Unscripted Sketches and Backyard resident

A recent purchase was some great, shear journaling spots from The Little Yellow Bicycle and so when I saw the sketch for this week at Unscripted Sketches, I just knew this was the perfect use for one of the pieces in the package.

The patterned paper is from a pad of papers from the Traveler collection, also from The Little Yellow Bicycle. I loved all of the prints in this collection and I love that by getting the pad, I got smaller prints then what they use on the 12" x 12" papers. The smaller prints are so perfect for cards.

I did punch a circle from plain white cardstock and placed that behind my shear shape so that my rub-on words would show up better. The flower and the leaf image are stamps by DRS Designs. I did stamp the flower with black ink and I embossed it with clear embossing powder. I just might want to use this flower in the black and white on all of my creations!!!

And, now for our backyard resident! These is a spider somewhere and this guy makes a new, HUGE web everyday. Everyday we go out and destroy the amazing creation and everyday or should I say everynight, the spider recreates a new work of art. It truly is an amazing piece of nature's artwork although we would rather he wouldn't do this. I had to take my camera out to try to capture something of it. I used manual focusing to get this photo. That way I could focus on the web and the background was not in focus.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

FRIENDS FOREVER card
Cardstock –Core’dinations
Patterned paper – Fresh Print Traveler/Little Yellow Bicycle/C-Thru Ruler
Clear Cuts Journaling Piece – Little Yellow Bicycle
Flower and leaf stamp – DRS Designs
Versafine black stamp pad
Ancient Page stamp pad/Clearsnap
Clear embossing powder
Pearl Brad
Zig Zag scissors
Fiskars corner rounder punch
Rub-on words – Deja Views
Sandpaper

Water in Motion

What better fun activity for kids to do in the summer then to play with the garden hose? At least that is what our youngest grandsons thinks. It was fun to catch him as he played and discovered but a few of the photos stood out in the actual "motion" they showed of the water and I thought I would share them.

This was also shows off those adorable, chubby toes!

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Cuttlebug Challenge and Disney Pics

I have to say that my two most used tools are any of my embossing plates that I use in my Cuttlebug machine and all of my border punches. I could literally use both of these on every single thing I create!!! I have to make myself use other things now and then. The Cuttlebug Challenge Blog challenge for this week is to use a Cuttlebug embossing plate on an altered project. I use my embossing plates so much but I have never participated in one of their challenges before. Core'dinations cardstocks were just created to be use with the embossing plates so putting together this fun little box was easy.

I used one of the Black Magic papers that has a green core. I just ran pieces through the Cuttlebug with this embossing plate and then sanded the papers. I attached my papers to the little box with Mod Podge by Plaid and then I also coated all of the box with that same Mod Podge. I just love the shiny look this gives these great papers. I created my little flower top by tearing circles from my scraps. I did paint my box with black paint first so that my box looked very finished after the papers were glued in place.

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Now, on to what we did last week. It was my granddaughters 12th birthday on Thursday and she could get into Disneyland for free on her birthday so I tagged along with my daughter, my grandson, my granddaughter and my youngest daughter drove down to enjoy the day with us. It was hot and we were sweaty but that didn't stop the fun of sharing this magic place with kids!

This huge statue is just outside the Disneyland Hotel. This was our first stop for breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen. What better way to start your birthday?

And, yes, Goofy needed to stop to give hugs. Let me tell you that Dathan was just not very sure of these big, furry creatures!!! He did give Goofy a high five though.

Do you see those little eyes peeking out from under that big steering wheel? It is always fun to stop for photo ops at the various, fun, cars in Toon Town.

As the sun was going down, I managed to get a few pics of the castle. We did get to watch the fireworks later but it was almost impossible to get a good view with the HUGE number of people all trying to do the same thing.

Since we drove down the day ahead, we had some time to get in the hotel pool. This was our grandsons first time in a pool and while he wasn't sure about this at first, you can see he warmed up to the idea.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

CPS #126 and Keep In Touch Card Kit club

The sponsor for Card Positioning Systems blog for this next week is Keep In Touch card kit club or KIT. You are going to want to keep checking the CPS blog all week long to see the supplies that each designer created with because we each received different little trinkets.

So here is the deal. The owner of the KIT club sent each of the CPS designers their own little personal envelope of unusual goodies to use to go with the CPS sketch for this week.

Mine included the tickets, a couple interesting labels, the buttons, the bingo chip and some ribbon. I didn't use every single piece that was in my envelope but I sure did my best to get most of it on this card!

An interesting little feature to take notice of on my card is the three pieces along the side of the card. The sketch has three circles. I had a rectangular label and used a circle punch to punch each corner of the label. This gave me a pie shaped piece and now I could use three of these shapes to mimic the circles on the sketch.

Remember to check the CPS blog all throughout this coming week to see the other cute embellishment pieces.

Thanks f0r visiting, Linda (lbpost)

SKETCH 126 – ALL FOR YOU card
Materials:
Embellishments (labels, tickets, buttons and bingo piece) courtesy of Keep In Touch kits
Cardstock – Vintage/Core’dinations
Patterned paper – Silly Sam/Lil’ Man collection/Cosmo Cricket
Leaf punch – Emaginations
Rub-on greeting – Making Memories
Border punch – Fiskars
Sandpaper

Card Patterns and more JustRite Stamping

Yes, you already know I love sketches challenges, so I tackled the Card Patterns sketch #25 for this week.

And, I can't hide it, more brand new supplies. Is that lace paper just plain yummy!? I love adding flowers of any kind, but I thought it would be fun to make my own flower by tearing some Core'dinations cardstock. It is so fun to tear this paper to expose the core. I also tore the leaves but I also put a score line down each one with the Scor-Pal tool.

I used a piece from The Chocolate Box collection for my card base. I sanded all of the outside edges of the card to expose the blue that goes so well with my card elements. I just love that my card is brown but has that great blue edge cut the other really cool thing is that when the card is opened, the inside of the card is also that wonderful blue color.

Since we are playing with JustRite stamps at CPS this week, I just had to put together another card with some of the stamps that I have. JustRite offers stamps that are individual letters and you can place them on a block that holds the letters, allowing you to create you own greeting. They also offer a few different fonts. I just had to show some of those letters off by creating this greeting for my card.

The flower is cut from a piece of Daisy Bucket Designs patterned paper. I added it to my card front with foam tape for added dimension. It is a little bit hard to get the full effect with my photo, but I coated each of the petals to my flower with Aleene's Paper Glaze. The glaze gives the petals an epoxy look.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

THANKS – YELLOW FLOWER card
Materials:
Cardstock – The Chocolate Box and Vintage Collection/Core’dinations
Patterned paper – Captivating/Pink Paislee
Die Cut Doily paper – Making Memories
Scallop scissors
Button
Rhinestone – Kaiser Craft
Rub-on greeting – Making Memories

YOU ARE ON MY MIND card
Materials:
Cardstock – Vintage Collection/Core’dinations
Letters for the greeting – JustRite stamps
Patterned paper – Finley/In The Meadow collection/Daisy Bucket Designs (both sides)
Pearl brad
Journal punch – Stampin’ Up
Machine sewing
Powder Puff Chalk inks – Quick Quotes
Border punch – Fiskars
Clear Paper Glaze – Aleene’s®
Sandpaper

CPS #125 and JustRite stamps

The sponsor this week at Card Positioning Systems blog is JustRite stamps. They have been a sponsor before and it is always great news that we are going to work with them again. They just keep coming out with new stamps and they are all fun to use.

You can see more brand new papers that I just picked up, on this card. I am loving the shaped papers, look how perfectly a piece of this one worked to fit on the front of the card.

Here is a close-up of the stamp I used from the "Just a little caffeine" set. I love Starbucks and I always order a Grande size so could this one be any more perfect for me! Wouldn't it be a great stamp to use when you are going to give a friend a "coffee" gift card? I only stamped this one with brown ink and then did a little bit of coloring with Copic markers. I had punched out the stamped image with a circle punch but then I cut that edge with zig zag scissors and inked that cut edge.

I made a second card to fit the same sketch, using more of the JustRite stamps that I received to work with. This set of stamps are actually half circles of words and you can put these half circles together to form an entire circle of words or you can just use any of the half circles. These are from the "Celebrations Demi Phrase" set. I thought these were fun because you can also use the individual letters that come in the set and make it more personalized. Lots of possibilities with this one.

You can also see the Core'dinations cardstock accents on this card. The long edge of the card has lines put in it with a Scor-Pal tool and then it was sanded.

I wanted you to see the stamped words, a little closer and I also wanted you to see my little flower/circle accent.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

SKETCH 125 – MAKE IT A GRANDE! card
Materials:
Stamps courtesy of JustRite
Cardstock – Vintage/Core’dinations
Patterned paper – Captivating and Fetching/Pink Paislee
Brown stamp pad – Ancient Page/Clearsnap
Powder Puff chalk stamp pads – Quick Quotes
Metallic brad – Creative Impressions
Copic markers
Tonic Paper distresserSandpaper

WE’RE CELEBRATING – HAPPY BIRTHDAY card
Materials:
Cardstock – Vintage Collection/Core’dinations
Circle stamp for greetings – JustRite stamps
Patterned paper –Lucy/Playful Petals/Daisy Bucket Designs (both sides)
Scor-Pal tool
Wavy Crimper – Fiskars
Circle punches – McGill
Rhinestones – Kaiser Craft
Versafine Black stamp pad
Powder Puff chalk stamp pads – Quick Quotes
Sandpaper

It's color challenge time again

I wait for Kristina to put up a new color challenge at kwernerdesign.com!!! This is challenge #56. These combos are always wonderful and I just love trying to come up with something.

What else would I do to start creating my card but pull out these brand new papers I had just picked up? I had the thought in my head that that little airplane patterned paper had several of the colors in it. What I really find interesting is that I know I would have never put these colors together without this challenge and yet I really like the end product.

I did use Core'dinations cardstock on the card and maybe you can see the sanded edges that just add something nice to the finished card.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

SOAR - ADVENTURE card
Materials:
Cardstock – Core Essentials/Core’dinations

Patterned paper – Lil’ Man/Cosmo Cricket

David Walker epoxy sticker letters

Making Memories rub-on words

Scallop scissors

Brads – Making Memories

Twine

Don't miss these goodies

Check out these great looking boys here. You will find some photos of two of our grandsons that our youngest daughter took recently. You really do need to see how good looking these guys are!

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Next, it was my turn to be focused at the Core'dinations NEW blog. For this focus I used some new papers by My Little Shoebox and you have to see how wonderfully these prints go with the Core'dinations cardstocks. Tiny sneak peeks

And, guess where the new kitty found to take a bit of a nap? We have some carved, wooden bears in our backyard. She must have felt some kind of a kinship with this one.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Playing with computer generated accents

I wanted to share the following layout with a number of interesting computer generated accents, also referred to as Digital techniques. The original photo that is further down in this post had a great photo of Riley but there were lots of conflicting things in the background like other kids running and a fence, etc.

Technques used:

1. I used Magic Splash.com. This program turns the photo black and white and then allows you to pick areas to "add color back". This program puts back the original color so I used it on his uniform.

2. Now my background is black and white and I took an eraser tool and "took out" the conflicting things that were still in the background after I cropped the photo.

3. I used a Magic Tool in one of my photo editing programs that takes out the color of areas that you select. So all of the grass, the fence and bushes are changed in color, making them not obvious and adding emphasis to Riley, my star here.

4. I added "text" into the photo before I printed it out. That allowed me to add my title and to pick the color of those letters. Now I didn't have to find letters to use that would match or work the way I wanted.

5. I printed out the photo, it is mounted on black cardstock and I added the punched out circle accents with brads added to the circles.

I love to just sit and play with photos when I have time and this was a really fun exercise with a fun result.

This is my original photo of the soccer field with kids, a fence, spectators, buildings and bushes.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

A bit of this and a bit of that and some CPS goodness

First of all, I get to share my Card Positioning Systems blog card! We did not have a sponsor this week, so while our team just loves our sponsors, we also just love to pull out our own supplies and goodies to go with the sketch. Can you guess here, what one of my newest purchases was!

I just had to have these My Mind's Eye papers when I saw them. I love all of the newer, shaped papers that are around and I am always trying to think of how I can use them on a card since they are usually designed for 12"x12" layouts.

How do you like my little flower accent? The white, lacey flower is by Prima, I stamped on a clear button and topped that with a blue button that is secured with little, tiny, glitter brads.

And, for my greeting, I pulled out a stamp by a previous sponsor, My Sentiments Exactly. This stamp is about 5" long and so I just used a portion of it for my card. Notice that I embossed the Core'dinations cardstock with my Swiss Dot embossing plate and also notice the sanded edges of the card. I used a great WhiteWashed cardstock for the card base and by sanding it, that brought out the blue, reverse side.

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Gotta share some goodness from yesterday too! Our youngest grandson was playing in the water and he filled a bucket he had. He dumped out the water in the bucket and quickly put it on his head. BUT, the bucket had had sand in it so when he removed the bucket, guess what was left all over his head!

HE IS TOTALLY OBLIVIOUS TO BEING DIRTY!!!

And, guess what came to our house yesterday?

After a whole lot of names being considered, her name is now officially, TinkerBell!

It will soon be our granddaughter's 12th birthday and this little cutie is one of her birthday presents, just a bit early. Here they are meeting for the first time.

This little kitty just loves to crawl up to our shoulders and just sit there, so here she is on Grandpa and our youngest grandson is getting a close look and an exercise in being GENTLE!

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

SKETCH 124 – GET WELL card
Materials:
* Stamps courtesy of My Sentiments Exactly
Cardstock – Vintage and Core Essentials/Core’dinations
Patterned paper – It’s Time Breaking Free series/Wild Ride “only Smiles”/ Seeing Stars and Hot Dots/My Mind’s Eye
Cuttlebug Swiss Dot embossing plate - Cuttlebug
Black Versafine stamp pad
Flower – Prima
Buttons
Mini glitter brads – Creative Impressions
Ribbon
Sandpaper
Machine sewing

Adding details

First of all, did you notice my new banner? We just returned from some time in Oregon and while we were there we drove on a little tour of some covered bridges just out of Cottage Grove. Talk about photo ops!

Second, be sure to get a good peek at this amazing layout on the Core'dinations blog. It was found on the net, Core'dinations is on the lookout for good things like this!!!

Now to my card for today.

The challenge at the Hero Arts blog for this week is to create "travel" related cards using stamps and you can use or photo or not. Since I have so many great photos from trips we have taken, I pulled out a photo of one of my favorite lighthouses on the Oregon coast, the one around Bandon. I just printed it out pretty small so that I could use it as an accent on my card.

This card also shows off my very newest scrapping/stamping purchases. The cloud stamp by Hero Arts, the wave border punch by Fiskars and the scallop border stamp that comes in a set of borders, also by Hero Arts. I stamped the cloud background stamp on plain white cardstock with blue ink. Next I took a blue color of Memories Mists spray and gave it a couple spritzes. Next, I accented the cloud designs with White 3-D Fashion Paint by Tulip. This paint is actually designed for decorating fabric but I have found that it works wonderfully on paper projects and it can be just the most perfect little accent.

This close-up gives you a good peek at the wave border, the stamped border and the little accenting I did on the bottom edge of my card by making lines in the Core'dinations cardstock with a Scor-Pal tool and then sanding the paper. The Bon Voyage stamp is actually a larger rectangle then what you see here. I just punched it into a circle and inked the edges some.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

BON VOYAGE/LIGHTHOUSE card
Materials:
Cardstock –Core’dinations
Cloud background stamp, Clear border stamp, Bon Voyage stamp – Hero Arts
Versamark black stamp pad
Ancient Page stamp – Clearsnap
Circle punches
Memories Mist sprays – Stewart Superior
Brads
Wave border punch – Fiskars
Scor-Pal tool
Sandpaper
White 3-D Fashion paint – Tulip

CPS 123 and Sweet 'n Sassy stamps

You guessed it from the title of my post for today, Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps is the sponsor this week at Card Positioning Systems blog.

I picked a rather new set with a couple amazing butterflies on it and several great greetings. These were paired with these wonderful Cosmo Cricket papers.

I wanted to be sure to show you a close up of my butterfly and the next photo gives you an idea of how I colored it.

On a piece of plain white cardstock, I dropped some drops of my very newest color of Alcohol Ink along with some Alcohol Blender. The drops of the Blender liquid is what gives the yellow color various shades. When this was dry, I just stamped the butterfly over my colored area. For my finished butterfly, I did add some color to some of the areas with a Copic Marker.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

SKETCH 123 – SEE THE MIRACLES IN EACH DAY card
Materials:
Stamps courtesy of SWEET & SASSY
Cardstock –Core’dinations
Patterned paper – Early Bird/Sunrise/Cosmo Cricket
Black Versafine stamp pad
Alcohol Ink and Alcohol Blender – Ranger
Copic Markers
Ribbon
Sandpaper

Gotta have Butterflies!

How many times lately have I found myself adding a butterfly to my creations? Just seems to work and to be such a gorgeous addition to a card. I'll be posting a stamped butterfly in my next post.

I love this vine print paper and the colors on it and so it was fun to pull out those colors with my cardstocks. Notice the Paper Torn edge using the Core'dinations cardstocks. Paper Tearing is one of the fastest and easiest ways to expose the CORE to the papers.

The butterfly is cut from a piece of Making Memories patterned paper and I cut my little label out and then cut out a coordinating smaller border to it.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

BLESSED card
Materials:
Cardstock –Core Essentials/Core’dinations
Patterned papers – Bloom and Grow Bhemian Vines/My Mind’s Eye
Butterfly cut from Making Memories paper
Rhinestone circle – Heidi Swapp
Apron Lace border punch – Fiskars
Machine sewing
Rub-on greeting – Melissa Frances

Can you guess?

What does this look like a photo of to you?

We were driving through Oregon last week and we took a road that leads to several covered bridges. We drove right out of Cottage Grove and found something like 5 or 6 amazing covered bridges to take photos of. BUT, one of the covered bridges was lined with boards and the boards had a few knot holes in them. I wanted to see what the area outside of those boards looked like, after all these bridges are over little rivers. So I found a knot hole that I could reach to take a peek. Then I got the idea, "what would happen if I tried to take a photo through this little hole"? I actually got several pretty fun shots and so I thought I would share this one with you.

Don't forget the Core'dinations blog contest. Pull out any Core papers you have and look around your house for a fun, unusual tool.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Toy or Tool? PLUS a contest

Details of the contest at the end of this post.

Maybe you have heard that one of the wonders of Core'dinations cardstock is that you can sand it. BUT, did you get the full picture of what that means?

I am not just talking about sanding the edges to get a distressed effect. I am talking about sanding it to create patterns and designs. For that you need to take a new look around you and your house.

For this card, I used some really fun Cosmo Cricket supplies and a "tool/toy" that you maybe hadn't thought of.

In this close-up photo, do you see the "circles" on the yellow colored cardstock? That cardstock didn't come that way, I created it.

Take a peek at what my tool is here. I just picked up some building plates to go with the Duplo Legos that we have around our house. They are a perfect way to create circles on my paper. I just placed a piece of the cardstock on top of the plate with the holes on it and sanded away. The trick is to keep your paper in place so it doesn't slip around.

Want more fun ideas for creating patterns? Do you have some of your own? You sooooo need to visit Core'dinations blog to see what a few of the team members have found around their houses and you sooooo need to check out our little contest letting you do some looking and creating.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

DON’T FORGET card
Materials:
Cardstock –Core’dinations
Patterned paper – Mr. Campy/Nature Walk/Cosmo Cricket
Rub-on words and designs – Cosmo Cricket
Machine sewing
Sandpaper
Tonic Paper Distresser
Ribbon