Peonies and Poinsettias

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are doing well! I've had a few great days as the weather is leveling off and I've had fun getting reacquainted with my Ziggies!

Onefer

You know, I still can't wrap my head around how productive I could have been during Covid ~ and wasn't. I put it down to the limbo state we were all in. Remember how the pandemic was just going to last for a couple of weeks, then a couple of months, then a few more months, and so on? It brought a sort of paralysis to our lives. And husbands and wives and kids were all staying home together, sometimes getting on each other's nerves, as the days moved to months and then moved to years. 

With this hobby, it would have been the perfect time to be more creative than ever, and purge, super clean, and reorganize, use all that NBUS, and tackle all those techniques. I don't know about the rest of you, but it didn't work out that way for me. I was pretty much of a creative load, doing just the minimum to keep my passion for this hobby from dying out completely. It was all very odd.

All this to tell you that my dear friend Sonja, who lives in Slovenia, sent me the awesome flower and basket die I used today. She sent it to me in 2020 and I'm only using it for the first time now ~ and it was great fun. (I know, better late than never, but it did make me wax philosophical about the last three-plus years.)

And there is a happy ending as the pandemic has come to a close🤞and I can feel myself returning to the joy cardmaking brings me ... and remembering the joy it brings the card recipients! I hope you feel the same way.

Challenges ~ lots of spring flower challenges!

• Beautiful Blossoms: Anything Flowers Goes. Optional Mood Board.
  
• Double D: Flowers.
  
• HLS Watercolor: Option Flowers.
  
• The Flower Challenge: Pretty Pastels.
  
• Triple B: Birds, Blooms, and Butterflies.

Twofer

I've been trying to make a Christmas card for my Twofer this year whenever I post. So naturally, with that beautiful basket in front of me, Hammy thought we should try filling it with Christmas poinsettias. I used poinsettia dies from three different dies/companies. The NBUS border die is from Spellbinders, called Candlewick. (BTW, Hammy is sad it doesn't really show in the photos, but he wants you to know he winked both baskets and bouquets liberally!)

Challenges

• 52 Christmas Card Throwdown: May Colour Challenge: red, green, and brown.
  
• Peace on Earth: Anything goes.
  
• Snippets Playground: Anything snippets goes. My baskets and poinsettias were cut from snippets.

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By the way, do you like my fancy photography with the pretty red ribbon? Well, 😕, it's there to let you eyeball the basket of poinsettias without being distracted by the boo-boo. Here, look:

Yup. That happened. The last thing I did was pop the bouquet over the basket. I had done some last-minute touching up, which apparently hadn't dried, so I got paint on my finger. I laid it there for a second while I sat all puffed up with pride, enjoying my incredible artistic accomplishment. 

Moved my finger and 😱! It happens to all of us. I may try getting it off, but that might make it worse. So I think the best thing to do is send it to one of you next Christmas because you will understand and overlook it. 

What schmear? I don't see a schmear!

~~~

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 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!)

Knock, Knock!

Hello Stamplings!

It's me! I've missed you and it's so great to be back! I wasn't planning on being gone so long, but when it comes to health, plans can go out the window. First of all, thank you for your notes, cards, calls, and comments sending me your best wishes and cheering me on! Mwah!

Being back in the Playhouse creating, even for short periods, has done wonders for my mental health. I have even managed a coupla cards to share! My mojo juices were running low, so I turned to challenges for the schpark I needed to get them flowing. As ever, thank you challenge teams!

Onefer

This NBUS Altenew stamp and die set is called "Book Club." I stamped the image in black, heat-embossed it in clear, and painted with watercolors. There are several fun stamps for the center circle to use in a book or a journal, but I bought it just because I loved the flowers, composition, and versatility for any card sediment. 

Wow, you might think, that's a lot of schplattering, but I know you understand that poor Hammy, after five weeks of no winking and no schplattering, had an absolute inky blast and I let him go until he tuckered himself out. 

(In case you wondered, I didn't think it was fair for Hammy to be listless and bored while I was laid up, so I arranged for him to visit all his offspring and their offspring and their offspring ... let's just say he was always on the go and I think he's quite relieved to be home. My productivity will be low for a while yet, which is just fine with him!)

Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: Make your mark.
  
• Color Hues: Pink and green.
  
• HLS Watercolour: A/G.

Twofer

As I was looking through my challenge list, I happened to notice another, similar challenge in Blogland, so I stamped and heat-embossed another image to make this pink and gold Easter card. This time Hammy happily winked the flowers and then, while he was napping, I added some subtle gold schplatters to keep the card CAS.

Challenges

• Four Seasons: A/G Spring.
  
• Less is More: Pink and gold.
  
• Perfectly CAS: Die cuts.

Nurse Nellie

So what happened was, the hip replacement surgery went well, but about a week after wards, all my autoimmune maladies played up and set back my recovery. (Today's challenge: use malady in a sentence. It's such a lovely word, much nicer than disease or ailment.)

Anywhizzle, things settled down little by little and I often found myself rejoicing to have finally "turned the corner!" Then, oops, I discovered as I kept turning corners that I was actually in a maze! A maze zing! But I persevered and then wallah, I found my way out!

Part of the process of recovering is to walk, walk, walk. My doctor starts his patients out on a walker, then on to a cane, and then just your own two feet. As many of you know, before my surgery, The Mister, Nellie, and I walked between one and two miles every morning. I wish you could see how becited Nellie gets when it's time to walk! She LOVES it. So, of course, she struggled to understand the change in our daily routine.

As I did my laps around the house, I would pass through the living room where Nellie was on the coach, er, couch. One day I used the magic "walk?" word and said, "C'mon, walk with me." Well, I didn't have to ask her twice and from that point on, several times a day she followed behind me up the hall, through the main part of the house, and back down the hall. Rinse repeat. It was adorable and she helped keep me going!

I will try and get back on a schedule and make a plan in terms of crafting, blogging, and visiting little-by-little.

And then there's the fact that I'm a huge fan of spring cleaning. Do you get that bug in the spring?

I think it's something I carried over from growing up in the Midwest where winters can be long and harsh. It was just the best feeling when the weather warmed up so the windows could all be opened and everything was washed from top to bottom while the fresh air blew through! I think it will feel especially good this year. Being able to keep our own affairs and belongings in order brings a sense of calm, productivity, and accomplishment in a time when there is so much turmoil in the world.

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

*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!)

August Leaves and Flowers

Hello Stamplings,

I hope you're doing well! We've made it through another set of rapids on our way downstream rushing headlong into 2022. I mean, August? Holy guacamole, at this point, we might as well just throw our arms up and enjoy the pummeling.

But, hey ho, anypoo, all is calm in the Playhouse now that I've finished this:

This is for my friend Elaine's birthday a few days ago. She is one of the talented designers over at Less Is More. In order to celebrate Elaine's birthday, the brief is to CASE this beautiful card she created:

It's fabulous, isn't it? For my CASE (copy and share everything), I finally used my NBUS Altenew "Leaf Canopy" stamp and die set. I painted the leaves with my Ziggies, adding a vein to each leaf for some poycienality, and then I let Hammy loose with his winker. The sediment is from Happy Little Stampers.

And thennnn things got a bit out of the box for me because in order to wonkify my design a little bit in the same sort of cool arty way Elaine did, I found out just how OCD I am.😲It only took me a half hour to die-cut, stamp, clear heat-emboss, and paint the leaves before I popped them up on foam panel and cut the panel as you see. And then it took me three and a half hours to "unline" them up!👏

Thanks for the inspiration, Elaine, and may you have many, many more happy birthdays!

Challenges

• HLS Watercolour: Anything goes.
  
• Less is More: CASE card.
  
• Simon Says Stamp Monday: Happy 11th Birthday! WOW!!!! Congratulations! I'm delighted that my lovely friend Anne is in the Designer Spotlight this month. Her creativity is really remarkable and I encourage a visit to her!

Twofer

I dropped my camera just before taking this photo and the colors of the pink flowers are off. That's the lighting though, right, not the camera? IRL the flowers are pink, not orchid, to match the pink panel underneath the grid. And what a great grid border it is. It is a Simon Says die which they no longer make and I know so many of you wish they would bring it back. Maybe someone out there knows someone at SSS who can make that happen. Eh? 

The sediment is from IFW, heat-embossed in clear. The fun and whimsical flowers are from MFT's "Build-able Bouquet." As you can see, my little helper was very generous with his glossification, which he managed to do during the Olympics commercials.

Challenges

• AAA Birthday: Photo inspiration.
  
• Cardz 4 Galz: Dies and/or punches.
  
• Color Hues: Yellow and pink.
• Uniko: Flowers

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy, but keep safe! LITS!*

Our air conditioner pooped out yesterday, so we are waiting for a repairman to come and tell us what the problem is.🤞💵 

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!)

Life's a beach and then it's Christmas

Hello Stamplings!

I'm sorry I'm so late. I've been down to Police Headquarters filing a Missing Week Report. It did make me feel better seeing the long lines of people doing the same thing. I'm pretty sure I saw you, but you were in the line by the green door and it was too far to yell without seeming uncouth. That's one of those funny words that you rarely hear the other part of. Hmm, if I were couth, I wouldn't end a sentence with a dangly partisouple.

Onefer

This Beach Baby from Penny Black has been around awhile and she recently crawled into my shopping cart. You just can't help but smile at her and when I saw the little baby on the Double D "Signs of Summer" mood board, I had a blast painting this image to match with my Ziggies. I painted the red stripes on her swimsuit top and put white gel drops on her hat and Hammy painted her toenails! The image and sediment (from the same set) are heat-embossed in liquid platinum. I was going to paint on some waves, but I decided to leave well enough alone.😱

Challenges

• Double D: Signs of summer.
• Happy Little Stampers: AG Watercolor.
  
• The Card Concept: Long summer days. Style: clean and simple.
• The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: W is for watercolor.
  

Twofer

This QACAS design was so easy, it was ridiculous. I used a panel of gold and vellum card from a paper pad to cover the front of my card and then simply die-cut and attached the tree and star from MFT called Christmas Tree Win. It really looks quite mod without a sediment considering it pretty much screams Christmas, but then when I cock my head, I think, no, it needs a sediment, so I'm sure I'll add one. Or not.

Challenges

• Christmas 24: Trees and ornaments.
  
• Jingle Belles: Leave it in neutral (in this case metallic neutral).
  
• Rudolph Days: June. Anything Christmas goes.

Family Time

We had a wonderful Dad's Day celebration and I did remember to get a photo:

Adam, Dan, Henry, The Mister (aka Papa, aka Kevin)

And then we spent a busy week dog-sitting little Cisco. He has appeared here before, so you may remember he owns my sister-in-law. It was a hoot!

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy, and keep safe! 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!)

Oooh, Yummo! More Cake!

Hello Stamplings!

Aaaaand we've whooshed back around to another Monday! I hope you've all had a lovely weekend wherever you are!

Did I tell you we are having a bathroom reno done due to a coupla leaks? It was just remodeled fourteen years ago, but apparently the people I hired cut a few corners and I learned another 'you get what you pay for' lesson.😒This new bathroom will outlive us and never leak!

But that's not why you called. You came to see my reminder inspiration cards for the Twofer Card Challenge where the prompt is 🎂CAKE/CUPCAKE🧁!

Last week I featured cake and today I am featuring cupcakes. The stamp my two designs have in common is a fun and silly caterpillar carrying cupcakes. It's an old wooden stamp from Penny Black.

Onefer

I stamped the cupcake-carrying caterpillar in the center and then off the ends because if one cute caterpillar makes you smile, why not have a choo-choo-train of them? I colored the cupcakes with my Ziggies and did a background wash. Hammy winked the cupcakes and also added dots to the segments on the caterpillar which were blank. The Hooray die is cut from an old glossy alcoholic snippet. This is going to my niece who is taking her medical boards as you read this.🤞

Challenges

• Addicted to CAS: Bugs.
  
• HLS CAS: Fun and games.
• Sweet Stampers: Animals or critters or birds.
  

Twofer

And this old girl is one of my all-time fav stamps. She is from Stampendous. You can't tell, but her tutu and shoes and the cupcakes are all winked. After stamping and coloring another caterpillar, I fussy-cut the cupcakes off her back and then piled them up for the frog to hold in her outstretched arms. You can just make out some light stenciling on the olive green card base. The vertical sediment is from Stamps by Judith, also ancient. Not Judith, the stamp.

No NBUS was used for my card designs this time.

Instead I used OWLS (Old Well-Loved Schtuff)!🤣🦉🤣

Challenges

• AAA Cards: Happy 7th Birthday!!!
  
• HLS Watercolor: Anything goes.
  
• Watercooler Wednesday: Marsha's all things feminine.

Come Play!

I hope you are able to play along this month. Remember cakes and cupcakes are not just for birthdays ... stretch that imagination of yours! I'd love to see what you make and I'd love to know about your favorite cake or cupcake recipe if you want to share!

Recipe

Because I used cupcakes this week, I will share one of my sisters' favorite cupcake recipes. It's called Mini Cherry Cheesecake Cupcakes. It's super easy and uses a vanilla wafer cookie in the bottom for the crust. You can find an online version of it here at Plowing Through Life. Enjoy!

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And enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy and keep safe! 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!

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!)