More NBUS Flowers

Hello Stamplings!

I hope your week has started off well! I had a really cute story to tell you in my opening and now that I've sat down to type my post, it disappeared. Remember how I used to say we whooshed into Fridays? Now that's happening with my thoughts. Every day.

Fortunately, it's happening to all my friends, too. Nowadays these are the words we hear / speak most often: "There was something I wanted to tell you," accompanied by a look down at the floor or up at the ceiling, as if the thought were written there. And then we say, "Oh, well, it must not have been important," but inside we're miffed because whatever it was, was brilliant. Ah, bless, getting old is a hoot.

Before I forget what else I was going to tell you, let's get to today's cards. (I'm going to stop numbering them because I noticed in the last post I went from Arabic numbering to Roman numerals. Say what? Ah, getting old is a hoot.)

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This card is a CASE of a Jennifer McGuire design from 2016.😲 It just shows how so many of her card designs become classics! It was quite involved and fussy for me, but I really enjoyed making it. 

The size of the vellum overlay is 4.25 by 5.50, so the inside is a small note card which opens. The flower is called "Full of Glee" from Penny Black. The funny (not funny) thing is that I just realized I already used this stamp on this Flower NBUS Journey. Like a month ago! I guess I was concentrating so hard on finding a stamp that would work, I forgot to only pull from my NBUS baskets. Getting old is a ... .

Anyway, we will just carry on. Here is the inside with the vellum open. The flower was heat-embossed in white, colored with my Ziggies, and winked by Hammy. The unmarked sediment was stamped in blue CP ink on the vellum front and then clear heat-embossed.

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This QACAS card got me back into the NBUS baskets. The flower is from "Sweetest Peas" by Altenew. The background was made from an emboss-resist paper from Stampin' Up. It comes in a few different patterns. I blended ink over the pattern and then buffed it to bring the white pattern to the surface again.

Now that I see the card on the monitor, I may add some enamel dots, but in person it's quite schparkly when the light hits it. I heat-embossed the flower with black embossing powder. The sediment is from NBUS from "Elegant Sentiments" by Waffle Flower and since nothing needed winking, Hammy added a thick coat of glossification. Here is a closeup:

Bonus.

I haven't gotten a photo of the lizards yet, but the first butterfly of the year just visited the freshly blooming butterfly bush. #earningitsname!

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Enjoy your day! 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!)

NBUS Flowers V-VII

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you are doing well. I wasn't planning on being gone for over a week, but I got squirreled by a sideline project and when I wasn't paying attention, the days of the week fell away and drifted to the floor like a Victorian lady with the vapors. One after the other. Woop, there goes another one!

Plus, the little fence lizards are out in force sunning themselves on the garden wall and the last few days the little tiny baby lizards are venturing out. I mean, not by the hundreds mind you, or even the dozens, but a coupla families live in the wall and I find them so entertaining. And the butterfly bush is blooming. I'll have to get some new photos soon.

But, hey, in spite of my squirreliness, I made a card.

V.

The schpark for this card was the beautiful embossed flower panel which my friend Greta included in her get well card to me not too long ago. I went through my NBUS baskets and found a flower that looked very similar. It is from the Rose Peonies set by Gina K. 

I stamped, clear-embossed, and die-cut the flowers and then I used my watercolor pencils to color them. Although you can't see it😕, Hammy winked the flower petals and glossified the centers. Before attaching the flowers and sediment, I added some interest to the background panel by blending matching CP inks at an angel. I mean angle. Thank you again, Greta!

Challenges

• Addicted to CAS: Flower.
• Can You Handle the Pressure? AG with a twist of flowers.
• The Card Concept: May flowers. See the photo inspiration. I was inspired by the flowers and the colors. My design style is clean and layered for this card.

VI.-VII.

Some time ago I made the two QACAS designs shown below, but they've never been post-toasted. I used two of the NBUS flower die cuts from the Cutout Blossoms set 664161 by Tim Holtz Sizzix. It is a fun way to use alcoholic backgrounds.

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

Perhaps because so many of us are near the same age, I know there are a lot of you dealing with health issues right now, either your own or someone you care about. I may not be in touch as often as I'd like, but I do care and I pray things will get better for you ~ and, for that matter, the world! We have to try and enjoy a bit of every day. Mwah!

*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!)

NBUS Flowers IV and Commenting Woes

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you had a lovely weekend and made a lot of memories however you spent it! We had to postpone our plans, but all is well and I made use of the creative time to keep going with my basket of flowery NBUS. I'm going to get right to it because I have lots to say about commenting further down.

Seven

The NBUS stamp I used for this design is "Luminous Poppies" from Memory Box. The square frames are from MFT, the NBUS fabulous die is from "Fabulous Phrases" by Concord & 9th, and the "you" die is from Winnie & Walter. I'm not sure if you can see it, but Hammy glossified the poppies.

This design is a CASE (copy and share everything) of a beautiful card I received from my dear friend Mac Mable whose blog is The Sweetest of Peas. Here is the card she sent me:  

Isn't it stunning? I was so intent on CASEing this beauty and have kept it at the ready since my birthday in 2019! I got there in the end! 😲

Challenges: Memory Box (flowers), Just Us Girls (Word Week: flowers), Snippets Playground (Must use snippets. I used snippets for frames and die-cut sediments).

Eight

The NBUS artsy tulip stamp featured in this design is "Creative Chaos" from Visible Image. It was all the rage when it first came out and, as so often happens, I dropped what I was doing and sent my fingers off shopping for it. Then it sat. And waited. And waited. (You see now why I had to make using these beautiful stamps a single-minded focus. They have been more than patient!)

The background is a piece of pp and the card frame and "enjoy" sediment (from Penny Black) are cut from copper paper. The stamps from the set have been heat-embossed in copper. Hammy added the extra little dots of bling with a peg stamp.

I had so much fun using the copper e/p that I found other suitable pieces of pp and went on a batch run, making six cards in total.  

Commenting Woes

Blogger has done another "enhancement" when it comes to commenting on our blogs. This is what I've experienced:

• Some readers were unable to leave comments on the NBUS challenge. I discovered it was because I had chosen the "embedded" comment format for that blog. I changed it to the "pop up" format and those readers could again leave comments. [If you have embedded commenting on your blog and you need to change it, go to Settings, Comments, Comment Location.]

• Some readers have left comments on this blog, but they didn't appear on the comment section at the end of the blog post. This problem seems to be more complicated. (Thank you, Blogger, she says sarcastically.) A couple of possible reasons:
• If you are a no-reply blogger and you leave a comment on a moderated blog, Blogger intercepts the comment, puts it in the spam folder, and the blog's owner may never see it. If you'd like more information, this website explains a no-reply blogger and provides a solution: Let's Add Sprinkles. 
• As a blog owner, if you see comments in your spam folder, you move them to your inbox, and click on the link to "publish." You then get a pop-up response from Blogger letting you know that the comment has published. 
  
  In the past, that was sufficient. As of two or three weeks ago, that changed and I discovered that many of these comments were NOT being published, in spite of the message that they were!
  
  It's ridiculous, but blog owners are now required to do an additional step in order to actually publish the comments of their readers who are either no-reply bloggers, or who are not Gmail users, who are using non-Google web browsers, or who knows why? Normally these comments would be in the "Awaiting Moderation" section, but now they are mixed in with those not awaiting moderation. 
  
  To check and see if you have any of these non-published comments lurking in your reader's comments on your dashboard, the solution is a bit of a pain, but your readers will appreciate it. After all, they took the time to leave you a comment!
• From your dashboard, click "Comments" and scroll down the right-hand side of each comment. As you scroll, pictures will appear with options to 'remove content,' 'mark as spam,' or 'delete.' However, if you have unpublished comments (in spite of the steps above) you will see a checkmark as the far right picture. If there is a checkmark, you must click it and a popup box will ask if you want the comment published. Affirming that will finally ensure that your reader's comments are published to your post. Phew!
  

These are just my observations and opinions. If you know of a different or simpler solution, or I have given incorrect information, please let me know. To me it seems like another blatant attempt to convert everyone to Google products, but in doing so, Blogger is causing aggravation to both the readers AND the blog owners who eventually are going to get fed up and stop commenting and/or blogging! That seems a stupid shoot-yourself-in-the-foot plan when you've got stiff competition from Facebook and Instagram and Pinterest!

Or I could be wrong and someone just made a software error! Make sure you report any problems to Blogger help ... squeaky wheel and all that. By the way, as a blog owner, you might want to let your readers know if you are moderating comments in order to cut down on spam. That way they won't be expecting their comment to be immediately published. 

I'm very sorry if you've been frustrated leaving me a comment. Rest assured that if you do leave me a comment, I DO see it, and I do everything I know to publish it to my blog post. Sometimes this takes me a few days. Mwah!

Enjoy your day! 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!)

NBUS Flowers III

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you're having a great week! On this side of the globe we are happily splitting our time between flowers outside in the garden and flowers inside our craft rooms. (Sorry if Mother Nature hasn't let you outside yet where you live.) I think the feel of dirt on our fingers from gardening gives us renewed energy when we go inside and get ink on our fingers. Well, I mean, you should wash the dirt off first.

My crafty journey continues ...

Five

Those who follow Color Hues will recognize why my flowers are blue and tan. Now that I see it on the screen, I realize they might look like they are starting to die😂, but in person the unexpected look is really pretty, especially with Hammy's winking. 

The NBUS flowers are from "Bouquet of Thanks" by Simon Says Stamp. The subtle background is a stencil from SSS's winter floral layering set, the sediment is from "Critter Celebration" by Penny Black, and the sweet hummer is from the "Hovering By" set by Taylored Expressions. 

I'm also sharing at Seize the Birthday (Butterflies or Hummingbirds [I couldn't miss this one!]), Jaydee's challenge at The Paper Players (Birds and/or Bees), and Addicted to Stamps and More  (Birthdays).

Six

In many countries, Sunday is Mother's Day and lots of floral card designs are being made this week! The NBUS floral stamp used here on my one-layer card is from "Window Box Blooms" by Simon Says Stamp. I painted with watercolor pencils and Hammy added lots of winking shimmer.

I'm sharing this card at Less Is More (OLC/Off-Centre), Colorful Options (pink), and Four Seasons (spring).

Happy Mother's Day!

My lovely family taken on Prom night last week! 

L to R: Adam, Rachel, Henry, and Dan.

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Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there! And gentle hugs to all of you who have an especially hard time on this day because you have lost your mom or your child.💔

*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!)