Do you want to win?

Is that a silly question? Would you like to win some Nikki Sivils goodness? In honor of National Scrapbook Day, Nikki Sivils is going to offer some give aways.

You have a few ways to be a winner.

ONE - leave a comment on my blog, I will be picking one winner on Sunday, May 2. Be sure that I am able to contact you.

TWO - check out the blogs of some of the other design team members, many of them will also be offering a give away by leaving a comment on their blogs. The links are on the side of the Nikki Sivils blog.

THREE - join in the card challenge on the Nikki Sivils Blog. If you don't have Nikki Sivils products, you can make a card with any supplies. You have a little more time to do this one.

Now to share a some Nikki Sivils creations with you.

This is a round card. The card base itself is round and then this decorated piece is glued on top of that base.

All of these elements are part of the Will He Be the 1 collection. I coated the milkshake die cut with Aleene's Paper Glaze so it would look like glass.

The scallop ruffle is actually a large round patterned piece of paper from the collection. I cut off the outer scallop edge and then I clipped into that border. By making the clips into that strip, it made it easier to gather it and glue it around the outside edge of the round card front.

I love the look of a quilt on a card so I cut small squares from patterns in the Flaming Butterfly collection. These papers are from the mini pad where the prints are smaller.

I used one of the bread tags on my card and the buttons are self adhesive and have the tread already on them. Talk about EASY buttons to add to a project.

Thanks for visiting and for leaving a comment to be in the running to win,

Linda (lbpost)

ADMIT ONE – DATE NIGHT card
Materials:
Cardstock – Core Essentials/Core’dinations

Patterned papers and Date Cutie Cut-Ups – Will He Be the 1/Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker

Scallop scissors – Fiskars

Corner rounder punch – Fiskars

Sandpaper

Tonic Paper Distresser

Clear Paper Glaze – Aleene’s®

Coluzzle circle template

DREAM EACH DAY

Materials:

Core'dinations cardstock

Martha Stewart border punch

Cuttlebug Swiss Dot embossing folder

Machine sewing

Nikki Sivils Flaming Butterfly patterned papers, Bread Tag and Self adhesive buttons

Making Memories rub-on sentiment

Challenges everywhere

I love to find challenges, they inspire me.

So my first card that I want to share today was created with the color challenge of Colour Q and I also used the 2 Sketches 4 You sketch #51 for this week.

I have wanted to use this photo that I took of some lilies and they just seemed to fit with the shape of the sketch and the colors. The white cardstock was embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Notice my NEW punch! It is an 8-in-1 punch, I saw them used and just had to give one a try. Plus, I pleated some patterned paper for my accent across the bottom of the card.

This card uses the sketch at Taylored Expressions and it also uses a bouquet of roses stamp by Taylored Expressions. I thought the My Little Shoebox cloud patterned paper was a fun match.

I cut a label shape and accented that with a blue pen and some yellow Memories Mist spray. The flowers were colored with Copic markers and tiny pearls accented that.

For this card I used the sketch at Get Sketchy and some Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker papers. This paper is a big circle and I used a portion of it and that made for the perfect fit for the sketch.

The lines in the side of the card are created in the Core'dinations cardstock with a Score-Pal tool and then that was sanded.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

LILIES card
Cardstock – Core Essentials/Core’dinations
Photo – my own
Sandpaper
Machine sewing
Corner rounder punch – Fiskars
Baby’s Breath punch – 8-in-1/Blue Hills Studio
Cuttlebug embossing folder
Sandpaper



THANK YOU WITH YELLOW ROSES card
Materials list:
Cardstock - Core Essentials/Core’dinations
Curious Iridescent Cryogen White/CutCardStock.com
Patterned paper – Sky’s the Limit: Follow the Cloud/My Little Shoebox
Rose bouquet stamp and sentiment – Fresh Flowers/Taylored Expressions
Memento purple stamp pad
Clear embossing powder
Sandpaper
Copic markers
Self Adhesive Pearls – Recollections
Memories Mist – Stewart Superior


YOU GO GIRL! GOOD JOB card
Materials:
Cardstock – Core Essentials/Core’dinations
Patterned paper – Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker
Scor-Pal tool
Sandpaper
Rhinestones – Queen & Co.
Machine sewing

Gina K "Oh Boy" stamps

A couple days ago, Gina K stamps released some new stamps for April. I had the privilege of getting to play with Tami Mayberry's new set, Oh Boy.

Since I have a 2 year old grandson that I take a million photos of and he is all boy, this set was right down my alley. I caught my grandson playing with his toy cars and I knew they were the exact photos I was going to use with some of the vehicle shape stamps.

The blue background paper is new Core Impressions cardstock from the Jillibean Soup collection with Core'dinations. The embossed lines are already in the cardstock and I just sanded it a little bit to show off those lines. The images were stamped with black Versafine ink and embossed them with clear embossing powder and then colored them with Copic markers.

I wanted to show that these cute images didn't just have to be about little boys, I love this truck for a card for Dad. This sentiment is part of the set and makes this work for Father's Day.

See that sparkle in the white cardstock? That is the Curious Iridescent Cryogen white cardstock from CutCardStock.com that I love to use with stamping and with Copic markers. The sparkle isn't that evident, I just exaggerated it with more light so you could see it. I also sprayed the background with two colors of Glimmer Mist after I colored my little truck.

***

And a few more photos!

Our grandson just loves his kitty and she actually seems to like him! It is so cute to see them interact with each other.

We have a cardboard house in our living room and the kitty thinks this is here for her just as much as it is here for the grandkids. Again, a very funny thing to watch.

We have a Passion Fruit plant in our backyard. It was a gift to my husband last Father's Day and it is just now getting all kinds of blossoms. Are they amazing works of art or what?
This plant also has these curly Q things.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

It is Flowers and Helicopters

Because my post for today is FULL of flowers but I do also have a little helicopter in here.

This is my Card Postioning Systems sketch card for this week and I am using my new Hero Arts flower stamp again because I just plain love this thing! The sticker sentiment is by SRM stickers, I thought that worked so perfectly with this sketch.

I stamped the flower cluster three times so that you can only see the tops of the flowers and stems. I colored them with Copic markers and added some Aleene's Paper Glaze to portions of the flowers. The background is decorated with Glimmer Mist.

This card uses a BRAND NEW stamp set by Tami Mayberry for Gina K stamps. The reveal for this cute set was Thursday night and during the release party, there was a color challenge so, of course, I had to give that a try because I just plain love challenges, especially color ones.

The helicopter, the little sun and the sentiment are all part of the set. I colored the helicopter with Copic markers and added some Aleene's Paper Glaze to the windshield which gave it a glass-look.

***

And here is part of what we did today, we visited a rose farm. They had an open house today and it was just plain spectacular.

He loved that he matched the red roses with his red shirt.

This is big sissy running through the yellow roses that matched her shirt.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

SKETCH 164 – JUST A NOTE TO SAY THANKS card
Materials:
Cardstock - Core Essentials and Vintage/Core’dinations

Curious Iridescent Cryogen White/CutCardStock.com

Patterned paper – Zinnia: Green Floral/Little Yellow Bicycle

Stamps – Flowers/Hero Arts

Sticker sentiment - SRM

Copic Markers

Black Versafine stamp pad

Clear embossing powder – Stamps n’ Stuff

Self adhesive rhinestones – Recollections

Border punch – Martha Stewart

Glimmer Mist – Tattered Angels

ON THE MOVE card

Materials list:
Cardstock - Core Essentials/Core’dinations

Curious Iridescent Cryogen White/CutCardStock.com
Patterned paper – Fly a Kit/Sprinklers and The Thrift Shop/Collector’s Item/October Afternoon
Butterfly stamp – Hero Arts
Helicopter stamp and sentiment – Oh Boy/Gina K stamps
Memento purple stamp pad
Clear embossing powder
Sandpaper
Copic markers
Loopy border punch – Martha Stewart
Circle die- Spellbinders/Nestabilities

Clear Paper Glaze – Aleene’s®

Sandpaper

Spring has to be around the corner

With my two cards that I am posting today and with the photos I am adding, you would think that spring was here but our weather outside this week is any but...

This first card makes use of the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger. After I looked at what the trigger images was for the week, I stumbled upon a blog hop for these digital papers from Digital Design House. They look like they were made to go with the trigger! That meant I had to give it a try. The downloads for this digital kit are free and each design team member has a different part of the kit on her blog. The papers I used are from Jen Allyson's blog download. I opened a Word document and inserted the papers and the label. I printed them out on the Curious Iridescent Cryogen White cardstock from CutCardStock.com that I just love to use.

The label shape is part of the kit and the butterfly is a Hero Arts stamp.

For this card, I used the 2 Sketches 4 You #50 sketch and the WoodGrain challenge on the CARDS blog. I so love my woodgrain Hero Arts stamp so it was fun to use it again, I stamped it with black ink and added Glimmer Mist.

Notice the cardstock for the card base, that is from the new Cosmo Cricket Core Impressions collection with Core'dinations. The design is part of the cardstock and I just sanded it slightly. The bird cage was colored with Copic markers and Glimmer Mist.

***

And, of course, some more photos!

We were playing with bubbles this last weekend and my granddaughter was having so much fun creating some very interesting bubbles.

Can you believe how long this one is?
And, how about a really weird shape!
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

HAVE A HAPPY DAY card
Materials list:
Cardstock - Core Essentials/Core’dinationsCurious Iridescent Cryogen White/CutCardStock.com
Digital Patterned paper and label – Spring Fever/Design House Digital/Jen Allyson’s download
Butterfly stamp – Hero Arts
Sentiment stamp – Kitchen Sink
Memento purple stamp ad
Sandpaper
Copic markers
Self Adhesive rhinestones – Prima


ENJOY card
Materials list:
Cardstock - Cosmo Cricket Core Impressions, Core Essentials and Black Magic/Core’dinations
Curious Iridescent Cryogen White/CutCardStock.com
Patterned paper – Zinnia/Light Green Leaf Dot/Little Yellow Bicycle
Wood Grain and Bird Cage stamps – Hero Arts
Black Versafine stamp pad
Clear embossing powder – Stamp n’ Stuff
Fluid Chalk stamp pad – Clearsnap
Loopy Border punch – Martha Stewart
Fiskars corner rounder punch
Glimmer mist – Tattered Angels
Rub-on sentiment – Making Memories
Sandpaper
Copic markers
Self Adhesive rhinestone – Queen & Co.
3D Foam squares – Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L

Where else can you put Flower Soft?

Yes, on paper is a great choice but it is fun to see what other kinds of things can be enhanced with an accent of Flower Soft, whether it is for a card, a scrapbook layout or some other craft project. The Flower Soft design team is hosting a focus on unusual ways to use Flower Soft. I used the Unscripted sketches #51 for my inspiration.

I pulled out one of my Prima silk flowers. I love to use silk flowers on cards and adding to this one with some Ultra Fine Flower Soft in Raspberry Fizz was a really fun and successful experiment. All I was to use my Aleene's Tacky Glue and apply some of that to my flower. I didn't coat all of the flower, I wanted to put the focus on the middle of the flower and then out into the middles of each petal. Again, remember to use this particular glue for the best results and remember to be generous on how much glue you use.

The sketch for Unscripted Sketches gives the impression of torn paper but instead I used a piece of this lace paper to go across my card. The background cardstock behind the lace piece is BRAND NEW from Core'dinations, the collection is called Core Amour. This collection comes with embossed designs in it, the impressions are discovered when you sand the cardstock.

This close-up gives you a great glimpse of how the Ultra Fine Flower Soft looks in the middle of the flower.

My card base is a piece of Black Magic Core'dinations. The beauty of this collection is it is black on the front side and a color on the backside. I used a piece with pink on the backside so that it brought out the pink flower on the front. PLUS, when I sanded the edges of the card, the pink core was exposed making it all match even more.

Be sure to check out the other team members blogs for more inspiration.

Deborah Saaranen

Jeanne Streiff

Rose Ann

Jacque Beddingfield

Jennifer Buck

Vicki Garrett

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH card
Materials list:
Ultra Fine Flower Soft – Raspberry Fizz
Tacky Glue – Aleene’s®
Cardstock – Core Amour and Black Magic/Core’dinations
Lace paper – KI Memories
Button – PaperTrey, Inc.
Silk Flower – Prima
Sticker sentiment - SRM
Sandpaper

Got cupcakes?

I know that cupcakes are all the rage right now and I am really on that bandwagon, so it was so fun to use this cute stamp set from Pink Persimmon for my CPS card using this weeks sketch.

This cupcake set from Pink Persimmon contains the cupcake frosting and cupcake paper and then it has a whole selection of accessories for having the cupcake fit your theme. So my theme is a circus birthday.
I wouldn't ususally think to color the frosting green but it just looks like something I should eat! I stamped the cupcake twice. The first time on Curious Iridescent Cryogen White cardstock with black ink and embossing that with clear embossing powder. I then stamped it again on the green gingham patterned paper and then I cut out the cupcake paper only portion and glued that over my first stamped image where I colored the frosting with Copic markers. Some of the portions of the carousel tent has some Aleene's Paper Glaze applied to it but a glass like finish.

Can you see the slight sparkle to the white paper? That sparkle is in the Curious Iridescent Cryogen White cardstock. It shows up when the paper is turned to the side in light. I love how the Copic markers blend with this cardstock but I just love that resulting sparkle too. I also wanted to show the little scallop border that is part of the same stamp set.

***

And more photos!

We took a little trip to see Thomas the Tank Engine this weekend. Talk about a fun way to make one little guy very happy.

This was pretty much the look on his face for the entire train ride. He was so serious taking it all in.

They have all kinds of play stations set up, it is possible he loved this just as much as seeing the train and taking the train ride! (oh, and the hat stayed on the entire time, too cute!)

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

SKETCH 163 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY CUPCAKE card
Materials:
Cardstock Core Essentials/Core’dinations

Patterned paper – Fly a Kite: Sprinklers/October Afternoon and Now That’s a Good Thing/Cosmo Cricker

Clear stamps – Vintage Cupcake set/Pink Persimmon

Copic Markers

Black Versafine stamp pad

Clear embossing powder – Stamps n’ Stuff

Self adhesive rhinestones – Queen & Co.

Fiskars corner rounder punch
Clear Paper Glaze – Aleene’s®

Sandpaper

Flowers of every color!

(hint-hint, check out my post today at Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker too,

there is a flower in that one)

***

Todays post is full of flowers and flowers of every color. For the cards, color is the key ingredient with a couple challenges, Moxie Fab and Embellish Magazine.

This is this weeks Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger. A bowl full of pink and red roses is just so elegant.

I chose to focus on the green vase and the pink roses. You have to love the cardstock for the card base, it is brand new from Core'dinations and Cosmo Cricket. The embossed design is already in the cardstock and all it takes is a little sanding.

And, here are my paper roses. I used this wonderful, woodgrain patterned paper by American crafts.

Here are three of the four layers of my roses. Layer one is a punched scallop circle, layer two is a circle that I roughly cut out and then I folded back the outside of this circle, (the backside of the woodgrain paper is green), not taking care to have it too perfect. The third layer is a punched circle with the edges roughed up with a Tonic Paper Distresser. The last little layer is another punched, scallop circle. I added glue to the back side of the second circle that I folded the edges back on and glued it to the white, scallop circle layer.

The next card and challenge is a color challenge from Embellish Magazine.com.

Gotta love how elegant these colors are together and this also happens to be almost the same colors in the Play Date Cafe challenge for this week. Theirs is really an orange instead of the red.

With this card I got to show off my most recent purchases, this wonderful flower wood stamp from Hero Arts and the Spellbinder, Nestabilities label shape.
The flowers are stamped on Curious Iridescent Cryogen white cardstock with a black Versafine stamp pad and then embossed with clear embossing powder. They were then colored with Copic Markers and cut out. I coated the buds only with Aleene's Paper Glaze for a glass-like finish.

The cardstock that is the card base is a text patterned embossed cardstock from Jenni Bowlin and Core'dinations cardstock. The color is from the Black Magic collection so it is black on the front side and brown or tan for the core and reverse side. Sanding exposed that great brown/tan core and makes the text design really show up. What I really like is that the card is black but the inside is lighter for the sentiment.
***

I also wanted to share more photos from my trip about 2 weeks ago to a garden we have in our area. While it is spring and things are just starting to bloom, there was still a whole lot to get photos of.

You would almost think that these flowers were the exact inspiration for my previous card!

Orange blossoms with an orange in the background. If you have never smelled these, you have really missed something amazing.

This sign just cracked me up, not knowing there could possibly be a plant with that name!

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

PINK ROSES card

Materials list:
Cardstock – Cosmo Cricket Core Impressions/Core’dinations
Patterned paper – American Crafts and Jillibean Soup
Circle punch – Papershapers/EK Success
Scallop circle punch - Marvy
Corner rounder punch – Fiskars
Pearl brads - Doodlebug
Sandpaper

***

RED FLOWERS card

Materials list:
Cardstock – Core Essentials and Core Impressions/Jenni Bowlin/Core’dinations
Flower stamp – Hero Arts
Spellbinders Nestabilities die
Copic Markers
Corner rounder punch - Fiskars
Self adhesive pearls – Queen & Co.

3D Foam squares – Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L

Curious Iridescent Cryogen White/CutCardStock.com
Clear Paper Glaze – Aleene’s®
Ribbon
Sandpaper