Autumn Strawberries

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this brand new Monday finds you doing well! I had a busy week enjoying company as we sight-saw and shopped . . . two activities that are never boring, especially with friends!

So a quick post today with a couple more examples of the blackout technique, which is the current brief at CAS Mix Up Card Challenge, where I'm delighted to be the October Guest Designer. The technique also happily correspondence to the E = Embossing week on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar!

Onefer

For this fall/autumn card, I used Simon Says 3D gingko leaf e/f. After running it through the machine, I blended autumnal colors into the shapes on the debossed side, ran it through again, and then applied black ink over the whole panel using my brayer. 

To make the design CAS (clean and simple), I cut down the full panel using my Stitched Dome Frames from MFT. (The inner dome is popped up on 3D foam.) I hope you have time to give this cool technique a try and join the linky party at the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge! Don't forget to include stamping.

The sediment is from PTI. I love that I can use this card for birthday or thinking of you, anniversary, etc.

I'm playing in CAS Colours & Sketches (Colours); Crafty Calendar Challenge (Autumn/Halloween); and The Paper Players (Happy Autumn).

Twofer

Now, let me say first that this is not CAS per the CAS Mix Up rules. When trying out this fun technique, this was one of the first embossing folders I used. It is from Gina K's Sunny Days kit and I fell in love with how it looked as a full panel, so I left it. 

I'm showing it, however, to let you see another example of the blackout embossing technique and how gorgeous the results are. I plan to use this e/f and do it again ~ cutting it down to get at least two summer cards made. I want to see how it turns out making the strawberries red and using a different color for the braying. That's another thing, you don't need to use black ink for the blackout technique. You can use any dark color for the background contrast!

I'm playing in Addicted to Stamps and More (Birthdays); Freshly Made Sketches (Sketch); and 613 Avenue Create (A/G with option of pink).

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Enjoy your week! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse!

The past coupla weeks the lads have been having a blast "volunteering" at the local pet pumpkin patch in the mall! (EEK! It looks like that pumpkin is trying to chomp down on Stanley!)😄

*Life is too short!

So long, August!

Hello Stamplings!

Well, that's summer. I hope you closed the door behind you because a lot of folks don't want to see any more of 2026 summer! I know it's not official for another few weeks, but I am hoping Lady September puts on her fall hat right from the first!

When I think of fall I think of leaves, and since it is a rare 5th Monday of the month, that means this is S = Stencils on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar. After that opening, I know you were expecting a card done in fall colors, but, no, I copied the example on the leafy stencil packaging because I love these spring and summer colors. I'm just trying to keep your brains confused. I don't want to be the only one confused around here!

Onefer

I actually have two Onefers. The NBUS stencil I used is "Leafy Background" from Pinkfresh Studio, designed by Inna Moreva. The sediment is NBUS from Gina K. 

Then I saw the AAA Colourful challenge which had similar colors, but with the addition of blues, so I had another play:

The die-cut sediment is from Simon Says Stamp, attached to a panel to which I stenciled random leaves and added score lines and pop bling that was popular a few years back. Hammy has gotten quite adept as picking colors to match the cards. My collection of dots are so old, the gluey backing is failing, so I remove it and glue them on, rather than have them fall off during mailing. 

I tried the Nuvo drops and still have (cough) little bottles of them, mostly brand new because I could never get them to perform for me. Not even Hammy could make them work. I suppose it's like making pancakes ~ you'd think, in time, you'd get good at forming them, but not us. Does anyone want several bottles of Nuvo drops?

But I digest. I have a feeling I will be using this pretty stencil a lot, next in fall colors, and perhaps even for Christmas cards?!

Playing in AAA Colourful (Colourboard #31); Just Us Girls (Stencil Week); and Seize the Birthday (A/G).

Twofer

For this week's Christmas card, I started with the sketch from the talented Michele F. for Freshly Made Sketches. Some of you might recognize the background striped paper as being from PTI back in the last century. I love the linen look and feel and how the bright colors make me happy. 

I used a rounded corner stitched die from MFT as the angled element of the sketch and for the middle focus pocus I used a peppermint candy stencil from SSS. After masking and blending the two shades of pink, I die-cut the candy using a circle stitched die from MFT. The Ho Ho Ho sediment is from Impression Obsession. A few silver sequints were picked out by Stanley for the finishing touché.

Playing in Freshly Made Sketches; The Paper Players (Tic Tac Toe: diagonally top right to bottom left); and Rudolph Days (AG Christmas).

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse!

*Life is too short!

Happy Lunar New Year!

Hello Stamplings!

Welcome as we whoosh around to another week! Tomorrow begins the Year of the Fire Horse. (That's horse, not hose, like I keep reading it!🙃) If your year has started out sluggishly, get ready to feel renewed engerny! I found this little bridle bit for you:

Given that the Horse is a Yang Fire sign, its energy is audacious, exuberant, and high-spirited. “Put together these Yang qualities of Fire in the Fire Horse, and we have an extremely intense, energetic, fast-moving and action-oriented year ahead."🐎

Onefer

I  should have made you a card with a horse on it. Instead, here is a Fire Dragonfly:

Otherwise known as the Aqua Dragonfly. I used The Greetery's, "Jumbo Curiosity Moth," but changed out the moth body for a dragonfly body I found in my stash. The wings are cut from a piece of brusho'd glossy paper.

The dragonfly was inspired by the layout from Freshly Made Sketches. In order to change up the bottom half of the sketch, and because this is E = Embossing on the I.D.E.A.S. calendar, I embossed the bottom half with a Sizzix e/f. 

I'm not sure if you can see in the photo, but I wanted to add some razzahmatazz to the embossing and, you know, pretend I was a professional, so I blended some light aqua ink over the raised images. Only that was "Ew," way too much aqua per my resident hamster critic, so I really got brave and lightly blended black ink over the aqua! I know, black! I'll be viral, right? I'm also playing in the Allsorts Challenge (Embossing).

Twofer

This is a textbook QCAS design. The pretty sprig is NBUS called, "Meadow Grass" from Taylored Expressions. I die-cut it from white cardstock, but for some reason it photographed creamier than it is IRL. Sadly, you can't see Hammy's beautiful winking, which he was so becited to do again!

I'm playing with Seize the Birthday (CAS with Dies) and Addicted to Stamps and More (Die Cuts and/or Stencils).

Threefer

As I was typing this yesterday, I happened to see a couple of more challenges and before the clouds completely covered the sun, I made another CAS design.

I used one of the emboss-resist designs from Stampin' Up for the base. I started by masking off and ink-blending the candle bases in order to follow the sketch from AAA Cards. Then I had a heck off a time trying to figure out how to do the flames. All of my candle flames were too small. I tried free-hand and fussy-cutting them, but I got another "Ew" on that idea. 

Next, I took a field trip through the Playhouse and when I got to my greenery drawers, I hit the jackpot when I came across the "Leaf Canopy Die" from Altenew. It's from 2018 and old now, but it remains one of my favorites and who knew one of the pretty leaves made a perfect candle flame when ink-blended through the negative die-cut?! And even more amazing? I just noticed one of the sediment stamps in the set says, "So happy I have finally found you!"😮

I found a white die-cut balloon and string in my stash and blended them with ink and added the sediment. I'm also playing in The Paper Players challenge from Stef calling for, "CAS with Balloons and Birthday."

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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! 

*Life is too short!

Puffy Dogs and Puffy Clouds

Hello Stamplings!

I hope the world is treating you like the good person you are!🤗

I've had a busy week with lunches and appointments and we had a wonderful get-together with the family before the grandtwins go back to college next week for another year!** The course work is getting harder, but there is nothing like the fun of your college years! 

This week is E = Embossing on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar and for my first card, the lads and I went traveling in the Wayback Machine. (Google spellcheck wants me to call it the "Swayback" Machine!😀)

Onefer

What happened was, when we went over to see the kids on Saturday, we took Nellie and Jack to the dog park. It turns out they were having a Show-Off-Your-Collar contest and I was able to get a cute shot of of several of the pups lined up against the fence. (Nellie is in the photo, too, but she is hard to see against the white fence!)

The embossed fence e/f is from Darice. The old puffy dog stickers are from Doodlebug. The stacked sediment is from The Greetery's Birthday Blooms. 

Challenges

Addicted to Stamps and More: Any Occasion.

Just Us Girls: Word week: Birthday.

The Paper Players: CAS: Critters.

Twofer

The jump-off for this design came from the current sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches. The linen panel was die-cut using my NBUS Distant Sun Collage from Memory Box. For the card base and to fill in the sky aperture, I again went back in time and used some gold-speckled DSP I have. After the DSP was popped in the sky hole, the whole panel was embossed using my Subtle e/f from SU. The lads each added enamel dots and I finished with a tiny gold dot of punctuation. QACAS!

Other Challenges

Allsorts: Begins With "B."

Seize the Birthday: No Flowers.

I.D.E.A.S. Gallery

You will find a linky tool below for you to share your creations using your wet and/or dry embossing! Sharing your card may help motivate others out of their creative schlumps!

I love seeing what you create, visiting you, and pinning your designs! 

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Enjoy your week! 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!

**It is an emotive time for me and The Mister because we were exactly the twins' age when we met 56 years ago! Even to us, we look like babies in this photo, but back then it wasn't unusual to be on your own at 20 years of age, or younger. It's too expensive for kids in college to do that now.  

I'm sure many of you can relate. Sometimes it seems like it was a hunnert years ago, sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday!

Time is a funny old thing.

*Life is too short!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Fifth Monday ~ Stencil I.D.E.A.S.

Hello Stamplings!

Me again! Happy last day of the month of September, which is also the fifth Monday which means stencils on my I.D.E.A.S. schedule. Happily we featured stencils on our Group of Seven designs Saturday, so this is a follow-up prequel to my last post. Say what now?

Sadly, no matter how many photos I took, I could not capture the schparkle from the metallics that are a part of the Lindy's Magicals powders I used. (That's the difference between Brusho powered inks and Lindy's Magicals powdered inks.) The stencil I used is from Technique Tuesday and the sediment is from Memory Box.

In our Go7 post, we showcased the monoprints we made after inking our stencils. What you see above is the 'print' which happens first if you put a piece of watercolor paper under your stencil when you ink and spritz it and then you simply lift the stencil straight up off the panel. 

It might help if I show you a photo of my stencil all liberally inked and spritzed before I lifted it off to make a print.

After lifting it off that panel, I flipped the stencil over onto other clean panels of watercolor paper progressively, in order to make all the monoprints you saw in my last post. Honestly, it sounds more confusing than it is.

If you are wondering how I got the Lindy Magicals to be placed so accurately in the stencil, it's because I let Hammy and Stanley use these little teeny-weeny spoons that came with a box of resin I've had for a long time. I just told them where to dump the different colors of powder onto the sunflower petals, leaves, and centers. It was sort of like paint-by-numbers and it took us forever, but they haven't played in ages and I've missed them, so it was easy to be patient with them.

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Here is another stencil design that's more my usual QACAS style:

I used an unmarked stencil and Catherine Pooler inks and I simply heat-embossed the sediment in white onto a strip of vellum.

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I know how everyone loves seeing other people's vacation photos,😁so you'll be pleased to know that I did manage to put together some collages of ours. Rather than making this a 47-foot long post, I put them on a separate page. If you are interested, there is a link in the salad side bar.

Enjoy your week! 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!

Challenges:

Allsorts: A/G. Huge congratulations on your 800th challenge!!

I.D.E.A.S.

Just Us Girls: A/G Stencil Week.

Seize the Birthday: A/G.

Stencil Fun: Fall Frenzy.

The Paper Players: Tic-Tac-Toe from Claire. Middle horizontal row.