To Susan Goetter, With Sympathy

Hello my friends,

Sometime ago I wrote and shared with you that my sweet and talented blogging friend, Susan Goetter's beloved husband, Butch, was failing.  I learned from Susan's son, Michael, that after a long and difficult illness, Butch passed away on Wednesday, May 22, 2013.  Many of you also know Susan, so I wanted to let you know.  As Michael said in his email to me, "she needs her friends now more than ever." 

 

Please join me in keeping Susan and her family in your thoughts and prayers.  If you would like to email Susan, you can click on the above link to Susan's blog and then click on "Contact Me."  If you do not have Susan's address and you would like to make and send her a card, please contact me via my email (darnell dot knauss at gmail dot com) and I will be happy to email you her address. 

 

Here is the card I made for her.

 

~~~ ~~~

 

The Nest^, Day Three

I couldn't seem to get a picture of the babies when they weren't sleeping.

 

 I did, however, get a picture of Daddy Bird for you. 

He is the one on the right with reddish markings; she has none such.  Perhaps it is a modern interplumage relationship?  jk  I know those male birds get all the beauty.  I'm sorry I don't know prezactly what kind of birds they are.  They are very common little chirpy back yard birds, similar to wrens or sparrows.  If anyone knows, or if I find out, I'll let you know.  (I don't know why I said "back yard birds" just then.  I mean it's not like we have a no-fly zone for them in the front yard for goober's sake.)
 

~~~

Please enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy.  LITS*! 

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

 

*Life Is Too Short!

 

Paper:  Biggie, Jr. watercolor; Bazzill blue
Stamps:  Stamps Happen, Inc. #80042
  "Gather Friends Like Flowers; SU! sentiment
Ink:  SU! early espresso; Marvy markers, water brush

^I made a label "Nest" in the "labels" list on the right, in case you happen upon this blog somewhere along the line and want to see all the pictures in the series.

WOYWW #207 and a CASE of Fusion!

Hi! Hi! Hi!

We are one week short of the 4th anniversary of What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday (WOYWW), where there is going to be an ATC swap, if you'd like to participate.  X CITE TING!!  Our lovely hostess, Julia Dunnit, can  provide you with information about what WOYWW is and what an ATC is via the above WOYWW click.  I hope you can join in the fun!!

In the meantime, let's enjoy today for what today is, and today my desk is thus:

Another mess!  As you may have guessed, my personalty, Kay Os, has been using my desk lately.  Some of you wanted to see the stamps I was trying to hide last week because I told everyone I wasn't buying any new stamps until I've inked the ones I already own.  Kay, however, made no such promise, so she is proudly displaying her pelf for you to eyeball. 

Also, you can see two lovely cards which the postman brought me from my dear friends, Bonnie and Di!  The 7gypsies rubbings in the middle was bought with ATC ideas in mind.  Not my mind, mind you!  Those ideas are way outside my comfort zone, so I'll need to eVoke my personality, "Stea M. Punk" to help me use them, provided I get brave!  (She intimidates the crap out of me.)

First, though, not able to stand it a moment longer because I lost, of all things, a needle in that mess, I evocated Anita B. Clean to whip things back into shape.  Yum, now I can get it all messy again with a fresh project.  And I found the needle, phew!

You got to see two desks today on one stop!

~~~

Also on my desk is a card I made for a challenge which I'll talk about next, followed by The Nest update.  If you'd like to skip that part and move on with the WOYWW hop, I'd like to thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse!  I would appreciate it if you could page down to the comments below and let me know you were here, so I can return the flavor as I make my visits around the hop!  Have an Xcellent day!

Mwah!
Darnell

~~~ ~~~

The card that you see on my desk was made for the current Fusion Challenge:  Hypothesis #7 is:

I played with Lesley's Challenge photo by CASEing a member of her Design Team.  I usually try to use a sketch or a photo as a jumping-off point and then make a card that is my own.  This week, however, I was so enchanted by card artist Allyson Andersen's sensational card, here . . .

Allyson's card

 

that I had to try and recreate it, thus:

 

Thank you, Ally.  Making this CASE of your card was a fun Fusion challenge for me!

~~~

The Nest^, Day Two:

I thought you might like to see a picture of the hanging basket from a distance.  (First one in the line.)  That window is the twinks' room and looking out I can see Mama Bird, but not down inside the nest.

Here are the five babies 24 hours after yesterday's photo:

Only four hours after the above picture was taken, Mister came home and when we were peeking through the window, we saw this amazing sight:

You have GOT to be grinning right now!  Just LOOK at that punky little birdie hairdo!!

~~~

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

 

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower! 

 

*Life Is Too Short!

 

Paper:  PTI white and kraft; DCWV DSP;

  SU! Always Artichoke; vellum

Stamp:  Technique Tuesday

Ink:  Versafine onyx black
Dies:  Memory Box "Prim Poppy" and
  "Norrland Flower;"
  Spellbinders "Blossom Two"
Pearls:  Stampin' Up!
Brads and pearls from stash
Corner Chomper

^I made a label "Nest" in the "labels" list on the right, in case you happen upon this blog somewhere along the line and want to see all the pictures in the series.

New Challenges Week Continues (MM), plus LIM

I hope you have a t'riffic Tuesday!

 

I don't know what's happening.  Maybe it's a sort of Stamping Spring Awakening, but this is my third day in a row playing in a brand new challenge!

 

Today's new challenge is Merry Monday, hosted by the untiring and supremely talented Lesley Croghan.  I made a promise to myself on January first to play in this challenge every single week in 2013.  Now that June is barreling down on me, I thought maybe I've been a liar long enough so I'm finally playing along with the sketch, which is:

 

What a great sketch for any card occasion!  Truthfully, it's hard to spend too much time with "nojo" if you are a blogger and/or visit other card-making blogs because there is no end of fantastic sketches drawn by card artists for all of us, for free.  The same goes with the color, theme, and photo inspiration challenges.  Maybe we should declare a world day of thanks for all that generosity.  Mwah!

 

Anyhizzle, that's the sketch Lesley made for this week.  For my theme . . .  well, obviously, my theme is Christmas.  Um, okay then, for my complementary theme, I am playing with the fun challenge hosted by the lovelies, Chrissie and Jen, over at Less Is More.  The ladies would like us to make cards with dogs and/or cats:

 

If you're like me, you're gonna sit there staring at that picture on your monitor for a few minutes with an expression on your face an awful lot like that dog's.  Your head is cocked a little and you're thinking, "Aaaawwww!"  How you do that thing with your ears though is amazing.  I can't do that part.

 

Whenever you're ready.  Okay. 

 

Here's what I made:

 

 

The critters are two different stamps, but I stamped them next to each other.  I did that because, I'm not kidding, I thought the critter in the Santa hat was a cat until I started coloring that very long ear.  Ern?  I personally think it's a cat in a bunny costume and I'm sticking with that story.

 

~~~

 

The Nest, Day One:

 

In other exciting news, there has been a development in The Nest!  I got curious when I saw Mama and another bird (Papa?) perched on the chains, looking down, and chirping up a storm, so I inspectigated.

 

You'll have to just ignore the poor shape the plant is in.  I decided I would give it up for the cause rather than disturb The Nest.  Keep your fingers crossed, pahleze, and I will keep you pahosted!

~~~

As you know, there's tons of room in the Playhouse and I love meeting new friends and introducing them to you!  Today I'm so delighted to announce that Susan Joyce of Cat's Ink Corporated has joined us!  You will find years' worth of amazing inspiration when you visit her website, so please take some time for that.  Thank you, Susan, and welcome! 

~~~

Enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy.  LITS*!   My heart and prayers go out to the families whose lives have been completely devastated by the tornado in Oklahoma.  Life and nature remind us again that each and every day is precious and those days can be unbearably few.

 

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower! 

 

*Life Is Too Short!

 

Paper:  PTI Hawaiian Shore and white;

  SU! Real Red

Stamps:  SU! critters and Paper Smooches

  "Santa Paws" sediment

Ink:  Versafine onyx black; Prismacolor pencils;
  Sakura Gelly Roll clear star pen

Dies:  Spellbinders Circle and Scallop Circle;

  My Favorite Things Fishtail Banners

My Mind's Eye Enamel Dots

 

Happy CASology Gradulations Day!

Hey!  Hey!

I had a few unexpected things happen today that I wanted to share.

 

I wanted to play in this week's CASology challenge, where the cue card is one of the trendy trends happening right now (hexagons), because I recently purchased an embossing folder with hexagons or a hexagon die ~ I couldn't remember which.  What perfect timing! 

During a break in the laundry, I went looking through my OCD-organized dies and embossing folders for the hexagon.  There is no such embossing folder or die in the Playhouse.  No hexagon, no honeycomb, no nothing like that.  Don't even ask.  I have no idea.  I either dreamt it or it's waiting in a shopping cart or on a wish list somewhere.  Senior moments abound, alas.

 

But then, wait.  I had some craft stuff out on my desk to make a couple of graduation cards and I thought, hey, aren't mortar boards hexagonal?  I looked at my mortar board stamp and found out that they aren't.  They are squares on top of half circles with pointed foreheads.  But why couldn't they be hexagonal?  In Darnell World they can be, so I made this:

 

 

Totally QACAS!  I drew a hexagon and cut it out.  I poked a hole, pulled the twine through, and attached it to the card base with pop dots.  I stamped the sediment and added some glittery gold highlights to the fun spaghetti, er, confetti. 

Shazambam!  I think I'll be using this idea again for gradulations cards.

~~~

Next, knocking on the Playhouse door was a new friend!  Please help me welcome Tamara King of Pickled Papercrafts (love the name)!  BTW, you can find awesome cards on her website featuring hexagons!  Thank you so much for joining the fun, Tamara!

 

~~~

 

Lastly, a nest update.  As a reminder, here is the nest I found in one of our hanging baskets last Tuesday, May 7th:

 

 

So the little future bird doesn't drown when Mister waters the hanging baskets with the hose, I have taken over watering this basket by hand with the watering can.  This afternoon I did a three-point execution to stand up on the bench (sorry for that visual) and when I tipped the basket to make sure I wasn't pouring water in the wrong place, I saw this!

 

 

Say what?!  Oooh, I'm so excited!  These are definitely better odds!

 

~~~

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

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

 

*Life Is Too Short!

Paper:  PTI white, true black
Stamp:  Embossing Arts Co.,
  817-D "Happy Graduation"
Ink:  Versafine onyx black
Pen:  atyou Spica
Twine:  doodle twine

CTS #26, TPDC #180 ~ Stay the Course

Welcome!

 

I hope you all are doing well.  We had a great time with the twins on Sunday.  They regaled us with the highlights of their baseball game on Saturday.  As it happened, they batted one right after the other in the lineup.  Henry got a base hit and was standing on first base.  Adam came to the mound and smoked a home run to deep center field, which meant they got to chase each other around the bases and both score!  Ah, the joy in watching their faces beam and hearing about first-ever and long-lasting memories!

 

Ah, the sadness in realizing on the way home that once again no pictures were taken!  

 

~~~

 

Today I have a card for two challenges:

 

For some reason I haven't figured out, I keep losing track of the time on the CAS(E) This Sketch challenges.  I really like their sketches, so I don't like that I can't seem to find a place to pin them to the small amount of bulletin board brain I have left.

 

This time I remembered!  Here is the sketch by the very talented Karolyn Loncon:

 

 

For my colors I turned to the "Color Splash" fun over at The Play Date Café.

And here is my card:

I thought it would be interesting to use both my striped and my chevron Washi tapes.  And given the words of the sentiment, trendy arrows seemed to be a perfect touch.  To me, the tape looks like real life journeys whereby the straight and smooth parts are punctuated by peaks and valleys.

I really, really was tempted to go from subliminal to ridiculous and use sequins too, but in the end I just couldn't.  "No," the hamster said, his chin perched on his paw, "stop there."  So I did.

BTW, I just have to add that the incredible DT and fans of The Ally Way Stamps are solely responsible for the hamster going hog wild with the credit card recently.  Yes, ladies, you know who you are.  You Paper Smooches peeps aren't any better; that's next on the wish list. 

And whose idea was it to call it a "wish list," anyway?  Mine is a wish BOOK!

~~~

Speaking of ladies, it is my pleasure to introduce you to new friends, Wendy Coffman of Stamping Rules! and Janelle Davis of kaards, etc.  Wendy is a seasoned blogger and Janelle is a brand new blogger, but they are both excellent card artists.  I'm sure both of them would be delighted to have you visit!  Thank you, ladies, and welcome to the party!

~~~

My blog friend, Bernie (Bernie's Craft Closet) posted the very happy news that her cancer has shrunk by at least 50%!  Hallelujah, Bernie!  Keep on fighting, my friend!

In celebration, here is a "new life" photo to share:

 

 

Yesterday I found this nest tucked away in one of our hanging baskets after noticing quite a few fallen leaves on the deck under it.  I had a heck of time getting a picture through the window of the mama bird, but you can just make her out here in the upper left:

Every spring they nest in the baskets, but I've never seen a baby bird make it.  Every spring I get excited all over again.  I'll keep you posted . . .

~~~

I won't be in the WOYWW hop this week.  I've a girls' night out on Wednesday night and then I'm working Thursday and Friday.  Since I won't have a chance to do much visiting or return any flavors, I'll sit this one out.  Hopefully, however, I'll still manage some time in the Playhouse to make a couple of cards to share.

~~~

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

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

*Life Is Too Short!

 

Paper:  PTI white

Stamps:  TAWS "Ka-Pow" and "Life Is Short!"
  (I had to buy that set!)

Ink:  Versafine onyx black; SU! Marvelous

  Magenta and Marvy marker No. 55

Washi tape:  Freckled Fawn (this week's TPDC sponsor!)
Pop Dots