. . . Bring May Flowers I

Hello Stamplings!

Happy Mother's Day to all who celebrate! So many of us have been unable to see our children or our mothers since the isolation to protect against Covid-19 began 3,248 weeks ago. This is very sad for everyone, but I think a lot of us are willing to put up with not being together for Mother's Day this year as opposed to, you know, being dead from the virus because we weren't careful. 

Today I've made two cards with flowers because, in addition to Mother's Day, it's the 10th of the month and the new Twofer Card Challenge starts today with FL🏵W🌹RS as the prompt! Here are my cards to inspire you:

The NBUS stamp that both my card designs have in common is the Banners & Blooms stamp from Concord & 9th.

Onefer

For my first design, I masked off a side panel and platinum heat-embossed the stamp twice vertically. I watercolored the image with my Ziggies and Hammy winked them, as per usual. He's such a great little helper! To make a clean border, I added a strip of platinum trim Washi tape from Altenew. The sediment was in my stash from GKW. 

Challenges

• Addicted to CAS: Flowers.
• HLS May Watercolour: Anything goes. Optional: Emboss.
• Little Red Wagon: Flowers.
• Seize the Birthday: Anything birthday goes.

Twofer

For my second design, I white heat-embossed the bouquet and Hammy and I again colored and winked with relish. Well, not literally with relish, although I'll bet somewhere there's an artist who has tried painting with relish. 

Sorry. I digest. Next I die cut the window box from Poppystamps out of a snippet of woodgrain paper. I also cut it four times from black paper and offset those layers to give it shadow dementia on one side. The box and flowers were popped onto a NBUS lattice frame die from WPlus9 and a stamped Hello sediment, also from WPlus9, was added.

Challenges

• HLS May Anything Goes With Dies.
• Inspired By ... Flower me with color. I turned the photo upside down!
• NBUS #14: Flower bouquet stamp and lattice frame.
• SSS Wednesday: Dies and/or punches.
• Use Your Stuff: Flowers and Butterflies.
• Watercooler Wednesday: AG with a feminine twist.

 

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I would love for you to play with us and enter your beautiful flower designs in the gallery at TCC! As you can see above, there are several other flower challenges happening right now you can also play in!

Please remember that you can make two conventional designs or one conventional design and one unconventional design using flowers. We have winners for both categories. Today the Team and our talented Guest Designer Cindy Beach made conventional designs to inspire you over at the Twofer Card Challenge! Mwah!

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My friend Ros thought of another quip to add to the ones from Mamie in my last post:

• Never in a million years did I think I would walk into a bank wearing a mask and ask for money!

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy ~  and remember to stay in whenever possible! LITS!* If this is an especially sad day for you because your mother or child has passed, I send you extra hugs.

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!)

Keeping Crafty

Hello, Stamplings!

First off, we're doing fine. We feel very blessed that the Mister recovered enough to start driving again just as it became very important for me to isolate due to being high risk. California has shut down except for essentials and we are still able to get local groceries, except for paper products. Don't get me started on that tissue!

I hope you are all keepin' on keepin' on and finding ways to not watch too much news on the telly. I had to finally limit myself to one hour a day and only ten minutes at a time, here and there, throughout the day. I'm glad you're visiting me to get away from all that, so let's go. (Since I don't post as often as I used to and you have plenty of time, I've made this extra long.😇)

And I have a special request, so if you're a scroll-through-quickly-friend, please stop and read the last section. Mwah!

Onefer

I wanted to play in some wonderful challenges, so I created this card. For the platinum grid, I made myself a stencil using my NBUS Birch Press Design, "Prism Triangle Collage." I applied Versamark liberally through the stencil and heat-embossed with platinum.

The flower flourish and sediment are from GKW. I colored the flower with my Ziggies using the JUGS color scheme and Hammy went to town with the winking.

Challenges

• CAS March Stencil: Heat embossing.
• HLS March Watercolour: Anything goes; optional Flowers.
• Just Us Girls: Color week.

The Demise of BOB!

Amidst all the scary news and glums about the nasty Coronavirus making its way around the globe, I'm pleased to report I've had a fatality here in the Playhouse, but it's a good one! I'm referring to my Box O' Bits, otherwise affectionately known as BOB. He will NOT be missed!

With clearance from the CDC, here is a photo of dead BOB. You'll note that Hammy is playing with his new malachite Easter egg inside BOB's skeletal remains:

Yes, that's one of my boxes of NBUS (never-before-used-schtuff) off to the right. We won't talk about that just now. Let me relish in the afterglow of BOB's demise for a little bit longer!

And here, ladies, is a photo of the 73 cards* I made from what BOB has been greedily hanging on to for years!

Don't get too becited. Most of them are very simple designs and (embarrassingly) took ten minutes or less to complete, but still, pretty good, eh? I will be posting some of them (God willing and the creek don't rise) over time, so I hid their faces. That way they can't be accused of being backlinked later on.

I wanted to share my success with you because, if you're like me, you are feeling unsettled right now. You plan to start this, but you find yourself looking at that; what you were becited about yesterday, you couldn't care less about today; and/or, card-making once brought you a lot of satisfaction, but now most of your satisfaction comes from either food (chocolate) or online shopping. 

If that's happening to you, turn to your BOB, or your UFO, or whatever you call your half-finished cards and let the process take you away for a few minutes or a few hours. It's not only a distraction, it's productive. And if your significant other happens to be named Bob, lucky you ~ you can turn to him for other reasons, as well!😉

Twofer

Here is one of the finished cards I made:

I made this topper while at last year's ESCR and it's languished since. Silly, since all it needed was a card base and sediment, but that's what happens sometimes. The phone rings, the Mister stops by to let me know the mail came, Hammy wants help with his juggling lessons, or Nellie wants a cuddle. Or maybe I've just seen a mental squirrel and off I go. The technique was direct-to-stamp coloring with markers, then spritzing, and then stamping. The image is Penny Black's "Pure Iris."

Challenges

• AAA Birthday Game #11: Flowers.
• The Flower Challenge: Anything goes.
• HLS March CAS: Your favorite technique. (Direct-to-stamp coloring.)
• Penny Black Saturday : March anything goes ~ think spring!
• TIME OUT: 6th Birthday celebration! Congratulations TO!

💟Something Positive

I have so many emotions and so many things I'd like to say about the current crisis, but this post is long enough. ONE of my concerns is the thought of all the thousands of elderly people in care homes around the globe who are suffering from loneliness because of our need for isolating ourselves. Perhaps they don't even understand why suddenly no one is visiting them. 

Thankfully, I feel like this is one concern where I can be proactive and do something, especially now that I've killed BOB and I have all these cards* in my stash. I'm making cards to drop off at our local care homes, but if you have an elderly loved one who feels lonely, I'd love to send a card to them, too. I'll mail to anywhere on earth where postal service is still occurring. And if you're feeling that way yourself, let me know. Please email their (or your) name and address to darnell dot knauss at gmail dot com and I will send off a card ~ or more, depending on the duration.

Now more than ever, my closing is appropriate. Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! Life is too short! As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse! Take extra care and be safe!

Lots of hugs,

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!)

Pairs of Pears Anyone?

Hello Stamplings!

Welcome to the fresh, clean, open slate of a Monday morning! Isn't it beciting to look forward to the possibilities of what this week will bring? I hope it's everything good for you!

We're plugging along here, cozy inside while gale-force winds are blowing outside so strongly that a panel of fence blew down near the Playhouse. Fortunately, I was able to help our neighbor prop it up until it can be fixed. On Friday, we will see the doctor for the first time since The Mister's surgery and get an x-ray to see how the back reconstruction looks. 🤞

In the meantime, it's Twofer Challenge Time again!

The prompt is pears? 

No, no, we give you a little more leeway than that. This month the prompt is 🍎🍐FRUIT 🍒🍇and the fruit of my Twofer is a Penny Black "Perfect Pear" stamp.

Onefer

I kept this square card design very QACAS (quick and clean and simple) by repeatedly stamping the image in charcoal ink using my MISTI. This stamp has wonderful shading built right in. I darked the shaded areas with a colored pencil and added some more freckles to the pear. A simple black card base and a hello sediment and wallah! I love how it looks like a black and white photograph or sketch.

Twofer

I stamped the image using a light beige ink to give it the no-line watercolor look and then I painted in with my Ziggies. I added outines to the branch and leaves with colored markers.

Because it is difficult to make two different designs when you use a very large image like this pear stamp, you have to think outside the ol' boxeroo. I love the look of this stamp as a whole delicious pear (below), but for a TCC design, I put on my big crafty paper panties and disected it. Gasp!

As you can see it was filled with golden juiciness and it schplattered all over everything! Don't be silly. Pears don't have golden juice, although they look like they might. No, the wonderful shimmery gold was Hammy's doing. I'm so glad he's back from Lost Wages, even if he is a bit tuckered out from all the fun he had!🂡🂡🂤🂧

Anywaze, I could have made two cards at that point, each using half of the pear, but I've done that look a few times, so this time I put the two halves back-to-back on a card base to make an unexpected design. I added a strip of Altenew gold Washi tape down the center to cover the seam and then gold heat-embossed the sediment. 

Wait. What? A Threefer?

I enjoy coloring this pear with my Ziggies for a no-line look, so I made another card. Hmmm. It might look like there is a weird line below the sediment, but it snot. You may have to click to enlarge to see that the sediment is stamped on a fishtail die cut. The frame is NBUS from Waffle Flower called, "Stitched Layers." The top of the banner needed a little sumpin sumpin, so I finished off the card with a twine bow.

Challenges

• Day of the Month Club: Send a friend a card.
• HLS Watercolor Challenge: Anything Goes. Optional: bling.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use your snippets. I used snippets for the frame and the fishtail banner.
• Watercooler Wednesday: Heidi's Challenge~Anything Goes with a feminine twist.

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I hope you'll gather your fruit and come play in the February Twofer Card Challenge #24. The talented Design Team and our Guest Designer Sonja have exceptional inspiration waiting for you there!

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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 when I can!

*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!)

Smooching Pears

Hello, Stamplings!

Back again already. Hammy and I are experiencing an after-purge surge and having lots of fun, but our hearts go out to those of you being buried in a spring blizzard. Please stay cozy and warm and I hope the power doesn't go out so you can hunker down and get crafty until it blows over.

We come to you today bearing fruit! 

I've come across a treasure trove of die cuts that bloggie friends have kindly sent to me over the years. I'm sorry I misremember who gave me what, but I'm pretty sure they came from either Andrea, Greta, Susan, Barb, Cat, or maybe you. Thank you, again, whoever you are! 

In the trove were two sets of three pears, die cut in white. So I did what anyone with white pears would do ~ I smooched them. Onto my craft mat went schmears of Distress Inks in pretty pear colors, which I doused with water via my mister (no capital). The pears were then put face down in the pool where I smooched them around until they looked less like bleached eggplants and more like pears. As one does. After a gentle splatter of dots, I dried them with a paper towel and sent them across the room where Hammy lathered them with Stella until all six of them schparkled in the sunshine.

For the first card above, I started with a cream colored card base splattered with some diluted old olives. I got down my grandma's antique mixing bowl, made by Judith. I stamped and polished it with a bit of canyon clay, fussy-cut it, and arranged the pears in and around it on a place mat of SU ribbon. You can just see the scored edge of the kitchen counter. The sediment is a NBUS stamp from SU's "Tin of Cards," also stamped in canyon clay. Thazit, done.

Challenges

• CAS Mix Up: First Birthday ~ congratulations!! Stamping, smooching, die-cutting, fussy-cutting, scoring, and splattering.
• City Crafter: Tutti-Frutti.
• HLS March Watercolor Challenge: Optional twist: Smooch.
• Inkspirational: Watercolor Smooching.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use your snippets.

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And here is the card I made with the second set of pears:

I kept the second card very QACAS. I took a piece of pp, outlined it with my black marker, and scored three lines along the bottom to make little stairsteps for the pears. I then took Hammy's bedazzled fruit and scattered them placed them artistically on the stairs. I see that I have a pair of pears on the stairs. Stop that. The stamped NBUS sediment is from Hero Arts. I attached the panel to a rustic cream card base and went to the grocery store. 

For some reason, I had such a craving.

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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 to 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" and wallah, 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!