Hello Stamplings, How're you doing? How is the change of seasons treating you, whatever part of the world you're living in? Mother Nature can be a force, but I do love that we have four seasons to keep things interesting and fresh. Speaking of keeping things interesting, I've decided I need to change up how I create because I'm in a rut. I wish I knew how to make and upload videos for this post, but even if I did, I'd talk too much and the video would be too long and I'd take the train off onto sidings and around curves and we'd get lost and ain't nobody got time for that. So here's the thing, which I think I've told you before. I love flower card designs that other artists make. I love flower stamps and dies. Over the years, I have amassed more flower stamps and dies than any other type. In my row of cabinets, one whole cabinet is dedicated to flowers: Here's the second thing. Considering the above display of outrageous commercialism, you'd think I would mostly make flower designs, wouldn't you? In fact, I rarely do. I'm such a goose. I have had this goal to change the situation for at least four years now, but I've successfully ignored it. Now, because I've had to take a break for health reasons, I'm finding it hard to jump back into my former routine, so I thought this would be a good time to change things up. And, if I make my plans public, maybe I will hold myself accountable and stick to it. I'm also making it public because some of you might be in a Rudderless Rut, too, and maybe you would like to join me with your own twist and tackle that creative thing you never get around to or you've been putting off. We can be support systems for each other! To begin, I went through all the drawers in the Flower Cabinet and pulled out every stamp set and die that is NBUS. I mean, to me, it just makes sense to first use those things that I've purchased, or been given, and never used. I'm a bit embarrassed to show you how much schtuff there is: Yes, this is going to take awhile. There are over 50 items in those baskets 😯 and that's after I pulled out things to give away. (Hoard much?) I hope to make my designs different enough and interesting enough that you won't get sick of the focus pocus always being flowers. My plan is to use challenges as inspiration (because I appreciate them and don't want them to close) and/or to finally CASE (copy and share everything) some of the wonderful flower designs I have saved over the years. One. For this card, I started with a design that I wanted to CASE. I have literally hundreds of saved cards in my To-CASE folder so even picking one to start with was a process. I chose this beauty made by Marika Rahtu: Marika is SO talented, but she is no longer blogging or on IG. I do hope she is okay and that she comes back at some point to share her enormous talent in Blogland. To CASE Marika's card, I chose my NBUS Penny Black cling stamp called, "Full of Glee." For my coloring, I chose my inspiration from the current Color Hues challenge of purple and green. I am also entering the TIME OUT challenge (spring) and the Penny Black Saturday Challenge (A/G with option of Easter). Two. Okay, so that felt really good, but I felt like I wasn't really giving the beautiful PB stamp the full exposure it deserves, so I made another card. This time I CASEd Lolly. She has done many wonderful designs using this stamp and I chose this one: For my color inspiration, I chose yellow from Colorful Options challenge for April. I am also entering Seize the Birthday (with the option of spring) and the Alphabet Challenge (B is for Blooms). Here is my card: This reminds me of how freckled I used to get in the summertime. I want to make it clear that the over-exuberance of schplatters is not Hammy's fault. Everything was fine until I suggested he do one more high-jump off the paint brush and there you have it. Oh, well, you can never have too much gold, right? Or is that diamonds? ETA: Thanks to my friend Cat, I'm also entering Challenge Up Your Life where the prompt is splatters! I have to say, today was fun and I'm off to pull another item out of the basket! Wish me luck. I'd love to hear if you join me or if you are working on your own way to recharge your batteries ~ both in terms of creating and in sharing on your blog. ~~~ 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!)