Merry Christmas 2018!

Hello Stamplings!

Here's a baby moose to help me and Hammy wish you all a Merry Christmas:

He makes me smile and I love that he is a QACAS OLC, although looking at him now, I wish I'd put a Christmas bow on one of his antlers. He's a NBUS stamp from the Unity Stamp Company and he was Ziggified by me and winked by Hammy. Hammy has decided to call him Maynard. It's a rather big handle for the little guy, but I have a feeling he will grow into it.

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I am also sharing our traditional photo of Henry and Adam celebrating their 14th birthday wearing the birthday hats they have put on every year since their very first birthday (which seems like it was only about five months ago!). What good sports!

And Justin Case you are feeling badly that they have to share such a wee cake between two strapping young men, this is their second 14th birthday celebration and cake!

And here they are after they decorated our tree! Thank you, boys!

Speaking of hats, Hammy wanted in on the fun!

Long-time friends of my blog will remember that Hammy is a devoted father. When he was away recently he went to visit three of the offspring who stayed close by and they recorded their usual annual Christmas concert. Thanks to my friend Jeanne, you can find it here: Have a Merry Christmas and a Hamster New Year!

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I want to thank all of you for another fun year! I cherish your friendship and the support and encouragement you've shown me with your visits and comments. I sincerely appreciate all of you who have stayed on in our loving Bloggie community and those of you who don't comment, but are still dedicated followers.

May you enjoy all of the blessings of this wonderful holiday as you celebrate the birth of Baby Jesus with your family and friends. And special hugs to those of you for whom the holidays are a really hard time. Mwah!

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Enjoy! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* 

*Life is too short!

Christmas Tree Lots or Lots of Christmas Trees

Hello Stamplings!

Real quick, honest, I promise, here are some Christmas cards I made with trees on them:

These designs arose from that line of evergreen trees which came from NBUS stamp I purchased on my fall trip. It is E7724 from Impression Obsession. I kept the color schematic of blues and greens on all the cards, changing up the designs as you see and using different technicurls of scoring, schplattering, Clarity brush blending, debossing, die-cutting, and sediments. For each design, the trees were direct-to-stamp colored, spritzed, and stamped.

Sometimes it's fun to do batch-making and sometimes it's fun to see how many different designs you can make with one stamp. I got a nice fourfer out of this sitting!

Challenges

• CAS on Friday: Make a Christmas card #2.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Christmas.
• Stinkin' Inkers: Winter wonderland. 
• Use Your Stuff: Christmas/Holidays.

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The star of the show for these QACAS designs is the NBUS Washi tape from the Impress stamp store in Seattle. It is wide and schparkly and divine in person. I found several shades of icy blue ancient cardstock in my stash that worked perfectly with the colors in the tape. The white heat-embossed sediment on all the cards is from Penny Black's "Full of Merriment" set.

Hammy had the day off from winking, but wants to say hello and cheer you on with your holiday preptivities!

Is he smoking a cigar? Playing the flute? No, it's just a lovely expensive seedling that he only gets at Christmas time because it comes from Madagascar and has to be flown overnight in a refrigerated case on a sleigh pulled by eight tiny reindeer.

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

I'll be taking a bloggie break except to pop back in on Christmas Day. The grandtwins turn 14 tomorrow (!) so between that and Christmas, there will be lots of family celebrating in the next coupla weeks. Even so, I hope to find time to visit and catch up with those of you I've neglected during this busy year. Mwah!

*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 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!)

Holly and Joy, Two Girls From School

Hello Stamplings!

I'm in a rush. Yesterday I was in a tizzy. I'm sure tomorrow I'll be in volved. You feel me, right?

I'm popping in to share a coupla cards while my sugar cookies are baking in someone else's oven, she says hopefully.

This is Holly. She's from Stampin' Up. Her base color is platinum (natural) and her green and red accents are by Zigfield Ziggies. Just before she walked down the red carpet paneled runway, she was lightly winked by Hammy. She schparkled when the floodlights hit her as she walked with Grace. Grace was there to steady Holly because Holly is getting up there in years, yet somehow she never gets old.

Challenges

• Back to Basics: Resist technique.
• CAS Mix Up Card: Emboss resist, plus stamping, plus watercoloring.
• CAS Watercolour Card: Thank you.

Twofer.

And here we have Joy. Joy prefers to lie horizontal along a card for photos. She's a rather large-boned die and unlike the other girls in her family, she can't quite fit in the vertical position. I can relate. But, goodness, isn't she a beauty with her O turned into a filigreed fresh-fallen snowflake? Her full name is Seed Snowflake Joy and she came to me from Poppystamps. I dressed her in a cream bolero over a gold-infused coral* watercolor paper. 

Challenges

• Poppystamps: Merry & Bright.
• SSS Wednesday: Christmas.
• Watercooler Wednesday: All about occasions. Congrats on your 200th challenge!!!

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*Coral is the color of the new year declared Pantone. I'm not sure who Pantone is, but it's their job to tell us. I decorated my home in corals and blues back in the late 70s. The new color makes sense because have you noticed that lately you're seeing your old clothes (or your mom's) everywhere on the telly? Suddenly actresses aren't wearing the form-fitting gorgeous sheath dresses. Instead, they're wearing dresses with elastic waists (like old Simplicity patterns I used to make!) or long halter dresses that I used to love. Pants are high-waisted and flowery blouses have flowing sleeves. 

At first I thought I was having flashbacks that no one else could see (don't judge, I'm on a lot of meds), but then my friend told me at lunch yesterday she noticed the same thing. I mean, even wallpaper is making a comeback. What can be next? Pant suits, blue eye shadow, and headbands?

I love the memories it all brings back and the fact that I've lived long enough to see it cycle back! For proof, yes, that's little ol' me in a grainy photo taken August 1970. I'm looking adoringly at the Mister from atop the ferris wheel at Asbury Park, NJ. Aaaah.

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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 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!)

Schparkly Stars and a Spiffy Schnowman!

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are doing well with your holiday preps. The kids will be out of school soon, so you don't have long to finish up your secret shopping and wrapping. It's the hiding of the gifts that's the hardest part of all. Children suddenly develop bloodhound noses for locating presents this time of year. Have you ever hidden gifts so well, you still haven't found that Magic Card Game you hid back in 1988?! You should look again in the back of your sock drawer.

Things are calming down in Chez Playhouse. Thank you for all your good wishes following my torquing of the torso business. I'm fine. I mean, generally speaking, in the very broadest of general terms not counting psychic logically.

Today I'm playing in a few challenges as the year is wrapping up with a bow. You can read that bow as in ribbon or bow as in curtsy. You have to love a language that's so versatile. Anyway, it's nice to have a head-start on next year's cards or have a few in Abeyance in case I forgot someone this year.

My friend Barb sent me this awesome NBUS "Shooting star" die from My Favorite Things for my birthday last summer.  I paired it with some pretty pink paper cut with an Avery Elle "Dotted Die" and a silver heat-embossed sediment from PTI. The silver lamé panel is from Christmas Dior. QACAS!

Challenges

• ABC Christmas: Y and Z. Z for zero embellishments.
• CAS Christmas Card: Stars.
• SSS Work It Wednesday: Ho Ho Ho.

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The companion gold lamé panel (both gifts from my friend Lottie) was used as a backdrop for this adorable NBUS wooden stamp from Stampendus that I purchased on my trip to Indiana in October. The sediment is from Stampabilities. Both were gold heat-embossed and the coloring was done by Ziggies. Hammy winked the gold star as he is wont to do.

Challenges

• Cards in Envy: The spirit of Christmas.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday: Warm winter wishes.
• TIME OUT: Joyful.

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And here we have a super cute and preppily dressed little NBUS snowman! He was stamped and die-cut and Ziggified. The snowflake stencil, brushed with Salty Ocean Oxie, is from my friend Lolly. The snowman, birds, and sentiment are all NBUS from My Favorite Things's "Cooler With You" set. I thought it would make a sweet holiday thank you card.

Challenges

• City Crafter: Snowflakes.
• Just Add Ink: Just add "I." As in ink.
• MFT Sketch: below.
• Paper Players: Color challenge: red, green, and my choice of blue.

 

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NOTE: There will be no Twofer Card Challenge this month as we take time off for the holidays, but I did do a comprehensive post over on the blog explaining the concept of the challenge and giving examples. I wanted to let you know Justin Case you're interested and would like to check it out: Illuminating Definitions. Thank 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 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!)

Batchin' It With Christmas Cards

Hello Stamplings!

Gosh, how quiet Blogland is as we all hunker down to work on our cards! How are you doing with yours?

Over here it's been a week of interruptus and I need that right now like I need a bee in my bloomers.

First of all, on Sunday I cleaned up my desk feeling all smug because all my cards were sent out and I even had four left over. Then I discovered two sheets of labels that had slipped under other papers on my desk. 😱

Monday morning I walked into the Playhouse and was greeted by the sight of itty-bitty creepy ants all over the floor as they filed in out of the cold and rain. They were dispatched, but the Playhouse was filled with fumes so I did what I could in the Bighouse, which wasn't a whole lot. 😒

Tuesday was doctor appointments and then the faucet in the hall bathroom started dripping. That meant a lot of interruptions over several hours because the poor Mister ran into one problem after another with what "should have been a five-minute job! Bleep, bleep!" 😠

Yesterday, I slipped on the floor and wrenched most of my torso and all my extremities. Wait. What? Is that everything? Well, that's what it feels like. 😧

Some weeks are like that. That's why God invented potatoes. And people smart enough to turn potatoes into wodka. And, no, I hadn't been in the wodka before I fell.

Through it all, Hammy and I were not to be deferred and we managed to make more cards in between apostrophes:

Yes, more uber QACAS! This NBUS stamp from The Ton is so gorgeous simply heat-embossed. The sediment is from Stamping All Day.

This design was so easy, I made a bunch of them using different card and different e/p:

    

Challenges

• Double Trouble and Three Amigos: Any kind of embossing.
• Lost Coast Portal to Creativity: Cold and frosty.
• Stinkin Inkers: Winter Wonderland.
• TIME OUT: Joyful.

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Then we cleaned off the table again and started this QACAS design:

This NBUS image and sediment are from the "Botanical Blocks IV" set from Papertrey Inc. I made a big batch of these in several colors, but I didn't get a chance to photograph them together because they were sent off as fast as they cooled off!

Then I took a break and went visiting and I saw this pretty card made by my friend Cat. Great minds! I realized that it would be even QACASier if I did it Cat's way, so I did:

Thank you for the inspiration, Cat! These cards were heat-embossed in platinum. It's simple, but very shiny and lovely in person. Sorry for the over-exposure. For some reason this card looked yellow and it's pure white so I brightened it. I took these photos inside on a cloudy day and it's the best I could do what with being gimpy and all.

Challenges 

• CAS on Friday: Make a Christmas card.
• INKspirational: Anything Christmas Goes.
• Less Is More: OLC Holiday.

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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 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!)