Celebrate From the Sublime to the Ridiculous!

Hi there!

I had to take some time and create something to share in the celebration at Less Is More, where we are fortunate to have the 200th challenge to play in! You know it's one of my favorite (and first) challenges and I wanted to play to thank Chrissie, Mandi, Jen, Sarah, and Anne for all their hard work week-after-week bringing us fun challenges, making visits, and commenting on our entries! 

Naturally, Chrissie has chosen "Celebration" as this week's theme and, naturally, I'm always up for a celebration!

First up, a streamlined CAS sub lime card:

I have this fun striped Washi tape in red and white and in green and white, so I laid one strip of each side-by-side and then I cut out the word celebrate. I made a card background using the Sissix snow e/f and attached a stitched NBUS hill by Paper Smooches. Then I attached the letters of celebrate and had them march across the snowy hill like a choo-choo train. Of course, the North Star lights the way.

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And then this happened:

You're thinking, whoa, what? Okay, so it's really kinova funny story. A week ago Tuesday, I was jogging along my normal route which takes me past the Granada Shopping Center. Now I've jogged past Lou's Lounge and Billiards, next to the Lucky Grocery, about I don't know how many times, but it's always been closed because they don't open until 2 p.m. 

Imagine my surprise then when the door opened as I ran past, almost cold-cocking me right in the kisser! I stumbled backwards into the row of grocery carts. Ouch, right?! Well, Pete, who turned out to be the owner (Lou is his wife), felt horrible and insisted that I come inside and take a load off. 

"Hey," I said, "I resemble that remark!" Pete laughed at my badinage and poured me a tall one. I felt it was only polite to accept.

As it happens, Pete was opening early because it was the day of the Lounge Christmas party and that's how I came to have my picture taken with a Santa hat on! Fortunately, I keep my lipstick (which doubles as emergency rouge) in my sock coz a girl never knows when she might run smack into a party! 

Here's to Less Is More and the next 200 challenges! Thank you so much, ladies! And, Sarah, thank you especially for the beautiful written tribute to Chrissie! 

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There are other challenges that are also apropopo for my cards:

• CASology, where the cue card is "Old." I'm pretty sure you weren't thinking ME and you're right. I know they don't look it, but my Christmas socks and sneakers are at least 15 years old.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, where the theme is "Christmas/Holidays."
• The Paper Players, where Jaydee has a Bingo theme for us. I chose bottom left to upper right: star, embossing, white.
• Words 2 Scrap By, where the challenge is "Eat, Drink, and Be Merry."

The links will take you to the challenges where you will find information on the rules, sponsors, and prizes.

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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 leave a comment and/or 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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True Friends ~ NBUS #140

Greetings!

I hope you had a lovely weak end!!

We had one of those weekends where we did nothing in particular and yet it went by in a flash. Know what I mean? What do we have to show for it? Some groceries, some clean undies, that's about it. We are Mr. and Mrs. Sloth, apparently.

In between the weight of all those chores, I had a play with a NBUS PTI Text Block Friends Die. I love these dies and I think I have most of them somewhere on Mt. NBUS. I wanted to use my new die to join in the birthday celebration happening at Addicted to Stamps and More. Congratulations to Kylie and her delightful and talented band of merry card artists for their 100th Challenge and 2nd birthday!! May you have many, many more! Thank you for all you do to inspire and challenge us!!

Here is my card:

The die was run through several times using snippets of rainbow colored cardstock and then the pieces filed in the slots in ROYGVIB order on a white cutout.

I wanted to use that Sizzix embossing folder so that I could cut the embossed paper in half and apply the halves to the card base which-way-up. That way half of the card has arrows pointing up to metaflorically signify the "good times" and the other half has arrows pointing down to signify the "bad times." Through which true friends will follow you and love you. Deep.

I added the layers of narrow ribbon snippets to cover up the incision, and punctuated my text with SU candy dots. Now that I see the card on the screen, however, I have to say I'm finding the ribbons very distracting to the focus pocus of the card. It's just taped on the back at this point, so it's not too late to remove all but one. It can be very evolutional to see your card up on the big screen.

Here is the ATSM photo inspiration:

The other challenges I am joining are:

• Simon Says Stamp Monday's ever-popular challenge of "Anything Goes!"

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge of "You Gotta Have Friends." True that.

• Pixie's Snippets Playground, where the only brief is that you use up some of your snippets on your card and you like joining others for a romp around the playground like you did when you were a girl! I haven't been using many snippets lately, but today I remediated that big time!

Please make sure you click on the challenge links for all the details on how to join in and to find the sponsor and prize information!

I've have another card using this die that I'm fiddling with, so I might be back tomorrow with it ...

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New Friends Corner

This is a favorite part of my post for some of my readers who enjoy getting to know new folk who share their card-making hobby! Today I have five more lovely card artists for you to meet!

Donna Mikasa of three umbrellas. Donna has been blogging since 2008! When you visit, you will find a ton of the most fantastic CAS card art you might ever hope to see in one blog! Many of you will already recognize Donna from seeing her incredible work over the years on various design teams!

Monika Reeck of Creative With Monika. Monika has been blogging since 2009. She is an Indonesian native, now living in Germany. She is a delight and so are her cards! You will often see her in the winning galleries of various challenges around Blogland!

Marsha J. Reed of Coffee Pot Stamping Cafe. Marsha has been blogging since 2009. She is an independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator, a mother, grandmother, writer, and creative coach. Over the years Marsha has also served on many design teams and won many awards!

Susan Bridgman. Susan doesn't have a blog, but here is a link to her Splitcoast Stampers Gallery where you will find 856 works of card art to inspire you dating back to 2009! SCS's galleries are like Pinterest boards ~ only way ahead of their time and Susan's gallery will keep you busy and inspired for a very long time!

Christine Winslow of Grandma's Stamping Corner. Christine has been blogging since 2012. Although it's been a couple of years, Christine doesn't blog very often and I'm sure she would appreciate a visit from you and some words of encouragement and support! Her cards are CAS and well-executed delights!

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

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy. Be a friend. LITS!* 

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment and/or 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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Mwah!

June 6, 2014 - June 27, 2014
Thank you for your overwhelming support and enthusiasm!
Here

A Pocketful of Rainbow Hearts ~ NBUS #101

I'm so happ  to see you!

Well, gosh,  ou are all so sweet and  ou felt so sorr  for the letter "Y" in m  post  esterda  that I've decided to give him the da  off toda . I'm sure you will all be very happ  for him!

I'm back toda  because I wanted to pla  in a challenge that is closing soon. Sometimes I get together with Mr. Mojo and Pinterest and  our blogs and, of course, m  hamster, to come up with a card design. (It can take a village.) But sometimes I'm just standing at the sink rinsing the breakfast dishes and a whole card just blossoms in m  mind. Shazambam!

A few challenge seeds had been planted as I explored the Intertube in the last couple of da s and then m  hamster imagination just ran with it! Here's what I made:  a card with a rainbow hankie exploding out of a pocket!!!!

While I hope this brings a smile to  our face no matter what season of weather  ou are living in, I'm thinking the shock of these summer  colors will be especiall  welcoming to those of  ou experiencing the cold and drear  gra  and rain  (or snow ) da s of winter!

The cute pocket is made from a NBUS die and stamp set made b  M  Favorite Things. I wrote the sediment "I {heart} U" on the pocket tab. The rainbow hankie is made from NBUS rainbow heart tissue paper that I picked up at Target the first of the year. This week a lot of the challenge stars lined up perfectly for me to use m  adorable tissue paper! 

I have to sa  this is a cheerful card!

It started with Less Is More, which is celebrating its THIRD birthda ! Happ  Birthda  and man , man  more!  ou all know how much I love this challenge and the hosts Chrissie and Jen. And this week we are honored to have a visit from Chrissie's original cohost, Mandi! That was a treat! There are also wonderful Guest Designers showcasing their talents this week with the theme of rainbows!

And, of course, I had to make m  card a birthda  card in their honor, so this is what the inside looks like:

The tag birthda  sediment stamp is an ancient Hampton Art Stamps (RS 1443) stamp that I colored with my markers directl  onto the stamp.

Since I made m  card a birthda  card I'm pla ing in the current Seize the Birthda  challenge where the dessert option is chevrons! Lemme see, rainbows and chevrons? Someone over at Freckled Fawn was trending big time when the  designed this Washi tape!

Back to rainbows, there is a new-to-me challenge at Stampin' Celebration which is also in a rainbow-and-heart kind of mood with their sensational photo inspiration board:

And since I used that adorable little pocket die from M  Favorite Things (MFT), I used their current sketch:

I believe this is m  first time pla ing in an MFT sketch challenge! I did not cop  it ezackl , but I think m  card meets the written criterium:  ". . . This week we have a sketch that includes a perfect centerpiece for showcasing something really spectacular. Front and center is the idea here!  . . ."

Finall , while my pocket hankie isn't much over the edge, it is over the edge, so I'm going to see if Michele will let me in the door at the current and fun CAS-ual Frida s challenge.

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Believe it or not, there are other star-aligned challenges I could have linked to, but I think that's enough. I hope  ou can join in before these challenges end! Just click on the links for all the details about rules, sponsors, and prizes. 

~~~

Enjo   our da !  No, seriousl , enjo .  LITS!* 

As alwa s, thank  ou for coming b  to visit the Pla house and special thanks to  ou if  ou take the time to leave a comment and/or join as a follower!  Please let me know  ou came b , so I can be sure and return the flavor!

So, was it hard to read, or did  our mind automaticall  insert the missing letter? I got tired of it after a while, but felt like I should stick it out coz I'm a finish-what-I-start gal. I promise the missing letter will return for the next post! Thank  ou for putting up with me and m  sill  ideas!

  

 

*Life Is Too Short!

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Mwah!