Christmas All The Way

Hello Stamplings!

I'm here. Remember when I used to say the week had whooshed by ~ back when I was younger and posting every day or every other day? I can't believe I ever did that. Now, at this age, whole weekS are whooshing by and I just sit here, stunned.🌀 

Especially this time of year and especially since I'm having a flare up of Arthur Itis in my thumb/wrist. It's hard to make cards and type with only one hand, as many of you know.

But enough about me. How are you doing? I hope you are well and if not, I hope you (and your mojo) feel better soon.

Before Arthur came to roost, I had a bit of fun in the Playhouse!

Onefer

This sweet bunny is NBUS from the "Silent Night" stamp and die set from Honey Bee Stamps. He is stamped in black ink, clear-embossed, and given a silver fur coat with my Ziggies. 

The background is an embossed birch forest using a Darice embossing folder. It was embossed on glossy paper, made light blue with a prayer and CP stone blue ink. Oh, haha, I also used a brayer! I made a snowy hill so Bunny could sit and play with his big feet and tickle his toes while listening to the blue bird sing* Christmas carols.

*In this photo, the bird is singing the seldom-heard "Be Merry" song by the Christmas Minstrels, not to be confused with The New Christy Minstrels. It goes something like this: "Be Merry, Be Merry, Be Merry, Be Merry, Be Merry, Be Merry, Be Merry, Be Merry, Be Merry," and it's often accompanied by a cocktail with a cherry.

Challenges

• Let's Squash It!: Make a Christmas card.
• Little Red Wagon: Winter.
• The Paper Players: A color challenge.

Twofer

I made several embossed birch trees on glossy white paper, so for once I made a second card right then and there. Go, me! This time I used the Birch Trees die from Cottage Cutz over top of the embossed birch trees. I cut one layer in white gloss and one layer in black for a shadow and glued them together. Because I like b/w and red together and because I had used glossy white paper, I die-cut the sediment in red glossy paper. I used the same red for the outer borders, as well as for the little bird.

Actually, that little red glossy bird is part of another birch tree die I have. (No one needs this many, said no one ever.) This one is from Mama Elephant. I actually die-cut several of them and then spent prolly an hour placing them in different branches, here and there, always in odd numbers, as one does. 

One, three, five, seven? Okay, no more than that, Shirley? In the end, I climbed up out of the rabbit hole I was in and as you see (with invaluable assistance from Hammy), I settled on one solitary bird. We think one is more impactful somehow, because, you know, Art.

Challenges

• Can You Handle the Pressure?: A/G. No twist.
• Christmas Kickstart: Trees, trees, trees.
• Happy Little Stampers: Anything goes with dies.

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

©Rachel Wilhelm

I may not be back for a while, what with my thumb limitations, a long-weekend destination wedding to attend, company coming, Thanksgiving, and a load of Christmas cards yet to make ... ~ 🌀!

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse, being a follower, and leaving me some love! Happy Thanksgiving! I am blessed by ~ and I appreciate ~ the gift of your friendship and support!

Mwah!

*Life is too short!

Autumn /Characters

Hello Stamplings!

Happy November! I didn't think I would post any more autumn cards, but here I am! I hope you like it.

These images are from a favorite old set from 2012 called "Fall" from Technique Tuesday. I stamped the Autumn word using a Kaleidoscope ink pad and then smoothed the colors with a waterbrush. I colored the rake using gelly roll gold and silver metallic pens and attached the panel to a piece of gold and kraft pp. Hammy finished by winking on some schparkle. Here is a closeup:

I wanted to add some grass or leaves to ground the rake, but I gave away my tiny whatchacallit stamps. Looking around the playhouse I saw the Leafy Circle die From Simon Says ... die-cutting it from a piece of autumn-colored pp worked perfectly!

Challenges

• Double D: Thankful-Blessings-Grateful.
  
• Four Seasons: November Anything Goes Fall.
  
• Snippets Playground: Anything Goes Using Snippets. My leaves were cut from a pp snippet.

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Part of the reason I wanted to do another fall card is because my friend Di at Snippets Playground is hosting a Halloween party, so I thought I would share some of my old Halloween costumes. Even if you're a long-term friend, you might get a kick out of seeing them again! We all need distractions and laughs these days!

I worked for a fun-loving law firm. In 2010, I borrowed some yard clothes from The Mister and went as a logger:

In 2011, I did Dolly Parton proud! (Looking at it now I think I look more like Mrs. Passmore, my 10th grade math teacher. She used to cross her arms over the tops of her bossoms and stick her hands in her armpits. What a character she was. And, yes, that was really her name!)

Speaking of grandmas, in 2012 I dressed as Kim Kardashian's grandmama!

You can see who she inherited her junk in the trunk from!

The things you can do with one oblong pillow!

Over the years, we have had a turnover of homeowners on our street so now we have lots of little trick-or-treaters again as kids our kid's age are now having their own kids. Hence I chose to go as a grandma again and I didn't even have to change my clothes!

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

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse, being a follower, and leaving me some love! Now back to my regularly-scheduled Christmas card-making extra vaganza. I think there might be a cream for that.

*Life is too short!

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