Gold ... More Gold

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you well! I am so enjoying the Olympics, especially the ice-skating events. The Mister tried to teach me how to ice skate one time, but it was a short lesson. He was very patient, but I was hopeless. I think that might be why the skaters impress me so much and it breaks my heart when they fall. They train so hard and wait so long for these events.👏

Onefer

This card was schparked primarily by Susan's faux cloisonné challenge prompt at CAS Mix Up. For me, trying to create something for the challenge gave new meaning to the word "challenge!" I didn't have any suitable glossy magazine photos, so I used a glittery glossy piece of pp. I'm not sure if that's okay, but I like the way it ended up looking like an expensive brooch. (You know I want to go off on a tangent about the spelling of that word vis-a-vis the pronunciation, but I will absolve.)

The flower is from the Beautiful Blooms II set by Uniko, which I believe is one of Bev's early sets. I wanted to make something to commemorate her ten years in business. Congratulations, Bev, and cheers to many more!🍾

The leaves are from Gina K's "Stitched Leaves" set. From this angle, they look tres cloisonné. The NBUS sediment is from an unmarked feather set. Everything was heat-embossed in princess gold, including Hammy's toes. Honestly, you can find anything online these days, including teeny-tiny low voltage heat guns. You know, thanks to you, he thinks he's a star!🐹✴I'm going to have to get an assistant for my assistant!

Thank you, Susan, for the fun I had trying something new! 

Challenges

• Cardz 4 Galz: Make it sparkle!
  
• CAS Mix Up: Faux cloisonné.
• Just Us Girls: Word week: Friends.
• Snippets Playground: PP used for flower and leaves.
  
• The Flower Challenge: Occasions.
  
• Uniko: 10th birthday celebration! Congratulations, Bev!
  

Twofer

This QACAS card was also inspired by Susan's prompt because when I was looking through my pp drawers, I found this awesome piece of ancient turquoise handmade paper, shot through with black and gold. The photo doesn't do it justice.

The design was also inspired by Bonnie's stunning card here. For my card, I used a heart die from M&C Boutique, cut in shiny gold which appears holographic in the sunshine. I used a pink card base to make the heart pop and added a simple old sediment, which I think is from SSS.

Challenges

• Addicted to CAS: Hearts.
  
• Fusion: Valentine cupcake sketch and photo. My card fuses both.
• Use Your Stuff: Hearts/Love.
• The Paper Players: Laurie's theme: love and friendship.

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy and keep safe! LITS!* If I'm not back before Valentine's Day, I wish you a lovely romantic time with your sweetie.💏 If it's a blue day for you, I send you hugs and wish you a happy celebration-of-you day!

Mwah!

*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!)

Cone Flower Flurries

Hello Stamplings!

How are you? Have you heard that there are now families of wild boars roaming the streets of Rome?

I intended to talk about it a bit more, but reading that sentence in my rear-view mirror, I got stuck on the fact that I used the word 'roaming' in the same sentence as the word 'Rome.' Remember being told in English class that you should avoid sentences structures like that? I do. I must have been told off about it in front of the class because it made a big impression. I'll start over.

Have you heard that there are now families of wild boards casually strolling along the streets of Rome? That's better. Wait? Boards? Oh, forget about it. Let's just get on with the cards I made.

No, not Christmas cards. I don't know what happened there. A squirrel, I think.

My cards are thematic today, so I'll skip the onefer/twofer bit and just lump them all together. The theme is cone flowers and I broke out a NBUS unmarked cone flower die I received from a friend:

They are all very simple, but I'm chuffed that I used embossing folders, colored cardstock, and DSP (cone flowers) to add interest and texture to the designs. A triple-high-five for using my schtuff!

And while I was putting the cards together, Hammy added dementia to the cone flower petals by rolling them around his No.2 pencil. Cool, eh? He's going to be happily doing that for quite a while because ... well, you don't want to now how many cone flowers I die-cut because I think they are the cutest. In fact, would it be okay if I send you a Christmas card with a cone flower instead of a poinsettia this year? I hope so, because it may come to that.

Challenges

• Addicted to CAS: Autumn. #2
• HLS Anything Goes With Dies. #1
  
• Krafty Chicks: All occasions. #3
  
• Seize the Birthday: Stitching, faux or real. #4
  
• SSS Monday: Stitching. #2
  
• Uniko: Anything goes. Option: autumn colors. #1

Blatantcy

You know how we've talked about companies that have slowly reduced their product size while continuing to charge the same or more? For instance, sugar in four-pound bags instead of five, less sheets of toilet paper on a roll, less ounces in a can, etc., etc. Well, check this out:

No, those are not feminine products. They are mozzarella cheese sticks. An in-your-face example of getting less product for your money! Not nice.

~~~

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!

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 Leaves and Flowers

Hello Stamplings,

I hope you're doing well! We've made it through another set of rapids on our way downstream rushing headlong into 2022. I mean, August? Holy guacamole, at this point, we might as well just throw our arms up and enjoy the pummeling.

But, hey ho, anypoo, all is calm in the Playhouse now that I've finished this:

This is for my friend Elaine's birthday a few days ago. She is one of the talented designers over at Less Is More. In order to celebrate Elaine's birthday, the brief is to CASE this beautiful card she created:

It's fabulous, isn't it? For my CASE (copy and share everything), I finally used my NBUS Altenew "Leaf Canopy" stamp and die set. I painted the leaves with my Ziggies, adding a vein to each leaf for some poycienality, and then I let Hammy loose with his winker. The sediment is from Happy Little Stampers.

And thennnn things got a bit out of the box for me because in order to wonkify my design a little bit in the same sort of cool arty way Elaine did, I found out just how OCD I am.😲It only took me a half hour to die-cut, stamp, clear heat-emboss, and paint the leaves before I popped them up on foam panel and cut the panel as you see. And then it took me three and a half hours to "unline" them up!👏

Thanks for the inspiration, Elaine, and may you have many, many more happy birthdays!

Challenges

• HLS Watercolour: Anything goes.
  
• Less is More: CASE card.
  
• Simon Says Stamp Monday: Happy 11th Birthday! WOW!!!! Congratulations! I'm delighted that my lovely friend Anne is in the Designer Spotlight this month. Her creativity is really remarkable and I encourage a visit to her!

Twofer

I dropped my camera just before taking this photo and the colors of the pink flowers are off. That's the lighting though, right, not the camera? IRL the flowers are pink, not orchid, to match the pink panel underneath the grid. And what a great grid border it is. It is a Simon Says die which they no longer make and I know so many of you wish they would bring it back. Maybe someone out there knows someone at SSS who can make that happen. Eh? 

The sediment is from IFW, heat-embossed in clear. The fun and whimsical flowers are from MFT's "Build-able Bouquet." As you can see, my little helper was very generous with his glossification, which he managed to do during the Olympics commercials.

Challenges

• AAA Birthday: Photo inspiration.
  
• Cardz 4 Galz: Dies and/or punches.
  
• Color Hues: Yellow and pink.
• Uniko: Flowers

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy, but keep safe! LITS!*

Our air conditioner pooped out yesterday, so we are waiting for a repairman to come and tell us what the problem is.🤞💵 

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!)

Sunshine Came Softly . . .

Hello Stamplings!

I had a tough time choosing a sunshine song lyric to start my post. I googled it and was amazed how many songs there are about sunshine. But that's a good thing, right? 

It's already the 10th and that means time for the next Twofer Card Challenge! June is a wonderful time to choose 🌞SUNSHINE!🌞 as the prompt and here are my two cards to inspire you.

The sun die I chose as my prompt product is from Lil' Inkers. As you can see, I gave myself an extra personal challenge to see if I could also incorporate that awesome lighthouse die from Memory Box into both my designs. The lighthouse die came out in 2013 and the stitched sun dies are prolly the same vintage and I still love using them. 

Onefer

This card design is all about die cuts and Hammy even used an old circle punch for the small suns to give them more girth around the middle. I thought as long as I was using some old-timey products, I would use some old-timey speech. Because when was the last time (only time?) you've used girth in a sentence? Maybe it will come back into favor because of Covid and how we all added to our girth as a means of self-soothing during the long isolation.

But I digest. The background is a piece of pp. The white slated die panel (Watercolor Stripes Cover Die from Altenew) was a gift from my friend Betty. I used pp for the large sun and for the lighthouse and there were yellow vellum stitched suns used as well. The vertical birthday sediment is from Stamps by Judith.

Challenges

• Make My Monday: Outdoor Fun.
  
• Retro Rubber: Summer Breeze.
  
• Seize the Birthday: Nautical
  
• Uniko: Anything Goes. Optional: use diecuts.

Twofer

The beautiful blue foil you see was actually the spark of both of my sunshine designs. The color just screams ocean and if you look closely, you can see there is a water bubble pattern in it, so everything took off from there. The e/f is called Branches, but I think the lines also look like waves, and the sediment is from Paper Smooches. Hammy added some glossification to the middle of the sun.

Challenges

• Little Red Wagon: Make it CAS.
  
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Create a scene.
  
• The Paper Players ~ Theme challenge from Ann: Signs of summer!

The Deets

You can use either a SUN or SUNRAYS.

I am looking forward to seeing your sunny designs! We are fortunate to have Veana and Daphne as our Guest Designers this month. Their sunny designs, and those of the talented Team, will be sure to inspire you over at the Twofer Card Challenge!

~~~

Fun With Letters

My sister Diana shared this fun brain teaser with me quite a while ago and I finally remembered to share it with you.

What's a nine-letter word you can turn into eight other words by simply removing one letter at a time?

STARTING

Remove the T = Staring

Remove the A = String

Remove the R = Sting

Remove the T = Sing

Remove the G = Sin

Remove the S = In

Remove the N = I

Of course, I had to take it one step further by starting to turn it into a story. It happened because I found myself staring out the garden window at a string that was out of place next to the butterfly bush. I stared at it for so long my eyes began to sting. As I sat there blinking to moisten them, I overheard my neighbor (the one with the collie who jumps on the fence) sing a song to her small daughter about the wages of sin. How odd, I thought, but I don't try to judge others too harshly when I'm in the process of eavesdropping. Wait. What? Eavesdropping? Not I.

I hope you have fun with your friends and family with this little brain teaser and enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy, and stay safe! 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!)

Stencil Time and A New Dawn

Hello Stamplings,

Yesterday, thank goodness, was a great day of inspiration, calm, and peace here in America as a centuries-old transfer of power took place. It was a celebration that brought me to tears. I know many of you from around the world join me in feeling uplifted and thankful. 

I realize there is much disagreement on issues, but we need to compromise and communicate to find solutions for things that impact all of us. And I hope from now on our leaders and representatives from both parties will resist the pull of greed and the thirst for power by remembering they work for us, that they act like adults, treat everyone with respect, tell the truth, and practice the Golden Rule. After all, isn't that what they learned from their parents and what they teach their children? 

It will be okay. 

A little CAS mixed-media for you with this one, which, as you might know, is not that easy to do! Thanks to my friend Lolly generously sharing her skills on Zoom, I now dip my toes in ink and Gesso ... wait. What? Oh, heck, go ahead and use your toes if you want! Life is too short!

For this technique*, we were to tape off a border of our card and as you can see, I naturally picked the widest roll of masking tape I own, which left me with a teeny-tiny rectangle of workspace. We gessoed that space to add texture. Because it acts as an emboss-resist, we then blended distress inks through a stencil. My stencil was made by Tim Holtz. Or maybe Mario made it. (They don't put their initials on them, but in case they read my blog😆, I think they should.)

I finished my card with an vintage MFT butterfly, a simple timely popped-up sediment, and schplatters. Hammy winked the DI inks and you can't really see it, but the panel was adhered to a black card base.

Challenges

• A Place to Start: Anything goes.
  
• CAS Mix Up: Splatters. Stamping, stenciling, sponging, masking, schplattering.
  
• The House That Stamps Built: Anything goes.

* Videos:

Hero Arts video

Eileen Godwin video

Twofer

This QACAS birthday card uses an unmarked circle stencil and CP inks. I made several of these in various colors and Hammy went to town with the winking ... I can stop telling you that, right? You all know he's addicted now. I don't know what I'd do without him and it's super cool that his fur is a permanent shade of schparkle!

Challenges

• AAA Birthday: A stencil background.
  
• HLS Stencil: Anything goes.
  
• Uniko: Anything goes with a twist of stencil.

~~~

Addendum

On the far, far off-chance you thought that really was my wedding photo in the last post, this is the real one:

Many of you have seen it before. I didn't have toilet paper in my ears, but it does look like I had price tags on my headpiece. What can I say? That was the style, along with empire-waist "Juliet" wedding dresses. (I still remember how difficult it was sewing those puffy sleeves out of some kinda stiff shimmery fabric.) Just look at us! What children we were! You'd think people were still getting wed in 1971 as young as Romeo and Juliet were. I mean, we weren't, but that's how rumors get started.

~~~

I hope you get a chance to see and hear the United States youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman's recitation at the inauguration ceremony. She is only 22 years old and she'll knock your socks off! You can find it on YouTube here and the full text of her poem is available at various sites. What an inspiration!

...

The new dawn blooms as we free it,
For there is always light.

If only we’re brave enough to see it.

If only we’re brave enough to be it.

~~~

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

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!)