A site for my handmade cards, accompanied by my photos and written meanderings which are occasionally witty, often tongue-in-cheek, and rarely profound. Beginning in June 2013, you'll also see lots of NBUS, which is an acronym I coined for Never-Before-Used-Schtuff. Note: my Privacy Policy can be found at a tab below and you can find my NBUS Challenge online. I hope you'll join in the fun there! Thanks for coming by! Have a beverage and enjoy!

Showing posts with label Your Next Stamp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Your Next Stamp. Show all posts

February 10, 2019

Oh, My Stars!

Hello, Stamplings!

I hope this finds you doing well and if you aren't doing well, I hope you're at least fair to piddling. That's spose to be fair to middling, which means slightly above average. My middle school friend's mother always said fair to piddling and we would burst into giggles.

That reminds me of my Aunt Alzada. I think I might have told you this before. We would write letters over the years and one time she wrote, "Well, after all, he has a hard roll to hold." The expression is "a hard row to hoe," but that's not the way my Aunt heard it all her life. I loved her way of saying it! Makes me wonder what old idioms I have misheard and misuse!

Here are my Twofers today to inspire you for February's challenge:
Oh, my stars, that's right, the prompt word is:
My onefer ...
The star of the show (you'll pardon the pun) is the galaxy-ish alcoholic Yupo paper in shades of blues and purples peeking out through the stars of my NBUS stitched Star Panel die from Your Next Stamp. The sediment is from an old PTI set called "Glory Be," and it's heat-embossed in purple e/p, as is the schprinkling of stars. I'm going to use this card as a birthday card with a sassy, "You're HOW old?" on the inside!

Challenges
SPREAD THE MIXED UP LOVE - grab a badge

And my Twofer ...
For my second design, I took the stars that fell out of the die cut in my first design, colored them for Hammy to glossify, and arranged them as a rainbow galaxy. The moon is one of my favorite old wooden stamps, unmarked. Of course, he had to be glossied up, too! The encouraging sediment is from Dylusions Quintessential Quotes. I inset the front panel in order to show you a bit of the lavender base petticoat on both sides. I am sending this to a young woman bravely fighting cancer for the second time.

~~~

How will you play with your STAR stamp, stencil, or die to make two different cards for two different occasions? I can't wait to see!! Please check out the Twofer Card Challenge blog for all the details and to see the fantastic double designs created by the talented Design Team and our two amazing Guest Designers this month: Barb and Cat! Thank you!
~~~

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

And if you're still here, I'd love it if you could send prayers and positive thoughts for the Mister. He has a back condition that has always made his back a bit dicey. The last time it went out, the doc said it was just a matter of time before he would need to have surgery. 


He has been diligently doing exercises every morning for three years to help keep the area stable, which it has done. Then suddenly it wasn't enough and he's been flat on his back for two days. Hopefully he will be able to get in to see the doctor early this week and get the surgery scheduled. Thank you! If it ain't one thing, ... 🙈!

And, 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!)

November 28, 2017

Hanging Round the Christmas Tree

Hello, Stamplings!

What a grand Thanksgiving holiday weekend we had! It's always so nice to see family and friends and carry on timeless traditions!

Now it is full-steam ahead with getting those holiday cards made. Today I'm honored to be the Guest Designer for this week's CASology Challenge #277! This week the cue card word is ROUND and here's my inspiration for you, starring you-know-who:
Nothing says Christmas like a hamster in an ornament!

I watercolored my NBUS ornament from "Hammie Holiday Fun" by Your Next Stamp after heat-embossing it in black. The evergreens were die-cut from blended paper snippets using my NBUS die, also from Your Next Stamp. You can faintly see that I used the negative die cut to stencil a few fronds directly on the card panel for extra depth.

Here is your cue card badge:
I hope you get a chance to play along this week! You can find the linky tool and lots of outstanding inspiration from the Design Team over at CASology!

Challenges

Snippets Playground Badge
~~~


Another "round" design idea using jingle bells:
The background paper is a shiny gold glossy paper and if you look closely, you can see that it is made up of row after row of teeny-tiny jingle bells! The banner is from Simon Says Stamp, the sediment is from The Ton, and the jingle bells are from Lil Inker, cut from gold metallic paper.

Challenges
Share Our Badge!  

I had similar DSP in glossy red, so I made a few more like this:
~~~

Real quick. I forgot to show you this photo last week. 
It was taken on our walk through the park. As I held up the pretty leaf rimmed with ice, the rising sun lit it from behind. I had The Mister take a photo over my shoulder to share with you.

And, of course, I had to share the grandtwins!
You haven't seen them for a while, so that's Henry on the left, Adam on the right. They were not happy to be stopped in their tracks as they were about to dive into a box of See's candy! Check out Adam's itchy finger, primed and ready to pounce!

~~~

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! P.S. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Mwah! 

October 21, 2017

Hammy's At Pixie's Playground ~ Cousin Hammie's a What?!

Hello, Stamplings!

We've had a wee bit of rain! It wasn't enough to completely extinguish all the fires, but it helped the firefighters tremendously which is a huge relief. I'm feeling better with the clear air and return of blue skies. I hope where you are, things are sunny, too!

I am delighted to be Guest Designing for my very good friend Di over at Pixie's Crafty Workshop. Of course, Hammy wanted to be involved since he went all the way to England with me to meet a lot of the Pixie Playmates last year! Not to mention, Di has her own special critter named Parsnip and the two of them are fast friends.
Isn't him so cute eating his cookie?! The NBUS hamster stamp is from the "Hammie Coffee & Tea" set by Your Next Stamp. Naturally we HAD to have this set of stamps and dies! The fun NBUS sediment is from Riley and Company. 

The background dotted pp is from SU and the watercolor pink paper is from Lawn Fawn. I just love it when I can stamp directly onto a piece of pp and use that schtuff up! Hammie is die cut and popped up for a little bit of dementia.

Snippets Playground BadgeIf you have been friends here for a long time, you are familiar with Pixie's and it's been great to see a lot of you join in the fun at the Playground over the years. Di and her challenge regulars are a hoot! They will all make you feel welcome and half the fun is reading their comments! It's definitely a friendly place to make friends and it always feels good to use something from that scrappile!

If you are not familiar with Di and her challenge, the only requirement for playing is that you use at least one scrap (snippet) on your creation. Just like I encourage you to use your NBUS, Di encourages you to use your leftovers and she's been doing so for a long time which we all appreciate! (Of course, when I say leftovers, I mean papers and ribbons and schtuff, but Di is also pleased when you reheat last night's dinner for today's lunch.)

Thank you, Di, for the opportunity to be a guest designer at the Playground!

~~~

And here's my twof ... wait a second. What?
Are those vampire teeth?! We don't really know this branch of the family very well, thank goodness, but every family does have their little monster!!

Challenges
Take it, it's yours
~~~

Real quick. I've seen this car driving around in our neighborhood for quite a while, but until now, I've never had the chance to catch it when it was just sitting in the person's driveway!
How about that?! Hammy got quite becited, so one of these days we are going to go by and introduce ourselves!

~~~

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!


(source unknown)






*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!

April 23, 2017

Panda Posies and Preggers

Greetings, Stamplings!

I hope you are having a lovely weekend! Along with all the beautiful blossoms this time of year comes all the unbeautiful allergies! I don't usually suffer from allergies, although the Mister does, but today my eyeballs were not happy about some pollen or other. God bless all your sneezey noses!

Onefer 
Speaking of sneezey noses, I hope you can see the little bouquet of posies that the sweet panda bear is smelling. His name is Razzle and he's going over Hill and under Dale to dazzle his friend Parsnip. Right now he is having a bit of a sit down to wait out the rain shower so he doesn't get his posies or his toesies wet.

I used lots of snippets and different companies for this one. The umbrella and raindrops are from Simon Says Stamp, "Umbrella Shaker." Part of the die makes raindrops so I used the negative as a stencil to lightly pounce raindrops in the background using (what else) PTI's Spring Rain ink.

The NBUS panda is from Fiskars, "Day at the Zoo." The NBUS "friend" is from "Friends Forever" by Clearly Besotted and the rest of the NBUS sediment is from Hero Arts. 

Challenges


For your blog
Snippets Playground Badge

~~~

Twofer

It looks like someone is having a baby!
I used my NBUS stitched frame dies from Die-Namics. The young mother-to-be is a sweet image sent to me with several others by my friend Aileen. (Thank you, Aileen!) The sediment is from Your Next Stamp, "Whatnot Sentiments Four." 

I thought this stamped image (which I colored with Ziggies and pencils) would be perfect for this week's CASology challenge which is "Grow!" I'm also entering the current Your Next Stamp color challenge and the first anniversary (congratulations CWS!) challenge at Creative With Stamps which is "Baby."

~~~

A Bit of a Breakie Poo

I'm going to step away from the computer for a coupla weeks or so. I can't believe it's almost May. I'm either slowing way down or Father Time is on speed ~ prolly both! 

So what's happened is I feel like I'm never going to finish my big box of half-made cards or try out my long list of techniques if I don't take a break from Blogland. It really is true that we see lots more squirrels as we get older and you talented artists keep distracting me with more all the time! I need to dedicate some time for concentrating on those things you've already inspired me to create.

Not to mention that it's spring which means purging and cleaning are calling me. I've been making cards and blogging the last few years and now things in both the Bighouse and the Playhouse really need a good Purge and Polish. 

I will be checking my emails/comments from you. If you do a post that you know I'd love to see, please feel free to send me an email to let me know. Otherwise, I'll be back to visit your blogs and challenges before you know it! Hammy and I will be rejuvenated and spiffed up with a lot of cards to share!

I hope! You know what happens to the best-laid plans ... and besides, I'll miss you, so we'll see how long I can stay away!💋

~~~

Enjoy your days to come!  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 the pop-up box opens.
Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel!
Mwah!
If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me
your email address so I can respond.  Thank you!

November 5, 2015

CASEing with Acorns and Penguins

Greetings Stamplings!

How are you this fine November day? I love the coziness of cardigans that autumn brings out of the closets and drawers and under-the-bed containers. Besides being cozy, they cover up the candy rolls of October. Don't they? Just let me believe that.

Did you know that the word cardigan originated during the Crimean War? The leader of the Charge of the Light Brigade was James Thomas Brudenel, the 7th Earl of Cardigan (1797-1868). His troops wore such garments to keep them warm, which cut down on the endless murmuring about how bloody cold it was. Thence and forsooth thereafter, we've called them cardigans. 

Cardigans also became handy places to put one's pipe when not puffing, especially for the middle and lower classes. The upper classes, of course, wore smoking jackets. This is why the upper classes rarely died of lung cancer, seeing as how their jackets did the smoking for them.

But that's not why you called. Let's henceforth off to Cardland, shall we?

Well, actually, let's go first to Tagland:
I cut my tag using the Memory Box "Stitched Main Street Tags" die and embossed it using my Cuttlebug "Distressed Branches" e/f. The acorn is NBUS from the "Thankful" stamp set by Avery Elle. It was a gift to me from my friend Taunya Butler of Daisies Girl. Thank you, Taunya! 

I stamped and paper-pieced the bottom of the acorn using PP in a pretty aqua, caramel, and brown woodgrain. The acorn was then embossed using an antique blue moire e/p. I cut the top half of the acorn with my skizzors and pieced it over the woodgrain paper. The leaf is a metal embellie from Vintage Trinkets. The thank you sediment is from Your Next Stamp.

This little guy is going to be appearing across town at these various venues:
  • CASEing Genius Challenge: In honor of the one-year blog'versary of her "CASEing Genius" series, Kelly is having her own challenge with prizes. To participate, you simply CASE one of the genius ladies Kelly has listed in her challenge post. With this tag, I am CASEing (or as I like to say when I do it, DJKASEing) my friend and Genius Kara Lynne of Kara Lynne's Card Designs. To the right is Kara's beautiful aqua, copper, and gold autumn thank you tag.
      My Photo
    • Kelly also wants us to chose one crafter that we want her to CASE for a future {CASEing Genius} post. That's like asking me to choose a favorite child. I say that metaphysically because I do have a favorite child, having only had the one. Still, it is part of the challenge, so I had Hammy write the names of all my followers on slips of paper and then sleep on the pile for two days. He then ran through the pile of names scattering them about like leaves on a blustery autumn day. The last name remaining in his cage was my talented friend Jacquie Southas of What Did I Do Today?, so I happily nominate her!
YNScolor-26
~~~

Today's Twofer

Moving forward to Christmas and penguins:
A silver metallic card mat overlayed with white provides the Christmassy background for my penguin Rockettes. I stamped the penguins (from Stamps of Life) in gray to provide a shadow and then applied the stamped and die-cut little dancers off-set over the shadows. The sediment, which I think is NBUS, is from PTI. My "balloon" is overlapping red star sequints.

This card was made as a CASE of this week's Muse, who is another friend, Ardyth Percy-Robb of MASKerade. Here is Ardyth's adorable card:
Ha ha, I just noticed when I went over to MUSE to grab the link and image that half the entries feature penguins! Great minds! I think it was the black and white of the pandas and this time of year that made us think of penguins. 

I followed Arydth's line design, her white on silver/gray matting, the tall element held by one critter, and, of course, the black/white/red. However it inspires you, I hope you'll CASE Ardyth's pandas and play along this week!

I'm also playing at City Crafter Challenge Blog where the theme is "Getting Ready for Christmas!" and where my friend Marcia Hill is the Guest Designer!

~~~

New Friends Corner

Please join me in welcoming these five new friends to the Playhouse today!

Vikki Hein of Vikki's Paper Crafting. Vikki has been blogging since 2011. She lives in Southern Oregon and she only manages to blog about once a month, but that's okay. Even once a month is enough for her to keep in touch with us and allows us to be inspired by the beautiful and innovative designs she posts when she does get creative!

Birgitanita of Birgit's Hobby Blog. Birgit lives near the sea with her cat Gilbert. She is the mother of two grown sons and she started her blog in 2012. Birgit makes excellent cards ranging from very clean and simple to elegant layered works of art.

Tanja Kewel-Neet of My Happy Place. Tanja has been blogging since September of 2009. She has been on design teams over the years and is currently on the TAWS design team. If I am reading the Google translation correctly, Tanja started her blog in order to become a Stampin Up demonstrator. I'm glad she did so that we could meet her and enjoy her bright and cheerful card art!

Andrea of Arty Andrea. Andrea lives in the UK and started blogging in 2012. She's had a few setbacks this year, including a recent broken wrist, so she hasn't been blogging much. But she did blog quite a lot prior to this year and she will be back to it once she is able. Her layered and embellished cards are really divine and her coloring is superb!

Shruti Goel of Crafts Devine: Shruti Goel's Creations. Shruti started blogging a few years ago, but she only started posting consistently as of this year, so I consider her to be new to blogging. She makes beautiful CAS designs and enjoys sharing them with her readers and entering them in challenges!


Thank you for joining, ladies, and welcome to the Playhouse!

~~~


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 the pop-up box opens.
Click Jump to Comment Form; no more car pool tunnel! Mwah!
If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave
me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!