Add Schparkle at The Flower Challenge!

Hello Stamplings!

Welcome to August already! Whoosh!

August's full moon is the Full Sturgeon Moon.🐟 It's a wonderful month for star gazing and the month of the Perseid🌠Meteor🌠Shower, which peaks between August 11 and 13. This year, the falling stars peak right around the last quarter moon🌗, which means the moon shouldn't wash out too many of them!

August 1-7 is International Clown Week!🤡

And August 4-25 is the running of the internationally popular Flower Challenge! I happily have the honor of being the Guest Designer this month and the challenge prompt is perfect for me: "Add Sparkle!" 

Who doesn't love a little schparkle on a card?!

This pretty flower (which in itself is shaped like a schparkler!) is a Penny Black cling stamp called, "Together." Loll taught this technique at our last retreat. In brief, you stamp your image with Versamark ink, set it with sticky embossing powder, brush it with Pearl-Ex pigment powders, and then heat-set it again. Loll does a great job of explaining it here.

I was itching to add schplatter, but decided to keep it simple with just a lovely sediment and a pointed narrow Poppystamps frame to draw your eyes in. You know, to the flower, but not so far in that you're cross-eyed.

Here's a closeup:

I hope my card has inspired you to glitterize, glossify, wink, or otherwise add schparkle to your pretty flower design for this month's The Flower Challenge! I can't wait to see what you create!!👀

I. Hammy's Union Update

You might wonder if Hammy was upset that I used Pearl-Ex instead of letting him wink on the schparkle. He wasn't. I've given him some time off after several exhausting negotiating sessions with me about the advisability of joining/forming a union.

After my post about this, Hammy was very kindly invited to form an offshoot chapter of the Canadian Therapeutic Riding Horse's Union by his friend Susan. And then Mrs. A. (his friend from England) formed HAMAS (Hampster and Mice Appreciation Society) in Hammy's honor. Lastly, he discovered that there was an old unexpired Union licensing agreement available on Ebay in South America. 

But in the end, after a lot of defibrillation, he decided that I provide a pretty amazing environment for him and I meet his every little need. So we're all good for now, but I must hurry and finish this because he asked me for some peeled grapes ten minutes ago. 

II. Nellie Update

Nellie made it through her appointment at the vet where she had a great checkup and she got a passing grade on her teeth, except for her two teeny-tiny front teeth on the bottom which had to be pulled because of bad pockets of bacteria. Two days later, she was pampered at the groomers, so her needs have all been met now, too. 

Well, except for the ever constant . . .

Sugar-free from now on, little girlie!

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Challenges

• Less Is More: Summer Flowers.
• Penny Black and More: Say It With Flowers.
• Penny Black Saturday Challenge: Anything Goes.

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* Please take care and be well!

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!)

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Rudolph Days, Too

Hello Stamplings!

Greetings on this day before Thanksgiving! I'm wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving! I'm so very thankful for YOU and to show you how much I prechiate you, I broke out in NBUS and made you two gratitude cards!

Onefer

Last year I received a card from my dear friend Harriet using this beautiful Gentle Leaf Collage die from Poppystamps. I loved it so much I immediately bought it. Then I put it away. Once again, I wish I had a second story on the Playhouse. That way I could leave all my NBUS out in the open until it's used. Santa, are you listening?! 

But, no matter, as long as it gets used eventually. The sediment is also NBUS from the Choose Joy set by PTI. I heat-embossed it in copper as befits autumn. The stitched border is from MFT and the background is a piece of pp. The schplatters are by Hamself, back from his travels just in time to play with the Thanksgiving turkey wishbone!

Challenges

• Poppystamps: Fall frolic.
• Shopping Our Stash: So thankful.
• Work It Wednesday (SSS): Autumn/Gratitude.

Twofer

This second card of thankfulness features one of my favorite therapeutic activities: inlaid die piecing. The NBUS Feather Tree Frame is from Poppystamps. It was cut from and backed with two shades of light-weight glossy paper. It's almost like wrapping paper and I have no idea where it came from. I have several sheets of it in different colors which have been around for donkey's ears. The NBUS "Perky Thank You" die is from Memory Box. It was cut from a red and gold-embossed snippet in my stash.

Challenges

• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use your snippets!
• Stinkin' Inkers: Die-lirious and punchy.
• Words 2 Crafty By: Thankful to have a cup.

Threefer

I have to toss in a Christmas card ...

... because this is the marvelous Maureen's last Rudolph Days challenge of the year. Thank you, Mo, for reminding us each month throughout the year to work on our Christmas cards stash! This lovely NBUS wreath called "Homespun" is from Penny Black. I purchased it on my recent fun retreat in Nashville, Indiana. The sentiment is from GKW and the little berries were made with Nuvo crystal drops. It's hard to see, but the pine cones are dotted with snow and glossified.

Challenges

• ABC Christmas: W is for Wreath or X is for fauX.
• Penny Black and More: November challenge is Christmas.
• Rudolph Days: Anything Christmas goes!

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We had a great time with the grandtwins over the weekend! They did a fantastic job decorating the tree! Even Nellie got into the Christmas spirit!

Nellie's Santa outfit was a hand-me-down and it was a tad too tight for her, so it didn't stay on long. I hope someday she'll forgive us for laughing so hard when the hat slipped down over one eye making her look like a Christmas pirate!!

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

I'll see you next month! 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!)

Poppies and Peanut

Hello Stamplings!

My last post of this month. We are in for another heat wave starting tomorrow so we're flying up to Alaska for a few days. Just kidding. But wouldn't that be awesome? When people are asked what material thing they would wish for if they only got one wish, I never hear anybody say private jet. That would be my choice. Of course, it would go without saying that the hangar rental and costs of operation and pilot would be included. Of course.

Now that we've snapped out of my daydream, here are my cards. I know you weren't expecting another Fourfer after my last post, but it snot really. I consider these first three one-layer cards to be all together as a Onefer.

Poppy: Concord & 9th. Stencil: Funky Fossil Designs

Poppy: Penny Black 40-320. Stencil: Balzer Designs Mini Tiny Circles

Poppy: Penny Black 40-375. Stencil: Dylusions

Do you think maybe I love poppies? I have several more poppy stamps, but I ran out of time to make cards with all of them. I've painted them all with my Ziggies and now that Hammy is back home, he loved liberally winking them all. I used fossilized amber and antique linen Oxies through various background stencils to add a certain Jenny Say Quah to each one.

Challenges

• Card No. 1 "Lots of Hugs" is playing in the "One-Layer Card Using Stencils" challenge over at Less is More.
• Card No. 2 "Happy Birthday" is playing in the August Penny Black Saturday Challenge where the brief is "Anything goes with the option of water and/or watercoloring."
• Card No. 3 "Enjoy" is playing in the "Use Your Favorite Flower" challenge over at The Flower Challenge, just as the doors are closing.

Twofer

For this Chrissie card, I used two different Penny Black sets. The tree is from "Jolly Friends 30-058" and the NBUS doggie (nicknamed "Peanut" by Hammy) is from "Merry Delight 30-448." The sediment is from PTI. The wonky dies are from MFT. Peanut comes with a die, so naturally I had to levitate him to show how becited he is that the glittery foam star on the top of the tree matches his collar! This design was pretty quick and fits any age or gender, so I think I'll be making a few more of these.

Challenges

• Christmas Kickstart, where my friend Cat is the GD Elf, has a brief this time of "Dachshund (any doggie) Through the Snow."
• August Rudolph Days: Anything Christmas goes.
• Penny Black and More: Boys and Men.

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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!)

A Snowman and a Butterfly Two Ways

Hello Stamplings!

Happy Friday! We've whooshed our way quickly through another week! I decided this week that I'm not going to have my hair done at the salon any more. With the way time is flying, my hair just ends up being blown straight up in the air and out from my face anyway, so I'll save the expense. I always wondered why great-grandmas wore scarves and now I know!

First up

I wanted to play in the CAS Christmas May Challenge which calls for a snowman so I made this cute scenic card. This is quite a busy card for me but you-know-who had to add a critter! The snowman is NBUS from Marianne Designs and the little doggie and Christmas tree are NBUS from Penny Black. The sediment is from GKW. The snowflakes were cut from an MFT die out of glitter paper; if you look close, I think you can make out the schparkle.

Two more butterfly Twofers

I made these cards for a reminder post over on the TWOFER challenge blog. For these conventional card designs, I used a smaller butterfly stamp and die from the same Clearly Besotted set I used on the original post. They were also die cut from the same Brusho panel.

Here the butterfly goes beautifully with a Penny Black Stickeroo. A simple matting and a sweet sediment from Mama Elephant and another QACAS card for the stasheroo. BTW, you'll be seeing a lot more Stickeroo cards in the coming weeks. I ran across my Stickeroo stash a couple of months ago and decided this time I really needed to turn them ALL into cards. (Until I buy more!) In the end I had enough to make 60 cards! If you're a card pen pal, you will no doubt find one in your happy mailbox at some point soon. They really are stunning little works of art and they make easy beautiful cards. I'm linking to Penny Black and More May: Anything Goes.

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Here my twofer butterfly has landed on a jungle-inspired pp panel by Bo Bunny. The leaf fronds are NBUS from Concord & 9th. I made a border on the left side to balance the design. The sediment is from Penny Black (I think). This card is being linked to the Butterfly Challenge. Congratulations on 100 challenges, Mrs. A., and cheers to many more! I only have a widdly bit of hunter green and harvest gold (on butterfly wing), but I DO have a butterfly, so I am playing along!

***

Both of the above cards are being donated to Layton's Legacy Card Drive which is a drive initiated by Lea Lawson in honor of her son Layton to provide Starbucks gift cards to Minnesota parents who spending long hours in NICUs with their newborns. You can read Lea's moving story here. 

~~~

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!)

You Are Awesome, Wherever You Travel!

Hello Stamplings!

How are you? I hope you had a lovely Mother's Day if you celebrated yesterday! I am so blessed with my little family, but I know it can be a hard day for some, so I am sending you a big hug if it was sad for you.

We're having lots of blue skies and sunshine, so today I have a bright and bold creation for you, backed by my pretty Azalea bushes.

Using a small piece of acetate, I "painted" my watercolor panel by dabbing spritzed color from my craft mat onto the acetate and then dabbing it onto the watercolor paper in a rainbow design until I was happy with it. The "you" die from Winnie & Walter is popped up and backed by black fun foam. The "are" and "awesome" and the scalloped border die are all from Your Next Stamp.

Challenges

• CAS Watercolor Card: Rainbow.
• Mix It Up: AG, optional emboss resist.
• Moving Along With the Times: Sentiment only, no images.

Speaking of awesome, check out this cool driftwood sculpture our grandson Henry made at school!

Henry's sculpture was chosen to be showcased in the city art gallery! I'm sorry the gallery lighting made getting a good photo nearly impossible, but you can see that proud smile and rightly so!

Twofer

I told you in my Twofer Card Challenge post the other day that I would show you what my sweet "fairy" girl looks like on the actual wooden stamp from Penny Black! She is packed up, travel guide in hand, and raring to go!

Isn't that a fun stamp? I'm sending this to a friend who has been on some great adventures with me with the hope that we'll enjoy many more! You know, before the dementia gets too far advanced! The fun and cheeky sediment is NBUS from Cheeky Monkey.

Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: AG.
• CAS on Friday: Use a cute stamp on your card.
• Penny Black and More: AG.

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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!)