Wipe Off That Baby!

Hello Stamplings!

Thank goodness the temperatures have cooled off for most of the country, but oops, guess wha' happened? It rolled all the way under and around the globe and came up on the West Coast! Our temp yesterday was 99F, but, hey ho, it IS summertime!

Rather than cool you off today, I took a "if-you-can't-beat-'em-join-'em" approach and I'm sharing a twofer of hot fiery sunset hues with you. (Hmm, I wonder why Samuel Johnson decided to spell it "fiery" and not "firey?") 

Put on your sunglasses!

During ESCR 2019, Bonnie taught us the Baby Wipe technique and I made these panels. Once home, I made them into cards and sent the top one to Bonnie for her recent birthday. I was amazed by the bright gloss that happens when the background and image are wiped with a baby wipe! The stamp is used is Penny Black's "At Grace."

If you haven't tried this technique before, I recommend it. Bonnie was the hostess back in May over at CAS Mix Up Challenge and she used this technique. This is the list of videos she recommended:

Baby Wipe Videos:

Baby Wipe Technique by Keenan Kreations (7:06)
Tie-Dye Baby Wipe Painting Technique by Jay Lee (5:26)
Baby Wipe Inking by Ashley Cannon Newell (7:43)
Distress Oxide and a Baby Wipe by aplaceforkia (10:27)
Hello Card Using Distress Oxide Ink Pads by Tracey Farr (8:20)

Challenges

• A Place To Start: Anything goes.
• Sweet Stampers Challenge: Summer.
• Watercooler Wednesday: Tristan's All About Occasions.

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At the Beach

 They keep growing!!!

Okay, yes, I did skooch down, but just a little bit! They're only 14! We had such a good time with them sharing a few days of their summer break before high school starts next month!

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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!)

Beespiration

Hello Stamplings,

How are you? I hope you had a lovely weekend and a Happy Father's Day to all who celebrated! Our temperatures have blessedly cooled off and the day was beautiful here. I know it can be a difficult day for many and I send hugs to those of you for whom the day is bittersweet.

I have my reminder Twofer Card Challenge cards for you today and I hope they bring a smile!

Ah, such a happy bee couple, but aw, such a sad bee in a sickly shade of green! The cute bee stamp I used in common on both my Twofer designs is from Paper Smooches.

Onefer

I mean, could these two be any more adorable? Just look at those little bows on her antennae! I'm not sure who makes the scalloped heart, but I think it's Papertrey Ink. The sediment is from GKW. Hammy made the little enameled hearts for some added blingading.

Challenges

• Country View Challenges: It's a bug's life.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Wedding/Anniversary.
• Sweet Stampers: Anything goes.

Twofer

This design didn't warrant a sediment because there wasn't room and it is very clearly a get well card. Poor little guy is so sick he's flying upside down inside a peek-a-bee frame from MFT! Naturally Hammy had to glossify his gruesome green head to reflect just how stuffed up with cold he was. The bee, not Hammy. (Is it just me, or shouldn't those band-aid faces be frowning? By smiling they seem to be saying, "Haha, you got a boo-boo!" Snot nice.)

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By the way, have you seen the new July kit from Simon Says? It's all about bees! 🐝 Sure wish it would have come out in May, lol! Never mind, you are managing to find bees in lots of places in your craft rooms! (Not literally, of course! We all want them outside pollinating our flowers and crops, not inside!)

I hope I've inspired you to come and play in our BEES challenge at Twofer Card Challenge #17! Thank you if you've already played! Feel free to play again and don't forget this month we have a prize! The challenge is open until the end of day on June 24th. 

 

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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!)

This Is Wheelie Gonna Be Fun!

Hello Stamplings,

How are you this fine May day? When you walk around my neighborhood, the homes on every street are just bursting with flowers and so colorful. The lawns are all thick and green and manicured. Manicured is a funny looking word, isn't it? Mani was really ill with fingernail blight, but now he's cured. Possibly. Turns out the English word comes from the French manucure, which in turn originates from the Latin words "manus" for hand and "cura" for care. That makes sense now.

Sorry, just another squirrel in the mental machinations.

On to this month's Twofer Card Challenge!

Our prompt is THINGS WITH WHEELS.

My common WHEEL comes from Lawn Fawn's "Wheelie Like You" set.

I shouldn't tell you this, but I made my Twofer cards for today and my reminder Twofer cards for next week and when I went to write my posts, Hammy was sitting on my shoulder as he likes to do. He was reading along and all of a sudden he ran down my arm and hopped up to the top of the laptop and glared at me, chattering away like a wet hen. I looked back at him in my quizzical way. He then hopped down, ran over to the drawer where I keep my critter stamps and disappeared through the hand hold drawer opening. 

Ah ha! What a bad hamster mommy I am! Of all the wheels all over the Playhouse, it never occurred to me to use a hamster wheel as my inspiration for you! Needless to say, that got remedied immediately, but he is still sulking a bit and I don't blame him.

Onefer

For my birthday card, I used a NBUS Poppystamps die called "Pinpoint Rings." I silver embossed the wheel. The hamster and the sediment are NBUS from the brand-new Art Impressions "Hamster Wheel Cubbies." I think the balloon is from PTI.

Challenges

• Seize the Birthday: Optional Toppings: Balloons.
• Simon Says Monday: Add something metallic.
• Watercooler Wednesday: Kath's All About Occasions.

Twofer

For my second design, I made a Christmas card using the hamster wheel as the O in the word JOY. The pp is from PTI and the embossed snow panel was a gift from my friend Chrissie. The little hamster running on the wheel on this card is from the Lawn Fawn set used on my first card and the JOY die is "Seed Snowflake Joy" from Poppystamps.

Challenges

• Love to Craft: Anything goes.
• The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge: Anything Christmas goes.
• Sweet Stampers Challenge: Animals.

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I hope you'll dig through your stash of cars, planes, trucks, campers, bicycles, tricycles, ambulances, buses, office chairs, wheelbarrows, carts of any kind, trains, wagons, pulleys, roller skates, skateboards, scooters, motorcycles, baby strollers, tractors, Ferris wheels, and luggage, to name a lot! I can't wait to see what you make!! You will find more sensational inspiration on the Twofer blog from our talented Team and Guest Designers, Hilary and Cornelia.

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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!)

Reminder Twofer Card Challenge #15 - Zoo Animals

Hello Stamplings,

I'm sitting here ramrod straight cuz if I slouch or move too much, everything hurts. I spent the last few days spring cleaning every closet and drawer in the house. Thankfully, it's a small house, but these old bones and mussels aren't used to being that active that long.

Oh, but it's worth it! Everything looks so purdy all clean with room to breath. I've been dying to try Marie Kondo's way of folding clothes and I do like seeing all my tops color-coordinated and tucked up in rows smiling at me. It's very satisfactory, especially since between the folding and the purging, I emptied an entire large dresser drawer in the process. I gave it to the Mister who has suffered for years with his clothes being squished into a small dresser (pursuant to Rule of Marriage #23).

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Today I have a reminder for you about the Twofer Card Challenge where we are having fun playing with our Z🐒🐘 ANIMALS.

As you can see, my shared zoo animal is the cute little baby elephant from W Plus 9's "Bubble Talk" set.

It's EZPZ to make two conventional ~ but different ~ designs using a zoo aminal! Have you got a sloth, flamingo, camel, penguin, kangaroo, otter, koala, hippo, lion, or? I can't wait to see what you choose to play with! You have until the end of day on April 24th!

Onefer

Here the baby is seen in a rare photograph with her mama for the cover of a Mother's Day card. The mama elephant was made by Fiskars. They were stamped and watercolored on mixed media paper. The sediment is from HLS gold heat-embossed to match the gold schplatters ala Hammy.

I was worried after I made the card that I had paired the baby with a daddy elephant for a Mother's Day card. I mean, not that it matters today with everybody rightly filling every role, but I was curious so I went back again to my research window. This time Dr. Google assured me that African mama elephants have tusks. He also told me that the little tusks on Asian mama elephants are called tushes, not tusks. Seriously. I thought all things had tushes, you know, to sit on, but once again we learn a word can have more than one meaning!

Twofer

And who knew that a little baby African elephant could have such enormous lung capacity?! This birthday card is literally screaming party! The bubbles are "Loopy Rings" from Memory Box. The dotty rectangle die is from Avery Elle.

Challenges

• Memory Box Outside the Box Challenge: Clean and simple.
• Seize the Birthday: Anything goes.
• Sweet Stampers: Birthday/celebrate.

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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! Rats, I just realized I forgot to thank the clothes that no longer sparked joy and were sent to a charity. What happens now?

*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!)

Purple Hop for Epilepsy Awareness

Hello Stamplings,

Happy Tuesday! I hope you've been well since I saw you last!

You know how I've been on a mission to use my products more than once in a sitting? Well, now I've gone the other way and I'm having a hard time knowing when to stop! Case in point is today's featured item: a die called "Clustered Leaves" from Simon Says Stamp. I had fun making four QACAS cards and to keep myself interested, I varied the colors and occasions.

Onefer

This was my first card, made for today's Purple Hop. The clustered leaves were cut from a piece of Yupo colored in wildly exotic purple shades of Lindy Magicals and then posed in front of an embossed brick wall background. The accompanying sediment is from MFT's "Label Tape." Here is a closeup of the Yupo sheen and the Lindy shimmer.

Today's Purple Day Hop was organized by my friend Fikreta to raise awareness for epilepsy. Fiki has a very informative post (and a giveaway) on her blog detailing the history of Purple Day and many of the myths surrounding this disease.

I hope you will have the opportunity to check out Fiki's blog and the blogs of the other ladies in the Hop. Most of us know someone who struggles with this disease which does not get the attention and funding it needs. 

In addition to Fiki and myself, here is a list of the other card artists participating in this Hop:

Sandie 

Ike

 Kitty

Annabel

Janis

Olga
Vicki

To thank you for taking the time to check out today's Hop, I also have a giveaway for those who are followers of my blog: a $25 gift card to Catherine Pooler! Whoot! Just let me know in your comment if you are interested in being in the draw. And for every name entered in the drawing, I will personally donate $2 to the Epilepsy Foundation.

Twofer

Isn't this die exquisite cut from vellum? The embossed swiss dots vellum I used here is from SU. The sediment is white heat-embossed. Here is a closeup of the pretty schparkle embedded in the red card stock which I've had for ages.

Threefer

From Christmas back to springtime! This time the background used to cut the die was made last May at Lolly's Retreat and I think it was Brushos on Yupo. The sediment is from PTI, embossed in platinum. Here is a closeup of the platinum shine:

Fourfer

I used a different Brusho on Yupo background piece for this die cut. A linen cover plate from PTI was used for the background. The hello sediment is from GKW and the thinking of you sediment is from Altenew.

Here is another view from above. Do you can see my BOO-BOO?

Oops. I hate it when that happens, but I wasn't about to risk destroying the panel to fix it. Please let me know in your comment if you're left-handed and you'd like to receive this pretty Happy Mail!

Recapitation

There are two giveaways in today's post for my followers! I'll have Hammy pick the winners in a coupla weeks on April 9th and I'll post the names in my Twofer post on April 10th. Please make sure I have your email address, so I can contact you if you win. If I can't contact you, another name will be drawn. Good luck!

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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!

Challenges:

• Purple Day Hop card: I'm entering this card in TIME OUT Challenges, where they are celebrating their 5th birthday! Congratulations! I'm also playing in Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, where the brief is "Play With Paint." 
• Christmas card: I'm entering this card in Ike's World Challenges, where the brief is "Clean and Simple" and in Rudolph Days, where the brief is "Anything Christmas Goes." 
• Spring card: I am entering this in Sweet Stampers Challenge, where the brief is "Easter/Spring," and in Less Is More's "Take 3" challenge. (There is one die cut and two words; or, if you prefer, there are three blings.) 
• Hello Beautiful card: I'm entering this card in  Crafty Cardmakers, where the brief is "For Someone Special" and Creative With Stamps, where the brief is "Friends."