Leaf It to Me

Hello Stamplings!

Happy October! Wait. What? It's not the 1st? Whoosh Whoosh . . .. 

We are enjoying cooler days, sprinkled with occasional hot flashes, but, hey, that's Mother Nature in the fall! And speaking of fall, I beleaf I have a few cards to show you, so off we go!

Onefer

This card looks delish, doesn't it? Like the leaves are made from flavors of gelato! It was sure fun to put together. It started with Hammy and I tossing around innovative ideas for putting leaves on cards. He was the first to remember I recently purchased the NBUS Pretty Pot Die from The Greetery, so I used that, die-cutting it from a snippet of glossy packaging I had saved. 

Then, before I got out various items of crafty Prairie Fanalia to make some leaves, I took a look at BOB ~ my ooofanism for Box of Bits. I found a few glossy paper ink-blended backgrounds I'd made long ago which I thought would make fun leaves.

The leaves are from Impression Obsession. The sediment is unmarked, but looks like it might be from MFT. The pointed border from poppystamps was cut from pp which looked like a piece of rusted corrugated metal. Hammy was exuberant with his schplatters!

Challenges

• Four Seasons: Anything Goes Fall.
  
• Fusion: Color Palette: Autumn Leaves. Sketch and colors.
  
• The Paper Players: A Theme Challenge From Joann: Autumn.

Twofer +

So what happened was, I saw the Leaf Fragments die from Tim Holtz and Sizzix on my friend Brenda's blog and then on my friend Jules's blog and I had to get it. I don't know what rock I was under when it came out two years ago, but somehow I missed it or I've forgotten that I've seen it before.😏 

As you can see from the picture below, I became addicted to die-cutting leaves from various snippets of pp as fast as Hammy could fling papers from the pp drawers!

Above the above photo are three of the cards I made and below are the rest of them ~ 29 in all. For the card bases, I took the occasion to use many sheets of wonderful textured paper I've had since the last century.

I'm not showing you all of them individually because a) you'd be over-stimulated and you know how you get when you get over-stimulated, or b), conversely, you'd fall asleep in your chair. (Not to mention ~ you might be getting one of them in the mail!)

Challenges

• Addicted to CAS: Autumn.
  
• Just Us Girls: Scraps.
  
• Snippets Playground: Loads of patterned paper (pp) snippets used for leaves.

Shrinkflation ~ Attention Grandmothers

Finally I leaf you with this latest outrageous case of shrinkflation:

I don't know about you, but as a grandmother, I'm never without Werther's for myself my grandtwins. And now this happened. Four ounces fewer caramelly, buttery, creamy candies for the exact same price. (But watch, next week the price will go up.) Grrrrr! It's truly devious.

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In spite of that, do enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse, being a follower, and leafing me some love!

*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!)

Gold ... More Gold

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you well! I am so enjoying the Olympics, especially the ice-skating events. The Mister tried to teach me how to ice skate one time, but it was a short lesson. He was very patient, but I was hopeless. I think that might be why the skaters impress me so much and it breaks my heart when they fall. They train so hard and wait so long for these events.👏

Onefer

This card was schparked primarily by Susan's faux cloisonné challenge prompt at CAS Mix Up. For me, trying to create something for the challenge gave new meaning to the word "challenge!" I didn't have any suitable glossy magazine photos, so I used a glittery glossy piece of pp. I'm not sure if that's okay, but I like the way it ended up looking like an expensive brooch. (You know I want to go off on a tangent about the spelling of that word vis-a-vis the pronunciation, but I will absolve.)

The flower is from the Beautiful Blooms II set by Uniko, which I believe is one of Bev's early sets. I wanted to make something to commemorate her ten years in business. Congratulations, Bev, and cheers to many more!🍾

The leaves are from Gina K's "Stitched Leaves" set. From this angle, they look tres cloisonné. The NBUS sediment is from an unmarked feather set. Everything was heat-embossed in princess gold, including Hammy's toes. Honestly, you can find anything online these days, including teeny-tiny low voltage heat guns. You know, thanks to you, he thinks he's a star!🐹✴I'm going to have to get an assistant for my assistant!

Thank you, Susan, for the fun I had trying something new! 

Challenges

• Cardz 4 Galz: Make it sparkle!
  
• CAS Mix Up: Faux cloisonné.
• Just Us Girls: Word week: Friends.
• Snippets Playground: PP used for flower and leaves.
  
• The Flower Challenge: Occasions.
  
• Uniko: 10th birthday celebration! Congratulations, Bev!
  

Twofer

This QACAS card was also inspired by Susan's prompt because when I was looking through my pp drawers, I found this awesome piece of ancient turquoise handmade paper, shot through with black and gold. The photo doesn't do it justice.

The design was also inspired by Bonnie's stunning card here. For my card, I used a heart die from M&C Boutique, cut in shiny gold which appears holographic in the sunshine. I used a pink card base to make the heart pop and added a simple old sediment, which I think is from SSS.

Challenges

• Addicted to CAS: Hearts.
  
• Fusion: Valentine cupcake sketch and photo. My card fuses both.
• Use Your Stuff: Hearts/Love.
• The Paper Players: Laurie's theme: love and friendship.

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy and keep safe! LITS!* If I'm not back before Valentine's Day, I wish you a lovely romantic time with your sweetie.💏 If it's a blue day for you, I send you hugs and wish you a happy celebration-of-you day!

Mwah!

*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!)

Autumn Leaves

Hello Stamplings!

How are you? I mean, besides being on the edge of your seat? I put myself in a media blackout bubble on election day and made a coupla cards to ease the torture. It's more than 24 hours later and it's getting hard to breath up inside this bubble, but I gotta stay in here or lose my mind. 

Given that we have whooshed into November and mails are taking longer because of the damnepic, I have to get going full speed with Christmas cards. Still, I feel a bit sorry for autumn. It always gets the bum's rush squished in between Halloween and Christmas in this country. And with Thanksgiving cancelled for many of us, I wanted to make a coupla more cards honoring the wonderful colored leaves Mother Nature bestows on us each year.

Onefer

I'm so pickled tink to have used this NBUS stencil before it got tossed on NBUS Mountain. It's called Four Layer Leaves Stencil by Spellbinders. I blended the leaves using Tim's inks, added the leafy panel to a glittery gold panel, and then added all that to a glittery plum panel. The scalloped stitched oval is from Cottage Cutz and the blessings sediment is from Hero Arts. For a bit of bling-a-ding-ding, Hammy opted for a triplet of ancient flat breads from SU. I mean brads. Flat brads.

Challenges

• Fusion: See inspiration photo and sketch. Playing in sketch portion.
  
• Just Us Girls: Wild card: word die-cuts.
  
• NBUS Challenge #20: Never-before-used-schtuff.
  
• Sunday Stamps: Fall leaves.

Twofer

My twofer today is truly an off-shoot of my onefer. After I blended the maple leaves, I spritzed the stencil and laid a piece of white card over the inked stencil. The aperture background above is the result. I think you can just make out the imprint of the leaves. Cool, huh? I always forget to do that because I always forget to even use my stencils. So much schtuff, so little brain cells left!

The inverted stitched scallop frame is from Pink & Main, the watercolored leafy stem is from Memory Box, and the sediment is from SU. This time the little furball chose plain gold sequints from the antique drawer for the bling. 

Challenges

• CAS Mix Up: November watercolor theme: Off the edge. I've stamped, die-cut, watercolored, monoprinted, and stenciled on my card.
  
• Little Red Wagon: Colour me happy. (Use coloring on your card.)
  
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: A/G using your snippets. The background, leafy stem, and scallop frame are all snippets.

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, stay safe and 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! Please forgive me for not commenting as much as I once did. I have had a lot of anxiety for a while and these last few months of chaotic politics, coupled with Covid, have been very trying. Hopefully the political part will end soon. Thank you for understanding and remaining friends with me. I so appreciate your visits and comments. Mwah!

*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 Harvest Basket and a Party of Ghosts

Hello Stamplings!

And another week has whooshed bye-bye while you were petting the dog/cat!

This has been a bit of a downer week for me because if it weren't for Covid, I'd have been in a rental house on Lake Michigan crafting with dear friends. Four of us have gotten together every two years since 2014. I know the important thing is that we all survive this, and I do try to keep my chins up, but sometimes you just have to take a moment, pretend your pillow is Covid, and give it a good pummeling.

After wards, I relaxed and forgot my disappointment by getting all crafty with the hamster.

Onefer

Sorry about the lack of definition in my watercoloring, but honestly everything is multi-toned in real life. The apples don't really look like tahmahtoes, but in order to keep the pumpkin pp from being completely washed out by the sun, I had to over-expose my harvest. I apologize, but this is an adult blog. 

The basket is from "Autumn Falling" by ARTplorations and the sediment is from SU. As you can tell, Hammy had a whiskery great time winking and glossifying.

Challenges

• Less is More: In honor of designer Sharon's birthday, we are to CASE her card, show next to the LIM badge.
  
• Shopping Our Stash: Happy Fall Y'All.
• Watercooler Wednesday: All About Occasions.

Twofer

If you're going to party with a few ghosts, these look like absolute party animals, don't they? For this QACAS design, I blended wilted violets and applied them to the background through a NBUS Birch Tree Landscape stencil from Memory Box. Truth be told, Hammy ate most of them. Not the birch trees, the violets. Violets are quite delish and taste a bit like aqua. 

The silhouette ghost from Hero Arts likes to sneak up on old people, but he is so darn happy that you don't mind. The twin ghosts with the demented grins are from GKW and they've been lurking around the Playhouse since before there was a Playhouse.

Challenges

• Fusion: Purple Night. I'm playing with just the photo.
  
• Inspired By ...: Be My Boo! I was inspired by the photo of the ghost pillow.
  
• Simon Says Stamp Monday: Spooky.
  
• Two Old Bats Halloween: Inspiration photo (ghosts).

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Speaking of silhouettes, we are half-way into the Twofer Card Challenge which closes at the end of day on October 24.

The very talented Marcia from the Twofer Design Team has made you another set of Twofer silhouette designs to inspire you. You can see them at the Twofer Card Challenge blog, but for the wonderful details, please check out Marcia's blog: Marcia's Stampin' Pad. I'm excited to see you add your silhouettes to the gallery!

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Even in the toughest of times, we mustn't forget to laugh!

• Who’s idea was it to sing “Happy Birthday” while washing your hands? Now every time I go to the bathroom, my kids expect me to walk out with a cake.
• After years of wanting to thoroughly clean my house but lacking the time, this week I discovered that wasn’t the reason.
  
• What’s the best way to avoid touching your face? A glass of wine in each hand.
• My husband purchased a world map and then gave me a dart and said, “Throw this and wherever it land, that’s where I’m taking you when this pandemic ends.” Turns out, we’re spending two weeks behind the fridge.

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy, but be safe out there! 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! 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!)