Happy Holly Days!

Hello Stamplings!

Merry Christmas! Happy Everything! Here's a festive schparkly card for you!

A QACAS design simply made with some schparkly silver paper and a lightly brushed Tim Holtz holly stencil. Hammy thought it would be fun to separate the die cut letters of the Poppystamps "happy holidays" die to spell out "happy holly days," so that's what we did. And that's what we hope you have!

Challenges

• Alphabet: S is for silver.
• Christmas Kickstart: If it's Christmassy, link it up.
  
• Poppystamps: Happy Holly Days.

Here is our 2021 family Christmas photo:

Back: Dan, Henry, Adam, Rachel
Front: Jack, Kevin, Darnell, Nellie

And here is my annual Christmas poem:

'Twas the night before Christmas, 

And all through the Playhouse,

Not a hamster was stirring,

Not even a mouse.

The cards were all made and delivered with care,

I was so weary, my fingers worn bare.

I laid down my head, my eyelids did flutter.

"You sure love your friends," I heard Hammy mutter.

When out on the driveway, there arose such a clatter,
The mailman came limping, his post bag made fatter.

Away to the front door, I flew open the screen

And smiling like crazy, asked, "Where have you been?"

Now Simon, now Altenew, now dear Gina K,

On, SU, on, Michael, on, fun Papertrey.

To the front door so festive, the mailbox so deep,

Now stash away, stash away, goodies to keep.

As I went to the Playhouse and looked at my mess,

to the floor I did sink, getting ink on my dress.

But I cared not a whit, for my eyes were all gleamy,

NBUS awaited, each project so dreamy!

Laying a finger on new dies and glitter,

the new year before me, my heart all atwitter,

I say to you stamplings, "May you craft with delight,

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

2016

Darnell J. Knauss
(with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore)

Enjoy your holidays! No, seriously, enjoy! Life is too short!

and Hammy

Christmas Parade II

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you well! I'm out and about again in Blogland now that all my cards are in the mail. I had a bit of a blah blah me with a blah blah and Hammy blahdy-blahd. Then what happened was blah blah The Mister on his blah blah. The neighbor blah blah phone blah, but concrete blah blah blah jingles!

And here are a few more Christmas cards, a peek at which is all you have time for, hence the above because no one has time to read actual words right now! (I actually did this post four days ago and thought I had posted it. Slap! Anyone else delirious yet? 😆)

I. Copper and Platinum

and

vo Pinecone unknown, die-cut Believe from SSS, Washi tape by Alexandra Renki.

Challenges

• Christmas Kickstart: AG Christmassy.
  
• Peace on Earth: AG Christmas.
  
• SSS Wednesday: Cold as ice.

II. Stylized Poinsettia Tres Mwah

Die-cut NBUS "Autumn Splendor" from SSS. From the name I gather that it was created to be used for fall-colored leaf designs, but I see a stylized poinsettia with berries so I used it for Christmas card designs. The above is cut from pp which I attached to a sticky sheet before cutting.

Then I made this with the positive bits which I glued one-by-one to the left-over white backing from the sticky sheet:

And for fun, I made one in non-traditional colors with an embossed bg:

Challenges

• Addicted to Stamps and More: Die-cuts and/or stencils.
  
• Krafty Chicks: Christmas.
  
• Little Red Wagon: NBUS!!
  
• The Flower Challenge: Christmas.

~~~ 

I would have had more cards to share with you, but I got on such a roll trying to finish the last hunnert cards that many designs simply got made and mailed. Like so many of you, I will be taking a break now to enjoy the festivities of the holiday season, which includes the grandtwins' 17th birthday on the 20th! 

I'll be back to wish you the merriest in a coupla weeks. In the meantime, Hammy and I hope you enjoy the coming days! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

*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!)

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:

~~~

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!

~~~

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

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!)

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.

~~~

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:

~~~

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.

~~~ 

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.

~~~

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!)