Christmas Parade ...

Hello Stamplings!

I hope those who celebrated had a marvelous and delicious Thanksgiving! You know it was a success when you feel like you never want to eat another thing for a month! It was so wonderful to see family and friends in person again! Everyone helped out and brought goodies and someone even brought along a cold.😒 A sniffly reminder that once those masks come off, the bugs get right in there! 🐛

I still need to make loads of Christmas cards, so I will be sharing more cards, less words, in case you are looking for some inspiration. Today Hammy and I have more metallic creations, primarily inspired by the silver and gold Color Hues challenge. (If you want any ingredient information, please let me know.)

Challenges:  Color Hues: Silver and Gold. Rudolph Days: AG Christmas.

 Challenges: Shopping Our Stash: Three poinsettias. SSS Wednesday: AG.

Challenges: Little Red Wagon: Cut it out. TIME OUT: DaVinci quote. Happy House: Gold and silver.

And a few more easy metallic designs:

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I will leave you today with a photo of little Miss Nellie with her Thanksgiving bow, waiting patiently for company to arrive. And keeping a keen eye on the kitchen wherefrom waft some wonderful smells!

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! Life is too short! Back soon with more Christmas inspiration. After a nap.

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Oh, What Fun It Is . . .

Hello Stamplings!

How are you? I hope you are doing well! I started this post five days ago and then life. Nothing catastrophic, just, you know, unexpected events, joys and sorrows, aches, pains, and migraines, and broken appliances. Especially fun when that last bit happens at the holidays! 

I used to be able to juggle life and a blog; now it seems to be one or tother. But it's all good. Life is napping at the moment, so I'll quick get this published before more interruptions!

Over at CAS Mix Up, the brief is stencil monoprinting. There are great how-to video links on the challenge blog. I used my Tim inks on a Tim holly stencil and I was pleased to get several lovely non-traditionally-colored holly prints. In fact, it was such a pretty print it was hard to cut into it, but I wanted to make this design uber clean and simple like they like it. The holly e/f is from Park Lane (JoAnn's) and the joy, which Hammy brilliantly glossified, is from Winnie & Walter.

Challenges

• Addicted to CAS: Colourful. Happy 9th Birthday!!!
  
• CAS Mix Up: Stencil monoprint.
  
• Krafty Chicks: CAS.

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Same stencil, same e/f, but I left this print pretty much intact except for giving it a fishtail for a little added interest. The peace sediment is from PTI's "Wonderful Words Christmas." This time Hammy glossified the berries, rather than the sediment, thus:

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I broke out my NBUS "Winter Hamsters" set by Waffle Flower for this critter Christmas card. The beautiful background was a gift made by my talented friend Sonja. The NBUS sediment is from Sunny Studio's "Holiday Style." The snow e/f is from Taylored Expressions.

In case you are wondering, the chubby hamsters in the photo are Helmut and his sister, two of Hammy's great-great-great-great grandchildren. I forget her name. I know, that's bad, but you would forget, too, if you had to try and keep up with all Hammy's multitudinous offspring! These two live in the foothills up by Lake Tahoe and, obvi, they inherited Hammy's perfect color sense.

Challenges

• ABC Christmas: W is for "whimsical."
  
• CAS Christmas: Critters.
• Little Red Wagon: No patterned paper.

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If I don't post again before Thanksgiving Day, I want to wish all who celebrate the blessings of the holiday and I send you big hugs if you are unable to be with your loved ones.

In spite of lingering loathsome Covid all over the world, I have many blessings to count this year and I count you among them. I send you my thanks for your friendship and your consistent support and encouragement.

Thank you for following me and leaving your love. And thank you to all of you faithful readers behind the scenes who don't have blogs, but who support me through comments or emails ~ or even silently. You ALL keep me going! MWAH!

Enjoy your days until next time! No, seriously, enjoy, and keep safe! 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!)

Gnome at Last, etc.

Hello Stamplings!

How are you on this bright and shiny new day? Now that dark winter is approaching, I'm going to try and be less down in the dumps about everything going on in the world. I like being a bit contrary. Some might call it delusional. Join me?

Some challenges are close to ending, so this is a long post. I thought I would start by finally using one of my NBUS gnomes before the trend hits the road. Although, who knows? Maybe this trend will stick around because how can you not smile when you see one of these fun ganomes (as I like to call them)?

I've had this gal for a while and she is as tickled to finally be painted as I was to paint her!

This image and sediment are from a set of the same name from Trinity Stamps. I'm sorry you can't see the shading of my coloring because, you know, I work hard on that, but then I go to upload my photo and the white card looks like dirty gray and so then I brighten the white and it does away with all that nuanced shading. Dratafrat. Good thing we all have imaginariums.

I'm giving this ganome the name Galoria. She was heat-embossed in platinum, so I also used platinum for the sediment and a gold pen to make the eLipsis. Hammy happily winked every bit and biscuit.

I don't usually decorate the insides of my card except with my handwritten notes, but if you have an opening eLipsis, then you must close it ...

I didn't realize until after I'd uploaded the photo that Galoria's brother Garant had swooped in for a photo bomb! I'm telling you, these little guys are ganaughty!

Challenges

• AAA Cards: No. 202, Sketch with optional twist of gnomes.
  
• The Male Room: Gnomes.

Twofer

Speaking of hard to photograph, this WOW (white-on-white) number was a devil in its own right because the front card panel was embossed using white glossy paper! This NBUS e/f was borrowed from a friend and I didn't make a note of who makes it. The sediment is from Cottage Cutz. QACAS!

Challenges

• ABC Christmas: W and X. (W is for Whimsical.)
  
• Less Is More: Lucky Dip Week: Winter White. LIM is looking for a new administrator for this wonderful challenge. Please let them know if you are interested so they don't have to close down.

Threefer

Speaking of QACAS:

You take a piece of metallic gold paper and you run it through your die-cutting machine using a 3D e/f from Sizzix (665254). Attach that to a card base and add a die-cut sediment of your choosing. I chose Be Merry from GKW, cut from red metallic paper. You can make a lot of beautiful Christmas cards in no time using the recipe for this card and the one above!

Challenges

• HLS Anything Goes With Dies.
  
• Just Us Girls: Word Week: Merry.

Fourfer

I thought maybe I should post a few of my Thanksgiving cards at some point before I mail them off. Today I'll just add this one. These leaves are from the Seasonal Borders set by Concord & 9th. 

I tried doing a direct-to-paper inking. Honestly, it was very blah, so I put it in the recycle basket. Then - no surprise - Hammy to the rescue! He pulled it out, put on his little roller skates with the black ink cartridges, and skated around the leaves and down the veins. What a difference that made! I added a scoreline, a fall plaid mat, and a bit of bling before stamping the sediment with my Kaleidoscope ink pad.

Challenges

• Four Seasons: A/G Fall.
  
• SSS Monday: Thanks/Thanksgiving.
  
• The Paper Players: Inspiration Board/Give Thanks.

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy, and be safe! 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 Love Story

Hello Stamplings!

It's already November eekth, so you have to read this as if I'm talking in a very low voice. I don't want to startle your mojo as you are scrambling to get those Christmas cards done ~ and/or fall cards for birthdays or Thanksgiving.🍂

I've finished my fall cards and can concentrate on Christmas. This year I've separated my NBUS Christmas goodies from non-NBUS Christmas goodies and my goal is to only use the never-before-used-schtuff to make my cards. This is the first design and it ended up being one of those happy marriages between several different companies.

Let me introduce you to Paul:

Paul is a polar bear all plumped up on joy for Christmas, as one should be. He is from a NBUS stamp set called "Have An Ice Day," by Trinity Stamps. 

The cardbase is Neenah and the very shiny background silver paper with embossed snow is from Stampin' Up. The ice floe is from "Cool Day" by MFT Stamps. The sediment is NBUS from Altenew. I colored Paul using my Ziggies. 

I finished the card and set it up on the window sill, waiting for the sun to come out to take a photo. Then I heard from the peanut gallery. 

"Where's he heading to with his arms outstretched that way?" asked Hammy. "I don't know," I said, "I wondered the same thing."

After a minute staring at the card, Hammy jumped down and squeezed his furry behind into the third drawer of my far right rollie-cabinet under my desk. I opened it and there, among my acrylic blocks, was a NBUS "Mirror Blocks" stamp set from Paper Smooches. 

Mirror stamping is something I've wanted to do since the last half of the last century. Hammy's raised left eyebrow implied, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

I know better than to argue with the wee master, so I watched a coupla You Tube videos on the technique and created a lady polar bear friend for Paul.

Meet Noelle:

If you have not had success with mirror stamping in the days before the MISTI, you might want to try again. It made all the difference for me. Jennifer McGuire has a coupla You Tube videos that are great. Here is her updated link, which also includes creating mirror dies! Mirror Stamping & Die Cutting.

The NBUS sediment here is from "Heart Smile" by Concord & 9th.

Just to be clear, I only made one card. I put Noelle on the back of the same card so when you open it up, the two lovebears are skating toward each other! Here is a photo of the whole card: 

Aw. A love story. And won't that be a fun card for someone to get in the mail?

This was a kick to do and I can cross mirror-stamping off my 'To Try' bucket list now. BTW, if you include the ink pads, pop dots, and glue, I used a grand total of eleventeen companies to make this card! If only members of governments could play together that well, the world would be a better place.🐹

Challenges

• Pixie's Snippets Playground: A/G using your snippets. 
  
• Christmas Kickstart: Di (from Pixie's) is this month's Guest Designer. The prompt is, of course, snippets! I used loads of white snippets to make my card parts.
  
• CAS Christmas: Barb is the host and she wants to see Christmas critters. (Changed my mind b/c my card is not CAS, but I will leave the info up anyway.)

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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! 

*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!)