Air-Blown Thanks and Two Oddballs

Hello Stamplings!

What DAY is it?! Have you ever had one of those weeks with unexpected events that make the week seem like it's two weeks long? I'm having one of those weeks. But it sure started out nice as we wrapped up a terrific long weekend with Adam and Henry and Duke and Jack. The weekend's photo, however, features the Mister in all his glory*!

But first, I want to share these alcoholic backgrounds I made recently using a can of air.

There are talented artists out there who make the most sensational flowers and other art using their cans of air! I am not going to be one of them. It requires much, much, much practice, but I had fun playing and loved the results.

I used several of them to make thank you cards using vellum and a thank you sediment embossed in platinum and simply stapled to the panels. 

I still have a couple of the backgrounds I haven't used and Hammy spends hours staring at the imaginary critters he sees in the colors!

Twofer

I recently saw this Stampingbella "Oddball Boy Elf" on someone's blog (sorry, I can't remember whose it was) and I had to immediately open a new window and order it. Haha, that conjures up a funny image, doesn't it? The day will prolly come when I can just open my Playhouse window and a drone will pull up, take my order, zoom off, and return a half hour later with my item!

Anyways, normally my NBUS sits on Mt. NBUS for a few months or years before it sees ink, but not this goofy elf! I used my Ziggies and Artezas to color him. Hammy winked his shoes and knit cap and I added a piece of Washi tape to ground him. Please don't mention his eye condition. He's very sensitive. And the odd color of the candy cane which is normally red/white or green/white? Why, i's chocolate!

The sediment comes with the elf. I may or may not have partaken of some spirits of my own before stamping it a schmidge too close to the edge. Hic.

Challenges

• Moving Along With the Times: CAS.
• Rudolph Days: Anything Christmas goes.
• Simon Say Stamp Wednesday: Anything goes.
• TIME OUT: Funny.

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*Another Oddball!

Fact: Guys who go to county fairs turn into adolescents and eat all the garbage food they can get their hands on! This particular treat is a foot-long hot dog wrapped in a corkscrewed raw potato and then the whole thing is deep-fried. Disgusting. Even the twins were disgusted. The man has an iron stomach. And before you ask, yes, he had a sore jaw for three days. If we were on the Tweeter platform, I'll bet he would go viral. #viralspiral!

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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 Wishes

Hello Stamplings!

Welcome to the weekend and the second day of summer for those in this spherical part of the world! I hope those of you slogging through weeks of rain get some relief soon.

The handsome grandtwins arrived yesterday for a four-day stay and they brought the granddogs with them, so when you include The Mister and Hammy, that's a whole boatload of Testosterone going on! We're off to the County Fair and the horse races today, so let's get toit.

Onefer

I borrowed a stencil and made this card front at ESCR 2019. The talented Lolly taught us how to use Pearl Ex powders through a stencil. In order for the Pearl Ex to stick to your card, you Versamark your image through the stencil and then pour on a heat and stick embossing powder, which you then heat set until the powder melts. Then you brush on the Pearl Ex and heat set it again to make sure the Pearl Ex sticks to the heat and stick layer. It's fun to watch the magic happen!

Once home I added the sediment from Simon Says, added some Brilliance gold speckles, and attached the panel to a white card base.

Challenges

• CAS Stencil: Perfect Pearls / Pearl Ex.
• Sparkles Monthly Challenges: No patterned paper.
• STAMPlorations Mixed Media: Must use a stencil.

Twofer

Next is a QACAS card made with a DSP panel (bordered with a lime green panel) and a die cut present from Avery Elle's "Holiday Glass" set which I colored with my Ziggies and popped up on the card. Simples, but not nearly schparkly enough, so Hammy took care of that! Good boy!

Challenges

• CAS Christmas Card Challenges: Gifts.
• Christmas Kickstart Challenge: Glitter, sparkle, and shine.
• The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge: Anything Christmas goes.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: The Playground gates are about to close so I need to hurry and get my snippets make in there!

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Witness Protection or What?

I found the photo I was talking about in my last post. If you look closely, you can see that he has both hands covering the side of his face and he remained that way as the waitress took a few minutes to take three photos! It's been fun reading your comments about what you think his story is! What shall we call him? Floyd? Peter?

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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!)

Bejeweled and Ombred Friends

Hello Stamplings!

Happy Hump Day! Thought I'd do a quick mid-week post with a coupla QACAS cards. Thanks to a gift certificate, Hammy and I are off for a mani-pedi appointment. What's that? Yes, Hammy is having a double pedi. If Karen is there, he's very patient and stands so still while she does his front paws. I'll try and get a photo this time, but Karen is very wary. I think she might be wanted by the law or in the witness protection program because she weirds out if she sees someone holding their phone up like they are taking her photo. 

That actually happened to me and my sisters once when we were together at a restaurant. We asked the waitress to take our photo and afterwards we noticed in the photos that one of the men at the next table had noticeably placed his hand up to block his face! We were goofing off, so it took a few minutes for her to take three photos and in each one his hand was still up as a shield to cover his face. I've always wondered what his story was.

Okay, squirrel time over. Here's my onefer:

At the recent ESCR, we each took turns leading one or more techniques. The lovely and talented Nancy (Scandinancy Creates) taught us the Cut-Up Stamping technique. Such a simple technique that adds a ton of interest and dementia just by inserting your sediment inside a cut out channel of the image! There are lots of ways you can cut your channel depending on the look you want. (Jennifer McGuire video.) 

I colored this "Bejeweled" stamp by Penny Black using the direct-to-stamp technique where you color on the stamp itself, spritz, and stamp on paper. I'm not sure who makes the sediment because I borrowed it from someone at the Retreat.

Twofer

When you make a direct-to-stamp image, you should always spritz your stamp again and try one more stamp off. Usually it's inky enough to give you an image that you can use for another card. This card was made from a second generation stamping of the first card. The friend sediment is from Gina K's Stitched Leaves set.

Challenges

• CASE(E) This Sketch!
• Retro Rubber: Anything goes. (Bejeweled came out in 2015.)

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And a real quick Threefer:

Using my Clarity brushes, I inked the 3D circle stencil from Dylusions in shades of pink. Over the top is an ombre-inked stamp from Inkylicious which was a gift quite a while ago from my friend, Linda. Thank you, Linda!

Challenges

•  CAS Mix Up Card Challenge: Ombre.
• Just Us Girls: Color Week: Light, medium, dark.

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Okay, off we go! 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!)

Beespiration

Hello Stamplings,

How are you? I hope you had a lovely weekend and a Happy Father's Day to all who celebrated! Our temperatures have blessedly cooled off and the day was beautiful here. I know it can be a difficult day for many and I send hugs to those of you for whom the day is bittersweet.

I have my reminder Twofer Card Challenge cards for you today and I hope they bring a smile!

Ah, such a happy bee couple, but aw, such a sad bee in a sickly shade of green! The cute bee stamp I used in common on both my Twofer designs is from Paper Smooches.

Onefer

I mean, could these two be any more adorable? Just look at those little bows on her antennae! I'm not sure who makes the scalloped heart, but I think it's Papertrey Ink. The sediment is from GKW. Hammy made the little enameled hearts for some added blingading.

Challenges

• Country View Challenges: It's a bug's life.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Wedding/Anniversary.
• Sweet Stampers: Anything goes.

Twofer

This design didn't warrant a sediment because there wasn't room and it is very clearly a get well card. Poor little guy is so sick he's flying upside down inside a peek-a-bee frame from MFT! Naturally Hammy had to glossify his gruesome green head to reflect just how stuffed up with cold he was. The bee, not Hammy. (Is it just me, or shouldn't those band-aid faces be frowning? By smiling they seem to be saying, "Haha, you got a boo-boo!" Snot nice.)

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By the way, have you seen the new July kit from Simon Says? It's all about bees! 🐝 Sure wish it would have come out in May, lol! Never mind, you are managing to find bees in lots of places in your craft rooms! (Not literally, of course! We all want them outside pollinating our flowers and crops, not inside!)

I hope I've inspired you to come and play in our BEES challenge at Twofer Card Challenge #17! Thank you if you've already played! Feel free to play again and don't forget this month we have a prize! The challenge is open until the end of day on June 24th. 

 

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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!)

The Back Story ~ George

Everyone was gathering in the conference room to celebrate the boss’s birthday so George and Winnie walked down the hall together from the lab where they were assigned. 

George was busy looking over his shoulder at 3-year-old Winnie who had just let go of the party balloon, so he didn’t notice the pileup in front of him until after he turned the corner.

Before he could stop himself, George stepped on Imogene’s tail which made Imogene howl and fall into the wall. 

This allowed George a clear look ahead where he saw that Everett was lying flat out, his terrified eyes pinned on the tiniest mouse George had ever seen. Not even in the secret high-security lab.

George knew that Everett was frozen in fear and the only way to clear the hall would require him to step into Everett’s line of sight.

Slinking around Imogene’s wide hips and Everett’s flattened ears, George locked eyes with the tiny mouse. And froze.

Darnell J. Knauss, Author

Cornelia Wenokor, Illustrator

©06/15/2019

Vol. 1 Ep. 6

See The Back Stories tab above for all episodes.

A Sort of Blues Brothers

Hello Stamplings!

Annnnnnd here we are, swooshed right into Friday! Oh, my gosh, my hair's an absolute mess from the hot wind blowing me in here. And, poor Hammy, when I opened the door it blew him right underneath the bookcase and into the corner! It's a very easy way to gather the dust bunnies so I don't have to get down on my hands and knees, but bless him, it does make him sneeze. 

Okay, so. I was going through my Blue Phase when I made my cards today. 

Wait. What? What does that mean? I have no idea, but I've read of people going through this phase or that phase, so I thought I'd try it. It just sounds pretentious. If I ever do a Memwaar, these would be my phases: chocolate, hippie jeans, candy, the Beatles, wallpaper, chocolate, wine spritzers, candy, stretch pants, cross-stitch, choc ... slap! Oof, thank you for stopping me! That was only one decade.

Onefer

What happened was, I asked Hammy to open the tab for challenges and read me what was happening, au currantly, while I was cleaning out my Christmas stamps drawer. Well, I wasn't listening very well and when he got to Less Is More, I thought he said "blue duck egg, plum, and white." I immediately thought of Gunther, who IS going through his blue phase, so naturally the egg he laid is blue. (Thankfully the bird kingdom is way more advanced than humans and the males of the blue duck genus are the egg layers.)

Googly-eyes help Gunther see better and, although it's hard to tell from the photo, he is heat-embossed in black. Speaking of the photo, I'm sorry about the unfortunate angle.

Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit, imagine my surprise when I just now went to link to the challenges and I discovered that LIM does NOT actually want blue duck eggs, they are merely looking for the color of "duck egg blue." 

It does, however, beg the question. I mean, why name a color "duck egg blue," if there wasn't such a thing as blue duck eggs? She asks, cocking her head. So I'm entering anyway.

Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: Happy 7th Birthday!!
• Less is More: Duck egg blue, plum, and white.
• Seize the Birthday: Anything goes.

Twofer

I think I made Harry the Stuffie correctly. He was made specifically for Bonnie's "Something Blue" brief over at the CAS Watercolour Card Challenge. He's verwee verwee blue. I used my Koi Watercolors to paint him. And didn't Hammy do a brilliant job winking every crevice? The stamp and sediment are from Stampingbella. Again, googly-eyes completed the picture.

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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!)

Please Bee Aware

Hello Stamplings!

How are you on this fresh new Monday?! I hope you had a great weekend! As always so much of our enjoyment depends on Mom Nature who is always wrecking havoc somewhere, whether by heat or cold or floods or storms. For us, it's extremely high heat right now, so we're all nervous about another year of bad fires. I hope you are safe and comfortable wherever you are!

It's the 10th of the month which means today's twofer was made to encourage you to join in the actual Twofer Card Challenge. This month the prompt is BEES! EZ-BEES-E, right?!

The stamp that I used in common on both my designs is the beautiful Big Bee stamp from Hero Arts.

Onefer

This design started with the cool bee patterned paper on the right. How could I not use it? I've had it (and the bee stamp) since the last half of the last century so it's from GKW. The panel to the left has a subtle honeycomb pattern; it's the reverse side of the bee pp. I heat-embossed the big bee in black and added the stamped trail to direct your eyes to the die-cut birthday sediment from PTI. 

And, natch, the bee had to be glossified. I whistled Hammy over to work his magic bringing the bee to life, but he was having too much fun using his drinking water as a pool to cool off (lucky guy), so I did it myself.

Challenges

• Seize the Birthday: Anything goes.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Masculine.

Twofer

I really like how this design turned out. To create the hive, I used a NBUS hexagon die from SU as a stencil and sponged the background. I stamped the bee in black, colored it with my Ziggies, and then fussy-cut it. Next, I stamped the bee onto vellum, colored the wings from the reverse, fussy-cut them, and popped them onto the body of the bee with a foam dot. 

The hello sediment is from Stampin' Up. To finish the card I stamped a few worker bees busy in the hive and added a frame. Here is a closeup showing the pretty vellum detail:

Challenges

• A Place to Start: Stencil me in!
• Country View Challenges: June: It's a bug's life.
• Shopping Our Stash: Stencil me this.
• SSS Work It Wednesday: Summer.
• TIME OUT: Nature.

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I hope you'll be able to take a break from your summertime activities to whip up a coupla different bee designs (for different occasions) and join us over at the Twofer Card Challenge! We are delighted to welcome the very talented Coni (Which Craft?) as our guest designer! The amazing ladies of the Design Team have also created sensational designs to inspire you! AND, check it out, we have a surprise prize this month!

Please Bee Aware

I'm sure you've all heard the devastating news that bees are diminishing at an alarming rate. If you would like to read more about it, including how you might help, please check out the valuable information in this link: Bees Are In Trouble. Thank you.

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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 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! P.S. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Mwah!