I Can't See The Forest For the Trees!

Welcome!

And thank you for whooshing around to another Friday!

I am dashing in quick to try and link up with this week's Less Is More (LIM) challenge of "More Than One Tree." 

If you are a long-time friend of this blog, you know how much I love entering the LIM challenges. So it's been a busy week, what with one thing and another, but never far from my thoughts this refrain kept repeating over and over: morethanonetree, morethanonetree, morethanonetree.

Well, about ten minutes ago Hammy must have tuned into what I was thinking. (We're like an old married couple, you know, and we're often "spousal-deaf" and "can't hear" what the other one is saying!) 

"HELLO!" he bellowed. "Did you or did you not make a morethanonetree card when you were in Minnesota with the BABES? Has it or has it not been sitting right there on your desk waiting to be blogged? If it had teeth, would it or would it not have bitten you on the nose?!"

Don't ever get old.

Thanking the hamster, I present my morethanonetree card:

 

Two is more than one. I didn't want to get too carried away. The SU tree was doubly colored with markers and spritzed with water and stamped onto watercolor paper. The NBUS sediment is unknown since I borrowed it from one of the BABES at the Lake House. BABES?

Here is a close-up to show the sparkly snow that I applied to my trees:

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Since I used markers, I am also linking up with the current "Make Your Mark" challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More.

And Festive Friday has just posted their new photo inspiration challenge which  features a beautiful evergreen tree (mirrored in the mirror) with lots of colors~lots of rosy pinks!

The links to the challenges will provide you with information on rules, sponsors, and prizes.

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My card is actually another DJKASE. My inspiration for this card came from this absolutely stunning card made by Maarit of Violet's Corner:

I was not even close to achieving the watercolor effect that Maarit so brilliantly managed above, but she was the inspiration for my card. Thank you, Maarit!!

~~~

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!

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Feathers and Bows!

Good Morterning!

You're not going to believe it, but I finally used a feather stamp on a card!! Let's hear a giant NBUS yippie for me!!

I have to tell you, I didn't think I was ever going to catch up with the feather band wagon before it disappeared completely, but, phew, I made it! It's not like I didn't buy feather stamps and dies when everyone else did, it's just that other things kept pushing to the front of the line. Finally, Hammy had had it and here you go:

Both the ribbon with bow and the feather are from Papertrey Ink. I have the die, too, but that feather is just gorgeous stamped and heat-embossed directly onto the card base and I love a one-layer card for mailing. The designers at PTI knew what they were doing with these stamps. They look so beautiful stamped together and I'm sure many of you have already done just that! The sediment is by Stampabilities.

I used gold embossing powder by Personal Stamp Exchange. I've had the bottle for over ten years and it still embosses like buttah. The ribbon ink is Ultramarine by StazOn.

All of these items are NBUS today! I stopped numbering my use of NBUS in my blog post titles to avoid any confusion with the NBUS Challenges. I didn't want people thinking we were on NBUS Challenge #158, but I'm still on my campaign to keep on using that never-before-used-schtuff!

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Challenges

• Less is More, where the theme is nontradional Christmas (no red or green).
• Festive Friday, where the theme is presents wrapped in bows.
• Christmas Card Challenges, where the theme is Christmas cards (option of "no embellishments).
• CAS On Sunday, where the theme is "One-Layer Wonder."

Please click on the links for details on rules, sponsors, and prizes.

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New Friends Corner

I have six more new friends who would love to meet you! Please help me welcome:

Angela Hartley, on the left and Susan, on the right. Ladies, thank you for following. I'm unable to locate your blogs. If you have one, please email me to let me know, so I can pass it on!

Desire Fourie of Doing Life. Desire has been blogging since 2007 and she has over a thousand followers! She is well-published and has won many awards for her creations. It will take awhile for you to get to know Desire and her cards, scrapbooks, projects, and tutorials!

Jenny of Pushing the Right Buttons. Jenny has been blogging since 2012. She is another well-published and award-winning designer whose works of art have got to be seen to be believed! I'm not kidding, folks. The creations that come to life under Jenny's talented hands are extraordinary!

Nicola of Sunshine Girl. Nicola has been blogging since 2006! She didn't really take off until 2010, but take off she did! In addition to fabulous cards, you will find stitching projects, organizational tips, and workshop information. There's a wealth of inspiration waiting for you!

Melissa Davies of rubberFUNatics. Melissa has also been blogging since 2006! She has been a Stampin' Up! demonstrator since 1998! I think you will find her cards and projects to be amazing and you'll find inspiration and advice on any kind of technique you can imagine!

What a joy to have these accomplished and talented ladies as new friends! Thank you so much for joining and welcome to the Playhouse!

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I'd also like to thank all of you for your good wishes on my eyelid reduction on Monday. (I wrote the above post a few days ago.) I'm happy to report that the procedure went well and I'm just the cutest human raccoon you ever did see! I think. I'm avoiding mirrors, but that's what the Mister tells me! I appreciate all your prayers and positive thoughts!!

~~~

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!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:

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Mwah!

Stacked Holiday

[If you're looking for my NBUS Challenge, click here.]

Happy Funday!

I hope you are having a lovely weekend wherever you are on this rotating star called Earth!

Can I just say that I love seeing Christmas cards again this year that are not in the traditional colors. Don't get me wrong, I do still love a traditional and classic CC in red, green, white, silver, and gold, but I also swoon my cocoon over the other colors that are being sued. Okay, well, that's a little harsh. I don't think anybody needs to go hiring an attorney over it. Why don't we just say "used," instead of "sued." Thank you. That's better.

Today my ever-changing favorite CC colors happen to be pink and white and gold. I'm honestly not that into pinks as a go-to color for my cards, but I think that is going to change as a theme for Christmas this year at the Knauss Hauss.

Here is my card:

Then I thought maybe a few sequints might be in order so here is the edit.

I used a PTI die ("Wonderful Words Christmas") and cut the holiday out of a piece of gold foil striped vellum paper. The paper came from a pad of DCWV foiled vellum that I received as a gift from my friend Greta. I call her Great because every time I go to type her name, my ginfers type the word Great instead. She has kindly saved me lots of backing up and retyping by letting me change her name. I mean, who does that? A good friend.

Here is a close-up.

I think everything is pretty self-exploratory. The pretty ribbon is just Offray from the 2for$1 bin. 

Challenges

• Merry Monday Christmas Challenge, where the very talented Karren wants us to make the sediment the star of the card.
• Festive Friday challenge, with a pretty pretty photo inspiration.
• Keep It Simple, which is asking for projects with "No Stamps."
• CAS on Sunday, where the theme is "Sequins Celebration."
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, where the theme is "Tag It."

Please click on the challenge links for all the details on rules, sponsors, and prizes!

Stamplorations

Also, I'd like to remind you that I am guest designing the sketch challenge over at Stamplorations and I'd love very much to see you join in! There are SO many ways you can interpricate this marvelous sketch!! Go for it!!

New Friends Corner

The party welcoming new friends is still in full force in the Playhouse! Here are five more talented ladies you will want to get to know!

Jacki Daniels of Crafting in My Kitchen. Jacki has only been blogging since June, so please make a special effort to go welcome Jacki to Blogland! We all remember what it was like when we started our blogs and began to share our cards. You will be delighted and inspired by Jacki's cards which are full of life and exquisite details!

Sonja of Old Girl. Sonja is a very talented card artist who started blogging in October 2011. Her blog is enthusiastic and filled with photos as well as her cards. And her cards, oh, my goodness, Sonja does some amazing things with her cards in terms of design and embellishments!

Julie of Julie's Journal. Julie has also been blogging since 2011. She is a scrapbooker and a card artist. Her cards are CAS and so impeccably made. I love seeing them in the galleries of some of the challenges I visit. And Julie is a thorough card artist who always beautifully decorates the envelopes and the insides of her cards!

Susie Stacey of My Little Sanctuary. Susie has been blogging since 2010. She is on design teams and loves playing in challenges where she has won many awards. Her cards are always darling and completed with care and attention to detail. Susie makes the kinds of cards that I always feel are gifts in and of themselves!

Lee Ann Barrett of Greyt Paper Crafts. (Greyt name!) Lee Ann has been blogging since 2011. She, too, serves on many design teams and has received much recognition for her card art. Many of you are already familiar with Lee Ann, but if you haven't had the pleasure, I know you will enjoy visiting her and becoming a follower!

Thank you for joining, ladies, and welcome to the Playhouse!

~~~

I highly recommend the movie I saw Friday called "This is Where I Leave You." I sniggered so hard into my sweater sleeve at times that I missed the next bit, so I'll have to see it again! In short, the family in this movie successfully put the fun back in dysfunctional!!

~~~

The NBUS Challenge ends on September 25th, which is only four more days! 

A big thank you to all who have entered!! Good luck!

~~~

Phew! 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!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:

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Mwah!

Really Quick Christmas Dooet

Happy Fresh-Faced Monday! Take a deep breath of that sucker and let's get this week started!

Before I forget, I want to let you know that we were not impacted by the earthquake that struck in Napa, about an hour north of us. In fact, we all slept right through it, although it was definitely felt in this region. My thoughts and prayers are with all the families that have been devastated by the quake damage. Once again, life changing in the blink of an eye. Thank you to all of you who emailed with concern.

We had the twins this weekend while their mom and dad went off to a wedding in Chicago. I didn't have a whole lot of crafting time, but I did whip up a couple of QACAS Christmas cards, working a little each night after the boys went to bed. First up is this card:

This card started with a PTI white card base onto which I laid strips of black glittery Washi tape from American Crafts. The tree is a die from PTI which I cut from kraft card and then inlaid back into the opening and outlined with a dark brown SU marker. The sediment is also from PTI. 

Here's a close-up of the thick and glossy "icing."

I doodled it on freehand straight from a small bottle of Inkssentials white enamel accents. Then, once the enamel accents was dry, I went to town with the enamel dots for ormanents. Other than waiting for the enamel to dry, this was a really quick card.

The color scheme is not one I would have thought up on my own and, no, even Hammy is not that inovating. The black and white stripes and the tree icing and the colors of kraft, black, and white were inspired from this fun Festive Friday photo:

The current challenge at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is "K is for Kraft" so I'm also linking there.

And, I wanted to enter the August Rudolph Day challenge. The Rudolph Day challenge takes place from the 25th day of each month to the last day of each month and only Christmas cards can be entered. This year our delightful hosteeto, Sarn, has asked that we enter TWO cards each month at the same time.

That meant I needed to make another Christmas card this weekend. To inspire me, I used the current sketch from the fabulishious Less Is More challenge.

I turned to my dwindling stash o' stickers for this quick Christmas card and found two that would work. I'm really silly happy at how striking this looks.

You can't beat the beautiful Penny Black Stickeroos for their pure art, nor can you beat how quickly you can make an elegant card with them. (And Penny isn't even paying me to say that.) In addition to this card being my second card for the Rudolph challenge, I am also entering it in the Penny Black and More August challenge of "Anything Goes."

Here are my two cards together. Sorry about the lighting ~ I forgot about that requirement for Rudolph until the sun was low and setting.

I hope to see you in the galleries! For details regarding rules, sponsors, and prizes, please click on any of the challenge links.

~~~

I will leave you with a photo collage of the weekend. We had a grand time, from a peaceful tour of a California Mission to demolishing Bama and Papa's backyard for bases from which to play War! They tried on several pots to wear as helmets, but once they determined that being able to see was a criteria, they decided on wire planter helmets held on with some of Bama's ribbons. It's such a joy to just sit back and observe imagination in its purest form. And the simple pleasure of a fudgesicle ceasefire.

~~~

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!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:

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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!