Happy Gal N. Tine's!

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you well or you soon will be! 

I made some cards! There are so many challenges celebrating Valentine's Day, or Galentine's Day, or Hearts-n'-Love-For-No-Reason-Day that it's hard not to be inspired! It's "D = Dies/Die Cuts" week on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar and I happen to have purchased a few things (cough) recently to help motivate me. 

Today's NBUS feature is the "Jar of Wishes" from Pinkfresh Studio. All the rest of the schtuffs I used today are BUS!

I cut the Jar of Wishes from a light gray cardstock and then again from vellum and used the matching stencil to add pink highlights. I cut the lid from a scrap of cork and then filled my Jar of Wishes with little pink and red heart flowers from Impression Obsession dies. The SWAK stands for "sealed with a kiss." Anyone remember writing those letters on the flap of envelopes back in the last century? SWAK is from Penny Black and it comes in a 3-pack with XOXO and I💗YOU.

For the background I used one of those O(ld)BUS narrow embossing folders, shown here with Ms. Val:

Just to be different, I alternated embossing and debossing down the length of the card front. Here's a close up of the card:

Playing with: Pinkfresh February Challenge and Little Red Wagon.

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Next I used a NBUS die that was a gift last Galentine's Day from my friend Ang, lovingly known to many of you across the pond as Mrs. Duck. Hammy calls it a quilt die because it has so many panels and there are so many designs you can make with it. My puzzle-lovin' heart had a ball!

Playing with: Color Hues.

Playing with: Just Us Girls.

Playing with: Addicted to Stamps and More and CAS on Friday

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

And enjoy the Olympics! It's impressive to see all the athletes so dedicated to their sport, but it's also emotional as they alternate between the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. It was so sad that Lindsey Vonn broke her leg, but she sure gave it her all!

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and thank you so much for the warm welcome back to Blogland last week!

I'll leave with my annual crocus photo. They are sure to bring a smile, especially if you are still snowbound and frigid! I'm sorry, what?

*Life is too short!

Orange and Green Convene!

Hello Stamplings!

Welcome on this fine fresh start to another week! It's so nice to be able to have the windows open and breezes blowing through. In fact, I need to get outside and tend to some neglected flowers, so I will get right to it.

This is D = Dies/Die Cuts on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar. My cards are more suited for inky week, but as these designs show, any wee die cut on your card counts. 

Onefer

I'm starting with the star of the show. This is one of my favorite old-timey stamps from Penny Black called, "Perfect Pear." It lends itself to coloring directly on the stamp, but this time I stamped it in DI Old Paper for a no-line watercolor look and then I painted it with my Ziggies. 

I had begun to paint the leaves when I went into the Big House for lunch and when I came back, I was quite taken by the unfinished panel:

Isn't that pretty just as it is? But the Color Hues challenge is orange and green, so I kept painting. Hammy and Stanley added schplatters and we called it a day. The frame and sediment are from Memory Box.

I'm also playing in the Anything Goes option at Seize the Birthday.

Twofer

Keeping with the o/g colors, this design was inspired by AAA Cards, where the brief is to follow Ceal's Lead (CASE her card). I went with another oldie by SU, using the peaches and turning them into oranges. I stamped and painted them and then I stamped and fussy-cut a mask to blend the light blue rectangle background ala Ceal. 

I kept the sediment simple with a bit of bling, but it needed some umph, so I got out the ol' glossy accents for the fruit and blossoms and the lads winked the leaves.

I am also playing in the challenge at Allsorts where the brief is Birthdays/ Anything Goes.

Threefer

I was out of manly cards, so for this design I used a few NBUS stamps from Stampers Anonymous. I thought they were a good choice for keeping the orange and green and glossification going. The sediment is from GKW and the frame is from Mama Elephant. Besides the Color Hues challenge, I'm playing over at Krafty Chicks: Birthday.

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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 lovely card may help motivate someone else! 

I love seeing what you create, visiting you, and pinning your designs! 

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

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse! 

*Life is too short!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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!👏

~~~

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

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

Gold Enough For You? I.D.E.A.S. (D = Die)

Hello, Stamplings!

I hope you are well, wherever you are! We've whooshed around the week again really, really fast! This is week two of March, which means the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar is D = Dies. We all have them, love them, and use them! 

Onefer

(The Association of Obstetrics and Retinal Health advises sunglasses. Sorry, that's Optometrists.)

As often happens with my designs, this one is simples and self-exploratory. But I thought I would share what schparked the steps involved in building my design for anyone who needs a boost out of their creative ennui. Sometimes we just don't know where to start. You know, like when cleaning closets.😶

I originally picked out a different NBUS die that I wanted to use for this week's I.D.E.A.S. Calendar, but when I saw The Flower Challenge, I sent the lads pawing through my NBUS flower dies instead and they surfaced with this perfect springtime "Layered Tulip Die" from Waffle Flower.

The brief at TFC is to "add circles."💡💡(That's me, thinking.) After two lightbulbs, I look at the hamsters with a raised eyebrow. It was Stanley who remembered that I have a stash of vellum paper with gold and silver circles. That schparked the idea of die-cutting the tulip from gold. And since I used a snippet of gold paper, I can pop over to the Snippets Playground! They recently celebrated their 500th challenge! Well done!

When I laid out the tulip pieces over the vellum with the gold circles, we all went into gold overload. Then I tried it on the silver circles and we loved how well they played with each other.

Next, I needed a sediment and I checked out my challenges list again. Just Us Girls also has die-cuts for their brief this week, with the additional requirement that it be a birthday card. Next, I went to Seize the Birthday to check out their latest challenge. They want designs with no stamping. To play in both challenges, I chose my old classic "celebrate" die. And wallah, done! 

You can take your sunglasses off now!😎

Twofer

This little number was QACAS and needs no walk-through. Well, I take that QACAS back. It's QAS, but not 'clean' by Clean and Simple standards because there is no white or clear space. So, hmmm, let's call it QABAS then, with a B for Busy! 

The NBUS items are both the "Snowflake Background" from Poppystamps and the sediment from SSS's set called, "Holiday Greetings Mix I." The background is a textured piece of green paper. I added more texture to it with a snowy e/f from Taylored Expressions called, "Snowfall."

Playing in:

• ABC Christmas: D is for die cuts.
  
• Addicted to Stamps and More: Christmas.
  
• Color Hues: Green and White.

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Thank you to everyone who left wonderful and supportive comments on my last post about creative slumps and how we can help each other through the rudderless times.

I was delighted to see you enter your designs via the linky in order to inspire your bloggie friends! Thank you! 

You will find a linky tool below for this week's I.D.E.A.S. Calendar prompt. If you use a die on your card, please link it below. I love seeing what you create!

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