Happy New Year With New Friends!

Greetings, Stamplings!

Js[[u Mre Urst@

Oops!

Happy New Year!

I appear to have started celebrating early and have my ginfers on the wrong qwerty keys! The Mister took my picher:

You might notice the size of my tipply, but I'm a big girl and I han candle it! Here, look how glossy and beschparkled I got for the occasion!

Sediment by Happy Little Stampers, fun lady by Art Impressions, drink by Inkadinkado, and Stately e/f by Craft Concepts.

Challenges

• Cards in Envy: Celebrate the Season.
• CASology: Toast.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Party Time.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

~~~

New Friends Corner / Followers Update

With my various travels and the holidays, I've not allowed space on my posts for my New Friends Corner in quite some time. In order to bring myself up-to-date before the year ends and not to keep these lovely ladies waiting any longer, I'm going to introduce all of them to you today.

I'm hoping that during this sort of lull between Christmas and the first week of January, you will take the time to visit these talented crafters and introduce yourself! Why not end the year by making new friends!

Francesca Ferrari of A Rainbow of Colors. Francesca is from Italy and she has been blogging since 2014. She started her blog to share her talent for making paper creations of tags, cards, and other projects. Francesca has a wonderful talent for layering and embellishing her beautiful works of art which will enchant you!

Fikreta Posavec ("Fiki") of Bad Kitty's Craftroom. Fiki has been blogging since 2012 and fortunately, she blogs her wonderful card art often. And not just plain cards either! Fiki is a well-rounded crafter who makes shaped cards, gift tags, gift bags, and many other delightful projects to inspire you!

Seemaa of Paper Passions. Seemaa has only been blogging since February of this year! She has a 7-year-old child and works full-time. Seemaa started sewing about three years ago and then moved on to paper crafting where she found her true passion. She is another well-rounded crafter who doesn't limit herself to just making cards. You will enjoy how Seemaa provides a photo tutorial of her artistic process. I hope you will make a special effort to welcome Seemaa to Blogland!

Sue of Sue's Card Craft. Sue has been blogging since 2012. I'm sure you have seen some of Sue's incredible card art at some of the challenges around Blogland. Her cards and tags are really exquisite between the design, the colors, and the clean execution. You might want to sharpen your Pinterest Pin before you step inside Sue's blog, if you know what I mean!

Elisabeth M. of Auf's Papiergebracht. Elisabeth tells me that is loosely translated to mean, "To Bring Something On Paper." Elisabeth started blogging in 2013. Fortunately for us, she often posts her extraordinary art pieces. I say "pieces" because I think of Elisabeth's cards as little sculptures that should be framed in a gallery. You'll see what I mean when you go have an amazing journey back through the creations on her blog!

Christine Alexander of It's a Card Days Night. Christine just started blogging last month!! She came over from Splitcoaststampers where she is known as Calex. Christine has been making her wonderful cards for nine years now and her passion is for both CAS and Mixed Media. It takes talent to combine those two styles and Christine does it perfectly! Please make a special effort to visit Christine and welcome her to our supportive community in Blogland.

Rhonda of Wheelie Crafty Designs. Rhonda is from Australia and she has been blogging since 2014. You may have seen her beautiful creations either as a design team member or a guest designer. Her card are amazing, but her layouts will knocks your socks off as she thoughtfully pays tribute to those she loves!

Tina H. of Tina's Creative Studio. Tina is from Australia and she has been blogging since 2006! What?! Granted, some of those years were lean years when it came to posting, but goodness, Tina was one of the early pioneers in Blogland! As a Stampin' Up demonstrator, Tina excels at showcasing SU products whether it be on standard cards, shaped cards, or fantastic scrapbook layouts!

Tee of The Altered Paper. Tee has only been blogging since April of this year! Like so many of us, Tee started her blog to share her creations in challenges. As her blog name attests, Tee loves mixed media and altered crafts and she does it well. In the few months since she has been entering challenges, she has won well-deserved recognition! Please make a special effort to welcome Tee to Blogland!

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

As a reminder, if you don't see yourself introduced, it's because I couldn't find you. Please contact me to give me your blog URL and I'll be happy to introduce you!

~~~

Follower Following Issues

Speaking of followers, there are again issues with blogger inexpischplibly dropping us and with our ability to follow.

• Check the side bar. I have noticed lately when I visit my bloggie friends that there have been several instances where the button on their side bar says "Follow" when I know, for a fact, that I have already followed them! This has also happened on challenge blogs!
  
  I have also had several friends say my blog (and others) have stopped showing up in their reader. It didn't occur to them that Blogger might have dropped them from someone's blog. So, please glance over at the side bar follower thumbnail here and on other sites you visit to make sure it says "Unfollow" indicating that you have not been dropped. If you have been dropped, please refollow.
  
• Double-click to follow. If you do need to refollow and you get the "Oops" error popup window stating that you cannot follow, just ignore it and double-click the "Follow" button again. Sometimes it takes more tries, but twice usually works. You will then get another window on top of the Oops window that gives text information and if you scroll down a bit, you will see a "Follow" button. Click that and then refresh the home page of the blog you are trying to follow.
  
  If you don't see your face as the first photo in the line-up after following, never fear, you should find yourself in the first of the "no-face" followers. I haven't figured out yet why the face thing is happening, but at least double-clicking "Follow" is allowing us to follow blogs again, which it hadn't been doing for many months.

~~~

Enjoy your day and your New Year's Weekend! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse! We are tickled that the boys will be spending the weekend with us so I'll see you in 2017!! I wish you all the very best for a happy and healthy new year filled with lots of love and giggles!

*Life is too short!

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Wishing You Joy!

'Twas the night before Christmas, 

And all through the Playhouse,

Not a hamster was stirring,

Not even the mouse.

The cards were all made and delivered with care,

I was so weary, my fingers worn bare.

I laid down my head, my eyelids did flutter.

"You sure love your friends," I heard Hammy mutter.

When out on the driveway,
There arose such a clatter,
The mailman came limping,
His gift bag made fatter.

Now Simon, now Altenew, now Concord & 9,

On SU, on Michael, on Amazon Prime.

To the front door so festive, the mailbox so deep,

Now stash away, stash away,  goodies to keep.

As I drew in my head and looked back on the mess,

to the floor I did sink, getting ink on my dress.

But I cared not a whit, for my eyes were all gleamy,

NBUS awaited, each project so dreamy!

Laying a finger on new dies and glitter,

the new year before me, my heart all atwitter,

I say to you stamplings, "May you craft with delight,

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

2016

Darnell J. Knauss
(with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore)

 Hammy and I and the whole family wish you the happiest of holidays
and the merriest of new years!

~~~

Rachel, Dan
Jack, Adam, Kevin, Darnell, Henry, Duke

~~~

The Hats ~ Year Twelve!

Adam and Henry

Jack and Duke

~~~

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

Enjoy your holiday in whatever way you celebrate!
No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* 
If this is a bittersweet holiday for you,
I send you special hugs and

I hope you enjoy remembering the good times!

Love,

*Life is too short!

Leaping Towards Christmas!

Happy Holiday Hello!

No more lollygagging and sauntering towards Christmas, people! Now we are full leap ahead!

To that end, I've got a coupla more cards to share with you. Some of you might have found that this little number leapt right into your Happy Mailbox!

Onefer:

I used a navy card which I splattered with white Stella to create a starry background. I cut the "Curved Merry Christmas" die from Memory Box using an Avery sticker label, which made it easy to peel and stick it to the card. The leaping stag is from W Plus 9, which I cut from SU adhesive cork. An eyeball gem and a dab of white on the tail added personality to the deer and that was that!

Challenges

• Moving Along With the Times: Christmas Scenes.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use your snippets!

~~~

Twofer:

I love copper embossing powder. Actually any of the metallics. So when SU came out with copper e/p, PLUS some stunning copper paper, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Here is my first make with my NBUS goodies. (Haha, I just realized I could have named this movement Never Before Used Goodies and if I had, the aackronym would have been NBUG! 😂)

Anyway, here's my card:

The wreath is from Stacy Stamps. The "Believe" is from Simon Says Stamp.

It's hard to see in the above photo that there is a strip of copper on each side of the white linen card panel:

Simple, but very effective with all that sheeniness!

~~~

Winner:

As promised in this post, today I have a winner for this die from Memory Box:

The winner is Maxine Diffy of Kiwime's Kreations! Congratulations, Maxine. I will send off your die immediately!

~~~

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

I'm sending warm hugs and best wishes to all those dealing with record-breaking frigid temperatures, ice storms, and snow throughout most of the country. And Happy Birthday love and hugs to Adam and Henry who turn 12 tomorrow!! WDTTG?!

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!

Pinterest

*Life is too short!

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

Click CTL + Home. 

Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post.

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Click "Jump to Comment Form" and walla, no more car pool tunnel!

Mwah!

If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me

your email address so I can respond. Thank you!

A Trio of EZPZ QACAS CCs. What?

Greetings, Stamplings!

If you're still beavering away on holiday preportations, I've got a card that will make you smile, no matter what:

I made this one-layer card with two different Purple Onion snowpeeps. I drew the landscape, sponged on a little color in the sky, and added dimensional snow with irRESISTible.

Twofer

From the silly to the serene, I made this one-layer card while at the Lake House:

I had a lot of fun working out the design with the help of several of the BABES. The tree is from Stampingbella. I borrowed the sediment from one of the BABES. In person, the beautiful silver ink is, well, beautiful:

Threefer

And finally, a simple dove of peace, matted in black:

Both the dove and the Peace are from Skipping Stones Design. I was going to do a second gold embossing because the coverage wasn't great the first time, but then Hammy said he rather liked the effect. Like Peace has seen better days, but it's still flying and trying.

Challenges

Onefer: 1) Less Is More: OLC Outlines; 2) Make My Monday: Show Me a Snowman; 3) Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge: Winter fun; and 4) Simon Says Stamp Monday: Let it snow.

Twofer: 1) Addicted to Stamps and More: Clean and simple; 2) Stamps Ink Paper: Winter holiday; and 3) The Merry Christmas Challenge: Christmas trees.

Threefer: 1) The Male Room: Christmas/Winter wishes & December celebrations; and 2) Uniko Challenge: Christmas.

~~~

You know how sometimes bad luck seems to go in cycles? Hopefully three at a time. Well, first it was the plumbing, then the computer, and now this week, it's been the furnace. We were without heat for 48 hours before we could get someone out to fix it. Fortunately, it wasn't too nasty cold like the 20, 30, and even 40 below freezing temps some of my family and friends are experiencing right now! It only got down to 54 inside the house overnight, but that's still chilly, Milly. Fortunately, further, we still like each other so we snuggled up and were able to stay warm.

I hope you are toasty warm wherever you are and that you 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:

Click CTL + Home. 

Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post.

Click Page Down to reach the end of the post.

Click Comments and a pop-up box opens.

Click "Jump to Comment Form" and walla, no more car pool tunnel!

Mwah!

If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me

your email address so I can respond. Thank you!

Day 10 - Twelve Days of Christmas Cards Challenge

Greetings from the Handmade Holiday Card Factory!

I'm as delighted as a polar bear with a large eggnog to be here today designing a card for Kylie's Twelve Days of Christmas Cards Challenge! Thank you, Kylie, for asking me to be a part of your challenge!

Do you need some last-minute inspiration? Do you have cards you haven't yet posted? Do you want an opportunity to win a prize? Do you just like to see what other card artists are doing? Well, awrighty then. Click the lick, er, link for all that and more!

But before you do, please let me show you what I've made to inspire you:

Everything on this card is NBUS which made Hammy and I high-five each other, forgetting that Hammy's little paw is a lot smaller than my hand. Well, of course, he went asp over tea-kettle and somersaulted his way across the desk, rolling up and over stamp pads of red, green, gold, blue, black, and melon mambo. I took a photo to show you before giving him a bath, but our computer is crashing several times a day (we think due to the latest update) so I lost it. I mean literally I lost the photo from the computer (and it had auto-erased from the camera), and figuratively I lost my cool because this endless crashing is getting so frustruating.

Sorry, I digest.

My card was made with a die* called "Holly Leaf Border" from Memory Box, number stamps from Kylie's Happy Little Stampers set called "Big Bold Numbers," a pretty green shimmery paper from PTI which shows through the die negative, and a tiny circle stamp from GKW which was used to add the festive berries in melon mambo. The big bold 25 was heat-embossed with Ranger "Gold Tinsel" embossing powder.

*I won the Memory Box die from a Rudolph Days Challenge. 🙌[Is that applause or shouting?] The fabulous Maureen who runs the challenge sent me two of the dies so I could pass on the love to you. Thank you, Mo! I am going to offer the second one as a prize today! On December 19th, I will choose a random winner from the comments on this post. Please say in your comment if you are NOT interested in the drawing.

Here is a closer look at the schparkly sheen:

I hope you have some time to check out all the fabulous cards made by Kylie and friends and all the pretty gallery entries. It would be really wonderful if you also linked up one of your brilliant cards!

Kylie's Challenge

There are three sponsors making this challenge even more fun. Each of these sponsors is giving away a $20 gift certificate to their company. 

Happy Little Stampers

STAMPlorations

Create A Smile

Kylie's Linky tool will remain open on her blog until 12 PM (AEST) December 17, 2016.

~~~

I'm also entering:

• Always Use Rubber: Festival.
• Inkspirational: CAS with sparkle.
• Memory Box Challenge: Marvelous metallics. My card has metallic shimmer in the paper and metallic bold in the numbers.

~~~

Obviously, with my computer crashing all the time, I haven't been able to visit many of you. Grrr! As it happens I was away from my computer most of the last three days anyway because I discovered 54 names I had unintentionally omitted from my label lists! So after finishing, signing, and mailing over 200 cards, I was back at it for another round. Hopefully today will be better, this post will publish correctly, and I'll visit you soon. Ginfers crossed!

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:

Click CTL + Home. 
Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post.
Click Page Down to reach the end of the post.
Click Comments and a pop-up box opens.
Click "Jump to Comment Form" and walla, no more car pool tunnel!
Mwah!
If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me

your email address so I can respond. Thank you!