A Tisket, A Tasket, a Lovely Pixie Basket

Happy Easter!

 

I've used snippets in my basket, so I'm off to show it off in my brand new frock and knickers at Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground!  I understand there are fluffy sheep for petting and for the wee ones to ride!  And lots of bunnies, too, I hope ~ the chocolate kind!

 

~~~

 

Enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy.  LITS*!  Thank you so much for following my little blog, for your friendship, and for your words of encouragement!

Mwah!!
 
*Life Is Too Short!


Paper:  PTI white; SU! DSP
Stamps:  Mostly Animals: "Karen's Basket"
  (839-S9); "Assorted Easter Eggs" (1213-A3)
Ink:  Marvy markers
Die:  PTI "Scrambled Eggs"
Egg Dimensionals, Jolee's Boutique
Corner Chomper

aMUSEing Ardyth; ColourQ #182 ~ Reminders re Ugliest and Fusionest!

I think I missed a whoosh in there and that will never do!!  Whoosh it's Saturday!

As the craft wheel turns ~
 

I made a card for week number 10 of the fantastic MUSE challenge, just in the nick of time.  I think I've only missed one while I was out of town and since this week the MUSE is a very good friend of mine, I had to play along!  Our MUSE is one of the Queens of the Clean and Simple (CAS) card:  Ardyth of MASKerade.  Here is Ardyth's inspirational card:

 

 

It is, of course, the epitome of a bright and brilliant "Ardyth card."  How wonderful to be reowned like that!  Wait.  What?  Not reowned, definitely renowned! 

 

MUSE is the brainchild of the uber talented designer, Jackie Rockwell, the Design Team ladies are awesome card artists, and you folks enter stunning cards!  This week was no exception and as time was running out, my head was spinning.

 

I saw this really fun idea over at Pinterest all about making circles with the ends of paper towel or t.p. tubes.  Then I realized I didn't have any empties ~ when you don't want one, they're all empty! 

So I wondered, as I was fixing dinner last night, what could I use instead that would be fun and different?  How about one of the potatoes I was about to peel?  Do you member doing that in Arts and Crafts?  Or was that only at my Camp for Wayward Children?  And what kinda word is "wayward," anyway?  Nevermind.  Not now.  Move along.

 

Very well, then, potato stamping, but what inks shall I use?  Well, why not the excellent colors on the inspiration board over at ColourQ #182?  Why not indeed.  Here they are:
 

So I took my potato and I inked and stamped, like so:

 

 

 

(Parenpathetically, I have to confess that was a little bit hard for me to do because I'm sorta known in the family as Mrs. Potato Head because there are few no foods I like better than potatoes.  I grim aced and stamped with it, but don't think right afterwards I didn't cut off the inked part and eat the rest!)

~~~

After trimming my Designer Potato-Patterned Paper, I put together this card: 

 

I hope you like it, Ardyth!  It was a fun card to make!

~~~

Reminders:

 

I know it's Easter and Passover and all, but please allow me a minute to remind you about two quickly-upcoming dealie-bobbers of fun:

 

1.  April 1st ~ April Fool's Day:

 

Suzanne Dahlberg, of the card yard is hosting the Ugliest Card Ever Blog Hop on her blog to celebrate all our crafty regrets from prior work. Please click over to Suzanne's blog to read more details and I hope you will be able to join in the hop.  You don't have to write a whole new post, just link up an old post to your ugliest card.  It'll be a hoot, nanny!

 

2.  April 5th ~ Fusion Card Challenge:

 

The mentioned afore Jackie Rockwell has dreamed up another dynamite challenge for all of us that is premiering on Friday the 5th.  This sounds like a ton of fun and she, along with the sensational Lesley of Always Playing With Paper, have gathered Design Teams of some really genius card artists!  Please click over to Jackie's blog for all the details and do join in!

 

~~~

Okay, bye, bye, enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy!  LITS*!  

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

*Life Is Too Short!

Paper:  PTI white; SU! pool party
Stamps:  Mrs. Grossman's sticker
Ink:  SU! pool party, wisteria wonder,
  and always artichoke
Brads from stash

 

It's a Good Friday

Wishing you all the best!

I've had some time to get back to watching the videos from the online card class on working with patterned paper.  I'll be showing you my homework in the next few days as I catch up. 

I shied away from patterned paper for so many years, simply making my own with my stamps.  Then one day I had a coupon for glue, but I saw a squirrel over by the patterned paper stacks.  The next thing I knew I had so many 12x12 stacks of patterned paper, I had to order prackly an entire wall's worth of storage racks.  Eye Yie Eye.

So this class came along at the perfect time to help me keep my resolution to use my crap craft supplies this year. 

This is my second card from the class.  I made it after watching Kristina Werner's excellent video on using large or bold patterns on a card by cutting and spacing the pattern on your card front.  Thus:

I thought it was a lovely Spring card for you, especially those of you having a white Easter!  I'm pretty sure when Aloysius had that fight with Julian and went off and made up his own Gregorian calendar, trust me, he was visualizing white lilies this time of year, not white snow banks!

~~~

I am delighted to have you take a moment from making your matzoh balls or coloring your eggs to let me introduce our new friend Asha Martins of Sunny Summer Crafts.  Asha is a talented lady with years of inspiration available to you, just a click away!  Thank you, Asha, and welcome!!

~~~

The twins had me get down the baskets of marbles last weekend so they could play with them.  When I climbed up on a chair to get them down from way up on top of the hutch, I was awarded with an awemazing display of dust bunnies and spidey webbies.  It was pretty impressive, I'm not gonna lie.

Since they were disturbed, I went ahead and cleaned them all off and gave the marbles a bath in the sink.  In doing so, I created a museum piece on accident. 

Pretty cool wall hanging, huh?

And yes, that explains where my marbles are!

~~~

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

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

*Life Is Too Short!

Paper:  Either K&Co or DCWV;
  PTI white
Stamps:  SU! "Ciao, Baby!" /
  matching SU! punch
Ink:  Memento tuxedo black
Embellies:  K&Co

Bloglovin Confusion?! CFC95 ~ No Stamps II; LIM112 ~ Beads; CASology 37 ~ Hope

Happy Happy Thursday!!

Before I get into my card for today, I wanted to comment about all the blog chatter having to do with the demise of Google Reader, the push towards "Bloglovin," and the rising panic I'm sensing from blogs about losing followers. 

If I understand it correctly, the impact of the shutdown of Google Reader in a few months has to do with how you read blogs.  You will need a new way to read blogs, but it has nothing to do with losing followers.  If you use Blogger to read blogs, you don't need to do anything.  You don't need to put a Bloglovin button on your site for followers unless you want to freely advertise them as a new reader for people to use.  Feedly and others are also available.  You don't need to encourage everyone to switch over to any particular one just so you don't lose them as followers.

For detailed information and advice, I turned to my friend Kim S. over at Joyful Creations With Kim.  She has written an excellent post, entitled "Google Reader? Followers? Bloglovin? Confused??" which explains it all very well.  I urge everyone to click over and read what she has written and, of course, if I have misunderstood, or you have further clarifying information, please let me know.

 

~~~ Back to our regularly scheduled programming ~~~

I made a card to play in some of my faveright challenges.  The first is Less Is More hosted by the famous Chrissie and Jen.  This is week 112, it's a Recipe week, and the recipe is to use "beads."

 

I used beads on my card and since I also used no stamps, I'm entering a second time (in the last hours) in this week's fun "no stamps" challenge (week 95) at CAS-ual Fridays.

Here is my simple card:

The beads have been in a little baggie in my embellies stash for ages and ages, nicked off a store-bought card.  The paper is Bazzill.  The feather is from another container with other found feathers.  It is so strikingly white, I think it looks like it came from an angel's wings.

And even though it doesn't have a sentiment, because I think my feather looks like it came from an angel's wings, I think it is representative of "hope," so I am entering my card into this week's CASology challenge where that is the cue card word.

I keep a folder of inspirational quotes, but it wasn't until I went to bed last night that I remembered them.  Then when I got up this morning, my friend, Bonnie of Stamping with Klass had beat me to it, leaving this beautiful appropriate quote in her comment:

"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all-"

by Emily Dickinson
Thank you, Bonnie!

~~~

Speaking of feathers, I thought you might like to see this old hummingbird nest I found in the yard yesterday at the foot of a small crepe myrtle tree.  I think it's a hummingbird's nest, but it might be a wee finch's nest.  I'm no ornery thologist. 

 

~~~

It was an interesting day for finding things down low and up high, cousin I looked up, I saw this:

I think the pilots were having a little Spring fever!  Or King of the Hill!  Or Chicken, Chicken!  Yikes!

~~~

Enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy!  Look high and low!  LITS*! 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

 

*Life Is Too Short!

 

WOYWW #199 ~ All About Baskets

Hi Every Body!

It's time for Julia Dunnit's What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday (WOYWW)!  Please click over and see Julia for the details and join in the fun!  (Julia, this is r.e.a.l.l.y. long, even for me, but I've sectioned it so folks can hop off along the way.)

 

Today my desk is folded in two.  I mean twofold.

 

First, I want to wish all of you a Happy Easter, or a Happy Passover, or a Happy Regular Ol' Sunday, doing whatever makes you happy!

 

Second, this week I continued messing around with some chevron die strips, so after the desk view, there is a chevron "basket weave" tutorial.  On my desk you can see a card with an eggy-headed bunny peeking over a 'chevron fence,' and a card with a 'chevron basket' full of sequined eggs. 

 

 

 I think I've got you all covered with my weekend wishes!

 

~~~

 

If you need to make like an Easter bunny and hop along, I understand.  Thanks for stopping!  I hope you'll take a mo to wheel down to the comment section and let me know you came by so I can return the flavor!  Happy WOYWW and enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy your day.  LITS*!

 

~~~

 

Chevron Basket Weave Tutorial

 

I posted this Easter card a couple of days ago and many peeps thought that I wove the chevrons in the basket, or that I otherwise put a lot of time and effort into making it, or  just plain wondered how I did it.
 

 

I've made some photo collages to show you what I did, since I don't have a video set-up in the Playhouse.  I don't have a video setup in the Playhouse because I know me.  I would sit there all day eMoting and not getting any cards made.  I weighed out whether I wanted 15 minutes of fame from a resulting viral YouTube video, or simple bliss puttering around making cards.  Making cards won so you will have to employ your own imagination to add action, drama, foreign subtittles, and musical orations!  Here you go:

 

 

Toilet paper?!  Oh, my, no.  The secret of making anything of this sort is to have largish sheets of sticky-backed paper.  You can use large shipping labels, or whole single sheets (lots of stamping websites have them), or fly-paper, or a 4.5 inch roll like I have here. 

 

My roll was purchased on accident.  I heard about these tapes from the "Online Card Class 2" that I took a few months ago and I placed an order with Ellen Hutson LLC.  I don't have excellent spatial and mathematical skills, as you know, and I thought I was getting an assortment of tape sizes, so when this big ol' hunkahunka sticky tape arrived, I went "What in the name of Sam Hill is this mahoosive roll of mahoosiveness?"  But, hey, my fault for doodling instead of paying attention during the measurements class in grade school.  This sucker will last me my lifetime and yours, but it was just the ticket when I wanted to mess around with my chevron strips!

I love how life always works out.

 

So you start with a piece of sticky paper and you make some cutout chevron strips with whatever die or skizzors process you use.

 

 

Then you just start laying your strips on the sticky piece.  I didn't pay attention to my color arrangement for this, so ignore that.  Unless you really like it, then you can comment, "Wow, I really like the color arrangement you used!" 

 

Next you just line up the mountain of one row with the valley of the other for as many rows as you want.

 

 

When you're done with your rows, you have to trim the sides and "finish off" the top and bottom of your faux weave.  For this tute, I just used a "mountain" snippet piece for both, which I then trimmed.

 

 

Now you have your completed "basket" or other shape you've made.  If you want to make a "fence," you just use a larger offset between the pieces.  Play around and have fun!  (Messing with them reminded me of the folded-over gum wrapper chains we made as kids.  Anyone?)

 

~~~

 

What you'll notice next is that you can see and touch the adhesive in the small spaces left in the intersections of your design.  You could leave it like that and hope your cat doesn't decide to hop up on your desk and lay down on it, like I know a lot of your cats are wanton to do!

 

 

Or you could do what I did and use a small hole punch to punch out a few holes and use a pair of tweezers to pop them into the sticky bits.  This turned out to be a, "Well, wudja lookee there!" fantastic design feature.  When stuff like that happens, you pretend you meant for it to happen all along.

And that's it.  It doesn't take hours; in fact, it might be quicker than a card that needs a lot of coloring or fussy-cutting.  Let me know if you have any questions or if I wasn't clear. 

~~~

Speaking of baskets, this is very last minute, but I just saw this incredible Easter basket made by my friend Vicky (emphasis: not made by me):

Isn't that so sweet?!  For easy-to-follow directions on how to make this basket, visit Vicky's site:  Crafting Clare's Paper Moments!

 

Mwah!

*Life Is Too Short!

(And thank you "cm!"  You made my day!!)

 

 

CFC95 ~ No Stamps; ATCAS9 and PBSMC ~ Spring

How're you doing this fine Tuesday?  For those of you still stuck in the rut of winter snow, sleet, and miserable snit on the sides of the roads, I send you a cyber sunray hug!

 

I'm here with a card I made for this week's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge (CFC95) of "no stamps."

The sponsor this week is the super duper SRM Stickers!

I am also joining in the evermore popular Addicted to CAS Challenge.  The very talented Harriet Skelly of Ally Cat Cards chose the cue word of "Spring."  ATCAS is sponsored this week by Clearly Besotted Stamps.

 

And here is my card:

And here is a picture of the three simple ingredients I used on my card:

 

 

The stickers are by Penny Black, "Wherever They Grow!" #10-183.  The clips are from unknown.  The ribbon is SU! Pink Pirouette #129294.

 

Now you might think, "How rude!  Why would she enter a card she made using Penny Black stickers in a challenge being sponsored by SRM stickers?!"

 

Well, you guessed it.  I don't have any SRM stickers.  I have Penny Black stickers and I'm trying to "shop my stash" this year and not keep piling on.  The inspiration (I hope) is still the same for you.  You can see how beautifully you can make a card using nothing but a sensational sticker and a ribbon.  Or, even, just a sticker.  And that will make you want to go over to SRM and check out their stickers!  That's how the hamster cage in my head rolls anyway.

 

Or, you might want to check out SRM Stickers AND Penny Black stickers because, having said that, it would be silly of me not to also enter my card into the Penny Black Saturday March Challenge where the theme is "Spring into Spring!"  This challenge is being sponsored by 1-2-3 Stitch, The Ribbon Girl, and J & C Creations!

 

So, my friends, there is so much inspiration in these challenge links and so many wonderful online shopping opportunities for you to check out.  I hope you will get the chance to do that and to join in these fantastic challenges!

 

~~~

 

On a side note, there was keen interest in how I made my little chevron basket yesterday, so I hope to make a photo tute this afternoon for you and amend that post.

 

~~~ 

 

But first I have to go to the dentist.  I like to think of my mouth as an upscale mini jewelry store with veneer walls, shiny white chandeliers, and tray after tray of silver and gold inlays.  The store will be closed for an hour while the cleaners come in to give the place its semi-annual spray wash and polish.  Feel free to talk amongst yourselves during this rare time of complete silence on my part.

 

I'll just ignore all that jumping up and down and clapping I hear there in the back of the room!  If I had long hair, I'd flip it with my hand and toss it over my shoulder hmmff style.  Since I don't, I'm doing an air toss instead of a hair toss.  It reads the same and it drives the young'uns bonkerz.

 

~~~

 

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

 

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

 

*Life Is Too Short!

 

Papertrey March Blog Hop Challenge ~ Sequins Pixie's Crafty Snippets; Last Moxie Fab Chevron

Happy Monday!

Happy March Papertrey Ink (PTI) Blog HoP!

For this monthly all-day challenge using PTI products, our inspiration challenge is sequins.

PHOTO CREDITS- Betsy Veldman wreath ::: Heather Nichols hello ::: Maile Belles banners ::: 

green sequin tins ::: Nichole Heady star shaker :::  sequined tote :::  sparkle confetti bag ::: turquoise sequin stars :::

 

Nichole:  "Sequins are popping up everywhere on paper crafting projects and now's your chance to try out this new trend!  With the variety of colors and shapes available, the sky is the limit with the creative possibilities!  Use them to accent the centers of flowers, add them as borders, fill shakers, or create random splashes of sparkle."

 

I made you this Easter basket:

 

 

For my card, still playing with the last of my initial die cut chevron snippets strips, I nestled them into a faux basket weave pattern.  In the spot between the points, I glued a tiny paper dot punched from a snippet of Bazzill gray paper. 

The last in my chevron series, it seems fitting that I add this to the fabtastical Moxie Fab World: The Chevron Challenge.  Cath has so many awesome challenges on the site right now, some of them closing on 04/01/13, so hurry over and join in!

 

If you're a regular reader, you'll know that the use of the word "snippets" means I'm also joining in with Di and the other crafty crafters at Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground.  This is week 65 and I do hope you can join in!!

 

 

To fill my basket for Easter, I used the PTI "Scrambled Eggs" die and stamp set to make my eggs, which are cut from a shiney scrap of lightly metallic paper, then stamped with color.  They are shimmier and prettier in real life.  I finished them off with sequins I've had in a little container for several years.  They were so happy to be used on a card!

 

 

~~~

 

And I am so happy to see that we have new friends!  Please take a few minutes to go and introduce yourselves to Cyndie Reis of Reis's Pieces of Paper and Maarit N. Persson of Violet's Corner!  It's always delightful to meet new friends and have new inspiration available to us on the tips of our fingers and eyes.  Thank you so much, ladies, and welcome!!

 

~~~

 

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

 

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

 

*Life Is Too Short!

 

Paper:  PTI white; SU! DP;
  Bazzill gray; unknown shimmer

Stamps:  PTI "Scramble Eggs"

Ink:  SU! rose red

Dies:  MFT chevron; PTI egg

Sequins from stash

 

 

 

OLW 132 ~ Inspired by Tissues

Happy Funday!

There is a challenge that holds a special place in my heart because it was one of the first ones I ever linked to back in December 2011.  It's "One Layer Wednesday" (OLW) with several outstanding hostesses who rotate the weekly challenges.  I've missed a few lately, so I was happy to be able to knock out a card to play with this week's hostess, the incredible Heather Telford of bits and pieces. 

Heather's theme this week is "Inspired by Packaging."  On Friday before we headed over to the twins, I looked around the Playhouse, just for fun on the off-chance I would see something ~ scanning with my eyes like Mrs. Marple at a crime scene ~ that would spark an idea.

It didn't take long to spot the box of Kleenex in a rockin' design and some of my favorite colors.  So, last night back at home, I gathered up my own "bits and pieces" and set to work

to create this quick CAS OLC (one-layer card):

That was fun!  Thanks, Heather!  You should check out One Layer Wednesday, if you don't already and I think a lot of you don't already.  I know there are lots of you who are one-layer proficient because I see your cards over at Less Is More, so I hope you will join OLW, too!!

~~~

We had a great time at the twins' game and they both got hits on a sunny spring day! 

~~

Later, after eight attempts, I managed to get one great updated picture of the twins for my avatar, since the one I use now is over a year old.  Now I just have to figure out how to edit my avatar to drop in the new photo.

~~~

And finally, here is a picture of the repurposed fireplace at the twins' home.  Lovely, isn't it?

Let's take a closer look at the new purpose!

Why, it's a little cozy dog cave for the granddog, Duke!  He loves it in there, snug as a bug! 

~~~

Off to play.  I hope you are having as funna weekend as we are!  Enjoy!  No, seriously, enjoy!  LITS*!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse.  Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

*Life Is Too Short!

Paper:  Michael's sale bin;
Stamps:  SU!
Ink/Markers:  SU!; Signo white
Corner Chomper