Deep In the Wreaths!

Hello Stamplings!

Good to see you! I hope you had a great week and that you are enjoying the last days of August, wherever you are. I'm a morning person, so I love waking up to sunshine and goin' and doin'. Which means I'd better make the most of these days before the sleepy darker mornings roll in.

This week's I.D.E.A.S. Calendar is A = Anything Goes, which I turned into anything wreathy goes. 

Onefer

This is QACAS at its finest, if I do say so myself, with a chorus of agreement from the hamster gallery! I used more of that brilliant textured card I found which looks like Cord U. Roy's pants. The doubled-up wreath is made from Washi Tape die-cuts from Pinkfresh Studio. The gold-embossed sediment is from GKW. After wards, I ran my Galaxy Gold Dew Drop ink pad around the edges of the pants card.

I'm playing in the AAA Cards Challenge (Anything Goes CAS with the option of green); and the ABC Christmas Challenge (Q is for Quick).

Twofer

Guess what? This card features a NBUS Penny Black stamp and die set called "Winter Blessings" which I recently purchased! I'm trying to be better at that, realizing I risk NBUS Mountain erupting one day when I least expect it because of all the jealous stamps, dies, and stencils that have been stuck there for (cough) years.😱

Anyberry, I used kraft paper and three of the five stamps in the set and there you go. Trivia: in all my years of card-making, this is the first cardinal stamp and die I've owned! Thank you, Penny! It's a beauty and I can't wait to paint it, but this time I simply cut it from red paper and dressed it. Winking of the cardinal and berries provided by my wee helpers. I added three score lines to the bottom pursuant to Lesson 41 in the Book of Compositions.

I'm playing in Christmas Kickstart (Let's Wreath It Up); Little Red Wagon (Circle of Life); and Penny Black Saturday Challenge (Anything Goes - optional: embossing).

Threefer

If you play in Freshly Made Sketches, you'll recognize this layout from their challenge #700. They are celebrating 14 years of challenges! WOW! They went back in time to re-use Sketch #14 (below) for the celebration. It's my first time using this sketch because I didn't start playing in their challenges until my early days on March 4, 2012 with challenge #24! Where has the time gone?!

To build the sketch, I started with the wreath to keep with the theme and I cut it from a scrap of green metallic paper. The wreath is NBUS from Pinkfresh Studio called "Leafy Circle." Then I went through my stitched square dies to find the right size and die cut it from metallic gold. I cut a 4.25 square card base and covered it with a gold panel. 

Then the fun begin. Hammy looked through my gold flecked vellum paper, Stanley looked through window at the squirrels (he is still very young) and I looked through my dots and stripes pp. A sheet of gold stripes won and then we had to spend another hour doing the math and trying to attach the little panels so they were evenly spaced, but differently angled for more interest. Then we had a lie down.

To add the wee corner detail per the sketch, we found this cute little gingerbread cookie which my friend Bunny sent me back in January 2024. It was a happy rediscovering and there are five more little cookies in the envelope, so you will be seeing them again. (If the lads don't run off with them as little playmates!) Bunny included a note that the cookies were from Impression Obsession.

I'm also playing in Rudolph Days, an Anything Christmas Goes challenge that runs from the 25th to the end of every month.

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As we say in the industry, if you've made it this far, thank you!🫶 I actually made a few more cards and have some wreaths still to use, but it's Sunday and nearly Ni-Ni time, so I'll save them for another post. The fact that I didn't realize I had so many wreaths tells me it's time for a visit from Scour and Reorg, characters I love in the book of my life, weirdo that I am.

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I.D.E.A.S. Calendar: A = Anything Goes

You will find a linky tool below for you to share your creations with no restrictions! It's a free-for-all and you never know ~ your creation may help motivate someone out of their creative schlump! 

I love seeing what you create, visiting you, and pinning your designs! 

Thank you so much to everyone who shared their designs last week! Mwah! 

~~~

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!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Birthday Embossing

Hello Stamplings!

And Happy Monday to you as you begin your week with high hopes! Whatever they may be, I hope they come to fruitition. (Which makes more sense than fruition. What's a "fru?")

All around our neighborhood, hydrangeas are blooming with their many tiny little flowers all balled up into one huge flower. They are one of my most favorite flowers and I was inspired to bring out an old favorite stamp and paint.

Onefer

This stamp is Essentials by Ellen Mondo Hydrangea. I stamped the flower and leaf in black, heat-embossed in clear e/p, and then painted with my Ziggies before die-cutting. 

The lads went to town winking and then all three of us schplattered with diluted guache on the flower and leaf and with diluted purple ink on the background panel. That panel was embossed with an SU Sizzex e/f and attached to a lavender card base.  Finally, the flower was attached using foam squares. The sediment is a foil greeting from Memory Box.

Challenges

Beautiful Blossoms: Mood board with purple hydrangeas.

Cut It Up: Send me flowers.

Seize the Birthday: Flowers.

The Flower Challenge: Add spots or stripes. (Or both!)

Twofer

For this QACAS design, I used my NBUS gingko leaves 3D e/f from SSS with a panel of watercolor black paper which gives it a lovely texture. Then I simply swiped the raised bits using a piece of white chalk turned on its side. The circular sediment is also from SSS.

Challenges

Alphabet: C is for circles.

Let's Craft and Create: No patterned paper.

Little Red Wagon: D is for die cut.

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I.D.E.A.S. Calendar: E = Emblossing

You will find a linky tool below for you to share your creations using some form of embossing. Your card may help motivate others out of their creative schlumps or give someone a step-off for their own design! 

I love seeing what you create, visiting you, and pinning your designs! 

Thank you so much to everyone who shared their designs last week! Mwah! 

~~~

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!

Have a wonderful Memorial Day holiday next Monday. We will be with friends so I will not have a post. See in June!! (Another year whooshing by way too fast!) 

*Life is too short!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

More Spring Tulips!

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend/holiday as we whoosh around to another Monday! We enjoyed having family and friends with lots of delicious food and laughter. Nellie was in dog heaven, hoovering up any bits that were crumbed to the floor!

Today I have a quick share, using this week's I.D.E.A.S. Calendar. This is the third Monday of April (and Happy Birthday to my big sister Diana!🎂) and the prompt is E= Emblossing. 

I used this "Layered Tulip" die from Waffle Flower a few weeks ago and at that time I cut a couple of extra flowers. They were intended for Easter cards, which didn't happen in time, so I used embossing folders and made two spring birthday card designs instead, painting the flowers with my Ziggies.

Onefer

This one features an embossing folder that is new to me, sent to me by a friend as a card protector with her card, so I don't know who makes it. I lightly blended CP inks over it in pastel spring colors before popping on the painted tulip and the sediment. The fishtail banner is from PTI. 

It's hard to see, but the lads winked the entire tulip. Poor critters, they pull such long faces when they see the photos, confused because on the camera screen (and in real life), the schparkle from the winking is blinding, but it goes missing when the photos get to the gallery. Er?😶I reassure them that the same thing happens to all of us. Then I put on their "Hammy the Hamster" (Bubbles/The Monster) DVD and they're good again.

Challenges

Just Us Girls: Moodboard. I was inspired by the colors.

Seize the Birthday: Layer it.

The Flower Challenge: Spring flowers. 

Twofer

This very QACAS design using the second painted tulip features Craft Concepts "Stately" e/f. I used hammered card, three gold balls, and a partridge sediment strip from Memory Box. Ba-boom!

 

Challenges

Krafty Chicks: CAS.
Little Red Wagon: Birthday

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I.D.E.A.S. Calendar: E = Emblossing

You will find a linky tool below for you to share your creations using embossing, whether wet or dry. Your card may help motivate and lift others out of their creative schlump or give someone a step-off for their own design! 

I love seeing what you create, visiting you, and pinning your designs! 

Thank you so much to everyone who shared their designs last week! Mwah! 

In honor of Earth Day tomorrow, I'm leaving you with a bouquet of irises from the front yard of our neighbor George. 

Enjoy your week! I'm off to make a ham samitch!  

*Life is too short!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Embossing Day!

Hello Stamplings!

Howze you doing? On this part of the globe, we are in that middle-of-February sick-of-winter time with its freezing boring cold and gloomy dumpy doom. To combat this, we make cheery cards!

It's Embossing Day at Chez I.D.E.A.S. That reminds me of the old-timey, "Wash on Monday, Iron on Tuesday, etc." schedule which described the lives of wives from Victorian times until, well, our time. I'm grateful for all the modern conveniences and inventions which allow me to spend my days using my new-timey hobby schedule to make crafty things!

Onefer

The first NBUS product I am featuring is, "Cheerful Floral" by Memory Box which comes with stamps, dies, 3D embossing folder, and stencil. I didn't notice until this minute that there is also a separate die for the center blossom, so you could make it, what, 4D? I mean, if the embossing folder is 3D? Anyway, next time. I painted the bouquet with my Ziggies, painting all the flowers in different shades of CP pinks, per The Flower Challenge.

The process is pretty self-exploratory, except to say that I used a heavier hand when blending the same color of ink in order to create some shading on the flowers and leaves, rather using than the stencil bits provided. I'm sorry you can't see that the lads liberally winked all the bits. After wards, I added a diluted schplash of squash white. And the background panel was embossed with SU's Subtle e/f.

Playing in:

Addicted to Stamps and More ~ make your mark.

The Flower Challenge ~ feature the colour pink.

Seize the Birthday ~ A/G option.

Twofer

The NBUS product on this card is another 3D e/f from Memory Box. This one is called, "Snowy Forest." I simply used my brayer to apply Versamark to the raised bits and then heat-embossed the panel in silver e/p. 

(I didn't want all that powder on the sky part, but after I tried applying the Versamark directly to the folder [and getting it on the sky part], and after I then tried swiping the Versamark directly to the embossed white card [and getting it on the sky part]), I just decided not to fight it.)

Playing in:

Krafty Chicks ~ Christmas.

Little Red Wagon ~ red alert.

52 Christmas Card Throwdown ~ masculine Christmas.

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Sing it with me!

Uh-huh.

Monday – Wash Day!
Tuesday – Ironing Day!
Wednesday – Market Day!

Thursday – Cleaning Day!

Friday  – Bake Day!

Saturday – Fun Day!

Sunday – Rest Day!

Everybody happy?

Well I should say!

~~~

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!

The Group of Seven Get Glittery and Happy Halloween!

Hello Stamplings!

It's good to see you again! I hope everyone has been keeping well and enjoying some crafty time! 

Has the panic of Christmas card-making hit you square in the face yet? Me, too. It's such a shock every year, in spite of our wonderful all-year-round Christmas card challenges. Does that mean we're not the brightest ornaments in the box or are we eternal optimists, thinking somehow another month will be wedged in there to give us more time?

Fortunately this month's technique at Group of Seven Cardmakers lent itself to Christmas card designs for me and because this is the fourth week of the month, my I.D.E.A.S. schedule is "Anything Goes!" Woot!

Our technique this month is Glitter Painting on Acetate. Wait. Wait. Don't run screaming at the mere mention of the word herpes glitter. It is messy, sure, but what's the big deal if you go to the grocer's with glitter in your hair or down your shirt front? Even a schparkle or two over tonight's spaghetti and meatballs could be fun, right?!

Onefer

It is a bear trying to photograph glitter AND acetate! For both my cards, I reached for an old favorite stamp set from PTI called, "Botanical Blocks IV." After stamping the image with StazOn ink onto acetate, I painted the poinsettias with glue and glitter. Once dry, I backed the image with a watercolored pink pp from my stash, and finished with a stitched gray frame.

Twofer

For the holly, once the glitter was dry, I glued a small red panel behind the acetate to back the image. Then I glued that to a panel of SU emboss-resist pp. Finally, to bring the eye to the center, I glued a narrow dotted frame to the acetate. On the advice of my two whiskered helpers, no sediments were added to either card.

You might wonder why I only used white glitter on my cards. It's because when I moved everything out of the Playhouse for repainting and purging last December, I purged my collection of glitter. Fortunately, Hammy spoke up as I putting all my vials in a box and he reminded me that I should hang onto the white glitter for snow and such on Christmas cards. Thank you, Hammy!

If you still have lots of glitter in white or in colors and you want to paint with it on acetate (which is totally fun and very addictive), you will see lots of colorful examples on the Group of Seven Cardmakers website! And you'll also find a linky tool where we hope you will share any schparkly cards you make!

Happy Halloween!

A coupla weeks ago, I posted a wreath with a big black spider from a Memory Box die. I thought I would try using the negative spider as a stencil and it worked great! After stenciling with orange CP ink, I embossed the panel with a 3D Tim Holtz folder that looked a bit webby. Before running it through the Gemini, I used a gray ink pad to lightly ink the pointy bits.

Another Fun Visit

Last week my friend Bev visited me from Wisconsin and this week I visited my friend Brenda in Indiana! Brenda's blog is Inkspired to Stamp.

It's not the best photo, but we are novices when it comes to selfies! It had been five years since we were together and I thoroughly enjoyed my visit! And it was wonderful to meet Daisy, The Wonder Dog ...

... who was sad to see me go.😒I felt the same way, Daisy, but I'll be back!

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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! I hope your tricks and treats are lots of fun!

*Life is too short!

Challenges

Just Us Girls: Use a stencil.

Little Red Wagon: Embossing.

Rudolph Days: A/G Christmas.

SSS Wednesday: Christmas.