A Tiny Cow or Tiny the Cow

Hello Stamplings!

How're you doing? Times are again a bit uncertain and the weather is again all over the place around the world and for the bazillioneth time, I'm grateful I have an escape. Otherwise, I don't know, I might have a drinking problem, or possibly be in jail for spousicide, or locked in a padded cell blowing bubbles through my nose. 

Who knew a few hundred thousand dollars worth of craft supplies would make such a difference in lives?! We did! It's our little secret.🙊

I just have one quick card for you today:

And here with her arm raised to toast you is our cow friend, Tiny. Tiny is from the Penny Black Vintage Collection. As you can see, the sun is starting to set and in Tiny's family (and ours) that means cocktails, especially during the holidays. You may remember that Hammy often takes a vaycay in early December after all the Christmas cards are mailed. He took this photo of Tiny a couple of years ago (pre-Covid) while visiting her in Baja. 

Tiny has since mooved into the Udderly Divine Bovine Retirement Village so in future she will have to hide Hammy in her Santa hat if there are any other cows around. Because you know ~ cows and rodents. (Great Chicago Fire of 1871.)

The photo of Tiny was too good not to frame and put on the mantle every year at Christmas time, so I used red glitter paper for the mat and for the sediment. I used a torn piece of paper to delineate the sand and ocean. I used a cloud stencil and blended CP ink for the sky and I used a colored pencil for the sand and sand dollar. The Flying Gulls are NBUS from Memory Box.

(If you're nautical by nature, you might notice that the ocean horizon is not level. It's because the little photographer had had a few cocktails himself and not because a Sue Nami was about to hit unsuspecting Tiny.)

Challenges

• Day of the Month Card Club: Cow Appreciation Day.
  
• Just Add Ink: Just add two: sky, sea, trees.
  
• Penny Black Saturday: A/G (optional monochrome).
  
• Rudolph Days: Anything Christmas goes.

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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!)

A Puppy and QACAS Christmas

Hello, my dear Stamplings!

I hope that you are having (or had) (or are about to have) a great day whatever you do (or did). Can you imagine how irritating it would be if I did my whole post that way? I won't. But I'm tempted.

The reason I'm tempted is because I'm really, really punchy right now. The Mister and I have been kept up every night for four nights by a rotten critter under our house. It's a small house so every scratch and movement of a pebble sounds like a monster is about to burst through the floorboards and devour us in our sleep. (Gee, sorry if you are reading this at bedtime!) The soonest exterminator we could find isn't available until Monday.😫

Always something! But, never mind. A card will take your mind off that.

I used one of my many Nestability label dies for the aperture on this cute card done up in black on a pink card base. Gosh and golly, I think I have every size of those labels and I never think to use them. (Slap!) I heat-embossed the sediment (from PTI) using SU's blushing bride e/p. The little dog is an ancient button I've had in my stash for years. Hammy added the little bone from Doodle Bug . . . 

Challenges

• AAA Birthday: For a child.
  
• Seize the Birthday: No toppings.
  
• Watercooler Wednesday: Helen's all about occasions.

. . . There is a story behind this card. One of my nieces recently lost her beloved Chesapeake Bay Retriever and to help fill the loss, she got this darling little dog:

She's a Havanese and her name is Mimi. She only weighs four pounds now, but she'll get to seven or eight pounds. Quite a change from an 80 pound dog, eh? Can you believe those eyebrows? They karack me up! 

Here's a closeup of the button:

You'll see that I colored the tan button with my black marker, except for the snout, eyebrows, and paws to make the button look as much like Mims as I could make it, if you ignore the ears. I had a lot of fun creating this card to make it personal for Katherine.

So now we have three Bichons in the family: our Nellie, my niece's Mimi, and her mom's dog, Cisco. We safely got together with them last week for a quick visit and photo op!

Stop it! How cute is that? They are bred to dance on their back feet, even as puppies! You're entirely welcome! You can come back and look at it anytime you get out of shorts.

Twofer

This very QACAS Christmas card was created using Altenew's Vibrant Spray Die Cut Tape! It's a Washi tape in sticker form. I ordered it after seeing my friend Di make a beautiful batch of cards using it. It comes in a wide large roll. I laid a strip of it down the center of a heavy 8.5 by 11 white card and then I cut that down the middle of the tape to get two front panels. I was able to make 64 Christmas cards with one roll of tape!

I know there are roses on the design, but I  thought it would work just fine for a Christmas design because the colors are Christmassy. The sediment is from Happy Little Stampers. And you know who 🐹 has spent the last several weeks carefully placing three little sequints on each card, bless his crafty little heart!

Challenges

• Altenew Washi Challenge: Wild with Washi contest.
  
• Just Add Ink: Inspiration photo. I thought the colors were perfect.
  
• Krafty Chicks: Christmas.

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Enjoy your day and have a great weekend! No, seriously, enjoy, but be safe! LITS!*

Can someone please tell me when the Medicare commercials will STOP???!

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!)

A Beach, a Bee, and a Baby

Hello Stamplings!

We've whooshed through another week unscathed and in lickity-split time and I hope you've done the same! 

Every Friday morning now for weeks we will be sleepily moving around the kitchen getting breakfast and one of us will start the conversation about the day and each other's plans and suddenly the one not talking will whip around, drop their jaw onto their chest, bug out their eyeballs, and whisper, "Wait. Is it Friday again?!" Every.single.week. It feels like we get up on Wednesday, step out of the shower, and it's Friday. It's positively ionic.

Fortunately, a three-day week is all I need to make a coupla cards.

Beach

Inspired by so many summer-y beach-y challenges, I made this cheer-y design which looks a little crooked-y. That happens.🙈 Just lean into it. It's Friday.

Of all things, I used a Tim Holtz woodgrain stencil to blend out a stretch of ocean and a stretch of sand. The fun NBUS beach huts are from Avery Elle, watercolored by me, and then winked by Hammy. The NBUS sun ray stencil is from Moda Scrap. 

Of course, as any sensible person wouldn't, I decided to add the top level of the sun rays to the card base after adhering the panel. I remember back in the day when I had forethought ... but that might be an afterthought. Did you know merrythought is a real word? The definition is not the one I would have given it. It means wishbone of a bird. That's crazy, right, but at least you earned something new today. 

Challenges

• The Card Concept: The dogs days of summer. I was inspired by the summer theme and the colors. My style is clean and layered.
• CAS Mix Up: August watercolor hosted by Loll: Beach.
• Country View: I do like to be beside the sea.
• Happy House: Summer holiday.
• Seize the Birthday (no toppings): Anything goes.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday: Summer memories.

Bee

I was playing in another lifetime with my friend Harriet and we were having fun with foil. This was a very glittery foil on an ancient bee from GKW. After wards I colored it in with my Ziggies and framed it with a square frame turned to form a diamond shape, as one does. I added a simple sediment heat-embossed in gold and a coupla Matts.

Here's a closeup which is a bit blurry because of all the schparkle:

Challenges

• Just Add Ink: Just add T (as in Thinking of you).
• Shopping Our Stash: KISS: Keep it simple, sister.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Midsummer blues.

Baby

I told you a while back about the old lizard we call Stubbie and all the little lizards that entertain me out the Playhouse window. I have pictures of him and I was going to do this whole collage, but, you know, how many lizards do you really want to see? 🦎

Anyway, I rant out of time, so instead I will just show you this itty-bitty baby I spotted sunning himself on a large white rock in the yard. I was taking photos of my card when I saw him, but before I could turn my camera towards him, he skittered underneath the rock. I circled him so you don't have to strain your eyes. So cute!!

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy (LITS!*), but please keep 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!)

Don't Lose Hope

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are doing well!

It's hard for me to concentrate because the Mister is out in the yard digging out a bush that's at the end of its days. He distracts me because he is such a manly man doing all that muscle-y work! 

Haha, yes, there is that, but more than that, I worry that he is overdoing it. Turns out this particular plant has roots to Middle Earth and he won't stop halfway and do the other half tomorrow. Are you like that? If you start something, by heck, are you going to keep going until it's finished? 

I can't really get after him for it because I'm the same way, but I didn't have major back surgery a few months ago. He's not gonna listen to me, so just a sec while I close the blinds. There, now let's talk about this:

As soon as I saw the current sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch, I thought of my Picture Perfect set from MFT and how this NBUS dog would fit right in the white space of the sketch on a note card. When you look at the sketch, can you see what I mean?

The stamp actually comes with a kitty cat on the dog's back, which is why he looks so concentrated, I mean consternated, but kitty had to be put outside for the purposes of this design. Doggy also had to have some surgery. (Settle down. They're both fine. It was only paper surgery during fussy-cutting and not stamp surgery.)

I colored him with a Tombow marker and colored pencils and Hammy winked the pinks of his ears, the whites of his eyes, and the black of his nose. Even though the big floppy ear represents the opening between the two dark sections of the sketch, I did follow the sketch underneath. Here, I'll  gently bend the doggie's ear back to show you:

Besides CTS, I'm linking to:

• Just Add Ink: Just choose two: stencils, pencils, and patterned paper.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use those snippets! The doggie and sediment were cut from snippets and the pp was a snippet.
• SSS Wednesday: Anything goes.

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I mentioned a while back that I was making cards using some of the beautiful pp I've been hoarding. Here are a few more of them showing you some simple designs ideas:

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Thank you to my friend Mamie for these:😄😄😄

• Never in my entire life did I imagine my hands would consume more alcohol than my mouth.
• Today's weather? Room temperature.
• The longer this goes on, the harder it will be to return to a society where pants and bras are required.
• I just tried to make hand sanitizer and look at that: it came out as a rum and Coke.
• Yesterday I saw someone I knew walk by on the sidewalk. I immediately ran to the window and started yelling at them. Now I understand dogs.

~~~

Take care, keep safe, and above all, 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!

The Mister just sent a text from Middle Earth. His back is fine. Phew!

*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!)

Cute / Classy / Cozy Christmas

Hello Stamplings!

As the title says, I have a Threefer of CEE creations for you. No, that's not a new aaackronym I made up. It simply stands for the letter C in the alphabet soup. You know, just me being cilly.

When I saw the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch last week, it was SO clean and simple that I had to play along, so I made this set of triplet cards. Then I looked out the window and the challenge ended. But that's okay, I'm sharing them anyway because they're cute and they fit other fabulous challenges.

These cute critters are NBUS, from Stampingbella. I embossed the card base with snow. Then I heat-embossed three snippets of icy blue vellum with platinum e/p using three different 'peace, love, and joy' stamps I own. I watercolored the chicklets with my Ziggies, fussy cut them, and popped them on ice. A twist of lemon and they're delish!

Challenges

• Perfectly CAS: Christmas
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use your snippets!
• HLS: November CAS: Tis the season.

Twofer

I covered a white card base with a piece of vellum that came speckled in gold. Over that I placed a sediment that was heat-embossed in platinum on vellum. Next, I white heat-embossed this beautiful Waltzingmouse poinsettia on metallic gold paper, fussy-cut it, and attached it to the card front. Hopefully, you can get a sense of the shine and schparkle from the gold and platinum.

Challenges

• The Flower Challenge: Add spots or stripes.
• Just Add Ink: Just choose two: stars, spots, sparkle. My card has spots and sparkle.
• TIME OUT: Celebrations.

Threefer

The underskirt on this pretty card is a background I made using Lindy Magicals. Over that I laid a panel of white which was die-cut with a NBUS Creative Expressions "Poinsettia Edger" die. The sediment is from Hero Arts.

Challenges

• CAS Christmas: Warm and cozy.
• HLS Anything Goes With Dies.
• The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge: Anything goes.

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Even though it will be weird to have our Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving, with Thanksgiving being so late, we are having the boys with us today and tomorrow to help put up the tree and decorations. We want to keep up that tradition because they'll be all grown up soon. If all goes well, there will be a 2019 photo posted soon, but I shake my head as I type this ... doesn't it seem like you just saw the 2018 photo of them with the tree?! Anyway, I'm glad they're here because Hammy has been off visiting his family and even with sweet Nellie here, I always miss him when he's away.🐹

Enjoy your weekend! 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! Fiona Hill for President! 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!)