A Pool Boy and a Snazzy Silhouette Dress

Hi Honey Stamplings, I'm home!

Did you miss me? Did the dog run away trying to find me and the cat go up a tree? 

I squired Hammy away with me in the suitcase and we had a blast while we were away! Wait. What? I wasn't in the suitcase, he was! More reunion talk below, but for those who just want to see cards in this space, I have a couple that I made before I left which I didn't have time to post.

Onefer.

This old gas bag is no doubt known to a lot of you and I never tire of her! I used to draw a ciggie in her hand, but that's so last century and no longer acceptable. When I recently got the NBUS sediment from Verses Rubber Stamps, I immediately thought it would be perfect for her. I meant to add some clouds, but I, well, I forgot.

Challenges

• CAS Mix Up Challenge: Watercolour wash (sky and lawn) + stamping + die cutting (scalloped border).
• Double D Challenges: Sentiments/Quotes. They can be silly, right?
• Retro Rubber: Anything goes. I've been stamping this lovely lay-about lady laying out for years and years. She is a vo stamp from Art Impressions.
• Stamp Ink Paper: Watercolor. In addition to the background washes, I watercolored the image with my Ziggies.

Twofer.

The jewel-toned background of this card was in my UCB box. I made it ages ago by smearing my Ziggies onto an acrylic block, spritzing it with water, and then stamping it onto paper. I actually still have a few of these spritzed arty backgrounds in the box. When I saw the challenge at Just Us Girls (which I missed, darn it) was "Block Watercolor Stamping," I pulled this background out and attached it to a coordinating colored card base. Now what? 

I turned and whistled over my shoulder for Hammy, who was busy in the neighbor's fig tree. (Figs are like crack for the field mice, roof rats, raccoons, and little domesticated hamsters in the neighborhood!) With the promise that he could go right back to stuffing his face, Hammy cleaned himself off in the birdbath and sat on the window sill to see what my panic was. He is so great at remembering the challenges, he immediately told me to add a silhouette.

The NBUS silhouette die I chose was "Princess Dress" from Memory Box. As my friend Lolly says, silhouettes can be any color, but for this background, I felt black was best. The NBUS sediment is from Paper Smooches.

Challenges

• CAS Watercolour Card Challenge. Silhouette.
• Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge. Silhouette.
• Sunday Stamps: Autumn colors.

~~~

Reunion Memories.

One of the many pleasant experiences of my trip back to the Midwest was meeting my bloggie friend, Pat McCleary. 

Pat is a lovely lady who makes beautiful cards, but she doesn't have a blog to share them. I found out she was a fan when she sent me a complimentary email in 2013 telling me how much my blog brightened her day. Well that made MY day! I feel blessed to have finally been able to meet her on this trip!

We all have silent friends out there reading our blogs who we don't know about because they either don't follow us or don't have blogs of their own. I haven't said so in too long: to all of you silent supporters, thank you very much!

~~~

I only have a couple of photos of me at the reunion because I was busy taking photos. Here is a group photo of all of us. I'm over on the right.

And here I am with two of my oldest friends ~ not in terms of their age, but the age of our friendship:

That's Glenda on the left and Mary Beth on the right. I made the photo black and white because I couldn't figure out why the color photo gave us all neon green hair! And, yes, for the eagle-eyed among you, the buttons Glenda and I are wearing are made from our senior class photos. Fun idea!

~~~ 

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

I'm going to sleep for two days and then I'll be back on Sunday for opening day of NBUS Challenge #12! See you then! 

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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