NBUS Challenge #6 ~ Day Six and a new prize!

[The NBUS Challenge #6 InLinkz button is at the end of this post.]

Happy Mothering Sunday to all my British friends!!

Hi there! Happy Sunday Funday!

I'm going to be showcasing patterned paper on the post toasty today! Yay for patterned pattern that we all hoard cherish! Some of you call it DSP for Designer Series Paper. I just call it pp cuz I'm a 12-year-old boy in my heart.

Let's start with this floral pp designed and printed by the famous paperist, K&COMPANY:

The NBUS being featured on these first two cards is the "You've Been Framed Oval Die" by Papertrey Ink. The sediment is from Hero Arts.

For this card, I trimmed the pp to allow the card base to show. It adds another frame and more interest to the design. The NBUS sediment is from the "Word Salad" set by Paper Smooches. 

And this card:

PP is perfect to use with this sweet NBUS sediment die called Greetings Bottom Edgers from Impression Obsession. A bit of matching card stock and pretty ribbon and pips your squeak! (And high five for using those, too, NBUS or not!) 

I have several more examples I've made and have never blogged before. I've made a collage so this post doesn't go on in my usual epic fashion down past your keyboard, over your lap, and onto the floor. This cards show how simple it is to make a QACAS card in a jiffy just by using a piece of pp. If you can't afford a jiffy, you can just use a regular desk.

Two of those pieces of patterned paper have lots of glossy embossing built right in for extra pizzazziness!

There you go. Lots of great ideas for using pp to make elegant last-minute cards or cards for your stash. Also for entering into NBUS Challenge #6! Tick tock!

There are lots of entries as we edge closer to 200! I'm very pleased and grateful to those of you who have played, so I'm adding another thank you prize:

Yes, that's right! A complete and NBUS set of Brushos! This prize is open to all participlayers anywhere in the world! If you have already entered and are interested in this prize, please let me know in an email to darnell dot knauss at g mail dot com. For new entries, you can let me know either in a comment or via email.

If you are not interested in this prize, you don't have to mention it and you will simply be in the drawing for the cash prizes.

Did I just make more work for myself and confuse everyone? I hope not. I trust everyone will proceed in an orderly fashion.

~~~

Get going! Enjoy your day! Enjoy the challenge! 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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Mwah!
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Head's UP! Some of you do not have blogs and when I click on your name in the comment, I get a "no reply blogger" message or a Google+ profile with no information. That means I have NO WAY of contacting you if you are a winner! You must leave me your email address in your comment or email me separately with the information. If I can't find you, you can't win a prize! Thank you!!

An InLinkz Link-up

NBUS Challenge #6 ~ Day Four!

Howdy stampers!

Good news! There is no need for clicking anywhere to find the NBUS Challenge linky tool now. My friend Loll told me that all I have to do is copy and paste the tool at the end of each post! Et walla! Thank you, Lolly!

The only thing is, I'm not sure if that makes it harder to comment. I trust you to let me know if this new way is actually incornvenient for you. If it is, I'll go back to doing it the other way. I'm learning as I go, I'm learning as I go, high ho the dairy oh, I'm learning as I go. Sorry. It's the meds.

Okay, settle down. Today's inspiration is all about springtime flowers!

Here's a closeup of the scrummy WOS sparkle!

Using my Gansai Tambi paints, I watercolored the Verve flowers from the "Great Friend" set after heat embossing them in white. The beautiful NBUS white-embossed stems are from the "Beauty Stems From Here" set by Inkadinkado. The NBUS sediment is from the Altenew "Painted Flowers" set.

I also did one in shades of blue with a gerischmick of purple.

I need a lot more practice with watercoloring flowers on this linen paper. It isn't as easy to paint on as watercolor paper. I kept going back to try and get it "just so" and I ended up overworking it. It happens. Hi ho, hi ho ...

Challenges

• CAS on Sunday Challenge: One Layer Wonder.
• Just Us Girls: Flowers.
• The Artistic Stamper: Springtime. (My first time here!)
• The Sisterhood of Crafters: Are You Ready For Spring?
• TIME OUT Challenges: Easter and/or Spring (optional masking). Happy 2nd Birthday!!

~~~

I'll leave you with some for-reals spring blooms ~ especially for those of you upon whom fresh snow has fallen!

This little beauty popped up in an old vegetable box all by herself. You can see the purple harden bergia in bloom in the background.

~~~

Enjoy your day! Enjoy the challenge! 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!

An InLinkz Link-up

NBUS Challenge #6 ~ Day Three!

Hi there! You made it up and over the hump of the week! It'll be smooth-sailing down hill to the weekend from here!

I put that new "feature" button on my side bar about the challenge, but it just occurred to me that some of you can't even see the side bar on your devices so instead of that, I'll start each post with a link to get you to the linky tool. Here you go: NBUS Challenge #6.

I sure appreciate how you are jumping in and playing! I picked March and September for my biannual NBUS challenges, thinking there weren't many other things going on around those dates, but between Blogland and Facebook, I see that there are a ton of new releases and hops, and even new challenges happening right now. The more the merrier to keep us inspired and creating, right?

~~~

Today's post is a case of card interruptus. I had a card all lined up and my post half-written and then all of a sudden, Hubert whistled all the other hamsters into the conference drawer for an emergency intervention. In order to make some chaos out of the order around here, we agreed some months ago to run the Playhouse as a democracy.

The long and the short of the becitement and voting was the creation of this card:

What happened was the current CASology challenge showed up on Hubert's blog list. He is the most athletic of the hamsters and so he subscribes to all the in-cage exercise and wheel-spinning blogs that are out there. (You might be surprised how many there are!) Since the cue card this week at CASology is "spin," it popped up on every single one of the blogs in his little reader!

Now you would think we would have made a card like this:

Except that we already did that last year and I've since made more of those cards so that each of the little furballs has one for their poster board. Because of that, we wanted to go a different way and use NBUS.

The NBUS that launched this card were those sweet pinwheels. A package of them was given to me as a bit of card candy by my friend Kim M. about four years not too long ago and they've been used as hamster toys ever since, waiting for the right inspiration to propel them onto a card. Thank you CASology and thank you Kim! And thank you, Hubert!

My sunshiny yellow white space is embossed with a swirl e/f. I purpoisely placed it on the card upside down because I thought it better reflected swirling wind spinning the pinwheels which are popped onto the card sans sticks. The watercolored paint schmear is a stamp from MFT called "Jumbo Abstract Art." The circle die is from Lil' Inkers.

The word "spin" is made by lining up each individual script alphabet letter together. Shut up! No, seriously! How fun is that? You can spell anything! They are from Concord & 9th, a newish set from a newish company. Despite my resolve not to buy any more NBUS, I simply had to have this and play with it! And I'm not sorry either. There, I said it. 

Challenges

• CASology Cue Card: Spin.
  
  I realize my card today might be a bit too busy for CASology, but the little whisker wearers got so into it, I didn't have the heart to tell them that. Besides, I'm always happy to just spread the word about the challenges that are out there!
• CAS Mix Up Card Challenge.
  
  This is a brand-spankin'-new challenge owned and operated by my friends Loll (Stamping With Loll) and Bonnie (Stamping With Klass). They have teamed up to bring us a challenge with a concentration on technique! We are all constantly learning and loving new techniques, so it sounds like a frolicking good time with lots of ideas and tips to help us. My card has the requisite stamping and watercoloring with a third element of dry embossing. Ladies, I wish you lots of luck with your new challenge and thank you for all your hard work!

~~~

Enjoy your day! Enjoy NBUS #6! 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!

NBUS Challenge #6 ~ Day Two!

Welcome to Day Two! I hope your week is going well!

And I hope you are having fun looking through your schtuff for your NBUS! I can just picture your face as you find that stamp or die or punch that you put away and forgot you even had!

I often get comments like, "You really DO have a lot of NBUS!" Well, um, yeah! Doesn't everyone? If you drive around Blogland any time at all, you're gonna see something you want bad. If you aren't tempted by continuous new releases from fabulous companies, you're tempted by something you saw on a friend's blog, or in a challenge gallery.

For a while now, my weak spot has been dies. Good night Nancy Nannette, they are SO fun to play with! And you always get two for the price of one because you can make a card from both the positive and the negative cuts. That is so economical that it would be silly not to buy them! She says, coyly.

At Christmas I received a very pretty card from my friend Bobby on which she had used this really cool ornament die. Enabled, I purchased it foretooth. When it arrived, Hammy said, "Oh, goodie, that's a fun balloon die." Now, in fairness, he happened to be hanging upside down in his cage when I opened the package. This has happened before and, sure enough, after a bit of a laying my ear upside my shoulder, I could see what he meant.

So I made this one firstly:

I cut the die twice: once from white linen card and once from a glossy card which I handmade by blending alcohol inks in pretty jewel tones onto glossy card stock. Above is the positive die card using the white linen cut which I then laid in with the colored glossy bits. The sediment is from "Compact Sediments" by Waltzingmouse Stamps.

Here is a closeup of how shiny it is:

 Then I made this one secondly:

The sediments are from "Smirthday" by Technique Tuesday.

Didn't that ornament die make a cute balloon? Different, anyway!

~~~

I still had some of the colored glossy paper I made, so I used a Christmas die to make another card:

This NBUS die is called "Jumbled Happy Holidays" and it's from Poppstamps. The single jingle bell is from Lil' Inkers. Here is a closeup. Using linen and gloss papers together just makes me feel jingle bell happy in my heart.

 

These colors remind me that I (and possibly you?) rarely use my whole family of orchid, plum, raspberry, and burgandy colored paper stock. I declare them popular again! Do you think that will work if I just say so?

How about if I declare these pretty raspberry and blue colors as tropical colors? Would you agree? Think of those tiny little umbrellas that come in yummy rummy drinkie poos lovingly brought to you by scantily clad pool boys as you leaf through stamping magazines on the chaise under a palm tree. 

Well, good, then. While you're thinking about that, I'm going to enter this as my first entry in the 2016 Merry Monday Christmas Challenge!

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Looking for the InLinkz button for the NBUS #6 Challenge? It is at the top of my side bar or you can click HERE. Have fun!!

~~~

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!

NBUS Challenge #6! Day One

Welcome to NBUS (Never-Before-Used-Schtuff) Challenge #6!!

Let's get right to it! If you're like me, when you play in a challenge you want to know three four things:

1. The theme.
2. The dates.
3. The rules.
4. The prizes.

So here you go!

Anything Goes!

12:05 a.m. PST on March 1, 2016 to 

11:55 p.m. PST on March 10, 2016

• You must use a NBUS item on your creation and indicate what it is. It doesn't matter if it is old or new, although that old virginal schtuff would really like some attention!
• This challenge is a thank you to my followers, so to be eligible for a prize, please join via the blue "Join This Site" button on my side bar to your right where all the happy little faces are!
• Cut and paste the NBUS badge shown above into your post or on your side bar and include a link back here.
• Please enter only four other challenges in addition to this one, for a total of five.
• Link up your creation using the Inlinkz button at the bottom of this challenge in the usual way.
• You may enter a total of three times. New work only please.
• HAVE FUN!!

For more detailed rule information and instructions for how you enter if you don't have a blog, please click HERE. For history and prior challenge winner information, please click HERE.

Wait. What? There are prizes? Well, yes indeed there are! Unfortunately, I am not feeling up to par, so to make things easier for me, I am going to be the sole sponsor as I was for the first four NBUSesses. I hope you understand and don't mind! (And thank you to all the would-be sponsors who contacted me!)

Prizes:  FIVE (5) $25 gift cards 

from any US domestic company of the Winner's Choice!

and

A complete set of 12!

Selection

Because you are all my friends, I could never select one of you over another, so I will use Dr. Random and Mrs. Dot Org to choose the prize winners. They will work tirelessly with Hammy and The Hammettes to hold the random drawing and I will post the winners at the latest on Sunday, March 13th.

I have been making cards when I've been up to it, so I will be posting one or more cards each day as inspiration for cheering you on! I'm sorry I'm not going to be able to comment on each of your entries as I've done in the past, but I will visit as many of you as I possibly can and I hope you will visit each other as well.

Here is today's QACAS OLC for you:

As it happens, this works well for the current CAS(E) this Sketch challenge!

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I can't wait to see the beautiful creations you make and enter below using one or more item of Never-Before-Used-Schtuff!! Thank you very much for participating and for being incredible followers and supporters and friends! Your friendship and your encouraging comments keep me going! MWAH! 

If you have any questions, please email darnell dot knauss at gmail dot com.

~~~

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

& Hammy and The Hammettes

*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; 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!

An InLinkz Link-up