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 Halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts

August 29, 2016

Age Is a Number and Pumpkins are Puzzles

Greetings!

Welcome to the freshness of a Monday morning, carrying you towards unknown adventures this week!

You are all doing such a fantastic job dusting off your Never-Before-Used-Schtuff and giving it some love! I know you are feverishly crafting away, so I won't keep you. I just have a coupla NBUS cards of my own to share.

My Onefer is:
How's that for a profound sediment?! It's NBUS, of course, and made by Rubber Dance Stamps. The PP is from GKW. I double-diecut my numbers so there would be a black shadow for depth. I'm not sure if you can see it, but I also added a smick of black border on the left to mimicate the number shading.

And my Twofer is:
This fun puzzle pieces die is from Spellbinders and I've only used it once before two years ago. The pumpkin stamp belonged to my late neighbor, Rae. It is from an OOB company called "Hook's Lines & Inkers." On the side it is dated 1993, which, Frank Lee, doesn't seem that long ago to me. I spose some of you weren't even born yet, eh? Cough.

Challenges
Snippets Playground Badge
Grab Our Badge!
~~~

NBUS Challenge #7

Thank you so much for playing along in NBUS Challenge #7!!
The response already has been AWEmazing! I'm so proud of you for using your NBUS with such relish! You all make my heart smile!!

Enjoy your day! Enjoy the Challenge! LITS!*

*Life is too short!

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Mwah!
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October 20, 2015

More Scary Schtuff and Eureka!

Hello!

I hope you're doing well! Since I'm posting less often than normal, when I do post, they tend to be Lala Po Loosahs. This one is expecially so, just to warm you.

Only a few more days until Halloween, so bless you if you are madly searching for a costume to buy or make for your little munchkin(s). I kinda miss those days. My two little twin gobblin grandsons were here on Saturday and since they won't be here on Halloween, they were allowed to make a serious dent in the bowl waiting for the trick 'r treaters. You know, the one filled with the little candy bars that I hate. Yes, haha, there are actually ones I hate.

So, timing being everything, Hammy made me make a couple three more Halloween cards just because I have all this schtuff and it's dumb to put it back in the container for another whole year. The truth is, he's been so patient the last several weeks, I let him make the first two cards all by himself.

First, he used the Memory Box spider ...
and decided to just be silly by using my NBUS Memory Box "Group of Ghosts" die to make sock puppets for the spider. When you think about it, that's pretty clever for a hamster. The side borders are Washi tape and the bottom web is just a left-over scrap from my stash. 

We apologize that one of the ghosts lost an eye in the making of this card.

Today's Twofer
With the negative spider die cut, Hammy made a note card by underlaying the opening with red sparkly paper and cutting BOO from the same paper using a Lil' Inker alphabet die. Shazambam!

Today's Threefer

Then seeing as how the ghost die makes three little ghosts and one big ghost for every cut, I picked up the pieces (literally) and made this:
I used a shimmery white card stock and a NBUS polaroid embossing folder from Darice. The white ghosts are backed with cuts made from black shimmery paper so you can see them. I mean, right? The brad and boo charm are from my stash and the sediment is from SU.

Really, for someone who isn't that keen about Halloween, I must say, I have a lot of Halloween schtuff and fixins and such!

Challenges
Challenge iconsPixies Crafty WorkshopSpray paint dollar store glass candle sticks black and add pumpkins for Halloween decoration
~~~

Eureka!

You might have to click to enlarge in order to see ...
... that's a hummingbird eating out of my hand! I've been trying off and on over the summer to have this happen and it finally did! What a thrill and then some! And it was right when the Mister was doing his laps on his crutches so he was able to grab a photo through the patio door. It's too bad the hummer is camouflaged by the tree. We will keep working on this and maybe one day I'll have a video for you!

~~~

And, if you will indulge me, I thought it would be fun to show you this:
The picture on the left is me with Henry and Adam when they were 7 months old and the one on the right is them today at 10 years and 7 months old! I look a lot older, too, but in all fairness, this wasn't planned and I don't have a stitch of makeup on.

The photo on the right was the last of 22 photos the Mister took from the bed trying to get one decent picture without one or both of them making goofy faces! It was all that Halloween candy they'd been eating. Or, nah, prolly it's just what all 10-year-old boys do!

~~~

New Friends Corner

I'm pickled tink to introduce five more new friends to you!

Maike of Maikreations. Maike has only been blogging since January of this year! While she is almost at her one-year anniversary, I consider her to still be a newbie and I'd love to have you make a special effort to visit Maike and welcome her to Blogland! Maike has such a wonderful way of using bright colors in her happy card art!

Mimi of She's Crafty. Mime has been blogging since 2011, but she really only took off with it this past August, so I consider Mimi to be almost a newbie, too. Once again, please make a special effort to visit Mimi and welcome her. Mimi has been a life-long crafter whenever practicality called for it, but now her blog has allowed her to get in touch with creating art for art's sake. I think you will see that she is being wildly successful at it!

Lydia Evans of Lydia Evans Design. Lydia started blogging in June 2011. She is the mom of two and she enjoys upcycling and recycling whenever possible to craft her art. Once you visit, you won't be surprised to learn that Lydia has won many awards over the years. She also very generously provides us with talented tutorials showing how she works her magic!

Andrea W. of Savvy Handmade Cards. Andrea is from Oklahoma and she has been avidly blogging since 2012. Andrea loves sketch and color challenges and finds creating cards and blogging to be therapeutic as well as fun. She has always been creative and loves painting, beading, sewing, and scrapping, in addition to making her cheery non-fussy cards.

Nancy Ball of Nancy's Crafty Blog. Nancy has been blogging since 2009, but she really took off in 2011. She is the mom of three humans and four cats. In addition to making cards, Nancy is a Close To My Heart Consultant, photographer, painter, scrapper, and she loves to cook and sew! I want to be her neighbor, don't you?!

~~~

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!

Tomorrow is a big day around here as the Mister's hip brace finally comes off! He won't be able to walk without crutches for a while yet, but it will definitely be a big improvement. I'll keep you posted and thank you, again, for all your cards, positive thoughts, and prayers!

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:
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If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave
me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!


  

October 11, 2015

I've Gone Candy-Bar Batty!

Greetings, spooklings! Happy Sunday Funday!

I'll be honest with you, I'm just not into Halloween cards as much as I am Halloween candy. Halloween isn't the same now that I'm retired and no longer dressing up in costumes for the office entertainment. But the candy, ah, bleep, the candy. Turns out this nursing stint has proven that I'm a stress-eater. Bad timing in that it coincides with the release of 150-pound bags of delicious little chocolate bars at Costco. 

BTW, I looked up the definition of hallow. It means holy. Then I looked up the definition of een. It means diminutive. What?
The bats and sediment stamp are from a NBUS set called "Twisted Treats" from Avery Elle. The stitched circles are cut from shiny PTI onyx and pearl paper using Lil' Inker dies. That and some Washi tape and you have a QACAS holy tiny card.

Challenges

Simon Monday Challenge BlogClick To Play
Miss Elaine E. Yus

The medical update on the Mister is that things are pretty much status quo. Improvement continues at a snail's pace, but that's better than nothing, so we're not complaining! I'm sorry I'm not posting as often under the circumstances and I appreciate that you are still visiting me and leaving me love!

A lot of the spare time I have I've spent working on cards for the Caring Hearts Card Drive. Actually, the Mister has been a huge help to me in a way that makes him feel useful. As he walks up and down the hall on his crutches once an hour, he stops at the kitchen counter and cuts card stock for me a little at a time, followed by scoring, followed by folding! Hey, I know an opportunity when I see one! I'm not just another pretty face with a big Costco butt.

In other happy news, Rachel brought the twins to see us on Friday because the boys had the day off from school. It really brightened Kevin's spirits ~ and mine ~ to see them for a few hours! 

Sadly, I also have heartbreaking news for those of you who follow Brenda of Friends Crafting With Friends. Her beloved husband Dwayne passed away Saturday morning after fighting a valiant war against cancer for two years. He was only 52 years old. If you would like Brenda's address to send her a card, please email me.

~~~

New Friends Corner

I'm delighted to have five more new friends for you to meet!

Tania Wagoner of Tania's Paper Trails. Tania started blogging in 2013. She has not blogged often, but her cards are darling when she does post them and they often feature quilling. She also has a tab where she shares her love of baking and decorating sugar cookies!

Debbie Petersen of Deb's Card Buffet. Deb is one of those long-time bloggers I admire because she started blogging in 2007! She is a retired pharmacist living in Washington and she has been stamping since 2005. Debbie enjoys entering challenges and currently serves on The Card Concept Design Team. I think you'll agree that she makes impeccable CASlicious card art!

Mandy LaCroix of Scrappity-Doo-Da. (Love the name!) Mandy is a "reformed" accountant/financial assistant and she has been blogging since 2011. She is a published card artist and she has an impressive trophy cabinet down the length of her side bar showing all the challenge wins she has under her belt. Mandy's cards are like huge hammers ~ they nail any challenges she sees!

Tami French of Team Gingerbread. Tami has also been blogging a long time, since 2009! This in spite of working full-time in a doctor's office and being a full-time mom! I'm always so impressed by mothers who blog. Tami also enjoys entering challenges with her card art. She has a wide range of styles and her 3D shaped and folded cards are magnificent!

Daniela Dobson of Create Your Everyday Memories. Daniela is another published card artist who is no doubt already familiar to a lot of you from her design team inspiration throughout Blogland. After all, she has also been blogging since 2007! Even if you missed those early years, it's not too late to jump on the Daniela Band Wagon and be inspired by her tremendous talent with her exquisite layered card art!

Thank you for joining, ladies, and welcome to the Playhouse!

~~~


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 the pop-up box opens.
Click Jump to Comment Form; 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!

October 31, 2014

WHOOSH!

Oh, my cider kegs and pumpkins!

We've whooshed around to another Friday! 
And we've whooshed through another month! 
And we are whooshing rapidly towards another Christmas!!

Somebody throw me a rope!

Happy Halloween to those who celebrate today! All the little ghosts and goblins and currently-popular-movie-characters will be walking the streets tonight, blatantly holding out containers to be filled with cavity-causing treats. WooHoo! We give each one a giant scoop of the really good schtuff. You know. All the schtuff we wouldn't let our son have when he was a kid. (Don't tell him!) 

I have a couple of cards for you today. Here is the first.
 
I came across this one-layer card base as I was flipping through my scrap box yesterday. The colored background was made by applying markers onto an acrylic block, spritzing the block with water, and then pressing it onto a piece of glossy card stock. When I picked it up, Hammy saw it and squeaked that it would be a fun background for the black raven cutout, also in the scrap box. And so it was! The sediment is from SU. EZPZ. QACAS. LMNOP. Sorry. It's like a sickness.

I'm entering my card in these FUN challenges:
GRAB OUR BADGE!Simon Wednesday Challenge BlogGrab Our Badge!
Please click on any of the links for all the details on rules, prizes, and sponsors.

~~~

My second card is in honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness month. Honestly, I feel like every month should be dedicated to breast cancer awareness and fundraising, but since we can't have that, we'll take October and I'm squeaking in under the wire on the last day!

Here is my card.
I based my card on a card that was mailed to me with a request for funds. Unfortunately, I can't find it now to show it to you, but that was my inspiration. I'm not listing the source of all those sediments because it would be a very long list. Everything is not lined up perfectly, but that's okay; I'm just delighted that I managed to stamp them all without one of them being upside down!!

I hope you have had a mammogram already this year or have one scheduled! That's a gift you give yourself and your loved ones.

~~~

New Friends Corner

I am delighted to welcome five more of our newest friends to the Playhouse! I hope you will visit them and introduce yourselves!

Hellerlittle from ~~~~~~H3. Hellerlittle is from Germany. She has been blogging since 2010. I just love her designs and the depth and dimension she is able to achieve with her beautiful works of card art.

Cathy P. of My Creative Space. Cathy has been blogging since 2013. She is an award-winner and design team member. You can feel Cathy's joy for card making through her bright and cheerful cards!

Caz (Carol) of Pouring My hART Out. Caz has been blogging since 2012. She doesn't post often, but she is worth the visit when she does! She's a happy girl who loves anything fun and cute and she loves knitting, too!

Debi J. of Debi's Joy. Need I say more?! Debi has been blogging since 2010 and she is very passionate about this wonderful hobby of ours. When you visit, you will find tons of heartwarming and inspirational posts full of Debi's outstanding cards and layouts!

Ruth of Patterned Paper and All Things Pretty. Ruth has been blogging since 2009! She is also the owner of Fairy Heaven Designs. She is an ambitious challenge player and her cards are always charming, well-made, and inspirational!

~~~

I'll leave you with a photo of the pumpkin that will be gracing our front door to welcome the costumed children:
Bwahaha! That's MISTER Pumpkin to you! I saw the idea on a TV show where you enlarge a photo of each family member's face, cut out the bits and tape them to the pumpkin. The human Mister only brought home one pumpkin from the grocery store, so I decorated it with a photo of his face while he was away at work. Does he scare you a bit? Or are you like me and karacking up over it?!

~~~

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 leave a comment and /or 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 the pop-up box opens.
Click Jump to Comment Form; no more car pool tunnel!
Mwah!
As always, thank you for stopping by to visit. Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!