Standing in the Corner and New Friends

No, wait. I meant to say, "Stamping" in the Corner! 

Hello and Happy Sunday to all of you, wherever you may be!

I don't usually talk about health schtuff, but since this is rather more amusing than not, I wanted to share.

I've had an on-again/off-again relationship with my right knee for a couple of years. Sometimes (like my back) it up and goes out on me without so much as an argument first. I've seen a specialist and when it happens I wear a brace, and go to physical therapy.

So a few days ago my knee went out again. On Friday I had the brace on (not too tight) and spent a quiet day catching up with visits and comments and as I sat at the computer I noticed my right foot was suddenly freezing cold and it hurt like several bones in the foot and ankle had spontaneously broken. I could hardly put any of my considerable weight on it without excruciating pain.

There was swelling, but not a lot. I applied the heating pad (to no avail) and took to my fainting couch whereupon the Mister took advantage of me. By that I mean he snuck off to the kitchen and ate a bunch of junk.

By the time I went to bed a few hours later the pain had started to subside and I could slightly rotate my ankle. We're thinking maybe it was some kind of a bug bite? I mean, I don't live in the Amazonian jungle, but what else? Medic?

And now for the part that gets so absurd it's funny. At 5 o'clock Saturday morning I shot straight out of bed with a severe leg cramp! Guess where? In my right calf! Yes, that's right. Picture me trying to hop off a leg cramp with a bum knee and a bad foot, nightie in a twist, and my hair standing on end as I careened into furniture because I didn't have my glasses on! Oy!

I was reminded of my sister Diana who just last week had a wasp fly into her blouse and sting the geewillikers out of her as she hopped and swatted and knocked the window blinds clean off her window!

~~~

But that's not why you called. In between practicing pratfalls, I saw the current sketch at the CAS(E) this Sketch challenge, charmingly designed by my very talented friend Michelle Williams:

Oh, as they say, imagine the possibilities! Hammy and I found at least two:

Onefer:

For this card, I used my super cute NBUS chickie stamp from Great Impressions, which I purchased from a small stamp shop in Minnesota last year while on the BABES adventure. The sediment is from Diamonds. And that's it. QACAS at its best and all heat-embossed for a little added uumph and innerest.

Chickie Boom-Boom felt a little robbed having only part of her boom-boom self stamped in the corner, so here she is on the inside in all her glory. The beautiful NBUS sediment is from PTI's "Hello Sunshine."

~~~

Twofer:

For this QACAS embossed card, I used a very old (v.o.) stamp from the Hero Arts set, "Needles and Cones." The vertical sediment is from Paper Inspirations, also heat embossed. A few teeny baubles and one more for the stash, in a dash.

I'm editing my post to enter this card in the One-Layer Christmas Card Challenge with an optional twist of green.

~~~

New Friends Corner

I want to borrow a bit more of your time while I introduce some new friends who have come to join us in the Playhouse recently. Thank you for meeting them and visiting them, if you can!

Jo Herbert of Show Me The Love. Jo is the mother of three and she has been blogging since 2011. She is an Independent Stampin Up Demonstrator, design team member, and a participate in challenges. She has a wonderful YouTube feature called, "Thank Card It's Friday" and she holds classes in her home for adults and especially for children after seeing how much her daughter, Skye, loved creating cards with her. I know you'll be inspired by her beautiful card art!

Beverly G. of Gott Heart Art. Beverly has been blogging since 2008! She has had her works of art published many times, is a design team member, challenge player, and multi-award winner! In addition to paper crafting, Beverly loves reading, floral design, ceramics, painting, and yarn crafts. She also has a special love of zentangling and an interest in altered art and mixed media. There is something for all of you at Beverly's blog!

Wanda of Wanderful Creations. Wanda is the mother of two who has been blogging since 2010. Her cards are always well thought out and, like so many of us, they are often inspired by challenges. I know you'll love giving some love to Wanda for her terrific cards!

Gail of Lacey Lassy. Gail has been blogging since 2011. She is mom to an adult daughter, two beagles, and three cats. When she isn't working as a legal secretary, she enjoys gardening and stained glass, in addition to paper crafting and scrapbooking. Gail is on design teams, loves entering challenges, and has been widely recognized for her sensational card art!

Kristina Beagle of Live Love Laugh Scrap. Kristina is a young lady who started blogging in 2011. When she isn't making spectacular cards and inspiring us through design teams, Kristina is a real estate agent. In addition, she also loves cooking and music and nail polish! Her blog and her card art are simply delightful!

Thank you for joining, ladies, and welcome to the Playhouse!

~~~

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

*Life is too short!

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June 2015 PTI Blog Hop and Rudolph Day

Happy 25th of the Month of June in 2015!

In my creative world, if I have my batter in the pan, the 25th of each month means it's time for another fun hop celebrating Papertrey Ink over at Nichole Heady's website and it's time for entering a Christmas card in the Rudolph Day Challenge.

First up is my PTI Hop card:

I covered a white PTI card base with a piece of charcoal gray and white striped vellum from a DCWV foiled vellum pack. Over that I attached another narrower piece of white card. The NBUS flowers, which I've had for well over a year and never used [slap], are from the PTI "Cutting Garden" stamp and die set. I colored them direct to the stamps with my DI markers. The leaves were stamped with PTI pine feather green ink cube. The sediment is from the PTI "Birthday Bash Sentiments" set.

Everything was bewinked and bejewelled.

Here is the darling inspiration photo:

I'm also entering my card in the Freshly Made Sketches challenge and in Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, "Anything Goes."

If you are hopping off here, please let me know you were here, enjoy the day, and enjoy the hop! Thank you for stopping by!

~~~

For my Christmas card for the Rudolph Day Challenge, I made this guy:

I sponged the ColourQ blues onto the card base from light to dark. Percival Penguin is made from a Stamps of Life penguin die and a stamp set called, "More Penguins to Love." The warm knit hat is from a Technique Tuesday set called, "Winter" and the sediment is from a Paper Smooches set called, "Swanky Snowdudes." Every item is NBUS. Goodness, me. The frame was made by cutting out a rectangle mat and then embossing the frame with a Sizzix snowfall e/f.

BTW, here in the States today is the Hallmark holiday, "Leon Day," celebrating that we are prezackly half-way through the year until Christmas! (Leon is Noel spelled backwards.) You're welcome!

The only criteria for Rudolph Day is that you make a Christmas creation, so I used these challenges as my inspiration:

• Merry Monday:  Funky Hat. 
• ColourQ: See below.

 

And, yes ... since the larger photo doesn't show it, Percival would like for you to see his schparkle:

~~~

Here are some other handsome guys whose Father's Day photo I forgot to show you last time! 

Papa, Adam, Henry, Dan

~~~

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

*Life is too short!

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The Fox and the Butterfly

Hello, my Lovelies!

I hope this finds you well and enjoying this brand new week!

As I am wont to do, I saw a couple three challenges that interested me, so I tucked in, whistled for the hamster and away we went, forthwith:

This little fox is from PTI and he came to live with us some time ago and nestled comfortably into NBUS Mountain. When I told Hammy that I wanted to play in a tag challenge and I needed some ideas, he very scientifically threw a piece of his carrot at the mountain and down tumbled Mr. Fox. Perfect. Mr. Fox is a die with a matching stamp.

I used a tiny cotton swab and painted and boinked Brilliance cosmic copper ink all over Mr. Fox, except his eyes, of course. After wards, he was liberally winked all over and he was given beautiful black eyeballs.

Setting him aside to dry, I created a page of delushious aqua watercolors and sprays / mists. (When is it a spray and when is it a mist? I mean, because I find them both in the same bottle given that if I spray close-up, it's a spray, and if I spray from far back, it's a mist. No?) I cut my tag from my paper using a PTI die, "Tag Sale #3." The "hi" die is from GKW. I cut it from a v.o. piece of metallic copper snippet. 

I had a different e/f in mind for the background, but this one caught my eye as I was flipping through. I thought it was just crying out to be used because the little triangles match Mr. Fox's ears. And then, I looked to see if I had any wood veneer stars and I don't, but who know I had wood veneer triangles? Well, not me, so they just fell into place after I dabbed some of the shiny copper ink on them.

I love when Serena Dipity comes to play with us and everything goes together like I knew what I was doing!

Challenges

• Happy Little Stampers: Sprays and Mists.
• Uniko Studio: Anything Goes with Optional Twist of Masculine.
• Tag You're It: Photo Inspiration from Anja Curvers.

~~~

The twofer:

 

Butterflies were called for because I recently saw on my friend Greta's blog that Memory Box has started a challenge and if there's one thing I have it's Memory Box dies. Cough. This first challenge wants butterflies.

Using another area of my watercolor sheet, this time I cut a tag using MFT Die-namics die, "Tag You're It." The butterfly is made from two Memory Box coordinating dies: "Vivienne" and "Darla," liberally winked. The hello die is from Stamps of Life, liberally winked. (Yes, I know, addicted.) The tag is popped on a snippet of old patterned paper, which is attached to a lime green card, embossed with an e/f from Craft Concepts.

(A lot of you may remember Vivienne and Darla from the movie of the same name about these two dames who decided they wanted to open their own hair salon, but just as the business was about to open, the 1906 earthquake struck San Francisco and that was the end of that. But the movie ended happily for them, as all movies did in those days. They ended up marrying the two firemen who found them buried, but alive, under the brand new pink wash basins. I'll tell you about the sequel and the mysterious letter another time.)

A close-up of the sheeny shine:

And just for laughs, an idea of what surprises I sometimes find when I download photos taken in the Great Out of Doors!

 

Challenges

• City Crafter: Color Challenge.
• Butterfly Spot Challenge: F is for Flowers.
• Memory Box: Butterflies.
• Our Beautiful World: Tiny.

The challenge links will provide you with all the information you need to join in!

~~~

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

*Life is too short!

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Splish Splashing

Hello, gals and guys!

Guys are being celebrated big time today in several countries, so Happy Father's Day to all of you and God bless you for all you do! 

The Mister and I are celebrating today with our son and his sons, and of course, our DDIL, so I will be quick, although my card making wasn't that quick. I started off trying to combine a "splash" challenge with a "kids" challenge only I watercolored my kid card forgetting that it wasn't on watercolor paper so the next thing I knew my kid looked 7D as she rippled and warped unpleasantly.

So no kiddo kard, but starting over I made two kritter kards:

We'll start with one of Hammy's little playmates, a NBUS tweety bird from the Paper Smooches set, "My Peeps." Tweety is having a fun ol' time hopping up and down in the water in the gutter in the street in the neighborhood in the tow ... oh, sorry, I got stuck there for a second. The splash is a PSX stamp (E-1567) and the arched sediment is from SU. QACAS! Of course, I had to wink it and give it googly eyes!

Challenges

• Addicted to CAS: Splash 
• Addicted to Stamps and More: Happy 3rd Birthday! (CAS)
• Inkspirational Challenge: Word prompt: WILD.
• Paper Smooches SPARKS: Anything Goes.

 

My twofer:

Still thinking splash, I remembered this other old stamp I had. It's a dozen years old and from an out-of-business company, but it's just as cute today as it was back then. The inks used were SU pink passion, basic grey, and tempting turkoize. The next step was thinking of a design. Flipping through my dies, I came across my NBUS photo frame die which was perfect. (I think it's from PTI.) 

For my card base I laid down strips of rain-droppish Washi tape as shown, covered the raggedy bits with a double horizontal strip of two gray patterned Washi tapes, and bottomed it off with a pretty dotted Swiss to complete the dotty theme. The sediment is from Penny Black. After assemblage, everything was winked and properly beaded.

Challenges

• Color Throwdown: See below.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use your snippets.
• STAMPlorations: June challenge: Stamps & Washi.

You can find all the challenge information by clicking the links. I hope you can join in the fun!

~~~

Enjoy your day ~ make a splash! 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 join as a follower! Please let me know you came by, so I can return the flavor!

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:

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