Rising Wildflowers and Silver Poinsettias

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are enjoying October, so far, whether you are seeing the leaves turn autumnal colors or they are just budding out in spring greens. I think I've mentioned before that I'm a Leaf Person and, of course, that includes trees. If you had to pick one stamp/die set ~ one being flowers and the one leaves, which would you levitate towards?

Having said that, I do love flowers and I'm posting two today! This is D = Die Cuts on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar.

Onefer

This set is called, "Rising Wildflowers," by Pinkfresh Studio. When I first purchased it, the die wasn't available. As soon as it was, I got it and last week I had fun stenciling fall colors onto the dies. The background coverplate die called, "Diamond Delight" is also from Pinkfresh Studio. The "Pointed Rectangle Frame" is from Poppystamps and the vertical birthday stamp is from Stamps by Judith.

Playing in: A Cut Above (A/G with a die-cut); Beautiful Blossoms (Anything Floral Goes); and Mix It Up (A/G; option: Embossing).

Twofer

I love poinsettia images and have so many. Even so, I found one that was NBUS! And since I haven't used silver embossing in ages, I went with that. For the border, I silver-embossed the "Holiday Border Cling Background" stamp from The Ton. It's an all-around-border, but I wanted only one side, so I cut it and got two cards out of it! I used a silver metallic strip to edge the image. 

The NBUS poinsettia is from "Up Goes the Tree" from Penny Black. I die-cut and added another poinsettia to the back and popped it up to make it more fulsome. Another word I've always wanted to use in a sentence.

I liked the CAS design just as it was and because it's obviously a Christmas card, I decided to be a rebel and not add a sediment! The above photo doesn't capture the beautiful shine, so I took a closeup. 

Playing in: CAS Christmas (Poinsettia); Krafty Chicks (Christmas); and Merry Little Christmas (Anything Christmas Goes).

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse! 

The Mister is home from his motorcycle tour! Everything was wonderful and he had a blast! Thank you all for your prayers and good wishes! 

Mwah!

*Life is too short!

Sunshine and Snowtime

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you've had a wonderful two weeks! It's been busy here, but a very productive and fun kind of busy.

I missed die cut week on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar, so today is all about E = Embossing. But, of course, die cuts and ink like to be included whenever possible.

Onefer

I went with another sunflower this week. I have several of them, but this one is NBUS from Scrapbook.com called, "Sunflowers."  I'm actually using it pretty quickly after buying it on sale. (I'm afraid if I turn around, I'll see all the old virginal items on Mt. NBUS glaring at me!)

The background embossed flowers aren't sunflowers. I could tell because Altenew put "Daisy Bed" on the 3D folder. But what the heck, I think they do a fairly good job of impersonating sunflowers. A simple sediment, a black frame, and, of course, lots of winking by the lads finished it off. 

Playing in Krafty Chicks (CAS); Seize the Birthday (Add a Sediment Strip); and The Card Concept (Sunflower Delight; I was inspired by the sunflowers for my CAS design style.).

Twofer

This delightfully sketchy Christmas tree is NBUS from the Tim Holtz's set, "Season of Magic," in collab with Simon Says STAMPtember. Something about the set really grabbed me and I starting using it right away. It's versatile and so far I've made some cards in simple black and white, some gold heat-embossed, and some watercolored with the Distress Stains. 

Tim is having a video demo on Saturday, which I can certainly use, but I couldn't wait to have a play.

For the tree background panel, I used a snowy e/f and then backed that with a v.o. piece of bumpy green paper I found. To make the texture even bumpier, I embossed it with a pebbly Sizzix 3D e/f (662825). That was a bit much for the thin pp, so some of the bumps popped, showing the white core. That was a happy accident because now it looks like colored bubble wrap. 

I think you can just make out that Hammy and Stanley sprinkled the tree with some snowflakes that came with the kit. This was their first time flaking together, so it was a bit of a blizzard. You don't know until you try and now they will be finding snowflakes in their cornflakes for months to come!

I'm delivering my card to the Snippets Playground, along with a thermos of hot toddies and a blankie now that the evenings are drawing in and getting cooler. I used snippets for all three layers. (Not the sediment, which is premade from Memory Box.)

Getaway

It was perfect! And that handsome man you see is celebrating his 77th birthday today by heading off on a motorcycle tour in Europe, one year since his bad accident. I'm so proud of him for all his hard work to make it happen and I thank you for all your prayers this past year. (We would appreciate a few more to keep him safe until he is home again.❤️)

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Enjoy your week! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse! Mwah!

*Life is too short

ESPP!

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you doing well and not impacted by all the terrible weather-related suffering that's happening around the world. There seem to be more catastrophes than ever happening all at once.

The post title today stands for Embossing and Stenciling on Patterned Paper. It all started because the brief this month at CAS Mix Up is Stenciling Over Patterned Paper. I wanted to try it and then once I got started . . .

Onefer

I went through my patterned paper and I found a half-sheet of this pretty wave pp. I knew I had an cute whale die from PTI, so I die-cut one and then used the negative space to stencil the whale onto the paper. I ended up accidentally stenciling the whale over the pattern in such a way that she ended up with a smile! 

In order to keep my design CAS and use the Freshly Made Sketches sketch (turned horizontally), I cut the pretty pp into a diagonal panel. It is E = Embossing week on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar, but after going horizontal, I realized that all my wave e/fs are vertical.😮 Hammy to the rescue! He reminded me that I have a horizontal wave die, so I used a rubber embossing mat and turned the die into an e/f! The NBUS sediment is from the same PTI whale set.

Besides CAS Mix Up, I'm playing in: 

Addicted to CAS (Water); Allsorts (Embossing); Freshly Made Sketches (sketch turned sideways); Seize the Birthday (Funny/Punny); and Just Us Girls (Water).

Twofer

For my Christmas twofer design, I used a JoAnn's Park Lane e/f called Holly Berry using a pretty raspberry cardstock. 

Here's a photo of the old SU DSP I used. The poinsettia stencil is from Tim Holtz, blended with raspberry ink. I cut the poinsettia stencil panel down to a banner and added a simple sediment from SSS's Holiday Greetings Mix I.

I made a few more simple cards while I was on a roll and Stanley has a pile of pp for me to match with stencils tomorrow. I'm enjoying that part as much as the stenciling ... pairing the stencils with the pp to make the best designs gets my 'ol grey matter working! 

Playing in: Krafty Chicks (Christmas); and Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round (P is for Poinsettia).

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

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse! Stay safe!

*Life is too short!

Inky Dinky

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you as happy as I am! The laddies are back! Hammy and Stanley weren't due back until next weekend, but they had to cut their tour short because too many roads were closed due to fires and smoke. The bus company wisely decided to call it a day.

It is the first Monday in August 😮which means I got inky per my I.D.E.A.S. Calendar. And since I wanted to enjoy the wee critters and their tall tales, I quickly inked some dinky bits!

Onefer

You might recognize Kim's fun sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. I immediately thought of these summertime pinwheels from Gina K's "Sunny Days and Breezy Nights" kit. I colored them using my forgotten SAI markers. The NBUS sediment is also from the kit and the embossing folder is from Lifestyle Crafts.

The timing was great because the lads were itching to wink again and I was delighted to have them do it! I think you might even be able to see the schparkle in the photo.

In addition to FMS, I'm playing in Krafty Chicks where the brief is A/G with an optional Summer Mood Board.

Twofer

Next the boys went to work in the Christmas drawers ... they know that once August rolls around, they spend a lot of time in these drawers!

For a QACAS design, they came up with a NBUS die from Penny Black called, "Winter Sprig.

I die-cut the sprig and did a light watercolor wash. Then I simply attached the sprig to a green panel embossed with a folder from Open Studio called, "Gracious Leaves." The gold sediment is from Memory Box.

I'm playing in: Jingle Belles (Tic Tac Toe. Diagonal left to right: die cut or punch ~ red or green ~ and dry or heat embossing); Little Red Wagon (One Thing); and Merry Little Christmas Challenge (A/G Christmas).

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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! 

Today is National Watermelon Day! Stay safe and cool.🫶 

*Life is too short!

Daisies and Tufts

Hello Stamplings!

How are you? I hope you had a good week and that you were able to see the remarkable night sky over the weekend when five planets were visible with the naked eye! There were three in the west just after sunset (Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury) and then hours later, two in the east just before sunrise (Saturn and Mars!) 

The amazing event fell on the night of a new moon when the sky was the darkest, so if you were really lucky, you even saw the Milky Way! We only saw Venus, Jupiter, and (maybe?) Mercury, but then we had to put pajamas back on our eyes and go to bed!

Onefer

It is E = Embossing week on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar and the NBUS embossing folder featured here is called, "Quilted Daisies" from Scrapbook.com. 

The floral spray die cut is NBUS from Concord & 9th, designed by Kristina Werner and called, "Daphne's Flowers Inlay." The nice thing about this flower die is that Kristina has numbered the bits to make it easy to make the leaves and flowers any colors or patterns you want. Mwah!

And, yup, I used more of the gorgeous pp from Craft Consortium, all swirly and shot with gold. It loses a bit of its gob-smacki-ness when it's used for teeny blossoms, but I like how it turned out and I do enjoy inlaying. That's different laying than napping-laying, but I do enjoy that, too.

Entering: Allsorts ~ Anything Grows From the Garden; Seize the Birthday ~ Anything Goes option; and Snippets Playground (I used lots of pp scraps to die-cut the flowers).

Twofer

As we speed towards July, I hope to make my Twofers as Christmas designs from now on.🤞   

I also used a NBUS e/f for this card. This one is from Simon Says Stamp called, "Tiny Tufts." The thing is, what kind of tufts are they? Olives? Carnations? I pulled out my Artistic License and decided to make them Christmas berries.

I used my brayer and red ink on the bumpy embossed side and, as usual, it looked like leftover pizza, so I turned the panel over and brayered the debossed side. It sort of looks like fabric because of the textured watercolor paper.

To give it more pan ache, Stanley suggested we scallop the edges with a die from PTI. Then it was a matter of finding dies that I could use for stems and berries to decorate the sediment while not obscuring the background. Yay for "Up Goes the Tree" from Penny Black! I painted the berries and stems with my Ziggies and then Hammy carefully glossified the berries, et Violet! The sediment (also from SSS) is called, "Elegantly Modern Christmas."

(If you're wondering, the scalloped borders are up-lifted because I accidentally trapped a piece of Timothy hay under the panel. When I turned back to my desk after looking through my dies, I found Stanley madly nosing his way all around the edges of the card, trying to find a way to get under the panel! I had to distract him with a strawberry to get him to stop, but after all that, I decided to leave it and call it a design feature! Never a dull mo!)

Entering: The Card Concept ~ Christmas in July. I was inspired by the colors and the white and red balls on the Christmas tree in the photo. (Love the little beagle!) Also entering: Krafty Chicks ~ Christmas, and The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up ~ Anything Goes.

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Enjoy your week! 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! 

*Life is too short!