CASology 38, Photos Cards, and Gramma Elbows

Whoosh!  And we're back around to Friday!

My friend Margie, at work, asked me to make her some cards that she could send to an organization similar to "Operation Write Home."  I quickly put some cards together, as I have done in the past for such organizations, using photos.  I keep a box of my photos on hand for this purpose and I thought you might be inspired to do the same.  Not only is it easy, it's a great way to make a card that brings enjoyment to the worthy recipient, no matter the gender.

In putting the cards together, I realized that this first card might be eligible to play in the always delectious challenge at CASology.  This week the cue card is "Up."

And the sponsor is the fabulous Lawn Fawn!

And here is my photo card:

It is a photo of a vintage light fixture.  If you are ever in the town of Columbia, California (an old mining town and California State Park in the foothills of the Sierras), you will want to make a stop at the saloon on Main Street, where I took this picture, to quench your thirst with a beer or a sarsaparilla.  Refreshed, right down the street you can pan for real gold!  The twins love going there, and so did DS before them.

Where was I?  Oh, yes.  The card's focus pocus is the ceiling light, which is UP, and nothing can be simpler than a photo card, but there's not a lot of white space, so it might be illegible.  It's beautiful though, isn't it?  We get pretty excited about "old-timey" things over here in the States, where our "old-timey" is pretty young compared to our worldwide friends!

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Here are a few other cards I made for Margie from photos I've taken:

This squirrel was loving our visit to our friends' cabin after we filled the BIRD house with peanuts!   

Did you notice my use of fun peanut patterned paper on that one!

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And to start your weekend off with a giggle if you personally represent "old-timey," or think you might ever live long enough to have that privilege, here's a funny.  I hope you can click on it and read it.  If I use the "larger" feature, it runs over the margin.  Not surprisingly, my resident head hamster gets all twitchy at the thought of that.

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

One day your elbows are perfectly taut,

the next day, they're not.

I wrote that.  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!

CASology #4, BIRD

Aaaccckkk, it's August Already!!

I got a call yesterday to go to the office today and do an emergency Power Point presentation.  (Not "do" the presentation, as in be the presenter, but "do the presentation," as in prepare the materials.)  I had my container of bird stamps open in my Playhouse when the call came in.  So many birds, so many ideas, so little time, this will have to wait until tomorrow  . . . then I remembered that I had a print photo of my birdhouse in my "to do" slot, waiting to be made into a card.  So that's what I did.  Thank you, Serena Dippity.

As you've no doubt guessed, today's cue word at CASology is "bird."

Here is my photo of the cute little birdhouse hanging in the back yard:

And here's my card, made from a previously taken photo.  I should have taken a picture from another angel, too, to show you better how the little "hello" is attached so it can be closed over the birdhouse entry hole.

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Okay, you guys, so in Wild Kingdom news, you know that cute little squirrel I showed you a few days ago, the one who was eating some mystery item up on the fence, which he's still doing and which I think are undeveloped sunflowers, and the one who brought out the hatred for squirrels in some of you?  WELL!  Looks like I'm going to be joining the ranks of squirrel haters.

Wait, first, back to the birds.  You see, without the birds, who just happened to be the focality of this post, I wouldn't have caught the squirrel.  So there I was, getting up and down straightening out my stamp cupboard yesterday and this bird caught my eye, hopping along the patio right under my window, where birds don't normally hop, so I stopped to watch it.  Turned out to be a mama.  Here she is:

She turned around and hopped over to the big decorative boulder where, by now, this other bird was waiting.  Turned out to be her baby: 

Here is mama feeding baby. Sorry, it's so blurry, but I get a little picture-taking-tremor when I get excited by these critter moments.  Not to mention, baby is all a twitter over getting fed:

And here they are unblurry:  Aaawww . . .

So, as I'm taking that picture, I notice one of the jade trees right there starts to shaking.  I focused and could just see a furry little brown bottom:

What the heck?  I can't even imagine what he's doing in there.  Just then, Mister came home and Squirrel scampered away: 

I mentioned it to Mister and we walked over to instigate.  Oh my gravy, that little sheet was EATING one of the jade trees!!  We've had them five years and this has never happened before:

That was a big 'ol chunk.  I can plant it in another pot and it will probably take root, but I hope he got a first-class tummy ache so he doesn't do it again!  Man, oh, man.  And here I was telling the whole world how cute he was.  That's the thanks I get!

It's amazing I get anything done, huh, what with my ADHD interrupting my OCD like that.

Okay, gotta run.  If you haven't checked out CASology yet, please go over and join in the fun, even if "clean and simple" isn't your normal "go-to style." The creations are always amazing, always enchanting, and a lot of the time, ridiculously brilliant! 

Enjoy!   As always, thank you for stopping by to visit.   Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

Paper:  SU white

Stamp:  "Hello" SU, set unknown

Ink:  PTI dark chocolate

Photo:  © Darnell J. Knauss

A Trilogy. Freshly Made Sketches #41; Addicted to Stamps ~ Bingo Addict #1; Dragon Flies

First, as I mentioned earlier this week, I'd like to take a moment this Thursday to let the people affected by the fires and floods know that they are in my thoughts and prayers.  Please, God, if you could put a word in Mother Nature's ear to move the rain from Florida to Colorado, that would be very much appreciated.  I know.  She's a force to be reckoned with and not easily swayed.  Just try anyway.  You the Man.  Thanks.

Second, I would like to take a moment to say Rest In Peace to the hysterically funny and extraordinarily talented Academy-Award winning writer and director, Nora Ephron.  Among her many great quotes:

"When your children are teenagers, it's important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you," from "I Feel Bad About My Neck." 

I feel bad about her dying so young.  If you think that dying at age 71 is not dying young, then you haven't reached your sixties.

Third, this blog a tribute to Dragon Flies.  As much as I love Butter Flies, I love Dragon Flies.  Here in northern California, Dragon Flies only appear in the garden when the temperature is over 95 degrees.  They only stay however many days the heatwave lasts, and then they disappear.  While they are here, I try to capture them on film.

I made two cards, for two different challenges, out of a couple of my photos.  These are not stickeroos like my card the other day, these are real photos I took in the back yard.

Both cards were made ala the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  This time the sketch is by the amazing Cindy.

Here are my cards:

This second card meets the criteria of the new Addicted To Stamps challenge.  This week the challenge is Bingo Addict Challenge #1:

My card sentiment is stamped, embossed, and blue.  BINGO!!

Isn't that background paper the best representation of the fragility of the Dragon Fly?!  I didn't make it, BTW.  I have no idea who did.  I've had it in my stash of handmade papers for years and I'm excited to finally use it.

I hope you will be able to click over to these two wonderful challenges and join in the fun!!

I was going to insert some more photos here, but I'm "out of photo space," whatever that means, so I'll add them to My Photos page (tab at the top) if anyone is interested.  I think they're pretty cool, if you like Dragon Flies.  I was going to do that anyways, assuming Bob The Blogger is okay with that.

Today I hope you'll join me in welcoming and visiting my new follower, Amanda, of Panda's Paper Playtime.  Welcome, Amanda!

Enjoy!   As always, thank you for stopping by to visit.   Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

Paper:  Copper metallic, unknown;
  Dragonfly mulberry, unknown
  SU very vanilla, pacific point
Stamp:  Hero Arts A 1308
Ink:  Embossing powder:
  Blue Moire, Old Town Crafts
  Detail copper, Stampa Rosa
Corner chomper
Photo:  djkardkreations

ColourQ #130 and Freshly Made Sketches #28

It's night time and bed time for a lot of you and almost for me.  I had a full day today so I didn't get to crafting 'til after din-din.  I was thinking in my head, "Oh well, the day is almost over, I'll just do a cross-word puzzle ... but first I'll check a couple of my favorite challenges ... ."  And then, bam, cosmos, baby!  The card sort of makes itself.  I find it interesting that cosmos means:  "the universe seen as a well-ordered whole."  And "an ornamental plant of the daisy family with single or double dahlialike flowers."  You'll understand how that popped out of my fingers when you scroll down.  But, first, the criterior:

From ColourQ we have these delicious Springy, Eastery colors:

That is the coolest basket EVER!  How delightful would it be to pull that out of the dusty box in the closet or garage every Easter and pop those bright colors in your living room?!

So good, like that, what else?  Let's see what the Freshly Made Sketches sketch is:

Another fun sketch by Lesley.  I didn't have much time, I really promised and crossed-my-heart that I would make my Easter cards, but you know what would be great for both these challenges?  This:

The flowers behind are a bit distracting, so here is a close-up:

It's so cool to me that the very edges of the flower are the color of melon mambo!  And I hope the DT at ColourQ agrees that this dahlia is the color of Daffodil Delight.  It seemed like it to me anyhoo.  I took the photo at summer's end last year.  And if I stamp "Happy Easter" on the inside, there you go!

Aside:

The kidlets have spring break from first grade for a week, so the kids took them to Florida to see the sights and Henry's godparents.  They have a dog named Duke.  Not the godparents, the kids and kidlets.  Duke has a dog-sitter lady.  Dog-sitter lady flaked on the kids at the last minute, day before the vacay.  The kennels were all full because of spring break.  We are the first names on the emergency response card and while I told my son never to use the word emergency in a phone call unless it had to do with the kidlets, not the dog, I can see where they were in a bit of an emergency.  Of course we took the granddog.  He's a sweetie and no trouble, although he will knee-cap you with that tail if you don't watch it.  He joined me for a while in the playhouse while I made my card:

Please enjoy ~ and, as always, thank you for stopping by.  Special thanks to you if you took the time to join as a follower or leave me a comment! 

Paper:  SU white, melon mambo,

  certainly celery

Accessories:  Turquoise brads,

  white thread

Note: This post contains words

  made up by me; they are not typos.

Thank You Photo Card

Busy, but productive, day here.  All I've had time for, craft-wise, is to make this cheerful thank you photo card.  It was quick and easy.  Can't wait for those pretty pink Azaleas to bloom again this Spring.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Enjoy!

Paper and Stamp and Ink and Punch:  SU

Photo:  Mine