February 12: D is for Dies

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are doing well, wherever you are! I've got a photo/text-heavy post for you today, so let's get this party started!

In keeping with my I.D.E.A.S. schedule this month (see sidebar), today's post features Dies/Die-Cuts. Because this is the week of Cupid's appearance, I went to my drawer filled with hearts and hugs and kisses. (Aren't I the lucky girl?!) I came across two NBUS heart dies! 

The first is this incredible "Etched Swirl Heart" from SSS:

You know how difficult it is to photograph anything wrapped in gold like this! The card base is white, covered by a piece of vellum dotted with gold hearts. I added the sediment and a gold frame. [SSS Wednesday and Cut It Up.]

In real life that heart looks like a piece of jewelry. I haven't cut one yet from silver, but I'm sure it will be just as gorgeous. Here it is cut from a piece of red fun foam: 

Remember fun foam? The coils wanted to unfurl, but Hammy's little paws were able to furl things back in place.❤ [Addicted to CAS and Just Us Girls.]

I have quite a bit of this vellum with gold, silver, and white hearts. If memory serves, it was from Stampin' Up. Here's another Valentine I made, this time using the silver vellum and a Penny Black xoxo die, cut from more fun foam:

[I'm linking to the Inspiration Station. I was inspired by the XOXO in the photo.]

And the second NBUS heart die, also gracing a very simple card front:

This die is "Hugs Heart" from poppystamps and I added a strip of embossed hearts for some dementia and interest. I love that this heart can be used all year long for many occasions where a hug would be welcome. [Double D and poppystamps PSC#113.]

Also, the letters pop out nicely so they can be used on a second QACAS card:

I have several friends with Febwoooary birthdays, six of which fall on the 13th, 14th, and 15th of the month, so I made a few birthday cards with hearts on them:

For the card on the left, I used the same heart vellum and for the card on the right, I used some pretty heart tissue paper I've had for ages. In order to attach the special papers in a way that hid the adhesive, I put them in a "channel" on the card front. I taped the strip of special paper to the card base and then attached the two front panels to either side of the channel using double-sided tape. Mary's your aunt.

The sediment die is "Big Happy Birthday" from SSS. The sediment on the right is actually cut from a beautiful snippet of glimmery shimmery foosha glitter paper which was a gift from a friend years ago. And that's when the trouble started.

Before die-cutting, I checked the paper to make sure it wasn't adhesive-backed already. When I peeled back the corner, it was just paper, so I added it to a sheet of double-sided adhesive. Turns out the pretty pink stuff is paper that doesn't want to be cut, especially not with a layer of adhesive added. So I ran it through my machine several times with this shim and that shim, turning it this way and that way. Finally, the machine and I, and the paper, were all worn out and it appeared to be cut through.✀✀✀

Not.

I sat down and started to fussy-cut the parts that weren't cut all the way. As I worked, it was clear more parts of it weren't cut, than were cut, but by golly by now I was into it and I wasn't going to stop until I won and I got every little bit of it cut, even if it meant I needed dental work from clenching my teeth so hard for so long and even if I had to use every one of the snippy scissors and cuticle scissors and craft cutting blades I own and even if it took me 53 minutes of my life I was never going to get back. Breathe.

After all that, it looks war-torn in places and who can blame it? And even though I specifically set aside the part of the die-cut that held the dot for over the i, when I finished, I furiously threw everything in the trash and then discovered that the dot was missing. Of course it was. And, yes, I then spent several more minutes going through my trash, to no avail. 

I burst into tears! No, that's a lie. But the neighbor did call to see if everything was okay after my vulgar outburst. No, that's a lie. My neighbor is used to it.

I was going to add a little ❤ in place of the dot over the i, but I forgot. I think I just didn't want to look at it any more. I hope you enjoyed and could relate to the trauma and adventure surrounding this card's creation! I know the person who will find it in her mailbox will be amused!

~~~

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

See you next Monday! Let me know in the comments if you play with your dies any time this week and I will add your design to the I.D.E.A.S. board on Pinterest!

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! Happy Valentine's Day whether you celebrate with lovers, friends, or your own best company!

Wait. What? LoverS? 🙊

Mwah!

*Life is too short!

Holly and Joy, Two Girls From School

Hello Stamplings!

I'm in a rush. Yesterday I was in a tizzy. I'm sure tomorrow I'll be in volved. You feel me, right?

I'm popping in to share a coupla cards while my sugar cookies are baking in someone else's oven, she says hopefully.

This is Holly. She's from Stampin' Up. Her base color is platinum (natural) and her green and red accents are by Zigfield Ziggies. Just before she walked down the red carpet paneled runway, she was lightly winked by Hammy. She schparkled when the floodlights hit her as she walked with Grace. Grace was there to steady Holly because Holly is getting up there in years, yet somehow she never gets old.

Challenges

• Back to Basics: Resist technique.
• CAS Mix Up Card: Emboss resist, plus stamping, plus watercoloring.
• CAS Watercolour Card: Thank you.

Twofer.

And here we have Joy. Joy prefers to lie horizontal along a card for photos. She's a rather large-boned die and unlike the other girls in her family, she can't quite fit in the vertical position. I can relate. But, goodness, isn't she a beauty with her O turned into a filigreed fresh-fallen snowflake? Her full name is Seed Snowflake Joy and she came to me from Poppystamps. I dressed her in a cream bolero over a gold-infused coral* watercolor paper. 

Challenges

• Poppystamps: Merry & Bright.
• SSS Wednesday: Christmas.
• Watercooler Wednesday: All about occasions. Congrats on your 200th challenge!!!

~~~

*Coral is the color of the new year declared Pantone. I'm not sure who Pantone is, but it's their job to tell us. I decorated my home in corals and blues back in the late 70s. The new color makes sense because have you noticed that lately you're seeing your old clothes (or your mom's) everywhere on the telly? Suddenly actresses aren't wearing the form-fitting gorgeous sheath dresses. Instead, they're wearing dresses with elastic waists (like old Simplicity patterns I used to make!) or long halter dresses that I used to love. Pants are high-waisted and flowery blouses have flowing sleeves. 

At first I thought I was having flashbacks that no one else could see (don't judge, I'm on a lot of meds), but then my friend told me at lunch yesterday she noticed the same thing. I mean, even wallpaper is making a comeback. What can be next? Pant suits, blue eye shadow, and headbands?

I love the memories it all brings back and the fact that I've lived long enough to see it cycle back! For proof, yes, that's little ol' me in a grainy photo taken August 1970. I'm looking adoringly at the Mister from atop the ferris wheel at Asbury Park, NJ. Aaaah.

~~~

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!)

Bye to Bodie and Snowflake Joy

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you doing well as you climb Mount Wednesday and start the downhill journey into the weekend! Be careful you don't get going so fast that you miss the awesomeness Thursday and Friday have in store for you!

Today we begin with this Onefer:

I mean, how cute is that dog?! Our dear and long-time local friends said goodbye to their beloved Basset Hound "Bodie" recently and I made this sweet card for them. The basset stamp is from a great group of dog stamps by Katzelkraft. The sediment is by PTI. The background was lightly painted with my Ziggies.

~~~

Twofer

It's time for another Rudolph Days Challenge and this is my entry. The pretty snowflake-JOY die is NBUS from Poppystamps, cut from an old scrap of blue textured pp. I lined the tag from behind with a snippet of smooched ink. Then I attached a pretty pink bow to pick up the pink in the background. I attached all that to a snowflake-embossed card base. This one will go in the "Hand-Deliver" stash box.

Challenges

• ABC Christmas Challenge: "S is for Snow."
• Jingle Belles: Let It Snow.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: A/G, but use those snippets!
• Poppystamps: Anything Goes.

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I thought you might be amused by this:

Didn't I do a marvelous job applying my little round foam glue dots to make sure my tag would adhere to the card base and not be uneven? Phew! That took a while!

When I was finished, I proudly held it up for Hammy to see. In that droll way of his, he smirked and asked, "And on your finished card, will the recipient know what YOJ means? In fact, what does YOJ mean?"

I whipped my head around and said, "Wha - !" Fortunately, with a little patience and a mug of wodka, I was able to unstick all of the dots and restick them on the reverse. Never a dull moment when you craft while old and distracted!

~~~

I was delighted last Thursday to welcome a visitor to the Playhouse who came from very far away!

This is my friend Sonja all the way from Slovenia! Her blog is Old Punca and we have been online friends since September 2014, when we first commented on each other's blog! It was a pleasure to meet her and her husband Silvo in real life and enjoy lunch and a few hours getting to know each other better! Thank you, Sonja, for making a visit to see Hammy and the Playhouse a part of your San Francisco holiday!!

~~~

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, although I'm not sure when that will be right now! I'm taking off on Thursday on an extended vacation to visit my sisters and friends, leaving the Mister here to keep the home fires burning. I've got my October Twofers scheduled so my blog won't be completely dark and I just might pop in now and then to surprise you!

*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!)

Flowers at the Window

Hello Stamplings!

I feel like it's been so long since I was here, but it's not even been a week. It's because we had several days of rain so I spent the time signing and addressing birthday cards from my stash for the upcoming weeks rather than making new ones. That always a great accomplishment, but it wasn't all fun and games because there were taxes to be done. Oomph. That takes the Zwah D. Veeve right out of a girl!

And suddenly the week whooshed by! Whatever you did this week, I hope it was excellent!

Today I have this pretty dried flower window box card for you:

If you're a long-time friend here, you know I inherited dried flowers from my friend and neighbor many years ago. She picked the flowers and pressed them herself and I treasure them. I've made cards with them before, but it's been quite a while since I had a play so it was fun to work with them again. The window frame and window box are from Poppystamps. I slid a piece of blue vellum behind the window to add a little skyish interest. The flower stems slid easily into the window box and a dot of glue holds them in place. The sediment is from MFT.

You'll see where my inspiration came from when I tell you it is my month to host Inspired By All the Little Things. This is the photo I chose for the first bi-weekly challenge:

Isn't that a great photo for spring?! It's also a great photo for those of you LONGING for spring and still seeing snow outside your window instead! Don't look! Instead, cast your eyeballs on the photo and notice all the many little ways you can be inspired by the sweet lineup of flowers! Hmmm? Feel a spark of a card idea? I'm pretty sure you have a stamp that looks just like that one right there, or maybe the one on the end? Or several?

I hope you'll be inspired by the photo and join us in the challenge! My talented friend Cat Craig of Cat Luvs Paper is joining us for both challenges this month as our Featured Artist. You will find Cat's beautiful card and the gorgeous cards of the talented Design Team over on the blog!

Other Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: Anything goes.
• Always Fun Challenges: Happy Birthday.
• Poppystamps: Framed.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Happy Birthday.

~~~

I'm going to leave you with just the Onefer today! Wait. What? Feel my forehead. Am I okay?! Yes, never fear, I'll be back on Tuesday with my Twofer Twofer!

Enjoy your weekend! 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!)

Happy Easter!

Hello Stamplings!

I would like to start by giving you our heartfelt thanks for the outpouring of concern, prayers, and best wishes for Rachel! It makes a difference and means the world to us!

I know it's a busy week for those of you preparing for Easter and Passover and many of you have the additional busyness of having the kids home for spring break. Some of you might even be on holiday to sunny climes or visiting The Geezers and to those I say, "safe travels!" 

I've not had time this year to make and send the number of Easter/spring cards I normally do, but I did manage a couple to share.

Onefer

I've had this beautiful filigreed egg since 2002 and I never tire of it. Sadly, it's from an OOB company. This time I heat-embossed it using SU melon mambo and the shiny pink glaze is beautiful in person. I put a slit on both sides of the egg and wrapped it with matching SU ribbon. The sediment is from Paper Smooches.

Challenges

• Cards In Envy: No patterned paper.
• Just Us Girls: Easter/spring Photo Week.
• Retro Rubber: Anything goes.

Twofer

I simply HAD to use my NBUS Chickadees from Poppystamps for an Easter card before Easter was over. I used an easy design with some ancient SU pp showing through a peek-a-boo MFT window. Conferring with the hamster, we decided that it would look silly to have the chicks be blue or pink so we called in Char Truce. 

After she left the Playhouse, we had a bit of a giggle and didn't know whether to show you the card or not after the sweet chickadees ended up looking like cartoon chickens they were recovering from a bout of food poisoning! Sometimes artistic license runs amok, but they are still too cute not to share!

Challenges

• Double D Challenges: Things with wings.
• Poppystamps: CAS.
• Sunday Stamps: Easter palette.

~~~

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!

Remember it's Easter and there's an Easter bunny. Even if it looks like a chocolate-covered raisin, it might not be!

*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!)

Wintery Birthdays

Hello, Stamplings!

Well, that first week whooshed by already, dinnit?! For Christmas the Mister got me a seat belt for my desk chair because of how fast last year flew by! Vertigo is real, dude.

Even though Christmas cards have all been sent, I decided to make similar cards for those wintery birthdays of friends and family! Like this:

I did make three of these birthdays cards, so I'm proud of that, but I wish I could say I also made several more cards with this design with Christmas sediments for 2018. Sigh.

I have to admit I did have a lot of fun going all layer-y with this card and, as usual, I liked using ingredients from several different companies: A NBUS "Snowfall Panel Die" from Your Next Stamp; stitched hills from Lawn Fawn; NBUS "Polar Bear Fun" stamp and die set from Poppystamps; North pole stamp from "Cool Day" by MFT; hello, shadow, and cardinals from GKW; and sediment from PTI.

I think you're spose to knock all the snow out of the holes on the panel die, but I liked the look of some in and some out. Besides it's so cold in some places right now that the snow IRL would be frozen in the holes!

Challenges

• Little Red Wagon: Winter Wonderland.
• Poppystamps: Snow Day.
• Tic Tac Toe: I managed three matches with this game: Row one across, diagonal row from bottom left to upper right, and column two.

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My card was also made to inspire you to play along in the current challenge at Inspired By All the Little Things which I am hosting! Here is the fun photo inspiration for this challenge:

Eep! So cute!

As host, I also 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 talented friend Linda Snodgrass of Lin's Craft Corner. To see what Linda and the amazing Design Team have created to inspire you, please click over to the Inspired By All the Little Things challenge!

Noteworthy: When you pop over to the challenge, you will see that we have made some changes effective as of now. The challenges will now run two weeks, rather than one week, and our guest designer will be with us for both challenges in the month. (If there is a fifth week in a month, there will not be a challenge that week.)

In addition, as the challenge name implies, we would love to know what "little thing" in the photo inspired you to make your card design! It was that cute little bear that inspired my design and I can't wait to see what inspires you!!

~~~

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 pens. 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!