HLS Sketch Challenge Leads to Pine Code Parade!

Greetings, my lovelies! Welcome to the fresh clean start of a whole other Monday!

Who is still schtuffed from Thanksgiving Day in America, even though it was four days ago? Aah, those leftovers are better than the rightovers and don't even get me started on the pies! Now that our second major holiday in two months is behind us, we can march onward to the third one in three months! It might give me the vapors if I didn't have a passle of helping paws to guide me. 

Of today's Fourfer, let's start with this specially made card:

As a winner of the September Sketch Challenge, I am thrilled to make the above card as a Guest Designer for the Happy Little Stampers (HLS) December Sketch Challenge! 

And I'm happy to use one of Kylie's sediments from her wonderful HLS set "Everyday Sentiments!" Here is the fun sketch for you to use this month!

Besides using my NBUS sediment from HLS, my QACAS card is made from DSP from my stash, clear embellies, a dual-stitched circle die from Lil' Inker, and a sediment label made from a SU punch. The pine cone stamp is from a Hero Arts set called "Needles and Cones." Here is a close-up of the silver embossing:

Thank you, HLS, for the win and subsequent honor of serving as Guest Designer!

~~~

While I had my pine cone and sediment stamps out, I went from silver to copper and made this:

Yes, that bottom panel is ribbon and, yes, I prolly made a similar card last year as every year I take out my gorgeous and kissable ribbon to make a few elegant cards. You'll be seeing more of these ribbon-easy cards in various designs in the days to come.

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I made this card last year and never posted it. I thought I would share it now since it fit my theme for the day:

This pine cone stamp is from All Night Media, the  pine needle stamp is from SU, and the sediment stamp is from Hot Fudge Studio. Thazza lotta layers for me!

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Because there's a theme, here's another QACAS pine cone card that I made by upcyling a beautiful CC I received last year from my friend Cheryl, who I affectionately call Myrtha, for no reason whatsoever. Likewise, she calls me Ethel.

I was so pleased to find the shiny background DSP in my stash which was perfect for the beautiful and glittery repurposed front panel.

~~~

Last and Best

I'm sorry I haven't posted for several days, but after a delightful Thanksgiving where our thoughtful son and DIL sweetly took over the entire delicious meal prep and cleanup (whoop!) we had the twins for a multi-night sleepover (double whoop!)! Watching them build a mine in the back yard out of PFC pipe, shingles, paint cans, and a croquet set brought back happy memories of my own vivid imagination at that age. Okay, at this age, too. I may have joined them getting muddy and innovative with Papa's things, but don't tell him. He was napping.

Finally, here they are, proud of having decorated most of the 2015 Christmas tree all by themselves! Each year they can reach higher up, which is cornvenient because each year I am shrinking!

Adam ~ Henry

Thank you, lads!

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* I hope you'll get a chance to play in the Happy Little Stampers (HLS) December Sketch Challenge this month! I'd love to see you in the gallery!!

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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November 25th 2015 Hop Day

Greetings, My Friends!

We've whooshed around to the 11th #25 of this year. (The NEXT one will be Christmas Day! Eek!)

And on this 25th we have the Papertrey Ink November 25 Blog Hop Challenge, which is a one-day challenge, and Rudolph Days which runs from the 25th of the month to the end of the month.

Here's the card I made:

The Christmas Cover Plate Text Block is by PTI, cut from PTI "Sea Shimmer" paper. The tiny tags were cut using the Poppystamps, "Stitched Main Street Tags." The wee Christmas tree is from PTI's stamp set, "Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers."

ETA: A few of you mentioned that you didn't know PTI made that cover plate. I hadn't marked the manufacturer and assumed it was one of my PTI ones, so I went off to find out for sure. And sure enough, you were right, it isn't PTI. It's from Lil' Inker! My apologies!

I was inspired by the beautiful colors and all that white and the little tiny spruce. I hope you feel the wonder of the holidays and join in!

Other Challenges

• Christmas Cards All Year Round: Oh, Christmas Tree.
• Crafty Hazlenuts Christmas Challenge Extra: AG.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: AG.

Today's Twofer  

It's redundant, but I forgot to include this card in my last post giving you leftover mojovation:

Cards have feelings, too, and I didn't want this schparkly beauty to feel left out.

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HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I want to wish my American friends a very Happy Thanksgiving! As you can see from the photo above, Hammy takes after me with the stress-eating, now that the little hamsterettes are under paw. It has befuzzled him so much that his normal dainty nibbling has turned into face-stuffing entire cranberries. (That's Henrietta next to him. She's a real daddy's girl.)

I have many blessings to count this year and I count you among them! I send you my thanks for your friendship and your consistent support and encouragement. Thank you for following me and leaving your love. And thank you to all of you faithful readers behind the scenes who don't have blogs, but who support me through comments or emails ~ or even silently! You ALL keep me going! MWAH!

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

*Life is too short!

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Leftover Christmas Makes

Hello and welcome to a wonderful new week in the dwindling year of 2015! I hope your week ahead is terrific!

Quick posts will be arriving on your monitor landing strip for the next few weeks as the Playhouse Hamster Factory whips out CCs for your inspiration.

Today we are bringing you cards made from leftover (negative) die cuts. First up:

This white-on-white (more like white-on-blue) with peek-a-boo section, sediment, and snowflakes are all made from glossy paper. The sediment is from Avery Elle and the snowflakes are from MFT. The negative came from a NBUS Snowflake Border die from Simon Says Stamp. The pretty blue paper is just a snippet from my stash.

To tell you the truth, I didn't really know what to do with this border die. All the hamlettes were too busy on other projects to Google me images using this die. I was down on the floor with the die-cutting machine and too lazy to get up and look myself, so I just laid it in the middle of the paper to get both ends and see what it looked like cut.

I believe it is intended to be a lovely swirl on the top or bottom corner of a vertical card design, but at least I was able to make a WOB card out of my experimental cut. (I'm pretty positive you'll peruse the positive portion in another post.)

Challenges

• Addicted to CAS: Dimension. (Happy 3rd Birthday!!)
• Jingle Belles: Use Leftovers.
• Merry Monday Christmas Challenge: Blue and White and Texture.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use Your Snippets.
• TGIF Challenge: Theme: White Christmas.
• The Challenge: Photo. (Curved snowflakes on staircase.)

Today's Twofer Tripled

You may remember my post here. These are three cards I made with the negative cuts left over from filling the baubles.

What you can't see is that I put acetate behind a couple of the bauble cards for a little extra pizzazzarino.

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That's it, back soon. 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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Red and White Delights

Hello there, my friends!

Happy Saturday! I should be cleaning and washing windows and doing whatall and whatnot to get ready for Thanksgiving, but I'm also looking down the barrel of a Christmas Card Overseas Deadline, so there's a flurry of activity in the Playhouse. I've got the recent hamsterfall working in six-part harmony while Hammy orchestrates, so I thought I would take a break from them and post a cuppla creations.

First up is a tag:

The birch trees are a NBUS stamp from Purple Onions, heat embossed in black. The double sediment tag was made using a SU punch and a sediment from PTI's "Fillable Frames #8 Mini." The beautiful twill ribbon is also from SU. The little wooden reindeer was a gift from my friend Andrea.

Another friend is holding her fifth annual "25 Days of Christmas Tags" event where the DT members of several well-known companies are providing inspiration every day and I wanted to join in. That friend would be the lovable and talented Tracey!

I was inspired by this adorable tag made using Lawn Fawn products by Samantha Casey for Day Ten of Tracey's event:

Other Challenges

• Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge: Use a reindeer.
• Inkspiration Challenge: Photo Inkspiration.
• Loll's Twelve Tags of Christmas event. The linky closes tomorrow!
• The Sisterhood of Crafters: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.

Today's Twofer

Next I have a big beautiful poinsettia for you:

The stamp set is called "Poinsettias." It's made by Waltzingmouse Stamps and it contains several sizes of beautiful poinsettia images. The sediment is NBUS, also from Waltzingmouse Stamps ("Compact Sentiments"). 

I watercolored the flower and I'm sorry that the color came out looking a bit dull in the photo from the lateness of the day. In real life, it's quite vibrant and sparkly from winking. It also looks a little poofy because I used Loll's trick of rolling over the back with my stylist to stretch the paper and plump up the image. Wait. What? Is "stylist" the right word? The nice lady who does my hair? That can't be right.

Challenges

• CASology: Pretty.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Christmas.
• Uniko Challenge: Christmas ~ Optional CAS.

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New Friends Corner

The twofers make my posts longer, but I do want to introduce you to these five talented card artists!

Janice of My Craftroom Makes. Janice is literally a fresh new face in Blogland as she just started her blog in September! As always, I would love it if you took a minute to give Janice a special welcome to our warm and supportive corner of the World Wide Webatory! Even though she has just started, Janice is a prolific designer so there is lots and lots of stunning CAS and shaped cards already there for your inspiration!

Niki Garcia of Stampin'HI. Niki is from Hawaii and she started blogging in 2012 to be a more active member of this paper-addicted community that we all love. She is the mom of two and a full-time Registered Nurse. As always, I'm impressed by women who can mom and blog! Nikki not only manages both of those well, she serves on design teams! You will love her bright and cheerful cards!

Ka of Stamping Smiles Designs. Ka is from Wisconsin and although she only started blogging in January of this year, she is already well known to a lot of you. And rightly so! As she says herself, she makes cute and whimsical cards guaranteed to make the recipient (and her blog fans) smile. Ka is going to start her own challenge in January, so head's up!

Jennifer Loftfield of Caffeinated Papercuts. Jennifer started blogging in 2011. There is more testosterone than estrogen in Jennifer's household which means, as she says, she loves crafting because it gives her the chance to use pink! Jennifer is another designer and award winner whose art is so inspiring. In addition to creating her card art, Jennifer enjoys gardening and cooking and ... obviously ... coffee!

Dusi of Dusi Creates. Dusi is from Slovenia and she started blogging in 2013. She is not just a card artist, although you will be inspired and impressed by the card art she does create. She makes 3D projects, jewelry, ornaments, and brooches and pendants, so there is truly a lot to see. Dusi's special creations are colorful, fun, and full of life!

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!

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

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me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!