Boo, Holly!

Hey there!

Yup, it happened again! We whooshed around to another Friday! Not many left in 2015. Happy New Year! You laugh, but you wait. It's right around the corner!

Today I'm talking about friends and bringing you Halloween and more friends and Christmas and even more friends. 

Let's start with Halloween since it's going to be Halloween tomorrow and then that'll be that for another year. I'm not sure if anyone else did this, but this card came about because Hammy and I were looking at the challenges, like we are wont to do, and when we got to the Less Is More challenge, which is a sketch, Hammy happened to be hanging sideways from his wheel.

So instead of seeing the LIM sketch on the left, he saw what you see on the right:

          

And, I mean, we both immediately saw a ghost. Right?! 

So we made this:

I sketched out a ghost and cut it out using my antique skizzors. Next I cut out the eyes and mouth from a bit of black. Then I made a conversation bubble for the sediment location. That was simples, but now what? How could we jeuss up our plain design?

Well, I thought, what about that drawer of ancient mulberry paper we have in lots of beautiful colors? We shuffled back and forth between black, purple, and orange, and the orange won out. We are quite pleased at how kewl it looks. Making this card took me back to elementary school days when we made cards with just paper, skizzors, and glue! Imagine that!

Challenges

• AAA Cards: Halloween All Styles.
• Addicted to CAS: Spooky.
• City Crafter Challenge: Creatures of the Night.
• Less Is More: Sketch.

Today's Twofer

My twofer card is a Christmas card that I started a couple of days ago to enter into the Muse Card Club Challenge. Sadly, I didn't get it finished in time to enter, but it fits other challenges and I thought you'd like to see it.

The red polky-dotted paper is embossed and sparkly. I have slightly overimposed the photo so you can just make out the definition in the upper left-hand corner.

Making old-timey cards is fun, but modern dies are the schweetest! I received that awesome half-circle inner die cut from my friend Cat Craig of Cat Luvs Paper. I admired a card she made a few months ago using the die (from Simon Says Stamp) and Cat kindly sent me a couple cuts so I could see if I really wanted to purchase the die. Is that a great bloggie friend or what! Thank you, Cat!

Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: Holiday.
• Christmas Card Challenges: Anything Goes.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Throwback. I chose the Holiday Card Challenge from December 1, 2014.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

A Special Playhouse Visit!

I was delighted to meet another bloggie friend last week when Barbara Roe of Love2Colour stopped by the Playhouse with her handsome husband, Cal. We only had a couple of hours together, but we made the most of it and it was wonderful to meet her in person!

In the Small World Department, Cal and I found out that we were both born and raised in Iowa; in fact, we were born in the same county in Iowa! We also found out that we all lived for a while in the same area of Southern California and Barb and I both had careers as legal secretaries! Who knows what else we might have discovered if we'd had more time!

Cal took our photo:

Barb is gorgeous and she's a talented card artist who, you guessed it, loves to colour. If you don't know the kind, fun, and supportive Barb, I highly recommend you click over, introduce yourself, and prepare to be inspired!

New Friends Corner

Speaking of friends, I'm happy to return to welcoming new talented friends to the Playhouse! Here are five more:

Lisa808 of Crafting with Princess Lisa. Lisa has been blogging since 2008! In addition to stamping, making 3D projects, and scrapping (which she does extremely well), Lisa enjoys reading and baking. She became a Stampin' Up demonstrator in October 2013 and you will see many sensational cards showcasing SU products on her blog!

JoAnn of Crafty Nana's Blog. JoAnn lives in Florida and she started blogging in 2010. She has been scrapbooking and making cards for family and friends for the last fifteen years! In the five years she has been blogging, JoAnn has served on design teams and entered and won many challenges with her outstanding card art!

Christi (stampmonkey) of Blessings on Paper. Christi has been blogging since 2008! She started her blog to share her addiction to paper crafting with other like-minded addicts. Sound familiar?!! Christi's card art and other creative projects are way too pretty not to be shared with the world-wide webatory! I think you'll agree after you've stopped in to see for yourself!

Brenda of Stamping as Fast as I Can! Brenda has been blogging since 2010. I love that her profile says: "I love crafting of all kinds. I claim it's cheaper than therapy, but not so sure that's true. So many wonderful products, especially stamps, that's why I'm stamping as fast as I can!" Brenda can't stamp fast enough for me ~ all of her cards are fun and spectacular!

Gloria Lee of Gloria's Craft Room. Gloria started blogging in 2014. She is originally from South Korea. She moved to Canada in 2004 and she is the mother of two boys. You have no doubt seen Gloria's cards in the winning circles of challenges. Her designs are all prize-worthy with their exquisite clean and crisp execution!

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! But first I'm off to the store to buy another bag of candy ... I don't know what the heck my excuse will be after tomorrow! Happy Halloween!!

*Life is too short!

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