Stencil Monoprint Tipple

Hello Stamplings!

Happy Toozday! Thank you all for your kind support and prayers for our little Adam. And for me, too. We are both doing fine, considering. Now hows about you? How are you doing? I am keeping up with all your wonderful comments, which are so appreciated, but it seems like ages since I've visited and I hope to get back with everyone soon. I especially wonder how you are doing if you are in PA and points east due to the rain and flooding.

As the title suggests, ... wait. What? That title is definitely not right! It should say Stencil Monoprint TRIple which is what I achieved when I tried my hand at stencil monoprinting for the current CAS Mix Up Card Challenge. I first tried this technique at the Retreat in Vancouver and if you want to learn more about how it works, there is a list of great videos on the current CAS Mix Up blog. I didn't have a lot of success with multiple inkings at the Retreat, but this time I was able to extract three monoprints!

Here is my onefer stencil print:

For my stencil, I used a NBUS MFT Mix-Ables stencil. I inked it in the colors shown using Distress Oxides and once dry I embellished the panel with an Impression Obsession 6-n-1 scalloped frame and a NBUS Thinking of You die from Concord & 9th. Remember "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" story from your toddlerhood? Well, this monoprint is too busy to be CAS, so it's no good for the CAS Mix Up Challenge. Also, there is no stamping on it, but it is good for these fun challenges:

• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use those snippets.
• Where Creativity Meets C9: Anything goes.

Let's look at my twofer stencil printing:

To design a card with my second printing and to compliment the background, I used my NBUS Altenew "Dearest Friend" stamps and die, a NBUS MFT hello die, and a NBUS "there" stamp from WPlus9. The flowers were colored in pastel shades with my Ziggies and popped up in your face.

There is stamping on this card, and die-cutting, and it is less busy, but is it less busy enough to be properly CAS? Nope. But it is good for these challenges:

• AAA Cards: Friendship.
• Cards in Envy: Something new (NBUS).

And, lastly, here is my threefer printing:

To showcase this subtle background, I used a stamped and clear-embossed cone flower silhouette stamp from SU. The black is very schparkly in real life. A little love note border of Washi tape balances the design and stands in as a sediment.

There is quite a bit of white space and simplicity with this design because, remember, black or colored space can be "white," too. As long as it is free or uncluttered space, it can be any color. So, yes, this is Clean And Simple. And there is stamping. And I have a third required element of heat embossing. So this card is just right! Thank you, Goldilocks © 2018.

Here are my three printings together with the stencil.

This was truly fun! I don't often get all inky and, of course, you know Hammy loves it when I do. He will take any opportunity to color his fur, especially since the Oxies came out. The softer shades really go with his natural coloring and if I don't remember to clean him off before he goes back in his cage, he has the prettiest bedding in Hamsterdam!

Challenges:

• CAS Mix Up Card Challenge: Stencil monoprint.
• Shopping Our Stash: Silhouettes.
• The Flower Challenge: One-layer card.

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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!)

WC With No Lines

Hello Stamplings!

No, not WC for "water closet," although it's always nice when there are no lines there! Rather, there are no lines on my watercoloring today! This is one of the many things I learned and played with while crafting with the ESCR gals in British Columbia!

For my first effort, I chose a Penny Black stamp. This card was watercolored with DIs.

I was quite pickled tink with how this turned out. The hamster winked it, as he is wont to do, which really brightened it, but you'll have to take my word for it. This would be a beautiful card for Christmas, but I am giving it to a friend for her birthday along with a baby honeysuckle plant with red berries for her newly built front porch.

Challenges

• AAA Cards: Celebrating their 4th birthday with a bash! Congratulations!!
• CAS on Friday: Birthday card.
• CAS-ual Fridays: Celebrating their 8th birthday! Congratulations!!
• City Crafter: Watercolor flowers.
• Seize the Birthday: Birthday card. (No toppings.)

Twofer

This is a wedding card, watercolored with my Ziggies. This time I took a closeup photo of Hammy's winking:

Here you can see that the inspiration for my card was the wedding invitation itself. 

My blossoms are a little pinker than I wanted, but I think the young couple will see how I was attempting to CASE their invitation. The florals are from a couple of Concord & 9th sets, the bells are from Memory Box, and the sediment is NBUS from "Give Thanks" by Concord & 9th.

Challenges

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Use more than one stamp. 
• Simon Says Work It Wednesday: Summer. My card is for a July 14 summer wedding.
• Where Creativity Meets C9: Floral.

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I don't have any photos of us practicing the no-line watercoloring, but I do have a photo of Hammy at the Retreat, all ready to sign autographs!

Hammy was accompanied on this retreat by his friend, an appaloosa stuffie I purchased at one of the prior Lake House retreats. Pretty quickly after I unpacked, we discovered that Christine's dog Tika had claimed "Apple" as his own!!

So adorable! I didn't have the heart to take it away from her. (We were all just enormously relieved that Tika hadn't spied a certain hamster first! Ssshhh, don't mention it.)

~~~

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!)

Hope, Girlfriends, and Gullfriends

Hello, Stamplings!

Before we begin today, I just want to reach out to my friends in England who have been impacted by the horrific bombing at Ariana's concert in Manchester. You are in my thoughts and prayers. 

There is so much anger we all feel after these cowardly acts of terrorism, but there are no words to express the depth of outrage we feel when our children are targeted. As so many others have said, the best revenge is to carry on and not allow the fear these acts evoke to paralyze us from living our lives to the fullest.

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Lots of photos today, so once you grab your beverage, let's start with a little card of HOPE. We can all do with some hope about now.

I love embossing this "Hello Lovely" stamp from Concord and 9th in white and painting it with my Ziggies. I think it pairs nicely with the hope die from W Plus 9, which was colored with orchid hues of alcoholic ink on glassy paper. Sorry, glossy paper.

Challenges

• Double D Challenge: Flowers Galore.
• The Flower Challenge: Case a DT Member. I chose to CASE the very talented Maria.
• Stamp Ink Paper: Cardmaker's Choice. Congratulations SPI on your 100th challenge!
• TIME OUT Challenge: "Flowers and friends make life a garden."
• Where Creativity Meets C9: I'm entering this challenge for the first time. This is challenge #9 and the theme is "florals."

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Here I made a simple card by embossing some of my beautiful pp with one of the Die-Namics stitched dies:

I added a "Hope Happens" sediment and that was it. Oh, and I attached it to a colored card base to use up some of my colored card, too. 

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Travels

I mentioned last time that we attended our niece's graduation over the weekend. There were two other highlights along the way that I wanted to share with you.

The first highlight was meeting "for reals" my dear bloggie friend Marybeth!

She is every bit as lovely as I imagined she would be and I was so pleased that we could meet! It was like we'd known each other always and our time together was waaaaaaaay too short! If you don't know Marybeth, be sure to click on her name which will take you to her stunning blog. Her talent is awe-inspiring!

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We traveled home via the coast and stopped for a few days in Santa Barbara. Our second highlight was taking a boat out to the Channel Islands where we hiked Anacapa, the smallest island:

The Mister failed to mention that in order to get UP to the island, we had to climb up from the boat 157 steps! And after we reached the top, we still had to climb a hill! 

I guess it was best that he sprung it on me just before we went or I would have fretted myself into a tizzy. I don't like heights and I have mobility tissues, but after three wodkas, I just breezed to the top! Just kidding, I didn't have any wodka (good idea, though!) and I did have to take breaks, but I made it!! And it was so worth it!

Peppered along the entire island are Western Gulls who were busy nesting - some of them right along the trail. According to our docent, there are no "sea gulls," just "gulls." Don't tell Jonathan Livingston that.

She also said that the red dot you see on the under side of a gull's beak is a "target" for the little chicks to aim for when they want to get fed! (Maybe they aren't born with a sense of smell or they would pick up on that fishy odor, doncha think?)

Here you can see that their eggs are speckled! Notice the little guy just beginning to emerge:

The docent said that only three nests have hatched so far this year, so it was a treat to come upon this one with two speckled chicks:

Mom told me off, but just look how cute they are!

And, finally, on our way back to the mainland, we were treated to a show by lots of playful dolphins and two blue whales!

The whales wouldn't breach for us, but they are a pretty rare sight, so it was amazing just to see these mammoth critters surface and sail alongside for a while!

~~~ 

Thanks for hanging in if you're still here! 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!