From Sublime to Silly

Greetings, Stamplings!

Don't forget the April Boo-Boo Hop/NBUS Challenge #11 is coming soon!➠

I need to go straight to the Naughty Corner because of this post. In spite of doing so well using my NBUS so far this year, I fell back into my old way of designing by seeing challenges I want to play in and then heading straight for products I've used before. Having that container overflowing with NBUS right in front of me didn't make me pause for one second yesterday. Slap!

It's okay. I'm only humane. I promise I'll get right back on the NBUS again after this post. The NBUS travels on roads that are paved with good intentions!

Since you're here now, I'll show you what I did.

Onefer

I created this bouquet using the Rubbernecker "Create a Garden Set," watercolor markers, a spritzer, and a brush. I just kept adding to the bouquet until Hammy showed up at my elbow with an electric drill and a paw full of screws. I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. He said if I was going to keep going he would screw the flower pot to the table so the whole thing didn't topple over. Subtle.

(Sorry, I didn't realize I had captured the faint shadow of a nearby tree in my photo.) 

Challenges

• CAS Watercolor Card Challenge: Spring.
• CAS(E) This Sketch!: Sketch by Michele Ferguson.
• The Flower Challenge: Anything goes.

~~~

Twofer

Look away if you can't bear the thought of Christmas yet ... unless you can't resist silliness!

The chimney on my card is a Darice e/f. The goofy bird is from the Stampers Anonymous "Bird Crazy" set; the Santa hat is from the companion embellie die collection. The sediment and mistletoe are from Cas-ual Fridays "Merry Kiss-mas" set. I made teeny little puffs of glitter snow on the mistletoe leaves with glue and Glamour Dust. 

Here is Cornelia's Muse card which I CASEd. Her card is such fun! And now I wish I had given my karazy bird yellow eyes!

Challenges

• Jingle Belles: Any Christmas greenery.
• Muse: Christmas Visions: Cornelia Wenokor
• The Holly and Ivy Challenge: Anything Goes. Very first challenge!

~~~

Postal Roller Coaster

We all complain about the post office deliveries and rates, so when I received exemplary service recently, I thought it was only fair to share my experience with you. In my recent NBUS challenges (other than the five gift certificates), there were nine packages that needed to be mailed. Dr. and Mrs. Random Org pulled the winners thusly: three from the US, two from Canada, and one each from Poland, Finland, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand! 

I didn't pay for the most expensive delivery service available, so I was shocked and amazed when record-breaking deliveries occurred thusly: to the UK and New Zealand = 5 days; to Poland and one to Canada = 6 days; to Finland = 7 days; and the second one to Canada = 12 days!! That deserves an "attaboy!"

But, wait. 

Lest you think the world has tipped on its axis, allow me to share what happened to my friend Nancy some time ago. Nancy made dozens of the most gorgeous wedding invitations for one of her daughters. To make sure there wouldn't be any problems with mailing the invitations, Nancy took the time to go to the main post office with a completed invitation to find out what would be necessary to mail them. The clerk was very helpful and very complimentary. The invitation was measured and weighed and the proper postage was determined. In addition, the clerk kindly gave Nancy a suggestion that if she would box up the addressed and stamped invitations and sort them by zip code, that would ensure a smooth and timely delivery. 

Two weeks later Nancy returned to the same post office with the completed fragile invitations. They were all in a box, properly addressed, stamped, and sorted by zip code. Smiling happily, Nancy handed the box to the clerk. Without so much as a glance at Nancy's face, the clerk took the box and quickly checked the invitations. Then she cruelly turned around and dumped the invitations into a giant mail sack. Turning back to hand Nancy the empty box, the clerk found that Nancy had disappeared.

After receiving smelling salts and a bit of water, Nancy was able to get off the floor and make her way home.

~~~

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!

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My Minnesota Lake House Adventure!

Greetings, my stamplings!

It's so wonderful to be home and back in my own bed with the Mister! Just because I know you missed me (I missed you, too!), I've made this an epic post for you!

First, I had a lovely time with my sisters for several days,

Left to right: Donna, Darnell, Doris, Diana

followed immediately by a week with the BABES for our BABES II reunion!

Left to right:
Anita (My Papercraft World), Ardyth (Maskerade),
Kim (Cupcakes, Cards, and Kim)
Me, Geri (Manitoba Stamper), and Bev (Happy Dance)

The above link will take you to my post from BABES I with more photos and information. The two years since our initial get-together whooshed by so fast! It was great to meet again and have a dedicated week of card-making with these talented friends at this gorgeous location.

Some of you may remember that two years ago we were happily visited by an albino white squirrel we named "Snowflake." 

This time we were tickled to discover that Snowflake had married and had a baby! We named the mister, "Snowball," but we never did name the baby. How does "Snowbell" sound? Too much like Snowball? How about "Snowshoe?" "Snowplow?" "Snowberry?" Slap me.

And then what happened was we were visited by Minnesota aliens! They just hovered high above the lake and never did land to come inside and craft with us. We would have shared! Spooky, huh?

Last, but certainly not least, I got to meet my bloggie buddy Jeanne of Reba Li Creates! She's very kind and fun and it was a pleasure to meet her for coffee!

~~~

I was hoping to work on making my Christmas cards while with the BABES and, happily, I managed to make over a hunnert of them! Granted, they are mostly OLCs, so they didn't take very long to make.

Not only that, but I completed 46 other card tops that just need to be attached to card bases, so I'm three and a half quarters from being finished! Shazambam!

Would you like to see one of the cards I made or do you want to just have another cup of coffee and chat some more? 

Okay, okay. Here is a card I made so I could play in the MCV challenge. I'm just getting in under the wire.

This OLC is made with a NBUS stamp from Stampingbella called "Penguideer!" (Ya gotta love that name!) I used a NBUS stem stamp from the "Wildflower" set by Concord & 9th for my Charlie Brown Christmas tree. The NBUS sediment is a masked stamp from Lil' Inkers. Of course, Hammy insisted that Penguideer needed googlie eyes and a coat of freshly fallen Stella.

This card is a CASE of the card below made by my friend Chriss Blagrave of Botanical Cafe for the current Muse: Christmas Visions. This is her adorable card:

Chriss's card

You can see why I couldn't resist playing along! I was inspired by Chriss's little critter holding his own Charlie Brown Christmas tree with an ornament. I also used Chriss's design layout which included masking and blending behind my penguideer and schparkle from WOS.

~~~

I also made a fall birthday card to share, but I'll save it for another post.

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!

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Pewter's Turn

Greetings! Happy Sunday Funday!

I've kept on with the theme of both metallics and Christmas in the Playhouse with today's card for you:

Another hard-to-photograph card because of all that yummy shine. I wanted to play in the Muse: Christmas Visions challenge where Guest Designer Stephanie Klauck made a pretty card for us. Hammy was feeling a bit rebellious so he didn't want to do a reindeer image and chose a vo candle stamp from The Rubbernecker Stamp Company. I started with a green wash using my KGT paints to mimic Stephanie's green background. I used the red because of the pop of red on the Muse inspiration and the yellow? I mean, you know, it had to be there.

I was planning to use my silver ep next, but it has gone bad. I didn't know it could do that, but when I used the heat gun, the powder went shiny for a split second in splotches and then even those immediately turned to matte. No worries, I also had a container of SU pewter which looks a lot like silver and melts like a dream. 

Okay, so what happened next was I realized that I needed to do two more things to pay homage to the Muse. I needed to introduce black somehow and I needed to use the same sediment because, after all, it was the "shine" that determined the choice of the candle stamp.

I cut out the painted image and held it up against black card. I thought it really brought out the picture, so I ran the black through my BS with my Lil' Inkers rectangle stitched die and matted that to red and then adhered it to the card base. In doing so, I reverse the color scheme of Stephanie's card, using more black and less green with my design.

The sediment was surgically created. I called in a team of doctoral geologists (led by my in-house geologist Dr. Mister) who specialize in sediment plastic surgery and reconstruction. After sedation, the "Sunshine" script word from PTI's "Hello Sunshine" was operated on. The capital S was removed, followed by the "hine." The two dissected ends were then successfully joined together on an acrylic block for the performance. After inking and delivery, I'm happy to report that recovering the original sediment was successful. The word "bright" from Avery Elle's set "Merry & Bright" was used unmolested in its original format. 

Here is Stephanie's beautiful Muse card! 

I'm also playing in the Jingle Belles challenge which is to "Banish the Blues" and in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge of "Anything Goes."

~~~

Look Again

I wasn't going to say anything more about what's going on with my health, but I had this situation ...

I think a lot of you more "experienced" ladies can relate to this. For several days I was noticing when I looked in the mirror that my skin was very dry and seemingly overnight I had developed a LOT of fine lines and wrinkles around my mouth. I started moisturizing three times a day to no avail.

Finally, about five days in, I noticed that the area seemed less dry. As I was still intently looking at the affected area, I put on my brand new glasses.

BAM! My wrinkles were back again!!

I just stood there and laughed. No point in crying, after all! So I don't have any more wrinkles and my skin is not getting any more drier because of my medication. But my vision is better because I got new glasses and now I can SEE all those fine lines and wrinkles that I wasn't able to see with my old glasses!

So the next time your grandma or one of your girlfriends makes a comment about how great her skin looks and all you see is a mess of wrinkles, don't assume she is delusional! She prolly just needs new glasses!

~~~

New Friends Corner

Please help me welcome these new friends which brings me up to date. If you haven't seen yourself introduced, it is because I couldn't find you just by your name or nickname and picture. (Or it was a case of operator error.) Please feel free to contact me to let me know. It's important to leave a comment and your blog name (if you have one) when you follow someone so they can find you to return the compliment. Also, if you are a new subscriber, thank you for that, but if you would like to be included in the New Friends Corner, you should also click the "Join This Site."

I want to warmly welcome:

Lia of Lia's Designs and so ... . Lia is from the Netherlands and started blogging in July 2011.  She is a challenge player and winner and a design team member. In addition to paper crafting, Lia enjoys scrapping, embroidery, reading, painting, and traveling in a motorhome. Lia is also a writer and a designer for several Dutch craft magazines, so you know her work is very beautiful and inspirational!

Cris G. of The Papabric Writer. Cristina is from Portugal and she only began blogging THIS MONTH! Cris has been a crafty gal her whole life. She became interested in paper crafting about three years ago and actually started playing in challenges and posting her cards on Flickr (Cris G: Pap-a-bric) in April of 2013. I'm delighted that she finally started a blog so that more of you can find her and enjoy her award-winning and breathtaking card art! Please take a few minutes to welcome Cris to Blogland!

Leanne of Lee Arts. Lee started blogging in 2010. The first years she didn't post often, but she has recently really gotten into her stride and been blogging more just this April and May. In that sense, she is a bit of a newbie and could use your encouragement as she juggles her love of making card art with being a wife, a mom of three, and a nurse. Whether stamped, folded, quilled, or shaped, Leanne's cards will impress you!

Thank you for joining, ladies, and welcome to the Playhouse!

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* 

Happy Memorial Day on Monday! Thank you to all who serve our nation in the military and to their families who sacrifice so much!

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:

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Click "Jump to Comment Form" and walla, no more car pool tunnel!
Mwah!
If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me
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Christmas and Springtime

Greetings!

It's happy weekend time! The hamsters are back and filled with unrequited creativity. I did my best to let them requite themselves. Whoa, wait a sec. The word "requite" was not underlined as misspelled by Mr. Blogger spellchecker, which surprised me because I thought I made it up. What? I'm off to ask Daniel Webster what it means ...

Okay, so those of you who thought it meant to be quite all over again, you would be wrong. It means: a) return (a favor); b) repay or reciprocate (a service or wrongdoing); and c) respond (to love or affection). Obviously, when Dan W. was thinking up the meanings of requite, he only had the use of words that began with the letter r! I wonder if that made him feel unrequited?

Turning now to the reason you stopped, my onefer:

This adorable little guy has cold ears, in spite of his stylish stocking cap with ear flaps. He is made by Stampendous. I watercolored him and his ornament bauble with Ziggies. I used some white paint and a stamp from SU to make the snowflakes. The sticker snowflake is from my stash and the gold-embossed ornament holder is a NBUS stamp from Avery Elle's "Merry & Bright."

The fishtail banner is a panel covered with a piece of Washi tape and then die cut. The consensus was to stop at that point and not add a sediment, but I think I will override the consensus and add one on the Washi banner. I know you can imagine it.

This card is in honor of the 200th challenge happening over at Merry Monday Christmas Challenge!! Congratulations to Lesley and her Team and all the wonderful Guest Designers! Cheers to the next 200! This challenge has inspired many a Christmas card in the Playhouse!

Here is the Inspiration Board we were given. I chose the top two squares.

~~~

My second card was sparked by the Muse: Christmas Visions challenge where my friend Chriss Blagrave is the Muse.

My pp is from SU, the NBUS sediment is from Stamping All Day, the holly die is from Penny Black. The label dies are also NBUS and I got them free with the We R Memory Keepers Genius cutting platform.

It's too hard to see in the photo, but I made three die cuts (in the pp, and using black and white snippets) in order to inlay the focus pocus label sediment into the pp. I did it that way so I could join in the Addicted to CAS challenge (inlaid dies), but I see that they have closed the linky door right in my slow-pokey face. On the other hand (thank you, Carol), I'm not too late to enter both of these cards in the Happy Little Stampers April Christmas Challenge, which is die cuts!

Here is Chriss's card to inspire YOU:

First of all, I love this classic design. I also and especially love that Chriss used her Christmas pp front and center, so I hopped right on that. I copied followed the rest of her design elements because, Shuckz, why mess with perfection?! I hope you get a chance to join in the fun!

I'm also racing over to Pixie's Snippets Playground before the gate closes. I seem to be making a bad habit of being a straggler there and I may have to sit on the naughty step. I hope one of the dearies slips me some hooch to warm my hackles.

~~~

And where does Springtime come into play today?

Well, spring is on display over at another fun blog: a photo blog challenge called Our Beautiful World. I couldn't decide which photo to use so I made a collage of everything on springtime display in our backyard right now.

~~~

I apologize that I have forgotten about my Giveaways page. I will resurrect that next time and continue with my New Friends Corner.

For now, 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 walla, no more car pool tunnel!
Mwah!
If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me
your email address so I can respond. Thank you!

All That Pretty Colored Cardstock

Hello Everyone!

When I recently did a bit of a tidee in the Playhouse, I sorted and straightened drawer after drawer of beautiful colored cardstock in every Hugh of the rainbow. I realized what a white rut I've gotten into. I mean, I don't even reach for the cream of the cardstock any more, let alone color.

So when I saw there were challenges spotlighting the use of pretty cardstock colors, I jumped in with relish. And some onion rings.

My onefer:

As a bonus, I even used a scrap of pp, which has been lurking on my desk. Last week I decided to make a card with it rather than toss it in my BOB box. I don't know if you can see, but I found a green that is the prezact color of the birds ~ and I love the texture. I cut the circle appleture and then thought, now what?

Then I remembered I had the NBUS "Prayers" die and stamp set from Simon Says Stamp so I cut a piece of fun foam. The pp still looked a little bare inside that big appleture, so I added a birdhouse from my NBUS "Birdhouse Village" set of dies from Memory Box. Wallah!

It was like a gift when I noticed that the current Less Is More challenge is a Colour Challenge to use white space that isn't white! And my friend Liz Cavill is Guest Designing! Now LIM doesn't mean just use a colored card base, but make sure you have leave plenty of uncluttered area as "white space." My own entries might be too little white space, but I tried to think whether or not I would enter them in a LIM challenge if the card base were white, which I would. I know, it's very confusing.

I used a few of my snippets, so I'm also taking my card to show my mates over at Pixie's Snippets Playground!

My twofer:

And then what happened was, I saw the new Muse: Christmas Visions challenge had posted and the talented MUSE Kimberly Wiener also used colored cardstock on her card! I'm WAAAAY behind on making Christmas cards and have been missing other fun Cc challenges already in the books this year, so I dropped Duke's tennis ball and got to playing with cards instead.

The card base is aqua mist from PTI. The fun stamps (separate sled and sledder) are from Purple Onion, and the sediment is from Technique Tuesday's "Jingle All The Way" set. I stamped the sweet critter and then masked him and stamped the sled, part of which I also masked. I drew the snow line and then watercolored the image using my Zig KGT paints.

I cut the image down using a Nestabilities deckled rectangle die and rimmed the edge of it with a black brush marker. I then fussy cut a mat panel. The sun was rapidly going down by the time I finished, so I ran out to take my picture, forgetting that I wanted to add stars to the sky on my card. Dagnabberschnichle! I think they are so sweet on Kimberly's card so I'm going to add them after wards.

Other Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: Holiday.
• Fusion Card Challenge: Photo Inspiration. (Thanks, Lolly.)
• Happy Little Stampers April Christmas Challenge: Die cuts.
• Less Is More: Colour Challenge to use white space that isn't white.

Here is your adorable inspiration card from Kimberly:

So just to recap: I was inspired by Kimberly's use of a colored card base, her fun critter sledding, her watercoloring, her uneven-edged mats, and her happy sediment! Another DJKASE in the bag!

~~~

Speaking of Duke, we've been enjoying his company the last week while the heir apparent and family have been on holiday for spring break. It was lucky the furballs were scheduled to be out of town because Duke is afraid of them. Yeah, no, seriously! You would think he would play with them like little furry tennis balls, but luckily for them, not so. It's quite amusing really, when you consider what a big dog he grew into.

Midweek I thought we were going to lose Duke to a heart attack when one of the smoke alarms started going off because I'm so hot the battery was low. The poor sweet lamb ran behind my skirts (well, he would have done if this were 1816) and trembled for quite a while before I could calm him down.

How he manages to survive in his own house with two active adults and two very active and very loud boys (one of whom plays the drums!) is beyond us, but he seems impervious where they're concerned. In fact, he is the sole of calm as those boys do what they will with him, like making him wear Mr. Potato Head's cap! Oh, the indignity!

~~~

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:

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Mwah!
If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me
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