Amour, Anita and a Few Hydrangeas

Well, hello again!

Look at me ~ post toasties two days in a row! I had to come back today because today is a special occasion. It is the birthday of my lovely friend and fellow BABE, Anita Raffo of My Papercraft World. Happy Birthday, Anita! I hope you enjoy your very special day!

In honor of Anita, I made this one-layer card (OLC) for the current CASEplorations Challenge over at STAMPlorations where Anita is the featured card artist!

Before I tell you what I did, just check out these THREE amazing cards Anita made! Don't they get you reenthused to want to CASE her and play along?!

WOW, Anita!

For my card I used the same color schemer as Anita did and I used the same design ideas of border elements, a simple sediment, and a bit of bling. My border was made by watercoloring with my Ziggies through a "Nested Circles" STAMPlorations stencil. Don't they look like sugared citrus candies? The sediment is from "Noteworthy," also by STAMPlorations. 

I'm also entering this card in Kathy's 30 Day Coloring Challenge.

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And then, well, here's what happened. I went in to take a nap and I asked Hammy & Co. to clean up my desk, but when I came back they had done just the opposite. Oy. My basket of newest NBUS was tipped over and stamp sets and dies were all over the floor. 

Have you ever noticed that you can almost anagram HAMMY into MAYHEM?

As we were picking everything up, Hestor pointed out my new "Mondo Hydrangea" stamp/die set from Ellen Hutson and reminded me that the current challenge at Less Is More Challenge is to "make a one-layered card with a stem." 

You don't say? So I made this:

I stamped the image with Archival black and then did a simple watercoloring with my Ziggies. The sediment is from Uniko's "Simply Said Birthday," which I off-set to make a better composed situation. BTW, LIM is having  DT call, so head's up!

[Sometimes I get a glimpse of a brand-new-to-card-making-blogs visitor who reads my blog (or yours) with a HUGE question mark over her head! So, translation: By the way, Less is More is having a Design Team call, so head's up!]

I'm also entering Addicted to CAS where the code word is "Bloom."

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And then the sun came out and this happened: 

The hydrangea stamp is very large, so I got to thinking that it might be neat to just stamp it over some random wet-on-wet watercoloring and I think I thunk right. For someone who really does like to color inside the lines, I have to say I'm in love with how this turned out! It's very Shirley Bee.

I just wet my watercolor paper and used a small brush to plop drops of color and let them play. I made an ever-widening mass until when I held the stamp in the air over it, I could see that the painted section was about the right size to fit the stamp. Does that make sense? Those odd-looking line-like sections are from pouncing on the wet watercolors with a balled-up tissue. Hey, what can I say? Why not?

I waited until the paint was dry and then I stamped the flower in Archival ink. The sediment by Penny Black was stamped in SU brilliant blue. I'm entering this in the current One-Layer Simplicity Challenge. The theme is "Friend," which is where this card is headed.

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There's more? Yup. It would be illegal to put the set away without making at least one card using the die, right?

I think you can see that the hydrangea is literally winked.  The background is a piece of K and Company pp from my stash and it makes me happy to use it. The sediment is from the "Year-Round Puns" set by Papertrey Ink and I think it, too, is NBUS. I know the butterfly is. It is cut from the "Small Butterfly Frame" by WPlus9 in both white linen paper and a lilac vellum.

I haven't played in Mrs. A.'s Butterfly Challenge for a long time, so I'm taking my card over there. The theme for the current challenge is, "S Is For Stamping and/or Sapphire."

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

Thanks for hanging in there through this long one! And, as always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and taking 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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Finally! NBUS #6!

The next semi-annual NBUS (Never-Before-Used Schtuff) Challenge is just around the corner! Mark your calendars for two weeks from today!! Wheet!! If you are new to NBUS and would like more information, please click here.