CASEing with Acorns and Penguins

Greetings Stamplings!

How are you this fine November day? I love the coziness of cardigans that autumn brings out of the closets and drawers and under-the-bed containers. Besides being cozy, they cover up the candy rolls of October. Don't they? Just let me believe that.

Did you know that the word cardigan originated during the Crimean War? The leader of the Charge of the Light Brigade was James Thomas Brudenel, the 7th Earl of Cardigan (1797-1868). His troops wore such garments to keep them warm, which cut down on the endless murmuring about how bloody cold it was. Thence and forsooth thereafter, we've called them cardigans. 

Cardigans also became handy places to put one's pipe when not puffing, especially for the middle and lower classes. The upper classes, of course, wore smoking jackets. This is why the upper classes rarely died of lung cancer, seeing as how their jackets did the smoking for them.

But that's not why you called. Let's henceforth off to Cardland, shall we?

Well, actually, let's go first to Tagland:

I cut my tag using the Memory Box "Stitched Main Street Tags" die and embossed it using my Cuttlebug "Distressed Branches" e/f. The acorn is NBUS from the "Thankful" stamp set by Avery Elle. It was a gift to me from my friend Taunya Butler of Daisies Girl. Thank you, Taunya! 

I stamped and paper-pieced the bottom of the acorn using PP in a pretty aqua, caramel, and brown woodgrain. The acorn was then embossed using an antique blue moire e/p. I cut the top half of the acorn with my skizzors and pieced it over the woodgrain paper. The leaf is a metal embellie from Vintage Trinkets. The thank you sediment is from Your Next Stamp.

This little guy is going to be appearing across town at these various venues:

• CASEing Genius Challenge: In honor of the one-year blog'versary of her "CASEing Genius" series, Kelly is having her own challenge with prizes. To participate, you simply CASE one of the genius ladies Kelly has listed in her challenge post. With this tag, I am CASEing (or as I like to say when I do it, DJKASEing) my friend and Genius Kara Lynne of Kara Lynne's Card Designs. To the right is Kara's beautiful aqua, copper, and gold autumn thank you tag.

• Kelly also wants us to chose one crafter that we want her to CASE for a future {CASEing Genius} post. That's like asking me to choose a favorite child. I say that metaphysically because I do have a favorite child, having only had the one. Still, it is part of the challenge, so I had Hammy write the names of all my followers on slips of paper and then sleep on the pile for two days. He then ran through the pile of names scattering them about like leaves on a blustery autumn day. The last name remaining in his cage was my talented friend Jacquie Southas of What Did I Do Today?, so I happily nominate her!

• Thanksgiving Crusade Challenge 2015, which I mentioned in my last post.
• The Male Room: Hardware.
• Virginia's View Challenge: Texture.
• Your Next Stamp Sketch and Color Challenge: I used the color challenge.

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Today's Twofer

Moving forward to Christmas and penguins:

A silver metallic card mat overlayed with white provides the Christmassy background for my penguin Rockettes. I stamped the penguins (from Stamps of Life) in gray to provide a shadow and then applied the stamped and die-cut little dancers off-set over the shadows. The sediment, which I think is NBUS, is from PTI. My "balloon" is overlapping red star sequints.

This card was made as a CASE of this week's Muse, who is another friend, Ardyth Percy-Robb of MASKerade. Here is Ardyth's adorable card:

Ha ha, I just noticed when I went over to MUSE to grab the link and image that half the entries feature penguins! Great minds! I think it was the black and white of the pandas and this time of year that made us think of penguins. 

I followed Arydth's line design, her white on silver/gray matting, the tall element held by one critter, and, of course, the black/white/red. However it inspires you, I hope you'll CASE Ardyth's pandas and play along this week!

I'm also playing at City Crafter Challenge Blog where the theme is "Getting Ready for Christmas!" and where my friend Marcia Hill is the Guest Designer!

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New Friends Corner

Please join me in welcoming these five new friends to the Playhouse today!

Vikki Hein of Vikki's Paper Crafting. Vikki has been blogging since 2011. She lives in Southern Oregon and she only manages to blog about once a month, but that's okay. Even once a month is enough for her to keep in touch with us and allows us to be inspired by the beautiful and innovative designs she posts when she does get creative!

Birgitanita of Birgit's Hobby Blog. Birgit lives near the sea with her cat Gilbert. She is the mother of two grown sons and she started her blog in 2012. Birgit makes excellent cards ranging from very clean and simple to elegant layered works of art.

Tanja Kewel-Neet of My Happy Place. Tanja has been blogging since September of 2009. She has been on design teams over the years and is currently on the TAWS design team. If I am reading the Google translation correctly, Tanja started her blog in order to become a Stampin Up demonstrator. I'm glad she did so that we could meet her and enjoy her bright and cheerful card art!

Andrea of Arty Andrea. Andrea lives in the UK and started blogging in 2012. She's had a few setbacks this year, including a recent broken wrist, so she hasn't been blogging much. But she did blog quite a lot prior to this year and she will be back to it once she is able. Her layered and embellished cards are really divine and her coloring is superb!

Shruti Goel of Crafts Devine: Shruti Goel's Creations. Shruti started blogging a few years ago, but she only started posting consistently as of this year, so I consider her to be new to blogging. She makes beautiful CAS designs and enjoys sharing them with her readers and entering them in challenges!

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

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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!

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