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.

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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!)

Krafty Chicks ~ All Occasions

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you well. 2022 seems to have hitched itself to the back of 2021 on a bullet train to Who Knows Where because I looked down, looked back up, and there is February right around the corner! Nevermind. All we can do is sit back, buckle up, and try to enjoy the ride. And if your skies are gray, I'm bringing the sunshine, so please put on your sunglasses!

Thank you to everyone who played in the Krafty Chicks "CAS" challenge last week! I'm enjoying being the Guest Designer for this month. For this fourth and final Thursday of January, our theme is "All Occasions" and here is my card to inspire you:

I send a lot of general thinking of you cards and I like the variety of using "hello" or "just because" for the greetings. In a pinch, I've been known to send a Hello card for a birthday or get well, so hello is a very Versa Tile! I have dies that also say hi, hello there, and hey there. I have several of each, as one does. This one, however, was a gift from a friend. The 3D NBUS embossing folder is from Sizzix and the leaves are from PTI. 

I look forward to seeing your creations! You can find all the details and the linky tool on the Krafty Chicks blog. I'd like to thank the gals in the Hen House for the honor of being their guest designer this month!

I'm also playing in these challenges:

• HLS Anything Goes With Dies.
  
• Use Your Stuff: Embossing.
  
• Watercooler Wednesday: All about occasions.

***

The embossed panel used above was made during a crafty Zoom I had with friends a few months ago. Once you start embossing metallic paper with 3D e/fs, you can't stop. That's a side effect of all these cool background techniques you all come up with. I love to learn and play, but it does add a lot more panels to my Backgrounds container drawer cabinet storage unit. 

I'm trying to get better at using my backgrounds in a more timely manner, so I also made these metallic cards:

Let me know if you have any questions about any of these. The blue one in the middle of the bottom row was a fun discovery. The flowers weren't showing up very well, so I took a chance and followed the ridges with my white gel pen and it worked!

Twofer

Isn't that a great quote? It's NBUS from an ancient set of four large sediments that are, unfortunately unmarked. I heat-embossed it twice in platinum on a one-layer glossy paper tent card. Hammy picked out three random hearts for me to add (also double-heat-embossed in platinum) so I can use it as a Valentine. 

I don't know why I've never used the set before except to chalk it up to embarrassing largess. That's similar to a large cee, but further along in the alphabet.

Challenges

• AAA Cards: No layers + a big sentiment.
  
• Bastel-Traum: With heart.
  
• Try it on Tuesday: Add a quote.
  

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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!
If you think you're a person of some interest, try ordering somebody else's dog around.

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!)

. . . Bring May Flowers I

Hello Stamplings!

Happy Mother's Day to all who celebrate! So many of us have been unable to see our children or our mothers since the isolation to protect against Covid-19 began 3,248 weeks ago. This is very sad for everyone, but I think a lot of us are willing to put up with not being together for Mother's Day this year as opposed to, you know, being dead from the virus because we weren't careful. 

Today I've made two cards with flowers because, in addition to Mother's Day, it's the 10th of the month and the new Twofer Card Challenge starts today with FL🏵W🌹RS as the prompt! Here are my cards to inspire you:

The NBUS stamp that both my card designs have in common is the Banners & Blooms stamp from Concord & 9th.

Onefer

For my first design, I masked off a side panel and platinum heat-embossed the stamp twice vertically. I watercolored the image with my Ziggies and Hammy winked them, as per usual. He's such a great little helper! To make a clean border, I added a strip of platinum trim Washi tape from Altenew. The sediment was in my stash from GKW. 

Challenges

• Addicted to CAS: Flowers.
• HLS May Watercolour: Anything goes. Optional: Emboss.
• Little Red Wagon: Flowers.
• Seize the Birthday: Anything birthday goes.

Twofer

For my second design, I white heat-embossed the bouquet and Hammy and I again colored and winked with relish. Well, not literally with relish, although I'll bet somewhere there's an artist who has tried painting with relish. 

Sorry. I digest. Next I die cut the window box from Poppystamps out of a snippet of woodgrain paper. I also cut it four times from black paper and offset those layers to give it shadow dementia on one side. The box and flowers were popped onto a NBUS lattice frame die from WPlus9 and a stamped Hello sediment, also from WPlus9, was added.

Challenges

• HLS May Anything Goes With Dies.
• Inspired By ... Flower me with color. I turned the photo upside down!
• NBUS #14: Flower bouquet stamp and lattice frame.
• SSS Wednesday: Dies and/or punches.
• Use Your Stuff: Flowers and Butterflies.
• Watercooler Wednesday: AG with a feminine twist.

 

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I would love for you to play with us and enter your beautiful flower designs in the gallery at TCC! As you can see above, there are several other flower challenges happening right now you can also play in!

Please remember that you can make two conventional designs or one conventional design and one unconventional design using flowers. We have winners for both categories. Today the Team and our talented Guest Designer Cindy Beach made conventional designs to inspire you over at the Twofer Card Challenge! Mwah!

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My friend Ros thought of another quip to add to the ones from Mamie in my last post:

• Never in a million years did I think I would walk into a bank wearing a mask and ask for money!

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy ~  and remember to stay in whenever possible! LITS!* If this is an especially sad day for you because your mother or child has passed, I send you extra hugs.

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!)

Color Throwdown 575 GD!

Hello Stamplings!

How are you doing? I hope the new year is starting off on the right foot for you. (You know someone reading this prolly broke their ankle on New Year's Day, right? Isn't that just the way? I'm so sorry if that happened to you.) 

The expression comes from a literal meaning that one should start off on the right foot because starting on the left foot is considered unlucky. History doesn't indicate how many people fall flat on their faces trying to catch themselves after they start off on their left foots, nor the cost involved in the resultant dental surgery.

To avoid all that, I'm staying in today where things are very rosy. I'm pickled tink to share that thanks to a recent win, I am this week's Guest Star Stamper over at the Color Throwdown challenge! If you aren't familiar with this fun color challenge, I hope you'll check it out! 

Here is my card to inspire you:

From the angle below, you can see the glimmer of the gold-embossed sediment. It's long been a favorite of mine and a good one to recall at the start of a new year. Or every morning.

The cattail die is from Memory Box, called "Golden Cattails." I watercolored it with my Ziggies. Simples.

Here are the beautiful colors for the current Color Throwdown challenge:

The colors are kraft, gold, green, and white. The possibilities are endless, and I can't wait to see what you create! The challenge is open until Monday, January 13, 2020.

I'm linking my card to:

• A Place To Start: Anything goes with the option of CAS.
• Make My Monday: Anything but a square.
• Use Your Stuff: Anything goes.

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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!)

More Sweets For You, Sweetie!

Hello, Stamplings!

How are you? I hope you've been doing well. Hammy and I are back home after a very successful and fun retreat in Indiana. I'll have photos and a recap in a post soon. 

I've got loads to catch up on, but I've had to give over a substantial amount of enjoyable time reacquainting myself with the Mister and Miss Nellie. They were both very happy to see me, but Nellie stuck pretty close to the Mister for the first day. Now she's my little shadow again! 🐾

Today is my reminder cards for the current Twofer Card Challenge where the prompt is SWEETS.

This time the sweet element I used on both cards is my NBUS "Party Pops" from Newton's Nook, which, yes, I've had for eons, but better late than never!

Onefer

This is a birthday card that would befit any gender and any age. The stitched elements are from MFT and I believe the NBUS sediment is also from MFT. The plaid pp is from Lawn Fawn. Hammy did a masterful job of winking those pops! It's a simple design to remind you of the grape, orange, and lime Popsicles of your youth. Or, if you're like the Mister and me, they still hit the spot at 8 p.m. when you just need a little sump'n sump'n.

Challenges

• Just Us Girls: Frame it.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use your snippets.
• Seize the Birthday: Toppings: For the kids.

      

Twofer

The shadows from the sun make this card look a bit messy and cluttered and overladen, which is so unlike me, but it's not so bad in person. The stitched scallop panels are from Your Next Stamp and they were cut from woodgrain specialty papers. The green one is so glossy and purdy. 

For this card I unconventionally turned the Popsicle into a cart for carrying pumpkins from GKW. The wheels were surgically removed from a car sticker in my stash. The pretty autumn ribbon was a gift from my friend Lynn. The sediment is from SU. Wallah!

Challenges

• Little Red Wagon
• {PIN}spirational Challenge: Thanksgiving.
• Use Your Stuff: Pumpkins.

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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! Having said that, however, I have to apologize for not being a better return-visit bloggie friend. 😧 This year has just been out of control with how it has whooshed by and with many unexpected and expected activities. Thank you for not holding it against me and leaving me love anyway! You're the BEST!! 💋

*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!)