Riding Through the Seasons

Hello Stamplings!

How are you? Have you had a good week so far? I hope so! And I hope you have a great weekend, too, but make sure you write on the calendar to get your flu shot next week if you haven't gotten one yet. This time of year (in this part of the world) brings cooler nights, perfect for sleeping, but also perfect for those darn flu bugs. Note to self.

Once again I've gone seasonal, jumping from spring to Christmas ...

Onefer

What happened was I made this card in the spring and have never posted it. When I made my Twofer below, it reminded me that I still had this one in my folder. The how-to is pretty self-exploratory. I did get a little creative with my slicing and dicing of the pp, just to be different. The hello sediment is from Technique Tuesday.

Challenges

• Double Trouble Paper Crafting: #38 Mad About Plaid.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use your snippets!
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Anything goes.

Twofer

Coastal cabana snow? It must be your screen, Shirley? No, it's just that Hammy loves shades of aqua and red together on a Christmas card. The stencil is from Dylusions, the schparkly silver jingle bells are from PTI, and th ~ what's that? Why is there a bird on a bicycle? That cute owl is from my friend, Jill. Being a wise old owl, he's hitching a ride because his red lamé Santa hat and matching scarf are heavy!

Those are also spose to be silver jingle bells hanging from the handle bars, sized appropopo. Hammy took a marker and tried making those slits jingle bells have, but it just looked like the bike had two eyeballs, so I punched out another set of glitter dots and glued them over the top. 

Challenges

• The Male Room: Use embellishments.
• Rudolph Days: Anything Christmas goes.
• Watercooler Wednesday: Kath's All About Occasions.

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We had the boys and their dogs last weekend, which was their first introduction to Nellie. That wee girl has been through so many new changes and new people, but no worries, nothing but tail wagging and smiles all around!

At least the people are looking at the camera! There are way too many squirrels in this park to even bother trying to get the dogs to look straight ahead! That's Adam and Jack on your left and Henry and Duke on your right.

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!)

Round and Round

Hello Stamplings!

Happy weekend! Of course, if you're out playing because it is the weekend, I'll just say to you that I hope you had a great one! We are entertaining the grandtwins and granddogs this weekend and so far they are all getting acquainted with Nellie just fine. It's a houseful! A house full of joy since today is also the Mister's birthday!

I had some time to get a bit inky during the week and I went from a round daisy focus pocus to a round wreath focus pocus.

Onefer

This is pretty arty for me, eh? I made the background recently by scribbling shades of purple and blue Ziggies on my acrylic block, lightly spritzing the block, and then smooching my paper face down into the ink. It ended up being a meh (to me) background that I set aside to dry, wondering if I'd ever use it. 

Then along comes the CAS Stencil Challenge where Julia wants us to use a baby wipe to remove ink through a stencil and suddenly this little background came to life. You just never know! To finish, I added two sticker butterflies and a simple sediment framed to match the card base. You can faintly see Hammy's effusive efforts with winking all over the flower.

Challenges

• AAA Birthday: Use a stencil. Inside it says, "Happy Birthday."
• CAS Stencil: Baby wipes.
• The Flower Challenge: Anything goes.

Twofer 

This QACAS design consists of a black card panel run through a snowy e/f. Attached is a wreath from Concord & 9th's "Magnolia Wreath," simply and partially stamped in black on the white die cut. You can't tell, but it is stacked three-high. A simple circle sediment from GKW was added to the center. It's an unexpected color for a Christmas wreath card, but I like that about it.

Challenges

• CAS(E) This Sketch: See below.
• Simon Says Stamp: STAMPtember collaboration with Concord & 9th.
• TIME OUT: Photo inspiration. I was going to add the sediment in a pop of green as seen in the photo, but in the end I liked the striking effect of just leaving it black and white.

Nellie (9/19/19)

My photo table is the vantage point for this picture of Nellie wandering the yard and getting acquainted with her new home. The only difficulty we are having so far is calling her by the proper pronoun because our last two dogs were big Labrador Retrievers and both were male. 

Mister: "Where is he?"

Me: "She."

Mister: "She. Where is she? Has he been out?"  !!!

Repeated similarly several times a day. And when the Mister pets her, he says, "Hey, little Buddy." So if we don't get it straight, Nellie may become Buddy. But that's okay, we love him her either way!

~~~

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!)

New Critters!

Hello Stamplings!

How are you? Did your weather cooperate so you could enjoy that Harvest Moon? It was spooktacular here. I say that because when I headed for the Big House to go to bed Saturday night, I walked around the corner of the Playhouse to get out from under the trees for a clear view of the moon. That's when I experienced what many of us have nightmares about: I walked smack dab into a spider web!

Turns out this plump old woman can jump pretty high when the spirit moves her. In fact, my spirit moved right out of my body there for a second and I'm sure the neighbors wondered what kind of wild animal made that ear-piercing yelp in the night!

~~~

Speaking of wild animals, we are halfway through the CRITTERS Twofer Card Challenge, so I have my reminder cards for you.

Hammy chose to be used as the critter on the reminder cards rather than as the opening act on the 10th. But is this Hammy? Or Hammy's friends? Or is it a gerbil masquerading as a hamster? We aren't sure, but he is part of a delightful stamp set I received from my friend Jane, called "Precious Pets 2" by The Card Hut. 

Onefer

For this simple CAS design, I used a circular loopy e/f and a hamster wheel from the "Wheelie Like You" set by Lawn Fawn. This guy is having a moment and things aren't going shackityzam right now. He's overturned the hamster wheel and gotten himself stuck in the middle! But that's all right. The NBUS sediment from "Positive Thoughts" by Precious Remembrance reminds him that challenges make us stronger!

Challenges

• Crafty Animals: Anything goes.
• Inkspirational: Crop. You can only see the head of the little critter through the wheel opening.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Bling it on.

Twofer

For my second design I masked and stacked my CRITTERS and repeated my sediment so Jane knows just how much how much how much how much how much how much I love her gift! I don't have the packaging for the sediment. Hammy carefully picked out and assigned all the pairs of googly eyes to match each personality. 

Challenges

• Lost Coast Portal to Creativity: Make It Funny.
• Rainbow Card Challenge: Brown.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday: Monochrome.

  

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Here are the design layouts of my two cards so you can see how they differ when stripped of all their bits and pieces.

I love all the amazing and fun CRITTERS that are already in the Twofer Card Challenge gallery this month and I can't wait to see what you add!! You have until the end of the day on September 24th to play along!

Surprise ~ Meet Nellie!

One day you don't have a Bichon Coton de Tulear and the next day you do!

Not only do we sorta share the same name, but don't you think we fit the saying that "all dogs and their owners look alike?" I mean, just look at that shaggy hair, beautiful face, and amazing fun-loving smile! And the dog is darling, too!

What happened was my sister-in-law Nina made a promise to a dear friend a year ago that she would find Nellie a good home and she did just that. But then life intervened and that home didn't work out after all. I'm pickled tink that we could come to the rescue because Nellie is the sweetest dog ever! Even though she is eight years old, she immediately settled in like she's been with us since she was a puppy! 

And not to worry, Hammy's delighted with her, too, especially after I reassured him that Nellie will never take over his duties as my faithful assistant!

~~~

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!)

Eunice

Eunice loved performing at birthday parties for the little kids. They were always delighted with her performance and clapped like little maniacs. She hated the fact that she had only been allowed to perform at adult parties since that incident in 2015 outside of Chicago. 

Since that time, Eunice had made it through her probation, done her community service, and sought medical help. Her psychiatrist and her veterinarian had determined that Eunice could not tolerate the sugar in the cupcake she devoured at the end of her performance. In order for the show to go on, a sugar-free gluten-free recipe had been developed and Eunice was now performing to the high standards of the Association of Hula Hooping Holsteins of America.

Even so, no one had hired her for a child's party until today, and that was only because Paulette had gotten sick. Eunice sat patiently waiting for the excited children to quiet down so the lights could be dimmed and the curtain raised. 

Her candle headband was in place and her special giant cupcake was by her side. She glanced over at the frosting to see if the honoree was a boy or a girl. And she gasped.

Eunice could feel her udders shudder and her heart started banging around in her chest. Her bulging eyes locked on the target. You see, Eunice knew something that none of the specialists had ever suspected. It wasn't the sugar in the cupcake and the frosting that was her trigger, it was the cherry. And a cherry was only added to the top of the cupcake at a child’s party. 

As the curtain started to rise, Eunice's tongue slipped out between her lips.

Darnell J. Knauss, Author 
Cornelia Wenoker, Illustrator

©09/15/2019
Vol. 1 Ep. 12
*Not for publication in any children's book.

Pandalicious!

Hello Stamplings!

Good day! Everything seems a bit calm around the world today. You know how you don't even realize you're holding your breath until things calm down. My thoughts and prayers are with all those suffering the impact of Dorian. There are lots of reputable places to make donations and some of the stamp companies are even donating part of their sales to the relief efforts in the Bahamas. Every little bit helps when entire communities have been decimated.

How about something that will make you smile?

It's the 10th of the month so it's time for a new Twofer Card Challenge and this time the prompt word is CRITTERS! The roly-poly panda critter my twofer cards have in common is from Fiskars "Day at the Zoo" set. My two occasions are Thinking of You and Get Well. Thoughtfulness was on my mind when I made these Twofers because a lot of my friends are going through tough times right now. 

Onefer

The sediment is from Concord & 9ths "You're My Person" set. The scalloped frame is from Impression Obsession. I made a few more OLC QACAS versions of this design while I was at it. It's very simple design, but it will definitely make the recipients feel thought about and loved.

Challenges

• Double D Challenges: Mood Board (critter corner).
• Little Red Wagon: Nice and clean.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Stamp it.
• The Cat's Pajamas: Layer up.

Twofer

Hmm, now that I see this design on my monitor, I'm a bit worried my friend will feel like I'm screaming at her. GET WELL!! NOW!! Can you imagine anyone yelling at a sick person?! Okay, maybe I would. But if I did, it would come from a place of love. 

The truth is, I love the font of this NBUS sediment set from Ranger (Letter It). The background was made with a NBUS Mini Bamboo stencil from Crafter's Workshop. The NBUS little baby panda who's feeling sniffly is from "Panda Can't Even" by The Ton. 

And that's it. Pandalicious!

~~~

Just FYI, I did a coupla quick sketches if you'd like to see the underlying very different designs of my Twofer makes:

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Join Us!

The dictionary defines "critter" as any "living creature!"

Detailed information can be found at the Twofer Card Challenge, as well as fantastic inspiration from our very talented Guest Designer Nora and the entire Design Team who work very hard to enthusiate you! 

With limitless choices from ants to zebras, I anticipate a huge turnout in the gallery and I can't wait to see what you create! Here are a few critter ideas:

🐹🐭🐺🐻🐼🐷😺🐨🐗🐂🐃🐄🐅🐆🐤

🐇🐈🐉🐊🐋🐌🐍🐎🐏🐐🐑🐒🐓🐔🐕🐖

🐘🐙🐛🐜🐝🐞🐟🐢🐦🐧🐩🐪🐫🐬🐹

You'll notice somebody was at the head of the line and ran around to the back so he could be featured twice!

~~~

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!)

It Feels Like It Was Just Yesterday!

Hello Stamplings!

How have you bean? It seems like forever since I've seen you. Last week I shut down the computer for four days, opened a box of Get 'er Done and Hammy and I made 73 card fronts from beautiful pp I've been hoarding. The kind of beautiful watercolored pp that just needs a sediment and maybe a bit of bling, but not too much because the paper itself is the star of the card.

Each one took very little time to do once we got a rhythm going and I'm sure it will take longer to finish them off as cards! But we'll do it little by little, lit by the euphoria of filling the stash box and having accomplished something that's been on the Todo List for ages!

Speaking of ages, today we are celebrating longevity, sticktoitiveness, and contentment. My card:

I used an MFT photo booth frame. Both the young couple and the old couple are stamps by Penny Black. The beer is NBUS from Tim Holtz. I watercolored the images with my Ziggies, ahem, after I inserted them in the frames. Slap! The sediment is from Paper Smooches. I believe the numbers are from PTI. 

This is a surprise card I made for The Mister to celebrate the fact that we met 50 years ago on September 5, 1969. We met at a kegger in the woods. A kegger is a gathering of college and working kids to eat junk food and drink a keg of beer. Hence the beer image! While our meeting that day was brief, it was very memorable. It took me two more weeks to catch him become his steady  girlfriend and we married a year and three months later.

Challenges

• Cardz 4 Guyz: Celebrate.
• CAS Mix Up: Inchies. Stamping, die-cutting, and watercoloring.
• CAS Watercolour: Complimentary colors. Green and red.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use your snippets!
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Stamp it.
• SSS Work It Wednesday: Celebrate.

  

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I used the photo booth frame for my card because we had this photo booth picture taken shortly after we met when we were 20 years old. We adulted early in those days.

And here we are today ... I love this guy and he just gets handsomer!

Fifty years, fifty pounds, and fifty million laughs later and we still fancy each other quite a lot! We feel very blessed. 

What's that? The secret? An attitude of gratitude and consideration. We've never stopping saying please and thank you. And, most importantly, separate bathrooms!

~~~

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!)