A Christmassy Happy Halloween!!

Hello, Stamplings!

Happy Halloween to all of you who celebrate! (But, surely, you do, right? What other time of the year can you justify having a 12-pound bag of small chocolate bars open right in plain sight? You know, as opposed to hidden in the drawer.) I hope the weather cooperates for the little trick-or-treaters so they don't have to wear winter coats to cover up their fabulous costumes!

I do have a Halloweenie card for you, but first off today I'm honored to be the Guest Designer for this week's CASology Challenge #273, thanks to my fruit loop card of a few weeks ago! This week the cue card word is LIST and here's my inspiration for you:

That very strong kitty is from Penny Black's set, "Joy to the World." I operated on the stamp to remove the gift he was holding, stamped him, masked him, and then stamped the giant pencil in his hands. 

The pencil and the note paper are both from the Paper Smooches set, "Smarty Pants." To make the LIST two pages, I stamped and masked the first page and then off-set the second page behind it. 

The fabulous Christmas light necklace was made with a hand-drawn string and repeat stamping of a tiny light from Stamps By Judith. It's hard to see, but lots of Winking was used in the creation of this card!

Here is your cue card badge for this week:

We would love to see how this word trips your creative clean and simple trigger! For more inspiration, please click over to the CASology blog to see what the incredible Design Team has made for you!!

Challenges

• Jingle Belles: Not a Creature Was Stirring.
• Rudolph Days Christmas Challenge: Anything Goes Christmas.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: All Creatures Great and Small.

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As promised, here is the Happy Halloween card that Hammy and I made for you!

Three Oxies were blended and Hammy rather enthusiastically splattered the area with water. The glossified candy corns were made using an ancient candy corn stamp from Hero Arts, which I repeatedly stamped every whichaway to make a border. The sediment is an even older wooden stamp from an OOB company called California Rubber Stamp.

Challenges

• AAA Cards: Ink Blending.
• The Heart Desires: Mood Board.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.
• Use Your Stuff: Halloween.

 

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Enjoy your day, those cute costumeers, and all that candy!  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! I hope to see you over at CASology!

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling: 
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Autumn Birthday and Wine Labels as Card Art

Hello, Stamplings!

How are you? I hope that today was better than yesterday for you! Not that yesterday wasn't a good day, just that wouldn't it be awesome if every day was better than the day before? I mean, it's not like anyone ever got sick or died from contentment overload, right?

I've been rocking out my November, December, and January birthday cards so I can put on my Christmas helmet and headset and knuckle down making holiday cards only.

Here is the autumn card. (Don't look if you are a card pen pal of mine and you have an autumn birthday!)

Harriet came over last week and we had a fun time crafting and having lunch. She loaned me her PTI "Autumn Wishes" and "Winter Wishes" for my cards. The border is Washi tape. QACAS!

Challenges

• The Heart Desires: Autumn mood board.
• Inkspirational: Autumn photo.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything goes.
• Stamp Ink Paper: Product: Washi tape.
• Stamping Sensations: Autumn glory.
• Words 2 Craft By: Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

Here is a photo of the cards I made all laid out across my desk. About a half-dozen were cards in my stash, so I only needed to make about 40 cards.

I could have sworn Hammy was on the desk when I took that photo. Bless, he was so pumped up and proud of all the ways he helped me get the job done, but I think he went into hiding because I told him that next I was going to teach him how to sign my name!

⏩Seeing all those cards reminds me ~ I was talking to Sheila the other day and we got on the subject of reading or hearing about crafters who have huge stashes of cards that they don't know what to do with. One woman talked about throwing her handmade cards away! Listen, if you have cards that you don't know what to do with, email me and I can give you several suggestions of groups that would be delighted to have your cards!! Or send them to me and I will reimburse you for the postage! Thank you! ⏪

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A long time ago (cough), Maria sent me some gorgeous wine labels and I recently used them to make cards. I thought now would be a good time to post them, in honor of the 22 wineries that were damaged or destroyed in the recent wildfires in Napa and Sonoma:

The two "Cheers" cards were used for anniversary cards. Thank you, Maria! I think they made really cool cards!

~~~

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!

(source unknown)

*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! p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond.  Thank you!

Hammy's At Pixie's Playground ~ Cousin Hammie's a What?!

Hello, Stamplings!

We've had a wee bit of rain! It wasn't enough to completely extinguish all the fires, but it helped the firefighters tremendously which is a huge relief. I'm feeling better with the clear air and return of blue skies. I hope where you are, things are sunny, too!

I am delighted to be Guest Designing for my very good friend Di over at Pixie's Crafty Workshop. Of course, Hammy wanted to be involved since he went all the way to England with me to meet a lot of the Pixie Playmates last year! Not to mention, Di has her own special critter named Parsnip and the two of them are fast friends.

Isn't him so cute eating his cookie?! The NBUS hamster stamp is from the "Hammie Coffee & Tea" set by Your Next Stamp. Naturally we HAD to have this set of stamps and dies! The fun NBUS sediment is from Riley and Company. 

The background dotted pp is from SU and the watercolor pink paper is from Lawn Fawn. I just love it when I can stamp directly onto a piece of pp and use that schtuff up! Hammie is die cut and popped up for a little bit of dementia.

If you have been friends here for a long time, you are familiar with Pixie's and it's been great to see a lot of you join in the fun at the Playground over the years. Di and her challenge regulars are a hoot! They will all make you feel welcome and half the fun is reading their comments! It's definitely a friendly place to make friends and it always feels good to use something from that scrappile!

If you are not familiar with Di and her challenge, the only requirement for playing is that you use at least one scrap (snippet) on your creation. Just like I encourage you to use your NBUS, Di encourages you to use your leftovers and she's been doing so for a long time which we all appreciate! (Of course, when I say leftovers, I mean papers and ribbons and schtuff, but Di is also pleased when you reheat last night's dinner for today's lunch.)

Thank you, Di, for the opportunity to be a guest designer at the Playground!

~~~

And here's my twof ... wait a second. What?

Are those vampire teeth?! We don't really know this branch of the family very well, thank goodness, but every family does have their little monster!!

Challenges

• Addicted to CAS: Pumpkins.
• City Crafter Challenge: Pumpkins.
• Less Is More: Monsters.
• TIME OUT Challenges: Photo.
• Your Next Stamp: Color Challenge.

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Real quick. I've seen this car driving around in our neighborhood for quite a while, but until now, I've never had the chance to catch it when it was just sitting in the person's driveway!

How about that?! Hammy got quite becited, so one of these days we are going to go by and introduce ourselves!

~~~

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!

(source unknown)

*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! p.s. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Thank you!

Ornaments and Elephants Are Playing in the Band

Hello, Stamplings!

I hope this finds you well. My thoughts and prayers are with my friends in the UK in the wake of Hurricane Ophelia. I hope everyone is okay.

I want to apologize for not being around to visit you as much as I'd like. I seem to be having an allergic reaction to the smoke in the air from the fires or from something blooming which is making my eyes watery and painful. It makes squinting at the computer no fun. We are miles from the areas that are still burning, so I can't even imagine what it must be like for those who are right in the thick of it.

I am still making cards however, in between resting with a cool wodka-soaked washcloth over my eyes. (Don't be silly. I wouldn't waste wodka like that.)

Oopzees, I seemed to have dropped an ornament in my drinkie poo. On a watercolor card base, I heat-embossed this fun image from Stamping Bella in gold and painted it with my Ziggies. The delish beverage is properly Winked. The NBUS gold-embossed sediment is from Sunny Studio stamps. The border paper next to the strip of glossy gold is also glossy. The pink finish has a gold-embossed pattern. Definitely a card for the supper club set.

Challenges.

• Jingle Belles: "Pink Christmas For the Cure" in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month. Please try and play along: for every card that is entered, Stef and Lauren will each donate two dollars to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation!
• Merry Monday: Ornaments.

~~~

Speaking of sorry, I'm sorry that the angle of the dangle doesn't really show the textured panel on my card cuz it kinda looks like elephant skin. This sad and sorry Ellie is NBUS from Katzelkraft. I just drew the sun in the corner to add some extra interest and maintain the "rule of threes" to balance out the scene. You know, like I know what I'm talking about.

I used watercolor pencils for this one, just to be different. My corner chomper chomped one corner. Ellie was liberally Winked. I'm sorry you can't see it.

I'm also sorry to say splatters weren't originally part of the design. What happened was Hammy sneezed with a snootful of pomegranate juice. You should've seen it before I blotted it with a tissue. It looked like a crime scene. If I hadn't blotted it, you would've thought Ellie was sorry for the fact that she just murdered her cousin Eugenia after Eugenia got into Ellie's secret stash of bamboo leaves even though she looked Ellie straight in the eyes and promised she wouldn't go around behind the shed.

I'm entering this in the current CASology challenge: Sorry. I mean, I'm not sorry I'm entering; "sorry" is the cue card this week.

~~~

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!

(source unknown)

*Life is too short! Gotta love CCR!

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Stenciled QACAS Stars

Hello, Stamplings!

Welcome to a wonderful new week! How are you? I hope you're fine and you had a fun weekend! 

Are you enjoying fall? Have you noticed how things seem to quiet down once school starts again and the days are shorter and darker? Critters migrate and we don't blame them. We pull out our winter clothes and start nesting for the colder months. 

For card artists, thoughts turn slowly towards Christmas ... okay, knock off the poetry! Let's face it: our thoughts don't turn all gentle and zen-like towards Christmas. More like our heads whip around like Regan in The Exorcist when we realize it's only (cough) short weeks until our cards need to be in the mail! I know you know what I mean. I can see the sweat beading on your upper lip.

Well, never fear. Hammy is here with a QACAS OLC that you may steal CASE for batch-making!

QACAS=quick and clean and simple; OLC=one-layer card; CASE=copy and share everything.

All you need is a stencil, some ink, some finger daubers, a mask, and a Christmas sediment. It's better if the mask is some type of something to cover an area of your card that you don't want inked, but if you want to wear your Minnie Mouse mask while you're stamping, I'm okay with that.

I laid down a strip of painter's tape where I wanted my sediment to be, then I used my finger daubers to bounce the inks through a star stencil. I used a stencil that was a gift from Lolly. I used Oxie inks in nontraditional colors of broken china and wilted violet and faded denim. The sediment is, I believe, from MFT. The lines were drawn with my faded denim DI marker.

And thazit. I made several others using different ink colors and also a different design where I masked off a portion of the stars in a diagonal pattern with a diagonal Christmas sediment.

It's an easy way to make a colorful and mailable card with minimal effort. When you have lots of Ccs to make, that's the name of the game!

Challenges.

• Inkspirational: Designers Choice: one-layer card.
• Less Is More: One-layer card/stars. I hope there is an acceptable amount of white or "empty" space. I mean, if you narrow your eyes and let those smaller stars recede into the background, you'll remember that in space there are bazillions of light years of depth in between stars. That's a LOT of empty space, right?! 
• The Merry Christmas Challenge: Anything goes.

~~~

Just a QACAS quickie post for me this time! 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!

(source unknown)

*Life is too short!

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Fallish Into Fall

Hello, Stamplings!

I want to let you know that I, The Mister, and Hammy, and the rest of the family, are all fine and not involved in the devastating fires happening very near us in northern California. We are only being impacted by the terrible smell and smoky haze. Thank you for your emails expressing your concern.

It has been heart-wrenching to see the destruction and loss of life. I know your praying knees are getting worn out with all the natural disasters of late, but if you can manage it, please pray for (or send positive thoughts to) those families who have been impacted and for the legions of fire-fighters working tirelessly to stop the inferno. Thank you.

~~~

I've gone a little fallish with my first card today. The flower and butterfly have warm orange and brown tones, but I kept it light by cutting the frame from the opposite side of the color wheel:

I've used this stamp from Rubbernecker before and even used very similar colors because I love the look. I used my Ziggies to ink directly to the stamp before spritzing and stamping onto watercolor paper. The NBUS square stitched frame die is from MFT and the stitched border is from Lil Inkers. The Monarch butterfly is from my garden.

Stop it. It's a 3D sticker.

Challenges

• Addicted to CAS: Favorite stamp.
• I had to play in The Flower Challenge to help Aileen and her talented DT celebrate their First Blogaversary and to once again ink up this favorite flower stamp! Congratulations!
• Freshly Made Sketches
• Moving Along With the Times: Autumn/fall.

~~~

My twofer went all the way fall ... and we all fall down. Now you have a "Ring Around the Rosie" earworm. Sorry.

This is another favorite stamp of mine which I paint every year. It's rewarding to see how my skills have evolved. The stamp is "Fall Leaves" from Stamps Happen. The NBUS sediment stamp is "Scripty Holiday Greetings" from The Ton.

Before painting with my Ziggies, I heat-embossed the image in platinum.

This season is brief, but it certainly is colorful!

ETA: Reader and friend Lu C is very sharp-eyed! She left me a comment noticing that there is no "s" in the the word Thanksgiving on my card! Sure enough! I never even noticed! The plastic covering that comes with the stamps shows the word with an "s," so I was confounded until The Mister told me to look at the stamp itself. D'oh! When I held the stamp up to the light, I could see that the "s" is missing! I alerted The Ton and they immediately apologized and are sending a new set without the boo-boo. Thank you to them and thank you, Lu C!! 

Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: Holiday.
• Cards in Envy: Blowing in the wind (fall leaves).
• Another First Blogaversary celebration that I couldn't miss is happening at the CAS Watercolour Challenge. Congratulations to Loll and Bonnie and their amazing DT!
• Less Is More: Hot and Spicy.
• Simon's WCMD Challenge

~~~

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!

(source unknown)

*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!

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

your email address so I can respond.  Thank you!