My Boozy Twofer Cards

Hello Stamplings,

Happy day to you!

You came whooshing in here thinking maybe July would slow down, being summery and hot and steamy for a lot of us, but, no, uh huh, not happening. Hang on to the strap if you get nauseous due to speed!

I'm so relieved and thankful that those boys and their coach have been rescued from the cave in Thailand! It's really been nerve-wracking and fascinating watching the hundreds of people who have worked diligently around the clock to make this happen, buoyed by the prayers of millions. I hope they are all able to make a full recovery from the trauma. As well, my heart goes out to the family of the diver who died while trying to help.

In celebration of the recovery, let's raise a toast ~ or a twofer of them!

You know how at the very top of my blog I've been telling you for over six years to grab a beverage and enjoy? Well, this month I chose BEVERAGE as the prompt word at Twofer! Natch, I went with a martini as my beverage of choice!

Onefer

Thanks to Lura, I found out the Ice Fishing Martini stamp is made by Impression Obsession (E2295). Thank you, Lura! This time I used it to make a retirement card for a friend who loves to fish. The vo wooden stamp of the fishing dock says "Ann-ticipations" on the side. The background is a piece of watercolored pp. I brushed a little ink here and there to intensify some of the bits and pieces.

Challenges

• The Male Room: Fish/Fishing.
• Moving Along With the Times: Male-Themed.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Summer fun.

Twofer

For my second card, Hammy suggested I change up the design by turning the fishes in the drinkie-poo into a sugar cube in the form of a birthday present! (What would I do without him?!) The little sugar cube present was made with a tiny square stamp from Rubber Stamp Tapestry. I colored it red and then drew on the bow.

I added the Cheers die which I outlined in red and then I added the perfect sediment from Technique Tuesday. The preprinted front panel with the whimsical border is from Taylored Expressions. I colored every other square to make it all adhesive. I thought the card still needed a little s'n's' over there in the left corner, so I used the same Tapestry square to stamp and draw a few more sugar cube presents at the base of the glass.

Of course, one doesn't put sugar cubes in martinis, so this drinkie-poo is called, "Death in the Afternoon," and it was reported to have been Ernest Hemingway's favorite drink: pour one jigger of colorless absinthe into a glass and fill it with iced champagne. I'm not making this up. Happy Smirthday to him on the 21st of July. He would have been 119.

Challenges

• 4 Crafty Chicks: Birthday.
• The Paper Players: The celebrating (birthday, anniversary, etc.) continues!
• Paru's Card Making Challenge: Birthday.

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How will you interpret BEVERAGE on your Twofer cards this month? (Haha, I almost typed veberage!) 

I look forward to seeing what you create! Will you choose something alcoholic or something more refined like coffee or tea, milk or juice, water or soda pop? For design ideas, please click over to the Twofer challenge to see the awesome designs made for you by our TWO incredible Guest Designers, Bonnie and Marianne, and our very talented Design Team!! Thank you, everyone!

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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 wallah, no more car pool tunnel! Mwah! (p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!)

Here We Go! Twofer!

Hello, Stamplings!

I'm all atwitter and becited to launch my Twofer Card Challenge today! All of you have been so encouraging and supportive here and over on the Twofer challenge blog where we already have over a hunnert followers! I appreciate you all so much! 

Here we go!

I made a sympathy card

and a Christmas card

using the same feather stamp.

Onefer.

My feather choice is a NBUS (Never-Before-Used-Schtuff) stamp from the "Fancy Feathers" set by Lil Inkers. I stamped and heat-embossed the feather in both white e/p and plantinum e/p. Then using just the Watermark inkpad, I off-set stamped the image to create a shadow. The drops are from PTI and the white heat-embossed sediment is from "Oh Happy Day" by Avery Elle.

Here is a closeup of the feather, but the photo doesn't really do justice to the metallic shimmer from the embossing powders and drops.

I love taking photos of leaves and feathers covered in morning dew drops or rain drops. Here are two photos I took last summer on our trip to the lake with the boys. You can see how they inspired my card.

Challenges

• Always Fun Challenges: One-layer card.
• Inkspirational: Stamping only.

Twofer.

Do you recognize that I used the same feather stamp for my Christmas wreath? I got such a kick out of stretching my stamp to make my second occasion card! 

In addition to the feather, I used evergreen stamps from SU, a snowfall e/f, a little bow from Paper Smooches cut from red schparkly fun foam, and a teeny tiny tag from My Creative Time.

Challenges

• Happy Little Stampers January Christmas: A/G.
• Paru's Card Making Challenge: New.
• The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge: A/G.

Come and Play!

I can't wait to see what two different designs you create for two different occasions using the same feather stamp or die! Remember, don't be afraid to use your stamp or die in an unexpected way for one of your cards!

And if you have questions about using other stamps along with your feather, or about using positive/negative dies, etc., please click the FAQ tab at the top of the Twofer Card Challenge blog. Please also use the Contact form on the side bar if you have questions that are not already answered.

Have FUN with this!! 

I certainly did and so did my talented friends on the Design Team!

I am so thankful for them and really WOWED by their Twofer creations!

Bonus: double the inspiration and double the stash!

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

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and a 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 favor!

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

Rainbow Butterflies and A Bonkers Bee

Hello, Stamplings!

I hope your second full week of September has started off well and you're not in the middle of some new natural disaster. Prayers continue for everyone struggling to return to some form of normalcy.

I had to finally turn the television off to find our version of normal here. The force of Mother Nature is mesmerizing and terrifying. So I turned to something lighter.

Onefer.

When I saw the current TIME OUT Challenge was to CASE (copy and share everything) my friend and owner of Uniko, Beverley Brown, I knew I needed to take time out to play along. The NBUS butterfly frame is from WPlus9 cut from a background I made by schmearing rainbow colors of DI onto my craft mat, spritzing it with water, and then laying the watercolor paper into it. The pretty outline blossom is from Uniko's "Building Blossoms II" stamp set. 

Here is Bev's beautiful card for us to CASE:

I'm also playing in Paru's Card Making Challenge where the brief this month is "Rainbow," and in Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge, which is "Anything Goes" with the optional twist of "spritzing."

Twofer. And now for something even lighter!

This is more like the world where Hammy and I live! For this one-layer card (OLC), I stamped my NBUS sediment (a gift from my friend Shaz!) from Visible Image onto watercolor paper. Then I stamped the whimsical bee from Paper Smooches upside down and colored it with my Ziggies. Finally, using a metal ruler, I drew a yellow line down each side of the card to give it the appearance of a matted layer. No combing necessary. You can't tell, but the bonkers bee is liberally Winked.

Challenges

• AAA Cards: Creatures great or small.
• CAS on Friday: Color me pretty.
• Less Is More: One-layer card with some colouring in. Some being the operative word!

 

NBUS Reminder!

NBUS Challenge #12 is coming up in 12 days!! Unearth your virginal unused products, young or old! Their time in the limelight is coming soon!!

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Enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy!  LITS!* I won't see you for a week or so because I'm off on Thursday to go halfway across the country for my high school reunion. Let the shenanigans begin!!

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!

And if you get a chance to play over at Inspired By All the Little Things, I would appreciate it!!

*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! Mwah!

p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me

your email address so I can respond.  Thank you!

Color is Cool

Hi there,

I hope your week is going well! If you came by looking for NBUS Challenge #8, you'll find it here.

I had some time while it poured down rain yesterday to play in a couple of challenges that Hammy put up on the Inspiration Board for this week.

Onefer

First, we have this colorful number:

The background here is the result of a play I had with Alcoholic Inks and Blending Solution on glossy paper. That part was easy, but then I spent a lot of time moving that die cut around this way and that to find the best place to put it so it didn't cover up too much of the background coolness factor.

The die is "Grand Thank You" from Memory Box. The "(kindness matters)" is NBUS from the set by the same name by Neat and Tangled. And for old time's sake, Hammy wanted to use some flower brads to attach the die-cut panel. (It's nice to have a hamster I can blame for certain questionable design features.😉)

Challenges

• CAS Mix Up Card Challenge. I used stamping, liquid colors, and die-cutting.
• Paru's Card Making Challenge: First Anniversary Anything Goes.

Twofer

So, okay. What happened was I saw this Michael's (art supply store) advertisement just before Christmas:

The advertisement was intended to sell the frame. Naturally, what caught my eye was not the frame, but the reindeer art inside the frame. I thought it was so striking and I wanted to see if I could make something like it. This is what I came up with:

It was a bit fussy, but the die is so small that it didn't too long to draw on some triangles and then color them with my markers. It took more time to come up with a design for showcasing it!

The reindeer die and the NBUS stamp "JOY" are from WPlus9 and the stitched snow hills are from "Stitched Landscapes" by Poppystamps.

Challenges

• Merry Monday: Use a Reindeer.
• Retro Rubber Challenge Blog: Let It Snow. I've had this stamp set for at least two years. It came out in 2010!
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Chill Out.

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Thank you!

I want to thank all of you for leaving me and the Mister (and me for the other schtuff) so many lovely messages of congratulations! You are the best! MWAH!

Remember to contact me if you have any questions or need clarification about NBUS Challenge #8. There are two things that I want to emphasize: a) You can enter the challenge with ANY creation as long as it includes some never-before-used-schtuff (you do NOT need to participate in the optional theme of using colored pencils on kraft), and b) make sure you let me know if you want to be in the drawing for a prize. If you don't say in your comment or after your name in the gallery entry, I'll assume you are playing just for fun! See you in the gallery!

~~~

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 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!

Cherries Jubilee for TYI!

Hi there!

Happy whooshed-around-to-Friday day! I hope your week has been grrrrand! Don't give one thought to the fact that today is Friday the 13th and you've already gotten a paper cut from opening the cereal box and one of the kids emptied your purse into the dog's water bowl. That should do it then for bad luck for you today. Promise. Go on about your business. I mean, after you read this.

I had the pleasure of winning a recent Tag You're It challenge, which means I have the honor of being the Guest Designer for the current challenge! So I made you this tag:

Inspired by this lively tag made by my talented friend and TYI Designer Jeanne Jachna:

I'm not gonna lie, Jeanne's pretty tag truly challenged me since I'm a person who generally likes a lot of white space. But there's nothing like a challenging challenge to get Hammy running full blast on his thinking wheel. Round and round and round he went until, wallah, we had cherries jubilee!

The tag top was die cut with a NBUS "Pinpoint Dome Tag Decorations" die from Poppystamps and embossed with a Cuttlebug e/f. The bottom of the tag was cut with an MFT Die-namics "Tag, You're It" die using cherry covered pp from my stash. The two were taped together on the back and belted with Washi tape. The fishtail flags were handmade from Washi covered cardstock and the center flag is stamped with the CFC stamp "Out Loud." The sediment is from SU and the center cherry focus pocus is fussy cut from a piece of pp I have.

How will you be inspired by Jeanne's tag design, my inspiration, and the wonderful inspiration of the rest of the Design Team? I hope you will join in the fun! Click here to go to the current Tag You're It challenge!

I'm also playing here:

• HLS - Anything Goes With Dies.
• Ike's World Challenges: Embossing.
• Paru's Card Making Challenge: Summer
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Emboss it.
• Stamp, Ink, Paper: Make one element stand out: Cherries.

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Perspectivation

I was going to share with you about how I am doing on the increased dosage of medicine for one of my ail mints. About how I have less fatigue and I'm down to just one very long afternoon nap, but about how now I'm experiencing yet another difficult side effect in the form of fatigain. Prior to this increase in medicine, I had been moving more and eating healthier to be fit for my trip to England in July, so this development is disheartening.

But then a dear friend wrote to share that her husband is not well and he will be facing surgery soon and one of her sons is also ill. Another friend is facing brain cancer surgery and another friend's wife is declining in her battle with cancer. Yet another friend is dealing with family mental health issues and my own son is struggling with a debilitating attack of gout.

Unfortunately, there are many folks not included above. Thinking of my friends and family with serious crosses to bear and dialing in on my Perspective Button, I am reminded that weight gain caused by medication is not something to be upset about in the grand scheme of things. Especially when the medicine is helping.

So never mind. My British friends will love me even if I'm a flufflier version of myself. All the better for hugging, right?! So big hugs to you if you have serious issues on your plate right now!

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New Friends Corner

I hope you'll join me in welcoming these five lovely new friends!

Lilian (littlelillyb) of Lilian's Crafting Blog. Lilian started her blog in September of 2014. Lilian shares events that are happening and the lovely cards she makes for playing in challenges. She also makes 3D art pieces, so you'll find lots of varied inspiration on Lilian's blog!

Mac Mable of The Sweetest of Peas. Mac has been blogging since 2014. Like so many of us, Mac was inspired by online challenges to try her hand at new techniques and join in the fun of blogging and entering challenges. Now she is a seasoned challenge player and award winner. You'll agree the recognition is well-deserved when you see her magnificent card art!

SonjaK of SonjaK - The Art of Stamping. Sonja is from Germany and she started blogging in 2013. Sonja has loved paper in all forms since she was a child. She enjoys drawing, painting, journaling, and calligraphy. Sonja was introduced to the hobby of card making and scrapbooking in 2012 and we are fortunate she started her blog and began playing in challenges. Her creations are sensational!

Kavitha of Kalalayaa's Art Studio. Kavi has been blogging since 2009. Her artistic talents are unlimited. You'll be blown away by her scrapbook layouts, canvas art, home decor, journals, and, of course, cards. Allow plenty of time to enjoy all that Kavi has to offer!

Barbara Joyce of Inky Fun. Barbara Joyce has been active on Splitcoast Stampers and she has started posting more often to her blog as of January of this year. You will find her beautiful cards arrayed gallery fashion and you'll be impressed as you scroll through oodles of inspiration!

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 as soon as I can!

*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!