CASology 46, Pixie's 74, LIM 121 ~ Furry Humor

Hello Peoples!

And we're back around to Friday!  Whoosh!

I took a little break from posting yesterday after all the partaying that happened on Wednesday.  Then late in the day, I suddenly remembered some challenges I wanted to play in this week, one of which is closing in a matter of hours.  Eek.

Of all the challenges that the fab ladies, Chrissie and Jen (and formerly Mandy) over at Less Is More have put up since I started playing, this week was one I could NOT miss!

Quote:  As our sponsor this month is Acid Drops and Whatnots, we thought that our recipe this month should be 

Humour

Thank you, sweet ladies, for this super fun challenge recipe and your hilarious DT cards!

~~~

I had to also make a snippets entry for Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground!  Headmistress Di is off-campus, but she put up a note saying that she'll "be watching you!"  I'm so glad she'll be watching you, which frees me up for Miss Chief.

~~~

And how could I not find a way to mix snippets and humor with the current challenge at CASology where the cue card is:



A furry funny?  Here you go:

I took the opportunity to copper-emboss Leonard Lion, lesser brother to the renowned King of the Jungle, while he was stuck in the tree.  Like so many of us in our dot age, Lenny can't see naught without his spectators, not even trees! 

I hope you find it gigglesome.

New Inspirations!

As you may know, there has been an ongoing birthday party at the Playhouse for my friend, Ardyth, and over at WOYWW, I've joined in with other artists making and swapping Artist Trading Cards (ATCs).  These exciting events have brought a lot of visitors in and out and it is my pleasure to introduce you to some crafters who stayed to meet you!

Carole Waechtler of I'm Just Lovin' It!

Tara Cardwell of Craftilicious

Deepti Malik of Dee's Art Utopia

Janet van Rossen (blog?)

Janet Batten of Fairy Thoughts

Meredyth, sister of the famous Ardyth.  She can be found on Splitcoaststampers.  (If the link doesn't work, you can type "MeredythG" in the Gallery search box.)

Welcome, ladies, and thank you very much for the compliment you've paid me and for the inspiration that I, and my friends, will find on your sites!

Thank you!

Speaking of thank you, as my followers have surpassed 300, please allow me a minute to thank you ALL for joining and being so supportive of my little page in Blogland.  I'll be honest and tell you that when I first started surfing, my feet would get so cold.  Wait.  What?  I mean online surfing.  If I went to a blog that had over 200 followers or lots of comments, I rarely bothered to comment or join, thinking that person didn't need another follower or any words of support. 

Now that I'm one of "them," I realize how wrong that was of me.  Please don't think for one minute that I ever take a single one of you for granite when you follow or comment.  I'm just as excited to welcome these last six new friends as I was when I welcomed the first six, and I'll be just as excited when I welcome the next six hundred!  And I cherish every single comment.

My thank you also goes out to all my supporters who don't appear in the Followers box and who either support me through email subscriptions or via web surfing.  Many of you don't have blogs of your own and are "silent" friends.  Some of you may comment, but there is no return address for me to respond.*  I thank you, too, for your friendship and your support!

Please accept my bosomie grandmotherly hugs of heartfelt appreciation for each and every one of you!  Mwah!!

~~~

Okle-dokle, you can't sit around here all day.  Go out and enjoy it.  No, seriously, enjoy!  Life is too short, and if you don't think so, look at the calendar.  You blinked and tomorrow it will be June awready!

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 vintage cream and white; SU! DSP snippet

Stamps:  Art Impressions T01187

  Glasses:  Paper Smooches "Sunny Side Up"

Ink:  Versafine onyx black; SU! markers

Embossing powder:  Stampa Rosa Copper

Googlie Eyes from stash


*Gabby, please email me so I have your address to answer your question. For my email address, click on "view my complete profile" under the "About Me" in the upper right side bar.  That will take you to my profile page and you will see "Email" in the left column under the picture of the twins.  Thank you!

Happy Birthday, Ardyth!

Hi Everyone!

Some of you will remember that last January on my wedding anniversary, Ardyth Percy-Robb of Maskerade, surprised Mister and me by throwing us an anniversary party on her blog where everyone could link up anniversary cards for us.  It was wonderful!!  If you'd like to see it, please visit here.
 

I thought it would be too predictable if I were to return the flavor and throw Ardyth and Michael an anniversary party on their anniversary, so I am hoping instead to really surprise her today with a BIRTHDAY PARTY!

 

Ardyth started her blog just shortly after I started mine and we have been ardent supporters of each other from the first.  I admire her so much.  She has become well-known in our card-making community.  She has a very distinct and amazing card style showcasing her love of color and graphics and stained glass and oh, so many other wonderful characteristics.  When I issued the hush-hush invitation, I suggested that peeps CASE (copy and share everything) one of Ardyth's fabulous cards. 

 

For my card, I did not choose one specific card, but rather I chose to CASE Ardyth's love of rainbows and graphics/spirographs:

Although I have made a card in the past using the actual Spirograph art set from the molden days, for this card I simply used the circle stamp from a modern Avery Elle stamp set called Fanfare:

 

Using a rainbow of inks, I carefully stamped several circles to make a larger circle "flower" and then I used my Prismacolor pencils to color the image details.  I cut strips of paper in rainbow colors for a background mat, which I attached to a white card base.  The flower center is a silver sequin that I turned to gold with a gold marker, anchored with a gold brad.

Ardyth also loves sparkle and glitter, so I've added both to my card, which you might be able to better see here.  It is so hard to capture it in a photo. 

~~~

I have two online friends to thank for helping me launch this party:

 

I would like to thank Jackie Rockwell (Jackie Rockwell Designs) for riding in on her white horse and helping me get the InLinkz tool added at the last minute!  (Turns out I have technophobia and I couldn't encipher how to do it because InLinkz decided to change their interface and neglected to change their outerface instructions.)  I would also like to very much thank the sweet Geri Greening of Manitoba Stamper for helping me obtain email addresses and being a great cocoa spiriter!

 

If some of you did not receive the email invitation, please join in now by making Ardyth a birthday card and linking up below!  That way, Ardyth can have a collection of all of our cards in one spot!  I am keeping the collection open until June 15th, so that even more people can join in after the word gets out. 

 

Thank you to everyone who joins in the fun!  Happy Birthday, Ardyth, my friend, and many, many more!!

Life Is Too Short!

WOYWW4 (#208) - Happy Fourth Anniversary and ATC Swap

What a day for a party!

 

I'm joining other frolickers in a special celebration in honor of Ms. Julia Dunnit's FOURTH Anniversary hosting What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday (WOYWW).  Who would have thought that a silly notion to pop a linky tool on a post inviting crafters to show a picture of their workdesks for others to visit would take off like the rocket it has?  Well done, Julia!  Happy Anniversary and many, many more!!

For those that want to participate, this anniversary celebration includes an ATC swap.  ATC stands for "Artist Trading Card" and the size is 3.5" x 2.5".  Many of you make the most awe-mazing ATCs, I can't even believe it.  They are true works of art that should be domed under glass and put in art museums!  This is only my second time making an ATC.  My first was a year ago for the third anniversary WOYWW ATC swap. 

 

As you might know, I'm a CAS (clean and simple) kinda girl and ATCs are usually intricate, inky, and multi-layered art pieces.  But I'm also a "Hey, look, a party!" (HLAP) kinda girl and so I'm joining in. 

 

Here is my desk on a rare cloudy and muggy day the end of May:

I pinned my ATCs to a cardboard.  Here are the fronts . . .

 and here are the backs . . . 

 

They aren't very layered and inky, but they're "me."  The hardest part was coming up with a design idea, but once I spied a stamp from PTI ("Cupcakes and Sentiments") that has been sitting on my desk for ages, waiting to be shared, I thought, "Well, duh, of course!"  The stamp actually says, "Life is Too Short, Eat Dessert First."   I only used the first part because that has become the catch phrase for my blog, so it seemed perfect!

 

I started by making a template to be traced and cut from chipboard.  I drafted Mister for this job, which he kindly did for me one evening while watching the boob tube.  Me and my Arthur Istic middle finger on my cutting hand really appreciated his help!  I glued designer paper, my sediment, and wood veneer clocks to the chipboard; some were sponged with Distress Inks.  

 

Instead of hands on the clocks, I thought that butterflies or birds were just the thing to complete the theme.  I mean, another way of saying, "life is too short" is to say, "time flies," right?  I finished off the edges of each ATC with a piece of black shoe lace and signed the back.  And there you have it.  One of my ATCs will "wing" its way to the * under my name in the hop and the others will be posted as well.

Thank you to everyone who joins in the fun at WOYWW and takes the time to visit the Playhouse and comment!  If you stopped by, please let me know you were here so I can make sure and return the flavor.  I'm hoping to visit LOTS of you this week!

 

Mwah!  Oh, and Cheers!  The drinks trolley is heading your way!

 

Life Is Too Short!

Thank you, Nikki, for the fab "4" graphic!

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Holiday!

I'm late getting my Memorial Day card posted.  Even though the card took me about five minutes to make, I just didn't have time to get it posted before we went to the twinks' for lunch.  And what a delicious lunch it was!

I used the simple and simply great sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch (#29), designed by the fantastic Jackie Rockwell.

And perfect for the American Memorial Day celebration, I used the red, white, and blue colors from this week's CAS-ual Fridays (CFC 102) challenge.

Here is my card:

I'm sure there are lots of other stars and stripes cards entered in these sketches this week.  I simply used some Washi tape for the stripes on my card and stickers for the stars.  Shazambam! 

This stuff is brilliant and so much easier than making your own glitter strips, with the resultant glitter glimmer settling on everything.  Unless you like glitter in your vodka, then you should keep making your own stripes, of course.

~~~

On my last post, I received a lot of comments from friends wanting to see me in my motorcycle gear.  Careful what you ask for:

Are you gabberflasted?!  This was taken a few years ago, before my back decided to become a degenerate, severely so, which ended my days as a motorcycle mama.  I couldn't get a picture of Mister in the Playhouse getting inky, so you only got half of what you wanted, alas.

~~~

I, on the other hand, got all of what I wanted with this big smooch from Henry today!! 

I'll leave you to enjoy that happy bit of happy!  And I hope you are enjoying your holiday today, whether Memorial or Bank!

 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

Glitter tape:  American Crafts

Stars:  Mrs. Grossman

ABNH #24; CASOS #8; FMS #87 ~ I'm So Sorry

A roller-coaster Hello as Friday whooshes in!

 

My day started out quite lovely yesterday.  I made an absolutely delish appetizer for my ladies lunch today.  Here is a link to the recipe Artichoke and Bean Crostini, if you're interested.

 

Lunch was a hoot and the potluck menu divine.  Here's our happy little group. 

Except for one who is still working full-time, these are all ladies who retired from the firm where I still work on occasion.  Isn't it so fun that we worked together for 17 years and became and remain besties?  We get together four times a year.  One of the gals is a fellow card maker.

 

~~~

 

The Nest

 

When I got home, I went straight to check The Nest.  Mama Bird was perched on one of the chains.  I swear she look confused.  She was just there for a second and then flew away.  I took the opportunity to grab the camera and rushed outside while she was gone.  I climbed up and peeked in.  It was a horrible sight to see the nest was empty.  I mean empty as in clean as a whistle.

 

I'm not entirely Polly Anna (pretty close), but I was hopeful and excited.  Mister reminds me that their brains are wee and they'll quickly forget and make a new nest somewhere, but I still feel badly for poor Mama and Daddy Bird, who were being so attentive.

 

What is SO weird though is that there was otherwise not a hair out of place in the nest or with the basket or on the deck under the basket.  The dried moss in these hanging baskets sheds very easily.  I'm mystified as to how it was possible for another bird (squirrels are too big and clumsy) to do that kind of carnage and not leave a single fallen bit of moss or leaf?  We'll never know.

 

Now that's this has happened, I realize that I never should have shared The Nest with you until after it had ended happily.   Now we're all sad and I'm sorry to be the cause of that, but  I had to let you know, of course.  I appreciate the enthusiasm and interest you shared with me along the way.

 

~~~

 

So that you don't sign off with sadness, I made a card to share, which (besides for fun) is what we do to take our minds off stress or sadness, right?  Well, besides eating.  Oh, wait, that's a different blog!  I headed to the Playhouse, looked up some challenges that were still going on, and I made this:

 

Below is a close-up so that you can see the stunning glossy patterned paper panel.  The little birds, made from the Memory Box "Perched Reedbird" die, are also cut from shiny paper.  It's all from my stash so I don't know the manufacturers.  The sediment is SU!  I made their little bows out of dental floss.

 

 ~~~

 

I'm entering my card in the following challenges (with apologies to the challenge teams for the abbreviated links, but this is getting too long):

 

A Blog Named Hero ~ my first time here! ~ "Clean and Simple"

CAS on Sundays ~ "Pastel Pretties"

Freshly Made Sketches ~

 ~~~

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!

To Susan Goetter, With Sympathy

Hello my friends,

Sometime ago I wrote and shared with you that my sweet and talented blogging friend, Susan Goetter's beloved husband, Butch, was failing.  I learned from Susan's son, Michael, that after a long and difficult illness, Butch passed away on Wednesday, May 22, 2013.  Many of you also know Susan, so I wanted to let you know.  As Michael said in his email to me, "she needs her friends now more than ever." 

 

Please join me in keeping Susan and her family in your thoughts and prayers.  If you would like to email Susan, you can click on the above link to Susan's blog and then click on "Contact Me."  If you do not have Susan's address and you would like to make and send her a card, please contact me via my email (darnell dot knauss at gmail dot com) and I will be happy to email you her address. 

 

Here is the card I made for her.

 

~~~ ~~~

 

The Nest^, Day Three

I couldn't seem to get a picture of the babies when they weren't sleeping.

 

 I did, however, get a picture of Daddy Bird for you. 

He is the one on the right with reddish markings; she has none such.  Perhaps it is a modern interplumage relationship?  jk  I know those male birds get all the beauty.  I'm sorry I don't know prezactly what kind of birds they are.  They are very common little chirpy back yard birds, similar to wrens or sparrows.  If anyone knows, or if I find out, I'll let you know.  (I don't know why I said "back yard birds" just then.  I mean it's not like we have a no-fly zone for them in the front yard for goober's sake.)
 

~~~

Please 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:  Biggie, Jr. watercolor; Bazzill blue
Stamps:  Stamps Happen, Inc. #80042
  "Gather Friends Like Flowers; SU! sentiment
Ink:  SU! early espresso; Marvy markers, water brush

^I made a label "Nest" in the "labels" list on the right, in case you happen upon this blog somewhere along the line and want to see all the pictures in the series.

WOYWW #207 and a CASE of Fusion!

Hi! Hi! Hi!

We are one week short of the 4th anniversary of What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday (WOYWW), where there is going to be an ATC swap, if you'd like to participate.  X CITE TING!!  Our lovely hostess, Julia Dunnit, can  provide you with information about what WOYWW is and what an ATC is via the above WOYWW click.  I hope you can join in the fun!!

In the meantime, let's enjoy today for what today is, and today my desk is thus:

Another mess!  As you may have guessed, my personalty, Kay Os, has been using my desk lately.  Some of you wanted to see the stamps I was trying to hide last week because I told everyone I wasn't buying any new stamps until I've inked the ones I already own.  Kay, however, made no such promise, so she is proudly displaying her pelf for you to eyeball. 

Also, you can see two lovely cards which the postman brought me from my dear friends, Bonnie and Di!  The 7gypsies rubbings in the middle was bought with ATC ideas in mind.  Not my mind, mind you!  Those ideas are way outside my comfort zone, so I'll need to eVoke my personality, "Stea M. Punk" to help me use them, provided I get brave!  (She intimidates the crap out of me.)

First, though, not able to stand it a moment longer because I lost, of all things, a needle in that mess, I evocated Anita B. Clean to whip things back into shape.  Yum, now I can get it all messy again with a fresh project.  And I found the needle, phew!

You got to see two desks today on one stop!

~~~

Also on my desk is a card I made for a challenge which I'll talk about next, followed by The Nest update.  If you'd like to skip that part and move on with the WOYWW hop, I'd like to thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse!  I would appreciate it if you could page down to the comments below and let me know you were here, so I can return the flavor as I make my visits around the hop!  Have an Xcellent day!

Mwah!
Darnell

~~~ ~~~

The card that you see on my desk was made for the current Fusion Challenge:  Hypothesis #7 is:

I played with Lesley's Challenge photo by CASEing a member of her Design Team.  I usually try to use a sketch or a photo as a jumping-off point and then make a card that is my own.  This week, however, I was so enchanted by card artist Allyson Andersen's sensational card, here . . .

Allyson's card

 

that I had to try and recreate it, thus:

 

Thank you, Ally.  Making this CASE of your card was a fun Fusion challenge for me!

~~~

The Nest^, Day Two:

I thought you might like to see a picture of the hanging basket from a distance.  (First one in the line.)  That window is the twinks' room and looking out I can see Mama Bird, but not down inside the nest.

Here are the five babies 24 hours after yesterday's photo:

Only four hours after the above picture was taken, Mister came home and when we were peeking through the window, we saw this amazing sight:

You have GOT to be grinning right now!  Just LOOK at that punky little birdie hairdo!!

~~~

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 and kraft; DCWV DSP;

  SU! Always Artichoke; vellum

Stamp:  Technique Tuesday

Ink:  Versafine onyx black
Dies:  Memory Box "Prim Poppy" and
  "Norrland Flower;"
  Spellbinders "Blossom Two"
Pearls:  Stampin' Up!
Brads and pearls from stash
Corner Chomper

^I made a label "Nest" in the "labels" list on the right, in case you happen upon this blog somewhere along the line and want to see all the pictures in the series.

New Challenges Week Continues (MM), plus LIM

I hope you have a t'riffic Tuesday!

 

I don't know what's happening.  Maybe it's a sort of Stamping Spring Awakening, but this is my third day in a row playing in a brand new challenge!

 

Today's new challenge is Merry Monday, hosted by the untiring and supremely talented Lesley Croghan.  I made a promise to myself on January first to play in this challenge every single week in 2013.  Now that June is barreling down on me, I thought maybe I've been a liar long enough so I'm finally playing along with the sketch, which is:

 

What a great sketch for any card occasion!  Truthfully, it's hard to spend too much time with "nojo" if you are a blogger and/or visit other card-making blogs because there is no end of fantastic sketches drawn by card artists for all of us, for free.  The same goes with the color, theme, and photo inspiration challenges.  Maybe we should declare a world day of thanks for all that generosity.  Mwah!

 

Anyhizzle, that's the sketch Lesley made for this week.  For my theme . . .  well, obviously, my theme is Christmas.  Um, okay then, for my complementary theme, I am playing with the fun challenge hosted by the lovelies, Chrissie and Jen, over at Less Is More.  The ladies would like us to make cards with dogs and/or cats:

 

If you're like me, you're gonna sit there staring at that picture on your monitor for a few minutes with an expression on your face an awful lot like that dog's.  Your head is cocked a little and you're thinking, "Aaaawwww!"  How you do that thing with your ears though is amazing.  I can't do that part.

 

Whenever you're ready.  Okay. 

 

Here's what I made:

 

 

The critters are two different stamps, but I stamped them next to each other.  I did that because, I'm not kidding, I thought the critter in the Santa hat was a cat until I started coloring that very long ear.  Ern?  I personally think it's a cat in a bunny costume and I'm sticking with that story.

 

~~~

 

The Nest, Day One:

 

In other exciting news, there has been a development in The Nest!  I got curious when I saw Mama and another bird (Papa?) perched on the chains, looking down, and chirping up a storm, so I inspectigated.

 

You'll have to just ignore the poor shape the plant is in.  I decided I would give it up for the cause rather than disturb The Nest.  Keep your fingers crossed, pahleze, and I will keep you pahosted!

~~~

As you know, there's tons of room in the Playhouse and I love meeting new friends and introducing them to you!  Today I'm so delighted to announce that Susan Joyce of Cat's Ink Corporated has joined us!  You will find years' worth of amazing inspiration when you visit her website, so please take some time for that.  Thank you, Susan, and welcome! 

~~~

Enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy.  LITS*!   My heart and prayers go out to the families whose lives have been completely devastated by the tornado in Oklahoma.  Life and nature remind us again that each and every day is precious and those days can be unbearably few.

 

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 Hawaiian Shore and white;

  SU! Real Red

Stamps:  SU! critters and Paper Smooches

  "Santa Paws" sediment

Ink:  Versafine onyx black; Prismacolor pencils;
  Sakura Gelly Roll clear star pen

Dies:  Spellbinders Circle and Scallop Circle;

  My Favorite Things Fishtail Banners

My Mind's Eye Enamel Dots