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!)

It Feels Like It Was Just Yesterday!

Hello Stamplings!

How have you bean? It seems like forever since I've seen you. Last week I shut down the computer for four days, opened a box of Get 'er Done and Hammy and I made 73 card fronts from beautiful pp I've been hoarding. The kind of beautiful watercolored pp that just needs a sediment and maybe a bit of bling, but not too much because the paper itself is the star of the card.

Each one took very little time to do once we got a rhythm going and I'm sure it will take longer to finish them off as cards! But we'll do it little by little, lit by the euphoria of filling the stash box and having accomplished something that's been on the Todo List for ages!

Speaking of ages, today we are celebrating longevity, sticktoitiveness, and contentment. My card:

I used an MFT photo booth frame. Both the young couple and the old couple are stamps by Penny Black. The beer is NBUS from Tim Holtz. I watercolored the images with my Ziggies, ahem, after I inserted them in the frames. Slap! The sediment is from Paper Smooches. I believe the numbers are from PTI. 

This is a surprise card I made for The Mister to celebrate the fact that we met 50 years ago on September 5, 1969. We met at a kegger in the woods. A kegger is a gathering of college and working kids to eat junk food and drink a keg of beer. Hence the beer image! While our meeting that day was brief, it was very memorable. It took me two more weeks to catch him become his steady  girlfriend and we married a year and three months later.

Challenges

• Cardz 4 Guyz: Celebrate.
• CAS Mix Up: Inchies. Stamping, die-cutting, and watercoloring.
• CAS Watercolour: Complimentary colors. Green and red.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use your snippets!
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Stamp it.
• SSS Work It Wednesday: Celebrate.

  

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I used the photo booth frame for my card because we had this photo booth picture taken shortly after we met when we were 20 years old. We adulted early in those days.

And here we are today ... I love this guy and he just gets handsomer!

Fifty years, fifty pounds, and fifty million laughs later and we still fancy each other quite a lot! We feel very blessed. 

What's that? The secret? An attitude of gratitude and consideration. We've never stopping saying please and thank you. And, most importantly, separate bathrooms!

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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!)

Please Bee Aware

Hello Stamplings!

How are you on this fresh new Monday?! I hope you had a great weekend! As always so much of our enjoyment depends on Mom Nature who is always wrecking havoc somewhere, whether by heat or cold or floods or storms. For us, it's extremely high heat right now, so we're all nervous about another year of bad fires. I hope you are safe and comfortable wherever you are!

It's the 10th of the month which means today's twofer was made to encourage you to join in the actual Twofer Card Challenge. This month the prompt is BEES! EZ-BEES-E, right?!

The stamp that I used in common on both my designs is the beautiful Big Bee stamp from Hero Arts.

Onefer

This design started with the cool bee patterned paper on the right. How could I not use it? I've had it (and the bee stamp) since the last half of the last century so it's from GKW. The panel to the left has a subtle honeycomb pattern; it's the reverse side of the bee pp. I heat-embossed the big bee in black and added the stamped trail to direct your eyes to the die-cut birthday sediment from PTI. 

And, natch, the bee had to be glossified. I whistled Hammy over to work his magic bringing the bee to life, but he was having too much fun using his drinking water as a pool to cool off (lucky guy), so I did it myself.

Challenges

• Seize the Birthday: Anything goes.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Masculine.

Twofer

I really like how this design turned out. To create the hive, I used a NBUS hexagon die from SU as a stencil and sponged the background. I stamped the bee in black, colored it with my Ziggies, and then fussy-cut it. Next, I stamped the bee onto vellum, colored the wings from the reverse, fussy-cut them, and popped them onto the body of the bee with a foam dot. 

The hello sediment is from Stampin' Up. To finish the card I stamped a few worker bees busy in the hive and added a frame. Here is a closeup showing the pretty vellum detail:

Challenges

• A Place to Start: Stencil me in!
• Country View Challenges: June: It's a bug's life.
• Shopping Our Stash: Stencil me this.
• SSS Work It Wednesday: Summer.
• TIME OUT: Nature.

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I hope you'll be able to take a break from your summertime activities to whip up a coupla different bee designs (for different occasions) and join us over at the Twofer Card Challenge! We are delighted to welcome the very talented Coni (Which Craft?) as our guest designer! The amazing ladies of the Design Team have also created sensational designs to inspire you! AND, check it out, we have a surprise prize this month!

Please Bee Aware

I'm sure you've all heard the devastating news that bees are diminishing at an alarming rate. If you would like to read more about it, including how you might help, please check out the valuable information in this link: Bees Are In Trouble. Thank you.

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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 to 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 the pop-up box opens. Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel! P.S. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Mwah! 

Birthday Dawg and Christmas Stocking

Hello Stamplings!

Good day! I just ate a fat left-over Easter egg, so pardon me if I get chocolate on your screen. It's been hiding behind a potted plant on the deck for a few weeks, but it was okay to eat, doncha think? Sure.

Thank you for letting me know how much you enjoyed my bunny up a tree in the last post. The world is pretty anxious these days, so it's nice to have little unexpected giggles. I do tend to levitate towards critters when I make my cards (gee, Hammy wonders why!) and I did it again today with this Onefer.

I used a NBUS "Pawsome" set from Taylored Expressions that I've had for a little while years. I don't know why I haven't used it before because it was fun to watercolor with my Ziggies.  I added a few grass clippings and some rainbow-colored party confetti to match the tops of the birdie's party hats. A wonky MFT border seemed appropopo for the frame and it was good to go.

Challenges

• CAS Watercolour May Challenge: For a child.
• Krafty Chicks: Celebration.
• The Library Challenge: Herriot: All Creatures Great and Small.
• Seize the Birthday: Anything goes with optional Texture.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Birthday. Happy 10th Birthday!!!! WOW!!
• SSS Work It Wednesday: Pet project in honor of Nat'l Pet Week.

Twofer

Here we have a classic Christmas card depicting, "the stockings were hung by the chimney with care." There's only one stocking on this card because it belongs to Emily. She's a young single woman who is celebrating her first Christmas in her new home! I used a Tim Holtz stencil for the chimney. The stocking is from MFT and the sediment is from GKW.

Challenges

• CAS Christmas Card Challenge: Stocking.
• Merry Little Christmas Challenge: Anything goes.

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Off to play with our company. 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!)

Poppies Popping Up All Over!

Hello Stamplings!

With all the rain we've had this year (hallelujah!), the whole state of California has had a bumper crop of our state flower, the California poppy. You may have even seen photos on television of the largest area in the state where they are super abundant this spring, bringing visitors from all over the world. It's very fitting, therefore, that this month's CAS Watercolour Challenge features the beautiful poppy!

It's one of my favorite flowers, so I couldn't not play along!

This beautiful free form poppy is from Concord & 9th. It is such a show-stopper that a card needs nothing more than a simple sediment. This one is from GKW. I used copper e/p for both the image and the sediment, watercoloring the image with my Ziggies and a water brush. The mat is also copper. Before I added the popped-up sediment, I masked the flower and let Hammy schplash around in a pool of DI and roll around on the card front. Finally, after a shower, blow dry, and a reeeeeally small glass of sherry, he winked the poppy.

Here's another angle showing the coppery scrumminess:

Challenges

• CAS Watercolour Challenge: Poppy.
• CAS(E) This Sketch.
• Work It Wednesday: Spring flowers.

 

Twofer

A few days ago I messed around with my NBUS Ken Oliver Liquid Metals. I dropped some copper onto a glossy card and then, not knowing better, I added some blending solution. I don't know if I did it wrong or what, but the two didn't get along. The metallic bits separated from the ink and looked like pepper on the paper. I then added some terra cotta alcoholic ink and blew that around with blending solution. It made the spot bigger, but it wasn't pretty with the bits in it, so I just set it aside.

So then what happened was, as I was clearing my work area after making the first card, I saw the set-aside "fail," picked it up and went "Erh?" with a cock of my head. That always gets Hammy's attention and we both realized that it was just about prezackly the size of the Concord & 9th poppy. So I sort of lined it up over the splat and stamped. And now I love it! That just shows, as many of you have said before, don't throw away those inky "fails!" 

The giant MWAH from CASual Fridays and a smattering of sequints was all that was needed to complete this OLC. Here is a closeup of the metallic bits that separated from the ink. Extra texture, right?!

Challenges

• Krafty Chicks: Flowers.
• The Male Room: A/G, optional twist: OLC.
• Simon Says: Beautiful blooms.

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And here are a coupla photos of our own local native poppies:

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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!)