Double Star Stencil and Gesso Resist

Hello Stamplings!

How's it going where you are? I'm finding this next phase of reopening so confusing. Please take care and continue to stay safe!

Here in the Playhouse, I'm staying put, but the fun and the distractions continue. Thank goodness. I know I would be as loony as a loony bird without it! Wait. What dya mean, how would you know the difference?!

Let's see what I have to share today.

Onefer

The brief for the stencil challenge is to make something by layering two or more stencils. Well, I'm pretty new to stencils and I'm not in the habit of thinking of them when I plan my design. Yet. So now I found out that you can actually add more fun and interest by layering another stencil image over the top of the first one, and so on, ad infinity! Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit, of course you can do that! 

So I dumped all my few stencils out on my desk and let Hammy rifle through them while I leaned back and waited for something to catch my eye. When I saw how the packet of stars was layered inside their clear envelope, it was a no-brainer. 

I've no idea who makes the stars, but I think the big one came from an ancient sheet of "cut out" shapes. We called them cut outs in those days. (I wish the manufacturers would all put their names directly on their stencils.) I blended DOxie inks, Hammy winked the little stars, and then I fussy cut the big star in order to pop it onto the star-embossed background. A bottom border was added for a bit more color and another card was done and dusted.

Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: Clean and simple.
• CAS Stencil: Host Hilary and GD Greta. Layering stencils.
• CAS(E) This Sketch. (I honestly did not see this sketch before I made my card or I would have put my borders on top and bottom. I hope it's still close enough to enter.)

Twofer

The next thing I tackled was another new technique, this time for the CAS Mix Up where the brief is Gesso Resist. I love the look! You have to try it. I made two cards. For this one, I painted the gesso through a NBUS fern stencil from The Crafters Workshop called "Mini Ferns." Once it was dried, I sponged on DOxies in my fave colors. I stamped the "many" from my container of miscellaneous stamps and die-cut the Concord & 9th "thanks" from a snippet of glossy paper colored with alcoholic inks.

Challenges

• CAS Mix Up: Host Linda and GD Pooja. Gesso resist. Plus stamping and die-cutting.
• HLS Anything Goes With Dies.
• STAMPlorations May Stencil: Anything goes.

Threefer

This second one I did is much fainter, but I hope you can still make out the dragonfly shape. For this one, I painted gesso directly onto the stamp (from Carabelle Studio) and stamped it on the paper. Once it was dry, I sponged over it, and then I added the gold-embossed sediment, stitched frame, and Hammy chose a few clear sequints for the embellies.

Challenges

• AAA Birthday: Things with wings.
• Cardz for Galz: Birthday.
• Seize the Birthday: AG Birthday.

 

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Enjoy your day, but please remember to continue to take care and keep your distance! 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!)

Keeping Crafty

Hello, Stamplings!

First off, we're doing fine. We feel very blessed that the Mister recovered enough to start driving again just as it became very important for me to isolate due to being high risk. California has shut down except for essentials and we are still able to get local groceries, except for paper products. Don't get me started on that tissue!

I hope you are all keepin' on keepin' on and finding ways to not watch too much news on the telly. I had to finally limit myself to one hour a day and only ten minutes at a time, here and there, throughout the day. I'm glad you're visiting me to get away from all that, so let's go. (Since I don't post as often as I used to and you have plenty of time, I've made this extra long.😇)

And I have a special request, so if you're a scroll-through-quickly-friend, please stop and read the last section. Mwah!

Onefer

I wanted to play in some wonderful challenges, so I created this card. For the platinum grid, I made myself a stencil using my NBUS Birch Press Design, "Prism Triangle Collage." I applied Versamark liberally through the stencil and heat-embossed with platinum.

The flower flourish and sediment are from GKW. I colored the flower with my Ziggies using the JUGS color scheme and Hammy went to town with the winking.

Challenges

• CAS March Stencil: Heat embossing.
• HLS March Watercolour: Anything goes; optional Flowers.
• Just Us Girls: Color week.

The Demise of BOB!

Amidst all the scary news and glums about the nasty Coronavirus making its way around the globe, I'm pleased to report I've had a fatality here in the Playhouse, but it's a good one! I'm referring to my Box O' Bits, otherwise affectionately known as BOB. He will NOT be missed!

With clearance from the CDC, here is a photo of dead BOB. You'll note that Hammy is playing with his new malachite Easter egg inside BOB's skeletal remains:

Yes, that's one of my boxes of NBUS (never-before-used-schtuff) off to the right. We won't talk about that just now. Let me relish in the afterglow of BOB's demise for a little bit longer!

And here, ladies, is a photo of the 73 cards* I made from what BOB has been greedily hanging on to for years!

Don't get too becited. Most of them are very simple designs and (embarrassingly) took ten minutes or less to complete, but still, pretty good, eh? I will be posting some of them (God willing and the creek don't rise) over time, so I hid their faces. That way they can't be accused of being backlinked later on.

I wanted to share my success with you because, if you're like me, you are feeling unsettled right now. You plan to start this, but you find yourself looking at that; what you were becited about yesterday, you couldn't care less about today; and/or, card-making once brought you a lot of satisfaction, but now most of your satisfaction comes from either food (chocolate) or online shopping. 

If that's happening to you, turn to your BOB, or your UFO, or whatever you call your half-finished cards and let the process take you away for a few minutes or a few hours. It's not only a distraction, it's productive. And if your significant other happens to be named Bob, lucky you ~ you can turn to him for other reasons, as well!😉

Twofer

Here is one of the finished cards I made:

I made this topper while at last year's ESCR and it's languished since. Silly, since all it needed was a card base and sediment, but that's what happens sometimes. The phone rings, the Mister stops by to let me know the mail came, Hammy wants help with his juggling lessons, or Nellie wants a cuddle. Or maybe I've just seen a mental squirrel and off I go. The technique was direct-to-stamp coloring with markers, then spritzing, and then stamping. The image is Penny Black's "Pure Iris."

Challenges

• AAA Birthday Game #11: Flowers.
• The Flower Challenge: Anything goes.
• HLS March CAS: Your favorite technique. (Direct-to-stamp coloring.)
• Penny Black Saturday : March anything goes ~ think spring!
• TIME OUT: 6th Birthday celebration! Congratulations TO!

💟Something Positive

I have so many emotions and so many things I'd like to say about the current crisis, but this post is long enough. ONE of my concerns is the thought of all the thousands of elderly people in care homes around the globe who are suffering from loneliness because of our need for isolating ourselves. Perhaps they don't even understand why suddenly no one is visiting them. 

Thankfully, I feel like this is one concern where I can be proactive and do something, especially now that I've killed BOB and I have all these cards* in my stash. I'm making cards to drop off at our local care homes, but if you have an elderly loved one who feels lonely, I'd love to send a card to them, too. I'll mail to anywhere on earth where postal service is still occurring. And if you're feeling that way yourself, let me know. Please email their (or your) name and address to darnell dot knauss at gmail dot com and I will send off a card ~ or more, depending on the duration.

Now more than ever, my closing is appropriate. Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! Life is too short! As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse! Take extra care and be safe!

Lots of hugs,

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!)

Aah, Sunflowers

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you well! As you read this, Hammy and I are off on a little get-away retreat in Indiana while the Mister and Nellie hold down the fort. I fear I will be the third wheel in their relationship when I get back home! Actually, it's very endearing to see a big strapping man besotted by a little white fluffy dog!

I was organized enough Friday to make a coupla fall cards before I left.

I love the warm colors of sunflowers and tried to replicate that using my NBUS stencil from Magenta for this birthday card. I actually inked the entire stencil over a piece of subtle pp and then cut it in half so that I could make two clean and simple cards for the price of one!

For this card, Hammy winked the flowers after I had finished inking them onto the pp and then I added the stenciled panel to a piece of ancient card stock with schparkles embedded right in it. The NBUS sediment die is from Creative Expressions by Sue Wilson. I stacked it three-high and then used my Ziggies to paint it with warm sunflower shades.

Challenges

• CAS Stencil: Patterned paper.
• Seize the Birthday: Anything birthday goes; no toppings.
• Uniko: Anything goes. Optional twist autumn.

Twofer

Using the other half of the stenciled sunflowers, I made a horizontal Thanksgiving card. The sediment is from STAMPlorations, thoroughly glossed by Hammy. 

He is staying very close to me these days and being extra helpful so I don't forget he's here. As if, bless him. He is being reassured by the fact that he is here with me and Nellie is not!

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Today is a really.big.day in our community!

Some sites have it as today, some have it as a week-long celebration from October 1-7. It doesn't really matter. What matters is that there is a day/week that celebrates US!! How cool is that?! And when I say US, I mean YOU! I hope you get a chance to have some YOU time to make a card. Then you can spread love and happiness inside a piece of folded card inside an envelope!! Mwah! 

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Your Nellie smile for the day! 

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* Please remember that October is also Breast Cancer Awareness month! Check yourselves, ladies, and make those donations to breast cancer research! 

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!)

Round and Round

Hello Stamplings!

Happy weekend! Of course, if you're out playing because it is the weekend, I'll just say to you that I hope you had a great one! We are entertaining the grandtwins and granddogs this weekend and so far they are all getting acquainted with Nellie just fine. It's a houseful! A house full of joy since today is also the Mister's birthday!

I had some time to get a bit inky during the week and I went from a round daisy focus pocus to a round wreath focus pocus.

Onefer

This is pretty arty for me, eh? I made the background recently by scribbling shades of purple and blue Ziggies on my acrylic block, lightly spritzing the block, and then smooching my paper face down into the ink. It ended up being a meh (to me) background that I set aside to dry, wondering if I'd ever use it. 

Then along comes the CAS Stencil Challenge where Julia wants us to use a baby wipe to remove ink through a stencil and suddenly this little background came to life. You just never know! To finish, I added two sticker butterflies and a simple sediment framed to match the card base. You can faintly see Hammy's effusive efforts with winking all over the flower.

Challenges

• AAA Birthday: Use a stencil. Inside it says, "Happy Birthday."
• CAS Stencil: Baby wipes.
• The Flower Challenge: Anything goes.

Twofer 

This QACAS design consists of a black card panel run through a snowy e/f. Attached is a wreath from Concord & 9th's "Magnolia Wreath," simply and partially stamped in black on the white die cut. You can't tell, but it is stacked three-high. A simple circle sediment from GKW was added to the center. It's an unexpected color for a Christmas wreath card, but I like that about it.

Challenges

• CAS(E) This Sketch: See below.
• Simon Says Stamp: STAMPtember collaboration with Concord & 9th.
• TIME OUT: Photo inspiration. I was going to add the sediment in a pop of green as seen in the photo, but in the end I liked the striking effect of just leaving it black and white.

Nellie (9/19/19)

My photo table is the vantage point for this picture of Nellie wandering the yard and getting acquainted with her new home. The only difficulty we are having so far is calling her by the proper pronoun because our last two dogs were big Labrador Retrievers and both were male. 

Mister: "Where is he?"

Me: "She."

Mister: "She. Where is she? Has he been out?"  !!!

Repeated similarly several times a day. And when the Mister pets her, he says, "Hey, little Buddy." So if we don't get it straight, Nellie may become Buddy. But that's okay, we love him her either way!

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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!)