CASE and OLC

Hello Stamplings!

Happy August! I'm just gonna leave it at that. Let's just enjoy every moment!

And make cards!

My Onefer today is a CASE (copy and share everything) of a card I've been meaning to make since, geez, quite a while ago.

The original was made by my friend Trina and you can find it here on her blog, Phamtastic Design. (By clicking over, you will become acquainted with Trina, if you are not already familiar with this talented card artist!) It took me a while to figure out how to do her card justice and still put my own spin on it.

The flower is NBUS from the Hero Arts die set called, "D1856 Bouquet." The die-cut sediment is from WPlus9 and the stitchery dies are from MFT. Hammy did a great job of winking, so he wanted a closeup:

Challenges:

• Simply Clean and Simple: Anything goes.
  
• Snippets Playground: Anything snippets goes. I used snippets of white and gold for my die cuts.
  
• NBUS: A/G, never-before-used-schtuff.

Twofer

I was planning to make and post my usual Twofer Christmas card, especially now that we are in August. (Oh, sorry, I wasn't going to remind you of that.) But then I saw the new challenge at Less is More is "One Layer" with an autumn theme, so I distracted myself and made this quickie:

This stamp set is from PTI's "Autumn Hills." I heat-embossed it in gold on a burnt orange card base. Using colored card for the base gave this QACAS design all the oomph it needed. "Wait. What?" asked the pipsqueak, "How about if you give that house a coat of white paint to add a little more oomph to your oomph?" 

Well, slap my pancake, what a great idea! So that's what I did, using my white Gelly Roll pen and what a difference it made!

Challenges

• Krafty Chicks: Stamp Act.
  
• Less is More: OLC.
• Stamping Sensations: A/G.
  
• We Love Stamping: Masculine.
  

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Had to share:

That's me on the left with my dear friend, Susan. We have been friends for over 45 years. We recently got together for dinner with our Misters and we couldn't believe how alike we had dressed ... down to the same exact pair and color of Tom's shoes! Longtime girlfriend/ships can make you twinsies!

While fashions have changed for women of our age,

thank goodness, friendships have not!

~~~

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! 

*Life is too short!

Off The Edge!

Hello Stamplings!

How are you? I know a lot of you are enjoying being outdoors in the garden or on vacations and traveling again and that's part of the reason for my long absence.

More below, but first, my card, which I made before our travels:

This month our Group of Seven Cardmakers weren't able to Zoom, so Lolly picked an old tried-and-true technique of "Off the Edge" for us to play with and share on the Group blog on the 28th. (I'm a bit late.) It didn't matter what image, style, or design we used ~ it only mattered that part of the main image was off-the-edge. You can see other examples by clicking on the link to the Group blog.

I love the off-the-edge look and usually achieve it by stamping my image off the edge of the main panel so it falls off into space. But this time, I stamped the image off the edge of a masked and blended background shape using a homemade stencil. I used markers to color directly onto the Penny Black stamp before misting and stamping. It was pretty that way, but I decided to use my waterbrush to move the ink around on the tulips, which really brightened them. Hammy waffled about adding schplatters, but decided to stop at winking to let the tulips be the star.

Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: Any Occasion.
  
• Less is More: Anything Goes.(Keep it CAS).
• SSS Wednesday: Anything Goes.

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Travels and Tribulations

Thank you to those who have checked in with me. I intended to post here the second week of June, but I got too busy preparing everything for going on vacation and just didn't have time. 

Then we went on a much-anticipated, long-planned vacation to Europe to do a driving tour of the Alps. We landed in Germany and drove a loop with stops in Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and back to Munich to fly home. And for their high school graduation gift, we had the pleasure of our grandtwins' company on the trip! 

The Mister (otherwise known as Papa) planned everything and he did an excellent job. He has taken a similar loop twice now with a group of motorcycle friends, so he is familiar with the area. Everything was spectacular, even the weather, and now the twins will have loads of memories of their old geezer grandparents to reflect on years from now.

Sadly, on the third day of the adventure, I came down with the worst head cold of my life. One so bad that even now that we are home, I'm still suffering. The Mister came down with it on the flight home, which is also sad, but we feel so blessed that he didn't catch it sooner. He did hours of driving and showing us the sights. Without him as driver and tour director ... well, it doesn't bear thinking about. Fortunately, so far, the boys haven't caught this evil bug.🙏

This cold is the whack-a-mole of all colds whereby it flits around from each of the orifices in your head; one day worse here, the next day worse here. You think you're better, but no.

Besides feeling like a zombie, the most bizarre symptom for either of us has been intense conjunctivitis in both eyes! Apparently you can get that if you have a cold. Who knew that was a thing?!😝 No fever, though, and it's not Covid, so we also feel blessed about that. Could always be worse!

I'll share more photos when my energy returns. This has taken me days to type. Thank you to everyone who has sent me a birthday card! I have a lovely full basket of cards waiting for Sunday, but I may take several days to open them. My focus button is also on the fritz and I want to give each of your beautiful handmade cards the full focus and attention it deserves! Mwah! 💕

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Enjoy your day and stay well! 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!

Welcome Spring!

Hello Stamplings,

How are you? I'm sorry I fell off the grid there for a minute. There's been a lot going on ... but like you, I try to squeeze in a bit of time for making cards when I can. 

Today I have a quick post and a quick card to celebrate the First Day of Spring. (Please keep your eyes focused on the calendar and not on what is happening outside your window.)

It's a shame you can't see how much this card glitters from Hammy's winking. This is a one-layer card (OLC) made by first inking direct to the stamps with markers, followed by a jeuzzing around with my Ziggies. The sediment is an old stamp that I think might be from Paper Smooches. Oh, and before he winked, you might be able to see that Hammy gave the background a very light pastel flickadoodledo.

I didn't have time to make a Twofer Christmas card, but I wanted to get this posted to welcome back Less Is More where the brief is OLC. It seems like they were on a verrrrry long break.

I'm also playing with:

• Beautiful Blossoms: Floral with optional mood board.
  
• Cardz 4 Galz: Spring flowers.
  
• The Paper Players: CAS from Ann: Spring has sprung!
  

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Sadly ...

Last week, my baby brother passed away after a brief battle with cancer at the age of 66. We weren't close because of circumstances outside of our control and the fact that we lived on separate coasts, but we hit it off the few times we were able to get together. He was a really good guy and his family and friends will miss him a lot. There were seven of us siblings and it is upside down that the youngest went first.😢

I know many of you have also lost loved ones recently and three of my bloggie friends have died in the last six months. It takes a toll.💔

🌬Also last week, we were finally impacted by the storms that have been rolling through California one after the other for weeks. The fierce winds took out two small trees and the whole length of our backyard fence. It's going to be a while before the fence can be repaired. Lots of other folks have lost trees and fences throughout our area and beyond, so the fence contractors are quite busy. My heart aches for the sweet birds, including "my" hummingbirds who lived in those trees.😢

Well, that's too much sadness for this blog! I don't want you leaving here sad, so how about a hamster butt to cheer you up? You can't look at that butt and not smile!

I hope you take care and don't forget to enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! As I always say, LITS*.

Mwah!

*Life is too short!

Bumble Bees and Swirling Silver Snowflakes

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are doing well! I've been busy traveling, having guests, and working in the garden. No, I haven't. That's a bold-faced lie. 

I don't know where time goes. I blame Covid. Ever since it arrived on the scene, I swear huge chunks of my time just evaporate. Or else I'm not just taking daily naps, I'm taking wide-awake naps sitting at my desk! I asked Hammy, but he didn't answer because he was napping. You see what I mean?!

But, hey, I did manage to make a coupla really complicated, colored, and layered card designs to share. Nope. Stop lying. Slap.

Onefer

How cute is this? And go me for using such ancient goodies! The NBUS sediment is from Paper Smooches. I gold heat-embossed it onto the card base under the vellum: 

Then I overlaid the pretty piece of vellum from Hot Off the Press over the card base. The dotty border and blue-winged bees are printed on it. Over that I attached a resin bee charm that I've had for ages. QACAS!

Challenges

• Less Is More: Use vellum.
• Cardz 4 Galz: 3 of anything (bees).
• Perfectly CAS: Emboss.

Twofer

For this design I used one of several NBUS (😏) 3D embossing folders I purchased from Simon Says Stamp recently. This one is cleverly called, "Swirling Snowflakes." I have too many sheets of beautiful glittery paper which I find difficult to use, but these 3D e/fs work beautifully with any color! The metal sediment says, "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas." I intertwined the silver and white ribbon (ribbon!!) through it and added a snowflake brooch cut in silver.

Challenges

• Rudolph Days: Anything Goes Christmas. Squeaaaaking in!
  
• Addicted to Stamps and More: Christmas.
  
• Can You Handle the Pressure? Anything Goes (without the optional twist).
  
• Peace on Earth: Christmas. What do we see in every photo on the mood board? Snowflakes!
  

(Hammy has the long Labor Day weekend off. He's gone to visit a friend over on the cool coast because it's going to be 100°-109° here for the next week.)

~~~

I stole this funny from Facebook for your enjoyment!

~~~ 

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

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse, being a follower, and leaving me some love!

*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!)

Mint and Pine in the Summertime

Hello Stamplings!

How are you on this fine day? You feel like you are winning just making it through one fine day after another, don't you? Yay, go us! And isn't it fun that 'go us' are the letters that bookend the word 'gorgeous?!'

Onefer

This one-layer clean and simple design features my NBUS stamp set from PTI called "Friend Til The End." I white heat-embossed the flower and painted it with my Ziggies in lime and brown. Then I stamped the sediment in brown and Hammy winked the flower to a fare-thee-well. 

Interesting side note: Fare-thee-well originally meant 'goodbye' or 'I fare you well' on parting. Over time it has evolved to mean 'the utmost degree' or 'a state of perfection,' which is ideal for describing Hammy's winking skills!

Challenges

• Less Is More: One-layer favourite flower.
• Color Hues: Chocolate and mint.
  
• The Flower Challenge: Circle/Circles.

Twofer/Threefer

I have made designs in the past that are similar to these, but I have not posted them. They are perfect for the current CAS Christmas Card Challenge where the prompt is "Pine." I love the look of copper with lots of white. I also love bronze e-p. And platinum e/p. I should use my metallic e/ps more often. Hammy, fetch your Bulletin Board of Reminders! Oh, sorry. I forgot there's no more space on it.

Update From Last Post

I made it through my Reading List and deleted over a thousand blogs because they had been closed for at least a year.😧 Oddly, a great many closed in 2015 and 2017. The process was very bittersweet and left me feeling melon collie. As I visited each blog, I recognized the faces, took a trip down memory lane, and was left wondering how they are now.

Bear with me as I come up with a new routine of checking out my Reading List each day to try and keep up with you. I have added Follow It to my side bar as another way for you to follow me. I will also start an email list for friends who don't blog so I can let you know when I publish a new post. I have a few names already, but let me know (if you see this!) via email if you want to be on that list. [darnell dot knauss at gmail dot com.] Thank you! Mwah!

Aaah Bless!

Warning: I know some of you don't like squirrels, so look away!

Our temperature was 104 degrees a coupla days ago. I was happy we had the bird bath filled for our feathered friends ~ and once in a while for our friends who wear fur coats! 

Immediately after lapping up his fill, this guy collapsed into his chillax pose! We had a stare-down contest through the window of the Playhouse until he got bored with me and moved on.                                                      

~~~

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

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse, being a follower, and leaving me some love! Remember that August 25 is Kiss-and-Make-Up-Day. I couldn't find it anywhere on the Interwebs, but doesn't it follow that August 24th must be Pick-a-Fight Day?🥊

*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 Range and A Ramble

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you well or on your way there! 

We saw the grandtwins yesterday and heard all about their college tours, so that was fun! In between doing summery things and a newly discovered project, I made a coupla four cards for challenges. During the summer, the participation in challenges is naturally lower because people are off stuck in airports on vacation, so I like to make a point of playing when I can. Grab a drinkiepoo. ☕🍹

Onefer and Twofer

You can prolly tell that these two cards were created from one large poinsettia stamped image from Waltzingmouse. I white heat-embossed it which created an emboss-resist, so I could paint it with watercolor brushes and stay within the pretty lines. After wards, I cut the image in half to make two cards. Hammy had a blast creating matching red and gold schplatters on each. 

Challenges

• CAS Mix Up: My friend Brenda is the Guest Designer this month and my friend Nancy is the hostess. The prompt is Emboss Resist. Besides embossing, my designs included stamping, die-cutting, watercoloring, and splattering.
• SSS Monday: Spritz and Splatter.
• SSS Wednesday: Emboss It.

Threefer

This W-O-W design is pretty self-exploratory, although I don't know why one pine cone looks yellowish. The background evergreen embossing folder is from Sizzix. The die cut branches and pine cones were in my bits box so I'm not sure who makes them. The sediment is from Winnie & Walter. 

Challenges

• CAS Christmas: The prompt is Pine, hosted by Trina
• Addicted to Stamps and More: Die Cuts and/or Stencils.

Fourfer

This QACAS design features an old NBUS butterfly from Butterfly Trio by Penny Black. You can't tell, but the card base is glossy. I wanted to see if it would work if I colored the butterfly directly with markers and stamped it. I liked how ethereal it turned out. I added the sediment from Concord & 9th and a thin black frame.

Challenges

• Just Us Girls: Butterflies.
• Less Is More: Butterflies.
• Krafty Chicks: Stamp Act.
• NBUS: Never-Before-Used-Schtuff.
  

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My New Project

Remember back in the spring of 2021 when the word went out that Feedburner was closing and they would no longer be handling blog subscriptions? A lot of us added Bloglovin' or Follow It or other third-parties to our side bars to replace Feedburner. But in reality, I continued to receive notices when people published their posts. Life went on pretty much as usual.

That all changed on August 1, 2022, when I opened my laptop and crickets jumped out. Instead of waking up to a daily average of between 50-100 emails, there were less than a dozen! Where did everybody go? I was shocked and I am continuing to be shocked every day since then. It's like most of the neighborhood moved out in the middle of the night and left me.

If you're using WordPress, or a mail service like Bloglovin', I still get your publication notices. If you're not, I can still find you again ~ that sounded stalky, lol! I just need to go back to my Reading List, but the problem is, my Reading List is not up-to-date. (Your Reading List contains those blogs you have followed using the blue Followers button. You can find your Reading List in the left-hand column of your Dashboard.) 

Because I was very good about following blogs and making friends over the last ten plus years, my Reading List contains 2,262 blogs!! I had no idea! Of course, a bunch of those blogs are prolly inactive now, so the list needs to be cleaned out. I really miss not getting your posts, so this is going to be a priority for me now. It will no doubt take me quite a while. BTW, I need to clean my list up regardless, but if there is something else going on, please let me know. 

I'll be back and until then, enjoy your days! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

*Life is too short!