You Color My World!

Hello Stamplings!

I saw this quote on Instagram:

I told my friend that I'm emotionally "hitting a wall"

and she said, "Sometimes walls are there

so we can lean on them and rest."

So true. Also sometimes walls are there to hang up awesome art work created by family and friends ~ and us! I hope you're finding ways to rest when you're weary and create when you're not.

Onefer

A lot of different companies came out of the vault to play when I created this fun card. The ruler, sediment, and pencil are all from "Worm Wishes," by Reverse Confetti. The easel is from "When Your Heart Speaks," by Taylored Expressions. The paint brush is from "I Heart Art," by Paper Smooches. 

The coloring was done with my Ziggies and Hammy added the splat and the winking, which is barely noticeable in the photo, but abundant in real life.

Challenges

• CAS(E) This Sketch!: Final sketch. Enjoy the break with your family, Chrissy, and thanks again! 
  
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: A/G using your snippets. My snippets were used for all the elements on the card, all of which were fussy-cut. Not that you get extra credit for that.
• SSS Wednesday: A/G.
  

Twofer

The images and sediment are from "Holiday Glass," by Avery Elle, embossed in liquid platinum, Ziggified, and winked. QACAS! 

I'm joining with a lot of you and getting a start on my Christmas cards. I mean for time's sake, can you believe we are only a coupla days from starting February already?! Everything lined up perfickly in my large MISTI, so I made a batch while I was a tit. 

(Snigger. We've all seen those examples of how important commas are. Looks like spacing matters, too!)

Challenges

• AAA Cards: One layer (w/o option).
  
• Country View: Use a square.
  
• Less Is More: In a row.
  
• Rudolph Days: A/G using Christmas schtuff.

Amaryllis

The kids got me a beautiful waxed amaryllis bulb for Christmas. I put it on the floor of the Playhouse to capture a photo of all four blooms from the top and while I was busy looking through the camera lens, Nellie hopped down from her divan, walked over, and licked up some pollen! Eek. Thankfully, it was harmless. It is fascinating how all the water and nutrients it needs to bloom are locked up inside the wax coating!

~~~

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

I am relieved that the Mister and I have received our first vaccines and I hope it has happened (or will happen soon) for you, too. The peoples of the world are being mentally and physically challenged ~ and sadly dying ~ every day that this pandemic continues, so we are very thankful to all the scientists and technicians who have worked very hard round-the-clock to make the vaccines in record time. Now our thanks go to all those working hard to produce billions of those little vials and to all those administering the vaccines. Bless you!❤💋

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!)

A Beach, a Bee, and a Baby

Hello Stamplings!

We've whooshed through another week unscathed and in lickity-split time and I hope you've done the same! 

Every Friday morning now for weeks we will be sleepily moving around the kitchen getting breakfast and one of us will start the conversation about the day and each other's plans and suddenly the one not talking will whip around, drop their jaw onto their chest, bug out their eyeballs, and whisper, "Wait. Is it Friday again?!" Every.single.week. It feels like we get up on Wednesday, step out of the shower, and it's Friday. It's positively ionic.

Fortunately, a three-day week is all I need to make a coupla cards.

Beach

Inspired by so many summer-y beach-y challenges, I made this cheer-y design which looks a little crooked-y. That happens.🙈 Just lean into it. It's Friday.

Of all things, I used a Tim Holtz woodgrain stencil to blend out a stretch of ocean and a stretch of sand. The fun NBUS beach huts are from Avery Elle, watercolored by me, and then winked by Hammy. The NBUS sun ray stencil is from Moda Scrap. 

Of course, as any sensible person wouldn't, I decided to add the top level of the sun rays to the card base after adhering the panel. I remember back in the day when I had forethought ... but that might be an afterthought. Did you know merrythought is a real word? The definition is not the one I would have given it. It means wishbone of a bird. That's crazy, right, but at least you earned something new today. 

Challenges

• The Card Concept: The dogs days of summer. I was inspired by the summer theme and the colors. My style is clean and layered.
• CAS Mix Up: August watercolor hosted by Loll: Beach.
• Country View: I do like to be beside the sea.
• Happy House: Summer holiday.
• Seize the Birthday (no toppings): Anything goes.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday: Summer memories.

Bee

I was playing in another lifetime with my friend Harriet and we were having fun with foil. This was a very glittery foil on an ancient bee from GKW. After wards I colored it in with my Ziggies and framed it with a square frame turned to form a diamond shape, as one does. I added a simple sediment heat-embossed in gold and a coupla Matts.

Here's a closeup which is a bit blurry because of all the schparkle:

Challenges

• Just Add Ink: Just add T (as in Thinking of you).
• Shopping Our Stash: KISS: Keep it simple, sister.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Midsummer blues.

Baby

I told you a while back about the old lizard we call Stubbie and all the little lizards that entertain me out the Playhouse window. I have pictures of him and I was going to do this whole collage, but, you know, how many lizards do you really want to see? 🦎

Anyway, I rant out of time, so instead I will just show you this itty-bitty baby I spotted sunning himself on a large white rock in the yard. I was taking photos of my card when I saw him, but before I could turn my camera towards him, he skittered underneath the rock. I circled him so you don't have to strain your eyes. So cute!!

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy (LITS!*), but please keep safe and well!

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!)

Playing With Circles and Bubbles!

Hello Stamplings,

I hope you are having a great week! Did it escape anyone else's notice that May quietly slipped into June as we've been distracted by world events? At this rate, I'm going to turn around and it will be October, so I need to get going on my Christmas cards!

But not today. Today, I have a coupla bright and summery cards. It's the tenth of the month and the start of the June Twofer Card Challenge where the prompt is "Circles/Bubbles!" I set this prompt up months ago, but I think it turned out to be timely because we can all use some playtime with circles or bubbles!

The stamp my Twofers have in common is the PTI "Dot Spots" stamp set.

I know, you're surprised that I didn't choose bubbles and have them floating out of a champagne glass, aren't you? Obviously I need to stop allowing Hammy to have any vacation time!

Onefer

This very CAS card was made by stamping the medium dot spot circle across the card front in rainbow colors using CP inks. A hello die was added over the top. It is from Uniquely Creative and was a gift from a friend. QACAS at its best!

Challenges

• HLS June AGWD: Anything goes with dies.
• The Paper Players: Sunshine & Rainbows.
• Uniko: Anything goes with optional twist of bright and happy.

Twofer

To make my second distinctly different design, I used the same dot spots circle stamp as a sun setting behind the hills with a weeping willow in the foreground. The weeping willow is a NBUS die from Poppystamps (cut from schparkly black paper) and the sediment is NBUS from Penny Black's "Good Wishes" set. The gentle hills were blended using a curved mask and CP ink.

I was fascinated by weeping willow trees when I was growing up. You could get under those long leafy branches and be unseen inside a magic quiet world with nothing but your imagination. As you might expect, I could happily be under there for hours. 😌

Challenges

• Country View: Summer Fields.
• Just Us Girls: Sunshine.
• Poppystamps: Clean and simple.
• Seize the Birthday: All about summer.
• Little Red Wagon: Sunshine!

~~~

I hope you'll be excited about the circles/bubbles prompt and come play in the June Twofer Card Challenge #28! Talented Guest Designers Jenny and Linda and the entire Design Team have exceptional inspiration waiting for you there! 

You can't play with circles or bubbles and not feel like you're having fun and who doesn't need that?!

If you do play, you might want to also link up to another fun challenge called Happy House where they are honoring TCC by having their own "Double Challenge!" I'll be linking my cards there and over at the June NBUS. ETA: And I've just gotten word from my friend Ike that she is running an "R is for Round or Dots" challenge at Ike's World Challenges, so please join me in linking there, as well!

~~~

I'll leave you with some chuckles. Here are the new names of songs that have been revised to make them appropriate for those of us who are now enjoying our rusty golden years:

• "Splish, Splash, I Was Having a Flash," by Bobby Darin.
• "Mrs. Brown You Have a Lovely Walker," by Herman's Hermits.
• "I Get By With a Little Help From Depends," by Ringo Starr.
• "Fifty Ways To Lose Your Liver," by Paul Simon.
• "On The Commode Again," by Willie Nelson.

And I stole this from my friend Susan who posted it on FB:

Haha, I just realized the way I wrote that could be interpreted as Susan reporting on Facebook that I stole her sign! 😂😂😂

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* Keep yourself safe and well!

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!)

Voluptuous Vellum

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you're doing okay. I'm sorry to have been gone so long. I've been having a heck of a time with migraines and allergies and worrying about what's going on in the world.

When I'm on the brink of becoming an eyeball-itching-TV-watching-zombie on an emotional roller coaster, Hammy climbs up on the top of my head, peers upside down into my face and reminds me that I have a Playhouse full of paper, inks, and product that allows me to make cards in order to spread cheer and thoughtfulness from sea to shining sea.

A check of some favorite challenges got us playing with an old favorite: vellum!

Here the green card base is covered with a piece of vellum which I dry-embossed with a Cuttlebug branches e/f and overlaid with a vellum precolored bird from GKW that has been in my stash for ages. You know those packets of vellum clip art that you could buy at Mike's or JoAnn's? I think it came from one of those. A simple sediment finished it off.

The only difficulty with vellum is how to attach it to a card. I usually leave a half inch on one side or over the top (of a tent card) to attach to the back with double-stick tape. For this card, I just glued the vellum behind the bird and left the sides loose. When you place it on the sill of an open window, the vellum flutters which makes it look like the leaves on the branch are moving. 

Challenges:

• AAA Birthday: Vellum.
• CAS Mix Up Card Challenge (new format): Embossing, vellum, and stamping. This isn't very CAS, so I'm just playing for fun.
• Sweet Stampers: Animals/birds.

These next two use beautiful sheets of white designs on vellum paper.

This one was attached to a sky blue card base and the sediment was silver-embossed.

Challenges: 

• AAA: Congratulations on 6th Birthday!!
• Country View: Summer fields.
• Paper Players: Tic Tac Toe. (Column three.)

~~~

This one has a white heat-embossed sediment and the card base is a charcoal gray. I'm so happy to have rediscovered these pretty vellum sheets and I may now go on a tangent making lots of cards to use it all up. I'm sure the pandemic has a lot to do with my new resolve to use my schtuff. Plus, for all we know, paper has feelings, too, and hates being stuck in a deep dark drawer! (I'm sure it also hates being cut and stitched and stabbed, but we'll ignore that bit.)

Challenges

• CASology: Wind.
• Seize the Birthday: All about summer.
• Watercooler Wednesday: AG with a feminine twist.

 

~~~

So Proud of the Young People

Worrying about the pandemic has now been superseded by the horror of what happened to George Floyd. I'm proud to see so many people, including so many young people, exercising their constitutional right to peacefully assemble to protest racism and draw attention to the need for better police training.

As someone who marched in the 60s for equality, it's hard to believe that this is still necessary, but racism takes generations to eradicate. With each new generation, fewer children grow up hearing bigoted comments from their parents and grandparents, who heard it from their parents and grandparents. And because they aren't directly or indirectly taught bigotry, they don't practice it or pass it on. Unfortunately, that's not true in every home yet, so we must continue to shine a light on racism when it occurs and we must be able to do that peacefully without fear of being attacked by our own government without provocation.

“If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity.”
― Albert Einstein

“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth.”
― William Faulkner

Please take care if you are marching and continue to wear a mask!

~~~

A Reunion

Recently we decided we could safely get together with the kids in the back yard for lunch. We are all adults (or nearly) and we were able to maintain our social distance. As the happy day approached, I fretted about how on earth I was going to manage not hugging them. 

Well, duh, I finally reasoned, if I covered myself from head to toe, I should be fine. And so I did!

l to r: Dan, Adam, me; Henry, Adam, Rachel, Nellie, Dan; Rachel, Dan, me

Even though they live nearby, we haven't been together since January, so it was wonderful to see them! Hopefully it won't be long before we can do it again!

~~~

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 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!)