Paper Hugs and Poinsettias

Hello Stamplins!

I guess I'm feeling very southern today. How y'all doin'? A lot of Americans went hog wild over Memorial Day weekend and time will tell if that was a dumb idea. I can't take any chances, so it was just three more days in paradise for us. Not really, because we are having unseasonably boiling hot temps up to a hunnert and five degrees this week.😳Thankfully, it's spose to cool off by the weekend.

So my non-crafty item I'm grateful for is not a little one today: it's air conditioning! And my crafty item I'm grateful for is glitter paper!

My friend Trina sent me a thank you card recently which I blatantly copied CASEd for this card. The beautiful NBUS glitter paper, which I had to immediately purchase, is from Memory Box and the NBUS paper hug sediment is from The Stamp Market. I'm not sure where the sweet stem is from because I borrowed a die at the last Lake House retreat.

Challenges

• HLS Anything Goes With Dies.
• Mix It Up: Anything goes. (Optional twist: masking.)
• The House That Stamps Built

Twofer

This is a study in smooching with broken china. Ouch! The wreath is from PTI, the fussy-cut poinsettias are from Waltzingmouse. The border frame is Pointed Rectangle from Poppystamps. You can't see it, but Hammy winked the poinsettias and a schparkly gem was placed in the centers. The sediment is from GKW. It was stamped in black and clear-embossed.

Challenges 

• Christmas 24: Christmas flowers.
• Christmas Kickstart: Wreathed in smiles.
• Retro Rubber Tic Tac Toe. Diagonal bottom left to upper right: flowers, embossing, die cut or punch. Wreath 2017, poinsettias, 2010, and border 2017.
• Rudolph Days: Anything Christmas goes.
• The Flower Challenge: Monochrome.

~~~

Nellie

I promised you more photos:

Here she is all unkempt, but still lovable. Nellie looks pretty cute, too! (We were having a pensive moment. If you look close, you can see my gray hair starting to show!)

And here she is bright white and shorn and looking alternately like a lamb or a puppy. Not bad considering she will be nine in July!

Dancing for a treat! (I need a Pull-It Surprise for taking that photo while dangling a treat!) According to the AKC regarding the Coton de Tulear breed: "... Amusing traits of these long-lived jesters include unique vocalizations and a knack for walking on their hind legs." We are so blessed to have rescued her. I have about eleventeen more photos and a recording the Mister made of her "talking" to him, but I'll spare you!

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* Please continue to stay in if possible and take care when you have to be out and about.

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!)

Hey There, With Loving Thoughts

Hello Stamplings!

Welcome! I hope you are holding up okay as you marched up and over another hump day! Remember when weekends were so beciting? What's happening to me is that I keep waking up on Tuesdays thinking it's Saturday. It's happened three weeks in a row. What can it mean? I put in a full week's work on Mondays? Or I'm ready to drink again?🍹

My two gratitudes today are laundry soup pods and the Misti. How disgusting would laundry soup be? You gotta love typos.

My cards today:

Onefer

My card was inspired by Lolly's card. When I saw it, I was reminded of this adorable NBUS stamp. These birds are from Cottage Cutz, but ornithetically they can only be found off the island of Ithaca. Because it is the smallest of the Greek Isles, these wee birds are also teeny, not much bigger than a hummingbird. They are bright yellow from all the sunshine and they always travel in threes, in order to have eyeballs on their predators at all times. Scientists presume they also have eyes in the back of their heads, you know, to watch that side, but that's never been proven.

I colored the image with my Ziggies and Hammy winked the birdies and glossified the berries. The embossing folder doesn't have a manufacturer's name on it. 

It was windy when I was taking the photo, so this happened:

This was too fun not to share because their faces make me giggle. It's as if they are looking down in terror at the table as they are falling! Aack!

Challenges

• CAS Christmas May: Winter Berries hosted by Loll.
• HLS May Christmas: Anything goes. (Optional ornaments.)
• Merry Little Christmas: May anything goes.

Twofer

For this QACAS note card I white heat-embossed an ancient wooden stamp from Rubber Stampede called "Large Feather" which has not been stamped since Y2K. The sediment die is from Concord & 9th and the scalloped frame is from PTI. That's it. Wonderfully simples.

Challenges

• Less Is More: White and cream.
• Sparkles: Use a real stamp.
• STAMPlorations: May CAS challenge: Anything goes.

~~~

Nellie

I feel like you haven't seen our Nellie in a while.

She loves to burrow into her blankie. We walked into the room and she'd gotten herself all wrapped up! Doesn't she look a bit like Paddington Bear?

And how scruffy is she?! We couldn't care less about our own hair, but we sure missed the dog groomer during the quarantine. Praise be, they just opened and today Nellie is getting a long overdue haircut after missing two appointments! More photos to follow ...

I also wanted to share this:

This little African violet is blooming for the first time in five or six years! I've never changed the location or watering schedule. That's the definition of hope and never giving up!

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy ~  and remember to stay in whenever possible! 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!)

. . . Bring May Flowers II

Hello Stamplings! 

I hope you're having a good day! I've decided to start each post during the pandemic with something I'm grateful for. It's just too easy to list all the things I'm missing, which is depressing, so I'm going to turn that on its head. I want to think of the little everyday things you don't usually give a second thought to, you know, rather than the big things like dishwashers, friends, and being alive. 

I'll think of one tiny noncraft item and one tiny craft item. It really does take a minute. So today I'm grateful for corn tortillas. (Of course, my mind went straight to food.) And Connect Glue by Gina K. (She didn't pay me to say that.) What two little things are you grateful for?

While you think about that, I'll share my reminder cards for this month's Twofer Card Challenge where the prompt is FLOWERS. One is a birthday card, the other is a get well card.

The NBUS stamp that both my cards have in common is Spring Flowers by Simon Says Stamp.

Onefer

I used three of the four blooms from the stamp and die set for this design. First, the card base was sprayed with gold shimmer spray. Then I colored the flowers with my Ziggies and Hammy winked them. Lastly, we planted them in a striped Washi tape planter box and added a sediment from SSS. Easy as cake. I say that because I think making pie is hard.

Challenges

• Cardz 4 Galz: Birthday.
• Just Us Girls: Color challenge.
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use your snippets! My flowers were all cut from scraps.

Twofer

Because of the way the stamps from this set are laid out on the acetate backing, this particular bloom reminded me of a winged insect. So, what the heck, thought I, why not make it a bug and put it in a jar from PTI cut from vellum and adhered to a bit of bespeckled navy card you've been hoarding in your stash? (I think to myself in run-on sentences.) So, being a good listener of myself, that's what I did. Then I used white ink from Color Box to add the NBUS sediment from "Call the Doctor" by Your Next Stamp. Do you see a bug? No, I mean there. On your shoulder!

Challenges

• CAS on Friday: Use a die.
• HLS CAS Challenge: Smile.
• NBUS Challenge #14
• Sparkles Monthly Challenges: Use a real stamp.

~~~

I hope my cards have inspired you to share your two floral designs at Twofer Card Challenge #27!

Please remember that even though Hammy and I get a big kick out of using the prompt element in an unconventional way on one of our designs, you don't have to, as the brilliant Guest Designer and Design Team show you on the main post for Twofer Card Challenge #27!

~~~

Speaking of inspirational, I was inspired by my friend Brenda to make the grandtwins these fun mask Miss Your Face cards. Brenda was inspired by the Card Cut Ups video on You Tube.

I made the sediment with my tiny alphabet stamps and freehanded the whimsical border.

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy ~  and remember to stay in whenever possible! LITS!*

• I finally got eight hours of sleep. It took me three days, but whatever.
• I hate when a couple argues in public, and I missed the beginning so I don’t know whose side I’m on.
• Don’t bother walking a mile in my shoes. That would be boring. Spend 30 seconds in my head. That’ll freak you right out.

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!)

Double Star Stencil and Gesso Resist

Hello Stamplings!

How's it going where you are? I'm finding this next phase of reopening so confusing. Please take care and continue to stay safe!

Here in the Playhouse, I'm staying put, but the fun and the distractions continue. Thank goodness. I know I would be as loony as a loony bird without it! Wait. What dya mean, how would you know the difference?!

Let's see what I have to share today.

Onefer

The brief for the stencil challenge is to make something by layering two or more stencils. Well, I'm pretty new to stencils and I'm not in the habit of thinking of them when I plan my design. Yet. So now I found out that you can actually add more fun and interest by layering another stencil image over the top of the first one, and so on, ad infinity! Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit, of course you can do that! 

So I dumped all my few stencils out on my desk and let Hammy rifle through them while I leaned back and waited for something to catch my eye. When I saw how the packet of stars was layered inside their clear envelope, it was a no-brainer. 

I've no idea who makes the stars, but I think the big one came from an ancient sheet of "cut out" shapes. We called them cut outs in those days. (I wish the manufacturers would all put their names directly on their stencils.) I blended DOxie inks, Hammy winked the little stars, and then I fussy cut the big star in order to pop it onto the star-embossed background. A bottom border was added for a bit more color and another card was done and dusted.

Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: Clean and simple.
• CAS Stencil: Host Hilary and GD Greta. Layering stencils.
• CAS(E) This Sketch. (I honestly did not see this sketch before I made my card or I would have put my borders on top and bottom. I hope it's still close enough to enter.)

Twofer

The next thing I tackled was another new technique, this time for the CAS Mix Up where the brief is Gesso Resist. I love the look! You have to try it. I made two cards. For this one, I painted the gesso through a NBUS fern stencil from The Crafters Workshop called "Mini Ferns." Once it was dried, I sponged on DOxies in my fave colors. I stamped the "many" from my container of miscellaneous stamps and die-cut the Concord & 9th "thanks" from a snippet of glossy paper colored with alcoholic inks.

Challenges

• CAS Mix Up: Host Linda and GD Pooja. Gesso resist. Plus stamping and die-cutting.
• HLS Anything Goes With Dies.
• STAMPlorations May Stencil: Anything goes.

Threefer

This second one I did is much fainter, but I hope you can still make out the dragonfly shape. For this one, I painted gesso directly onto the stamp (from Carabelle Studio) and stamped it on the paper. Once it was dry, I sponged over it, and then I added the gold-embossed sediment, stitched frame, and Hammy chose a few clear sequints for the embellies.

Challenges

• AAA Birthday: Things with wings.
• Cardz for Galz: Birthday.
• Seize the Birthday: AG Birthday.

 

~~~

Enjoy your day, but please remember to continue to take care and keep your distance! 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!)