: Anything Goes with the option of Metallic.
  
• Jingle Belles: My Sweet Embossable You! (Heat-embossing.)

Texting While Old

Here's a funny thing I do and I'm wondering if you do it, too: whenever I write a text message to someone on my cell phone, as I'm hitting send I look up to the top to see if I'm sending it to the person I intend.

As.I'm.hitting.send.

Which, of course, is too late if you're sending it to the wrong person! Every time I do it, I think what a moron I am ... yet every time that's what I do!😄

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse, being a follower, and leaving me some love!

*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!)

A Range and A Ramble

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you well or on your way there! 

We saw the grandtwins yesterday and heard all about their college tours, so that was fun! In between doing summery things and a newly discovered project, I made a coupla four cards for challenges. During the summer, the participation in challenges is naturally lower because people are off stuck in airports on vacation, so I like to make a point of playing when I can. Grab a drinkiepoo. ☕🍹

Onefer and Twofer

You can prolly tell that these two cards were created from one large poinsettia stamped image from Waltzingmouse. I white heat-embossed it which created an emboss-resist, so I could paint it with watercolor brushes and stay within the pretty lines. After wards, I cut the image in half to make two cards. Hammy had a blast creating matching red and gold schplatters on each. 

Challenges

• CAS Mix Up: My friend Brenda is the Guest Designer this month and my friend Nancy is the hostess. The prompt is Emboss Resist. Besides embossing, my designs included stamping, die-cutting, watercoloring, and splattering.
• SSS Monday: Spritz and Splatter.
• SSS Wednesday: Emboss It.

Threefer

This W-O-W design is pretty self-exploratory, although I don't know why one pine cone looks yellowish. The background evergreen embossing folder is from Sizzix. The die cut branches and pine cones were in my bits box so I'm not sure who makes them. The sediment is from Winnie & Walter. 

Challenges

• CAS Christmas: The prompt is Pine, hosted by Trina
• Addicted to Stamps and More: Die Cuts and/or Stencils.

Fourfer

This QACAS design features an old NBUS butterfly from Butterfly Trio by Penny Black. You can't tell, but the card base is glossy. I wanted to see if it would work if I colored the butterfly directly with markers and stamped it. I liked how ethereal it turned out. I added the sediment from Concord & 9th and a thin black frame.

Challenges

• Just Us Girls: Butterflies.
• Less Is More: Butterflies.
• Krafty Chicks: Stamp Act.
• NBUS: Never-Before-Used-Schtuff.
  

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My New Project

Remember back in the spring of 2021 when the word went out that Feedburner was closing and they would no longer be handling blog subscriptions? A lot of us added Bloglovin' or Follow It or other third-parties to our side bars to replace Feedburner. But in reality, I continued to receive notices when people published their posts. Life went on pretty much as usual.

That all changed on August 1, 2022, when I opened my laptop and crickets jumped out. Instead of waking up to a daily average of between 50-100 emails, there were less than a dozen! Where did everybody go? I was shocked and I am continuing to be shocked every day since then. It's like most of the neighborhood moved out in the middle of the night and left me.

If you're using WordPress, or a mail service like Bloglovin', I still get your publication notices. If you're not, I can still find you again ~ that sounded stalky, lol! I just need to go back to my Reading List, but the problem is, my Reading List is not up-to-date. (Your Reading List contains those blogs you have followed using the blue Followers button. You can find your Reading List in the left-hand column of your Dashboard.) 

Because I was very good about following blogs and making friends over the last ten plus years, my Reading List contains 2,262 blogs!! I had no idea! Of course, a bunch of those blogs are prolly inactive now, so the list needs to be cleaned out. I really miss not getting your posts, so this is going to be a priority for me now. It will no doubt take me quite a while. BTW, I need to clean my list up regardless, but if there is something else going on, please let me know. 

I'll be back and until then, enjoy your days! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

*Life is too short!

Bursts of Color

Hello Stamplings!

How are you doing? It looks like I took a long break, or I got ran over by a bus, or I'm just getting too old to keep this up? I say that to rat myself out because the truth is, I wrote a post on July 1st and then I forgot to hit publish and I went on my merry way. Do you ever "think" of doing a thing, but not actually do the thing, yet your brain checks it off your mental list as a "done" thing? Yup. 

Also, in my defense, I turned 37 on the 2nd and America turned 246 on the 4th. One of those maths is incorrect. The first celebration was quiet because Dan and the grandtwins got Covid (they are fine now) and the second celebration was beciting because of Jennifer McGuire. She kindly let me know about dozens of amazing sales. Ahem. Did she let you know, too?

If so, then you know how many hours a person can spend visiting company after company, tab after tab ... especially when one has been good and not bought anything new in a long time? It was a lot. A lot of fun. Now I can't wait until the packages arrive and I can be surprised by what arrives because by the time I got through them all, I had forgotten what I ordered. (See sentence 2, part 3, above.) I don't judge myself too harshly because, you know, I have an obligation to lead the way when it comes to NBUS!

In spite of all that and numerous routine medical appointments, a spate of migraines, a bit of company, and a purge of the Playhouse, I made some cards! The ones on display today were schparked by the current CAS Mix Up Challenge, where Linda wants us to use "Things With Wings" on our watercolor designs for July.

My first thought was to play with a stamp I haven't had out in a long time. It's a cool sort-of shattered glass image of a dragonfly called "Libellule Origami" by Art Stamp. I spritzed the stamp liberally with water and then sprinkled on several bits of Lindy Magicals. Then I spritzed the stamp again and stamped it onto watercolor paper:

You can see that the bottom right of the large sheet was my first impression, next to it on the left, my second. Then I respritzed and resprinkled the image a little bit more and then stamped it again in the upper left and then onto two regular cardstock panels. (Only one shows up to the far right.)

Here are three of them made into cards:

My first impression was weak, so I piled on more powdered ink, spritzed, and stamped again (off-kilter). Sadly, you cannot see the beautiful shimmer on these images which is what sets the Lindy Magicals apart from some of the other watercolor powdered inks.

The following were made from the regular cardstock panels:

For this image Hammy and I thought the dragonfly should have an explosion of color coming out from behind😲, but alas, we got a bit too exuberant to be CAS for the challenge!

So we left this one QACAS by only adding a few teeny spits of color, the simple silver-embossed sediment, and a narrow mat, making it the best choice to link to the CAS Mix Up Challenge.

Also linking to:

• Addicted to Stamps and More!: Birthdays. (Note: They are having a DT call!)
  
• Krafty Chicks: Stamp Act.
  
• Seize the Birthday: Metallic.

I had another one to share, but this is long enough. I'll leave you with this funny from The New Yorker:

😀😀😀 You gotta love 'em!

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse, being a follower, and leaving some love!

*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!)

Gold ... More Gold

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you well! I am so enjoying the Olympics, especially the ice-skating events. The Mister tried to teach me how to ice skate one time, but it was a short lesson. He was very patient, but I was hopeless. I think that might be why the skaters impress me so much and it breaks my heart when they fall. They train so hard and wait so long for these events.👏

Onefer

This card was schparked primarily by Susan's faux cloisonné challenge prompt at CAS Mix Up. For me, trying to create something for the challenge gave new meaning to the word "challenge!" I didn't have any suitable glossy magazine photos, so I used a glittery glossy piece of pp. I'm not sure if that's okay, but I like the way it ended up looking like an expensive brooch. (You know I want to go off on a tangent about the spelling of that word vis-a-vis the pronunciation, but I will absolve.)

The flower is from the Beautiful Blooms II set by Uniko, which I believe is one of Bev's early sets. I wanted to make something to commemorate her ten years in business. Congratulations, Bev, and cheers to many more!🍾

The leaves are from Gina K's "Stitched Leaves" set. From this angle, they look tres cloisonné. The NBUS sediment is from an unmarked feather set. Everything was heat-embossed in princess gold, including Hammy's toes. Honestly, you can find anything online these days, including teeny-tiny low voltage heat guns. You know, thanks to you, he thinks he's a star!🐹✴I'm going to have to get an assistant for my assistant!

Thank you, Susan, for the fun I had trying something new! 

Challenges

• Cardz 4 Galz: Make it sparkle!
  
• CAS Mix Up: Faux cloisonné.
• Just Us Girls: Word week: Friends.
• Snippets Playground: PP used for flower and leaves.
  
• The Flower Challenge: Occasions.
  
• Uniko: 10th birthday celebration! Congratulations, Bev!
  

Twofer

This QACAS card was also inspired by Susan's prompt because when I was looking through my pp drawers, I found this awesome piece of ancient turquoise handmade paper, shot through with black and gold. The photo doesn't do it justice.

The design was also inspired by Bonnie's stunning card here. For my card, I used a heart die from M&C Boutique, cut in shiny gold which appears holographic in the sunshine. I used a pink card base to make the heart pop and added a simple old sediment, which I think is from SSS.

Challenges

• Addicted to CAS: Hearts.
  
• Fusion: Valentine cupcake sketch and photo. My card fuses both.
• Use Your Stuff: Hearts/Love.
• The Paper Players: Laurie's theme: love and friendship.

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy and keep safe! LITS!* If I'm not back before Valentine's Day, I wish you a lovely romantic time with your sweetie.💏 If it's a blue day for you, I send you hugs and wish you a happy celebration-of-you day!

Mwah!

*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!)

Krafty Chicks ~ Christmas

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you doing well. If not, hang in there! I have a coupla friends who don't like the expression "hang in there," so I try not to use it much, but sometimes, really, it's the best thing to say. I looked up some alternatives because you can Googlify anything and sure enough, here are some options:

Grin and bear it ~ seems harsher than hang in there. Snap out of it ~ definitely harsher. Soldier on, see it through, keep at it ~ that's all fine, if it's a marathon you're training for, or boxed furniture you are putting together, but when something is out of your control and you just need to be patient and hope for the best? Then we just have to hug ourselves and hang in there.

And, if we're lucky, get crafty!

Thank you to everyone who played in the Krafty Chicks "Stamp Act" challenge last week! It is the second Thursday of January and this week the theme is "Christmas." Here is my card to inspire you:

This beautiful forest is part of the exclusive Simon Says Stamptember 2021 set by Tim Holtz which my friend Harriet kindly let me borrow. It is one of those images which works beautifully using the direct-to-stamp technique for a wonderful loose watercolored look. The sediment is heat-embossed in platinum and the frame is from Pink & Main.

I look forward to seeing your stamped creations! You can find all the details and the linky tool on the Krafty Chicks blog. 

I'm also playing in these challenges:

• CAS Mix Up: Loose watercoloring.
  
• Four Seasons: Anything goes winter.
  
• Peace on Earth: Anything goes Christmas.

Twofer

The holly leaves are NBUS from the Simon Says set called "The Magic of Christmas." The NBUS sediment from Gerda Steiner's "Balancing Mouse" was heat-embossed in silver. Hammy had a field day with the schplatters. 

Well, with the gold schplatters anyway. We have a gold spray, but not a silver one, so Hammy thought we could make one out of water and Nuvo glitter drops. It was a clever idea until this happened:

Tip: If it seems like it just needs a little encouragement to come out, don't squeeze the life out of it or you'll squeeze the literal life out of it! Geezopeezo. Did it all land on the desk, you ask? No, of course not, silly. It went all over the floor and all over me ~ somehow missing the critters ~ but I'm now the proud owner of a glitter-schplattered navy sweatshirt, so score!

Challenges

• CAS Christmas: Silver and gold.
  
• Just Us Girls: Trend Week: Inked or sprayed backgrounds.
  
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use snippets. I've only used a snippet of vellum this time. Congratulations to Di for her darling new dedicated snippets blog!

🥂In other happy news, The Mister and I are celebrating our 51st wedding anniversary this weekend! We won't be going anywhere right now, but hopefully we can get away to celebrate 50 and 51 ... before 52 rolls around!🍾💕 But no matter, every day we are here and together with loved ones is a cause for celebration, especially in these trying times.

[🤫I now know the secret to those marriages that last over 50 years. After 50 years, one or both of you starts to instantly forget what the other one did to tick us off!🤣]

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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! 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!)