Et Wallah, Anything Goes!

Hello Stamplings!

Welcome to a new week! I hope it's a great one! We've been busier than ticks on a deer with appointments and lunches and seeing long-time friends. In spite of it, I managed to tuck in some relaxing crafty time. I hope you've had some, too!

It is A=Anything Goes on the I.D.E.A.S. Calendar, which is always a fan favorite here! 

Onefer

Fortunately, last week my updated Artistic License arrived by post, so I was able to take an old favorite hydrangea stamp (Mondo Hydrangea from Essentials by Ellen) and color it in unusual colors. Normally hydrangeas grow in hues of pink, blue, purple, and I think white, but I thought this beauty would be a perfect candidate for the current Color Hues challenge of yellow and orange. Besides, I haven't painted with my Ziggies in ages and I so enjoyed it! 

Then a funny thing happened, which seems to be happening every time I create, which is fine since funny things are good. I stamped the hydrangea in Versafine black onto watercolor paper. When it was dry, I stamped it again using Versamark and clear embossing powder. I already had my embossing stuff out, so the image was powdered and dried with the heat gun. 

But as the powder was heated, it started turning a sort of funny white/gray color. "Ern?," I thought, laying my right ear on my right shoulder, "what's happened to my clear powder?" I was committed at that point, but a good attorney got me out. Wait. No. Different story. I finished the embossing and then I saw that the embossing powder I had out on my desk was white, not clear. Now that I think about it, since clear e/p and white e/p are both white powder, it's a wonder I haven't done that several times before! 

After I finished painting the hydrangea, I stamped the sediment from Gina K. and blended yellow ink around the rim to frame the image, bring your eyeballs into focus, and keep the card one-layer.

Beside's Marcia's Color Hues challenge, I'm playing in AAA Birthday (Flowers); Inkspirational (Word Prompt: Garden); and We Love Stamping (Summer Blooms).

Twofer 

For this quick Christmas card, I die-cut some pretty red cardstock using a NBUS die from Scrapbook.com called, "Nested Swiss Dot Rectangles." For the center, I used one of my favorite stamps from Simon Says Stamps set called, "Holiday Greetings Mix 1." I stamped it in Versamark and heat-embossed it in white. (After checking the label!) 

Sorry you can't see the shine from the embossing or the white gel pen I used to fill in the berries and leaves, or the white acrylic paint schplattered about by Hammy. I attached the finished panel to a snowy embossed background panel.

Stanley's job for this card was to punch out the red swiss dots. Needless to say, the little darling went about it with reckless abandon!

Playing in: ABC Christmas (R is for Rectangle); Addicted to Stamps and More (Any Occasion); and Allsorts (Embossing: Heat or Dry - both used).

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

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

Mwah!

*Life is too short!

Delicate Flowers

Hello Stamplings!

Welcome to the beginning of a new week! There's lots going on in the world and not all of it good, so thank you for coming to a safe space for a little ray of silliness and card fart.

This is week three of the June I.D.E.A.S. Calendar which means E = embossing, wet or dry. I had a spree doing both on my creations. I started by stamping and then heat-embossing these flowers and leaves in clear e/p and painting them with my Ziggies.

This stamp set was part of the Simon Says Stamp card kit in May 2019. Yes, that's right 2019. I'm among friends. The SSS kits are very popular and many of you may have seen this, if not own it. One of the stamps was stained, but I can't find that I posted it and the other stamps were all NBUS. 

What happened was (as near as I can figure), back in June 2019, there was a small 3.2 earthquake along the Hayward fault near here. There was no damage, but it was enough to cause everything on Mt. NBUS to shift and this set slipped into a deep crevasse. 

And there it remained until last week when Hammy and Stanley were crev-assing around and things shifted again. Never a dull moment here! I decided to use the whole set in one sitting before it disappeared again. The only funny thing that happened was realizing halfway through painting that I didn't have dies for this set. Not sure if SSS ever made them.

So I sent the lads off on another excavation, this time into the box under my desk that contains antique crafting tools ~ in this case, scissors. Remember scissors, or skizzers as we like to call them? That was a lot of fussy-cutting, but the old tool still worked fine. As did the skizzers.

Embossing folder is Sizzix 662765. Sediment strip from Memory Box. The pp is from Craft Consortium.

Alphabet Challenge: Embossing, wet or dry.

The Flower Challenge: Add embossing, wet or dry.

Seize the Birthday: A/G (no toppings).

The embossed oval and foiled sediment were gifts, so maker unknown.

Addicted to Stamps and More: Any occasion.

Allsorts Challenge: What makes you happy (crafting and painting) or A/G.

Embossed panel was a gift, so folder unknown.

SSS Wednesday Challenge: Fur, feathers, and/or flowers.

We Love Stamping: June: Nature or A/G.

Embossing folder by Darice. Sediment (v.o.) might be from PTI.

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That was a fun spree! As you might be able to see in some of the photos, the stinkers had their winkers running overtime! Even though you may not have this set or be able to purchase it, there are many sets out there with similar images, so I hope these designs inspire you.

If so, you will find a linky tool below for you to share your creations using your wet and/or dry embossing! Your card, in turn, may help motivate others out of their creative schlumps or give someone a step-off for their own design! 

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

Enjoy your week! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* As always, thank you for coming by to visit and leaving a comment!

Hang in there!

*Life is too short!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Dropping You a Line ~

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you're doing well! The sun came out here and what a difference that makes to literally everything! I even have a few bulbs and the hardenbergia flowering, so I will send you off with your usual spring bouquet at the end!

Onefer

This week's I.D.E.A.S. is "A = Anything Goes," so that's easy. I started with a sketch challenge and then found a color challenge and then came up with a NBUS stamp set. This is where Hammy and Stanley are a big help, especially having two of them now. I had dozens of options and having them run back and forth so I could try on this and that made the job easier. When we got to the Flourishes stamp of the little boy fishing in silhouette, we all squealed. It was a wonderful AHA moment! 

Sorry my CP Coral Cabana looks so pink in the photo.🤷

Playing in:

Freshly Made Sketches

Color Hues ~ coral and yellow

NBUS ~ never-before-used-schtuff

We Love Stamping ~ CAS

Twofer

I used the The NBUS "Color Spots" stencil from The Greetery. The images are from an ancient SU stamp no longer in the packaging. The lads ran around the edge of the white panel with a black marker to distinguish it. They took their time and did a perfect job ~ although I did turn a little blue from holding my breath!

Sharing a Brilliant Hack

I'm not sure who coined the word "hack" to mean "genius," but the poor thing is getting a workout: You can hack off a dead branch. You can hack into a computer. Grandpa had such a bad cold, he hacked up a lung. A disreputable newspaper reporter used to be called a hack. But I digest.

I am delighted to pass on a crafty hack from my friend Vicki Dutcher (here) who saw it on Facebook. A lot of us have removed our older rubber stamps from their wooden blocks. Then, when we want to stamp them, we sometimes need to use double-sided tape to stick them to the MISTI, which can be a mess. Not anymore! Someone discovered that the little sticky mats used to hold a cell phone in place also work perfectly for holding our nonsticky rubber stamps in place! 

Vicki showed her success and I tried it for the above card and it's brilliant!

I don't want to put a link to Amazon on here because Blogger can be funny about links and hits, so to find the ones I bought (FIVE for $4.99!!), just search on "5PCS car dashboard." Of course, you can choose from several companies that make these types of mats. If you have trouble finding them, let me know and I'll email you the link.

As you can see, the ones I got are small (2.75x5). They have no residue on them. You just slap them on your MISTI cover and then peel them off. They stick so well, you have to tug and they do stretch out like silly putty, but they spring right back into their original shape. 

And there are so many things that these little sticky pads can be used for! For example, if you're like me and you haven't purchased a product to hold your stamp pads in place on your desk while you use them, these work amazing for that, too! 

Thank you again, Vicki, and thank you to the originator of the idea, whoever you are! Much appreciated!

~~~

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! 

Mwah!

*Life is too short

Tickled Pink on Fun Foam

Hello Stamplings!

It's lovely to be here and I hope you're doing great! I hope the team you (or your mate) were rooting for won the Super Bowl.🏈 I'm surprised they haven't made the Monday after a national day off!

Our plans changed last week due to the rain, so I had some unexpected crafty playtime with the lads. Squee for all!

Onefer

This week's I.D.E.A.S. letter is D = Dies and my first NBUS feature is the smallest feather stamp and die in the Feather Finery set by Papertrey Ink. The NBUS sediment is from the same set. I would have preferred "pickled tink," but we'll just pretend it says that. 

The second NBUS feature product is the Pink Fresh "Dotted Chevron" cover plate. Stanley honed his blending skills with CP ink and we used colored paper👍for the card base. Playing in:

Cut It Up! ~ this makes me smile

Freshly Made Sketches ~ sketch

We Love Stamping ~ CAS

Twofer 

Looking for the Onefer cover plate, I ran across this framed heart die from Reverse Confetti. Just last week when Hammy and Stanley were looking for a specific pp, they came across my stash of fun foam and asked if we could use it soon ... 💡click!

I had forgotten all about fun foam and it cut like a dream with this die. I attached it to a hammered card panel and then added some funky flat bling from GKW. I used a simple 'Hi' sediment so I can use it for any number of occasions. Playing in:

Just Us Girls ~ heart dies

Colorful Options ~ mood board

{PIN}spiration ~ mood board

Obfuscation

You know how I love words and playing with words. I think it's fun except when companies do it in an effort to make something deliberately unclear, pull the wool over my eyes, or pee on my leg and tell me it's raining.

An email from a well-known company just arrived, saying they are going to "update" our pricing soon. Update? How about they just say they are going to "increase" our pricing soon (again) and leave it at that? I resent being treated like I'm too ignorant to see through it.

But that's the way of the world now. 

So when you have your next annual physical and the doctor comments on what's been happening with your weight, just smile innocently and say, "That's not an increase, doctor. That's an update!" 

Oh, and another thing. For those of us of a certain age who are shrinking vertically, why doesn't the doctor ever factor THAT into the math when he mentions our weight? I'm a little over 5'3" now, but I was once three inches taller. If my current weight were on a frame 5'6" tall, the doctor would be telling me to eat more!!🍔

~~~

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!

And Just Like That ... 🗓️🗓️

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are doing well! We finally turned our backs, er, our clocks back, so I should start waking up in with more engery. I have such a hard time getting going when my brain tells me, "It is the pitch of night, go back to bed." Today I have to get through the first of a series of yucky dental appointments and the election is tomorrow. Anxiety is high, so thank you, Lord, for potatoes, from which wodka flows.

But that's not why you called in. Let's talk about pretty things. Like cards. Christmas cards, to be exact. And it's week one of November's I.D.E.A.S., so I had a play with Ink.

Onefer

The trends of using die-cut images and embossing folders continues in delightful ways with this hobby, but for this QACAS design, I really enjoyed just using stamps.

I have to say this was a treat to photograph. She said, snarkcastically. I finally got an angle to show both the embossed shine of the sediment and the glossification of the berries, compliments of Hammy and Stanley. The sediment and the double-stamped NBUS mistletoe are from, "The Magic of Christmas" by Simon Says. 

Twofer

Back in February, the Group of Seven Cardmakers did a technique called, "Masked Stenciling" and I made this pair using that technique. I especially love the die cut deer and trees with their unexpected stencil lines and lavender color.

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Lunch With Girlfriends

By Kathy O’Malley

Elaine’s vertigo has never been worse.

Kay can’t recall where she left her purse.

Rhonda’s about to replace her knees.

Linda’s breathing is tinged with a wheeze.

Donna's left boob has a troublesome lump.

Diane’s on her third trip to take a dump.

Lorraine’s husband can’t remember a thing.

Nine years a widow, Marge still wears her ring.

Marlene is dealing with another UTI.

Sally’s giving hearing aids another try.

Marie has decided she can’t drive at night.

Sharon still wears clothes two sizes too tight.

They’ve been through divorces and babies and wakes.

They do for each other whatever it takes.

They’ve already buried Marcia and Kate.

And truthfully, Lizzie’s not looking so great.

So whenever they can, they get out to eat.

Open bottles of wine and forget their sore feet.

There’s laughing and crying and letting down guards.

And when the bill comes, there’s ten credit cards.

So here’s to the waiters who keep orders straight,

And the places that let lunches run three hours late.

And here’s to the girlfriends, those near and those far.

Here's to the girlfriends, you know who you are!

🥰🥰🥰

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!

Challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More: 2: Die Cuts and Stencils.

Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round: 2: Reindeer, Deer, or Moose.

Color Hues: 1: Red and Black.

Jingle Belles: 2: Christmas animals.

Peace on Earth: 1: Christmas.

We Love Stamping: 1: Christmas.