A Christmas Baublet

Hey, there!

How are you? I hope you're doing well! Any plumbing problems? You know I just had my personal plumbing problems fixed, but guess what happened yesterday? The main line to our home became plugged due to tree roots! Ka-ching! Ka-ching!

What to do?

Why, go to the Playhouse and talk to you, of course!

When I was resting and visiting friends around Blogland, I noticed a coupla five challenges that I wanted to participate in. Thanks to Serena Dipity, I happen to have a card to share that I made before Christmas, but never posted. 

To make this QACAS card, I cut the Poppystamps "Merry Ornament" from a snippet of Brusho background I made and then attached it to a fine linen panel. That was matted with a snippet of Christmas green textured paper that I've had since the end of the last century.

Lastly, I covered the bauble with Modgepodge Dimensionals. Here's a closeup. Shade your orbs!

Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: Holiday.
• HLS February Watercolor Challenge: AG / optional twist: dies.
• Less Is More: 6th Birthday Celebration! Congratulations and cheers to many more! Colour Wheel (green to yellow).
• Merry Monday Christmas: Clean and Simple (CAS).
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use Your Snippets

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NBUS Challenges

I want to sincerely thank all of you who played in my three-week, three-part NBUS celebration challenges! I've made my way through the amazing galleries in #8 and #9 and commented on at least one of each participant's gorgeous entries. I should be through #10 in a few days. You ladies are the BEST of crafters and friends!!

Please note that I have Pinterest boards for each of the NBUS challenges for you (and me) to visit again and again for inspiration! 

I will be back on Monday with the winners' post!

~~~

Miss Elaine E. Us

I'm very sad to share that the baby hummer did not make it. I've already seen the mama collecting spider webs, but I'm trying hard NOT to see where the new nest is.💧

But on a cheerier note, I want to share with you these get-well cards that 12-year-old Adam and Henry made for me:

All those early years spent crafting in the Playhouse with Bama paid off! They make GREAT cards for me, even if they depict bloody limbs!!😊

~~~

Enjoy your day and the weekend! 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!

Backyard Hardenbergia

*Life is too short!

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Leaping Towards Christmas!

Happy Holiday Hello!

No more lollygagging and sauntering towards Christmas, people! Now we are full leap ahead!

To that end, I've got a coupla more cards to share with you. Some of you might have found that this little number leapt right into your Happy Mailbox!

Onefer:

I used a navy card which I splattered with white Stella to create a starry background. I cut the "Curved Merry Christmas" die from Memory Box using an Avery sticker label, which made it easy to peel and stick it to the card. The leaping stag is from W Plus 9, which I cut from SU adhesive cork. An eyeball gem and a dab of white on the tail added personality to the deer and that was that!

Challenges

• Moving Along With the Times: Christmas Scenes.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use your snippets!

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Twofer:

I love copper embossing powder. Actually any of the metallics. So when SU came out with copper e/p, PLUS some stunning copper paper, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Here is my first make with my NBUS goodies. (Haha, I just realized I could have named this movement Never Before Used Goodies and if I had, the aackronym would have been NBUG! 😂)

Anyway, here's my card:

The wreath is from Stacy Stamps. The "Believe" is from Simon Says Stamp.

It's hard to see in the above photo that there is a strip of copper on each side of the white linen card panel:

Simple, but very effective with all that sheeniness!

~~~

Winner:

As promised in this post, today I have a winner for this die from Memory Box:

The winner is Maxine Diffy of Kiwime's Kreations! Congratulations, Maxine. I will send off your die immediately!

~~~

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

I'm sending warm hugs and best wishes to all those dealing with record-breaking frigid temperatures, ice storms, and snow throughout most of the country. And Happy Birthday love and hugs to Adam and Henry who turn 12 tomorrow!! WDTTG?!

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!

Pinterest

*Life is too short!

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NBUS for Christmas

Well, hello there!

If you are looking for the info and rules about NBUS Challenge #7, 

please click HERE. 

We are halfway through the challenge, so time is flying! 

Thank you for joining in!

So I'm prolly going to have to give up on making Christmas cards for everyone this year. Life has just loomed large and interwrecked my plans for that. But I can't not make any, so I took aim today with the help of a few challenges.

The featured NBUS product on today's cards is stickers. It's a produ ~ wait. What? Did you say "stickers?" That's right. The gals at Less Is More are shaking up Blogland with their recipe for stickers, sticky labels, or peel-offs this week!

Most of us started out making cards with stickers, but as we became more experienced, we sort of looked down our honkers at stickers as being too pedestrian, elementary even. Something for the children. Well, good for LIM for shaking things up! I think we all still have some stickers languishing in our Goody Boxes for this very day!

My Onefer:

The e/f is from Tim and I just love him. The snowman I mean, although Tim is equally lovable. Even though the snowman hasn't been naughty, I grounded him anyway. The sediment sticker is from GKW and the Christmas light stickers are "Rain Dots" by Cloud 9 Design.

My Twofer:

Here are the NBUS stickers for my second card:

Which is:

The beautiful blue CS came with the embedded white snow dots. It was a gift from my friend Mamie Reese. I attached it to a silver mat. The sediment is NBUS from "Seasonal Sentiments" by My Favorite Things embossed on vellum with Liquid Platinum by Ranger.

Challenges

#Onefer:

• Less Is More: Stickers, sticky labels, and peel-offs.
• Rudolph Days: Christmas cards.

#Twofer:

• Cards in Envy: Hip to be square.
• Ike's World: A circle in a square.
• Simon Says Stamp: Wednesday challenge: Hip to be square.

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New Friends Corner

Even though I can't follow other blogs right now (grrr), I'm very happy that folks seem to be able to follow me. Please join me in welcoming these new friends!

Wendy Mallas of Wendy Mallas. Wendy is an artist and illustrator, for reals, who has only just started her blog last month! Welcome to Blogland, Wendy! Please make a special effort to introduce yourself to Wendy. At the moment, Wendy is having such fun with paper, ATCs, and paints. It will be fascinating to see where she takes her blog with her extraordinary talent!

Misty Elam of Happy Ink Designs. Misty is another brand-new blogger who just started in July! Welcome to Blogland, Misty! Misty may be new, but her cards have the style and sophistication of someone who has been designing and executing cards for years. She also makes videos for you and does pictorial step-by-steps of her fabulous artistic process. You're going to be impressed!

Susan Wuthrich of Blue Fog Studio. Susan has been blogging since 2015. In that short time she has had a mercurial rise in our little corner of Blogland, now serving as a Design Team member on many of our well-loved challenge blogs. When she isn't making cards or some other form of artistry, Susan alternates between her many athletic loves and sewing dresses and blankets for children in the area. You will be instantly enchanted by Susan's talented designs!

Wendy Johnson of Pink and Dotty Wendy is from England and she started blogging in 2014. Her mother has been an avid card artist for many years, and Wendy finally gave the hobby a go about seven years ago. She has never looked back! And I love this: her husband calls her craft room her "daft room!" Wendy's happy and colorful cards will have you smiling when you visit!

Sue Tossell of Sue's Crafty Corner. Sue is also from England and she has been blogging since 2010. She has been crafty most of her life and now has a passion for papercrafting and card art. An avid snippets user, Sue will inspire you with her shaped cards, square cards, layered cards, birthday cards, and Christmas cards ~ and any occasion in between!

Thank you for joining, ladies, and welcome to the Playhouse!

~~~

Enjoy your day! Enjoy the NBUS Challenge! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

*Life is too short!

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An InLinkz Link-up

Platinum Snowflakes

Hi there!

I've a penchant for metals this week, didja notice? 

Don't you find penchant to be a funny-sounding word for what it means? It means the same as desire, but somehow desire holds much more promise. And then there is predilection, which also means the same thing, but somehow sounds like a felony. I can see it now on page three of the Tribune: Mr. Samuel P. Henbinevert was charged yesterday with three counts of predilection. A raiment will be held on Friday the 27th.

Today's card features a raiment of pearl pastels and sumptuous platinum:

While fun to make, this OLC was, by far, the hardest card I've ever photographed. Platinum and pastels are persnickity! This photo was the best of the 38 I took, but it doesn't do justice to the real life shiny appearance. The snowflakes are from Papertrey Ink's "Friendship Jar Fillers," embossed with liquid platinum from Ranger. The embossed sediment is also from PTI, but I don't have the name of the set.

I was inspired by this very awesome photo challenge for the Papertrey Ink May Blog Hop:

I picked up on the pastel watercolors. Instead of words, I used an overlay of snowflakes. This is an all-day event if you'd like to be quick like silver (keeping with my theme) and join in today!

I'm also entering the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, which is anything goes and the "Clean and Simple" category at The Card Concept Sweet Tea (photo) challenge, which is lovely pastels and metallics.

And because I finally made a Christmas card, I'm also joining the Rudolph Days Challenge over at Scrappy Mo's. If you're helping me keep track, I'm minus 73 where I wanted to be in the finished Christmas card department for this year. It occurs to Hammy and me that perhaps we were a bit hasty in adopting out all our furry helpers. Smack!

~~~

Windows 10

I'm hoping this doesn't jinx something, but I have to tell you that upgrading to 10 was a breeze. The Mister said it was the easiest upgrade he's ever done. Like ten minutes easy. It went out and found drivers for all our schtuff and everything works, even our six-year-old printer! The photo process did change, but I quickly saw how to tell it where to file my downloads and from there I did edits like normal using Picasa. I'm guessing they got a lot of bugs out of the earlier versions which had people tearing their hair out. 

I wanted to share that good news ~ she says, ginfers crossed!

~~~

New Friends Corner

Once again, I'm delighted to introduce you to five new friends!

Emily Shroom of Pen and Paperie. Emily is from Australia and she has been blogging since 2012. Emily is a Tim enthusiast and does amazing art with his techniques and with digi stamps. She has a long and impressive list of challenges she enters and awards she has won. You'll find lovely inspiration throughout her blog!

Swapna Patel of The Dream Pages. Swapna is from India and she became active on her blog in 2015. Swapna has a huge range of artistic talent when it comes to paper crafting. You will notice that she, too, loves to enter challenges where she has been recognized many times. You will be inspired by everything Swapna makes, from stunning sponged one-layered cards to incredible 3D projects!

Shell of My Time. Shell is from New Zealand and she has been blogging since 2007! How had we not met before now? Shell has embraced my NBUS idea wholeheartedly, which I love. I also love how happy and colorful (and beautifully watercolored) her card art is and the way she shows you her process along the way!

Frau Nicole Vögeli of Frau Vögeli (Mrs. Birdie). Nicole has been blogging since June of 2015, so she'll soon be celebrating her first blog birthaversary! Congratulations, Nicole! You may already be familiar with Nicole, either on design teams, or as a guest designer, or as an award winner. If not, you are in for a treat as you discover her wonderfully crisp and clean card art!

Carol H. of Crafting By Carol. Carol started blogging in 2015 as a way to have a photo journal of her card art and to enter challenges. The mother of two daughters, Carol started out making Christmas cards ten years ago with a light box, brass stencils, and a stylus. Remember those days! That was a lot of work! About five years ago, Carol started checking out card blogs and joining in online classes. Her cards are really sensational and show the extensive talent Carol has honed over the years!

Thank you for joining, ladies, and welcome to the Playhouse! 

~~~

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:

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Mwah!
If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me
your email address so I can respond. Thank you!

Feminine Pinks and Greens

GrEeTiNgS!

I didn't want to be the one to bring you this news, but I think it's best if you know so you can take a deep breath and slow down for a minute. I'm talking about the fact that March will be here in less than a week. March!

I spose if you live in a place with nasty winter climes you will be happy to hear that news, but working on our Christmas card for today's post, the happy little paws and I felt like it had only been days, not weeks, since we made our 2015 cards! I mean, give us a second! And, of course, it's even more frightening when we know what March is famous for ~ marching, right?! Oy.

I haven't played in the Papertrey Ink (PTI) blog hop for a while and the photo inspiration was too fetching to pass up. I've also not made a single Christmas card for 2016 and since the third month of the year is already breathing down my neck, nothing was going to keep me from getting the Cc ball started! So let's roll on ...

First my PTI card:

Here is the beautiful Papertrey Ink February Blog Hop Challenge photo inspiration, which I think has an Asian feel to it:

I immediately thought of my design when I saw that sweet little vase laying down on top of the circular green plate. I added the tiny sweet butterfly to my card because of the one shown in the bottom of the photo and Hammy tried his darnedest to figure out how to add a froggie, too. We finally decided to put a tiny tree frog down in the soil inside our pink vase. He seems quite happy there.

For my card I used glossy card stock for the base and over that is a single glossy layer with a stitched Lil' Inkers circle opening. (In other words, it's not a see-through aperture.) Using my Paper Smooches "Crystal Clear 3" dies, I cut a pretty pink vase from fun foam. Next I went all NBUS by using a Nestabilities die to cut the stem, a Memory Box die called "Fancy Blossoms" to cut the flowers out of pink vellum, and a stamp from the "Make A Wish" set by PTI for the sediment.

I'm also entering: the Anything Goes challenges at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the showcase is Memory Box products and Mrs. A.'s Butterfly Challenges, where the brief is G is for Glitter (on my wee butterfly) or Grape; and the Work it Wednesday February 2016 Simon Says Stamp Challenge, where we are to use something floral in our projects.

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And now for my first Christmas card of 2016:

Nothing NBUS here, slap, but this QACAS design sprungled to mind. The sediment from PTI's "Think Big Favorites #9" is heat-embossed in SU blushing bride. The watercolored Noel postage stamp image is from All Night Media. 

Yay, the first of over 200 Ccs done and dusted and I'm playing in these Anything Goes challenges:

•  Rudolph Days Challenge
•  Christmas Card Challenges
• TWOFERS (my first time here!)

~~~

Reminders:

"Inspired By all the Little Things." I'd love to have you play along!

and

Only 4 More Days! NBUS #6!

The next semi-annual NBUS (Never-Before-Used Schtuff) Challenge is just around the corner! Mark your calendars for two weeks from today!! Wheet!! If you are new to NBUS and would like more information, please click here for the rules.

~~~

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've been having a bit of a rocky time of it the last coupla weeks with migraines and a Crohn's Disease flare, but it's wonderful to have this happy community to enjoy when I'm able!

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:

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If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave
me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!