One-Layer Kisstletoe, Part B. CFC#121; Festive Friday; JUGS#217; NBUS#78; OLW #168

Hello, again!

Here we are with Part B, a slight varifiation of the last post card (ha ha, get it, postcard in a new two-word format!) for more delightful challenges.  Since Christmas RULES right now, it is not hard to find challenges that play nicely with each other, not wanting coal in their stockings and all that.

 

This time, I'll show you my card first, just to change things up a bit:

The most notable change in this card, compared to the last one, was that I used one more Verve leaf stamp and then the mother of all mistletoe stamps (NBUS) from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps making a grand total of eight mistleti.  Those additions were to make my card complacent with the current CAS-ual Fridays challenge which is "Create with 8." 

In addition, I'm playing in these challenges:

• Clean and Simple #121 ~ sketch.

• Festive Friday Challenge Blog.  It's the last challenge of 2013, so partipants are allowed to chose any challenge from the last year.  I chose this one:

• Just Us Girls (JUGS) challenge is having a wild card: one-layer card challenge with a "winter" theme.

• One-Layer Wednesday which is being hosted by Karen.  The link will take you to her fabulous blog.  This week she wants us to create a card with something shiny or a bit of bling on it.  Since "a bit" can be arbitrary, I sort of bling'd my heart out on this one!

Once again, I hope you can join in the fun!  The links will provide you with the challenge details. 

 

That's the most mileage I've gotten from a single card design of mine and I aplogize if you get sick of seeing one or the other version everywhere in the Land of Blog!  Geezo, enough already.

~~~

 

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!
 

Paper:  PTI white
Stamps:  Verve "Great Friend";
  Cas-ual Friday Stamps "Merry Kiss-Mas"
Ink:  SU! coastal cabana, gumball green
  Sakura "Clear Star" sparkle pen;
  SU! real red marker
Bling:  My Mind's Eye; gems from stash

(Part A is in the previous post.)

Halloleaves ~ ATCAS #25; MFW TT; OLW #163; SOS #124; SSS

Hello!  Happy Sunday!

 

It's a beautiful fall day here, so I'm going outside to enjoy it while it lasts.  (Our temps are spose to drop twenty degrees tomorrow.)   There are still a few challenges which allowed me to squeak in one more Halloween card, a one layer one that's not the least bit spooky. 

• The code word at the current Addicted to CAS challenge is One Layer:

• At the always entertaining and inspiring Moxie Fab World, Cath has give us this spectacular photo inspiration for her "Enthralled by Fall" Tuesday Trigger:

I want to pour milk on that bowl of leaves and eat them with a spoon!  Talk about fiber!

• The One Layer Wednesday challenge this week is being hosted by the fabuloso Karen on her Snippets site.  Her challenge is for us to use orange on our one-layer cards.
• At Shopping Our Stash, the brief is "Halloween OR Orange and Black."

• And, finally, at Simon Says Stamp, the Wednesday challenge is "Halloween or Halloween Colours."

My card:

I tried to channel my inner Heather Telford and the rest of you yummy maskers/spongers, but I need lots more practice still to get my banner edges to be crisp.  I fudged and used a colored pencil to firm 'em up.  Wait.  What?  You were just thinking what I was thinking, weren't you?  How great if they could only make pencils to firm up certain other things around here!!

Other than getting the banner edge firm, it's a fun and easy technique.  Once you mask off the area that you don't want stamped, using post-it notes, you can just wildly stamp your images in the different colors.  Really, it's fun and pretty QACAS.
 

~~~

 

Today I have a new friend and a new blogger to welcome and introduce to you.  I hope you will look off into the distance for a minute and remember how it felt to be starting out with your blog and then pop over and give her a warm welcome.  I told her how nice you are.

 

Her name is Dora B. and her blog is 7 Cardologists.  Here is a picture of the seven lovely lady "cardologists."  I love that name and wonder why I didn't think of it!  You have previously meet Susanne and I hope the other ladies will join me as subscribers or follow if they have their own blogs.  For today, we are welcoming Dora and wishing her all the best!  Thank you, Dora, and welcome to our party!

~~~

In other news, we have a huge crop of basil going to seed:

When Mister looked at the clump yesterday, he noticed it was jiggling and swaying.  It turns out that sweet little finches LOVE basil seeds!  There must have been 20 or more hidden in there!  We've never noticed them before this year.  True finches are passerine birds in the family Fringillidae.  Mister promptly decided these are from the subspecies, Italiallidae.

~~~

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 or leave a comment.  Once again someone has written to say that I may not even see her comment, as I have so many.  Please don't ever feel that way!  I see them ALL and I know that I'm very blessed to hear from so many of you.  I treasure each and every one of you and your comments!  Truly. 

 

*Life Is Too Short!

Paper:  PTI white
Stamps:  All SU!
Ink:  SU!  only orange, tangerine tango,
  calypso coral, melon mambo
Enamel dots:  My Mind's Eye

AUTUMN ~ ATS&M #64; CASology #63; OLW #159; NBUS#55; SSWC

Hello! 

I'm back at the office these days, so here we go.  Everything autumnal is out on the desk and floor, so once again it's the card theme for today.

 

At CASology the cue card is "Autumn" and the sponsor is DeNami Design.

The One Layer Wednesday challenge is being hosted by the fabulous Karen of Snippets and she has chosen a "Free For All!"

Similarly, the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge is "Anything Goes."

And finally, at Addicted to Stamps and More, the challenge is simply CAS (clean and simple).

Here is my card:

In order to make my falling leaves, I cut apart my Hero Arts rubber stamp of leaves and applied them individually after coloring them with markers.  I love that "Autumn" word image and the rake, which are part of a NBUS set from Technique Tuesday.  I liberally used my new Wink of Stella clear glitter pen and wish you could see how sparkly this card is IRL.

 

Someone asked me yesterday in a comment what NBUS meant.  I've put it over to the right on my side bar, so I don't always spell it out in each post.  It means "never-before-used-schtuff" and it represents a personal challenge that I started a few months ago to use those stamps and products in the Playhouse that have never been used on a card before.  Several bloggie friends of mine have now joined the movement so you may see the acronym on other blogs. 

 

Someone else asked me recently if I wasn't "running out of NBUS."  Hahahahahahaha!   I chuckled with embarrassment and wish I had the nerve to show you my huge Rubbermaid container of NBUS.  What can I say?  Shopper Girl personality spent a lot of time in the forefront of my brain this summer, thinking she could single-handedly save the American economy.  Cough.

 

~~~

 

I'm delighted to have you meet another new friend today!  Her name is Lisa and her blog is Lisa's Craft Garden.  Lisa is a seasoned blogger and card artist and photographer.  You will find TONS of inspiration and tips and beautiful photos when you go meet her.  Welcome, Lisa, and thank you so much for joining the party!

 

 ~~~

 

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!

 

 

*Life Is Too Short!

 

Paper:  PTI white

Stamps:  Technique Tuesday "Fall";

  Hero Arts

Ink:  Kaleidacolor Autumn Leaves  

  Wink of Stella pens; Prismacolor pencils

Birthday Silhouette for Hannelie! CQC #204; CTS #43; NBUS #46; OLW #155; SSWC; STB

Hi there!

 

And here we are, whooshed back around to Friday! 

 

I had a busy day yesterday, so lots to show you if you have the time.  First of all, I had a lovely picnic lunch with some of my friends.  I think you've met them all before.  I have been house-bound for a week and it was wonderful to get out!  Would you like to see us all again?  Oh, good:

Donna, Darnell, Sue, Nancy, Helene, Cec, Barbara

Before I left for lunch, I noticed online that this week's One Layer Wednesday (OLW) challenge is "Silhouettes."  Not the machine, the image.  The very talented hostesses of this challenge rotate the duty each week and this week's hostess is the fab Karen of Snippets. 

 

I haven't been able to play in OLW for awhile, but this time I knew immediately what image I wanted to use.  Do you remember this SU! silhouette stamp?  I've always loved this image of a sweet young lady with her little Scottie** at her feet.

While I like this silhouette stamped in black, I thought my choice of sediment would be a good way to bring some color to the card.  I've also been wanting to doodle a frame like I see so many of you exspurtly do.  It's really cool, especially if you're a little shaky anyway.  It was so much fun, I just kept going and "stitched" a frame while I was at it.

 

~~~

 

So then.  In my very s-l-o-w quest to revamp the Pigpen, formerly known as the Playhouse, I have managed to clear off a couple of shelves of my bookcase and as a result, things are starting to just lie about waiting to be reassigned a designated spot.  Things like a Strathmore postcard pad.

I have had the pad for ages and never used it, making it one of today's NBUSes.  I realized that the little lady silhouette would fit in the perfect space provided and anywhizzle, what can be more one-layer than a postcard?!! 

 

Here is one side:

and here is the other:

I used a couple of flower and leaf stamps (more NBUS) from the Paper Smooches "Crystal Clear" set to create a lovely background for my "letter."

 

~~~

 

So then.  After lunch I received an email head's up from my friend Bev (of Happy Dance) letting me know that today is the burp day of another friend, Hannelie of Desert Diva!  (I'm sure a lot of you already know Bev and Hannelie, but if you don't, you really should bookmark these links!!)

 

It is a pleasure to wish Hannelie all the best on her special day!  Even better, I made her a virtual card, again using the lady silhouette stamp which hadn't been put away yet.  I decided to use the current sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch, designed by the fantastic Karolyn Loncon, only I flipped it.

 

 

 

For my colors, I decided on the current scheme from ColourQ:

 And I made this birthday card for Hannelie:

I had a couple of pretty used stamps that fit perfectly for the sketch, the colors, and the image!  Our last NBUS for today is the SU! letterpress "Fancy Fan" that I used on the card base:

Hannelie is not only an incredible card artist, she's also very generous.  Quite often you can find her fantastic sentiments available on her site absolutely free!  Thank you, Hannelie, for your constant inspiration and generosity!  I wish you many, many more happy birthdays!!

~~~

I'm also entering my birthday card in the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge which is "Anything Goes," and the current Seize the Birthday challenge which is also "Anything Goes."  Please make sure you check out the challenge blogs for prize sponsor information and rule details.  I hope you get a chance to play, too!

 

~~~

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!   

*Life Is Too Short!  

 

Good Friend

Paper:  PTI white

Stamps:  Hero Arts D3066; SU!

Ink:  Versafine onyx black;

  Kaleidacolor autumn leaves

Postcard

Stamps:  Hero Arts H2142, A2051;

  Rubber Stamp Tapestry 42022-D;

  Paper Smooches J2S161; SU!

Ink:  Versafine onyx black:  SU!

  Bermuda bay, calypso coral, lucky limeade

Hannelie

Paper:  PTI white and SU! colors

  as above, plus concord grape

Stamps:  SU!; Avery Elle "Fanfare"

Ink:  Versafine onyx black

Impression Plate:  Sizzix for SU!

  letterpress "Fancy Fan"

 

 

 

**Mister and I once owned a Scottish Terrier we named Heather.  We're original like that.  We were newly married and wanted a dog to practice parenting.  We failed miserably right from the get-go.  We used to go to a place called a library in the 1900s and we researched how to buy a dog.  We're geeky like that.  We were clearly advised in italics not to buy a dog from the first place we went.  We did. 

 

Heather didn't come with a guarantee.  We were starving students and had no business spending money on a dog.  (This was before there were "rescue dogs.")  She was unwell from the start, diagnosed with distemper.  That meant vet bills and lots of messes.  She ate better than we did for months, hamburger mixed with cottage cheese.

 

She recovered physically, but mentally she was psychotic.  If she got around other dogs she would become like a thing possessed.  That wasn't the least bit embarrassing.  This was before there were dog whisperers.

 

Heather eventually found a new home and luckily we had better luck when we had a human baby, followed by a long succession of lovely dogs.  Phew!

Holiday Thank You ~ MM; NBUS #22; OLW #148; PPA #163 and My Challenge Process

Happy Monday, Mid-July!

 

And here I am already writing my Christmas thank you notes!  Whah?! 

 

That's because it's what this week's terrific hostess Cheryl wants us to do for One-Layer Wednesday.  Oh, was that confusing spelled out that way?  We crafters do love our acronyms and I've only added to the pile of them!  I meant to say OLW, which means you are to make a OLC (one-layer card).  Because it's a OLC, it's usually CAS (clean and simple), sometimes it's QACAS (quick and clean and simple), sometimes it's made with NBUS (never-before-used schtuff), and always it contains TLC.  Got it? 

 

How clearly I can remember when I first stuck my nose into the Intertube just a year and a half ago, I didn't think I'd ever learn what all the initials stood for!  If you're new, just hang in there, you'll soon be speaking Cardese like a pro!

 

So, back to my card, Cheryl has given me my theme.

 

For colors, I'm playing with Pals Paper Arts.  I haven't visited there for a while and it's fun to join in again!  The current challenge is cherry cobbler, midnight muse, and very vanilla colors.  You don't know whether to craft with them or make a pie for Rhonda Vue.

 

Since my theme is Christmas-related, and the month-long challenge at Merry Monday is "Anything Goes," I'm linking up there again.  This challenge runs until August 4th, if you want to join in!  There are already a ton of entries so it's going to be your go-to place for holiday card inspirations!!

 

Here is my card:

 

Pretty straight-forward.  As a matter of fact, the whole darn card is made from NBUS!  I say that like you should be impressed, even though I only used a total of three stamps.  It takes very little to make me becited about NBUS!!

 

~~~

 

For Challenge Newbies:

 

A few friends have asked lately how I get one card to fit so many challenges.  Actually, there are many card artists out there who are pros at linking up with challenges. I don't consider myself one because I really prefer to stick to around three.  Still, I thought I might say a few lot of words about my process. 

 

I started out entering challenges timidly, like anyone does.  Over the course of a few months, I found my "style" to be clean and simple ~ oops, I mean CAS, and so I kept my eyes open for those types of challenges.  In the last year, there has been an increase in CAS challenges, much to my delight. 

 

You prolly like CAS, too, if you're here, but whatever your style, you will find challenges to enter!  So over time, I settled in and got to know many of the challenges and what they're about, whether it be color, sketch, or theme.  Some challenges I try to enter every week, others are more hit-and-miss.

 

My card idea is sometimes self-igniting or it is launched by a desire to use a particular image or die or NBUS.  At those times, I then take a look at a few of my favorite color and sketch and theme challenges to very quickly see if anything "clicks."  (You can find a list of my go-to challenges at the top of my home page on the tab called "Challenge Badges.")

 

Other times, I'll run across a color, sketch, or theme challenge while visiting another blog and that will spark my interest.  At those times, I then think about what image or die or paper I have that will work with the challenge. 

 

Because I'm a "it-never-hurts-to-ask/look/try" type of person, once I have the idea and a challenge, I'll also quickly check a few other challenges, just in case I can create one card and nail two bushes, to pair a phrase.  It's truly a crap shoot, so it's a fun surprise when the challenges seem to be quietly in sync with each other on any given day and I hit a jackpot!  That's rare and okay with me because I like to lay out the challenges in my posts for the owners and Design Teams who go to a lot of effort to put them together, so my posts get overly long if I link up with a lot of them.  You will see blogs with 10, 15, 30 challenge hookups and I have no clue how they do that! 

 

It may sound like a lot of work, however, since I'm not into making anything about my hobby even remotely hint at being work, I don't find it to be.  It does take a bit of time, clicking in and out of the challenges, but again, over time you will get quite adept at it. 

 

I hope that made sense.  If you ever have any questions or need help with a link or whatever, please just ask in a comment or email.

I was coming back to edit this and I see that Suze already mentioned them in her comment.  There is an extremely useful website called Paper Playful (Used to Be Feline Playful) that lists dozens of challenges of all types.  It is a great jumping off point to start you on your challenge journey or for even seasoned carders to refer to for what's happening out in the world of challenges.  The wonderful ladies who own the site work extremely hard to put this site together.  I thank them for the up-to-the-minute information they give to us for free!

 

~~~

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

 

Thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse.  Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment and/or join as a follower! 

 

*Life Is Too Short!  

Paper:  SU! very vanilla
Stamps (NBUS):  ornament from "Summer,"
  Technique Tuesday; "holiday" from PTI #2436,
  "Think Big Favorites #9; "thank you" from PTI
  "Cupcake Collection"
Ink:  SU! cherry cobbler and midnight muse
  Sakura "clear star" gel pen
 

Jingle Bells in July ~ MM; OLW #147; PP #153; CASOS #12

Happy to have you visit today, looking so fine!

Did you think I'd be too busy with work to be back already?  Me, too, but just watch, I'll prolly end up making more cards and doing more posts while working than I normally do when I'm home all day long sitting on my lapmaker! 

 

I wouldn't be too impressed if I were you, howsoever, because all the cards I make will no doubt be QACAS, like the one I have for you today.  It's a wee Christmas card using one of my oldest and most-beloved stamps from Great Impressions.  I implied some Atyou Sparkle pens and a whole lot of glossy accents and that's it, Wallah!

 

Perhaps one day I'll start a QACAS challenge and/or a five-ingredient~or less~challenge!  I'm deft at being laa(yawn)zzee!

~~~

The more smarter card artists among you make your Christmas cards all year long.  (If I were more smarter, I'd have listened to my grammar.)  Although well-intended, I didn't start making mine until June, which was a whole lot sooner than last year, so squee for me.  Now this week I'm seeing several "Christmas in July" challenges popping up in Blog Land and I'm entering my card in a few.  I hope you get a chance to join in all the fun and get a start on your holiday cards, if you haven't already!

• A long-standing and fun all-year-long Christmas card challenge is Merry Monday.  For July, instead of a weekly challenge, Merry Monday is having a month-long "Anything Goes" challenge, which means, yippee, any Christmas card you make is welcome there!  In addition to the usual spectacular Design Team, this week Lesley is showcasing two fantastic guest designers, Rose Miller and Danni Bindel!  

• Susan's One-Layer Wednesday challenge this week is "Christmas Sparklers" which is self-exploratory.
• At The Paper Players, Ann's theme is "Christmas in July!"

•  Finally, at CAS on Sundays, the theme is (say it with me) "Christmas in July!"

 

I'm sure there are more, but that's good for me.  My sharp-eyed regular friends will note the absence of NBUS for the first time in twenty posts.  S'okay, no worries, it will return because I really enjoy using my unloved schtuff and I really enjoy seeing NBUS on your blogs, too!

 

If it's hot where you are, I hope my sparkly little Jingle in July card cools you off!  No matter what, enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy.  LITS*! 

 

Thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse.  Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment and/or join as a follower!

 

*Life Is Too Short!  

 

 

OLW 132 ~ Inspired by Tissues

Happy Funday!

There is a challenge that holds a special place in my heart because it was one of the first ones I ever linked to back in December 2011.  It's "One Layer Wednesday" (OLW) with several outstanding hostesses who rotate the weekly challenges.  I've missed a few lately, so I was happy to be able to knock out a card to play with this week's hostess, the incredible Heather Telford of bits and pieces. 

Heather's theme this week is "Inspired by Packaging."  On Friday before we headed over to the twins, I looked around the Playhouse, just for fun on the off-chance I would see something ~ scanning with my eyes like Mrs. Marple at a crime scene ~ that would spark an idea.

It didn't take long to spot the box of Kleenex in a rockin' design and some of my favorite colors.  So, last night back at home, I gathered up my own "bits and pieces" and set to work

to create this quick CAS OLC (one-layer card):

That was fun!  Thanks, Heather!  You should check out One Layer Wednesday, if you don't already and I think a lot of you don't already.  I know there are lots of you who are one-layer proficient because I see your cards over at Less Is More, so I hope you will join OLW, too!!

~~~

We had a great time at the twins' game and they both got hits on a sunny spring day! 

~~

Later, after eight attempts, I managed to get one great updated picture of the twins for my avatar, since the one I use now is over a year old.  Now I just have to figure out how to edit my avatar to drop in the new photo.

~~~

And finally, here is a picture of the repurposed fireplace at the twins' home.  Lovely, isn't it?

Let's take a closer look at the new purpose!

Why, it's a little cozy dog cave for the granddog, Duke!  He loves it in there, snug as a bug! 

~~~

Off to play.  I hope you are having as funna weekend as we are!  Enjoy!  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:  Michael's sale bin;
Stamps:  SU!
Ink/Markers:  SU!; Signo white
Corner Chomper