CASlicious Seasons

Hello Stamplings!

Thank you for stopping by today! Last week went by very slowly, which is something you rarely hear me say. I think it is the changing of the seasons that does me in. I'm an early riser and I have a hard time getting up when it's dark outside. 

While I adjust, I'm thankful I can use this wonderful hobby to combat the darkness by making light and bright cards to lift my spirits. This is A = Anything Goes week on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar and I went uber CAS = clean and super.🤭Ha, that was a slip of the ginfers, but I might be onto something. Very few cards we make are really simple, are they? Even if they don't have a lot of elements, they can take time or be difficult. So how about CAS = Clean and Super?!

Onefer

For my Onefer, I used Donna's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and brought out one of my favorite fall stamp sets. This rake and the autumn sediment are from the "Fall" set (2012) by Technique Tuesday. I stamped the autumn using a Kaleidoscope ink pad. The rake was stamped, clear heat-embossed, painted, and fussy cut. Oh, and, of course, winked by Hammy and Stanley! I add some rusticity by lightly inking the border. The circle sediment is from Memory Box.

Playing in: Allsorts (Anything Autumn); CAS on Friday (Autumn/Fall); Freshly Made Sketches; and Seize the Birthday (Use Fall Colors).

Twofer

For my Twofer, I was inspired by the September challenge at Pinkfresh Studio. Both the beautiful wreath and the gold-embossed sediment are from my NBUS Pinkfresh Studio set called, "Seasonal Sprigs." I painted the wreath using my Ziggies and, as with my Onefer, the lads were delighted to have lots of tiny areas to wink!

The Pinkfresh Monthly Challenge also has a theme and you are welcome to link your design using just the theme, or just the colors, or either/neither. They just want to see you have fun and link your new creations using their products. I used just the colors and I loved painting these hues on a Christmas wreath where you might not expect to see them!

Playing in Addicted to CAS (Circles); Pinkfresh Studio; Rudolph Days; and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday (Christmas in September).

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

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

*Life is too short!

Stenciling Through the Seasons

Hello Stamplings!

I sure hope this finds my European friends feeling much cooler! What a terrible heat wave in areas that are not used to it. (I'm not going to talk about how nice the weather has been here!🤫)

This is a rare fifth Monday of the month as we close out June, which means it is S = Stencils week on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar.

Onefer

I used a NBUS stencil from Papertrey Ink called, "Wandering Petals." Now, I don't do much stenciling, but I enjoy it. Even though they all sit organized in pretty stripey binders right to the left of my face, I tend to ignore them. It's like the thigh-bone-connected-to-the-knee-bone situation, but in this case, it's more of an organic disconnect from eye to brain. 

Which brings me to sharing a dumb thing I did when stenciling this card. I'm telling you because after I embarrassed myself, then I was amused. But, also, tell me the truth, am I just getting too old for this job?

This is a simple two-stencil stencil. Two. One stencil is the stems and leaves and the other is the petals. It doesn't get much easier than that. I inked the stems and leaves, picked up the petals stencil and the phone rang. After the call, I absent-mindedly lined up the petals stencil over the stem stencil ... and loved how perfectly they lined up! This was a revelation!

But then I lifted the petals stencil and realized why no one else had shared this wonderful technique. Like a do-do, I had simply inked the petals onto the plastic of the stem stencil!🫣

Once I properly inked the petals, I used the stencil to outline the flowers with my fine-point black pen.

And where were my little helpers, you might ask? I clearly need them, but this is their vacation time and they are off to see the cousins. Hammy is slowing down, so I'm glad we have Stanley back to help him on their travels.

Playing in: Addicted to Stamps and More (Die Cuts and/or Stencils); Just Us Girls (Stencil Week); and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday (Anything Goes).

Twofer

My Christmas design was schparked by the current sketch at Jingle Belles. I hope you can see the snowflakes. The snowflake stencil is without packaging so, you know, it fits in the above-mentioned binders. I didn't start out planning to go mono chrome, but one minty green thing led to another.  The sweet little snowman is NBUS from Pink & Main. 

Also playing in: ABC Christmas Challenge (L = Let It Snow); Christmas Kickstart Challenge (Snow Day); and Rudolph Days (A/G Christmas).

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Enjoy your week! 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!

I have a busy week ahead with a special July NBUS on the 1st, my birthday on the 2nd, and the 4th of July weekend, so I might not see you next Monday. Stay inky!

Mwah!

*Life is too short!

Solidarity and Uber-Duber CAS

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you doing well! Welcome to March! 

I'm going to jump right in today. Lots to cover and I'm starting with this card I made to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine.

Bright blue and yellow are the colors of the Ukrainian flag and the sunflower is their national flower. Many of you know talented Blogland card artist, Yana Smakula. She is living in this nightmare right now and has information on her blog about how you can help if you are able. It has been heartening to see so much of the world standing strong and united against this madness and war. 

I have been intrigued to learn the background of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and how he came into office. The egos of politicians are well-known, so I was quite moved to read that in his inaugural address, President Zelenskyy told his Cabinet and others not to put his portrait on their office walls. He urged them instead to hang photos of their children and to look at their children's faces each time they made a decision. Wow. Refreshing.

I feel a rant coming on, but that is not why you visit ~ well, not for that kind of rant anyway! So let's return to the language of cards, which is a language of love. The rest of the cards today were schparked by the challenge at AAA Cards where the prompt is to use one-ninth of an A2 card panel, plus your favorite animal. 

Onefer

Hmmm? Which animal is my favorite?! As we used to say when we were kids, I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count. 😂 Needless to say, Hammy took center stage in the middle space, being the star he is! This hamster stamp and die are from the Birthday Wishing set from Colorado Craft. I love that his arms are outstretched to give you a hug!

Twofer

This wee porcupine is as old as the SU hills and I still love him. He came with his own "hang in there" sediment, but I used this unmarked NBUS sediment instead because of the size and the font.

Vellum One/Ninth Tool

I can't remember who taught me back in 2013 how to make a template to help place images and sediments to make them more "pleasing" to the eye. To make a template, you take a piece of vellum the same size as an A2 card (4.25 x 5.5) and divide it into nine equal rectangles. Where the rectangles intersect is where your eye naturally rests and for uber CAS designs, the template helps keep your elements where you want them.

In the photo above, you can see a portion of my template off to the side. Over the years I've made several because, being vellum, they seem to slip away and hide.

Threefer

This NBUS nurse and sediment are part of the Call the Doctor set by Your Next Stamp.

When I began blogging, this uber duber QACAS style of card design was my go-to style. I have evolved over the years to making designs that aren't quite so minimalist, so I had a lot of fun returning to (mostly) one-layer super simple cards. If I have more time this week, I hope to make six more cards with six different stamps for six different occasions to occupy the six remaining spaces of the nine-spot template, but for now I stopped with the nurse.

Ouch!

And I stopped with the nurse to let you know that in six days I will be in surgery getting a completely new right hip! I've been in pain and unable to walk any distance without a cane since June of last year, so you can imagine how becited I am to finally get it fixed! (That's all the complaining I will do because I know there are many of you who have had to wait much longer for surgery and my heart goes out to you.) I am really looking forward to being able to take my daily walks again ~ and so is Nellie!

I'm not sure when I'll be back with a post, but as I recover I hope to be able to visit and comment. 

Enjoy the days ahead! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

*Life is too short!

Challenges

AAA Cards: Game 209 ~ 1/9th + favorite animal. Onefer.

Color Hues: Joining with Seize the Birthday to flood the internet with #cards for Ukraine. Thank you, ladies! Sunflower.

Krafty Chicks: All occasions. Twofer.
Less is More: OLC +JOW (one-layer card plus just one word). Threefer.
• SSS Wednesday: Anything goes. Sunflower.

A Love Twofer

Hello Stamplings,

I hope you are doing well. Every day I hear about more and more friends who have Covid, or someone in their family has it. On this side of the globe, it's easier to stay in and keep safely crafting where it's warm and cozy. On the other side, spring is sprunging, so it's hard to stay in. Be careful out there. 

I just realized that if sprunging were a word (which it isn't), the g would change from hard to soft. It's like the word dung. The g is hard, but if you say the word dungeon, the g is soft. Shouldn't it be dung-e-on? "You there, this has to stop! Throw that man in the dung-e-on!" Nope. Not the same. I love words.

And I love making cards and playing in challenges, so here we go, doe-c-doe!

Another simples QACAS design. The background die is from Reverse Confetti. After I cut it, Hammy put the cut-aways back in place for the wow factor. The NBUS die is from Gina K.'s awesome "A Little Love" bundle. In real life the red is deep red and the black is pitch black.

Challenges

• Color Hues: Red and black.
• Make The Cards: Create a Valentine.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: With love.
  

Twofer

Lolly kindly gifted me with a pack of beautiful pp a few months ago. I've made several cards with it, letting the pp be the star and only adding simple sediments. Thank you again, Lolly! I see a lot of you have been making really quick cards by embracing the use of the gorgeous patterned paper you've been hoarding. 👏 All together now: FREE THE PP!!

😂 That would sound like a medical condition if this weren't your hobby!

I will enter this as my first entry this month at NBUS #35. The pp is new. Remember you can enter whenever you use anything new to create! And starting this month, there will be guest designers to help me thank and encourage you!

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy, and be safe! 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!)

Hearts and Alcohol

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are doing well. I know a lot of you have been impacted by the Nor'Easter and hurricane-force winds over the weekend. I hope power and mobility are restored soon and you don't have damage from fallen trees. 

We have sunny skies here. Again. Sadly we didn't get rain in January and there is none on the horizon, so we are again in a severe drought. It's so sad to see the local lake half-full. Yesterday we had our own day-long power outage because someone ran off the road and mowed down a utility pole nearby. Hammy and I got a lot done in the Playhouse without the computer, phone, or TV to squirrel us!

Onefer

You might be familiar with the Penny Black "Masterpieces Made Simple" watercolor panels and today I am featuring two of them. They are really beautiful, done on a linen texture paper, so they are great for making cards by just slapping the panels on a card base. It's even more fun to give them a little Jenny Saquaw by adding your own touches. 

Challenges

• Double D: Blue and white winter.
• Snippets Playground: I used snippets for the frame and sediment.
• Jingle Belles: 12 days of Christmas. My option is a card with hearts.

Twofer

Under this card you can see various Yupo backgrounds I made for a recent Zoom session. It's a technique called Floating Alcoholic Inks. (There is a video here.) My results weren't spectacular, but I want to try it again using non-Yupo paper. We concluded that a tall container and a dunk-in /dunk-out maneuver might work better than a shallow container with a slide-in/slide-out maneuver.

These backgrounds were on my desk when I was using my PB panels to make cards and Hammy noticed that one of them worked beautifully as a mat behind the birdhouse panel. I wish now I'd left more of it showing, but the card base is a lovely linen texture, so I wanted that to show, too. (Apparently Di Lemma shows up even in the world of card-making!)

Challenges

• Penny Black Saturday: Anything goes using PB products.
  
• Rudolph Days: Anything Christmas goes.
• Simon Says Wednesday: Anything goes.
• NBUS #34: Anything new goes.

Now we know ...

Longtime readers of this blog know that I enjoy a tumbler wee sip of wodka from time to time. I have noticed that there seemed to be a bit of "evaporation" in the spirits bottle, but I never once suspected Hammy was in my hooch! Hey ho, as you know, he continues to excel at helping me left and right, especially with his winky schparkling skills, so 🙈🙉🙊.  Hic.

~~~ 

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!)