Dies Through the Seasons

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you well! Well in health, well in spirits, and well in creativity!

This week the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar is D = Dies/Die Cuts (which can also be fussy-cuts). Dies are having a heyday right now and I got so charged up, I did a threefer. Sorry, I didn't mean that to sound naughty.

Onefer

For this card, I was inspired by the photo at the 

Inspired By Challenge ~ specifically the frame and the colors of the leafy spray on the mantle.

I found papers in my stash that have a lightly embossed feel, so I used a creamy one for my background here. I used a woodgrain paper to cut my stitched rectangle frame. The vases are dies from Paper Smooches. The stems are a combination of dies from SU and MFT. The sediment is from Gina K's, "A Little Love." 

I'm also adding my card to Cut It Up, where the brief is to add a sentiment and to Snippets Playground, where the brief is to use your scrappy snippets.

Twofer

Here is another piece of the pretty paper I found ~ this time in a beige color. Nothing original about this design, but I can't remember ever doing it before and I love the simplicity of the scene.

Looking at it on my monitor now, the lads and I are karacking up because it looks like we tossed a coupla dog turds on the grass beside the pile of leaves!😂It's okay because the recipient is a dog-loving friend with a fall birthday and a wonderful sense of humor!

Challenges

Addicted to Stamps and More: Birthday.

Cardz 4 Galz: Create a scene.

Krafty Chicks: Birthday.

Threefer

And, thirdly, the challenge at Color Hues schparked another Christmas card for the stash. The poinsettia is an old beauty from Waltzingmouse, colored with my Ziggies in all pinks, even though it came out a bit rusty rose in the photo. Hammy and Stanley were thrilled to have a big field upon which to use their new winkers and when they were finished, I fussy cut it. 

The gray background paper was decorated with a Dotted Scallops cover plate die from Pinkfresh Studio and gold bling and a simple sediment finished it off.

Other Challenges

The Flower Challenge: Add embellishments.

The Holly and Ivy Christmas: Anything Christmas goes.

Just Us Girls: Die Cuts - Florals.

      

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💐I don't say it often enough ... Thank you very much to all the card challenges out there who provide us with endless inspiration and challenge us creatively!👏

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I.D.E.A.S. Calendar: D = Dies

You will find a linky tool below for you to share your creations using your dies! Your card may help motivate someone out of their creative schlump! I love seeing what you create, visiting you, and pinning your designs! 

Thank you so much to everyone who shared their designs last week! Mwah!

Enjoy your week! 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!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Aqua Amour!

Hello Stamplings!

And here we are again, almost whooshed through another month! I hope you're doing well and you had a great week! Mine could have been better, what with doctor visits, a trip to the ER, a UTI, and migraines. When it rains, it pours!

In light of all that, I have simple designs for you today. Because this month has five Mondays, it's S = Stencils week on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar. I don't use my stencils often enough, so this is good for me. 

Onefer

After I'd made my cards for today and had them on my desk ready to be photographed, I realized how the C.P. Skylight aqua ink matched this little box of notes I have. A little styling for my photos and a great opportunity for Hammy and Stanley to steal the show say hello!

This QACAS design is another in my goal to use my silhouette dies. The little gal and NBUS sediment are from Flourishes. I used my plain geometric stencils from back in the 1900s. Maybe even from the 70s when I made artwork to hang on the son's nursery walls. After stamping and stenciling, I added some dementia by using a dandelion e/f and a bit of matching bling finished it off.

Challenges

Addicted to Stamps and More: Any occasion.

CAS on Friday: Spring.

Cardz 4 Galz: Springtime.

Twofer

Yes, Christmas. But wait. The great thing about card designs is that you can cock your head to the side and visualize how you might use the design for a completely different occasion. So what stencils do you have that would work as a side (or top or bottom) border? Pick your colors and away you go!

For this card I used my NBUS "Snowflake Soirèe" from The Greetery. I used CP inks in Skylight, Daydream, and Twilight. The sediment is stamped in Daydream. I removed it from its packaging years ago, so I don't know the company, but I'm guessing My Favorite Things. For punctuation, I used the stencil to add a wee snowflake.

Challenges

Christmas Kickstart: Color challenge: no red, green, or gold.

Jingle Bells: Flat OLC.

Just Us Girls: A/G Stencils.

Rudolph Days: A/G Christmas.

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I have to share this with you.

You might remember that I authored this silly (but perhaps profound?) saying a few weeks ago and my sister Diana made found it calligraphed and flowery in an antique store!

Thank you, sis!❤️

~~~

I.D.E.A.S. Calendar:  S = Stencils

You will find a linky tool below for you to share your stencil creations this week to help lift others out of their creative schlump! I love seeing what you create, visiting you, and pinning your design! 

Thank you so much to everyone who visited and linked last week! Mwah! 

Happy April Fool's Day! Enjoy your week! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

*Life is too short!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Spring Fois Deux (I.D.E.A.S. Calendar A = Anything Goes!)

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are finding a spring in your step as we are now fully into spring! Unless, like some of you, there was snow coming down on the first day of spring! Or you live upside down and you are fully into fall. In that case, I do not wish for you to have a fall in your step!😬

Maybe we should all sit down and check out everyone's favorite week of my I.D.E.A.S. Calendar which is A = Anything Goes!

Onefer

This design was schparked by the blues and greens color challenge at the Color Throwdown. And a lot of challenges have "spring" as their brief, which led me to my NBUS "Lovely Lily of the Valley" die from Lawn Fawn. 

These sweet little flowers are oft times white, but look at this photo I found! Who knew? Or is that AI?

Anywhistle, just to be different (and because I have gobs of it), I used cream card as my card base and to cut the dies. I don't know if it was the paper or the operator or the product, but it was a bit of faff getting clean cuts. But I per-severed and then painted with my Ziggies. Then I took a rest and Hammy and Stanley went about winking all the bits, as one does they doeth.

Then I faffed a bit more, laying the stalks and leaves this way and that, but it all seemed a bit flat, so I decided to go through my e/fs and see if one of them might juizz it up a bit. When I saw my NBUS "Cross-Stitch" e/f from Taylored Expressions, I got the idea of gluing down the flowers and then running the whole panel through my Gemini in the hopes it would look like a counted cross-stitch. It was a risk after painting all those wee lilies, but, phew, it worked.

It wasn't until after I'd embossed it, that I realized I should have stamped on a sediment first.😶No worries, let's cross-stitch that, too, then! I used my wee Lawn Fawn triple frame label set. The sediment is from Verve, older than your grandma, but still good as new!

Challenges

• Cardz 4 Galz: springtime.
  
• Color Throwdown: blue, lime, green.
  
• Just Us Girls: spring mood board with Lilies of the Valley.

Twofer

Keeping spring in mind, this design was schparked by another color challenge, this time Color Hues. I had the little flower outline stamp on my desk. I had removed it from its wooden block some time ago and stuck it in with my silhouette stamps. I also saw that Lin was hosting the current Seize the Birthday challenge and she was looking for "things with wings."

The lads went up NBUS Mountain and starting pitching birds and butterflies and dragonflies off left and right. Well, not one to move if I don't have to, I reached down and picked up the one that landed on my bazooms. Thankfully and perfectly, it was this wee NBUS hummingbird from Memory Box that comes as a multipiece die. 

You know how much I love hummingbirds and how fortunate I am to have them come to my window feeder every day all year long. And Goodness knows how many photos I've shared on here of these delightful birds in their brilliant blue, purple, green, and red feathers. Pulling my artistic license from my sleeve, I used a piece of pp to create an unusual (to me) array of green and yellow feathers for this little gal. 

The rest of the design came together easily, punctuated by hammering, stitching, piercing, scalloping, blinging, and winking. You know, the usual. Oh, and I did have to give her teeny feet.

Challenges

• Beautiful Blossoms: Mood board.
• Color Hues: Lemon and lime.
• Memory Box: Petal power.
  
• Seize the Birthday: Things that fly.
  

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You will find a linky tool below for this week's I.D.E.A.S. Calendar prompt of A = Anything Goes. So, no matter what you create, you can link here this week to motivate others out of their creative schlump!

I love seeing what you create, visiting you, and pinning your design! Thank you so much to everyone who remembered to link last week! Mwah!

~~~

Enjoy your week! 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!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Seasonal II

Hello Stamplings!

How are you doing? I hope you've had a great week. Thank you for your good wishes regarding my dental work. I'm happy to say it all went well, thanks to nitrous oxide!😁 It was my first time and I love that stuff! 

I have been up and down with emotions this week. Thankfully, I can always withdraw to my happy place with my three cuddlers ~ not counting my main cuddler. For week two of November's I.D.E.A.S., we had a good time getting jiggy with the Gemini!

Onefer ~ Fall, Thanksgiving

This fall blessings card is like a prequel to a layered Thanksgiving turkey sandwich. (Sorry if that started you drooling.) I began with a white bread card base and building upwards, I added a piece of finely textured beige pp. On top of that I spread a layer of NBUS Sugar Peas Leaf Cover Plate. 

For color and flavor, I added a layer of Poppystamps Feather Tree Frame, cut from pretty patterned paper (ppp). I topped it all with a double dollop layer of Blessings from Hero Arts, cut from shiny copper. Very filling, just as a Thanksgiving sanditch should be!

Linking to: Cardz 4 Galz: Showcase Your PP; Poppystamps: Leaves Are Falling ...; Cut It Up: Grateful and/or Thankful; SSS Monday: Thanks/Thanksgiving

Twofer ~ Winter, Christmas

In a quest for QACAS Christmas designs this late in the year, and in an effort to use up more of my ppp, I made this using a hammered card panel and an old-timey ornament die from Spellbinders Nestabilities called 2011 Heirloom Ornaments. To bring out the gold in the ornament paper, I gold heat-embossed the sediment from SSS called, "Holiday Greetings Mix 1."

This ppp comes in different colors and Hammy and Stanley found great matching papers to use for matting. All I had to do was get on with the batch making. It all went well until the idea of batches made me stop and make a few batches of Amish Sugar Cookies. Someone told me they freeze well. Oh, hahahaha, as if there were any around to freeze!!

Linking to Addicted to Stamps and More: Die Cuts and Stencils; Allsorts: Christmas; and Die Cut Divas: Christmas.

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

Thank you to the families of all the service men and women who have died for our country and to those who are currently serving.🙏

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!

Thoughts

I haven't mentioned politics here because this is a card blog. These are just my thoughts about one thing in particular. Please don't read this if you aren't interested and please don't feel like you need to comment.

I'm an Independent and more of a long-range thinker in terms of the effects politics has on society and our beleaguered earth. We are at a definite crossroads when it comes to the established system of checks and balances we rely on in order to preserve democracy, but as a democratic nation, we accept the results of our elections, wish the new president well, and move on. 

For his part, I hope that President-Elect Trump begins to build a bridge over the deep divide that exists in America ~ a divide stoked by fear and anger. I wish him success with that because, honestly, I'm exhausted by the last four years, sick of the nastiness, and appalled at the media hyping the negativity nonstop. It is a relief to finally see for ourselves that the 2020 election was not stolen or rigged. Common sense tells us that if it had been, then the deep state Democrats would have rigged this election, too, in order to make sure Harris won. Not only that, but if you think about it, they surely would have rigged the 2016 election, too. It's too bad we had to deal with the terrible fall-out from this lie for four very long years, but now we know the truth firsthand. And now the new leadership can concentrate on healing the nation with words that unite us rather than divide us. I pray.

I realize that there are Bible verses for every situation, no matter your viewpoint. I'd like to share this one, which I hope will become a hallmark going forward:

1 Peter 2:1: So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, all hypocrisy, jealousy, and unkind speech.

Amen.🫂🙏