Anything Goes, Girls!

Hello Stamplings!

One more week, or rather six days, and we will be whooshing away another page of this year's calendar! Rrrippp! 🗓

We have a busy few weeks ahead with traveling and with friends and family visiting. I have made a few cards to try and keep to my I.D.E.A.S. schedule, but I'm not sure they will get posted ... best laid plans and all that! Commenting will be sparse, but I know you understand.🤗

Today being the fourth week/letter of August, it's a free-for-all, otherwise known as A = Anything Goes!

Onefer

I was inspired to make a card for the Pink Fresh Studio August 2024 Challenge. It gave me a chance to use some of the new Washi die cuts that Col, Lin, and I made in June. This time I used the beautiful balloons and a Pink Fresh sediment from the "Perfect Sediments" set. The NBUS cover plate background die is called, "Hexagon Tile," and it is also from Pink Fresh.

I was going to call it good, but then Hammy suggested adding some schparkle with a frame from MFT cut from pretty blue glitter paper and, not to be out-done, Stanley suggested I add an escaped balloon in order to balance the compost. (That's what he calls it. We think it's cute and don't have the heart to correct him!)

Twofer

For this card, I used a NBUS Penny Black set called, "Painter's Vase," which I received from my dear friend Loll in 2019. It's been buried on Mt. NBUS ever since, but this week I was inspired to excavate it because Loll is a Guest Designer for the current Penny Black Saturday Challenge. The brief is anything goes with the option of flowers.

I used the technique where you color the stamp with markers and then spritz the image and stamp it on your paper. I wanted to also play in the current Color Hues Challenge, where my friend Tracey is the host, so I used yellow and orange markers.

I love how the vase turned out, but I think the flowers could use more shadows or white highlights. I also think the design itself needs something like a frame or some soft background blending or stenciling, and a shadow to ground the vase ... . I love this technique, especially with PB stamps, so I'll keep playing and improving.

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

Oh, I have to share this photo of a baby fence lizard on the patio. That is a tiny toothpick next to him! So cute!

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!

Embossibilities!

Hello Stamplings!

How are you this fine Monday? I hope you had a nice weekend! I can tell a lot of you are on holiday this month because I can hear the crickets in the evening and normally the crafty chatter drowns them out. Wherever you are, have fun making memories!

For the rest of us, I have a few embossed designs to share with you for the third week of the I.D.E.A.S. schedule.

Onefer

This is an example of double-embossing. First, I used a regular (unmarked) embossing folder and then I ran that embossed panel through a second time using a 3D embossing folder. The NBUS 3D folder used here is "Leaf Bundle" from Simon Says. You might be able to see that Hammy and Stanley used a few of the leaves as scratching posts which left a bit of a distressed look here and there. 

The beautiful Memory Box "Serene Bird" was cut using patterned paper. A gold-embossed sediment from Memory Box and gold bling finished the QACAS design.

Twofer

The embossing folder featured in this design is from Park Lane (Michael's) called, "Holly Berry." Stanley tried his luck at using a red pogo stick to highlight the berries! (Even Hammy had to admit that the youngster has agility and good eyesight on his side!) 

Using a NBUS die from Spellbinders called, "Stylish Merry Christmas," I used the cut-out letters only for the bold sediment. I backed it with a candy cane striped vellum and then attached it to a card base.

Threefer

This design features a NBUS evergreen embossing folder from Simon Says called, "Delicate Pine Branches." For this card, I thought the debossed side of the branches looked more interesting. 

I used the other portion of the "Stylish Merry Christmas" die, so you can see what the whole die looks like. This time, I cut it from a panel in my stash that was made by spritzing ink over an evergreen stencil. I left out the inside letters of the words. Next, I stamped off an evergreen stamp and stamped it lightly here and there over the panel. I lost the little paper piece that fit inside the R, so the lads searched through my bling and found a beautiful aquamarine bead.

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Sturgeon Full Moon Tonight!

Tonight's full moon is known as the "Sturgeon Moon" because sturgeon fish were once abundant in August in the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain region, according to the Almanac. The prehistoric-looking fish are thought to have existed around 200 million years ago. Today there are sturgeon farms all around the world, raising sturgeon in tanks for their prized caviar.

Other names for the Sturgeon Moon are "Dispute Moon," "Lynx Moon," "Lightning Moon," and "Grain Moon." 

I'm not sure how that happens. The names seem so random and why are there so many? I picture a group of Almanac executives who hold their annual August conference in Tampa Bay. After dinner and a few too many tiddlies, they sit around the club house pool gazing up at the full moon and tossing around ideas for the next Almanac edition. "Goose!" "Ambush!" "Upholstery!"

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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!

Challenges:

Can You Handle the Pressure? A/G E/F 

Cardz 4 Galz: Birds

Triple B: Birds, Butterflies, and Blooms

Word Power: Focal sentiment

Die-Cut Delights

Hello Stamplings!

How are you? I hope you are enjoying weather that finally allows you to be outside in comfort! 

I'm fortunate to be having my long-time friend Cheryl visiting this week from Colorado, so this will be a quickie, but I wanted to keep up with my I.D.E.A.S. schedule. This week is D = dies.

Onefer

I really like this art-deco NBUS die from Altenew called, "Streamlined Sprig." It's very versatile when it comes to options for cutting both the outline and the inner petals. This time, I used a charcoal gray for the outline and a smooched and schplattered panel the lads made using Lindy Magicals. 

I decided to use the same charcoal gray paper for the card base, an aqua mat, and a splattered creamy background panel. Something about the art-deco flowers made me want to whacky-wonk the panels on the card base before attaching the flowers and the stacked NBUS sediment from the Memory Box set called, "Cheerful Floral." I'm sorry if I gave you vertigo.

Twofer

I loved making this self-exploratory card using my NBUS "Ornament Cover Plate" from Gina K. I used hammered cardstock, patterned paper, stitched rectangle dies, and the perfect-sized sediment from the Simon Says set, "Holiday Greetings Mix 1." 

Like the die in my first card, it's easy to see how versatile this die is and how much fun it will be trying different design options with inks and pp!

Cheryl

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Enjoy your week! 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!
We are off to wander downtown.

*Life is too short!

Challenges

Cut It Up: Thinking of You

Krafty Chicks: Christmas

Let's Craft and Create: AG + Grey and one other color

Love Those Pretty Papers: AG (no option)

Snippets Playground: A/G using snippets

Surprise Party Guest for Seize the Birthday!

Hello Stamplings!

I was delighted and honored to have been one of the winners of a recent fruit challenge at Seize the Birthday, which makes me delighted and honored to be one of today's Surprise Party Guests for their new challenge where the brief is one of my favorites ~ "Cute Critters!"

Another of my favorite things is placing images from different stamp companies together so that they look like they were meant to be that way! For this card, I used a NBUS Anita Jeram (Colorado Craft) adorable dog with a birthday cupcake martini from Impression Obsession and a sediment from WPlus 9. I'm hoping this makes you smile and inspires you to look at your images in a new way. Especially if you can make your design a QACAS OLC!

I stamped the images with black ink and then heat-embossed them in clear e/p. I used my Ziggies for the minimal coloring. (I hope the very talented Ms. Jeram doesn't mind that I made her cute dog a little furrier!) 

We would love to see your cute critters over at Seize the Birthday ~ or you can link up with your Anything Goes birthday card!

Thank you again, ladies! This really meant a lot to me because I've been playing in this challenge with my cards since Lesley started the challenge on December 17, 2012. I'm sure many of you have done the same and agree that all the talented design team inspiration over the years has been very much appreciated!❤

Twofer

I'm trying to make a few Christmas cards each week and I wanted to play in Nanc's other challenge, Color Hues, where the colors are pink and brown. 

After making the layerpalooza cards in my last post, I enjoyed making the STB card a one-layer design. So for my Twofer, I made another OLC. This cute image and sediment set are from Stampingbella called, "Oddball Boy Elf." Like the first card, the images were stamped in black ink and then heat-embossed in clear.

I colored the elf with my Ziggies and then let Hammy and Stanley loose with daubers on their paws to color in the snowy circle stencil using pale pink and pale brown ink for a little extra colorpawzazz.

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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! We are seeing the grandtwins tomorrow for lunch before they start out (separately) on their second year of college. Hard to believe summer is almost over already 😎 ... but I do look forward to cooler weather!

*Life is too short!

Challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More: Any Occasion

SSS Monday: Happy 14th Birthday!

Simply Clean & Simple Anything Goes

August's Inky I.D.E.A.S.

Hello Stamplings!

And Aloha August! Did you know that the original name for the eighth month was Sextilis? That's a rather tilisating bit of trivia, isn't it? If you'd like to know more, I added it at the end of this postoastet. No, I haven't been drinking (yet). I'm just celebrating a reduction in the temperature for two whole days!

And a new month means I start over on my I.D.E.A.S. with a concentration on inky creativity for this first week. Today's cards were made from backgrounds I created (cough) two years ago while on a fun Oregon retreat with friends. 

To make pretty bold prints you smear ink cubes over a stencil and then liberally spritz the stencil with water. Next you lay a panel of watercolor paper over the top and press all over with your fingertips or a brayer to transfer the ink to the paper. You can often get more than one print. Gina K. has a video: Stencil Spritz Technique.

The scallop frame is from Pink & Main, the banner is from PTI, and the leaf is NBUS from SSS called, "Lush Leaves." (I thought at first it said, lust leaves!😆 Hey, maybe The Mister substituted wodka for my water again. He's such a lark!)

Here are the rest of the cards I made with the help of a coupla cute hamster fellas:

In addition to using my NBUS, this I.D.E.A.S. schedule has freed me up to look at and use my unfinished background panels and die-cuts. Techniques are so fun to do, but I'm really bad about turning all the panels I gleefully make into finished cards!

I remember when self-discipline was a thing I had on my Traits Resume. Who erased that? Also, self-control. Where dat go? I think they are more important than self-driving cars, but nobody asked me. They just came and stole my self-stuff.

Sorry I digested. Let me know if you get inky this week, so I can 📌 you! Even if you don't let me know, I hope you get a chance to get inky this week!

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AUGUSTus, cont.

You're surprised I remembered, aren't you? Now that I'm in the bottom half of the ninth inning of my life, large chunks of my brain have turned into ball corpses, but this time I held a thought! Here you go:

In the original 10-month Roman calendar, August was the sixth month with 

30 days and was originally named Sextilis. In 8 BC, the Roman Senate rewarded Octavian Augustus a month in his honor. The founder and first emperor of the Roman Empire, Octavian Augustus selected Sextilis, which under the Julian calendar was the eighth month with the addition of January and February. 

Renamed to Augustus, there remained the issue of the month having fewer days than Julius (July). Whether Octavian adjusted the number of days to match that of July is uncertain, but the result left February with 28 days except in a leap year and September and November each gave up a day to October and December to avoid a trifecta of 31 days in a row. For hubris or pride or both, the Julian calendar came to be.  

Courtesy of National Day Calendar.com 

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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!