Beautiful Bird Designs!

Hello Stamplings!

Once again I apologize for being gone so long. We were scheduled to go to the lesser-visited North Rim of the Grand Canyon this past week and that would have been a wonderful reason to have been offline for so long, but alas, we didn't go because The Mister put his back out a week ago, just at the start of the long 4th of July weekend. Why do these things always happen on long holiday weekends????

Until the doctor put him on stronger drugs, he was flat on his back for several days and I donned my Nurse Ratchet uniform once again. Little by little he has gotten better and stronger in terms of standing and walking for short periods of time. Yesterday he graduated to sitting for a few minutes, so he's getting there! 

Life is a series of curve balls, eh? ⚾

Thankfully, we have a hobby that provides distractions! It's the tenth of a new month (I won't mention the name), so I have my Twofer card designs for Twofer Card Challenge #40 to share with you. This month our prompt is:

🐦BIRDS!🐦

You all know how much I love birds, hummingbirds in particular. The hummingbird my two designs have in common is actually a stencil. I don't know who makes it; it was a lovely gift from my friend, Ang, affectionately known as "Mrs. Duck."

Onefer

I laid the stencil over a smooched background. On my craft sheet, I mixed some Nuvo glimmer paste with a few different colors of Brusho powder and then spatulated the mixture through the stencil. I was surprised that it turned out as dark as it did, but the resulting schparkle in a rainbow of colors is brilliant in person. All that schparkle made this hard to photograph and to make it even more schparklier, Hammy suggested a glittery panel as a mat. The sediment is from an ancient PTI set.

Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: Any occasion.
  
• Make My Monday: Anything airborne.
  
• SSS Monday: Fun and quirky.

Twofer

This uber QACAS calm design is self-exploratory. I painted the rainbow hummingbird through the stencil with my waterbrush and my Ziggies which was chance-y, but it worked. I saved that awesome piece of rainbow ribbon from something I can no longer remember, but I was tickled to find it in my stash! The sediment is from PB's "critter celebration." Hammy did his usual pro job of winking the hummer!

Challenges

• AAA Cards: Sketch, plus optional critters.
  
• Seize the Birthday: Anything goes.
  
• Watercooler Wednesday: All things feminine.
  

Come Play!

I hope you will pull out your favorite bird stamp, die, or stencil and make two different designs for two different occasions to join in the fun at Twofer Card Challenge #40! The two talented guest designers, Maria and Coni, and the entire Design Team have made beautiful bird designs to inspire you!

Thank you!💋

💕I have received (and continue to receive) beautiful handmade birthday cards and I thank you all so much! They were especially helpful to keep my spirits up through the long weekend and this past week. I love all your sweet and kind notes!💕

Before the calamity, I decided I should have The Mister take a new profile photo for the blog, considering I look different now that my hair is no longer colored. (It's more silver in real life; not sure why it looks so dark in the photo.) This time Hammy insisted that Nellie be given her turn in the spotlight! What a considerate guy!

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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 and please let me know if you have any problems receiving this post.

*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!)

Sunshine Came Softly . . .

Hello Stamplings!

I had a tough time choosing a sunshine song lyric to start my post. I googled it and was amazed how many songs there are about sunshine. But that's a good thing, right? 

It's already the 10th and that means time for the next Twofer Card Challenge! June is a wonderful time to choose 🌞SUNSHINE!🌞 as the prompt and here are my two cards to inspire you.

The sun die I chose as my prompt product is from Lil' Inkers. As you can see, I gave myself an extra personal challenge to see if I could also incorporate that awesome lighthouse die from Memory Box into both my designs. The lighthouse die came out in 2013 and the stitched sun dies are prolly the same vintage and I still love using them. 

Onefer

This card design is all about die cuts and Hammy even used an old circle punch for the small suns to give them more girth around the middle. I thought as long as I was using some old-timey products, I would use some old-timey speech. Because when was the last time (only time?) you've used girth in a sentence? Maybe it will come back into favor because of Covid and how we all added to our girth as a means of self-soothing during the long isolation.

But I digest. The background is a piece of pp. The white slated die panel (Watercolor Stripes Cover Die from Altenew) was a gift from my friend Betty. I used pp for the large sun and for the lighthouse and there were yellow vellum stitched suns used as well. The vertical birthday sediment is from Stamps by Judith.

Challenges

• Make My Monday: Outdoor Fun.
  
• Retro Rubber: Summer Breeze.
  
• Seize the Birthday: Nautical
  
• Uniko: Anything Goes. Optional: use diecuts.

Twofer

The beautiful blue foil you see was actually the spark of both of my sunshine designs. The color just screams ocean and if you look closely, you can see there is a water bubble pattern in it, so everything took off from there. The e/f is called Branches, but I think the lines also look like waves, and the sediment is from Paper Smooches. Hammy added some glossification to the middle of the sun.

Challenges

• Little Red Wagon: Make it CAS.
  
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Create a scene.
  
• The Paper Players ~ Theme challenge from Ann: Signs of summer!

The Deets

You can use either a SUN or SUNRAYS.

I am looking forward to seeing your sunny designs! We are fortunate to have Veana and Daphne as our Guest Designers this month. Their sunny designs, and those of the talented Team, will be sure to inspire you over at the Twofer Card Challenge!

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Fun With Letters

My sister Diana shared this fun brain teaser with me quite a while ago and I finally remembered to share it with you.

What's a nine-letter word you can turn into eight other words by simply removing one letter at a time?

STARTING

Remove the T = Staring

Remove the A = String

Remove the R = Sting

Remove the T = Sing

Remove the G = Sin

Remove the S = In

Remove the N = I

Of course, I had to take it one step further by starting to turn it into a story. It happened because I found myself staring out the garden window at a string that was out of place next to the butterfly bush. I stared at it for so long my eyes began to sting. As I sat there blinking to moisten them, I overheard my neighbor (the one with the collie who jumps on the fence) sing a song to her small daughter about the wages of sin. How odd, I thought, but I don't try to judge others too harshly when I'm in the process of eavesdropping. Wait. What? Eavesdropping? Not I.

I hope you have fun with your friends and family with this little brain teaser and enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy, and stay 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!)

Sending Prayers

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you doing well. I truly do hope that, although I know a lot of you, or your families, are struggling. The important message in continuing to hope you are doing well is all in the word HOPE. Such a tiny little word that holds enormous positive energy. 

Speaking of words, I want to thank you all very much for your words of comfort about my busted back situation. Your words are comforting and very much appreciated! 💋

I have a very quick post to share this card:

This is a NBUS stamp I've had for ages. I thought I had used it before, but I did a search of my blog and can't find it. It's a design from Dee's Artsy Impressions called, "Blossom Sprays #1," from STAMPlorations. I heat-embossed the image in black, watercolored it with my Ziggies, and Hammy ~ well, as you can see, Hammy got a new winker for Christmas! 

I heat-embossed the sediment in white for the NBUS fishtail banner from MFT. I wrote down the make of the sediment stamp, but I can't find my note. And, yes, I checked my socks to see if it was stuck to one of them!😊The whole shebang was matted to a pp panel from Lawn Fawn.

I was saddened to hear last week that CAS(E) This Sketch is closing. It is one of my favorite challenges. I rushed to make this card because I thought their last challenge ends in a few hours. But when I went over to grab the link, I read the post again and discovered that there will be two more challenges coming up before it closes. I will hopefully be able to play again and I hope you can, too.

I want to thank Chrissy Larson and the entire CTS Team, past and present, for bringing us hundreds of wonderful sketch challenges to inspire and motivate us to make beautiful cards. I applaud Chrissy for putting her family first, but I secretly hope that means she will be back with CTS when time again allows!

Also playing in these challenges:

• Make My Monday: New in your stash.
  
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Thank you, Jane, for guest hosting! My fishtail banner was cut from a snippet of yellow card.
  
• The Flower Challenge: Embossing, Heat or Dry.

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Thanks to the damnepic, we are all doing more cooking than ever before. Sometimes this happens!

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* Take care and keep safe!

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!)

Happy 75th Birthday, Nancy! W-O-W!

Hello Stamplings!

Who needs a break from all the worrisome and exhausting events happening around the world? You do! 

Well, I do, that's for dang shur! And if you do, too, then there's a virtual birthday party happening at Stamping With Loll's blog in celebration of the 75th birthday of our dear friend Nancy of Scandinancy Creates!! Lolly is having an InLinkz party for two weeks, so you can make Nancy a birthday card and link up to join in the fun!🎉

This is my card for Nancy:

Altenew makes some of the most stunning Washi tapes in gigundo rolls and I fell in love with this leafy delight. I don't know if you can see, but it is shot through with gold! For this design, I added a stitched frame, a sticker butterfly from the stash I'm trying to use up, and a fun sediment strip.

A few weeks ago I made 38 cards using my roll of this tape. I think I came up with ten different designs and here are a coupla three of them:

Have a spectacular milestone birthday, Nancy, and many many more! Mwah! Here is the cake Hammy and I made you! It's your favorite, with, of course, some bubbly!

Twofer

I love W-O-W (white-on-white) card designs. I think they are so fine. But when I go to make one, I usually start getting twitchy and want to add a little pop of color, eyeballs, a gold star, something. Not this time! This time I stuck to it and my left arm is in a sling from vigorously patting myself on the back!😇

There are only three ingredients: The NBUS framed scene with stag is "Deer Snowflake Scene" from Cottage Cutz; the two snow-laden whimsical crookedity trees are from Dee's Distinctively; and the die-cut Be Merry sediment is from GKW. The trees and sediment were made with snippets of white.

Challenges

• Christmas Kickstart: White-on-White.
  
• Make My Monday: Christmas in September.
  
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Anything snippets goes.
  
• Rudolph Days: Anything Christmas goes.
  
• Watercooler Wednesday: All about occasions. (Christmas.)

=

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy, but take care and keep well! LITS!*

Bizarro Comics

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!)

Spring Tulips and Earth Day 2020

Hello Stamplings!

How are you? I hope you aren't feeling too blue today. If you are, I send you a cyber hug to make you feel a little better. This pandemic is teaching us first-hand what it means to live in the moment and take things one day at a time. Else, you know, you're in the land of coocoo. 

Just to be different, I thought I would share two cards with you today. Haha. One of these days I'll just share one and you'll be looking around the back of your device to find the second one!

Onefer

This is another remnant from BOB of another remnant from last year's ESCR retreat. On this occasion, my crafty friend Nancy led a class where we made beautiful smooched and blended bookmarks. I saved a couple of images to use on cards like the one above and below are a couple of others I made and laminated to use as bookmarks:

Thank you, Nancy. I think of you every time I use them!

Challenges

• Double D: Showers and flowers mood board.
• Krafty Chicks: Clean and simple.
• Make My Monday: Spring flowers.

Twofer

Today is Earth Day! When I realized that yesterday, I reached for my "You Mean the World to Me" die from MFT. The die is one part globe and one part sediment. I covered the sediment with a dry baby wipe in an attempt to make it look like a face mask ~ an icon of this pandemic. I'm not sure how successful I was, especially considering some of the really sharp and professional looking masks many of you are coming up with on your cards! Mine looks more like a diaper or a panty liner, but the thought was there! 

Then, while I took out some cabin-fever-frustrations on the score board, I gave Hammy the job of taking the letters which the die cuts out to say, "you mean the world to me" and rearranging them to say, "we are one world." That is one indisputable fact this virus has shown us. It does not discriminate. It is not political. It reminds us that we all inhabit and are responsible for this big beautiful globe and by extension, each other.

Another thing that has been a constant as the virus has moved from country to country is each nation's brave first-responders and medical personnel who work insane hours at insane risk to keep people alive. We can never thank them enough, but one of our favorite challenges, Seize the Birthday, is running a sister challenge called Seize the Heroes! Thank you STB! I'm happy to be playing along!

Also playing in:

• HLS April Anything Goes With Dies
• Pixie's Snippets Playground. Both the green and blue portions were cut from snippets.

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And Then What Happened?

©Karen Bitters

It was a red-letter weekend here. I cut my own hair! I don't think I did too badly either and it certainly feels less shaggy. 

I've also decided to take this opportunity to let it go white. Or gray. Or a combination. Who knows? I have family members with all shades of gray, so it's a crap shoot as to what it will look like. And I can always recolor it. (And now I'll get a million hits on this post because I said shades of gray!)

I also gave Nellie her first all-over bath. Before I've just washed her feet and belly in the sink between groomings. She is so patient and just stands there and takes it like a pro. I also trimmed the hair around her eyes, but I'm not feeling capable or desperate enough to cut the rest of her hair just yet. I guess I need to start watching some videos.

How You Can Help

Oh, speaking of videos, I'll leave you with this video link which some of you may have already seen. It's a lady who shows how you can help by making masks out of your bras. My experience with making one was similar to hers.

How to Make a Mask From a Bra

Enjoy and enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* Take care and keep safe!

*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!)