Happy Thanksgiving All! ~ ATSM#73; NBUS#75; WOYWW#234

Hello Everyone!

I'm joining in with this week's What's On Your Workdesk (WOYWW)where crafters from all over the world post photos of their desks and talk about what's goin' on in their little corner of the world.  If you would like more information, the link will take you to the headquarters, operated superbly by the lovely Julia.  Julia has tabs on her site with all the details for you.

 

Here is my happy desk, where I've just finished off the last of the Thanksgiving cards for this year:

Of special note is the display sill.   Today's remarkable creations were made and sent to me by desker Claire of Ham 'n' Mule Designs.  Claire recently turned 40 and in celebration she made 40 cards for 40 WOYWWers and I was fortunate enough to receive TWO of them!!  Plus another card with a note!  How glorious is that?!  Thank you again, Claire!

~~~

In preparing for Thanksgiving, I even made a card for all of you!  I'm so lucky to have made many wonderful friends via this crazy WOYWW and via my other wanderings around the webbing. 

 

As it happens, my Thanksgiving thank you card is perfect for the brand new "Holidays" challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More, although it might stand out like a sore thumb amidst all the stunning Christmas cards!

Here tis:

I love how the piece of burlap goes so well with the NBUS patterned paper.  I actually forgot I bought that pad of Fall paper from PTI during the summer and since I was lucky enough to stumble across it yesterday, I HAD to make a card with it before we rush headlong into Christmas! 

 

~~~

 

I hope I'll be forgiven for posting this on Tuesday night.  Julia reminded us recently that we are not supposed to link before Wednesday, which makes sense because, after all, it's called What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday.  Unfortunately, with the time differences, I'm asleep while most of you are desk hopping and vice versa, so by the time I can physically add my link when I get up on Wednesday morning, a lot of you are done hopping for the week.  It's just the way of the world, something to do with moons and revolutions, and possibly even someone named Greenwich.  Well, this week I'm going rogue so all my awesome WOYWW friends can join my non-WOYWW friends and see my card and read my message of gratitude:

 

Thanksgiving is overshadowed by Halloween on one side and Christmas on the other, but on this one day we pause to reflect and be grateful for the people and things that we often take for granite throughout the year.  It's an opportunity for me to thank you again for following my little blog and leaving your wonderful comments, both of which bring me great joy and encourage me to keep it up!  You are really fantastic, my friends, and I'm very grateful for each of you!

 

~~~

 

Enjoy the next few days!  We've got visiting family and friends and dogs all gathering together for a huge feast and festivities and then, yippie, we have the grandtwins staying over for the weekend!  So, unless there is an unexpected lull in the action, I won't see you until next month!!  I promise I'll be way fatter.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!  Mwah!!



  

 

*Life Is Too Short! 

Papertrey November Blog Hop Challenge - A Model Playhouse!

Hello, Monday!

Ah, the start of a fresh new week, a week for us in the States that includes Thanksgiving, so I will keep this short and sweet.  Bye.

Ha. Ha.  Not so fast.

 

Today is the 25th and that means it's time for this month's Papertrey Ink {capture the moment} challenge.  Here is the precious and breathtaking inspiration board:

When I first saw the challenge for this month, I wasn't going to play, considering I don't have little Christmas villages, or a lot of extra time to start one.  But curiosity took over and just for fun I printed out the template and folded it together. 

And suddenly it hit me like a ton of bricks.  How could I not play?  After all, to my mind, the little template was not a Paper House, it was my Play House!!

 

See:

I added the evergreens and the wreath, but that's it because where I live in California we rarely have icicles dripping from the roof line or snow on the ground.  Where Christmas really happens at the Playhouse is on the inside!  Inside it looks like Santa's printing company, oozing with Christmas papers and ribbons and glitter and gloss! 

I'm glad I'm a curious person ... I see you nodding your head!  Okay, ahem, let me rephrase that.  I'm glad I'm a person with curiosity, coz this ended up being a fun challenge!!  I can't wait to see your charming creations!

~~~

Oh, hold up a sec.  I thought you might like to see how my day started today.  We have our microwave above the stove.  I enjoy a lovely bowl of oatmeal with blueberries every morning, cook one minute, stir, cook another minute.  Apparently, I've shrunk again, because this morning as I was taking the bowl down after one minute, I clipped the rim and had an oops.  Yes, sir, it's all glitz and glamor up in the Big House!

Oh. Well.  The rest of the day was bonny!

~~~

 

Enjoy the hop and enjoy your bonny 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 leave a comment and/or join as a follower!  Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor! 

Unbedecked

  

 

*Life Is Too Short! 

 Paper:  PTI white (roof)

Birthday! Birthday! NBUS #74; PSP #100

Hello!  How's your Sunday?

I have two bloggie friends with birthdays today!  And if it's a special day for you, too, yippee and applause!!  I hope you celebrate in style!!

One of the birthday girls has a hop in full swing with links below!  She is none other than the fabulous Jeanne of A Kept Life.  (Isn't that a great blog handle?)  Jeanne's so nice and so incredibly talented!  If you haven't befriended her yet, you are in for a treat!!

 

I've heard tell that Jeanne loves red and purple and ribbon.  I made my card for her using red and ribbon, so I'm two for three. 

I used my pretty ribbon very CASly, not even attempting to do fancy bows and ribbon creations which Jeanne does so expertly.  My ribbon is one of those no-name brands you find in the big bins at a craft store.  The sediment is SU! and the NBUS cherries are from the PTI Scentimentals set.

 

The ribbon has gold threads running through it and I shimmered up the cherries with some Glossy Accents. 

Heavy sigh. 

As I sit here typing this, looking at my card on the monitor, I spotted that I made a huge booble on this card.  Do you see it?  So often these patterned ribbons have no up or down.  When I made it, I thought the fruits were tumbling around, you know, some upside down, some downside up. 

Um, no.  That would be wrong.  Now, when it's too late to do anything about it because my card is winging it's way from my house to Jeanne's, I see that the fruits on this ribbon are not tumbling, they are just raining down . . . and I've got them defying gravity and raining up!  Sorry, Jeanne.  Instead of an upside down cake for your birthday, you got yourself an upside down ribbon card!  (Ya gotta love me.)

Well, now, hold the phone.  Aren't most of you into yoga?  Don't you stand on your heads for that?  Your welcome.  Oh, wait.  Then the cherries would be upside down.  Ah, darn it.

Here are the links to Jeanne's other friends who made her beautiful cards today and who are a great source of card inspiration you won't want to miss!  These ladies put their ribbons right-side up on their cards! 

 

Cathy
Christina
Jill

Joyce (CPO - Chief Party Organizer)

Kara

Kim

Marybeth

Tracey

Vickie
and Jeanne, don't forget the honoree!

~~~

Today is also the birthday of another bloggie friend of mine, Harriet of Ally Cat Cards.  Some of you may remember that I sent Harriet her birthday card back in September.  It cornfused her, seeing as how it wasn't her birthday, it was her anniversary.  (Ya gotta love me.) 

Well, you know what's coming, right?  For her birthday today, I had to make her this card:

It pickled me and I think she will be pickled, too, expecting to see a birthday card.  Then again, Harriet knows me pretty well by now, so she's prolly expecting an anniversary card!  That beautiful sunflower background is from a piece of designer paper by the artist Tim Coffey.  It deserved to be the star of the card.

~~~

I used a snippet of the green on this card, so I'm heading over to join my friends at Pixie's Snippets Playground.  This week is the 100th challenge led by our well-loved headmistress, Di!  It's a lot of work, and we appreciate her very much!  Well done, Di!  If you use snippets (scraps) on your card, come on over and join in the fun!

~~~

Stopping in to meet you today are two new friends!  Please welcome:

On the left is a photo of Pia of Pia's Papir og Perler.  Pia has been blogging her outstanding cards since February 2012 and she has lots of wonderful creations for you to see!

Also joining us is Michelle Zerull of Pinch Your Chic, (love that!) whose photo is on the right.  Michelle has been blogging her fantastic card art since 2011 and she is on the Design Team for Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. 

Enjoy your visits to these two outstanding blogs while you relish the loads of card inspiration you will find! 

Welcome, ladies, and thank you so much for joining the fun over here!!

~~~

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 leave a comment and/or join as a follower!  Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor! 

  

 

*Life Is Too Short! 

Jeanne's card:
Paper:  PTI white, SU! cherry cobbler
Stamps:  SU! and PTI "Scentimentals"
Ink:  SU! cherry cobbler, pear pizzazz
Ribbon:  Richard's sale bin
Corner Chomper; Glossy Accents

Harriet's card:
Paper:  SU! pistachio pudding; K&Company
Stamps:  PTI "Think Big Favorites"
Ink:  SU! baked brown sugar
Pearl embellie:  stash
Corner Chomper

Bell Radar ~ CASology #71; CASOS #21; NBUS #73

Hey there!

We've almost whooshed around to another Friday, folks!

This will prolly not come as a shock to you since you know how much I love words.  I LOVE the word challenges.  Don't get me wrong, I also love the color and sketch challenges, but there is something especially intriguing to me about being given one or two abstract words and building a card from that.  It no doubt stems from being an avid crossword puzzle solver since I can remember.  Hmmm, I should stop saying it like that since nowadays my memory only stretches back to a week ago last Tuesday.

So.  There I was, intending to continue with the holiday cards, and actually signing Thanksgiving cards to send out when the current challenge at CASology started getting the hamster all becited.  This week the word is "bell." 

Now it's a brilliant choice of word for this time of year because of jingle bells and Christmas bells and holly bells.  Wait.  Are there holly bells?  Well, there should be if there aren't.  And what about hell's bells?  Who has heard that expression?  As in "well, hell's bells, I didn't know she was that pigheaded."  What would they look like?  Anybody? 

But, I, um, mooved in a different direction.

See, I have this ancient stamp from an OOB stamp company of the head of a cow, rocking out to the moosic in his headphones.  It's too funny and looks like this:

So, where's the bell?  Is it Clara Bell, a common name for a cow where I come from?  Nope.  The bell comes from the cow bell I made for it, thus:

 

Here is a close-up:

I have to admit this card karacks me up.  What a great card for a guy.  For those of you that are city folk, cows do often wear cow bells just like that so the farmer can find them easierly if they get lost down in a creek ravine, or in fog or bad weather.  However, normal cows don't wear bling'd up cow bells.  Then again, most cows don't rock out to moosic on their headsets!

 

To make my cow's bell, I cut itty bitty pieces of my sparkly black and silver Washi tape.  Gosh, it's going to be hard to use this stamp in the future without a making a cowbell for it!  The sediment is NBUS and is from Simon Says Stamp.

~~~

It turns out that my cow card qualifies for another fun challenge I really like, CAS on Sunday, where they want "One Layer 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 leave a comment and/or join as a follower!  Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor! 

  

 

*Life Is Too Short! 

 

Paper:  PTI white

Stamps:  MA "Moo-sic Lover" (OOB);

    SSS "Conversations and Banners"

Ink:  Versafine onyx black

Washi tape:  Freckled Fawn

O' Christmas Tree ~ CHNCE; LIM #146; MM #84; SSS Monday

Hello All!

I'm sorry I've been quiet for a few days.  I've had a bit of an under-the-weather congestion situation and a thumb injury, all quite minor, but it seems to have brought on a case of Nojo.  So I just let Nojo sulk in the Playhouse, and Mister deal with a hot water heater that went belly up, and I spent a couple of inspiring days catching up on most of your blogs, which I enjoyed immensely.

 

To be honest, I think Mr. Nojo dropped in primarily because I've worn the poor hamster out.  The poor dear has been frazzlepated by the rapid back-and-forth that I'm subjecting him to ~ one hour I need a Thanksgiving card idea and the next hour, we're onto Christmas card ideas, then back to Thanksg ... oh, and don't forget people still have birthdays or need a pick-me-up card this time of year, too!  It is a rather splitzophrenic few weeks of the year for card makers, for sure for card makers living in places where Thanksgiving is celebrated and held in high regard.

 

Today, we turned our attention to Christmas cards and these delightful challenges which caught our attention.  Great, now I'm talking like me and the hamster are two separate people.  Medic!

• Crafty Hazelnut's Challenge Extra for November, where "Anything Goes" every month;
• Less is More, where Chrissie and Jen desire that we use designer paper in a CAS (clean and simple) way; and
• Merry Monday, where Lesley wants us to put trees with bling on our Christmas cards.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "It's a Mystery."

There are so many fun Christmas (and other) challenges this time of year!  I hope to see you playing in them, too.  You can click on the links for details and prize and sponsor information.

 

Here is my card:

What's the mystery?  The mystery is how I did it.  At first glance, because of the shadow on the tree and the back of the card front, it looks as if the tree die cut was made in the face of the card and that you are looking through the aperture to the designer patterned paper on the inside.  Not. 

I die cut a very ancient piece of designer paper from GKW with my PTI Christmas tree die.  Then I ran another die cut using brown sugar paper for a shadow.  Then I glued the two pieces together, offset, so the brown paper made a shadow, and applied it to the card base.  And then I thought it need a trunk.  And words on the trunk.  And a shadow on the trunk.  And, well, perhaps the day is lengthening such that there is a tree shadow, too.  You know how one thing leads to another.

 

For bling I added a tiny half-pearl and I used my glitter pen to add drops of sparkle all along the trees inside my tree, which you'll have to for my word take. 

It's a different card, huh?  I think this is one of those cards you're either gonna like a lot or not like at all.  Some cards evoke strong reactions like that. 

 

That reminds me, did you hear that the word "huh" is the only word that is spoken the same in every single language?  So now when you ask your teenager (or your husband), "Whadda you mean, 'huh'?", you can picture other parents (or wives) all over the world asking the same question!

 

~~~

 

Next, I'm gonna need you to don a party hat from over there behind Fran, help yourself to some champagnah, and get comfy while I happily introduce you to a some amazingly talented new friends!  Wah Hoo!!  Please meet:

 

Pat of Colourful Card Creations.  Pat is brand, brand spanking new and extremely gifted.  You know how I like you to especially welcome the new crafters to the Land of Blog.  It can be an intimidating place when you're new.  You won't be sorry you stopped in to see Pat!



Barb Ghig of Barb's Studio Creations.  A lot of you might be familiar with Barb as she has been a supportive commenter on other artist's blogs for quite some time.  Barb started her blog last month to showcase her own wonderful card art and I know she, too, would love to meet you, if you haven't already had the privilege.

 

Trisha Klowak of Crafty Paws by Trisha.  Trisha has had her blog for a number of years, but has only really gotten active this year.  I'm sure you will thoroughly enjoy what you find on her blog and that she, too, would love your encouragement.  If you can tear your eyes off that smoochable pooch!

 

Patti J. of Cherish Each Precious Day.  Patti started her blog in 2008!  That's right!  If you need inspiration, tutorials, advice, or just an enjoyable time, Patti is your experienced blogger and card artist!

 

Thank you, ladies, and welcome!  I'm very appreciative of your support and encouragement of me and my Playhouse shenanigans!

 

~~~

 

Short and sweet for me.  I know you all have lots to do!  Whatever it is, 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 leave a comment and/or join as a follower!  Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor! 

  

 

*Life Is Too Short! 

 

Paper:  PTI vintage cream; SU! brown sugar;

  and unknown designer paper

Stamps: SU!  I think.  It might be Hero Arts

Ink:  SU! brown sugar pad/marker; Marvy

  sage marker; Sakura "Clear Star" pen

 

 

Happy Christmas Anniversary! ATCAS; Curtain Call; CFC #120; MM #83; PSP #99

How's it going?  Are you getting a chance to get your craft on this weekend?  In whatever crafty way that is, I hope so!

I have to say I had a jolly good time making my card to show you today. 

One of my favorite challenges, Addicted to CAS, is celebrating their first anniversary!  Which just proves that time really does fly when you're having fun!  In honor of that special occasion, the code word is anniversary.

The new sponsor for this challenge is Deedee's Digis and there are other sensational prizes on offer as well!

 

~~~

 

I'm also excited to see a fun marriage of another two go-to challenges I enjoy!  This week the fantastic Curtain Call is teaming up with the equally fantastic CAS-ual Fridays in a two-for-one inspiration challenge, using this photo:

You get to make one project and link in both places and CAS-ual Fridays Stamps is offering an uber cool prize!

~~~

 

And, last, but not least, another favorite challenge, Merry Monday, threw me for a curve this week when the clever Lesley gave us a brief of stripes, and red, and white, and stars, or hearts. 

Oh, and chocolate.  Oh, goodie, an edible card!  Well, call me late me to class, but I couldn't figure out how to do that, so I ate some chocolate while I pondered what to make.  I'm pretty sure that counts.

See, what I really wanted to make was a happy holiday anniversary card with a Mr. and Mrs. Snowman on it, because lots of people get married around the Christmas holiday, including my SIL and BIL!  The thing is, I don't have a Mr. and Mrs. Snowman image, so . . . round and round the hamster ran, forming ideas.  "Hey," it said, "how about using your circle stamps?"  Shazambam, I love my hamster brain when it clicks in coz, after all, aren't snow people made of circles?

So I took all these wonderful supplies and set to work.

Snow peeps are made by rolling up huge snowballs and when I was a girl growing up in Iowa, we always rolled up three of them to make our snow people.  We gave them bottoms, and middles, and tops.  So, at first I tried making my stamped snow people that way, like this:  (It became scratch paper, so excuse the smudges.)

Yeah, no, I wasn't feelin' it.  This happy snow couple look like they are from the Land of Long and Lean and that's just wrong.  Snow people should be from the Land of Round and Rounder.  (I'm an honorary member there.)

 

So I tried again, using only two circles, and I made this lovable card:

 

Awww, much better, right?  I think they are as cute as freckles with their sweet glances and their carrot noses affectionately engaged in Eskimo kisses!  Which reminds me.  There are snippets used on this card, so a trip to Pixie's Snippet's Playground is in order!  I think my playmates will get a kick out of this!

Oh, and those scarves?  In a happy coininkydink, I found them on free printed Christmas cards sent to me by a charity I donate to, so I fussy-cut them and repurposed them on my card.  BTW, I really did use chocolate.  I altercated my striped ground using SU! "cranberry crisp" red and PTI "dark chocolate" brown.  The circles and hearts were stamped with the dark chocolate ink, too, which looks black in the photos.

 

I hope you had as much fun looking at my card as I did making it!  Now I have an urge to go and make some dark chocolate and cranberry bark.  Yummo!

~~~

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 leave a comment and/or join as a follower!  Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor! 

  

 

*Life Is Too Short! 

Paper:  PTI white

Stamps:  SU! circle, sediment; unmarked
  stripe; PS "Sunny Side Up" circle; hearts
  by Technique Tuesday "Dig You"
Inks:  PTI dark chocolate, SU! cranberry crisp
Black sparkly Washi tape for eyes, buttons
Corner Chomper

Autumn Birthday Redux ~ ColourQ #215; STB

Hi, Wonderful Whooshers!  TGIF!

I have to start today by clarifying my last post about being crowned.  I seemed to have confuzzled some of you.  I was talking about going to the dentist and having one of my teeth crowned.  The drug I mentioned was the Novocain shot I was given to numb the tooth area.  I was just having a little fun with a very unfun event!

 

But yesterday there were only fun events happening here.  Included was a lovely lunch with the ladies where we talked about the vagaries of our husbands.  Isn't 'vagaries' a great word?  It means:

 

1.

an unexpected and inexplicable change in a situation or in someone's behavior, "the vagaries of the weather"

 

synonyms:

change, fluctuation, variation, quirk, peculiarity, oddity, eccentricity, unpredictability, caprice, foible, whim, whimsy

 

I love the word, but I rarely remember to use it.  If husbands aren't quirky, I don't know who is.  I've been known to use less quaint words to describe my Mister.  Cough.
 

~~~

 

I'm still switching between autumn and Christmas cards and today I am back with two more autumnal birthday cards.  One is for our favorite son, whose birthday is Sunday, and one is for one of my besties, Nancy, whose birthday is also Sunday.

My first card is very similar to a card I made a few weeks back.  Here is the outside:

And here is the inside:

~~~

For my second card, I used the great fall/autumn colors of the current challenge at ColourQ:

And I'll enter it in the current Seize the Birthday "with texture" challenge.

I sure hope you get a chance to join in these fun challenges!  The links provided will give you all the fine print and the generous prize and sponsor details.

 

~~~

 

My card:

I hope you can see that cool wood grain frame impression plate from Lil' Inkers.  The leaves were from the Dollar store.  I added some drops of Dimensional Magic.

 

~~~

Today I am delighted to have you meet our newest friend, Kathleen of Plain & Simple.  Kath has been blogging her cards for a couple of years.  She has great style and a whole lotta humor shows in her card art.  I know you'll enjoy going to meet her and seeing her wonderful creations!  Welcome, Kath, and thank you for joining the party!

 

The fun photo is of an onion from her garden in the shape of a bird!  Ah, the vagaries of onions!

 

~~~

 

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 leave a comment and/or join as a follower!  Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor! 

  

 

*Life Is Too Short! 

Please let me know if you would like

the ingredients for today's cards.