Panda Posies and Preggers

Greetings, Stamplings!

I hope you are having a lovely weekend! Along with all the beautiful blossoms this time of year comes all the unbeautiful allergies! I don't usually suffer from allergies, although the Mister does, but today my eyeballs were not happy about some pollen or other. God bless all your sneezey noses!

Onefer 

Speaking of sneezey noses, I hope you can see the little bouquet of posies that the sweet panda bear is smelling. His name is Razzle and he's going over Hill and under Dale to dazzle his friend Parsnip. Right now he is having a bit of a sit down to wait out the rain shower so he doesn't get his posies or his toesies wet.

I used lots of snippets and different companies for this one. The umbrella and raindrops are from Simon Says Stamp, "Umbrella Shaker." Part of the die makes raindrops so I used the negative as a stencil to lightly pounce raindrops in the background using (what else) PTI's Spring Rain ink.

The NBUS panda is from Fiskars, "Day at the Zoo." The NBUS "friend" is from "Friends Forever" by Clearly Besotted and the rest of the NBUS sediment is from Hero Arts. 

Challenges

• CAS on Sunday: Use a stencil.
• Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes With Dies: AG.
• The Heart Desires: Spring photo challenge.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use your snippets!
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Showers and/or flowers.
• Watercooler Wednesday: Spring.

~~~

Twofer

It looks like someone is having a baby!

I used my NBUS stitched frame dies from Die-Namics. The young mother-to-be is a sweet image sent to me with several others by my friend Aileen. (Thank you, Aileen!) The sediment is from Your Next Stamp, "Whatnot Sentiments Four." 

I thought this stamped image (which I colored with Ziggies and pencils) would be perfect for this week's CASology challenge which is "Grow!" I'm also entering the current Your Next Stamp color challenge and the first anniversary (congratulations CWS!) challenge at Creative With Stamps which is "Baby."

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A Bit of a Breakie Poo

I'm going to step away from the computer for a coupla weeks or so. I can't believe it's almost May. I'm either slowing way down or Father Time is on speed ~ prolly both! 

So what's happened is I feel like I'm never going to finish my big box of half-made cards or try out my long list of techniques if I don't take a break from Blogland. It really is true that we see lots more squirrels as we get older and you talented artists keep distracting me with more all the time! I need to dedicate some time for concentrating on those things you've already inspired me to create.

Not to mention that it's spring which means purging and cleaning are calling me. I've been making cards and blogging the last few years and now things in both the Bighouse and the Playhouse really need a good Purge and Polish. 

I will be checking my emails/comments from you. If you do a post that you know I'd love to see, please feel free to send me an email to let me know. Otherwise, I'll be back to visit your blogs and challenges before you know it! Hammy and I will be rejuvenated and spiffed up with a lot of cards to share!

I hope! You know what happens to the best-laid plans ... and besides, I'll miss you, so we'll see how long I can stay away!💋

~~~

Enjoy your days to come!  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!  

*Life is too short!

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Spring Pinks and Greens

Greetings, Stamplings!

Welcome back after another holiday under the belt! And I mean literally under the belt. Oof! 

Wait. What? Who am I kidding? My waist hasn't seen a belt since the last century! When I say "Enjoy your day" at the end of my posts, I want you to know I embody those words, right here em my body!

My Onefer.

I used MFT stitched dies and inlaid the oval. The lovely lacy grasses are from GKW and the NBUS flowers are from SU's "Simply Soft" set. In the published photo the flowers look more red than pink, but I promise I used pink and rose Ziggies to watercolor the petals. The "enjoy" sediment is from Paper Smooches "Yummers" set. Simples.

Challenges

• CAS Watercolour Cards: Pink and green.
• CAS(E) This Sketch!
• TIME OUT: I hope it's okay to switch out the butterflies for flowers.
• Less Is More: Spring walk.

~~~

My Twofer.

I had to get this Concord & 9th "Happy Day" stamp and die set after seeing a lot of you make stunning cards with it and I finally excavated it from Mt. NBUS yesterday. It makes either be a pretty feminine birthday cake or a scrummy wedding cake. 

I used my Ziggies to color the image and popped it up with dimensionals so the frosting wouldn't get all over the place.  The sediment is from Stamping All Day; I love how it just fits in that cake layer. The ribbon is from SU. A corner chomper chompered the corners. Simples again.

Challenges

• The Flower Challenge. I hope it's okay that a cake is attached to my flowers.
• Just Us Girls: Colour challenge.

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Good Times.

Our Easter was lovely! We didn't remember to take many photos, but I have a few to share. Below is our son Dan and his wife Rachel enjoying their Easter egg hunt for candy:

Haha, they are actually hiding the eggs, but it does look like they are being big kids and finding them, doesn't it?!

And here are the twinlets after they finished the hunting:

Their legs are getting pretty long for the traditional sitting-on-the-step-after-finding-all-the-eggs photo! Speaking of legs, those are mine in the background in my new pink Keds with little bunnies on them!

And what do you do with two active boys when the rains arrive and you want them out of the house while you finish getting dinner? Why you send them out to their Bama's Playhouse and give them a stack of pp to make helmets out of wire planter baskets. Here is Adam modeling his:

It was a successful distraction and it turns out they have incredible paper-piecing skills!!

Sorry we didn't get any photos of the four woofers in attendance. 🐶🐶🐶🐶

~~~

I'm off to make my ham and bean soup! 

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 to return the flavor!

*Life is too short!

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Maybe I Got Carried Away ...

Greetings, Stamplings!

I hope this finds you well! 

If you celebrate Easter, you are no doubt walking around the grocery store with fingers that are purple blue green and yellow from dying Easter eggs with the kidlings! If not, and your fingers are normally multi-colored from inks, this is the one time of year no one will look at you funny!

No Easter-egg dying is going on here, but I am preparing for the grandsons to arrive with their parents and dogs on Saturday. Which means I'm knee-deep in candy wrappers as I am obligated to taste-test every other nuglet for quality assurance porpoises prior to placing candy in the plastic Easter eggs to be hidden.

The things grandmothers are forced to do!

I'm also knee-deep and hell-bent on using my SU succulent die and stamp set for all its worth before I put it away. If I put extra bits and bobs in The Box, I never go back in there and use any of it. Slap! So 'using schtuff while I'm using schtuff' is another new leaf I'm trying to turn over this year. 

Let's start with these. To save you a bunch of scrolling, I've collaged them for you:

Sorry about the exposure and shadowing in some of the photos today. I had to contend with intersmitten April showers, sunshine, and clouds. (Since this is a photo-heavy post, I'm leaving off the ingredients of my cards, but please feel free to ask for any details.)

~~~

Then what happened was Hammy and I saw this fun tag Joyce made for the current Tag You're It! challenge:

We thought one of our plump succulents would work for that:

Besides the large pompom, I was inspired by Joyce's kitkat and the encouraging sediment!

I'm also joining in the CASology Challenge where the cue card is "strong." The message conveyed here is for the recipient to stay strong and remain hopeful!

~~~

While I started a new design, Hammy stuck the tag to a cream-colored card base and later I added a ribbon from the stash. 

(Hammy, bless, gets upset every now and then because he can't tie bows so he went off to sulk for a bit.)

~~~

These are the cards I made with the smaller succulents in the set:

I don't normally do a lot of layering on cards, but I really had fun filling these window boxes.

Challenges

• CAS Mix Up: Stamping, inlaid die-cutting, and dry embossing.
• Shopping Our Stash: Use punches and/or dies.

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And the last bits:

I'll leave you with this photo and then I think I'm done with succulents for a minute.

This froggie birdbath is right outside my Playhouse door and yesterday I noticed this! Smell test or taste test?

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Thank you!!

April Fool's Boo Boo Hop and NBUS Challenge #11

Last, but certainly not least, I want to let you know how much I appreciate all of your entries in the challenge, especially considering it is spring break time for a lot of you! 

There were 159 entries and I enjoyed every one of them! 

Kudos to you for sharing your boo boos ~ which were a hoot! ~ and/or sharing the NBUS you are using! Pat yourself on the back! 

Of course now I've ordered all kinda new NBUS thanks to you, so my own Mt. NBUS has gotten even higher! And so it grows! Remember you don't need my challenge to use your NBUS! I love seeing it all over Blogland all the time!! Mwah!!

~~~

Enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy!  LITS!*  And if I don't make it back before Sunday because I'm in a chocolate coma, Happy Easter!!

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 to return the flavor!

*Life is too short!

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Succulent City / Reminder NBUS #11 Ends Tuesday

Hi there! Happy Sunday Funday!

I hope you're in the middle of a happy happy weekend! I'm going to get right to it because this is a heavy pitcher post. Go get your glass and I'll wait a sec.

Those of you who have seen my garden art wall know that my son and DIL have passed their love of succulents on to me. It took me a while to understand that (at least in this climate) succulents are not the same as cacti and they do not like full sun for hours every day. Once I cottoned on to the idea, I had very good luck with them.

Hence, I bought the Stampin' Up "Oh So Succulent" stamps and dies and DSP when they came out. Of course, then they sat on Mt. NBUS, but no judgment.

I used a sketch for the layout which gave me the opportunity to send Hammy over to excavate Mt. Ribbon, further down the range. Don't worry, he had a backpack with wodka and sunscreen. The ribbon is from SU from years ago. The fishtail banner is from MFT and the sediment is from PTI, stamped in Raspberry Ripple. (I tried Raspberry Ripple once at a picnic, but thankfully there are no photos from the ensuing May hem.)

There are several different patterns in the DSP package so I decided to die cut a few succulents in different colors while I had everything out. These will keep me busy for a bit. 

There are smaller succulents in the set, too, so I plan to have another card design using those soon.

Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: Anything goes.
• Shopping Our Stash: Tie one on.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Happy Birthday.
• Watercooler Wednesday: A sketch by Libby.

~~~

I hope you'll indulge me while I share some photos of springtime among my succulents. 

Below is a time-elapse of a succulent "flower" that has been growing for just a few weeks:

Below is another one with three flowers going off in different directions. It used to be full and tight with clusters until a naughty squirrel broke some off checking for his nuts. The nut.

We had a wild rainstorm yesterday followed by sunshine, so I quickly got my camera. Enjoy!

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2nd Annual April Fool's Boo Boo Hop and NBUS Challenge #11 Reminder

The challenge ends on Tuesday at 11:55 PM PST so dump out that NBUS basket and lemme see what you make with it!

Wait. What? No, silly, I don't mean the basket, I mean the NBUS!

Thank you, my friends! I'm loving all the entries, both boo-boos or NBUS ~ or both!

~~~

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 to 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 the pop-up box opens.
Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, 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!