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 Gerda Steiner Designs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gerda Steiner Designs. Show all posts

January 30, 2020

Gnomes in Love and a Flying Pig!

Hello Stamplings!

I'm pickled tink to have actually used some newly-acquired NBUS for my cards today. You know how sometimes oftentimes the new schtuff lingers for months and years before I use it, so sharing these cards is a proud moment!

Onefer

Now I know you saw these guys all over Blogland at Yuletide so they aren't new to you, but I didn't get mine (from Simon) until after the holidays so I have used them to make an anniversary card.
What you might not know is that both the men and women gnomes of Sazinwagnsh wear beards. I know, odd, right?! (I hate to be stereotypical, but you can usually tell the females from the males by how soft and shiny their beards are.) So in the photo above, Mrs. Enivl Ganome is in the watercolored purple and Mr. Schlmre Ganome is in the blue. They are holding the heart between them. The blue heart pp is as old as the hills; it is matted with shiny gold. The sentiment from GKW is heat-embossed in gold.

Challenges
Help yourself to our buddy button

Twofer
And this little piggie is fresh out of the paddock at Gerda Steiner Designs! I had to have him as soon as I saw Gerda's pre-release artwork. I made him an interesting color on accident. I smooched my w/c paper by scribbling my blue Ziggies on my glass mat, spritzing the ink, and schmearing the paper around in it like a pig would. Then I stamped and clear-embossed the pig and balloon from the "You Lift Me Up" set and Ziggied them both. 

I thought I could paint over the blue background and the green worked just fine over the balloon, but the pink I used on the pig did not cover all the background blue. I didn't even notice it until I uploaded my photo. But, hey, it's art which means a blue and pink and brown flying piglet is just fine! To add even more pizzazzaz, Hammy winked the balloon and the pig and glossified his sunglasses!

Challenges
GRAB OUR BADGE! 
Share your Design Challenge - January 2020
~~~

The Mister

Long-time friends of my blog know that The Mister (Kevin) has struggled with back issues for decades. It was manageable over time because the episodes when the nerves would pinch were at first years apart, and then maybe once a year. But last year all that changed when he suffered from four excruciating episodes in one year, so he set things in motion to have surgery to bring him relief.

That surgery happened yesterday. It went well and the surgeon was very pleased. I'm so happy for him that he will no longer have to keep himself tightened up all the time to avoid an episode. All those years of doing so, however, have given him a steel core which will now aid in his months-long recovery.

I'm not sure how much nursing he will need that will keep me away from the computer, but I do have a scheduled post coming up on Saturday for the annual Turner Syndrome Awareness Hop. I hope you'll stop back then. 😍 MWAH!

~~~

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! 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 scrollingClick 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!)

August 17, 2019

As Deep as the Ocean

Hello Stamplings,

I've got the vapors here. Our temps have been 105F, 106F, 103F, but we are getting a break today down to 100F! When I feel very whiny about it, I think of the generations of females who lived in the time before air conditioning with layers upon layers upon layers of clothing. And it wasn't ladylike to sweat! And ice cubes hadn't been invented so they couldn't even tuck a coupla cubes in their bahzooms! Now those ladies had the vapors!

To help, my cards today are cool and refreshing:
Showing twofers together signifies these are reminders of our current Twofer Card Challenge where the code word is 🌊NAUTICAL🌊. The swordfish is the stamp my cards have in common this time. It's from Gerda Steiner's Catch a Wave set.
Onefer
A very QACAS card for my first design. I had Hammy stand on the snout of my swordfish to bend it a little bit so he could look right into the periscope. The swordfish, not Hammy. I didn't color my images because I didn't want to detract from that gorgeous fishy pp on the bottom panel under the perfect match of SU ribbon I found to separate the panels per the sketch. Uff. I think there should've been a comma somewhere in that last sentence. 

Challenges
Copy and paste our badge for your blog!Join us this month for a new Challenge
Twofer
More pp for the background of my second design. I believe the paper is from Our Daily Bread which is now called Divinity Designs. All the ocean critters and sediment are from the same Gerda Steiner set. 

I drew the fishing line. A simple line which makes a few scattered pieces come together to tell a story of friendship. And it's a true representation, at least in my experience. Every time I get together with four girlfriends in a restaurant, there's always that one that's looking out the window, listening to a different drummer up in her head. 

I heard that. So what if it is me?

Challenges
Grab Our Badge!
~~~

Sea how easy it is to make two different designs just by using the same fish? I hope you can join us ~ and thank you if you already have ~ for this wonderful beach-y summertime 🌊NAUTICAL🌊 challenge

Pull out that fish, anchor, boat, sea gull, palm tree, wave, pier, whale, jelly fish, mermaid, pirate, submarine, octopus, flip flops, sunset-over-the-water, etc. non-digi stamps, dies, or stencils and join in the fun over at the Twofer Card Challenge! There is still a full week left to join us and we'd love to see your Twofer designs!
~~~

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! 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 scrollingClick 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!)

August 10, 2019

Surf's Up, Little Duck Dude!

Hello Stamplings!

Oh, my, what a busy summer this is turning out to be! We have the unexpected pleasure of spending the weekend with the grandtwins again so we're all smiles! We'll be staying close to home this time so they can see a lot of their friends before school starts again on Monday. That summer holiday sure whooshed by! Seems like only a coupla weeks ago we attended their 8th-grade graduation.

It's the 10th of the month, so that means a new Twofer Card Challenge is starting up and I'd like to share my Twofers with you to get you all becited to play along! 

The prompt for August is 🌊NAUTICAL🌊.
The stamp my Twofers have in common is the NBUS surfing duck from Gerda Steiner Designs set called "Catch a Wave." I saw the duck on Trina's blog and had to get myself one asap!

Onefer
Here I gave the surfer rose-colored shades, which Hammy glossified, along with his surfboard. Little Duck Dude is walking on the sandy portion of a rainbow-colored pp panel. It's unclear if he'll have a siesta under that amazing paper-pieced Purple Onion palm tree or simply head for those blue ocean waves. 

The sediment is from the same set. This birthday card is intended for a male friend who has an August birthday in a place where August is hot, hot, hot. Here is the inside with a cute swordfish that is also part of the same set:
Challenges:
CURRENT CHALLENGE "3-2-1 RECIPE" - Closes Sun AUG 18thJoin us this month for a new Challenge
Twofer
For my second design, I made a square card with rounded upper corners. I cut the aperture using my NBUS Rolling Wave Collage die from Memory Box and then I placed a piece of stylized ombre colored ocean pp behind the opening. 

I stamped and die-cut Little Duck Dude and then Hammy and I donned our surgical gear and removed his surfboard. There was a small "enhancement" during the process. Cough. While I covered up the boo-boo with a pair of gingham paper-pieced swimming trunks, Hammy glossified his sunglasses and soon the little guy was enjoying himself body-surfing the waves. His straight-forward look seemed perfect for this simple sediment from GKW.

Challenges

~~~

I hope you'll join our linky party at Twofer Card Challenge #19 with your two sea-worthy cards following the rules. The talented Design Team and our Guest Designer Natalie have made super cool 🌊NAUTICAL🌊 Twofers to inspire you!
~~~

I'll leave you with this photo of one of the grandtwins from our recent beach trip. Who is it? I'm glad I forgot to share it with you the other day because it's perfect for this post!
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! 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 scrollingClick 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!)