Mirrored Ovals

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you all enjoyed last week and you're ready to bust this new week wide open! Things slow down a little online this time of the year as we spend more time outdoors when the weather is fine. As much as we love paper flowers, there is nothing like the real thing!

If you do have time to garden and craft, this is the first full week of July, which means the motivation I.D.E.A.S. Calendar is I = Ink/Color Mediums.

Onefer

I was also busy last week with my birthday and America's birthday, so I turned to Freshly Made Sketches for inspiration and this is my take on the sketch. The "Lush Greenery" is from Pinkfresh. It comes with two halves, but I only used one-half and stamped it as a mirror image.*

*Edited: I can't change the title after publishing, but I wanted to edit the wording here so it's not confusing. I did not stamp the above in the traditional sense of the "mirror technique." Using my MISTI, I stamped the image once, cleaned the stamp, and removed it from the MISTI. Then I repositioned the stamp on the paper, so that it was "upside down" and butting up against the first image. I inked the stamp, closed the MISTI, and stamped a second image. In that way, they mirrored each other. I hope that makes sense! If not, let me know.

I used my Ziggies to color the greenery and the lads very carefully winked the wee leaves. I used Poppystamps NBUS pointed oval die for the sediment and their pointed rectangle die to add a frame. I used the "aloha" die from Your Next Stamp because it's perfect for a birthday card for my friend who spends half the year in Hawaii! Poor dear.😂🌴🥥

Other Challenges

CAS on Friday: Botanical.

Tic Tac Toe: Diagonal, top left to bottom right: foliage/free/any sediment.

TIME OUT: Travel.

Twofer

I liked how my first card turned out so much that I used the sketch and dies again to make a Christmas design. Like with the first card, I stamped the Magenta poinsettia trio, cleaned the stamp, turned it (the stamp) upside down and stamped it again. Then we painted, winked, and framed them using a sediment from Simon Says Stamp.

Challenges

Holly & Ivy: Anything Christmas Goes.

Jingle Belles: Poinsettia Perfection.

Merry Little Christmas: Anything Christmas Goes.

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I.D.E.A.S. Calendar:  I = Ink/Color Mediums

You will find a linky tool below for you to share your creation using some form of coloring, inking, painting, etc. which might help lift someone out of their creative schlump!

I love seeing what you create, visiting you, and pinning your design! Thank you to everyone who visited and linked to the gallery last week. Mwah!

~~~

Enjoy your week! No seriously, enjoy! LITS!

Here's an example from my little friend on enjoying life, taken from the Playhouse window. As always, thank you for visiting and commenting!

*Life is too short!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Plaid Poinsettia and Sad Times

Hello Stamplings!

How are you? I hope you are all doing well. It was a sad and moving weekend for this country as we marked the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

I'm still rootling around and uncovering things I wish I had finished and never did and starting new things, without finishing them, so years from now I will discover them and oh, man, it really is a mess up in here. 

I'm trying to filter and come up with a plan and there will be more on that in time, but once again, I stopped to enjoy the pleasant distraction of a coupla challenges. I'm hoping to make a few more fall cards, but because I make a lot of Christmas cards, I'm putting my emphasis there ~ seeing as how this year is rocketing by like a firecracker shot from a cannon.

Onefer

For my cards I used a NBUS "From the Vault Poinsettia" wooden stamp from Hero Arts. I'm sorry that I seem to be in a rut with my direct-to-stamp inking lately, but I love how simple, easy, and effective it is. I attached the watercolor paper panel to a plaid background and then added a narrow strip of the plaid pp to delineate the image from the sediment. The sediment is also from Hero Arts, stamped in CP ink and then clear heat-embossed. I added metallic gold to the flower center with a pen.

Challenges

• CAS Christmas Card: Plaid, chosen by Colleen.
  
• Holly and Ivy Christmas: A/G. Congratulations on their 100th Challenge!
  
• Krafty Chicks: Christmas.

Twofer

Hammy wanted to wink the first image, but I wasn't sure how much the ink would schmear when winked, so I stamped a second image and let him have a play with his winker. It gives it a lovely watercolored look, as well as being schparkly. Good job, Hammy, as always! I added more schparkle to the center with a gold metallic pen. I used my MFT stitch dies to cut the panels and I gold heat-embossed the sediment.

Allsorts Challenge ~ Tribute to Kath.

I was sad to hear recently that a wonderful bloggie friend, Kathleen (Kath) Scholefield (Plain & Simple) passed away suddenly after a very short battle with cancer. It was a shock to her family and all who knew her in Blogland. Kath and I got to know each other through commenting and then I had the privilege of meeting her in person on my grand tour of England in 2016.

Kath had a wicked sense of humor, so you can imagine our emails back and forth! She was a talented card artist and beloved DT member and she will be greatly missed. Over at the Allsorts Challenge, Brenda is dedicating this week to Kath's memory and I am entering my card. This would have been Kath's week to host and she had chosen favorite stamp with the option of paper-pieced flowers. 

~~~

And here at home, it was a sad weekend for our family as we said goodbye to our beloved granddog, Duke. Many of you have watched Duke grow up via photos I've shared over the years.

RIP Duke

May 9, 2010-September 10, 2021

Duke became the owner of the grandtwinks when they were five years old. They are devastated.

We are all going to miss him very much.

And little Jack is going to miss his "Dad."

Losing a beloved pet is heart-breaking, but we were so blessed to have Duke in our lives.

~~~

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

*Life is too short!

When a Fern Becomes a Fir

Hello Stamplings,

How are you as you start the weekend? I hope you've had a great week and enjoyed some sunshine. It's been really perfect here with cool temps and I'm loving this time before it gets too hot for my delicate sensibilities.😂

Okay, let's begin our program for today. Our guest star is the stunning Fresh Fern from the Penny Black family! Please give her a warm welcome!

Fern is a NBUS stamp and today she is wearing an outfit of three shades of green, which she misted with water, before laying on the paper. Hammy chose simple faceted glass for her earrings and necklace and she has been photographed against a linen embossing folder, whose edges were lightly tinted all around with green.

Fern wanted to appear today to remind you about the current Twofer Card Challenge where "Leaves" is the prompt word. But is she the appropriate choice for such a reminder? Well, the Board of Directors of today's Art in the Park program had a spirited debate about whether Fern would be allowed to be a leaf model. After thorough research it was found that "the botanical world considers the frond to be a large divided leaf." 

Loud applause erupted from the park bleachers where Fern's many fronds were seated. Too bad this is a birthday card, or I would have channeled Michele and computer-generated a punny sediment like, "I'm grateful you're a frond of mine!"

Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: Birthday.
• NBUS: Anything new goes.
  
• Penny Black Saturday: Anything PB goes.
  
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Clean and simple.

 

Twofer

The more I looked at Fern's full glory on my first card, the more I began to see Christmas trees, so, tada, I made a second design using a fun pickup truck called "Big Delivery" from Taylored Expressions. I did the marker/spritz on the tree (fern) and used my Karin brushes to watercolor the truck. The diecut sediment was a gift from a friend. To finish the design, I hand-doodled a frame and Hammy winked the fiery truck.

Challenges

• Krafty Chicks: CAS.
• HLS April Christmas: Anything goes; option 'under the tree.'
  
• Holly and Ivy: Anything Christmas goes.
  
• Watercooler Wednesday: All things masculine.

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I hope you will have time in this coming week to stretch your design skills and join in before April 24th. Remember you do not have to make one design an unconventional one; they can both be conventional. 

When you click over to the Twofer Card Challenge blog, you will see that our talented Designer Anita has created another incredible pair of leaf designs to remind and inspire you! You won't want to miss that, nor all the wonderful creations already in the gallery!

~~~

Coupla 😒 things:

• Subscribers to my blog: By now you have prolly heard that Blogger is discontinuing Feedburner email subscription service in July. That means if you are receiving email notifications in your inbox via Feedburner whenever I post on this blog, or on my NBUS or Twofer Card Challenge blogs, that will no longer be happening as of July. I think this will be a profound change for a lot of us. I know I subscribe to hundreds of you via Feedburner and I'm sad that I will no longer be notified when you publish a new post. Until I find out any more information, these are options for you:
• If you own a blog and you haven't already done so, you can click on the blue "Follow" button on the right side bar of my blogs. You will then be able to see when I publish new posts on your dashboard list or on your own side bar. For this blog, you also have the option of subscribing via Bloglovin by clicking that link to the right and Bloglovin will notify you when I publish a post. (bloglovin dot com)
• If you do not own a blog, please email me if you wish to continue receiving notice when I post and I will let you know via personal email. (darnell dot knauss at gmail dot com)
• Either way, you can save my blog URL in your bookmarks for easy reference. (djkardkreations dot com)
  
  
• Taking medical leave: As you may remember, since the beginning of the year I have been dealing off and on with a fractured T10 vertebrae in my back. It did get better for a while, but a few weeks ago I did something to reverse the healing and it has become very painful again. Sadly, the worst pain happens when I type, no matter which chair or position I use. Every day I have done less on the computer, but it isn't getting any better and it seems the only way it can heal fully is by complete rest. So ... except for a bit of housekeeping for Twofer and NBUS, Hammy and I are taking a long break from the computer. Thank you for your patience and good wishes! 
  
  

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy and keep safe! Life is too short! 

Mwah!💋 

Through the Seasons

Hello Stamplings!

How's your week going? I know I've been posting a lot this past week, but because of a busy first half of the month, everything card-related got pushed and now I'm up against some challenges closing so I've got a Fourfer for you. Ah, that was sweet of you not to groan.

I promise I'll be quick, but I'll wait a sec if you want to get a drink and put that lumbar pillow behind your back. Doe a deer, a female deer, re, a drop of golden sun, mi, a name ... oh, hi. I was just humming while I waited for you.

Here we go!

Onefer

I've used NBUS butterflies from Memory Box cut from a watercolor background for this design. The dies are called "Drifting Side Butterfly" and "Flitter Side Butterfly." 

Challenges

• CAS Watercolour August Challenge: Colorful butterflies.
• Country View Challenge: Texture.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Clean and simple.

Twofer

I liked it so much, I made a few more of these colorful butterfly designs. For this one, I added gems and a birthday sediment.

Challenges

• Cardz 4 Galz: Wings.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use your snippity bits and pieces.
• Seize the Birthday: With toppings option of butterflies.

Threefer

I made this simple design using a plaid stencil and a bottle of NBUS Wendy Vecchi Pearl Mica Spray. I am intrigued that the Pearl spray appears silver when sprayed on the black. The stencil is "Tim Holtz Layering Stencil Plaid THS097."

Challenges

• CAS on Friday: Use a stencil.
• CAS Stencil: Sprays.
• Watercooler Wednesday: Marsha's masculine anything goes.

By the way, the shimmer is amazing in reality:

After spraying the stencil inside a big box, I quickly flipped it over onto another piece of black card and was able to get another shimmery panel. It's lighter, of course, but still visible enough to grow up to be a card some day.

I have to say that was fun. I've had this spray for ages and never used it. I have occasionally tried other sprays in the past without much success. I really appreciate the CAS stable of challenges for inspiring me to step outside - literally - and try new things! 

Here's a tip I saw on a blog (I'm sorry I didn't note which one): When you spray, don't point the spray at the paper. Lay a big box on its side and place the paper flat on the side that is now the floor of the box. Then, instead of pointing your nozzle at the paper, point it at the back of the box and you'll get lovely coverage just from the falling mist and there won't be much piddling. It worked for me. (I hope it wasn't just a spray manufacturer telling us to do it this way! 😏)

Fourfer

This is another card panel I made at the 2019 ESCR. The card is glossy black and the embossed snowflakes were made by pushing a glittery paste through a snowflake stencil. Again, very schparkly in real life between the glossy card and the glitter in the paste. I used Nancy's technique where you cut strips out of the image panel for a little extra interest. I think the sediment is from PTI?

Challenges

• CAS Christmas Card August Challenge: Glitter.
• Cupcake Inspirations: Glitter.
• The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge: Anything Christmas goes.
• Merry Little Christmas Challenge: Anything Christmas goes.

 

~~~

Thank you for making it to the end! I try to only do two cards per post because I know it's hard to remember them by the time you get to the end. Oh, and before you ask why I didn't mention Hammy's help with these, he is away at the annual hamster convention in Bellingham WA in honor of Mr. Saddlebags.

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!)