A site for my handmade cards, accompanied by my photos and written meanderings which are occasionally witty, often tongue-in-cheek, and rarely profound. Beginning in June 2013, you'll also see lots of NBUS, which is an acronym I coined for Never-Before-Used-Schtuff. Note: my Privacy Policy can be found at a tab below and you can find my NBUS Challenge online. I hope you'll join in the fun there! Thanks for coming by! Have a beverage and enjoy!

Showing posts with label Crafty Hands Challenge Blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crafty Hands Challenge Blog. Show all posts

February 9, 2014

Birthday Banner Bouquet ~ NBUS #103

Good day!

I'm in the pink today! My Playhouse sees Dee Bris dressed in pink more often in February than in all the rest of the year. Everything is uber perky on every available surface!

Today's presentation card, although expertly sketched out by my hamster, evolved itself into an altogether different card than originally planned. For a couple of weeks I've had a NBUS heart stems die from Impression Obsession on my desk. Because of the hearts, I was planning to use it for a Valentine. But then Day 5 of the ongoing seven days of celebration challenges over at Papertrey Ink {capture the moment} was posted. 
Anniversary-blog-header
The challenge was to make a birthday card.

So I did:

I was able to use the IO die and a NBUS PTI banner die, too. I cut apart the PTI banner into individual flags to make it work with my design. The banner die cuts with the letters as negative spaces, so I filled them with the same pink card stock I used for my card base. For the bouquet, I cut the heart stems in the rose paper and then wiselike, I filled the negative spaces using the positive stems cut from pink paper. Then I skipped to my loo. Next, I cut a slit on each side of the stems and threaded the PTI ribbon through, securing it with tape on the back, punctuating it with an enameled pink heart brad, and pop-dotting it onto the card base.

We get extra credit if we take and link a second time with a mugshot of ourselves holding our cards. So I did that, too, with the help of Mister.

~~~

I purposely made my card using Mono Chrome pinks, so I could enter it in the third challenge at The Card Concept. My card this time is Clean and Layered. The Design Team and the gallery cards are so amazing! I recommend you go over to play and then book their post as a place to visit any time you feel the least bit depressed. There is a whole lot of perky pink on display to put you in the pink of mental health in no time!
 
As so often happens in Blogland, similar challenges are afoot. And so it is that the current challenge at the Craftyhands Challenge is to use different shades of the same color! I'll pink to that!
Blog Badge
I'm also linking again with the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge which is to have a heart somewhere on your creation.
Simon Wednesday Challenge Blog

Just click on the links given for all these challenges to find all the rules, sponsor, and prize details ~ and to join in the fun!!

~~~

Did you spot the brilliant pink head of a tulip in that silly photo of moi? Here is the whole array in their own lime light, a gift from the Mister! We normally ignore the Hallmark holidays and instead celebrate, say, March 4th, or August 10th, but these tulips were too pretty to pass up. The weather has been so weird, my bulbs may not come up this year.
As long as we're at it, here are the orchids I received as a gift from the office at my retirement party, which I forgot to post before. I always kill orchids, so wish me luck and share advice if you have any.

And I just noticed yesterday that the spath plant has its first bloom of the year. This plant was a gift seven years ago as a wee 4-inch plant. I'm delighted that I've managed to keep it alive.

~~~

Okay, tata! 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 leave a comment and/or join as a follower! Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor! 

 
*Life Is Too Short!

Project Details
PaperSU Pretty in Pink; PTI Autumn Rose
Stamps    None
 InkNone
AccessoriesDie: Impression Obsession "Heart Stems"
Die: PTI One-Liners, Happy
Ribbon: PTI Autumn Rose
Brad from stash; pop dots

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December 13, 2013

Midnight Snow and Ice ~ CFC #123; CHCB; SSSW

Season's Greetings!
 
We have whooshed around, faster than evah, to Friday!
 
I really miss challenges and blogging and am easily detracted as you all know, so I took another break from Christmas cards to whip up a QACAS card for you, which I will get right to or otherwise it will melt.  Today's challenges are: 
  1. The wonderful CAS-ual Fridays Challenge is "Let it Snow!"
  2. Craftyhands Challenge Blog
    A challenge called Crafty Hands Challenge Blog, which is new to me!  The theme of the current month-long challenge is "Season's Greetings or Winter."

  3. The always generous Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge where the theme is "Let It Snow."
Simon Wednesday Challenge Blog
Join in the fun with the challenges, why don't you?  You can click on any of the links for the rules and for sponsor and prize details.

~~~
 
As I introspected with the hamster regarding these challenges, we came up with a moonlit nighttime frigid snowy wonderland where giant silvery icicles form and gentle snow falls:
I'm pretty sure moonlit and nighttime are needlessly repetitive, even if you do occasionally see the moon lit in a daytime sky.

The snowy mountains are just part of the pattern of a handmade paper that I have among my mountain of very old schtuff (VOS), including mulberry and handmade papers. 
I was really into all these kinds of beautiful papers a decade ago, and I'm hoping to bring them out to play more often next year.  [Trend alert.] 
 
So my quick and clean and simple card was made by adhering a portion of that paper (cut "just so" to make it look like snowy mountains) to a card base.  I over-stamped the sediment in silver ink and to finish it off, I added a topper of frozen icicles cut from shiny silver paper using a grass die.  I'm pretty sure I saw the grass die used for icicles somewhere before in the Land of Blog, but I'm sorry, I've forgotten where, so I can't give proper credit.  Thank you, whoever you are; I think it is a terrific idea!

~~~

In our New Friends Corner today, I would love to introduce you to:

Wendy of Wee Bee Stampin' 4 Fun.  Wendy has been blogging since 2010, which means there is lots of fun ~ and I do mean fun ~ card art on her site.  She also does lots of other terrific projects for gifts.
 
My Photo
Sylvia of Little Treasures by Sylvia.  Sylvia has been blogging since the end of 2010 and she is a friend I often see on our favorite Wednesday challenge:  WOYWW.
 
My PhotoNext we have Vicki of Cards By Vicki.  Vicki has been blogging since 2012 and also makes the most adorable cards!  I have had the pleasure of meeting Vic on the Playground over at Pixie's.

Welcome, ladies, and thank you so much for joining the party!!

~~~

Our annual photo card Christmas card just came in so I thought I would share it with 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 leave a comment and/or join as a follower!  Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor! 
  
Displaying Darnell Signature.png 
*Life Is Too Short!

Project Details
Paper  PTI white; unknown handmade silver/black
Stamps     SU! unknown set
 Ink Color Box silver
AccessoriesDie:  Poppy Stamps, "Grassland Border"