April 8: D is for Dies/Die Cuts

Hello Stamplings!

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you are doing well! 

I'm running short of time, so I'll get right to my "D is for Dies" designs for Week Two of April's I.D.E.A.S.:

Onefer

My featured NBUS die this week is "Stained Glass Rose Circle Frame" by Memory Box. That's a mouthful, but it makes the best QACAS cards. It cuts like a dream and you're left with a beautiful rose wreath and a single swirly rose. The swirly rose in this design is inside the card.

I love the look of the pretty patterned paper I used. So simples. To add interest, I used the same paper to back my sediment and for the card base, I used a paper that Hammy has been hoarding. (He's so busy playing, teaching, and having fun with Stanley that I was able to sneak a piece!) It has a lovely corduroy look and feel. To jeuss that even more, I added score cards and pretty flat bling.

Twofer

Another QACAS card along the same lines using plain white card for the diecut and another awesome textured paper for the card base.

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And now a few photos to share of my adventures last week:

Lee, Diane, Diana, Darnell

I met up with my sister Diana and we went to visit our cousin Lee and his wife Diane. Lee is our cousin on our Dad's side and I've only met him and his wife once before, many years ago. It was very nice to see them again! 

Lee is 84 and a hoot. If we had grown up in the same area, we would have gotten into a lot of mischief. For example, notice that hat and hair you see in the closeup? That's fake hair! What's left of his hair is cut very short. He loves it when his barber shop gets a new barber and he can spring that hairdo on them!😄 (He only gets away with it for a minute because those twinkly eyes give him away!)

My sister and I both love trees and there were several cool areas along our drive for me to snap photos.

We also stopped at a tulip farm where our timing was perfect to see the incredibly beautiful tulip bloom this year! Thank you, sis, for a fun time!

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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! I neglected the computer last week, but hopefully I will catch up with you soon.

*Life is too short!

Challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More (Die Cut and/or Stencil); Memory Box Challenge (Birthday); Seize the Birthday (Spring Floral); and SSS Wednesday (Happy Birthday).

Inspiration

Hello Stamplings!

Thank you for taking a break from making/signing all those cards to visit me. It's a chance to rest your fingers. You needed to get up anyway to relieve things, stretch your legs, pour a wodka cup of tea.

That's how these cards came about. Hammy and I took a break and then, of course, we saw a coupla challenges that squirreled inspired us! So, in turn, we thought we would inspire you, real quick like.

Onefer

This card is QACAS all the way and the sediment makes it a bit non-traditional for a Christmas card. All you need is a pretty colored card base and die cuts and you're done. The Poinsettia Ribbon die is from Memory Box and the Hello die-cut was a gift from a friend, so I don't know who makes it.

Challenges

• The Flower Challenge: Use a die.
• Freshly Made Sketches.
• Memory Box: Holiday cards.

Twofer

This design was easy, too, just a little more time-consuming with the layers of pp, but it always feels good to use it. The sediment from Technique Tuesday was stamped in red and heat-embossed in clear for some schparkle. A stocking brad was added for punctuation and shazambam, doners!

Challenges

• The Card Concept: Photo Inspiration. I was inspired by the red and white and by the plaid black and white pillows. My style is Clean and Layered.
• Just Us Girls: Anything goes.
• Shopping Our Stash: Happy Holidays.

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Okay, back you go! 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!)

Cocktails and Christmas Apertures

Hello, Stamplings!

I've got a fourfer forya and a photo to share, so without further a dew, please pour a Cranberry Appletini and grab an aperture. Hammy will be around later with refills. I'm sorry they will be tiny refills, but you know, tiny paws.

Onefer.

I used my NBUS Memory Box "Stitched Snowflake Circle Frame" and more of my ancient pp. I have several of these metal Christmas verses from (I think) Tim Holtz and I have found them difficult to add to my CAS cards because of the weight. But with this circle design and a pretty ribbon, wallah, it's a perfect way to use them.

Linking to: Jingle Belles: Heavy Metal Holiday; Memory Box Challenge: Holiday Greetings.

Twofer.

Using the circle that was cut out from the pp for the first card, I made this double vanilla textured cone with snowflake toppings. This time I used one of my favorite word Christmas dies from Winnie & Walter.

Linking to: SSS Wed. Challenge: AG; SSS Mon. Challenge: Icy Inspiration.

Threefer.

Next I tried out my NBUS Christmas tree aperture die called "Sloping Hillside" from poppystamps. I added snow-embossed acetate behind the window, but before adhering it, I slipped one of the trees behind the window and placed the other on the card front. The trees are NBUS dies from Taylored Expressions. 

Linking to: Die-Cut Divas: Winter Time; Less Is More: Red and Green.

Fourfer.

Here's another rendition using the same die. The red panel is embossed with a dotted die from Avery Elle. The background is another Brusho snippet. I'm not sure it is the right choice now that I see it on the screen. It looks too much like a forest fire, but if you can tear that visual off your retinas and replace it with one of the northern lights around the North Pole, it looks a lot better.

Linking to: Uniko: Christmas; CAS Watercolour December Challenge: AG.

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We were delighted to have the twins back for another visit over the weekend. They are as tall as me now, so they "get" to decorate the tree, haha! I think they do a fine job of it!

I have to tell you that we enjoyed a hysterical car ride with the boys trying to explain the origin of many of the common idioms and phrases that Papa and I grew up with. It started with Papa exclaiming that someone was living the "life of Riley." Henry asked, "Who's Riley?" After we explained, they wanted to hear more such phrases, even though each one was declared to be "cheesy!" 

~~~

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 to 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 the pop-up box opens. Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel! P.S. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Mwah! 

Shaker Butterfly and Surfing Granny (Not Me!)

Hi there, my friends!

Our town was jam-packed with graduation parties over the weekend as both high schools released their Seniors out into the big bold world. I wish them all the best as they embark on the rest of their lives, lives which will be filled with peaks and valleys. The important thing to remember is that valleys are always followed by peaks ~ even though sometimes it's a long hard climb back to the next peak!

Wouldn't that be a good marketing approach for a hiking shoe company?!

I want to share a card I made yesterday to join in the celebration for my friend Ardyth who recently celebrated her milestone 50th birthday! The link will take you to Ardyth's personal blog "Maskerade," but the celebration is being held over at her Muse challenge. 

I used Die-Namics wonky dies and Memory Box butterfly dies. The sediment is NBUS from Rubber Dance Stamp.

Normally the brief at Muse is to CASE (copy and share everything) a specific series of designers, but this week we are to CASE any of Ardyth's own cards. Ardyth and I have known each other since we both started blogging over five years ago, so I have lots and lots of her cards in my to-CASE folder. It was fun searching through the years and in the end, I chose this card which she posted August 4, 2016:

Ardyth usually makes square cards, but I was lazy and made my card an A2 size, so I wouldn't have to make a square envelope. (Obviously, Hammy and I need to have a talk about getting an Old World monkey with opposable thumbs to help us out.)

Happy Birthday, Ardyth! I wish you many, many more!!

Challenges

• AAA Cards: The 3rd Big Birthday Bash! Congratulations, AAA!
• Butterfly Challenge: L is for Layers and/or the colour cream.
• Memory Box: Celebrating Birthdays.
• Muse Card Club: Celebrating Arydth's birthday.

 

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For my Twofer today, I had fun making this:

I used a single NBUS Die-Namics stitched rounded die to cut three appetures this way and that way and then I used the negative openings as a stencil and the positive cuts as a mask to blend the top and bottom rounded rectangles using Distress and Oxide inks. Come again? I mean, I don't know how else to describe it, but it sounds more complicated than it was. 

I used the round blending tool to make my sun by simply inking and pressing the tool into the paper.

Then for the center rectangle, I again used the negative opening as a stencil and I stamped a NBUS Inkadinkado stamp that I received as a gift from my dear friend Brenda quite a long time ago. A very long time ago. Cough. Using inks and my aqua brush I painted the stamp image and the background. After wards, I ran the one-layer panel through the BS using a waves e/f and attached it to a card base.

The sediment is from the Die-Namics "label tape" set of dies and stamps. The inside says, "a Happy Birthday!"

Gotta love a surfin' granny! I noticed that this granny's many curves have turned into just the one circular curve just like mine has done!

Challenges

• CAS(E) This Sketch!
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything goes.
• Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: B is for Beach.
• Watercooler Wednesday: Anything goes.

~~~

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 to 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.

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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!

Babies and Friends

Greetings, Stamplings!

I see you have all cleaned up the fallen dominoes of February and the march of March has begun! Whoosh! At this rate, I'm buying myself a neck brace!

I can't remember the last time I needed a new baby card. I suspect that's because in my age group all of our eggs have fossilized. Of course, there are grandchildren in the picture for some, but a lot of my friends have children who have not yet married, let alone had children. It's a new time. 

So when a very young friend of mine had her second child recently (a boy), I had to pry open the rusty hinges on my baby-making stamps and dies. Wait. What? My stamps and dies don't make babies, silly, that's not what I meant. 

I was not surprised to find a few NBUS goodies in the lot, some of which I had forgotten I even had. Cough. Hammy and I had lots of fun playing with them.

Onefer

Recipe: 

NBUS circle die from MFT: "Stitched Circle Frames."
NBUS baby elephant die from Poppstamps: "Small Elephant."
NBUS "welcome" "boy" and "baby" (from fun foam) from PTI: "Wonderful Words: Baby."
Tiny safety pin from my stash.

~~~

Twofer

As long as I had my baby schtuff out, I decided to make another baby card for a girl baby who has yet to come along.

No need for a long supply list for this simple design. I used a banner of melon mambo ribbon from SU and a sediment from "Love You to Bits" (ancient). The NBUS "Baby Carriage" in matching melon mambo is from Memory Box and the NBUS teeny-tiny baby head is from PTI's "Polka Dot Parade No. 4." 

Is that not the cutest little baby head?! The set comes with its own little carriage, but I wanted to use this MB carriage die. As a result, the baby looks like a preemie, but just look at how strong her neck is!

Challenges

• Less Is More: Sketch.
• Memory Box: Ribbons.

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Visiting Friends

Yesterday my long-time British bloggie friend Liz (of Crafty Sunflower) and her husband Alan came to visit the Playhouse! I had the pleasure of meeting Liz last July on my trip to the UK and I was delighted to see her again when they included a stop in San Francisco on their way back home from New Zealand. 

Here we are in front of the Playhouse door.

Bonus: when I was cropping the photo I noticed the Mister had captured himself in the window reflection!

And here are Alan (on the left) and the Mister (Kevin).

Both Liz and I were taking photos with our own cameras. Isn't it interesting how each of the husbands is looking at the other man's wife? No they weren't! Stop that. 😊

Thank you for stopping, Liz and Alan. We enjoyed lunch and wish you safe travels home ~ and hi back to Di and Ruth!

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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 to 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 the pop-up box opens.
Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel!
If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me
your email address so I can respond.  Thank you!