Sweet Wishes and an Ode to Jessi

Hello Stamplings,

I hope you are enjoying this week as you climb up and slide down the hump today. Reading your blogs, it seems we all agree that January snuck away in the night when we weren't looking!

I had to stop with that sentence and look up "snuck" versus "sneaked" because Mr. Blogger underlined snuck as if it were wrong. (How dare he!) Apparently it's okay to use either word, but snuck is considered an old-fashioned use of the word and sneaked is more modern. I use both, being the fence-sitter that I am. I find it amusing that I would normally use the words thusly: "He snuck out of the house to see his girlfriend," whereas, "She sneaked back into the house after seeing her boyfriend."

Words, you gotta love 'em! A friend and I had a similar convo last week about "sped" versus "speeded." But I see that my time is up for today's etymology class. Please close your books and adjourn to the art room where you'll find today's Onefer:

Like a smarty-pants I combined the hugs and kisses usually used on Valentine cards with the sweet wishes and cupcakes usually used on birthday cards because I have a need for birthday cards on or near Valentine's Day. To add some zhoosh, I made the hugs and kisses rainbow colored. Also because The Card Concept had a rainbow-colored cupcake challenge, but sadly I see it has closed. Don't you hate that?

Since I love puzzles, I had a blast piecing the colored bits into the white die cut border. Thankfully Hammy helped so it took half the time. The hugs and kisses die is from Memory Box and the cupcake and sediment stamps are from Penny Black's Sweet Wishes stamp set. I cut strips of matching snippets to add to the bottom and border of the card while Hammy winked the cupcake and glossified the cherry on top.

And then, rather than toss the die cut snippets in the BOB (box of bits), I made the rest of the cards I needed to mail:

Sorry about the shadow. It was late on a rainy day when the sun came out long enough to grab a shot. What's that you ask? What am I going to do with the dozens of left-over little colored hugs and kisses? Let's just say that if you receive one of these cards in the mail, you might want to open it over something other than your lunchtime soup bowl.

Challenges

• Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge: Anything goes w/ pp.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Anything goes w/ snippets.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Add some red.

Twofer

I have another snarky stamp to share, which I know just about everybody enjoys. And don't you love that pp? It reminds me of looking through a kaleidoscope. Sadly, I only had the one snippet, so I don't know the manufacturer. The ladies are Emerson stamps and the NBUS sediment is from Rubber Dance Stamps.

I made the above card because Shopping Our Stash is having an "Ode to Jessi" tribute. Jessi passed away in December at the age of 42. She was a talented friend and a member of the Design Team for SOS. Jessi and I met online very soon after I started blogging and we soon realized we shared the same wicked sense of humor! To honor Jessi, SOS is asking us to CASE one of Jessi's cards from her blog. I had trouble accessing her blog this week, so I pulled up my folder of cards I've received from friends. This is the card I am CASEing, which Jessi sent to me for Christmas 2016:

The sediment says, "Oh, holy crap, they had an open bar!" For my CASE, I used a full panel pp for my background, a circle stage, and a cute image with a snarky comment. I know Jessi would approve! RIP, Jessi. You will be missed.

Challenges

• Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: V is for Valentine. I know my card doesn't look like a traditional Valentine, but I'm sending it as a Valentine to a friend who will love it.
• Shopping Our Stash: Ode to Jessi.
• Love to Craft: Anything goes.

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Blogger Issues ~ Again

Many of us who receive notification of our friends' blog posts via our mail inboxes are once again having problems receiving them. Many more of us are finding that we have been reverted back to being "no-reply bloggers" after fixing our settings to change that. It's so frustrating!

You have prolly noticed that Blogger is doing away with Google+. I'm not sure if that's why things are getting discombobulated, but the only thing I can suggest you do is what I did: go back into your settings and remove your email address from the appropriate places, click save settings, and exit. Then go back to your dashboard again, re-enter your email address in the appropriate places, and click save settings again.

This fix hasn't worked for all who have tried it, but it has worked for many others, so you have nothing to lose by trying it. Please don't ask me why it works for some and not others. I'm guessing it depends on what's the third from the last letter of the middle name of your grandfather's first cousin on his second cousin's side.

I'm not setting out the full instructions here, but if you need help with where the appropriate place is for post notifications via email, let me know via my email which is listed on my profile page. Or you can use the Contact Me form in the salad bar on the right. If you need help with where the appropriate place is for correcting your no-reply blogger setting, you can click on the red Are You a No-Reply Blogger? label in the salad bar on the right.

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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!)

Smooches for CAS Watercolour!

Hello Stamplings!

It's football fever in this country because the Super Bowl is tomorrow! Did you know that more corn chips and avocados are consumed on this one day than in the entire rest of the year?! I just made that up, but I wouldn't be surprised. Based just on our household.

But that's tomorrow and today I'm having a crafty good time coming to you as the Guest Designer for the very fun CAS Watercolour Challenge! The brief this month is the timely color challenge of Red & Pink!

Here is my card to inspire you!

I talk a lot about smooching on this blog because I think the world can always use more smooching! I brought out some old faithfuls for this card: an old Penny Black stamp, an old Paper Smooches (more smooching!) sediment, and some ancient heart pp! The rectangle frame is popped up for some dementia.

Of course, the little critters in the image were drawn by the stamp artist as mice, but I had to quick do some snipping so you-know-who would think they are hamsters. I don't know if you think I succeeded, but I fooled Hammy, so mums the word, 'k? Everything was colored with my Ziggies, winked by Hammy, and for some extra interest, I finished by glossifying the Os in SmOOches.

I hope you'll bring out your romantic reds and passionate pinks, or your rollicking reds and playful pinks, and join in the CAS Watercolour Challenge! The challenge is open until February 24, 2019. The talented DT have lots of amazing inspiration waiting for you on the CASWC blog!

I'm also playing in these challenges:

• Love to Craft: Anything goes.
• Penny Black Saturday Challenge: Anything goes or Flowers.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Love is in the air.

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Twofer

As long as I had my various heart pp on my desk, I decided to make a Twofer using a NBUS set of dog dies from Impression Obsession. Using my Clarity Brushes and spun sugar DI, I first added a heart to the front linen panel using a stencil. The terrier is standing on a heart cut from fun foam (unglossified) and both dogs were also cut from a dark brown card and the two papers were layered to form a shadow. I believe the LOVE sediment is from Paper Smooches. 

Challenges

• Cards in Envy: Love me, love my pet.
• CAS Mix Up Card Challenge: Dimensional die-cuts, plus stamping and stenciling.
• Inkspirational: Sweet Things photo inspiration.
• Just Us Girls: Word week: Love.
• TIME OUT: Home Sweet Home photo inspiration.

 

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Turner Syndrome

Have you ever heard of it? I hadn't until yesterday when I saw that a Turner Syndrome Awareness Blog Hop is being held from February 1-7, 2019, hosted by Lori Kobular. Turner Syndrome is a genetic disorder where females are born with only one X chromosome, instead of two, leaving them with medical issues and life-long learning disabilities. If you have a few minutes, please check out the Hop where you can find more information and, in turn, you can help spread the word on your blog! Prizes are being drawn from among those who leave comments on the Hop designer's blogs.

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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!

Have a fun weekend and I hope your favorite team wins!

*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!)

Owl You Doing?

Hello Stamplings!

You know how much I love birds and you've seen my photos ranging from tiny hummingbirds to massive hawks. I have a drawer full of every kind of bird stamps, but for some reason, I rarely make a card with one of my owl images on it. What the owl?!

I remedied that and had such fun playing with these owls from Paper Smooches Chubby Chums set.

For this anniversary card, I used a panel of gold-embossed DSP for the background. The stitched heart is cut from a gold-striped Bazzill snippet and filled with a soft green center. The owls were cut from an alcoholic Yupo snippet, and the beautiful gold-embossed "love" sediment is from GKW.

Speaking of anniversaries, yesterday the Mister and I celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary! We can't figure out how that's possible since up in our heads we are only 32 years old (and sometimes 12!)! We met 50 years ago this coming September! You know, when I was six.

Challenges

• The Card Concept: Pink party in lovely pink and green and gold.
• Love to Craft Challenge Blog: Anything goes.
• Shopping Our Stash: Hearts on fire.

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Here is my twofer graduation card:

The sediment is from Endless Creations. Hammy rightly suggested we give this very smart owl some googly eyes and a glittery tassel on his mortarboard.

I am really proud of myself because I thouAgHhEtAD when making this card and realized that in May the twins will be celebrating their 8th grade graduation. So I made another one for the other one!

That's Henry's card on the left and Adam's card on the right. How do I know? Because Henry's favorite color is yellow and Adam's is blue! (It's the tassels.)

Challenges

• The Creative Crafters: Anything goes.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Clean and simple.
• Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: B is for Book. (Snark optional.)
• Watercooler Wednesday: Masculine anything goes.

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This post is a reminder about the current Twofer Card Challenge, so here is a photo of both my Twofer cards together. 

The prompt this month is BIRDS! The Twofer Card Challenge is open until January 24th, so you still have lots of time to play along! Thank you!

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The New InLinkz Sign-in Requirement

If you play in challenges, you are familiar with the InLinkz button you click to enter your card. You may have noticed that InLinkz is transitioning to a new sign-in process, which you will eventually see on all challenges that use InLinkz. The new InLinkz sign-in requires you to enter challenges either via Facebook, Google, or your email account/password. I was being asked questions about the process, so I wrote a letter to Maria at InLinkz to ask her about the situation and let her know that many challenge players are wary of entering challenges because of the new requirement.

According to Maria:

The sign in requirements we have instituted, it is not an actual sign in but rather a verification of emails and it is a needed change due to the GDPR.

The GDPR states that email and IP address is personal data. As such, we, as a processor, cannot provide data to a controller (you) without getting the consent of the owner, which is done through email or facebook/ google accounts. In simple words, we cannot gather emails without making sure they come from whom they say they come from (hope this makes sense).

The confirmation process is something that entrants need to do it only the first time they enter a link in a new linkup. After that, they will not need to re-confirm for any subsequent linkup they participate.

I hope that makes you feel more comfortable about signing in to continue playing in your favorite challenges!

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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!)