NBUS Winners/Thank You/Announcement

Greetings!

I'll get right to the recap of the NBUS (never-before-used schtuff) Challenges #8, #9, and #10. You ladies blew me away! The total number of entries for the three weeks was 606! I know, WOW, right?!

I left comments on all but a few of the second and third entries, because after a while I was spending a lot of time proving I wasn't a robot and answering picture puzzles. (BTW, there were a couple of blogs that required I log-in, which I didn't understand and didn't do. I have enough log-ins and passwords! I hope this isn't something we have to start doing before we can leave comments on each other's blogs?)

I have to say, it was such a pleasure seeing your enthusiasm for using your NBUS! It was also a ton of fun to see the cards of those of you who were able to join in my somewhat off-the-wall optional themes! 

And it's a great honor to have added three new Pinterest boards to showcase your cards for people from all over the world to be inspired by! You can find all TEN prior NBUS boards here.

Of course, I had to make you a thank you card!

I used a NBUS stamp from Winnie & Walter called, "From the Bottom of My Heart." I prefer to say thank you from the heart of my bottom, cuz it is SO much bigger, but I love this sweet thank you heart with the traditional message carved right into it. I added vertical score lines and strips of colorful heart rick-rack Washi tape on each side to add more interest. A little heart bling for the final punctuation and thazit.

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Okay, I'll stop pancaking so we can get to what you came for!! Even though I use Random Number Generator to chose the winners, I always get requests from folks who want to see the "winning" cards. I made these collages to show the RNG selection and the card entered at that number. Whoop!

Winners for NBUS Challenge #8 (Total entries 180)

1. $25 Gift Certificate:

#19 Verna of VA's Creative Clutter

2. $25 Gift Certificate:

#94 JoAnn of Crafty Nana's Blog

3. Faber Castell Polychromos:

#72 Maxine of Kiwime's Kreations

4. Mini MISTI:

#54 Andrea of KandA Creative Moments

5. Clarity Stencil Brushes:

#70 Christine of It's a Card Day's Night

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Winners of NBUS Challenge #9 (Total entries 196)

1. $25 Gift Certificate:

#83 Mary Ann K. of Lakeside Stamping

2. $25 Gift Certificate:

#129 Sybrina of Chapter Three

3. ATG and three tape refills:

#156 Greta of GG Creations

4. Mini MISTI:

#76 Kitty of KT Fit Kitty

5. Chameleon Pens:

#152 Carol of Crafting By Carol

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Winners of NBUS Challenge #10 (Total entries 230)

1. $25 Gift Certificate:

#106 Marianne of Marianne's Cards 'n Stuff

2. $25 Gift Certificate:

#199 Donna of Lakefront Stamping Creations

3. Scor-Buddy Scoring Tool:

#164 Nonni of Nonni's Handmade Cards

4. Mini MISTI:

#215 Barb of Barb's Studio Creations

5. Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens:

#124 Bozena of Art Card Box

Congratulations to all the winners! (If I have messed up your choice of prize, please feel free to let me know and I will fix it.) To see all prior winners, you can click here. 

I hope that ALL of you who participated feel like winners because you put to use some goodies that have been neglected! Well done, everyone!!

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NBUS #11 ANNOUNCEMENT!

Normally, I hold my NBUS challenges in March and September each year. Because of the special celebration this year, I surprised you with a three-week, three-part NBUS party. Since it is (already!!) the middle of February, I'm sorry to say that I won't be up for another challenge the first of March.

But I hate to have you wait all the way until September, so here's my plan:

You may remember that last year I ran a blooper April Fool's Day hop and my intent was to make it an annual event. It was a one-day linky party that let you link any card with a big fat boo boo. Obviously, being April Fool's Day, I was looking for the funniest bloopers!

[As an example, I made an Easter card last year with bunnies and I thought it was fine. It wasn't until after I took a photo of it that I realized two of the bunnies looked like they were gettin' busy! Bloops!]

I've decided that this year I will combine my Second Annual April Fool's Day Hop with NBUS Challenge #11 and have it run for ten days from April 1 to April 11. Mark your calendars!

You will be able to enter any creation using NBUS, as always, but if you have any blooper photos, or if you happen to make a blooper card between now and then, take a photo of it before you bin it, cuz we want to see it!! 

In short, you will be able to enter:

• a NBUS card with no bloopers;
• a blooper card with no NBUS (yes, that's right!); and/or
• a blooper card with NBUS.

If that made sense to you, then you have been a friend of this blog for a very long time and I've left word with the guard to give you access to me in the Loony Bin on Visitor's Day! 😇 Please remember to bring a radish for Hammy!

Feel free to ask questions if that didn't make sense!

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Enjoy your day! Enjoy your Valentine's Day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* If it isn't a great day for you, I hope you will find your own way to enjoy it!

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 the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post.
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Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, 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 #9!

Greetings, NBUSers!

Today is the start of the second week of my three-week blog birthaversary NBUS celebration!! As I am wont to do in my talkative way, this is a novelette, so grab yourself a large drinkie-poo and a boxed lunch!

The basic idea of this challenge is evident in the name. You are to use schtuff never before used (virginal) on your creation. It can be something you've had for years or something you got yesterday. For the history of NBUS and to see prior challenges, please see the tab above or click HERE. 

If you would like to see last week's challenge information and gallery, click HERE.

January 23, 2017 ~ January 29, 2017

🔹Please use a NBUS item and share what it is.

🔹Please follow using the blue "Follow" button on the side bar.

🔹Please only enter this challenge three times with new work only.

🔹Please only enter four other challenges, for a total of five, including this one.

🔹Please mention the NBUS Challenge and link your post back here.

🔹Please leave encouraging comments on each other's creations.

🔹Please click HERE for how you enter if you don't have a blog.

🔹Please enjoy!

Note: These are all NEW prizes for this week's challenge!

1. $25 gift card. Winner's choice to any American company. [GC]
2. $25 gift card. Winner's choice to any American company. [GC]
3. Adhesive Tape Glider and three tape refills. [ATG]
4. Mini MISTI Stamping Tool. [M]
5. Chameleon Pens [CP]

I will hold three separate drawings for each of the three NBUS Challenges. Winners of ALL THREE challenges will be published on February 13, 2017. These prizes are open to participants from all over the world who enter their creation in the gallery. (The ATG is gently used.)

Important: In your comment (or after your name in the gallery when you link up), please indicate which of the prizes you would like to win by including the alpha letter(s) shown above after the name of the prize. If you have no preference, please indicate [ANY]. To be fair, for the non-gift certificate items, please don't request them if you already own them or something substantially similar. If you do not make an indication of your preference, I will assume that you do not want to be included in the drawing for a prize. 

Contact Information:  Also, if you and I have not communicated via email in the past five years, please make sure you use the secure "contact me" form on the right to provide me with your email address! Commenting doesn't always provide me with your email information if you are a No-Reply blogger. If I can't contact you, you can't win!  💙

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OPTIONAL THEME?

Thank you so much to all of you who tackled the optional theme last week of using colored pencils on kraft! I was so glad to see all the enthusiasm and find out I wasn't the only one who had never tried that technique!

Even though I mentioned several times in my post last week that the theme was optional, there was still some confusion. So this week I'm going to put the optional theme(s) further down in the post to differentiate the required from the optional. 

Feel free to stop here if you just want to make a creation using something NBUS. That's perfectly fine and I can't wait to see what you make!

🔹🔹🔹

If you'd like to check out the Optional Theme(s), read on!

My inspiration card:

I used a heart e/f from Sizzix for SU on the top and bottom of the card base and I added score lines with my Scor-Buddy. For the hidden word panel of the card, I used an ancient heart stamp from SU. You can't really see it, but it is heat-embossed with red e/p. 

Then I cut out the "hello" from the panel using a NBUS die by WPlus9. To give the hidden word dimension, I cut another hello from a piece of adhesive white fun foam, glued it to the top die cut and inserted the word back into the negative opening. A few splatters and baby pearls and wallah!

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OPTIONAL Theme Elements

1.  The first optional theme I used this week is a NBUS Technique called "Hidden Word" or "Camouflaged Word" or, if you want to get technical "Steganography."

Steganography is the practice of concealing a file, message, image, or video within another file, message, image, or video. The word combines the Greek words steganos, meaning "covered, concealed, or protected", and graphein meaning "writing."

This practice goes all the way back to 1499, so you see how ridiculously tardy I feel finally getting around to trying this technique!

2.  The second optional element I used this week is CASEing. I am going to try and do more CASEing (copy and share everything) this year. I originally wrote a whole section on what CASEing means, how I interpret it, etc., but this post got too long (even for me!), so if you are new to this hobby or would like more information about CASEing, please use the Contact Form on the side bar to let me know.

Note: The most essential element to CASEing is that you give the original artist credit. If you don't know the artist because you found the card you are CASEing on Pinterest, etc., then include a link to your source.

Now let me show you the friend I CASEd this week and her card. She is Chrissie Stokes of Simply One of a Kind and here is HER card:

I think Chrissie's card is just gorgeous and so perfect as inspiration for the upcoming Valentine's Day holiday! Note: Chrissie made her hidden word card by making two stamped images of the heart and superimposing her die-cut word over the other one on the base, rather than die-cutting directly from her card base as I did. Either way is fine. You can see Chrissie's original post here.

It was fun CASEing a friend and finally making a stegosauri whatchacallit card! I've always thought this technique looked so neat when I've seen it done. 

I look forward to seeing you try either (or both) optional themes for NBUS Challenge #9, but remember, it's strictly voluntary!

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Enjoy your day! Enjoy the surprise NBUS Challenges! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse. Thank you very much for participating and for being incredible friends and followers and supporters! Your friendship and your encouraging comments keep me going! MWAH!

Remember, if you have any questions, please use the contact form on the right or email darnell dot knauss at gmail dot com. Also, if you want to be in the drawing for a prize, please make sure to let me know which prize you want and your email address!! 

~~~

Edited to add:

I wanted you to know that I was recently scheduled for abdominal surgery this coming Friday, January 27th to repair a prolapsed bladder. 👵 

First my face fell into lovely pouches called jowls, 

then my boobs fell into size 44 extra-extra long, 

and now my bladder is trying to fall out my hoohaw!

Surely, fallen arches will be next! 

I decided not to cancel the NBUS celebrations because I've been planning this for months, the posts were scheduled already, and I know you look forward to them. So do I! I just didn't want you to worry if you don't see much of me in Comment Land for a while and let you know that even if I'm not up to commenting, I promise I will be visiting all who enter and pinning your cards to my special NBUS Pinterest Boards! Thank you for understanding! 💗

(And please be careful, ladies. The medical literature online indicates that a leading cause of prolapsed bladders is repeatedly jumping up and down when NBUS goodies arrive!)

*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!
If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me
your email address so I can respond. Thank you!

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