OLC and FFL and Wait. What?

Greetings, Stamplings!

I hope you are having a great week! I have a bit of news which I'm sharing below, so I'm going to get right to my cards.

I started with two very CAS one-layer cards for the One-Layer-Santa challenge at Less Is More:

Those reindeer karack me up. This is a fun NBUS stamp from Penny Black called "Joy to the World." The sediment is also NBUS from PTI. I colored the image with my Ziggies and grounded (skyed?) it with Perfect Pearls. I wish I had embossed the sediment, but I couldn't find my red e/p. 

Then I made this one:

I happen to have two of these brick e/fs and I really wanted to use the old chimney stamp from SU with the brick e/f design and make it one-layer, so I used a ruler and my craft knife to cut a rectangle out of one of them in order to keep that part from embossing.

I think my new altered e/f will work well in the future for a floral or ivy stamp. The image and sediment were heat-embossed in black and the image was colored with my Ziggies.

I'm also entering the first card in the Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge, where the brief is to use reindeer on  your card. And I'm also entering the second card in Leslie Hanna's The Crooked Stamper's Sketch Challenge.

Two more fun and easy-to-mail cards done!

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Next I went all fancy, frilly, and layered (FFL):

I've had these vellum sheets out of the drawer to use somehow on a Christmas card so as soon as I saw the photo inspiration for the City Crafter challenge, I stopped what I was doing and made this card, using the sketch inspiration from Stamp Ink Paper.

The card base was embossed with a snowy e/f. Then the middle panel was covered half with the white swiss-dot vellum and half with the turkoyce vellum. The seam was covered with a pretty silver ribbon. The topmost panel is silver mirror partially embossed with the same snowy e/f as the card base. 

The "joy" is cut using a die from WPlus9 called "Seasonal Sentiments." I used a sparkly aqua glitter paper, which you can see better here:

The snowflake is from a MFT "Let it Snowflake" die. The silver stud is from GKW. I used plenty of snippets, so I'm also playing over at Pixie's Snippets Playground and there's plenty of texture, so I'm linking for the second time to Virginia's View Challenge.

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Big News

Well, dearies, you are not gonna beleaf what happened! Remember a couple of months ago when the Mister first injured his own self and Hammy got in a tiff (he couldn't find a taxi) because I was ignoring him and he went away for a while? Apparently he had a good ol' time because the other night about sunset, we had an unexpected knock on the Playhouse door.

Well you cudda blown me over with a whiffle when I opened the door because no one was there! I was about to close it when I heard Hammy gasp from the window sill over the paper cutter. I whipped my head around to look at him and saw him looking bug-eyed down at my feet so then I looked down at my feet and then it was ME who gasped when I saw this:

I know, whoa, right?! (My friend Eve from the Playground first wondered if this might happen when Hammy took off. She should tell fortunes for a living! As near as I can tell, they're almost six weeks old.)

I won't bore you with the details like how long it took to find an expert with a magnifier large enough to decipher the hand-pawed note I found under the babies from their Momma. Suffice it to say she thinks it's time my rascal Hammy paid the piper and it's his turn to take care of them!

I was pretty upset for about a half a second which is how long it took me to realize I had six more little brains and six quads of paws that will come in handy as I make holiday cards in the short amount of time that's left. I'm happy to say they are very quick learners and so smart, even that little runty fella on top! But where did they put my red e/p?!

There are three girls and three boys. I'm thinking I might hold a contest to name them and then adopt them out after the first of the year. Hmm? Anyone? 

~~~

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!

photo source

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Peek-a-Boo and Happy Birthday, Sandie!

Hello and welcome to a SURPRISE birthday party!!

Today we are celebrating Sandie Munroe of London Days as she turns another year older and better than ever! Sandie is well-known and well-loved throughout the towns, valleys, and villages in Blogland! She plays in challenges, owns challenges, designs for challenges, and leaves wonderful comments of support and encouragement!!

I'll cut the chatter today so you can hop around the gallery and go make a card and join in the linky party over on Kylie's Addicted to Stamps blog. 

As you no doubt know, Sandie loves purple, so this first card is the card that I made and sent off to her:

When she opens up the peek-a-boo opening, she will find a friend who wants to party with her on her special day!

I had to lay the card flat to remove the shadows so you could see him. The "Peek-a-Boo" die is from Pretty Pink Posh. The partying frog is from an OOB company. The "Let's Party" NBUS sediment is from Paper Smooches "Word Salad." 

And that's not dandruff on the card. I shook my Wink of Stella too hard and ended up with a puddle in the lid, so I whacked it with a pencil to shower the card with teeny winkles. Here is a close-up of the second card I made in white. Perhaps you can see the sparkly WOS glittering up the party animal!

Happy Birthday, Sandie, and many, many more! MWAH!!

Please join the party over on the Addicted to Stamps blog!!

Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: CAS
• The Crooked Stamp Sketch Challenge: Below.

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Look Away!

Okay, so head's up. The next card I made contains a naughty word. You should click off now if you think you might be offended and think less of me in the morning. 

I don't mean to offend anyone, but I got this stamp set from "Funny Bones" by Riley & Company that just karacks me up. It's an expression we use here in America. I mean, of course, if we're naughty. The modern day version with no naughty word is, "Thank you, Captain Obvious!" 

Anywize, the hamster and I have been trying to figure out a way to design a card for it and we think this peek-a-boo die is the perfect vehicle:

Sherlock

I'm so bad!

~~~

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 leave a comment and/or join as a follower! Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor! 

  

 

*Life Is Too Short!

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Inkspirational Guest Designer ~ Last 2015 Valentines

Hello and Happy St. Valentine's Day to everyone! I hope you all have a magical day of love!

I'm honored to be the Guest Designer for the very fun Inkspirational Challenge #76, where we have an Asian-inspired photo inkspiration for you:

Because today is Valentine's Day, I made a simple card of love:

When I first started stamping about 13 years ago, there was a trend for Asian stamps and card designs, so I have a few of those stamps, along with some origami papers. The "love" sediment above is from a set of SU Japanese character stamps. The fluffy fabric heart was given to me by my friend Andrea. I embossed the rectangle mat using a Nestabilities die.

Thank you to the DT of Inkspirational for letting me play along! I hope you will check out the challenge and join us!

Other Challenges

• CASology, "Love."
• My friend Leslie Hanna has started The Crooked Stamper Sketch Challenge, so I'm also entering there. It would be wonderful if you could give her new challenge a try!

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While I Was At It

The outer wrapper of my origami paper was falling apart so I took it off and started to throw it away. Then Hammy took a flying leap to land on my hand and pointed excitedly at the Japanese characters on the wrapping. "Hmmm?" he cooed. "Hmm. Hmm," I responded.

Together we tossed ideas hither and fro and then my eyes fell on a shipping envelope that had just arrived from my friend Sarn of Stamping for Pleasure. Sarn loves to Zentangle so much that she started designing her own "Sarntangles." We all loved them so much that she had some of them manufactured into stamps! What a woman! What an artist! The set is so fun and you can order one by clicking on the link above. 

So, anywhittle, I used one of my NBUS Sarntangles and the label from my origami paper and I made this:

To make it a Valentine, I used one of the stamps with hearts. The textured card back is the reverse side of a piece of burlap paper. The Sarntangle was stamped in Stazon ink and then watercolored with SU watercolor pencils and a water brush. It was overstamped with a NBUS splatter stamp from the SU set "Gorgeous Grunge."

I'm assuming the symbols spell out "origami," but I actually have no idea, so if it is an offensive word, I hope someone will let me know. In the meantime, since it's Valentine's Day, let's pretend it spells out "I love you!"

Challenges

• Colour Me ...!, photo inspiration.
• Casual Fridays, "Must Love Watercolor."
• Just Add Ink, Pink photo inspiration. (My first time playing here.)
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, "Red and Pink."
• Stamplorations Sketch for February, below.

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New Friends Corner

Please help me give a warm welcome to these five new friends of the Playhouse:

Maxine D. of Kiwime's Kreations. As her blog name suggests, Maxine is from New Zealand. She is married, the mother of two, and the grandmother of three. She has been blogging since 2009, so a lot of you may already be familiar with Maxine through her service on many design teams and her awards from many challenges. You can tell from her card art that Maxine loves texture and dimension and she executes her cards with tender loving care!

Olga Brilenkova of Craftroom: So Many Ideas. Olga has been blogging since January 2014, so she just had her one year blog birthaversary! Olga is a Russian living in Portugal and when she is not crafting, she is an architect. Olga loves scrapbooking, flower arranging, and she is a wedding decor expert. She began making card art in March 2013 by making wedding invitations. I know you will love the beauty and talent Olga brings to everything she does!

Borqna of Borqna. Borqna started blogging in 2011. She makes wonderful albums and scrapbooks and cards and she loves to play in challenges! The more the merrier! Everything is bright and full of life on Borqna's blog. She also shares some amazing photography, so I know you'll enjoy your visit to Borqna!

Marsha Drain of Gramma's Room. Marsha started blogging in 2010, but she made terrific scrapbook albums and cards for years before that. She is a prolific contributor to OWH with her beautiful cards, some of which are 3D. Marsha is a grandmother of ELEVEN (sooo jealous!) and she also loves sharing her fantastic photographs from time to time. You'll love her impeccably made and fabulous works of card art!

Synnöve of Seraphina's Phantasie. Synnöve is from Germany. She started her blog in June 2011. She combines her spectacular skills as a photographer with her spectacular skill as a paper artist. Everything is very refined and sophisticated about Synnöve's blog. You can feel yourself immediately relaxing and wanting to spend hours visiting her!

Thank you for joining, ladies, and welcome to the Playhouse!

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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 leave a comment and/or join as a follower! Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor!

We are having the grandtwins until Monday as it's a long weekend here! Yippie!!

  

 

*Life Is Too Short!

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