November 25th 2015 Hop Day

Greetings, My Friends!

We've whooshed around to the 11th #25 of this year. (The NEXT one will be Christmas Day! Eek!)

And on this 25th we have the Papertrey Ink November 25 Blog Hop Challenge, which is a one-day challenge, and Rudolph Days which runs from the 25th of the month to the end of the month.

Here's the card I made:

The Christmas Cover Plate Text Block is by PTI, cut from PTI "Sea Shimmer" paper. The tiny tags were cut using the Poppystamps, "Stitched Main Street Tags." The wee Christmas tree is from PTI's stamp set, "Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers."

ETA: A few of you mentioned that you didn't know PTI made that cover plate. I hadn't marked the manufacturer and assumed it was one of my PTI ones, so I went off to find out for sure. And sure enough, you were right, it isn't PTI. It's from Lil' Inker! My apologies!

I was inspired by the beautiful colors and all that white and the little tiny spruce. I hope you feel the wonder of the holidays and join in!

Other Challenges

• Christmas Cards All Year Round: Oh, Christmas Tree.
• Crafty Hazlenuts Christmas Challenge Extra: AG.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: AG.

Today's Twofer  

It's redundant, but I forgot to include this card in my last post giving you leftover mojovation:

Cards have feelings, too, and I didn't want this schparkly beauty to feel left out.

~~~

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I want to wish my American friends a very Happy Thanksgiving! As you can see from the photo above, Hammy takes after me with the stress-eating, now that the little hamsterettes are under paw. It has befuzzled him so much that his normal dainty nibbling has turned into face-stuffing entire cranberries. (That's Henrietta next to him. She's a real daddy's girl.)

I have many blessings to count this year and I count you among them! I send you my thanks for your friendship and your consistent support and encouragement. Thank you for following me and leaving your love. And thank you to all of you faithful readers behind the scenes who don't have blogs, but who support me through comments or emails ~ or even silently! You ALL keep me going! MWAH!

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; no more car pool tunnel! Mwah!
If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave

me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!

Fullness of Joy!

Welcome! 

It's Week #6 of Year #2014! What shall be writ on our slates this week? 

I'm very happy this Monday for the desperately needed bit of rain we got yesterday in northern California. I hope that means that parts of the UK received a much-needed respite. We have had the least rain in January since record-keeping began and parts of England have had the most rain in January since record-keeping began. It would be nice if Mama Nature evened things out a bit.

I'm also happy to be a Guest Designer at the well-known merriest Christmas challenge called Merry Monday Christmas Challenge! Our photo inspiration board this week challenges us to wear stockings on our cards!

Here is my stocking'd card:

A side:  I've been asked by the Y to apologize. I was interrupted by a phone call when I was taking the photos and one call lead to another ... by the time I got back to taking pictures, the Y had gotten tired and slipped a little in the chorus line. He's got the worst job of all the letters because he has to stand on one leg with the other one kicking up while holding both arms out and yelling, "Hallelujah!" I mean, who wouldn't get tired after a while and a half?

The joyful letters die is from Stampin' Up. The snowflake ribbon is from everyone's favorite girlfriend, JoAnn. The little wooden stocking is from GKW; I've had it in my Odds & Ends for ages.

***

Since snippets of ribbon and mirror card were used for all the features of my card, I'm skipping joyfully over to the playground at Pixie's Snippets Playground. Our beautiful hostess worked very hard last week to come up with a logo button for her pixies. Way to go, Di!! We now have keys to the playground labeled "Snippet Keys" in happy rainbow colors!

***

I'm also linking my card with Crafty Hazlenut's Christmas Challenge Extra (CHNC) where the challenge every month is "Anything Goes," as long as it's Christmas. You can't beat that!

Please click on the links to join in the fun and get all the details about sponsors, prizes, and rules.

~~~

Chit Chat

I'm over my cold finally! Settle down, the bad news is I'm starting six weeks of physical therapy, twice a week, for my knee, whose pain is either reflective of an upcoming visit from Arthur I. Tis [rat fink] or somehow I have torn my mahisskiss [Latin]. I'm really intrigued at how I was able to tear anything when the extent of my daily exercise consists primarily of rolling around in my desk chair. My second hobby is being a medical mystery.

Actually, I have an amusing true story about my knees. (I want to emphasize "true" because my stories are usually lies.) When I was 12 years old, I started getting severe pain in both knees during Physical Exercise (PE) Class, especially doing an exercise that was called the Squat Thrust. Seriously. Anyone remember that exercise? You'd pay big money to a personal trainer today to learn it in order to round out your assets, so to speak. Back then it was a for-reals government-sanctioned exercise in a series of exercises we had to do. More's the pity that PE is no longer a requirement in schools.

Source

But I digest. The small town doctor diagnosed me with a form of Osteoporosis and said I had "calcium deposits" in both knees. The treatment consisted of full leg casts from the ankle to the top of the leg, on both legs, at the same time, for six months! It was quite memorable for two reasons: 

First, my school was a two-story building and you can imagine the vision I was lurching from one foot to the other up the stairs several times a day with both legs straight out in those casts. Not to mention that back in the day girls wore dresses to school so the boys mercilessly teased me while they peeked up my dress as I ascended the stairs.

Second, after six months, the casts were removed and I can still visualize myself sitting in the bathtub staring down at my little legs which had atrophied to mere skin on bones. I filled them out quickly, but it took a few days to learn how to walk again.

The doctor also told us that my condition would recur and I would very likely end up in a wheel chair by the time I was thirty. Thank goodness she was wrong about that! 

So last week when I told the orthopedic doctor my knee history, he shook his head with wonder at the things they did back then. He's never heard of calcium deposits in the knees. Wait. Whaat?! And while he was appalled that I was in casts like that for so long, he said that casts were the standard remedy used for all kinds of tendon and joint pain back then.

Just to clarify, "back then" was the year 1961, not the year 1861! How blessed we are with the advances in medicine!

~~~

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

BTW, thanks Linda!

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!

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; no more car pool tunnel!
Mwah!

O' Christmas Tree ~ CHNCE; LIM #146; MM #84; SSS Monday

Hello All!

I'm sorry I've been quiet for a few days.  I've had a bit of an under-the-weather congestion situation and a thumb injury, all quite minor, but it seems to have brought on a case of Nojo.  So I just let Nojo sulk in the Playhouse, and Mister deal with a hot water heater that went belly up, and I spent a couple of inspiring days catching up on most of your blogs, which I enjoyed immensely.

 

To be honest, I think Mr. Nojo dropped in primarily because I've worn the poor hamster out.  The poor dear has been frazzlepated by the rapid back-and-forth that I'm subjecting him to ~ one hour I need a Thanksgiving card idea and the next hour, we're onto Christmas card ideas, then back to Thanksg ... oh, and don't forget people still have birthdays or need a pick-me-up card this time of year, too!  It is a rather splitzophrenic few weeks of the year for card makers, for sure for card makers living in places where Thanksgiving is celebrated and held in high regard.

 

Today, we turned our attention to Christmas cards and these delightful challenges which caught our attention.  Great, now I'm talking like me and the hamster are two separate people.  Medic!

• Crafty Hazelnut's Challenge Extra for November, where "Anything Goes" every month;
• Less is More, where Chrissie and Jen desire that we use designer paper in a CAS (clean and simple) way; and
• Merry Monday, where Lesley wants us to put trees with bling on our Christmas cards.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "It's a Mystery."

There are so many fun Christmas (and other) challenges this time of year!  I hope to see you playing in them, too.  You can click on the links for details and prize and sponsor information.

 

Here is my card:

What's the mystery?  The mystery is how I did it.  At first glance, because of the shadow on the tree and the back of the card front, it looks as if the tree die cut was made in the face of the card and that you are looking through the aperture to the designer patterned paper on the inside.  Not. 

I die cut a very ancient piece of designer paper from GKW with my PTI Christmas tree die.  Then I ran another die cut using brown sugar paper for a shadow.  Then I glued the two pieces together, offset, so the brown paper made a shadow, and applied it to the card base.  And then I thought it need a trunk.  And words on the trunk.  And a shadow on the trunk.  And, well, perhaps the day is lengthening such that there is a tree shadow, too.  You know how one thing leads to another.

 

For bling I added a tiny half-pearl and I used my glitter pen to add drops of sparkle all along the trees inside my tree, which you'll have to for my word take. 

It's a different card, huh?  I think this is one of those cards you're either gonna like a lot or not like at all.  Some cards evoke strong reactions like that. 

 

That reminds me, did you hear that the word "huh" is the only word that is spoken the same in every single language?  So now when you ask your teenager (or your husband), "Whadda you mean, 'huh'?", you can picture other parents (or wives) all over the world asking the same question!

 

~~~

 

Next, I'm gonna need you to don a party hat from over there behind Fran, help yourself to some champagnah, and get comfy while I happily introduce you to a some amazingly talented new friends!  Wah Hoo!!  Please meet:

 

Pat of Colourful Card Creations.  Pat is brand, brand spanking new and extremely gifted.  You know how I like you to especially welcome the new crafters to the Land of Blog.  It can be an intimidating place when you're new.  You won't be sorry you stopped in to see Pat!



Barb Ghig of Barb's Studio Creations.  A lot of you might be familiar with Barb as she has been a supportive commenter on other artist's blogs for quite some time.  Barb started her blog last month to showcase her own wonderful card art and I know she, too, would love to meet you, if you haven't already had the privilege.

 

Trisha Klowak of Crafty Paws by Trisha.  Trisha has had her blog for a number of years, but has only really gotten active this year.  I'm sure you will thoroughly enjoy what you find on her blog and that she, too, would love your encouragement.  If you can tear your eyes off that smoochable pooch!

 

Patti J. of Cherish Each Precious Day.  Patti started her blog in 2008!  That's right!  If you need inspiration, tutorials, advice, or just an enjoyable time, Patti is your experienced blogger and card artist!

 

Thank you, ladies, and welcome!  I'm very appreciative of your support and encouragement of me and my Playhouse shenanigans!

 

~~~

 

Short and sweet for me.  I know you all have lots to do!  Whatever it is, 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! 

 

Paper:  PTI vintage cream; SU! brown sugar;

  and unknown designer paper

Stamps: SU!  I think.  It might be Hero Arts

Ink:  SU! brown sugar pad/marker; Marvy

  sage marker; Sakura "Clear Star" pen