Butterfly ~ Butterfly I

Hello Stamplings!

How are you? I hope you've been doing well. Have you missed me? I took a bit of a break the last coupla weeks. We celebrated both my birthday (2nd) and the 4th of July very quietly. Thank you for all the messages and beautiful cards! The Mister gets jealous because I have one of those first week of the month birthdays where you turn the calendar and slap your forehead because you forgot to send someone a card. He's jealous because that means my cards keep coming in for days and days!🥳

It felt good to step back from the computer and television and accomplish all these things:

1. Cleaned and purged all the clothes closets and dresser drawers.
2. Cleaned and purged the linen cabinet.
3. Deep-cleaned the house.
4. Cleaned and purged the garage with The Mister's help.
5. Cleaned and purged the Playhouse with Hammy's help.
6. Worked in the yard.
7. Prepared my July cards for Twofer.
8. Started on my Christmas cards.

Pretty good, eh? 

Oh, shoot. Wait a sec. I'm sorry. That's the wrong list. That list is my list of things to do!

Sorry about that. Here's my list of what I've accomplished:

Well, never mind. I did do #7! This month the prompt for the Twofer Card Challenge is the always-popular:

🦋BUTTERFLIES!🦋

Once again, someone will have to help me out with who the manufacturer is of these butterflies. I thought it was an old set from PTI, but I spent an hour trying to find it online without success. I even searched my own blog, thinking I've used it before, but apparently it's NBUS.

Anyway, it's a great set of butterfly stamps and dies, with these three sizes and three teeny-tiny sizes. ETA: Thank you, Colleen! It is a set from Mama Elephant called, "Butterfly Kisses."

Onefer

I stamped and cut several butterflies and painted them in rainbow colors using my Ziggies. Hammy added his winking. I thought it would be fun to have the butterflies bordering the scored sediment in opposite directions. The sediment is NBUS from PTI's "A  Bit More: Butterfly Blooms" set. QACAS and done!

Challenges

• Dies R Us: Anything goes.
• Retro Rubber: Anything goes. Butterfly Blooms released May 2018.
• STAMPlorations Summer July Challenge: Anything goes.

Twofer

For this simple encouragement card design, I stamped the NBUS floral border from Altenew with watermark ink and embossed it in gold. The gold-embossed sediment is also NBUS from the same set. I attached the panel to an aqua card base and added two painted and winked aqua butterflies as a pop of bling. QACAS and done!

Challenges

• Mix It Up: AG + Optional Twist of Open Technique. (Heat Embossing.)
• NBUS: Anything goes never-before-used-schtuff.
• TIME OUT: Days Gone By. I keyed on the word "Day."

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Join Us!

I really enjoy seeing your creative designs in the gallery, so I hope you'll join us for this month's Twofer Card Challenge! For more awesome inspiration, check out what our talented Guest Designers Barb and TK and the entire Design Team have made for you!

Please remember that you can make two conventional designs or one conventional design and one unconventional design using your butterflies. We have winners for both categories. 

Also, do you Instagram? We are resurrecting our presence there, so please share your art by tagging the new account (#thetwofercardchallenge), so everyone gets used to the change. Mwah!

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From Facebook

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* Stay safe! Be a racoon!

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!

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!)

Paper Hugs and Poinsettias

Hello Stamplins!

I guess I'm feeling very southern today. How y'all doin'? A lot of Americans went hog wild over Memorial Day weekend and time will tell if that was a dumb idea. I can't take any chances, so it was just three more days in paradise for us. Not really, because we are having unseasonably boiling hot temps up to a hunnert and five degrees this week.😳Thankfully, it's spose to cool off by the weekend.

So my non-crafty item I'm grateful for is not a little one today: it's air conditioning! And my crafty item I'm grateful for is glitter paper!

My friend Trina sent me a thank you card recently which I blatantly copied CASEd for this card. The beautiful NBUS glitter paper, which I had to immediately purchase, is from Memory Box and the NBUS paper hug sediment is from The Stamp Market. I'm not sure where the sweet stem is from because I borrowed a die at the last Lake House retreat.

Challenges

• HLS Anything Goes With Dies.
• Mix It Up: Anything goes. (Optional twist: masking.)
• The House That Stamps Built

Twofer

This is a study in smooching with broken china. Ouch! The wreath is from PTI, the fussy-cut poinsettias are from Waltzingmouse. The border frame is Pointed Rectangle from Poppystamps. You can't see it, but Hammy winked the poinsettias and a schparkly gem was placed in the centers. The sediment is from GKW. It was stamped in black and clear-embossed.

Challenges 

• Christmas 24: Christmas flowers.
• Christmas Kickstart: Wreathed in smiles.
• Retro Rubber Tic Tac Toe. Diagonal bottom left to upper right: flowers, embossing, die cut or punch. Wreath 2017, poinsettias, 2010, and border 2017.
• Rudolph Days: Anything Christmas goes.
• The Flower Challenge: Monochrome.

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Nellie

I promised you more photos:

Here she is all unkempt, but still lovable. Nellie looks pretty cute, too! (We were having a pensive moment. If you look close, you can see my gray hair starting to show!)

And here she is bright white and shorn and looking alternately like a lamb or a puppy. Not bad considering she will be nine in July!

Dancing for a treat! (I need a Pull-It Surprise for taking that photo while dangling a treat!) According to the AKC regarding the Coton de Tulear breed: "... Amusing traits of these long-lived jesters include unique vocalizations and a knack for walking on their hind legs." We are so blessed to have rescued her. I have about eleventeen more photos and a recording the Mister made of her "talking" to him, but I'll spare you!

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* Please continue to stay in if possible and take care when you have to be out and about.

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!)

From Poppies to Snowballs

Hello Stamplings!

Today is Memorial Day in America. A day where we pause to honor the lives of the men and women who died while serving in the military and to acknowledge the sacrifices of the families they left behind. 

I've made a poppy card thank you. 

Rather than the symbolic red poppy color, I painted my poppies the colors of the state flower of California using both my Kois and DIs. I have seen card artists who can magically paint flowing backgrounds on their watercolor cards. It's not my usual sort of minimalist lean, but I always love it when other people do it, so I tried it. 

I have to say I was pretty pickled tink with how I did. So much so, that I carried my card into the house from the Playhouse in order to show The Mister and, well, you can see what happened. I got halfway across the deck and an unkind seagull took a bathroom break all over my card!!

Can you believe it? No? Oh, all right, I'll be honest. I over-diluted some white acrylic paint and instead of practicing first on a piece of scratch paper, I let Hammy take a leaping jump onto the paint brush and ... oops. I decided to share anyway. Even though all accidents are not "happy" accidents, it's how we learn, so it's all good.

BTW, the NBUS image is "Charming" by Penny Black which I stamped in black and heat-embossed in clear before painting.

Challenges

• CAS Colours & Sketches: Colours.
• Mix It Up: Anything goes with option of mixed media.

Twofer

This adorable ageless beauty has graced the pages of this blog before. She is my Aunt Charlotte, immortalized by Art Impressions. I'm sure you can see the family resemblance especially in the chest area. Aunt Char was always slim in the hips while I took after the heavy-bottomed other side of the family. As a result of being both front- and end-loaded, I have no fear of tipping over. (Which tiddly Aunt Char has done on most holiday get-togethers.)

I started this card during Retreat free time in order to enter it in the Christmas Kickstart Challenge when I got home. The brief was "S is for Snarky Christmas," but sadly the doors have closed. Now I think most of you know what x-rated thoughts Aunt Char is referring to by "reindeer games," but in case you have young children (or a hamster) looking over your shoulder, I handdrew a pile of innocent-looking snowballs.

Challenges

• Just Add Ink: Just add Q-X-Y-Z. X is for just a teeny bit x-rated.
• Love to Craft: Anything goes.
• Rudolph Days: Anything goes Christmas.

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Bonus Surprise

The lovely lady seen with me above is none other than Scrappy Mo, the hostess of Rudolph Days! Loll reminded me that Maureen lived very close to where we were renting a house in British Columbia and we were all delighted that she was available to join us for lunch one day. It was a pleasure meeting you in person, Maureen!

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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!)

Twofer Card Challenge #15 - Zoo Animals

Hello Stamplings!

How's the world treating you? I'm not going to talk about the beautiful spring weather today because someone told me they are having snow this week after several days of gorgeous weather. We'll just talk about something else.

This month over on the Twofer Card Challenge, our prompt is Z🐒🐘 ANIMALS!

I chose an adorable zebra from Paper Smooches for my zoo critter.

Onefer

In addition to the baby zebra, for my encouragement card I also used an ancient unmarked grown-up zebra foam stamp. I stamped him onto a dream cloud die from Simon Says Stamp and popped the cloud on the upper panel. The sweet NBUS sediment is from Elizabeth Craft Designs.

Challenges

• Inkspirational: Pop it up.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Animal antics. Use no designer paper.
• Mix It Up: Black and white plus one color.
• Use Your Stuff: Flora and fauna.

   

Twofer

For my second design, I made a Christmas card by giving the little zebra a Santa hat from Memory Box, cut from fun foam. The NBUS stitched half circle die is from MFT, the sediment is from The Ton, and the borders are tape from Washi. QACAS! He looks like the grandtwins looked a few years ago when we made them wear Santa hats on Christmas eve!

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PURPLE HOP WINNERS!

As promised in my Purple Hop for Epilepsy Awareness post, I also want to announce the winner of the $25 gift certificate to Catherine Pooler:

The winner is Lisa Babitz of I Played With Paper Today. Congratulations, Lisa! Happy shopping! (You see Hammy is wearing his Easter bonnet already!)

In that same post I offered my "boo-boo" card to anyone left-handed because I put the front on the back. What I should have done is said that I've made that mistake eleventeen hunnert times before in 17 years of making cards. I feel very blessed to have friends like you who think I'm perfect and it's never happened to me before now! Mwah! The winner is Mia of Craftartista! Congratulations, Mia! I'll be in touch to get your address.

Finally, there were 40 of you who asked to be included in the draw, so as promised, I have personally donated $80 to the Epilepsy Foundation. Just click on the link if you would like information about making a donation yourself. Thank you to everyone who commented on that special post!

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I look forward to seeing what you make for us this month! Zoos have exhibits with just about every non-domesticritter in the world, so you have a wide range of stamps and dies to choose from! Please visit the Twofer blog to read the rules and info and to see what our fabulous Guest Designer Susan and the very talented Design Team have made to inspire you!

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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!)

Shiny Teacups and Baby Love x 2

Hello Stamplings!

How are you doing? I hope you're having a great week. Thank you for all your well-wishes following my last post. I am feeling a bit better and I appreciate your kind best wishes. It's a process, but it will all work out in the end.

Like so many of you, when I'm feeling meh and low on mojo juice, I turn to my favorite challenges to light a fire under my assets. There are so many challenges that spark me and Loll and Bonnie's series of CAS challenges are among them. I set to work and, sure enough, they dialed in my focus, which is just what I needed. I have one to share today.

Onefer

This design is for CAS Mix Up Card Challenge where the brief is to make a faux stained glass design. Here's a close-up so you can see the faux better:

I have to say I love the die I picked for this technique, which is Teacup Stack by Poppystamps. The bottom layer of teacups was die-cut from a Brusho background. Then the cups was die-cut another three times in white. Two white die-cuts were glued to form a stack and then I applied Glossy Accents, with Hammy's help in the tight spaces. After that dried the final white die cut was glued to the top of the stack. In one of her posts, Loll shared the tip of saving the top die cut until after you spread the gloss. That lets you get messy with glopping the gloss because then you can cover it with the top layer and everything looks crisp and clean.

The double stitched oval is from MFT and the borders are Washie tape. In order for the tape not to detract the eye from the focus pocus teacups, I folded it over the edge of the panel so only two narrow stripes are showing.

Challenges

• CAS Mix Up: Faux stained glass, plus stamping, plus die-cutting.
• CAS on Friday: CAS embossing (dry or heat).
• Poppy Challenge: Spring cleaning (something old or CAS).

Twofer

For years now, another favorite challenge of mine is Less is More. The current challenge is "Horoscopes." I chose Gemini so I could make a twin baby card. Did you know Gemini is represented by the twins Castor and Pollux (known as Dioscuri) who were granted shared half-immortality after the death of the mortal brother, Castor. Okay then.

The little twin onesies are from Stamplorations, paper-pieced with ancient pp. The sediment is also ancient from Paper Smooches. The hem-stitch border die is NBUS from Spellbinders. Everything is popped up with butter and salt.

Challenges

• Less is More: Horoscopes.
• Mix It Up: Anything goes + optional inked background.
• Watercooler Wednesday: Tristan's All About Occasions.

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Speaking of twins:

Every year I get completely addicted to watching various live cams provided for free at explore.org. I am particularly thrilled with the bald eagle hatches and I just found out today there are also owl cams! There are cameras at several eagle nests on The Channel Islands, California, and another nest in Decorah, Iowa. I highly recommend checking out explore.com unless, of course, you want to get anything else done!

By the way, the above nest has one more egg which might be hatching as we speak so there will be triplets in this one! (Fraser Point nest.)

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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!)