Be Merry and Bright and Thinking of Dawn

Hello, Stamplings!

I hope you are having a lovely weak end! I understand there are exercises for that but as I always say, I can't see back there so it doesn't bother me that mine is fluffy ~ as long as it can hold me up for hours and hours of crafting! 

Let's start out today with this schparkly number:

Really? A zebra pattern for a Christmas card? You'll see why in a minute. 

This is my week to be hostess of the Inspired By All the Little Things challenge. As hostess, I get to pick a talented card artist to introduce to you and she, in turn, will make you an inspiring work of art! 

For this challenge, I have chosen my friend, Colleen of One Smile Lifts A Spirit! For all the details on the rules and to see what Colleen and the amazing Design Team have created to inspire you, please click over to the challenge! We all hope you can join us this week!!

Here is the fantastic photo inspiration that inspired us all: ⇨

There are LOTS of goodies in this photo to get your creative juices flowing! I think you can quickly spy that I was attracted to that awesome zebra chair and bright red pillow! I've had the zebra paper in my stash since the last century, waiting for this moment to shine! The MFT stitched star was cut from glittery foam paper.

Challenges

• Pixie's Snippets Playground: AG using your snippets.
• The Merry Christmas Challenge #41: Anything Goes.

I loved the way my design used a lot of pp, so I made a few more. Some of the stars are cut from fun foam adhesive sheets which adds a puffy soft dimentia, like the card on the far right. You can find them online in many places. Here is a link to Mike's to see what I mean. The sheets also come glittered, like the star on the second card from the left.

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My twofer today was made specially for designer Dawn McVey. 

Here is a closeup of all the white glossiness.

Many of you know Dawn from her beautifully designed Raspberry Suite line of stamps for Papertrey Ink. Dawn recently underwent a small intestine transplant. It is very rare. The surgery was a success, but she has a long recovery ahead of her. The ladies of Papertrey Ink are holding a one-week blog hop in honor of Dawn to send her our love and best wishes for a full recovery and to let her know she is in our thoughts and prayers. 

The only stipulation for joining in the hop is that you use one of Dawn's many incredible designs for your card. You can find Dawn's complete line of stamps here and find her works of art using them over on her Raspberry Suite blog. For my simple card, I used Dawn's Meadow Greens set. ETA: Oops, I just found out the Meadow Greens set was designed by Nicole. I will make another card for Dawn.

Julian Rad Photography                  

Challenges

• Cardz 4 Galz: Favourite Flower and Why. If I'm honest, I don't care for dandelions in their flower stage, but when they mature and go to seed and form their fluffy perfect circles, I love them. Even as an adult, I will stop and pluck them when I can, blowing their seeds to the wind! I took this photo at our local park this past spring.
• Watercooler Wednesday: Feminine AG.

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

You're a trooper if you made it to the end, especially this time of year when you are extra busy and I appreciate it very much! 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 to 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 the pop-up box opens. Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel! P.S. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Mwah! 

All Christmas All the Time

Hello, my stamplings!

I hope this finds you all well as you've whooshed your way here to another Friday!

And I hope all my American friends enjoyed a lovely and festive Thanksgiving yesterday without any relatives getting into duels over the election results. We managed to keep politics at bay in no small part due to the fun we had with FIVE doggie guests! Everyone left with a full belly, but now the real eating begins with all the scrummy left-overs!

And now it's all Christmas all the time in the Playhouse! First up are two tags I am finally posting for Tracey's 25 Days of Christmas Tags.

Tag Onefer

The two sizes of tags were cut from a NBUS Avery Elle "Alice" die set. The mistletoe (embossed in platinum) and the NBUS sediment (embossed in red) are from CAS-ual Fridays' "Merry Kiss-mas" set. The NBUS bow (embossed in red) is from Avery Elle's "Winter Wreath" stamp set.

This tag was inspired by Jeanne Jachna on Day 1 when the featured sponsor was CAS-ual Fridays. Here is Jeanne's pretty tag:

Tag Twofer

This tag was cut using My Favorite Things stitched tag. The white embossed ornaments are NBUS from Technique Tuesday's "Holiday Ornaments" set, the sediment is from Technique Tuesday's "Jingle All The Way" set, and the snowflakes are from SU.

This tag was inspired by Jill Dewey Hawkins on Day 11 when the featured sponsor was Technique Tuesday. Here is Jill's pretty card:

Thank you, Tracey, for all your hard work putting this amazing 25-day tag challenge together! The inspiration has been phenomenal!

Card Threefer

I made my OLC using a classic stamp from Stampendous, which was a gift from my friend, Mary H. It was NBUS for me and I watercolored it with my Ziggie markers. The sediment is from Papertrey Ink.

Challenges

• Less Is More: Vintage.
• One-Layer Simplicity Challenge: Peace be with you.
• The Paper Players: Clean and simple: Christmas
• PTI November 2016 Blog Hop Photo inspiration. Obviously, I was inspired by the yellow pickup with the Christmas tree in the back.
• Rudolph Days: Simply make a Christmas card.

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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 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!

Platinum Snowflakes

Hi there!

I've a penchant for metals this week, didja notice? 

Don't you find penchant to be a funny-sounding word for what it means? It means the same as desire, but somehow desire holds much more promise. And then there is predilection, which also means the same thing, but somehow sounds like a felony. I can see it now on page three of the Tribune: Mr. Samuel P. Henbinevert was charged yesterday with three counts of predilection. A raiment will be held on Friday the 27th.

Today's card features a raiment of pearl pastels and sumptuous platinum:

While fun to make, this OLC was, by far, the hardest card I've ever photographed. Platinum and pastels are persnickity! This photo was the best of the 38 I took, but it doesn't do justice to the real life shiny appearance. The snowflakes are from Papertrey Ink's "Friendship Jar Fillers," embossed with liquid platinum from Ranger. The embossed sediment is also from PTI, but I don't have the name of the set.

I was inspired by this very awesome photo challenge for the Papertrey Ink May Blog Hop:

I picked up on the pastel watercolors. Instead of words, I used an overlay of snowflakes. This is an all-day event if you'd like to be quick like silver (keeping with my theme) and join in today!

I'm also entering the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, which is anything goes and the "Clean and Simple" category at The Card Concept Sweet Tea (photo) challenge, which is lovely pastels and metallics.

And because I finally made a Christmas card, I'm also joining the Rudolph Days Challenge over at Scrappy Mo's. If you're helping me keep track, I'm minus 73 where I wanted to be in the finished Christmas card department for this year. It occurs to Hammy and me that perhaps we were a bit hasty in adopting out all our furry helpers. Smack!

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Windows 10

I'm hoping this doesn't jinx something, but I have to tell you that upgrading to 10 was a breeze. The Mister said it was the easiest upgrade he's ever done. Like ten minutes easy. It went out and found drivers for all our schtuff and everything works, even our six-year-old printer! The photo process did change, but I quickly saw how to tell it where to file my downloads and from there I did edits like normal using Picasa. I'm guessing they got a lot of bugs out of the earlier versions which had people tearing their hair out. 

I wanted to share that good news ~ she says, ginfers crossed!

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New Friends Corner

Once again, I'm delighted to introduce you to five new friends!

Emily Shroom of Pen and Paperie. Emily is from Australia and she has been blogging since 2012. Emily is a Tim enthusiast and does amazing art with his techniques and with digi stamps. She has a long and impressive list of challenges she enters and awards she has won. You'll find lovely inspiration throughout her blog!

Swapna Patel of The Dream Pages. Swapna is from India and she became active on her blog in 2015. Swapna has a huge range of artistic talent when it comes to paper crafting. You will notice that she, too, loves to enter challenges where she has been recognized many times. You will be inspired by everything Swapna makes, from stunning sponged one-layered cards to incredible 3D projects!

Shell of My Time. Shell is from New Zealand and she has been blogging since 2007! How had we not met before now? Shell has embraced my NBUS idea wholeheartedly, which I love. I also love how happy and colorful (and beautifully watercolored) her card art is and the way she shows you her process along the way!

Frau Nicole Vögeli of Frau Vögeli (Mrs. Birdie). Nicole has been blogging since June of 2015, so she'll soon be celebrating her first blog birthaversary! Congratulations, Nicole! You may already be familiar with Nicole, either on design teams, or as a guest designer, or as an award winner. If not, you are in for a treat as you discover her wonderfully crisp and clean card art!

Carol H. of Crafting By Carol. Carol started blogging in 2015 as a way to have a photo journal of her card art and to enter challenges. The mother of two daughters, Carol started out making Christmas cards ten years ago with a light box, brass stencils, and a stylus. Remember those days! That was a lot of work! About five years ago, Carol started checking out card blogs and joining in online classes. Her cards are really sensational and show the extensive talent Carol has honed over the years!

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

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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 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!

Feminine Pinks and Greens

GrEeTiNgS!

I didn't want to be the one to bring you this news, but I think it's best if you know so you can take a deep breath and slow down for a minute. I'm talking about the fact that March will be here in less than a week. March!

I spose if you live in a place with nasty winter climes you will be happy to hear that news, but working on our Christmas card for today's post, the happy little paws and I felt like it had only been days, not weeks, since we made our 2015 cards! I mean, give us a second! And, of course, it's even more frightening when we know what March is famous for ~ marching, right?! Oy.

I haven't played in the Papertrey Ink (PTI) blog hop for a while and the photo inspiration was too fetching to pass up. I've also not made a single Christmas card for 2016 and since the third month of the year is already breathing down my neck, nothing was going to keep me from getting the Cc ball started! So let's roll on ...

First my PTI card:

Here is the beautiful Papertrey Ink February Blog Hop Challenge photo inspiration, which I think has an Asian feel to it:

I immediately thought of my design when I saw that sweet little vase laying down on top of the circular green plate. I added the tiny sweet butterfly to my card because of the one shown in the bottom of the photo and Hammy tried his darnedest to figure out how to add a froggie, too. We finally decided to put a tiny tree frog down in the soil inside our pink vase. He seems quite happy there.

For my card I used glossy card stock for the base and over that is a single glossy layer with a stitched Lil' Inkers circle opening. (In other words, it's not a see-through aperture.) Using my Paper Smooches "Crystal Clear 3" dies, I cut a pretty pink vase from fun foam. Next I went all NBUS by using a Nestabilities die to cut the stem, a Memory Box die called "Fancy Blossoms" to cut the flowers out of pink vellum, and a stamp from the "Make A Wish" set by PTI for the sediment.

I'm also entering: the Anything Goes challenges at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the showcase is Memory Box products and Mrs. A.'s Butterfly Challenges, where the brief is G is for Glitter (on my wee butterfly) or Grape; and the Work it Wednesday February 2016 Simon Says Stamp Challenge, where we are to use something floral in our projects.

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And now for my first Christmas card of 2016:

Nothing NBUS here, slap, but this QACAS design sprungled to mind. The sediment from PTI's "Think Big Favorites #9" is heat-embossed in SU blushing bride. The watercolored Noel postage stamp image is from All Night Media. 

Yay, the first of over 200 Ccs done and dusted and I'm playing in these Anything Goes challenges:

•  Rudolph Days Challenge
•  Christmas Card Challenges
• TWOFERS (my first time here!)

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Reminders:

"Inspired By all the Little Things." I'd love to have you play along!

and

Only 4 More Days! NBUS #6!

The next semi-annual NBUS (Never-Before-Used Schtuff) Challenge is just around the corner! Mark your calendars for two weeks from today!! Wheet!! If you are new to NBUS and would like more information, please click here for the rules.

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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 join as a follower! Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor. I've been having a bit of a rocky time of it the last coupla weeks with migraines and a Crohn's Disease flare, but it's wonderful to have this happy community to enjoy when I'm able!

*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!