CAS-ual Fridays #46 "Name That Tune"

I'm posting later and later in the day.  I'd like to tell you it's because I'm getting up later and later, but I'm not.  It's all about spring and spending more time outdoors gardening and it's all about lots of March birthdays.  Couples were really getting busy in June six decades ago, if you know what I mean.  I have a lot of friends with March birthdays and today I had another lunch for a friend.  It was so nice.  I think, too, by the sixth decade we are all just so thigh-flappin-happy to still be here!  And we giggle over the dumbest little thing and we weren't even drinking!  Life is good.

This week's challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is "Name That Tune." 

The sponsor this week is Melanie Muenchinger.  Melanie designs for Gina K Designs.  You can find more inspiration from Melanie and view all her stamp sets on her blog, “Hands, Head and Heart.”

(This week is also the last call for you to apply for a spot as a member of the Design Team for this terrific blog. Get on over there and get on it!  Remember Hank Ford said, "There isn't a person anywhere who isn't capable of doing more than he thinks he can.")

Seeing so many of my friends this month, breaking bread, catching up, and sharing memories, made me want to use a song about friends.  A heart-throb in my youth, I'm going with James Taylor and "You've Got a Friend."  Well, I'm not "going with" James Taylor, although I wish I was going with James Taylor!  Now, stop it, here's my card:

I won't be on at all tomorrow, but hope to be back on Sunday.  We will be out enjoying a day in the City with old friends from college days, folks we haven't seen in over 30 years! 

I'm so happy to welcome two new followers who have joined my site.  They are Amanda and Misty's Mum.  I appreciate it!

Please enjoy ~ and, as always, thank you for stopping by. Special thanks to you if you took the time to join as a follower or leave me a comment!

Paper:  SU Vanilla, DSP, and Bashful Blue

Stamps:  PTI Signature Greetings

Ink:  PTI Dark Chocolate

Accessories:  SU Bashful Blue ribbon;

  unknown heart brad

ColourQ #130 and Freshly Made Sketches #28

It's night time and bed time for a lot of you and almost for me.  I had a full day today so I didn't get to crafting 'til after din-din.  I was thinking in my head, "Oh well, the day is almost over, I'll just do a cross-word puzzle ... but first I'll check a couple of my favorite challenges ... ."  And then, bam, cosmos, baby!  The card sort of makes itself.  I find it interesting that cosmos means:  "the universe seen as a well-ordered whole."  And "an ornamental plant of the daisy family with single or double dahlialike flowers."  You'll understand how that popped out of my fingers when you scroll down.  But, first, the criterior:

From ColourQ we have these delicious Springy, Eastery colors:

That is the coolest basket EVER!  How delightful would it be to pull that out of the dusty box in the closet or garage every Easter and pop those bright colors in your living room?!

So good, like that, what else?  Let's see what the Freshly Made Sketches sketch is:

Another fun sketch by Lesley.  I didn't have much time, I really promised and crossed-my-heart that I would make my Easter cards, but you know what would be great for both these challenges?  This:

The flowers behind are a bit distracting, so here is a close-up:

It's so cool to me that the very edges of the flower are the color of melon mambo!  And I hope the DT at ColourQ agrees that this dahlia is the color of Daffodil Delight.  It seemed like it to me anyhoo.  I took the photo at summer's end last year.  And if I stamp "Happy Easter" on the inside, there you go!

Aside:

The kidlets have spring break from first grade for a week, so the kids took them to Florida to see the sights and Henry's godparents.  They have a dog named Duke.  Not the godparents, the kids and kidlets.  Duke has a dog-sitter lady.  Dog-sitter lady flaked on the kids at the last minute, day before the vacay.  The kennels were all full because of spring break.  We are the first names on the emergency response card and while I told my son never to use the word emergency in a phone call unless it had to do with the kidlets, not the dog, I can see where they were in a bit of an emergency.  Of course we took the granddog.  He's a sweetie and no trouble, although he will knee-cap you with that tail if you don't watch it.  He joined me for a while in the playhouse while I made my card:

Please enjoy ~ and, as always, thank you for stopping by.  Special thanks to you if you took the time to join as a follower or leave me a comment! 

Paper:  SU white, melon mambo,

  certainly celery

Accessories:  Turquoise brads,

  white thread

Note: This post contains words

  made up by me; they are not typos.

WOYWW 147

Welcome friends to the March 28 What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday #147!  Oh, I got myself into another pickle yesterday.  Which is a head-cocked-to-the-side phrase, isn't it?  Whenever would someone try to climb inside a pickle?  Some of you may know I had a senior brain wind with the Mojo Monday challenge yesterday.  I made a rectangular card and entered it in a challenge calling for round or square cards.  I know, what am I going to do with me?  I'm addled. 

On this WOYWW event, everyone knows I'm a neat freak and frankly, sometimes I do feel like a freak.  I do get hives and an eye tic if my desk is too messy for too long.  But, honest, I do make messes when I create, same's everyone else, so I got all excited last night when I realized the timing was right for showing you I had a true mess!  The mess began because I was finishing off a bunch of cards that I'd made for other challenges.  I stopped that to make the Mojo challenge card.  Then, immediately after I posted that card, I regained consciousness and realized my fow paw.  Well, that wouldn't do, so I went back into production and made a proper (round) card and relinked it to Mojo.  So, unusually for me, I had messes on top of messes:

And here is my desk ten minutes later:

Aaah. Don't hate on me, I can't help it. I agree that a mess means you are being creative; that just makes sense.  But once I've finished one creation, I normally put everything away and start fresh.   We all have our crosses to bear.  To join in the fun and let us see your creative area - and style - do click on the link above!

And just because it's so pretty, here is a picture of the minature lemon tree in a pot outside the west window of the playhouse.  It's a Meyer lemon and just look at all those blossoms glistening from the spring rain!  Last year we only had about ten lemons (it usually is a good producer), so this is exciting to see.  

I'm delighted to welcome Bonnie to my blog.  Her site is called "Stamping with Klass" and you know me and words/names, I love that title!  And she does, indeed, stamp with class!

No card today, but I posted two yesterday, so that's enough hogging the cyberspace for me. Thank you for stopping by.   Special thanks to you if you took the time join as a follower or to leave me a comment!

P.S. Mojo Monday 234

Although Teresa Kline of Mojo Monday was very kind to say my A2 card could stay in the links for this challenge, I didn't feel it was fair to the other crafters if I didn't go back to my workdesk and make either a square card or a round card.  I went for round, my first!

The details are the same as my earlier post today.  Thank you for your tolerance!

Enjoy!

 

Mojo Monday 234 Sketch - Round or Square

Edit:  I know.  I just noticed, so thank you, but no need to comment at my mistake about the square size (not) of my card.  I think perhaps it was my brain that exploded Sunday and not my back!  What a moron I am.  Right after, like a minute after, I posted on Mojo, I started looking again at the entries and it hit me that I went on auto-pilot when I made the card and didn't make it square.  Even talking about the round v. square in my post didn't connect me to my error.  I'm leaving this post anyway, 'cause it's still a cute card, but I asked the Mojo DT to delete my entry from their blog. 

I guess this will really inspire me to make a round card to properly enter.  Oy. Yoy. Yoy.

>>>

This is my Tuesday edition of Mojo Monday because I couldn't decide if I'm round or square.  That's not true, I'm totally round, but of the two sketches, gotta say I'm a square.  For sure.  The sketches are:

Actually I should have done the round because I have that new Cuttlebug and all, and it is cute as pie - the sketch I mean.  I positively must make nothing but Easter cards from now on.  Here I am watching March whiz by like a maniac, just now realizing how fast Easter will be here after I turn that page on the calendar.  I know, right?!  Thankfully, there are so many inspiring Easter cards entered, but for me, this morning, this is what spoke:

Other than spending an hour trying to make the three bleeping panels, this was a simple layered card.  WHY didn't I stay awake during math?  I need a digital ruler so bad and I bet someone makes one.  How nice it would be to just lay it up against the paper and mark off 1.67 inches.  Aaaah.

Oh, sorry, I drifted off to crafter's dreamland. 

So anyway, as I was coming in the house to take the picture (dark outside), I happily remembered that cute little makeup and lipstick that sister, Diana, gave me ages ago.  I love it when my brain produces thought before it's too late.  It's rare anymore and worth celebrating.  But enough about me. 

So what do you think the deal is with that makeup and lipstick?  (Sorry the close-up is a little blurry.)  It's really way too big for a miniature doll house, but kind of small for a real-sized woman.  Unless they made it specifically for a long weekend getaway with your honey.  Or for the hospital bag you took when you went off for a week's stay to  have your baby?  Or did they used to sell makeup and lipstick in emergency road-side vending machines for when you got caught out of the house without makeup and you got a flat tire?

I think I'll go try my hand at making a round bunny card, so I might be back.

Please enjoy ~ and thank you for stopping by.  Special thanks to you if you took the time to join me as a follower or leave me a comment! 

And, finally, as a follow-up to yesterday's posting about the air ball, thank you for all your well wishes and compliments!  I'm moving around surprisingly well.  I'm sure that eventually I'll stop canting off to the side.

Paper:  PTI cream, DCWV DSP

Stamp:  Art Impressions BB-471

Ink:  ColorBox Rose Coral

Ribbon:  Darice Pull Bow pastel

Pop dots

More PTI and Pity Party

No challenge card today, just sharing a card I made while I was using the PTI Framed set for the March blog hop.  It's VERY CAS!

Please enjoy ~ and thank you for stopping by. Special thanks to you if you took the time to leave me a comment! Have a wonderful Monday, wherever you are!

P.S. Pity Party.  Here's a personal sob story I sent off to a friend via email.  I thought you might enjoy my humorous escapade.  I say humorous because I know from life experience that someday soon I will be able to laugh about it.  It always ends thus, and isn't that a wonderful thing?!

Mister and I went on our bimonthly visit to Costco Sunday.  For an old couple, just the two of us, we spend amazing amounts of money at Costco.   I have no idea what COSTCO means, assuming it's an acronym.  My personal belief is that it means this:

<><> <><>

"Come! On! Spend! This! Cashier's! Open!" ©Darnell J. Knauss

 

We made it through the first quadrant, couldn't find men's underwear in the right size, stopped at the booze (natch), got through the maze of snackies, cheeses, produce, and on to the icebox section.  To me that icebox section is a pure torture room.  I run in there like a bunny, grab up two romaine lettuce packs - who cares if they're brown - and dash out.  Too late, my giblets are frozen.

On we went to dairy, then paper goods where we overloaded the cart with enough toilet paper and tissue to wallpaper all the trees in town, and to the frozen dinners, meats, and desserts.  I should say mister went through the frozen aisles, searching for his beloved meatballs.  By now I'm parked in the corner, "You go look!" I whispered, still shaking with cold.  Of course, no surprise, he came back without them.  Sheepish, but still a nitwit.  God did not give men the ability to see past their,  er,  noses.  So, off I go to the rescue.  I did not run.  I walked purposefully, but not fast.  I am a cuddly soft round woman, the opposite of athletic.  But I do go to Curves, and Zumba (for Seniors), and I am able to walk.  Honest. Unless I have a snoot-full, and I did not have a snoot-full.  Plus, I did not walk too fast because I needed to be able to swivel my head, with its giant brain, from one side to the other to check both sides of the aisle.  I made it down the first aisle, around the end cap, and was halfway up the next aisle when I stepped on a pile of air.

Yes, that's right.  Air!  That is not a typo.  I did not change my step, there was nothing on the floor.  But when my right leg stepped down, my back broke.  Seriously, something went kerflooey somewhere and I stopped dead in my tracks from the pain.  It exploded from the center of the low back, out along the right hip and down both the front and the back of my right leg.  Because I stepped on an Air Ball!  Why me?  Who even does this?  Who's ever heard of it?  Had an Air Cat been there earlier, coughing up that Air Ball?  And What The Hell snapped inside me?!

Actually it's all mister's fault, him and his meatballs.  And did I stop?  Neewp, neewp.  Of course not.  A mere pause to catch my breath and do some keegles, if you know what I mean.  I forged ahead as women do.  There were three more aisles up and then down and there, at the last one, on the end cap where no one ever looks, were the flippin meatballs!

I spent the rest of yesterday on a heating pad, popping Tylenol with Codeine.  It was a rough night, but today, if I lock into a certain position, I'm good.  Until I get up.  Don't ever get old!

PTI March Blog Hop!

I'm seriously so excited, I can hardly type.  For the first time, I'm playing along with the PTI blog hop at Papertrey Ink via Nichole Heady's blog.  The link will take you there if you want to join in the fun! 

The challenge for the March blog hop is an inspiration challenge.  We are to create a project using this photo as inspiration:

Nichole says:  "For the month of March we wanted to focus on sunshine and the upcoming spring season. What better way to do so than with a fresh color scheme of aqua & yellow."

I used Nichole's words "focus on sunshine" and the cute little sun on that striped bag as my inspirations.  And, of course, aqua and yellow.

First off, please try not to laugh at my card.  I know I'm linking with some serious PTI peeps who have been in this PTI community a very long time and who have lots of PTI images to play with.  My deal is that I am just getting into, and the hang of, this whole PTI company and the releases and the challenges and the blog hops.  It's close to my limit of information saturation.  I've bought a few things, okay lots of things, but so far those things are loads of beautiful paper and sentiment stamps, and a few dies.  And I love it all!  I now have a long wish list that includes image stamps, but I wanted to play this month so badly that I went ahead and made up a really simple card using just PTI paper and the Framed and Glory Be sets.  That's it 'cause, right now, that's all I got:

Thanks for letting me play!  And thank you to Leigh Penner for helping me with questions about the hop.

Lastly, I'm so happy to welcome TAM as a new follower!  It is such an honor to have 40 new friends join me on this journey so far!

Please enjoy ~ and thank you for stopping by.   Special thanks to you if you took the time to leave me a comment!  Have a wonderful Sunday, wherever you are!

Paper:  PTI white, aqua mist, and lemon tart

Stamps:  PTI Framed and Glory Be sets

  Sentiment "It's Spring" hand-written

Ink:  PTI black

Cuttlebug circle and scalloped circle dies

Yellow chalk

 

LIM Week 60 Recipe: "Take Three Challenges"

Hey There!

Another chilly, rainy day here.  Teach me to complain about the lack of rain!  Chrissie and Mandi at Less Is More have the funnest challenge posted today.  We get to look at the list of 58 past challenges,  choose any three of them, and combine the criteria from them on the card.  Take a look at their site and join in the fun!  Oh, and they want us to say what three past challenges we are choosing and the week number of those challenges.  Flaming horsefish, I hope I got all that right this time.  For those who read me regularly, you know that I'm Less-Is-More-challenged!  There always seems to be some confusion on my part - and all on my part!

So on this gloomy day, here is a sunny and bright card:

And here are the challenges I chose:

Week 29 - Things That Move - okay, obviously the birds, but it's a congratulations card for
                                                  a new home for people who moved!  Get it?!

Week 44 - Colour Green - covered.

Week 56 - Don't Scrap It - I used scraps for the background DSP and the "sun."

This was another opportunity to watercolor, which I'm finding so peaceful.  If you look closely you can see Waldo.  I'm kidding, just seeing if you were paying attention.  You can see that I used Versamark to stamp the sunflower image on the card base.  I don't have a "New Home" stamp, so I just wrote it on my little homemade sun. 

I also took a picture of the inside just to CMA, because I saw Week 13 was Lucky Dip, Thank You or Congratulations, but I'm not sure if those words needed to be on the outside.  (I still don't know what the heckle "Lucky Dip" is BTW, but I figure a helpful LIMette will fill me in when that challenge rolls around again.)

I do know I'm certainly a lucky duck to welcome another new follower, Sheree!  You must go check her out!  Child, what she can do with distress ink will make your head turn all the way around on your shoulders!

Please enjoy ~ and thank you for stopping by.  Special thanks to you if you took the time to leave me a comment!

Paper:  SU, unknown, and I've no idea where I
  got that dots, stars, and diamond DSP
Stamps:  Stampendous N048 Birdhouse Fence;
  Hero Arts A782 Small Sunflower and
  D542 Confetti Congratulations!
Ink:  Versafine onyx black
Accessories: SU scallop border punch

CAS-ual Fridays 45 - Pastels with Black

Happy Evening!

Rather late in the day for me to be blogging, but my card is done so it feels right to just blah, er, blog about it and then go clean up and start anew tomorrow.  I had to stop and keep a doctor's appointment with a new GI doctor and so the sun had gone down behind the clouds by the time I got back to take the photo.  (It was an hour and a half wait, mind you without a cell phone on  me, and it made me realize that for most of my adult life I didn't own a cell phone and yet I try and fail to imagine ever having lived without one!  Gave me pause, which helped to pass the time.  Speaking of time, you don't have all day, move along.) 

The new challenge thrill at CAS-ual Fridays is:

I don't think we're supposed to make cards about a soup opera.  Well, it doesn't actually say that, so I take that back.  Whatever the theme, we're supposed to use pastels and black.  The sponsor is:

That's a new company to me and I'm happy to hear about them.  Cute stamps!  Since I don't have any of their images to use at the moment, I did this:

It's a nice manly card with a feminine side, fitting for the modern dude.  I used two shades of the pretty SU DSP in the subtle collection to represent the sea and the sky.  I drew the seagulls in by hand because it seemed a nice touch.

I'm so tickled to welcome two new followers!  Please check out Vicky Hayes and Michelle Lupton as soon as possible!  They both do amazing things if you ask me!

Please enjoy ~ and thank you for stopping by. Special thanks to you if you took the time to leave me a comment!

Paper:  SU white, black, and DSP Subtle
  Collection: Baja Breeze and Bashful Blue;
  Stampland Glossy
Stamp:  1995 PX G-1479
Ink:  Memento black; Marvy marker
Accessories:  brads, SU Bashful Blue ribbon

CR84FN50 Pink, Orange, Yellow or "POY"

It's a cloudy, gloomy day here today.  The kind of day where it threatens rain, but it never does.  Mother Nature at her teasing finest.  In spite of that, and having a code in my node, I decided to participate in the CR84FN challenge and make a card using these bright and cheerful colors:

I'm pretty sure this is my first time participating in a CR84FN challenge, which is exciting!  And it's Oh, Boy, POY!  It's like POW in the cartoons, only more ladylike.  I have made more cards using pink and orange in the last two days than I have in the last ten years!  Here's what I did this time:

Because of the daffodil, I had planned to make this a Happy Easter card, but then I spied the "live with zest" stamp and decided that seemed so perfect for this "citrus-y" card.  It does make your mouth water for a big, juicy, zesty orange, doesn't it?

Please enjoy ~ and thank you for stopping by! Special thanks to you if you took the time to leave me a comment or join!

Paper:  PTI white; DCVW yellow DSP;

  SU yellow and melon mambo

Stamps:  Michael's WS-044 Daffodil; stem by

  Stamps by Judith I-143; Hero Arts sentiment

Ink:  Marvy orange; Prismacolor pencils

Accessories:  SU ribbon: melon mambo and

  crushed curry; brads; pop dots; glitter glue

Freshly Made Sketches 27 and One Layer Wednesday 84

Just one of those days where all is right in my crafty world.  (I should catch a cold more often!)  Since I actually made my ColourQ card yesterday, I had to make something new today.  As it happened, I went to check on what the new Freshly Made Sketch sketch was and went right from there to see what the One Layer (Even) challenge was and Happy Days Are Here Again, I sang to myself.  Circles?  Pinks?  Orange?  I Can Do That!  I hope you'll check out both sites and join in the fun!

Here is the Freshly Made Sketches sketch #27 - "A Sketch by Lesley (Seeing 'Spots')":

And over at Susan's One Layer Wednesday #84 "Pinks and Orange," she challenged us to make a white-based card with pinks and orange, like this:

(Doesn't she do beautiful CAS cards?)  She wants us to use only one orange color, but as many pink colors as we want.

So I combined the two challenges, which is about my maximum ability to combine when it comes to challenges, and made this CAS card:

Please enjoy ~ and thank you for stopping by! Special thanks to you if you took the time to leave me a comment!

Paper:  PTI white
Stamps:  Inkadinkado "Circle and Dots" (large circle)
  SU, unknown (small circle)
  SU, "Sweets for the Sweet" sentiment
Ink:  ColorBox Rouge; Marvy #9 Pink and #7 Orange;
  and SU Chocolate Chip

ColourQ #129

I adore the colors of this weeks ColourQ challenge!

 

I've both watercolored and used colored pencils on my iris.  I used my SU mat pack and did the piercing, did a simple layered layout (classic) and I have a spiffy spring card. 

 

Please enjoy ~ and thank you for stopping by! Special thanks to you if you took the time to leave me a comment!

Paper:  SU white, tempting turquoise, wisteria wonder,

  and watercolor paper

Stamp:  I've looked everywhere and I can't find it!  But

  I woke up with a chest cold and watery eyes, so it's

  probably right in front of me.  Sorry.

Ink:  Marvy markers, waterbrush, SU colored pencils

Accessories:  SU mat pack, Rich Razzleberry riboon 

WOYWW 146

Good Morning from California to all my fellow What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday participants.  Ms. Dunnit, hostess, says keep the post brief, not everyone reads it (both hands clasped to cheeks, mouth open in horror and disbelief!), and it's all about the gawping.  Rightly so.  Gawp away, late as it is for most of you!

Last night I got a head start on peeking in on a lot of you even though I waited until this morning to take my picture in the light.  I also did some watercoloring.  I'll be posting that card back there in a separate post in a minute.  Okay, talk you later, move along.

Please enjoy ~ and thank you for stopping by! Special thanks to you if you took the time to leave me a comment!

LIM Week 59 - Theme: "Masking" and (possibly?) OLW 83: "Inspiration"

Good Morning!

Welcome to Week 59 of Less Is More where this week the technique challenge is "masking."  This challenge has given me fits, but as of last night I'm happy to say there is no more masking melodrama at the Playhouse!  Phew!  This was really getting me down.  For me, masking is it's own form of terror, but making a one-layer card, to boot, is especially diabolic!  Finally, after several attempts, I found an image that made me happy to mask:

(Hmm, I see some wee booger is eating my pansies.)

I'm thinking that I could get by with entering the above card in the One Layer Wednesday Inspiration Challenge, too.  This week is an odd week (#83) hosted by Jennifer and Jennifer has given us a very broad range of inspirations:  "So, the challenge this week is to make a one-layer birthday card inspired by one, some, or all of the following:  Letters, a rainbow, a car, a blue square, a fan, a sweet message, a silly message.  Use your imagination and have some fun!"  I think my card could fit under "letters" or "a sweet message" (I mean, isn't it sweet not to count how many birthdays?) or "a silly message." 

And just because, below is one of my earlier attempts at masking.  I love this DSP from SU with the candies.  I fiddled around quite some time until I was happy with how I layered the image.  "Glad that's done," I said to myself, clapping gleely. 

(Gleely?  I call this TWO: Typing While Old.  Some new words that come out of the ends of my fingers I notice and like; others I dislike and correct or remove.  Sometimes they slip by me and are only enjoyed by readers.  If that happens, feel free to talk about me behind my back.  Just don't come around to my front and do it, thank you.)

About an hour later, while cleaning up the dinner dishes the Less Is More "OLC Rule" popped into my wee brain.  The OLC Rule is "One piece of card folded in half with no additional layers and minimal embellishments, where the image is stamped or printed directly onto the cardstock."  Oops.  But it's cute, nevertheless, and worthy of a blog mention and pic, doncha think?

Edit:  Thanks to Chrissie at LIM, I found out that I have misunderstood how LIM works in one large way.  On the sidebar of their blog there is a list of the monthly rotation schedule.  The glossary at the top of the first page is just general information.  This is the "when what" that you want to know about:

Challenge Monthly Rota

Week 1 Colour

Week 2 One Layer

Week 3 Theme

Week 4 Sketch or Recipe

Week 5 Lucky Dip

So, the below card is perfectly fine for this week's challenge.  Now I just have to go find out what the heck a "Lucky Dip" is ...

 

If you haven't played in either of these challenges before, you should click over and check them out.  They are really fun and always challenging.  Less Is More.  One Layer Wednesday Odd.  One Layer Wednesday Even.

Today I'd like you to join me in welcoming Lisa Brinker of "Paper Creations" as a follower; it is very much appreciated!

Please enjoy ~ and thank you for stopping by! Special thanks to you if you took the time to leave me a comment!

Who's Counting?
Paper:  PTI
Stamps: Sentiment: PTI Birthday Bash;
  Image: Stamps by Judith E-173-HK (Heather)
Ink:  SU Brilliant Blue; Marvy markers

Sweet Shop
Paper:  PTI; SU
Stamps:  SU Sweets for the Sweet
Ink:  Marvy markers, SU Always Artichoke