Seasonal III

Hello Stamplings!

How the heck are you doing? I hope all is well in your little corner of the world! 

Please be careful as you join me in getting down on your knees or up on a chair to bring your holiday dishes out from their 11-month hidey-hole hibernation. Actually, I don't have holiday dishes, but I do have my big roaster back up in there where the the light doesn't shine. I suspect it's where the dust bunnies meet for Friday night tipples.

Wish I had a pool boy for times like this. Then again, that might be odd since I don't have a pool. But I do have a Twofer of "Anything Goes" seasonal cards for the last-week-of-November I.D.E.A.S. schedule.

Onefer

The leafy background is a NBUS stamp and die from Altenew called, "Climbing Leaves." I stamped and white heat-embossed the leaves and then I painted them using my old beloved Ziggies. Once dry, the lads put on their daubers and blended over the whole thing with DI Antique Linen to bring out the autumnness and polish the white lines of the embossing. I attached the panel to a black background panel. The sediment is from Altenew's "Autumn Bounty" set.

Twofer

This QACAS and NBUS design stands alone and I couldn't think of a way to add a sediment without marring the pure delight of the ornaments and snowfall of this 3D e/f from SSS called, "Verdant Ornaments." I thought the gold foil background gave it a nice frame to focus the eyeballs on the gorgeous details.

~~~

Where's Stanley?

I will be taking a break to finish Christmas cards and we will doing some traveling over the holidays, so I wish you well until mid-January. Please enjoy yourself as you celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, or whatever brings you joy! 

No, seriously, enjoy! Life is too short! And special hugs to all of you who are not well or who sadly know firsthand how hard the holidays can be.🫂

As we wrap up our 13th year, Hammy, Stanley, and I thank you for another year of great fun, friendship, and creative inspiration! Thank you for your visits, comments, and your participation in I.D.E.A.S. and NBUS this year! Mwah!

Happy New Year!!

Challenges:

Addicted to CAS: Ornaments. (2)

Alphabet Challenge: Q is for quick and easy. (2)

Addicted to Stamps and More: Make your mark. (1)

Four Seasons: Fall (1)

NBUS: Never-Before-Used-Schtuff (1)

Rudolph Days: A/G Christmas.

Simply Clean and Simple: Christmas is coming. (2)

Getting All Seasonal I

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are doing well and enjoying your crafty self! 

We are entering the Frenzy Zone of card-making, especially in the u. s. of a. where we celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas in a matter of days. And Thanksgiving is late this year, arriving on November 28. But we get 'er done every year.👻🦃🎄

This week my I.D.E.A.S. schedule features Ink/Color Mediums:

Onefer

First up is a fall sunflower birthday card I made for a very special friend. My little helpers winked the entire flower and leaves, but this time they let me add the schplatters in dark brown to match the sediment from GKW. The sunflower is from Technique Tuesday.

Twofer

Next, we switched over to Halloween. The creepy spider die is from Memory Box. The leaf wreath is a NBUS stencil from Altenew which I thought would be fun colored in Halloween colors. I think the sediment is from SU.

I used my watercolor pencils to color through the stencil and then, after removing the stencil, I lightly brushed the leaves with my water brush and added the veins with a micro black pen. I used my gray Ziggie to add outline dementia. The card was embossed with the Subtle e/f from SU and lightly sprinkled with some diluted black gouache.

Threefer

To finish the seasons, and because it's addicting, I made another wreath with the Altenew stencils, this time for Christmas. I blended with my Catherine Pooler inks in one of my favorite color combos. The leaf veins were added with a stamp from the companion stamp set. After coloring, I again used the Subtle e/f. The layered Joy sediment is from Memory Box.

Cheeky Humor

A couple goes to an art gallery and come upon a painting of a nearly nude woman with her private bits covered with leaves.

The wife doesn't like it and moves on, but the husband keeps looking.

"What are you waiting for?" the wife asks.

The husband replies, "Autumn."

~~~

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 join as a follower! 

*Life is too short!

Challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More: Birthday. (sunflower)

Color Hues: Purple and orange. (spider)

Four Seasons: A/G Fall. (sunflower)

Memory Box: Happy Haunting. (spider)

NBUS: Wreath stencil.

Stencil Fun: Anything Halloween. (spider)

Fall Into Winter

Hello Stamplings!

I'm looking through welcome raindrops and hoping you are doing well. These raindrops would not be happy drops for those of you in the UK, Italy, and France where everyone is sick of the incessant rain and wind. My sympathy to all those who have experienced flooding and damage.❤

I'm straddling the holiday tables in the Playhouse these days. Usually I like to finish one holiday before I start another and if I'm honest, I think I need to go back to that way of designing. Or maybe I'll start a trend and next year everyone will be putting fall leaves on their Christmas trees! 

Fall

1. This photo should be in the dictionary under QACAS (quick and clean and simple). I used some beautiful rub-on leaves from Taperlogy and a sediment from PTI stamped in copper ink onto hammered card. This is my first time using these rub-ons and the color and detail of their images is amazing.

2. For this card, I used a fall leaf e/f and Hammy picked out a piece of schplattered pp for the background. The autumn sediment is from Technique Tuesday stamped with fall-colored inks. The leaves were cut from pp or from snippets from old smooching or alcohol inking in my stash. You know how alcohol always leads to smooching ... that's all I gonna say about that because you know what I mean.

3. This card is also uber QACAS, using the same pp and a found sediment strip from my stash. The leaves were die-cut using a friend's dies and pp from her stash!

Challenges

• Cardz 4 Galz: #3 Thank you, Thankful, or Thanksgiving.
  
• Four Seasons: #1 Fall.
  
• Paper Funday: #2 A/G optional: Grateful, Thankful, Thank you. 

   

Christmas

Another simple design, except for the hours it took for the layers of Glossy Accents to dry on the sediment! I think the snowflake circle die is from Hero Arts, but I can't find it at the mo. The joy die is definitely from Hero Arts and it's definitely cut from the same dark purple paper as the card base, even though the photo makes it look black. 

Challenges

• Color Hues: Light blue and purple.
  
• HLS Christmas: A/G with option of bah humbug.
  
• Peace on Earth: A/G Christmas with option of mood board.

~~~

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 join as a follower! 

*Life is too short!

You Are Loved!

Hello Stamplings!

How's October treating you? I love this time of year with the crisp evenings and cool mornings. I've been enjoying the company of a dear friend for the last week and the weather has been delightful! 

As we enjoyed lots of crafty time in the Playhouse, I noticed a challenge milestone happening in Blogland, so I made this card:

The toadstools are NBUS from The Greetery called, "BotaniCuts Toadstool Garden" stamp and die set. When I first saw this set, I had to have them and I spent many happy hours die-cutting and coloring dozens of the toadstools. And then, as one does, I hit a wall and, in spite of all the wonderful designs to be found online, I could not come up with a design that spoke to me. That changed last month when my talented friend Vicky Hayes made a fantastic card using the toadstools which inspired my design today! Thank you, Vicky!

The milestone challenge I'm talking about is happening at Just Us Girls (JUGS), where they are celebrating their 700th challenge! Congratulations JUGS! Challenges that have lasted that long amaze me! I appreciate the hard work and dedication of all the Design Team members over the years! Their 700th challenge falls during Color Week:

Other Challenges

• Alphabet Challenge: N is for Nature.
  
• Day of the Month Card Club: National Mushroom Day.
  
• Four Seasons: Anything Goes.

Twofer

This Christmas card was a collaboration with my visiting friend, which made it especially fun! We used the NBUS die called "Poinsettia Edger" from Creative Expressions. Some of you are familiar with my friend ... none other than the marvelous Anita in France! She has been taking a sabbatical from her blog, My Papercraft World and it's been such a delight having her come for a visit!

Anita says, "Bonjour" to everybody!

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 join as a follower! It may be a while before I'm here again because more company is arriving for several days. Fall weather is really the best time to travel. Well, I should say, "can be," with fingers crossed!

*Life is too short!

Mum's the Word!

Hello Stamplings!

Good grief and garbonzos. I had these cards done a week ago, edited the photos, started my draft post, and then totally forgot about it and moved on! I wonder, is there an age limit on this blogging gig? 👵

Oh, well, no matter. Here they are!

I often put an item on my wish list after seeing one of your beautiful cards. Sometimes I follow through and make a purchase, sometimes I don't. Mostly I don't these days, simply because of all the excavation I still need to do on Mt. NBUS.🚧 However, recently my friend Bonnie made a drop-dead gorgeous card using The Ton's Jumbo Spider Mum and I went straight to their website and ordered it immediately. 

I don't know where I was when it was first released, but it was new to me and it wasn't NBUS for long. It's splendid fun to watercolor with Ziggies! I used fall colors for this first outing, but I'm hoping to paint more using all my flowery Ziggie colors. Of course, Hammy loves this set, too, because of all the space that needs winking! This might show the schparkle better if you click to enlarge:

Challenges

• The Flower Challenge: Use a die.
  
• Four Seasons: Fall.
  
• NBUS: Never-before-used schtuff.
  
• Triple B: Fall.
  

Twofer

I'm not sure how this will look on your monitor. Blah or Mwah? As I was looking at my finished fall card, I wondered, "Could a white mum be used on a Christmas card?" Hammy nodded yes. Then I remembered that I have quite a few sheets of ancient ivory cardstock that I've been hoarding. For what? The pearlescent shimmer is beautiful. It's the sort of shine that makes you go "oooh" when it catches the light. 

For this card, I embossed the flower with silver e/p. I found a Christmas sediment that fit in the corner, so I stamped and silver-embossed it on the card panel. This is an uber QACAS design which is a bonus for Christmas makes. I'm sure I'm not alone in having dozens of jars of e/p, most of which I rarely, if ever use, so it will be fun to emboss this mum in all the colors!

You can see the shine better in this closeup:

For some reason this makes me think of a Christmas sugar cookie! 

Challenges

• Christmas Craft Creations: Clean and simple (CAS).
  
• Simply Clean & Simple: CAS ~ optional: stencil.
  
• The Holly and Ivy Christmas: A/G.

Bloglovin'?

Real quick, just curious, can anyone shed light on why Bloglovin' has suddenly reappeared in my inbox? It just disappeared from the interspaces a year ago with no explanation and now it's back. Voododoodo-voododoodo . . .  👻

~~~

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 join as a follower! 

*Life is too short!