Hearts and Alcohol

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are doing well. I know a lot of you have been impacted by the Nor'Easter and hurricane-force winds over the weekend. I hope power and mobility are restored soon and you don't have damage from fallen trees. 

We have sunny skies here. Again. Sadly we didn't get rain in January and there is none on the horizon, so we are again in a severe drought. It's so sad to see the local lake half-full. Yesterday we had our own day-long power outage because someone ran off the road and mowed down a utility pole nearby. Hammy and I got a lot done in the Playhouse without the computer, phone, or TV to squirrel us!

Onefer

You might be familiar with the Penny Black "Masterpieces Made Simple" watercolor panels and today I am featuring two of them. They are really beautiful, done on a linen texture paper, so they are great for making cards by just slapping the panels on a card base. It's even more fun to give them a little Jenny Saquaw by adding your own touches. 

Challenges

• Double D: Blue and white winter.
• Snippets Playground: I used snippets for the frame and sediment.
• Jingle Belles: 12 days of Christmas. My option is a card with hearts.

Twofer

Under this card you can see various Yupo backgrounds I made for a recent Zoom session. It's a technique called Floating Alcoholic Inks. (There is a video here.) My results weren't spectacular, but I want to try it again using non-Yupo paper. We concluded that a tall container and a dunk-in /dunk-out maneuver might work better than a shallow container with a slide-in/slide-out maneuver.

These backgrounds were on my desk when I was using my PB panels to make cards and Hammy noticed that one of them worked beautifully as a mat behind the birdhouse panel. I wish now I'd left more of it showing, but the card base is a lovely linen texture, so I wanted that to show, too. (Apparently Di Lemma shows up even in the world of card-making!)

Challenges

• Penny Black Saturday: Anything goes using PB products.
  
• Rudolph Days: Anything Christmas goes.
• Simon Says Wednesday: Anything goes.
• NBUS #34: Anything new goes.

Now we know ...

Longtime readers of this blog know that I enjoy a tumbler wee sip of wodka from time to time. I have noticed that there seemed to be a bit of "evaporation" in the spirits bottle, but I never once suspected Hammy was in my hooch! Hey ho, as you know, he continues to excel at helping me left and right, especially with his winky schparkling skills, so 🙈🙉🙊.  Hic.

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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!)

Krafty Chicks ~ All Occasions

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you well. 2022 seems to have hitched itself to the back of 2021 on a bullet train to Who Knows Where because I looked down, looked back up, and there is February right around the corner! Nevermind. All we can do is sit back, buckle up, and try to enjoy the ride. And if your skies are gray, I'm bringing the sunshine, so please put on your sunglasses!

Thank you to everyone who played in the Krafty Chicks "CAS" challenge last week! I'm enjoying being the Guest Designer for this month. For this fourth and final Thursday of January, our theme is "All Occasions" and here is my card to inspire you:

I send a lot of general thinking of you cards and I like the variety of using "hello" or "just because" for the greetings. In a pinch, I've been known to send a Hello card for a birthday or get well, so hello is a very Versa Tile! I have dies that also say hi, hello there, and hey there. I have several of each, as one does. This one, however, was a gift from a friend. The 3D NBUS embossing folder is from Sizzix and the leaves are from PTI. 

I look forward to seeing your creations! You can find all the details and the linky tool on the Krafty Chicks blog. I'd like to thank the gals in the Hen House for the honor of being their guest designer this month!

I'm also playing in these challenges:

• HLS Anything Goes With Dies.
  
• Use Your Stuff: Embossing.
  
• Watercooler Wednesday: All about occasions.

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The embossed panel used above was made during a crafty Zoom I had with friends a few months ago. Once you start embossing metallic paper with 3D e/fs, you can't stop. That's a side effect of all these cool background techniques you all come up with. I love to learn and play, but it does add a lot more panels to my Backgrounds container drawer cabinet storage unit. 

I'm trying to get better at using my backgrounds in a more timely manner, so I also made these metallic cards:

Let me know if you have any questions about any of these. The blue one in the middle of the bottom row was a fun discovery. The flowers weren't showing up very well, so I took a chance and followed the ridges with my white gel pen and it worked!

Twofer

Isn't that a great quote? It's NBUS from an ancient set of four large sediments that are, unfortunately unmarked. I heat-embossed it twice in platinum on a one-layer glossy paper tent card. Hammy picked out three random hearts for me to add (also double-heat-embossed in platinum) so I can use it as a Valentine. 

I don't know why I've never used the set before except to chalk it up to embarrassing largess. That's similar to a large cee, but further along in the alphabet.

Challenges

• AAA Cards: No layers + a big sentiment.
  
• Bastel-Traum: With heart.
  
• Try it on Tuesday: Add a quote.
  

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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!
If you think you're a person of some interest, try ordering somebody else's dog around.

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!)

Krafty Chicks ~ CAS (Clean and Simple)

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you keeping safe and feeling well. We had a great anniversary weekend with blue sunny skies and warm temps for January. We'd rather have rain this time of year, but it's hard to complain when so many of you were/are blanketed with ice and snow.

Thank you to everyone who played in the Krafty Chicks "Christmas" challenge last week! I'm enjoying being the Guest Designer for this month. It is the third Thursday of January which means that this week our theme is "CAS" ~ clean and simple. Here is my card to inspire you:

This card could not be more QACAS. I embossed the front panel using the Subtle e/f from SU. Then, using an unmarked NBUS stencil with various sizes of circles, I blended rainbow colors using CP inks and my makeup brushes. (Once again, I had to hunt down the brush I use for red ink because a certain adorable hamster was using it to put a little blush on his cheeks.) 

The largest circle was blended using Brilliance gold ink which made it very schimmery so, natch, Hammy applied his winker to the other circles to make them shine, too. I added highlights with my white gel pen. The sediment is one of those plastic die cuts that came in a pack of balloons, confetti, etc. And that's it, uber CAS!

I look forward to seeing your creations! You can find all the details and the linky tool on the Krafty Chicks blog. 

I'm also playing in these challenges:

• Alphabet Challenge: U for Unequal (big and small).
  
• Seize the Birthday: Anything goes (no toppings).
  
• Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Fun with stencils.

Twofer

I've made a second CAS design. For this one, I overlayed a die-cut rectangle as a stencil and brushed a background using CP shades of purple. Over that I placed one bud from MFT's Buildable Bouquet set, colored to match by me, glossified to high heaven by Hammy. I added a teeny sediment with love.

Challenges

• Perfectly CAS: Flowers.
  
• The Flower Challenge: Monochrome.
  
• TIME OUT: In love.

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy and please 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!)

Krafty Chicks ~ Christmas

Hello Stamplings!

I hope this finds you doing well. If not, hang in there! I have a coupla friends who don't like the expression "hang in there," so I try not to use it much, but sometimes, really, it's the best thing to say. I looked up some alternatives because you can Googlify anything and sure enough, here are some options:

Grin and bear it ~ seems harsher than hang in there. Snap out of it ~ definitely harsher. Soldier on, see it through, keep at it ~ that's all fine, if it's a marathon you're training for, or boxed furniture you are putting together, but when something is out of your control and you just need to be patient and hope for the best? Then we just have to hug ourselves and hang in there.

And, if we're lucky, get crafty!

Thank you to everyone who played in the Krafty Chicks "Stamp Act" challenge last week! It is the second Thursday of January and this week the theme is "Christmas." Here is my card to inspire you:

This beautiful forest is part of the exclusive Simon Says Stamptember 2021 set by Tim Holtz which my friend Harriet kindly let me borrow. It is one of those images which works beautifully using the direct-to-stamp technique for a wonderful loose watercolored look. The sediment is heat-embossed in platinum and the frame is from Pink & Main.

I look forward to seeing your stamped creations! You can find all the details and the linky tool on the Krafty Chicks blog. 

I'm also playing in these challenges:

• CAS Mix Up: Loose watercoloring.
  
• Four Seasons: Anything goes winter.
  
• Peace on Earth: Anything goes Christmas.

Twofer

The holly leaves are NBUS from the Simon Says set called "The Magic of Christmas." The NBUS sediment from Gerda Steiner's "Balancing Mouse" was heat-embossed in silver. Hammy had a field day with the schplatters. 

Well, with the gold schplatters anyway. We have a gold spray, but not a silver one, so Hammy thought we could make one out of water and Nuvo glitter drops. It was a clever idea until this happened:

Tip: If it seems like it just needs a little encouragement to come out, don't squeeze the life out of it or you'll squeeze the literal life out of it! Geezopeezo. Did it all land on the desk, you ask? No, of course not, silly. It went all over the floor and all over me ~ somehow missing the critters ~ but I'm now the proud owner of a glitter-schplattered navy sweatshirt, so score!

Challenges

• CAS Christmas: Silver and gold.
  
• Just Us Girls: Trend Week: Inked or sprayed backgrounds.
  
• Pixie's Snippets Playground: Use snippets. I've only used a snippet of vellum this time. Congratulations to Di for her darling new dedicated snippets blog!

🥂In other happy news, The Mister and I are celebrating our 51st wedding anniversary this weekend! We won't be going anywhere right now, but hopefully we can get away to celebrate 50 and 51 ... before 52 rolls around!🍾💕 But no matter, every day we are here and together with loved ones is a cause for celebration, especially in these trying times.

[🤫I now know the secret to those marriages that last over 50 years. After 50 years, one or both of you starts to instantly forget what the other one did to tick us off!🤣]

~~~

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!)

Krafty Chicks ~ Stamp Act

Hello Stamplings!

How are you? Thank you for taking a break to click open my bloggeroo today! You deserve a break and a favorite beverage. And sure, I support having a little sweet, too, while you're at it.

Just as I was looking for some renewed schpark to light up my get-up-and-go in the new year, I was asked by the Krafty Chicks to be their Guest Designer for January. What an honor and what perfick timing!

The Krafty Chicks post challenges once a week on Thursdays and for Week 1, the prompt is "Stamp Act." Here is my card to inspire you:

Zany the zebra is part of a NBUS stamp set called "Savanne1" from Craft Emotions, simply stamped in black and white. The sediment is from Dylusions. The double-stitched die is from MFT. And, of course, Hammy brought the zebra to life by adding googly eyes.

Don't you wonder what mischief lies unseen in front of Zany? I'm sure there is a group of her zebra friends gathering in the distance, but what are they up to? Oh, the imagination stirs ~ or maybe the memories! Why, it reminds me of that time back in 1973 when a group of us girls drove into Los Angeles from the sub-Urbs and Cheryl suggested that we ...

Thank you, Krafty Chicks for asking me to guest design this month! You can find all the details and the linky tool on their blog and I look forward to seeing your stamped creations! 

I'm also playing in these challenges:

• Critter Crazy: A/G.
• Simon Says Monday: Something new.
  
• TIME OUT: New.

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Twofer

Another QACAS and NBUS design for you. I've had Tim's Mini Blueprints booze-themed stamp set for (cough) years and I finally broke the seal on that puppy. All of the blueprint images are fantastic! The sediment is from Tim's Big Talk collection. (Hammy scampered up my pant leg just as I was taking a sip, so pardon the spillage.)

Those of you who are eagle-eyed and sober will note that that wine opener would crush that bottle of wine if it was used. Well, you might find, as I did, that if you drink a little wine and then look at it again, the perspective problem goes away! Hic!

Challenges

• Card Concept: Fresh new year. My style is Clean and Simple.
  
• CAS Mix Up: Loose watercoloring.
  
• HLS CAS: A/G.
• Just Us Girls: Word Week ~ Beverage.
• Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: S is for Snarky.
  

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Kudos to the Postal Service

While I had a few cards returned unnecessarily and packages that took forever, I just had to share this positive PO experience. Below is a photo of a card I received from my bloggie friend Aileen in Australia:

Notice anything remarkable? There is NO postage stamp! I've been know to send cards off like that a few times myself, but they've always come back to me. Somehow the post office managed to get this beautiful Christmas card to my mailbox in America and that makes me smile!

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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! And thank you for your positive feedback on my last post regarding Verna and sending cards to seniors.

*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!)