Holiday Bells

Greetings!

Happy Hump Day Wednesday! I hope your week is going well!

Having said that, I'm about to ruin it by telling you that today is the last day of September. Gasp!

Yup, those holiday cards and tags aren't going to make themselves and you know that once you see the word October, the Time Train is speeding downhill fast towards the holidays. Which is why, even though I only had a smidge of crafty time since you came by last, I used it to make a onefer tag for Christmas. 

Actually, what happened was I went out to the Playhouse to say hello to Hammy who has been feeling abandoned. I reassured him that we would be back to regular programming soon, but he looked so sad that I skipped some chores and let him pick a few favorite challenges to play in.

And we made this:

Our friend Jeanne is the featured designer for Tag You're It!. Although autumn tags and cards are certainly in season right now, I have more need for Christmas tags so I switched out Jeanne's beautiful gold leaf die for a set of gold Christmas bells by Memory Box (Bells Are Ringing). The gold-embossed NBUS sediment is from Hero Arts (Merriest Christmas Wishes). The gold shiny paper and solid color paper and twine (lost lagoon) are from SU. I really love Jeanne's button treatment at the top of her tag, so I did a rendition of it on my own.

Challenges

• Less is More: Something Shiny.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground. Use Those Schnippets.
• Stamp Ink Paper: Card-Makers Choice.
• Tag You're It! : See below.

Update

I didn't intend to have a regular medical feature on my posts, but so many of you have been concerned about the Mister, I thought I would let you know that we've had another hiccup.

Monday Kevin became dizzy and nauseous so we missed the appointment with the blood specialist and instead spent almost the entire day in the ER.  We were justifiably afraid a blood clot had broken loose and went top-side to his brain so we decided not to take any chances. A CT scan of his head showed all was clear which was a huge relief! That left a diagnosis of vertigo and more pills ~ like the poor guy needed one more thing to deal with. We are hoping it is just a fluke from being bedridden and it goes away quickly. In spite of all that, we are celebrating being halfway through the six weeks with the hip brace, at which point he will be up and walking again!

BTW, don't you find "bedridden" to be a funny word? And who knew that "joyridden" is a word? As in went for a joyride. So if you're bedridden, did you go for a bedride?

It's my age, you know. I now have butterflies where my brain cells used to be. (I should put that on a plaque with my name under it.)

~~~

New Friends Corner

Here are five more talented new friends for you to meet!

Lorraine Collett of Rainey's Craft Room. Lorraine is from the UK and she has been blogging since 2013. She serves on several design teams and at first glance at her blog and her creations, you'll understand why. Her card art is always impeccable and her coloring skills are top notch!

Tracy M. of Tracy's Creative Adventures. Tracy has only been blogging since February of this year, so please make a special effort to visit her and welcome her to our fabulous and supportive community in Blogland! Tracy is rocking the challenges already and I know you will be charmed by her terrific talent and outstanding card designs!

Susan Lang of Susan Lang - One Card at a Time. Susan has been blogging since 2013. She is retired and living in Nevada. Like a lot of us, Susan started blogging to share her cards with her fellow card artists and to enter challenges. Susan doesn't post her cards often, but each card she posts is worthy of a visit!

Sasha Biyanova of Winds of Scrap. Like Tracy, Sasha is new to blogging, having just started in May of this year! Sasha is from Russia and she makes awesome CAS cards and scrapbook layouts! Unfortunately, she doesn't have a translate button yet, but I hope she will add it so we can enjoy her words as much as we do her works of art. In the meantime, I know she would love to hear from you with a comment welcoming her to Blogland!

Stephanie Severin ("SmilynStef") of Ingenious Inking. Stef started blogging in December 2014. She is a familiar face to a lot of us from her Jingle Belles Christmas card challenge blog and her many well-deserved wins as a participant in other card challenges. Stef has a real talent for nailing any sketch put in front of her and her cards are always dynamite!

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!

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A Holly Hello!

Happy Sunday Funday!

I hope you are feeling bonny today!

We are on Cloud Three here because we have had some teeny-tiny improvement in Mister's swollen leg and foot and it doesn't hurt quite as excruitiously as it has been. Thank you, Hal and Lula!!

I am back today with the twofer from my last post, so if you saw that, you will recognize the sketch from the Share Joy Challenge:

I'm pretty sure the polkie-dotted paper is from a PTI 6x6 pad. The stitched circle is from Lil' Inkers which I ran through a Cuttlebug dotted swiss e/f. The holly is NBUS from Penny Black. I used my old-timey hand circle punch for the red berries and the sweet tag is from my stash. I think maybe it was from K and Co embellie pack once upon a time, but I'm not for sure. EZPZ!

Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: Holidays (Christmas).
• CAS on Sunday: Polka Dots
• Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge: Holly.
• Rudolph Days Challenge: Any Christmas Card.
• Share Joy Challenge: see below. My card is going to a family member for Christmas.

The Missus Goes Shopping

So while The Mister is cuperating, my Nursing duties and my Cooking duties are going well, the later in large part thanks to a couple of guardian angels bringing us food, but my Errand duties are abysmal.

Let's take grocery shopping, for instance. My Mister has spoiled me rotten the last few years and done the shopping, which he knows I hate. (Not that I hate that he does the shopping, but that I hate the shopping.) Now that he is laid up, I'm back to doing it. I mean, it's like riding a bike and I did it for decades, so it's no big whoop. Well, except for when nuisances happen:

• It was 104 degrees outside, so I parked in the shade clear across the parking lot from the store entrance. As I got to within two feet of the door, I remembered that I left my tote bags in the car. In California, we bring our own bags into the store to save the trees and in order that paper can be more wisely used for card-making. If you forget your bags, brown paper bags will be provided to you at a cost of ten cents each. 
• Did I do the right thing and return to my car for my bags? You are correct, I did not. As the sweat trickled down between my bosoombas, I believe the words "screw it" could be seen in my thought bubble.
• I grabbed a cart and entered the store. Stopping first to buy every item in the "Entisement Zone" because it soothed me, I walked on. (What does it matter that we don't even eat buffalo-flavored chips?) After walking just a few steps down the first aisle, it became abundantly clear that I got the one cart with a tumor growing on the right front wheel. 

• Not only did I need to put my full and considerable weight into steering in order to avoid ramming into the racks, the cart started screeching and barking, "brrwhomp, brrwhomp, brrwhomp" with each revolution. 
• Did I turn around and go back outside to grab a different cart before proceeding? You are correct, I did not. Instead, I started humming along, which wasn't easy, leaning as I was half into the cart.
• And so I shopped. I got very adept at man hoovering up and down the aisles until suddenly as I neared the packages of hamster kibble, I felt something inside the back of my pants. Excuse me? I immediately reached around and smacked myself hard, determined to kill whatever the heavens had gotten inside my drawers. (Thank goodness I wasn't standing in front of human snacks or the other customers might have thought I was spanking myself as some form of diet ritual!)
  
  When I stopped to take a breath in the act of slapping whatever it was to death, it dawned on me what was happening. That's right, ladies, you may have guessed what I'm talking about: my wingless panty liner had broken loose and was trying to march its way up and out the backside of my capris! At which point my thought bubble said, "Seriously!"
• Did I slither on out of the store and go home, forgetting the shopping? You are correct, I did not. I tied my sweater around my waist to halt the escape and soldiered on to victory! 

I'm pretty sure I've gone viral on the store's hidden cameras. I'm also pretty sure there's a market across town that delivers.

And the moral of the story: always carry a sweater with you, even when it's triple digits outside!

~~~

Now settle down, I have some wonderful new friends for you to meet ...

New Friends Corner

Nicole Diedrichs of Stempelfrida. Nicole has been blogging since March 2014 in order to showcase the beautiful cards she was making. Since then she has joined design teams and entered and won many challenges. I'm sure you have seen her blog name in the winning section of many challenge blogs and now you have a direct link to visit and enjoy her incredible card art!

Betty Keefe of created by bjk. Betty has been blogging since January 2014, but she was already well know from her Flickr photostream before that. Just like Nicole above, Betty loves entering challenges and she has won many of them. You will enjoy her CAS cards which are always a vision of loveliness!

Rachel Fisher of Fisher's Cards and Crafts. Rachel has been blogging since 2012. She is a young widow with two beautiful daughters. Her blog and creativity provide crafting therapy for her and lots of enjoyment for us. You won't be surprised to see that the award list on her side bar goes on forever, all of them well-deserved! 

Dr. Sonia S V of Cards, Crafts, Kid's Projects. Dr. Sonia has been blogging since 2010! She is an ENT surgeon with a daughter who is also crafty. As you can imagine, you will find no end of inspiration from the incredible cards, 3D projects, recycling projects, kids' projects, and tutorials which Dr. Sonia has shared for the past five years!

Marilyn Cotter of Marilyn's Card Spot. Marilyn just started blogging in January of this year, so please make a special effort to welcome Marilyn to our supportive community! She is retired and living in Arizona, where she enjoys golfing as well as making cards for her friends and loved ones. She also enjoys entering challenges to share her cards with us. I think you will find loads of inspiration from Marilyn's impeccable CAS cards!

~~~

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!

I have to say I miss visiting you and commenting! I even missed two hops going on, but I don't feel right playing if I can't comment on other hoppers. This, too, shall pass and I'll be back to normal ~ I use the term loosely! Again, I thank you for understanding!

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:

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Share the Joy With Those Cards!

Greetings!

I hope you are all doing well!

As you can imagine, it seems strangely quiet around here now that NBUS #5 has ended! But even without an active NBUS challenge, I love it when I see you post that you've used some of that NBUS on your creation!

I'm not only using NBUS today, I'm playing in a brand new challenge! Here is my card:

The polka-dotted DSP is from GKW. I scored the top half of the stitched circle from Lil' Inkers. The stitched tag is from My Favorite Things. The NBUS hummingbird stamp is from Taylored Expressions set "Hovering By" and the NBUS sediment is from Paper Smooches set "Sunny Side Up."

If you've been a friend for a long time, you know how much I love hummingbirds and I have to say this hummingbird stamp is awesome! Here is a close-up where you can see the gold embossing and Stella winking:

I watercolored this little cutie with my Ziggies. I've only used them a couple three times and I can see why they get rave reviews.

The  new challenge I mentioned is Taylored Expressions Share Joy Challenge:

For my card, I obviously took a very literal approach to the sketch on the left and, although it is busy with the polka dots, I still think it is CAS.

I was really pleased when Regina emailed me to introduce me to Taylored Expressions new challenge and I've been waiting until after my NBUS Challenge #5 to play along. While all of the card challenges in Blogland encourage us to create card art, the Share Joy Challenge adds an additional emphasis on sending our cards. Here is their mission statement:

At the heart of Taylored Expressions is a passion to share the art and joy of paper crafting. This inspiring weekly challenge is for cardmakers of every level, from beginning to artisan, to express their creative joy. More importantly, the Challenge encourages participants to share that joy with others. Be inspired. Create a card. Send it to someone. Share Joy!

That's right, when you check the rules, you will find this last one: "Send or give your card to a friend, loved one, or someone who could use some joy! Leave a comment on this post telling us who you sent your card to and why." 

Of course, you know I love that idea! BTW, your card can be for any occasion! 

The card I'm entering today is going to my dear 90-year-old adopted-mom-friend Verna, who is still suffering from a bad fall she took in January. She asked me to make a thank you card for her to give to her great-niece who takes Verna to many doctor appointments.

I hope you will add this new challenge to your list of challenges and join in the Share Joy Challenge!

Card Donations / Pen Pals / Mister

If you do happen to have a stash of cards, don't forget that nursing homes and hospitals and other organizations would be delighted to receive your donation of handmade cards. You can also search for organizations online. 

And if you have become friends with other bloggers through your commenting, ask them if they would like to be your "card pen pal." I now have over 100 card pen pals so I never have a card stash! It's a fun and fulfilling experience, not only for me and the hamster, but for The Mister, as well!

In fact, check out the cards he has received since he has become in valid!

He really appreciates the cards and wants me to thank you! They are a bright spot in his day! The poor darling had a birthday Monday, so a few of the cards are birthday cards, but most of them are get well cards. It amazes him that perfect strangers (to him) would do this for him!

Sadly, The Mister's condition has not improved. The next step is to see a blood specialist next week. There is a process involved which apparently takes a lot of time. This is not easy for a motorcycle-riding active man, but I have to say he's being a very good patient. And bless him, he understands my need to escape to the Playhouse now and then to feed the hamster and have some craft therapy! (Thank you all for understanding that my computer time, however, has been severely curtailed.)

Okay. Wait. Where was I?  ...

Challenges

In addition to the Share Joy Challenge, I am entering my card in:

• Color Throwdown Challenge: see below. (I do have a pop of red, so my card may not be appropriate.)
• Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge: Colouring.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use Your Scraps.

I made a twofer, but I will post it separately so I can introduce more new friends in that post.

New Friends Corner

I am blessed to have had several talented new friends join the Playhouse! I will be introducing them to you in groups of five so your visits to them are manageable. Thank you for helping me welcome:

Nadyunya (Nadia) of Scrapomama. Nadia is from Zaporozhe, Ukraine and she has been blogging since 2013. Nadia is uplifting and positive and you will enjoy seeing her excellent scrapbook layouts, CAS card designs, and beautiful photographs! 

Valerija (Valery) Pukšič of My Joy. Valery is from Slovenia and she has been blogging since January 2014. Like a lot of us, Valery started blogging to enter her fabulous cards in challenges. Since then she has been repeatedly recognized for her card art and 3D projects!

Jen of The Other Fickle Pixie (aka Magic Flying Boots). Jen has been blogging since 2009! Let me tell you, she has a VERY impressive and well-deserved list of challenge awards for her amazing CASlicious cards! You will find no end of inspiration here!

Magan Niergarth. Megan has a gallery at Splitcoast Stampers where she is known as MeganBeth. Pull up a chair with a cushion when you go to visit Megan! You will find page after page of beautiful thumbnail card art in her gallery!

Gail Scott of I Like Paper. Gail has been blogging since 2012. She also enjoys entering (and winning!) challenges and serving on design teams. I know you'll have a great time scrolling through Gail's blog where you'll find awesome 3D and altered art projects in addition to her wonderful card art!

~~~

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. 
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me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!

NBUS CHALLENGE #5 WINNERS!

Hello and Happy Sunday!

THANK YOU to everyone who played in my NBUS Challenge #5! It only ran for ten days, but there were an amazing 501 entries! I know there are only (only!) 500 entries in the gallery, but I received one entry via email, as well. My heart is so full of love and appreciation for all of you!

THANK YOU to all the companies who so generously sponsored NBUS Challenge #5! It is very much appreciated and I hope to see you back here for NBUS Challenge #6!

THANK YOU to all of you who visited these company sponsors and who visited each other's blogs to leave com(pli)ments!

~~~

Without further a dew, here are the lucky winners, as chosen by Random Number Generator:

Bozena, Art Card Box, #46 ~ Serendipity Stamps ~ $20 Gift Certificate

Barb Williams, Far Away Crafts,  #107 ~ Poppystamps ~ Die

Kitty, KT Fit Kitty, #272 ~ Waltzingmouse Stamps ~ £20 GBP Gift Certificate

Neha, Periwinkle Creations, #263 ~ Uniko Stamps ~ One Stamp Set

Karen Ladd, Flickr, #291 ~ Happy Little Stampers ~ One Stamp Set

Vickie Z., Smitten, #328 ~ Happy Little Stampers ~ One Stamp Set

Kathy K., Purplicious Princess Diaries, #378 ~ STAMPlorations ~ $25 GC

Sarah G., Funky Fossil Designs, #193 ~ Pretty Pink Posh ~ $25 Gift Certificate

Becca Cruger, Damsel of Distressed Cards, #28 ~ Paper Smooches ~ $25 GC

Vikki Hein, Vikki's Paper Crafting, #448 ~ Paper Smooches ~ $25 Gift Certificate

Ann Tuck, Paper Hugs, #206 ~ Top Dog Dies ~ $20 Gift Certificate

Lee Ann Barrett, Greyt Paper Crafts, #342 ~ Winnie & Walter ~ $25 Gift Certificate

Claire, Life On the Scrap Heap, #149 ~ Rubber Dance Stamps ~ $25 Gift Certificate

Eva, Hellerlittle, #442 ~ Rubber Dance Stamps ~ Grab Bag

Lynne in NI, Ruby Dooby Doo Crafts, #236 ~ Rubber Dance Stamps ~ Grab Bag

Leslee, Canadian in Montana, #103 ~ Your Next Stamp ~ $25 Gift Certificate

Marcia Hill, Marcia's Stampin Pad, #162 ~ The Twinery ~ $20 Gift Certificate

Lynn H., Creative Crafts by Lynn, #221 ~ Precious Remembrance ~ Coffee Love Set

Lisa F., A Mermaid's Crafts, #141 ~ MHK Designs ~ Three Digis

Sarah, Sazzle Dazzle Crafts, #427 ~ CAS-ual Fridays Stamps ~ One soon-to-be-released Holiday Stamp Set and Coordinating Die

Ruby N., A Rare Ruby Crafts, #33 ~ Technique Tuesday ~ $25 Gift Certificate

Sue, Susan's Card Creations, #163 ~ djkardkreations.com ~ $25 Gift Certificate

Paru, Paru's Perceptions, #132 ~ djkardkreations.com ~ $25 Gift Certificate

Sarah-J W, Mallow's Crafty Bits, #156 ~ djkardkreations.com ~ $25 Gift Certificate

Kymona, Kreative Kymona, #293 ~ djkardkreations.com ~ $25 Gift Certificate

Pat, Colourful Card Creations, #147 ~ djkardkreations.com ~ $25 Gift Certificate

Congratulations to all TWENTY-SIX winners!

I have notified the sponsor companies of all the winning names and contact information. The companies will be contacting the winners directly. Winners, if you have not heard from the companies within a few days, please let me know.

THANK YOU again to my friend Jeanne who was instrumental in securing a lot of these companies as sponsors and helping me with the logistics and the company logo collage!

~~~

NBUS Galleries

Please remember that all the NBUS galleries are available to you for inspiration! There is a tab at the top of my home page with links to all the former challenges and I also have a NBUS gallery board for each one on Pinterest. 

[Please note that I load the cards to Pinterest in the order that I comment and because I am way behind on commenting, you may not see your card(s) saved to my Pinterest NBUS#5 Board until later. Since The Mister is still bedridden as he recovers from hamstring reattachment surgery and, now, also with DVT Syndrome, that may be much later. Thank you for understanding!]

~~~

New Followers:

THANK YOU last, but not least, to all the ladies who have joined the Playhouse! I am so pickled tink to welcome you! I will be introducing you as soon as possible in my New Friends Corner!

~~~

Of course, I made you a thank you card so I'll close with it!

 

I used a Hero Arts wooden stamp for the image and a SU wooden stamp for the sediment. Both were heat embossed with NBUS platinum e/p by Ranger, which shows up better in the close-up below. The watercoloring was done with Ziggies.  

Challenges

• Happy Little Stampers: Sketch Challenge.
• Less Is More: Technology. The Hero Arts line image stamp I used on my card reminds me of those boards you see when you take any modern electronic devise apart. You know, because hamsters like doing that.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Love This Technique: Two of them: heat embossing and watercoloring.

~~~

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:

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Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post.
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If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave
me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!

NBUS #5 Ends Soon! And a Bevie of Birthday Wishes!

Greetings!

If you are looking for my NBUS Challenge #5, click here!

Sadly, the challenge is ending at 11:55 pm PST on Friday, September 18, 2015! That's very soon! Again, thank you so much to all of you who have already played along and been so enthusiastically supportive of using your NBUS! I appreciate it!

It may be New Year's before I get around to your entry post to thank you personally, but I will get there eventually! I am visiting participants in monochronological order. (Well, it should be a word, right? That's one at a time, in the order entered!)

I also want to again thank the magnificent paper craft companies who are generously supporting me on ride #5! If you haven't already, please stop by their blogs when you can and leave a personal thank you! We would all love to have them come back and support the next NBUS Challenge! There are a LOT of amazing prizes being offered!

Finally, as a last reminder, please make sure you are following the rules!

And to all of my new followers: in order for me to find you and introduce you in my New Friends Corner, please make sure you leave me a comment or email me (darnell dot knauss at gmail dot com) to let me know the name of your blog ~ or let me know if don't have a blog. Thank you! I will be introducing you over the next few weeks.

I'll be back on Sunday to post the names of all the winners! Good luck, everyone!

~~~

So? How are you? I hope your week is going well! 

I was able to get out to the Playhouse and make a card last Sunday, but I held off posting it until today because today is my friend Bev's birthday. Naturally, I call her Bevie! She is a fellow BABE, she makes outstanding cards, and she writes a delightful blog called Happy Dance. (You know you're gonna love someone with a blog name like that!) Aside from her artistic bloggie self, Bevie is a wonderful, kind, funny, fun-loving, and supportive friend. And she loves music!

Very often inside her blog, you will find Bevie hosting marvelous birthday parties for others. Today our mutual friend and fellow BABE Anita of My Papercraft World is turning the tables and hosting a virtual birthday party for Bevie! Please drop in to wish the Birthday Girl a Happy Birthday and stay to enjoy some virtual cake and bevieges!

Happy Birthday, my friend! I send you a bevie of birthday wishes!

Here is my card:

I applied three rows of NBUS musical Washi tape from Tape Works to my white card base and then I ran it through the BS with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I stamped the SU sediment in between the scales. On a separate snippet I made a miniature version and applied it off-set, inspired by the sketch below.

My card still needed a little somethin' somethin.' You know the feeling. Then Hammy remembered we had a few of these ancient small punches and one of them was a musical note ...

Walla! Just the juezz this QACAS card needed for a finished look!

Challenges

• CAS-ual Fridays CAS Challenge: Musical.
• STAMPlorations September Challenge: Theme and Sketch. I actually made a "DJKASE" of my friend and STAMPlorations Designer, Julie B! Check out her card here!

The Mister

We've had a bit of a setback on the surgery recovery. Kevin has been having severe pain and swelling in his calf and foot, far worse pain than the site of the hamstring reattachment. He has had this condition before when he has had leg hematomas, so we weren't overly concerned. The doctor, however, was concerned when we saw him for a follow-up visit yesterday. He wanted to rule out that the cause was DVT (blood clots), so we were sent for an immediate ultrasound. Unfortunately, the results were positive. He is now on medication to break up the clots and once that takes affect, he should be a lot more comfortable. We dodged a bullet there! Thank you again for all you thoughtful comments, your cards, and your prayers!

Fires

On a final note to this colossal post, I'm happy to report we are fortunate not to be in the direct line of any of California's raging firestorms. Our hearts and prayers go out to those who have lost their lives or property due to the infernos. The fires currently burning throughout the state are causing these stunning and vibrant red sunsets. Beautiful, but bittersweet.

~~~

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

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:

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me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!