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! 

Schparkly Stars and a Spiffy Schnowman!

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are doing well with your holiday preps. The kids will be out of school soon, so you don't have long to finish up your secret shopping and wrapping. It's the hiding of the gifts that's the hardest part of all. Children suddenly develop bloodhound noses for locating presents this time of year. Have you ever hidden gifts so well, you still haven't found that Magic Card Game you hid back in 1988?! You should look again in the back of your sock drawer.

Things are calming down in Chez Playhouse. Thank you for all your good wishes following my torquing of the torso business. I'm fine. I mean, generally speaking, in the very broadest of general terms not counting psychic logically.

Today I'm playing in a few challenges as the year is wrapping up with a bow. You can read that bow as in ribbon or bow as in curtsy. You have to love a language that's so versatile. Anyway, it's nice to have a head-start on next year's cards or have a few in Abeyance in case I forgot someone this year.

My friend Barb sent me this awesome NBUS "Shooting star" die from My Favorite Things for my birthday last summer.  I paired it with some pretty pink paper cut with an Avery Elle "Dotted Die" and a silver heat-embossed sediment from PTI. The silver lamé panel is from Christmas Dior. QACAS!

Challenges

• ABC Christmas: Y and Z. Z for zero embellishments.
• CAS Christmas Card: Stars.
• SSS Work It Wednesday: Ho Ho Ho.

~~~

The companion gold lamé panel (both gifts from my friend Lottie) was used as a backdrop for this adorable NBUS wooden stamp from Stampendus that I purchased on my trip to Indiana in October. The sediment is from Stampabilities. Both were gold heat-embossed and the coloring was done by Ziggies. Hammy winked the gold star as he is wont to do.

Challenges

• Cards in Envy: The spirit of Christmas.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday: Warm winter wishes.
• TIME OUT: Joyful.

~~~

And here we have a super cute and preppily dressed little NBUS snowman! He was stamped and die-cut and Ziggified. The snowflake stencil, brushed with Salty Ocean Oxie, is from my friend Lolly. The snowman, birds, and sentiment are all NBUS from My Favorite Things's "Cooler With You" set. I thought it would make a sweet holiday thank you card.

Challenges

• City Crafter: Snowflakes.
• Just Add Ink: Just add "I." As in ink.
• MFT Sketch: below.
• Paper Players: Color challenge: red, green, and my choice of blue.

 

~~~

NOTE: There will be no Twofer Card Challenge this month as we take time off for the holidays, but I did do a comprehensive post over on the blog explaining the concept of the challenge and giving examples. I wanted to let you know Justin Case you're interested and would like to check it out: Illuminating Definitions. Thank you!

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!)

Wrapped Up in Wreaths

Hello Stamplings!

On the Days of the Year calendar, today we are celebrating "Homemade Bread Day," "Baklava Day," and because then we need it, "Take a Hike Day!" Since we can't hike here atm because of the smoke, we'll just call it, "International Celebrate Carbs Day!"

But more important than any of those, today is our favorite son's birthday! Happy Birthday, Dan, and many, many more! And because I didn't acknowledge my favorite daughter-in-law's birthday on October 1, I'd like to do that now, too. Happy Birthday, Rachel, and many, many more! Your birthdays are even more cherished now!

Today is also reminder day over on the Twofer Card Challenge blog, so here you go with two more sets of designs to inspire you to play. In each case, I made one conventional wreath design and then I used my wreath in an unconventional way on my second design:

For these cards, the wreath I used for both designs is "Cascadia Wreath" by Memory Box. In case you think the camera played tricks, the colors of the card bases are honestly white and cream.

I thought we could all use our vivid imaginations and pretend those flowers are poinsettias, so my first design is a Christmas card, kept uber simple with white-one-white, pops of red, and a schplash of silver. The sediment is from The Ton. I'm entering this card in the TIME OUT photo inspiration challenge: red, white, gray.

~~~

I'm pretty chuffed with how this turned out. It was one of those one-thing-leads-to-another card designs. I ended up using a perfume bottle clear stamp from The Alley Way Stamps for the pretty Ziggified vase. I've had it at least four years, but it was still NBUS cuz I've just never had occasion to make a card with a large perfume bottle. As I was looking through my schtuff, I thought the bottom of the perfume bottle would work as a vase, so I put on my surgical gown and operated on it to remove the atomizer dealiebob. 

The card base is die-cut from an MFT stitched rectangle out of beautiful schparkle paper from SU that was a gift from my friend Brenda. The NBUS sediment from Kaiser Craft is heat-embossed in silver and in Hammy's absence, I winked the vase all by myselves. Sorry I forgot to take a photo closeup to show you all the shimmer and sheen. I also forgot to add a shadow to ground my vase. Okay, let's just move on.

Challenges

• City Crafter: Friendship.
• Color Throwdown.
• Little Red Wagon: Remember when.

~~~

For this Twofer set, I leaned towards rustic and used a wreath from Papertrey Ink called, "Cutaway Tags: Summer."

Making another Christmas card for the pile, I die-cut the wreath from a snippet of gold-embossed Bazzill paper and added another strip behind the wreath. Then I covered the sediment strip part of the die with paper that matched the card base, onto which I heat-embossed the sediment from PTI in gold. To finish it off, I flung gold schplatters all over it with Wild Abandon.

Challenges

• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use your snippets!
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: All that glitters is gold.
• Uniko: Celebrate. Optional twist: GOLD.

~~~

For my second design, I deconstructed the wreath, using the center sediment strip and some of the flowers, which I colored with my Zigs and winked. The sediment is NBUS from the same set. I found the cool woodgrained background paper in the same stash where I found the paper I used on my first set of Twofer wreaths last week. It feels great to have used these cool patterned papers after years stuck in a drawer! 

~~~

The Twofer Card Challenge is open until November 24th, so you still have time to put your thinking caps on and play along! I have to say, once I got into it, it was really fun thinking of two ways to use a wreath that weren't the same underlying design.

It's all win-win for you as you end up with two cards for your stash and it's all win-win for us as we benefit from how you inspire us!

 

~~~

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!)

Critters and Cards

Hello Stamplings!

Happy Sunday! I hope this finds you well and your little dog, too! Or cat. Or hamster. Or bag of Halloween candy. Whatever makes you smile your inner smile no matter how crazy insane this world gets.

What's making me smile here (besides the resident hamster) are a coupla squirrels who are loving the little squirrel candy that our Japanese Maple is covered with this time of year. I wish you could see these guys outside my Playhouse window doing unbelievable gymnastics as they reach the farthest kernel on the wimpiest branch. Yesterday the fat one literally fell to the ground when he reached too far and lost his little squirrel grip.

I have to admit I laughed my head off, but not until after he shook himself off and literally leaped back onto the tree for another go at whatever crack that tree is providing. In between watching the squirrel antics, I managed some cards:

When I saw Pink Fresh Studio's newest release, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this NBUS "Lush Greenery" set. I die-cut and stamped the two images from one of my stencil monoprint backgrounds made with Lindy Magicals. You can't see the shimmer, but it's there. I also schplattered a few Lindy's in the background. Very QACAS. The sediment is from Neat & Tangled.

Challenges

• Creative With Stamps: Halloween or Leaves.
• Mod Squad: Fall thank you card.
• TIME OUT: Grateful.

 

~~~

While the first card was very QACAS (quick and clean and simple), was it really clean enough to be suitable for the current Less Is More challenge? I didn't think so, so I whipped up this Twofer with one set of leaves, popped up for dementia:

Challenges

• Less Is More: Dimension.
• Words 2 Craft By: October eves.

~~~

And because it's past time to be working on Christmas cards:

This is a schparkly QACAS die-cut-only card. The silvery watercolor background pp is from Momenta, the NBUS cover plate is from Reverse Confetti, and the stained glass center image is NBUS from Avery Elle. I silver-embossed it, painted the bow and bell with Ziggies, and Hammy added a schparkly layer of winking.

Here's a better view:

Challenges

• City Crafter Challenge: Silver bells.
• Rudolph Days Challenge (from the 25th to the last day of the month).
• The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge: Anything goes.

~~~

Real quick, I have to show you another critter that came around while I was photographing my cards:

It's a wee baby fence lizard no bigger than my pinkie finger, but it's so hard to tell scale. Just know that those little flowers are teeny-tiny! He sat there for five minutes while I talked to him. The Mister shakes his head when he sees me outside talking to the hummingbirds and lizards. He is sure the neighbors are going to turn me into the Loony Bin peeps!

Here's a closeup:

Actually I've refrained from showing you the lizzies for ages even though I have lots of pics. We've had a large crop of babies this year and it's really amazing to see them when they're about an inch long. Although he won't admit it, the Mister likes it when any of them come out for a shower when he's watering the plants!

~~~

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!)