Playing With Circles and Bubbles!

Hello Stamplings,

I hope you are having a great week! Did it escape anyone else's notice that May quietly slipped into June as we've been distracted by world events? At this rate, I'm going to turn around and it will be October, so I need to get going on my Christmas cards!

But not today. Today, I have a coupla bright and summery cards. It's the tenth of the month and the start of the June Twofer Card Challenge where the prompt is "Circles/Bubbles!" I set this prompt up months ago, but I think it turned out to be timely because we can all use some playtime with circles or bubbles!

The stamp my Twofers have in common is the PTI "Dot Spots" stamp set.

I know, you're surprised that I didn't choose bubbles and have them floating out of a champagne glass, aren't you? Obviously I need to stop allowing Hammy to have any vacation time!

Onefer

This very CAS card was made by stamping the medium dot spot circle across the card front in rainbow colors using CP inks. A hello die was added over the top. It is from Uniquely Creative and was a gift from a friend. QACAS at its best!

Challenges

• HLS June AGWD: Anything goes with dies.
• The Paper Players: Sunshine & Rainbows.
• Uniko: Anything goes with optional twist of bright and happy.

Twofer

To make my second distinctly different design, I used the same dot spots circle stamp as a sun setting behind the hills with a weeping willow in the foreground. The weeping willow is a NBUS die from Poppystamps (cut from schparkly black paper) and the sediment is NBUS from Penny Black's "Good Wishes" set. The gentle hills were blended using a curved mask and CP ink.

I was fascinated by weeping willow trees when I was growing up. You could get under those long leafy branches and be unseen inside a magic quiet world with nothing but your imagination. As you might expect, I could happily be under there for hours. 😌

Challenges

• Country View: Summer Fields.
• Just Us Girls: Sunshine.
• Poppystamps: Clean and simple.
• Seize the Birthday: All about summer.
• Little Red Wagon: Sunshine!

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I hope you'll be excited about the circles/bubbles prompt and come play in the June Twofer Card Challenge #28! Talented Guest Designers Jenny and Linda and the entire Design Team have exceptional inspiration waiting for you there! 

You can't play with circles or bubbles and not feel like you're having fun and who doesn't need that?!

If you do play, you might want to also link up to another fun challenge called Happy House where they are honoring TCC by having their own "Double Challenge!" I'll be linking my cards there and over at the June NBUS. ETA: And I've just gotten word from my friend Ike that she is running an "R is for Round or Dots" challenge at Ike's World Challenges, so please join me in linking there, as well!

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I'll leave you with some chuckles. Here are the new names of songs that have been revised to make them appropriate for those of us who are now enjoying our rusty golden years:

• "Splish, Splash, I Was Having a Flash," by Bobby Darin.
• "Mrs. Brown You Have a Lovely Walker," by Herman's Hermits.
• "I Get By With a Little Help From Depends," by Ringo Starr.
• "Fifty Ways To Lose Your Liver," by Paul Simon.
• "On The Commode Again," by Willie Nelson.

And I stole this from my friend Susan who posted it on FB:

Haha, I just realized the way I wrote that could be interpreted as Susan reporting on Facebook that I stole her sign! 😂😂😂

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* Keep yourself safe and well!

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!)

Dabbing With Baby Wipes

Hello Stamplings,

I hope this finds you doing great! Hammy and I are still playing with our friends at the retreat, so needless to say, we're delirious and our fingers and paws are very inky and happy.

Today I have a scheduled post with some cards I made using a baby wipe method. There are many ways to use a baby wipe on your card; they aren't just for cleaning your stamps. If you go to the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge, you will find links for videos on the technique and there are prolly more you can find via the you tube.

Onefer

What happened was, I white heat-embossed my full-size MFT Floral Fantasy Background and proceeded to color it in with my Arteza fine-line colored pens. I wish I had taken a photo of it pre-baby wipe to show you how very vibrant it was. We're talking VIBRANT and for me, it was way too-too, especially with such a busy Zentangle-ish image. 

So for the first time ever, I took a baby wipe and dabbed across the panel and by golly, it worked like magic at removing just enough color to make me love it! You can see where I dabbed away with a lighter hand in certain places to leave the card with some dementia.

I popped the colored panel up on a scalloped (PTI) turkoyce fun foam panel and I used a vellum strip for the sticker sediment so as not to block much of the image.

Challenges

• Card Concept: #115 {Mosiac Madness}
• Seize the Birthday: No toppings.
• Ike's World: Embossing.

Twofers

I used the rest of the dabbed colored image to make two QACAS designs. The sediments are from Simon Says Stamp. I used a PTI impression plate for the kindness card and an embossing folder for the praying for you card. 

Challenges

• CAS Mix Up Card Challenge: Baby Wipe. I used stamping, coloring, heat-embossing, and dry embossing.
• CASology: Color.

Challenges

• CAS(E) This Sketch.
• The Flower Challenge: Embossing (heat or dry). I used both.

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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!

*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!)

More Makes From Alcoholic Inks and Foil

Hello Stamplings,

How are you doing this fresh April day? It's been really hard to concentrate for any length of time in the Playhouse because of everything happening outside the window. There are so many shades of green, the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing, the hummers are everywhere, and the squirrels are running up and down the top of the fence like their pants are on fire. Even the weather is interesting to watch. I decided I'd better close my blinds or I'd never get this written!

Today I am sharing some artsy makes.

A while back my friend Harriet came over for a playdate and we had lots of fun with alcoholic inks and different types of paper. The above are the ones I made. I used the pink one in a prior post. Here is the lovely Harriet holding up one of her makes.

My backgrounds have been on the corner of my desk and I finally put together a Twofer with them.

Onefer

When a background is this sensational, it's hard to cover it up, so I went with a simple gold-embossed sediment from PTI and a stitched frame from MFT cut from gold mirri card.

Here's a more schparkly angle:

The process involves laying a piece of colored foil over the sticky bits left from a play with the alcoholic inks. Then you use one of your acrylic blocks to press the foil into the sticky bits. I achieved those cool slashes of gold you see by turning the block on its side and running the hard edge across the foil. It really adds a lot of dramatazazz which the photo doesn't begin to do justice.

Challenges

• Ike's World: D is for Die Cuts/AG.
• Love to Craft: April AG.

Twofer

I apologize for the cloudy day photos.

With white linen card, I used the MFT stitched frame again, adhered over another frame from PTI, and topped with a NBUS sediment from Concord & 9th. The coolest thing about these alcoholic backgrounds is that each one is unique. The frustrating thing about them is that each one is unique. Sometimes a background is so WOW you want to be able to duplicate it prezackly. But you only lament for a second and begin again because it's so fun and addicting and you never know how it's going to turn out. You know, like raising a child.

This is the inside of the card. Warning: Please avert your eyes if you don't like a little bit of naughty language...

What happened was, Hammy gave me the list of challenges he thought I might like to play in and one them involved using witty, naughty, and funny sediments. I didn't have a way to attach a funny one to the front, so I put it inside. But then when I went to add the links, it turns out it wasn't a challenge after all. It was a come-on ad for new carpeting for hamster cages! I'm not mad about that because I read it the same way myself.

Well, by then it was done and I rather like the unexpected inside with such an artistic outside. The sediment is ancient from River City Rubber Stamps. I know a few of you have been recipients of this stamped verse! 😄

Challenges

• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use Those Snippets.
• Simon Say Stamp Monday Challenge: Don't Be Fooled, Be Foiled.

 

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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! And thank you to all of you who left encouragement for Cornelia and me about our new series mentioned in the last post! Mwah!

*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!)

Purple Hop for Epilepsy Awareness

Hello Stamplings,

Happy Tuesday! I hope you've been well since I saw you last!

You know how I've been on a mission to use my products more than once in a sitting? Well, now I've gone the other way and I'm having a hard time knowing when to stop! Case in point is today's featured item: a die called "Clustered Leaves" from Simon Says Stamp. I had fun making four QACAS cards and to keep myself interested, I varied the colors and occasions.

Onefer

This was my first card, made for today's Purple Hop. The clustered leaves were cut from a piece of Yupo colored in wildly exotic purple shades of Lindy Magicals and then posed in front of an embossed brick wall background. The accompanying sediment is from MFT's "Label Tape." Here is a closeup of the Yupo sheen and the Lindy shimmer.

Today's Purple Day Hop was organized by my friend Fikreta to raise awareness for epilepsy. Fiki has a very informative post (and a giveaway) on her blog detailing the history of Purple Day and many of the myths surrounding this disease.

I hope you will have the opportunity to check out Fiki's blog and the blogs of the other ladies in the Hop. Most of us know someone who struggles with this disease which does not get the attention and funding it needs. 

In addition to Fiki and myself, here is a list of the other card artists participating in this Hop:

Sandie 

Ike

 Kitty

Annabel

Janis

Olga
Vicki

To thank you for taking the time to check out today's Hop, I also have a giveaway for those who are followers of my blog: a $25 gift card to Catherine Pooler! Whoot! Just let me know in your comment if you are interested in being in the draw. And for every name entered in the drawing, I will personally donate $2 to the Epilepsy Foundation.

Twofer

Isn't this die exquisite cut from vellum? The embossed swiss dots vellum I used here is from SU. The sediment is white heat-embossed. Here is a closeup of the pretty schparkle embedded in the red card stock which I've had for ages.

Threefer

From Christmas back to springtime! This time the background used to cut the die was made last May at Lolly's Retreat and I think it was Brushos on Yupo. The sediment is from PTI, embossed in platinum. Here is a closeup of the platinum shine:

Fourfer

I used a different Brusho on Yupo background piece for this die cut. A linen cover plate from PTI was used for the background. The hello sediment is from GKW and the thinking of you sediment is from Altenew.

Here is another view from above. Do you can see my BOO-BOO?

Oops. I hate it when that happens, but I wasn't about to risk destroying the panel to fix it. Please let me know in your comment if you're left-handed and you'd like to receive this pretty Happy Mail!

Recapitation

There are two giveaways in today's post for my followers! I'll have Hammy pick the winners in a coupla weeks on April 9th and I'll post the names in my Twofer post on April 10th. Please make sure I have your email address, so I can contact you if you win. If I can't contact you, another name will be drawn. Good luck!

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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!

*Life is too short!

Challenges:

• Purple Day Hop card: I'm entering this card in TIME OUT Challenges, where they are celebrating their 5th birthday! Congratulations! I'm also playing in Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, where the brief is "Play With Paint." 
• Christmas card: I'm entering this card in Ike's World Challenges, where the brief is "Clean and Simple" and in Rudolph Days, where the brief is "Anything Christmas Goes." 
• Spring card: I am entering this in Sweet Stampers Challenge, where the brief is "Easter/Spring," and in Less Is More's "Take 3" challenge. (There is one die cut and two words; or, if you prefer, there are three blings.) 
• Hello Beautiful card: I'm entering this card in  Crafty Cardmakers, where the brief is "For Someone Special" and Creative With Stamps, where the brief is "Friends."