A Christmassy Happy Halloween!!

Hello, Stamplings!

Happy Halloween to all of you who celebrate! (But, surely, you do, right? What other time of the year can you justify having a 12-pound bag of small chocolate bars open right in plain sight? You know, as opposed to hidden in the drawer.) I hope the weather cooperates for the little trick-or-treaters so they don't have to wear winter coats to cover up their fabulous costumes!

I do have a Halloweenie card for you, but first off today I'm honored to be the Guest Designer for this week's CASology Challenge #273, thanks to my fruit loop card of a few weeks ago! This week the cue card word is LIST and here's my inspiration for you:

That very strong kitty is from Penny Black's set, "Joy to the World." I operated on the stamp to remove the gift he was holding, stamped him, masked him, and then stamped the giant pencil in his hands. 

The pencil and the note paper are both from the Paper Smooches set, "Smarty Pants." To make the LIST two pages, I stamped and masked the first page and then off-set the second page behind it. 

The fabulous Christmas light necklace was made with a hand-drawn string and repeat stamping of a tiny light from Stamps By Judith. It's hard to see, but lots of Winking was used in the creation of this card!

Here is your cue card badge for this week:

We would love to see how this word trips your creative clean and simple trigger! For more inspiration, please click over to the CASology blog to see what the incredible Design Team has made for you!!

Challenges

• Jingle Belles: Not a Creature Was Stirring.
• Rudolph Days Christmas Challenge: Anything Goes Christmas.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: All Creatures Great and Small.

~~~

As promised, here is the Happy Halloween card that Hammy and I made for you!

Three Oxies were blended and Hammy rather enthusiastically splattered the area with water. The glossified candy corns were made using an ancient candy corn stamp from Hero Arts, which I repeatedly stamped every whichaway to make a border. The sediment is an even older wooden stamp from an OOB company called California Rubber Stamp.

Challenges

• AAA Cards: Ink Blending.
• The Heart Desires: Mood Board.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.
• Use Your Stuff: Halloween.

 

~~~

Enjoy your day, those cute costumeers, and all that candy!  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! I hope to see you over at CASology!

*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! 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!

Autumn Birthday and Wine Labels as Card Art

Hello, Stamplings!

How are you? I hope that today was better than yesterday for you! Not that yesterday wasn't a good day, just that wouldn't it be awesome if every day was better than the day before? I mean, it's not like anyone ever got sick or died from contentment overload, right?

I've been rocking out my November, December, and January birthday cards so I can put on my Christmas helmet and headset and knuckle down making holiday cards only.

Here is the autumn card. (Don't look if you are a card pen pal of mine and you have an autumn birthday!)

Harriet came over last week and we had a fun time crafting and having lunch. She loaned me her PTI "Autumn Wishes" and "Winter Wishes" for my cards. The border is Washi tape. QACAS!

Challenges

• The Heart Desires: Autumn mood board.
• Inkspirational: Autumn photo.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything goes.
• Stamp Ink Paper: Product: Washi tape.
• Stamping Sensations: Autumn glory.
• Words 2 Craft By: Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

Here is a photo of the cards I made all laid out across my desk. About a half-dozen were cards in my stash, so I only needed to make about 40 cards.

I could have sworn Hammy was on the desk when I took that photo. Bless, he was so pumped up and proud of all the ways he helped me get the job done, but I think he went into hiding because I told him that next I was going to teach him how to sign my name!

⏩Seeing all those cards reminds me ~ I was talking to Sheila the other day and we got on the subject of reading or hearing about crafters who have huge stashes of cards that they don't know what to do with. One woman talked about throwing her handmade cards away! Listen, if you have cards that you don't know what to do with, email me and I can give you several suggestions of groups that would be delighted to have your cards!! Or send them to me and I will reimburse you for the postage! Thank you! ⏪

~~~

A long time ago (cough), Maria sent me some gorgeous wine labels and I recently used them to make cards. I thought now would be a good time to post them, in honor of the 22 wineries that were damaged or destroyed in the recent wildfires in Napa and Sonoma:

The two "Cheers" cards were used for anniversary cards. Thank you, Maria! I think they made really cool cards!

~~~

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!

(source unknown)

*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! 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!

You're My Person and Spring Vacay

Hello, my Stamplings!

How's it going? You doing okay?

I am sorry to be away so long. We spent five amazing days with the grandtwins (photos below) and I planned to be back right after that except that a Migraine Train came roaring through here and knocked me for a loop for the last two days. I'm praying it's gone now for a long time, but if not, I appreciate the reprieve! So does Hammy. He's tired of trying to keep a cool cloth on my forehead while I'm rolling around moaning like a pig in a cactus patch.

I was delighted to notice that my dear friend Bev (Happy Dance) is a guest designer at The Heart Desires and I simply had to play with her! So I used the colors from the photo inspiration at The Heart Desires, the sketch over at CAS Colours & Sketches, and a Brusho (or the like) theme from Just Us Girls Trend Week to make this little number:

I followed Bev's lead and used the floral inspiration. The NBUS blossoms came from the MFT stamp and die set, "Large Desert Bouquet." I cut them from a Brusho background I made. The stamps are solid and I didn't want to cover up all the background so I very lightly stamped them and then ran around the edge of each petal with my mint green Ziggie. It was a bit fussy to do, but I like the definition it gave the petals. 

The NBUS sediment is from Concord & 9th's set, "You're My Person." A Washi tape border and some triple red blingaling completed the ensemble.

~~~

Spring Vacation

Papa and I took these two handsome and interesting 12-year-old characters away for five days to a lake near Mt. Lassen in northern California while their mom and dad had a nice long weekend in New Orleans.

Henry on the left, Adam on the right.

Short sleeves in the snow? Why not? Shoes untied? Well, of course!

The first photo in the above collage is the view of the lake from the deck of the house we rented. There was a small private dock for the boys to fish and swim from. It was a boys' paradise and we loved it, too.

A day trip to Mt. Lassen was foiled by a road closure due to the heavy snowfall this year, but it was open far enough up to play for a while.

Papa rented a fishing boat, but try as they might both on the dock and on the boat, their faces in the upper right photo tell the story: NO FISH anywhere! Hecka fun driving the boat though!

Tired of drowning worms? No problem, how about a trainyard and museum? 

We camped on this same lake and took their father to this same railroad museum 30 years ago, so it was really special to bring his sons to the same places!

Thanks for letting me share our great times with you!

~~~

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! 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!

Wildflowers in the Wind - y Birthday

Hello there, wee stamplings!

I hope your spring (or fall, depending) is going well! I have always gotten such a kick out of the names for those two seasons. Right after winter, there is a "spring" in our step and then just before winter we "fall" prostrate in anticipation of the cold days to come! 

Thank you for your words of encouragement and advice on my last post about my marathon reorg. I enjoyed reading all your thoughts and I'm enjoying my uncluttered and clean space.

Today I've got a card with happy springtime colors for you.

The flowers are being blown by a warm spring breeze. It's been very windy here after our very rainy winter. I love it, but I've had to put Hammy on a leash when we go outside.

I remember when we ladies had big ratted hair held together with tons and tons of hairspray. God help the boyfriend or husband who happened to roll down the car window driving down the road. "My hair! My hair!" 

The NBUS wildflower stamp is by Rubbernecker and I've had it for ages. I was delighted to finally give it a whirl, coloring it with my Ziggies and then spritzing and stamping it. Looking at the photo now, the design seems to be crying out for a butterfly, don't you think? Yes, I think I'll add one.

And speaking of butterflies, those pretty purple bits look like our butterfly bushes which are just starting to bloom!

Challenges

• CAS Mix-Up Card Challenge: Stamping, Splatters, Direct-to-Stamp/Spritz Watercolors.
• CAS Watercolour Card Challenge: Flowers.
• CAS(E) This Sketch!: Sketch.
• The Heart Desires: Colors.

~~~

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 and 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!

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!

Panda Posies and Preggers

Greetings, Stamplings!

I hope you are having a lovely weekend! Along with all the beautiful blossoms this time of year comes all the unbeautiful allergies! I don't usually suffer from allergies, although the Mister does, but today my eyeballs were not happy about some pollen or other. God bless all your sneezey noses!

Onefer 

Speaking of sneezey noses, I hope you can see the little bouquet of posies that the sweet panda bear is smelling. His name is Razzle and he's going over Hill and under Dale to dazzle his friend Parsnip. Right now he is having a bit of a sit down to wait out the rain shower so he doesn't get his posies or his toesies wet.

I used lots of snippets and different companies for this one. The umbrella and raindrops are from Simon Says Stamp, "Umbrella Shaker." Part of the die makes raindrops so I used the negative as a stencil to lightly pounce raindrops in the background using (what else) PTI's Spring Rain ink.

The NBUS panda is from Fiskars, "Day at the Zoo." The NBUS "friend" is from "Friends Forever" by Clearly Besotted and the rest of the NBUS sediment is from Hero Arts. 

Challenges

• CAS on Sunday: Use a stencil.
• Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes With Dies: AG.
• The Heart Desires: Spring photo challenge.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use your snippets!
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Showers and/or flowers.
• Watercooler Wednesday: Spring.

~~~

Twofer

It looks like someone is having a baby!

I used my NBUS stitched frame dies from Die-Namics. The young mother-to-be is a sweet image sent to me with several others by my friend Aileen. (Thank you, Aileen!) The sediment is from Your Next Stamp, "Whatnot Sentiments Four." 

I thought this stamped image (which I colored with Ziggies and pencils) would be perfect for this week's CASology challenge which is "Grow!" I'm also entering the current Your Next Stamp color challenge and the first anniversary (congratulations CWS!) challenge at Creative With Stamps which is "Baby."

~~~

A Bit of a Breakie Poo

I'm going to step away from the computer for a coupla weeks or so. I can't believe it's almost May. I'm either slowing way down or Father Time is on speed ~ prolly both! 

So what's happened is I feel like I'm never going to finish my big box of half-made cards or try out my long list of techniques if I don't take a break from Blogland. It really is true that we see lots more squirrels as we get older and you talented artists keep distracting me with more all the time! I need to dedicate some time for concentrating on those things you've already inspired me to create.

Not to mention that it's spring which means purging and cleaning are calling me. I've been making cards and blogging the last few years and now things in both the Bighouse and the Playhouse really need a good Purge and Polish. 

I will be checking my emails/comments from you. If you do a post that you know I'd love to see, please feel free to send me an email to let me know. Otherwise, I'll be back to visit your blogs and challenges before you know it! Hammy and I will be rejuvenated and spiffed up with a lot of cards to share!

I hope! You know what happens to the best-laid plans ... and besides, I'll miss you, so we'll see how long I can stay away!💋

~~~

Enjoy your days to come!  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!  

*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!

Mwah!

If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me

your email address so I can respond.  Thank you!