A site for my handmade cards, accompanied by my photos and written meanderings which are occasionally witty, often tongue-in-cheek, and rarely profound. Beginning in June 2013, you'll also see lots of NBUS, which is an acronym I coined for Never-Before-Used-Schtuff. Note: my Privacy Policy can be found at a tab below and you can find my NBUS Challenge online. I hope you'll join in the fun there! Thanks for coming by! Have a beverage and enjoy!

Showing posts with label TCP Tuesday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TCP Tuesday. Show all posts

February 17, 2020

The Illusive Five-Petaled Heart Flower

Hello Stamplings!

My goodness, didn't I just remark about starting a fresh new week? And then what happened was, I looked away to enjoy a hummingbird on the feeder and when I looked back, it was Monday again! Am I a groundhog now, or what's happening?!

Things are still super busy here with the Mister back at square one with his recovery, but I did manage to make a card:
Some of you may have seen this information on the Simon Says Stamp blog. Simon made this die and called it "Floral Burst Collage." What you may not know is that the artist Francine Milaux spent seventeen months on a remote island called Comoros (one of the Glorioso Islands) until she was able to get a photo of this rare flower with heart-shaped petals, from which she drew the image for the die. This rare flower is believed to be an unbanded lateral offshoot of a cape periwinkle flower and a clover, performed by a local Comoroi. Unfortunately, because this flower withers almost immediately after picking, no research has been done to substantiate this claim. 

Of course, none of that is true. I made the whole thing up because the petals on this flower are so awesome. Although it is true that Simon made the die and the name is correct. Don't hit me.

I die-cut the NBUS image and then used the negative of the cut as a stencil to blend ink in an ombré pattern across a textured linen panel. I took an unmarked tiny leaf from my large array of unmarked tiny leaves and added a few of them in ombré green. The swirly sediment is NBUS from PTI's "Scene It: Celebration Stamp Set." Hammy added PPP's schparkly clear jewels to the flower centers for just the right touch of glamour and glimmer.

Challenges


Various Updates

⭐In my post here, I told you about 104-year-old Major Bill White who wanted to receive Valentine's Day cards. His family was hoping he would receive 104 of them. In fact, at last count he has received over 300,000 cards and packages from all over the world! Considering that today is Random Acts of Kindness Day, it restores your faith in humanity! Spread kindness. It's reciprocal.

⭐In my post here, I asked if any of you are getting a  message that blocked you from visiting other blogs. It quickly became apparent that the problem must be on my end. 

Normally, I ask the IT guy I'm sleeping with when I have problems like this, but at that point he was in no mood to discuss computer issues. Yesterday I was able to ask him and he quickly identified the problem as being a "new and enhanced" update to our security by our server Comcast / Xfinity.

Fortunately, after some sleuthing, he was able to figure out a way to disconnect this pain in my patootie and all is well again. (It would have been nice if they had put their own URL on their warning!) I am sorry to have jumped the gun and gotten everyone worried about their own computers.🙊

⭐There is only one week left to play in the current Twofer Card Challenge where the prompt is FRUIT! Design Team member Cat has more inspiration for you on her blog. We'd love to see your fruity concoctions in the gallery! Mwah!

Nellie's Nook

Nellie was sitting right next to me while I was taking my card photo so I snapped her picture, too.  ...
Now, honestly, isn't life a funny old thing? Some of you may remember that in 2018 at Loll's Eat Sleep Craft Repeat retreat in Vancouver we did "dirty pours" and this is one of the canvases I made then:
I thought at the time that it looked like a baby seal had emerged out of the pour, but I was wrong. It was a foretelling of a little white fluffy dog that would come into my life!! Her eyes are normally big round buttons of coal like on the canvas, except when she's looking into the sun. But isn't that spooky/cool?! 

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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!)

August 19, 2019

Paper Towel Oceans

Hello Stamplings!

I'm not sure about that title. Have you seen the reports lately about the crap they are recovering from our oceans? I guess a lot of the debris is from ocean liners just dumping their trash in the sea for decades. That can't be right, can it? I'm glad humanity is learning little by little how critical our natural resources are to future generations, so we don't end up with paper towel oceans and no peoples.

Here in our card-making corner of the universe, we make pretty things with our paper towels!

Onefer
As long as I had all my nautical stamps and dies out, I made a coupla other cards for other challenges. I used Lolly's paper towel technique for this card. (Lolly taught this technique at the 2019 ESCR.)  I mopped up Brusho ink with a paper towel and pressed it onto a mixed media panel. If you look closely, you can see the little dot design of the paper towel. The happy popped-up whale from PTI was given a second offset black layer for a shadow and Hammy added a googly eye to bring him to life. The wave die is from Simon Says Stamp.

Challenges
  • CAS Mix Up: Paper Towels. I used a paper towel, plus stamping, plus Brushos. There are videos about this technique on the site.
  • Paper Players: CAS PP455. Any cards for kids.
  • Sweet Stampers: Dies and/or punches.
Banner zum mitnehmen
Twofer
Using the piece that remained after I die-cut the panel for my first card, a sediment sticker Hammy picked out, and a Crop-a-dile, I made this super QACAS birthday card for any age and any gender. Shazambam!

Challenges

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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!)