Birds Boost Sales / Pine Cone Greetings ~ FUSION; LIM #151; MM; NBUS #84; PIXIE'S #103/#104

Hello Dearies!  I hope the fresh wonder of a brand-new week, Christmas week no less, has you skipping around happily doing elfish things!

Today I have a couple of creations, New Friends Corner, and weekend photos to share. 

 

First of all, I wanted to let you know that the fun critter theme has been extended over at the Merry Monday all-Christmas-all-year-long challenge until January 5th!  It is a very popular theme and I'm so glad you have more time to play along!

I made another critter card for the challenge, using owl critters like in the photo inspiration.  Recently I got an advertisement from a major department store about an incredible sale.  You know the one about early birds and night owls?  I've been keeping it on my desk ever since to make a card with it.   I cut out the significant words and made this:

(Um, in case you think it looks like my early bird sneezed a boog out of his nose, I should tell you that it is a little worm I drew there.  You know, early bird gets the worm and all that?)

 

This is a perfect Christmas card for a friend who is a marathon shopper!  Both the adorable night owl and early bird are NBUS stamps from purple onion designs.  Add a couple three googley eyeballs, a stitched rectangle die from Lil' Inker Designs attached to a black card and Bob's your burger.

 

I'm entering this in the holiday Pick-a-Challenge happening over at another one of my favorite challenges, Less Is More.  My card fits two of the past challenges:  No. 101 from January 5th, which was "colour black - white, plus a touch of ?" and No. 147 from November 23rd which was "theme Christmas - use a bird."  Merry Christmas, Chrissie and Jen!!

I used a snippet of black around my ad focus pocus, so I'm going to run this over to the playground at Pixie's.  Di is leaving the gates open through Christmas to accommodate our celebrations, both on-campus and off!  Thank you, Di!  I hope the new year brings you all kinds of good things, expeshally freedom from that achey-breakey back pain!

 

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I also wanted to show you a Christmas card that I made to send which just happens to fit the resurrected Fusion Card Challenge.  Here is the photo / sketch inspiration for this month-long/Design Team Call challenge:

And here is my card:

I went with the photo which (except for that mod tree) seems warm and country cozy to me, so I made my card in that style.  The card base is Kraft, the mat is actually cut from a Christmas sack, and the image is stamped on PTI white.  The pine cone is by All Night Media.  The holly is part of a stamped image by Great Impressions, which I fussy-cut, colored, and glossed to within a pinch of its life.  The sediment is by CTMH.

 

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In our New Friend's Corner, I am sooper-dooper becited to introduce you to these three card artists:

Debbie Nutt of Life Refreshed.  Debbie started blogging a few posts this year.  I think her cards are fantastic and I know she would really love some encouragement from you as the new year begins!

Angela Radford of Felix the Crafty Cat.  Angela is also new to blogging this year, starting in June with a bang!  She is amazingly productive and has the most spectacular layered works of art waiting to inspire you!

Sheila Harper of lalacrafts.  Sheila started blogging in April 2012 and has a lot of sweet card art on display at her site!

 

Thank you so much, ladies, for joining in the frolicks at the Playhouse!  I appreciate that you joined us during this busy season of the year!

 

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We had a lovely birthday celebration for Adam and Henry and I've created a collage for you, rather than overtwinking this post with individual photos.  (Brenda B, one of the pics is just for you!)  The outdoor shots were taken at a cool park where they let the kids (and even the parents) hammer and saw and paint, ride zip lines, and roll down hills in barrels!  What more could you want?

The center photo with the wee birthday hats has become a birthday tradition.  We first plunked those hats on them at their first birthday party:

Adam only cried about having it on his head that first year!  They are good sports to keep doing it year-after-year!  

 

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

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! 

I wish you all Happy Holidays!! 
 

  

 

*Life Is Too Short!