Gnomes in Love and a Flying Pig!

Hello Stamplings!

I'm pickled tink to have actually used some newly-acquired NBUS for my cards today. You know how sometimes oftentimes the new schtuff lingers for months and years before I use it, so sharing these cards is a proud moment!

Onefer

Now I know you saw these guys all over Blogland at Yuletide so they aren't new to you, but I didn't get mine (from Simon) until after the holidays so I have used them to make an anniversary card.

What you might not know is that both the men and women gnomes of Sazinwagnsh wear beards. I know, odd, right?! (I hate to be stereotypical, but you can usually tell the females from the males by how soft and shiny their beards are.) So in the photo above, Mrs. Enivl Ganome is in the watercolored purple and Mr. Schlmre Ganome is in the blue. They are holding the heart between them. The blue heart pp is as old as the hills; it is matted with shiny gold. The sentiment from GKW is heat-embossed in gold.

Challenges

• Country View: Love.
• Simon Says Monday: All loved up.
• Watercooler Wednesday: All about occasions.

Twofer

And this little piggie is fresh out of the paddock at Gerda Steiner Designs! I had to have him as soon as I saw Gerda's pre-release artwork. I made him an interesting color on accident. I smooched my w/c paper by scribbling my blue Ziggies on my glass mat, spritzing the ink, and schmearing the paper around in it like a pig would. Then I stamped and clear-embossed the pig and balloon from the "You Lift Me Up" set and Ziggied them both. 

I thought I could paint over the blue background and the green worked just fine over the balloon, but the pink I used on the pig did not cover all the background blue. I didn't even notice it until I uploaded my photo. But, hey, it's art which means a blue and pink and brown flying piglet is just fine! To add even more pizzazzaz, Hammy winked the balloon and the pig and glossified his sunglasses!

Challenges

• Double D: Fun with balloons.
• Fusion Card: See inspiration photo. I used the critter photo.
• Gerda Steiner Challenge: Share your designs.
• Simon Says Wednesday: Anything goes.

 

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The Mister

Long-time friends of my blog know that The Mister (Kevin) has struggled with back issues for decades. It was manageable over time because the episodes when the nerves would pinch were at first years apart, and then maybe once a year. But last year all that changed when he suffered from four excruciating episodes in one year, so he set things in motion to have surgery to bring him relief.

That surgery happened yesterday. It went well and the surgeon was very pleased. I'm so happy for him that he will no longer have to keep himself tightened up all the time to avoid an episode. All those years of doing so, however, have given him a steel core which will now aid in his months-long recovery.

I'm not sure how much nursing he will need that will keep me away from the computer, but I do have a scheduled post coming up on Saturday for the annual Turner Syndrome Awareness Hop. I hope you'll stop back then. 😍 MWAH!

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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!)

Sunshine and Mojo!

Hello Stamplings!

I figured out where my Mojo has been ... its been hiding behind the clouds! I think I'm one of those people who gets a little down when the skies are gray day after day because when the sun comes back out, man, I'm a new woman! Is that a "thing," or is everyone like that? 

Mr. Sun was only out for the morning, but I grabbed it and as a result of my burst of engerny, I have a Threefer! And a flavor to ask you at the end, so here we go!

Onefer

I feel a little silly admitting this, but this was my first time doing a partial die cut! I've seen the technique around for ages, but in my head I always made it more complicated than it is. Silly. It's so easy!

I Washi-taped my Spellbinder heart dies and ran the card through to cut only half the hearts. Then I taped the dies back over the hearts and masked everything but the hearts. Inside the dies I sprinkled and spritzed Lindy Magicals until I was happy with it. Then I had Hammy run around in some watered down Delicata gold ink and then jump around the hearts to gild them. So pretty. And the hearts look good, too, all shimmery. 

A sheet of golden heart vellum paper and a gold embossed sediment from GKW and we're on to the next one. (Sorry about the gray tones of the photo where it should be bright white. The camera was having all kinds of exposure issues with the sun hitting the vellum.)

Challenges

• CAS Mix Up Card: Partial Die-Cutting ~ plus stamping and masking, and thumping. No, not thumping, I just like saying that word. I also used Lindy Magical watercolor powders.
• Country View January 2020: Love.
• Just Us Girls: Color Week: purple, pink, and red.

Twofer

This turned out so cool. I don't often say it, but I felt like The Bomb Dot Com with this design! 😃 My NBUS stencil is from Neat & Tangled. I'm sorry there is no name on the package. I blended broken china (I didn't use my grandmother's pieces) and some wilted violets over the stencil. 

Then I cut a PTI tag out of the center and again out of four layers of aqua card stock before replacing all the tags in the center. I added a creative twine bow by taping the two different colors of twine to the back of the stack of tags. I tied them in a knot and then brought the two ends through to the front where I tied another knot and then tied the bow. The peace sediment is from Winnie & Walter. Shazambam!

Challenges

• CAS Christmas: Use a tag on your card.
• CAS Stencil: Use a NBUStencil.
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Use a stencil.

Threefer

This OLC was also fun and easy. The MFT polar bear was stamped and clear-embossed and his scarf and stocking cap were colored with my watercolor Ziggies in cool wintry colors. The BRRRR sediment is from the same MFT set. The pine bough was stamped in green and clear-embossed. Then I masked off the bear and 2/3rds of the card front and lightly brushed on blue ink for a sky background.

The snow? Well. I wasn't sure if this would work, but you know Pixie Spray glue that you use to tack your stencils down? With my masks in place, I lightly sprayed Pixie and then I sprinkled on some Martha Stewart coarse glitter and it stuck! It is so schparkly in real life, you can't believe it! It's not perfect; a few glits trickle off when it's handled, but not so many that you're annoyed. (I'll let you know if I come back and look at this again in a week and all the snow has fallen off!)

Challenges

• AAA Cards: One layer with option of polar animals.
• CAS on Friday: Winter.
• CAS Watercolour January 2020: Use cool colors.
• Less Is More: OLC off-center.
• Perfectly CAS: Use no more than one-third of your card front.

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RAK

One last thing. A lot of you may have seen this story on your local news, but in case you haven't: There is a sweet gentleman who is 104 years young and a Marine Corps veteran of World War II (not many of them left) who has put out a wish to receive Valentines. You can read the story here: TIME article. If you distrust links and you'd like to help make his wish come true, here is his address information:

Operation Valentine
ATTN: Hold for Maj Bill White, USMC (Ret)
The Oaks at Inglewood
6725 Inglewood Ave.
Stockton, CA 95207

I hope a lot of you will take a few minutes to send a card, even if it's not handmade. Thank you! And thanks to Sue Lelli for bringing this to my attention!💋

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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!)

TCC Reminder ~ 2nd Blogaversary Prizes!

Hello Stamplings,

Welcome! You have whooshed through the second full week of 2020! I just noticed how much lighter it is outside at 5 p.m. It surprises me every year how fast that happens. Anybody working on Easter cards? Settle down. I'm joking! I'm sorry you schputtered coffee on your screen.

I'm still into hearts and love here, what with today being a reminder that there is only one week left in the current Twofer Card Challenge #23 where the prompt is 💟HEARTS💟 and where ~ psst ~ there are prizes to be had in celebration of our 2nd Blogaversary!! 🎁

Here are my two cards together:

The heart prompt my two cards have in common is the NBUS heart from the "Heart Smile" set by Concord & 9th. 

Onefer

For this card, I off-set stamped the NBUS scribbled line wreath from "Love You, Mean It" by Concord & 9th. Then I stamped the two halves of the arrow 'almost' perfickly. Next the sediment, also from "Heart Smile," was stamped in red. And lastly, using the matching dies from that set, I added three die-cut hearts to the wreath. QACAS!

This card went to the Mister yesterday on the happy occasion of our 49th wedding anniversary! 💋

When I first started blogging, we were married 41 years so some of you have been with us on this journey for a number of years! 💋 to you, too, for your long friendship and support!

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Twofer

🎵"First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a baby carriage."🎵Remember that old rhyme? Now it's an ear worm. You're welcome. 

For this design, I used every one of the five heart stamps that came with the Heart Smile set to make my own DSP. Then I used the same die to cut two hearts, stamped them with love, and had Hammy pop them up with dimensionals. I used a ribbon to transition to the white panel where I stamped a sediment from Ranger called, "Letter It - Baby." 

I remember someone (Oprah?) (Ellen?) giving etiquette advice on situations where you are at a loss as to what to say when you want to be nice and you don't want to lie. For instance, when you meet someone whose baby is, um, well ... you just say, "Oooh, look! It's a BABY!!"

I'm linking this card to Happy House: Celebrating new birth.

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I hope you'll take some time to whip up a couple of HEARTfelt designs for the Twofer Card Challenge! Click over to see the fabulous prizes being offered and the incredible inspiration cards made for you by the talented Guest Designers and Design Team!

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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!)

A Coupla CAS EKGs

Hello Stamplings!

Is anybody else having trouble putting the MO in their JO this week? My mojo juices are running low. Is this like my hormones or does it happen to you young ladies, too? With a sidekick like Hammy, with the emphasis on KICK, I'm usually good, but I guess even the little guy is slowing down now that we aren't eating copious amounts of holiday sugar in one form or nother.

Then yesterday at lunch we were watching giraffe videos when we decided to look at the weather forecast. We have more rain coming and because I like to take my card photos outside (especially sheeny-shiny cards like these), we got busy!

Onefer

I love this NBUS Reverse Confetti "Falling Hearts" frame and decided to go white-on-white with it. I used some beautifully textured cardstock with a lovely sheen that I've had since the last century. (Did I say that right? Does it sound like the paper has a lovely sheen or I do?) I'm down to only a couple of sheets because it's so delicious, but why hoard it any longer?! I die-cut it once and then used less dear paper under it in four layers to create lots of dementia. 

Then what happened was what usually happens when I try to do a W-O-W card: Hammy wants to add some color and I always agree with him! Instead of a sediment, I used an ancient but awesome heartbeat die from does-anyone-know? I don't have the packaging and it must be so old that Dr. Google nor Pinterest can find it. It's meant to cut through paper, as in the Twofer below, but I made it into a sort of ribbon by cutting it once and then taping it back down just above the first cut and running it through again. 

ETA: Thanks to Michele, I can tell you that the manufacturer is Paper Smooches and the die is called Borders 1 and it IS still available!

Challenges

• Challenge Up Your Life: A/G.
• HLS Anything Goes Dies. A/G.
• Just Us Girls: Create Dimension.

Twofer

For this design, I first attached a panel of red glossy paper to the bottom of a card base. Then, using the same pretty paper, I made the die cut. I separated the two halves a bit so the shiny red could, well, shine through and then I attached the sediment from Winnie & Walter, also cut from the same glossy red. QACAS and sexy, just as a Valentine should be. I mean, unless you make one for your neighbor or the local vicar. Be careful there.

Challenges

• Cardz 4 Guyz: CAS (clean and simple).
• STAMPlorations January CAS Cards. Optional twist: anything metallic.
• TIME OUT: Photo inspiration.

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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!)

TCC 2nd Blogaversary ~ ❤❤ and Prizes!

Hello Stamplings,

It's here! Twofer Card Challenge is back! I know I usually have a bit of a chat with you, but today I hope you'll forgive me for getting right toit. The reason is, I would love it if you popped over to the Twofer challenge blog which is epic in length, but it's all good information.

As you prolly figured out from the title, the prompt for January is ❤❤and here are my inspiration cards:

I have a LOT of heart stamps. For these cards, I grabbed one from my miscellaneous hearts, so I'm sorry that I have no idea who makes it. It is shown as the collar around Nellie's neck in my first design and as the candle flames and the "a" in birthday on my second design.

Onefer

The LOVE die is "Embossed Love" from Poppystamps. NBUS "Nellie" was a gift to me from Brenda while I was in Indiana. It is from a set called "Birthday for Cookie" by The Stamps of Life.

(As you can see, Nellie is featured prominently on this first card, which is a Valentine. Please don't get after me because Hammy is not featured on the second design. I did ask him, but he is very selfless and declined. He's been the cover boy on many of my cards over the years and he wanted Nellie to have her turn in the limelight. What a sweetie!)

Twofer

The heart e/f is from Darice. The sediment is from WPlus9's "Birthday Wishes" and the candles are from Concord & 9th's "Eat Cake & Celebrate" set. The wee heart blings are black metallic. It doesn't show, but Hammy did wink the heck out of the hearts on this card.

 

Prizes

And now here's part of the reason why the challenge blog post is so long!

In honor of our 2nd Blogaversary, there are PRIZES!!! 

Please head over to the Twofer Card Challenge to check out the prizes and see the amazing Twofer cards made to inspire you by our very talented Guest Designers Jane and Jacquie and, of course, the entire fabulous Design Team! This challenge is open until January 24, 2020.

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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!

Challenges:

Onefer:  Poppystamps [From the Heart]; Country View [Love]; and TIME OUT [photo challenge].

Twofer: The Male Room [Anything Masculine Goes]; SSS Monday: [New]; and Atlantic Hearts Sketch.