Penny Black and Flower Soft blog hop

PENNY BLACK/FLOWER SOFT BLOG HOP

December 30th 12:01AM through January 1st Midnight, PST

The very first Blog Hop featuring artwork using Penny Black stamps and Flower Soft. Be sure to check out each designers' projects as you hop along their blogs. Join Penny Black for a weekend-long celebration!

PRIZES

3 random comment authors will be chosen to receive brand new 2012 Penny Black Valentine stamps. Just leave a comment on the Penny Black post as well as the Designers Blogs to be in the running.  Flower Soft is also giving away some jars of Flower Soft.

GRAND PRIZE

Use one of the Penny Black Designer’s Blog Hop projects as inspiration and create a new Penny Black stamped project. Upload it into our Gallery by the end of the Hop with the tag “pennyblackbloghop”. Be sure to let us know which project inspired you! A winner will be chosen to GUEST DESIGN at the Penny Black Blog!

WINNERS

Winners will be announced on Wednesday, January 4th at the Penny Black Blog.

You should have come to my blog from Jill Foster's blog

 

I have used Penny Black stamps since forever! I have stamped for years and this is one of those companies that has continued to create adorable stamps.  I picked this little guy in a set of stamps for my card. 

 A hedgehog just NEEDS Flower Soft, it is a perfect fit.  I used two colors of the Ultra Fine, Toffe and Earth.  I most often seem to use the Ultra Fine Flower Soft for my projects.  I also used some of Penny Blacks' Mix and Match papers. I picked a set with my most favorite shades of green but the best part is this paper is white on the reverse side making them perfect for cardmaking and with that white core, I cut my labels with a Spellbinders die and embossed the edges and then sanded the embossed edge to expose that white core.

For the flower, I colored it first with pink Copic markers and then added Ultra Fine Flower Soft in Raspberry Fizz. 
From here hop on over to Kelley Eubanks blog.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge

I get so excited everytime it is time for a new

Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge to be posted. 

This is the one posted today, December 29th.  Be sure to check out the Paper Smooches SPARK blog to see what the team created to go along with this inspiration piece. 

 Here is my card! I just had to go along with that great rainbow of colors that went down the page.  I just picked up scraps of papers I had on my table that went along with the shades in the photo. 

Since I used this cute little image, I thought a "LOVE" theme would work.  I added the heart to him to further the theme.  I covered the heart with Glossy Accents.  I had been playing with my new Distress Stains and touching the tip of the container to paper to see the colors and I thought this play piece of paper was the perfect place to stamp him.  He was instantly decorated with a pattern!

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost) 

(PS)

How about a little movie review!?

We went to see New Years Eve and LOVED it! It is full of stars and it is the cutest story.

We also went to see We Bought a Zoo and it is a must see for kids. Your heart will melt with the little girl who is his daughter.   My grandson is 3 and it was not as fast moving as he would have liked but the animals were great to see.

Play Date Cafe colors

I found time to play along with the Play Date Cafe color challenge.

 This is the newest one for this week.

 I found some pages to download from an old time children's Christmas book.  I printed one of them out on textured cardstock and used it for my card.  The paper behind that is a digital paper. 

 The red doily is cut with the Art Philosophy Close to My Heart Cricut cartridge and the snowflake is a new Martha Stewart punch. 

 This is last weeks Play Date Cafe color combo.

 I was instantly in love with those colors together and so I created a card then realized one day too late that I missed entering it for that weeks challenge. I still love the card though.  The ornament is a stamp by Gina K as is the sentiment.  The white paper came with the embossed design in it, I thought it added an elegant look. 

 I stamped it with black and embossed it with clear embossing powder and then colored it with Distress Stain in Broken China.  One of my new most favorite supplies is silver Liquid Pearls.  I added a few dots of that.

 While I had this set of stamps by Gina K out on my desk, I created two very quick and easy cards.  I cut the two labels with the Cricut Expressions and then stamped the sentiment.  This was added to a piece of paper by Teresa Collins.  I love the elegance of this paper collection.

 This card was for some guys so I liked the more masculine look of this print.

And for a photo...

Sunset from the other day in one of our shopping center parking lots! I used my Hipstamatic camera on my phone for the effect.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Flower Soft snow and Gingerbread people

First off, the Flower Soft blog is hosting a challenge starting on Wednesday, the 21st.  Check it out for prize info. 

 If you want a snow look for any of  your holiday or winter projects, Flower Soft is the answer.  It comes in the regular size and the newer Ultra Fine size.  I used the Ultra Fine on my card.  All of the elements on my card are digital from Echo Park.  I love using digital papers and elements because you can pick the sizes, etc.

 I ran lines of glue and added the Ultra Fine Flower Soft over it. 

 I also wanted to share my gift card holders.  The holder base is cut with the Cricut Art Philosophy Close to My Heart cartridge. 

I created little rosettes with some of the Gingerbread Land collection by Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker.  The rosettes are so easy and fast to create when using a score board.  I used the Martha Stewart one.  The little gingerbread people are cut from one of the papers. 

 What I found was pretty fun about using this particular piece of paper from the collection is that wherever I cut it, I ended up with a neat pattern once the papers were scored and folded.  I cut my strips at 1 1/2" for these rosettes. 

And for a few more photos...

 You always have to make snow angels!

 And, you have to do some sledding.

It helps to wear all kinds of warm clothing too.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Inspiration and sketches

I wanted to play along with one of the challenges at the  Moxie Fab Get Inspired week.  This is the inspiration piece that I played along with.  I think that is it adorable, so feminine and gotta love that great checked, green and cream pattern.

This is the card that I created. I love this doily die from My Favorite Things, a look that is so very feminine and to that I added a circle cut from a piece of October Afternoon patterned paper. 

I love this particular piece of patterned paper because whatever circle you cut out, the patterns and colors are all different so you get a completely different look with each one.  The flower is a resin flower by Maya Road.  I added a pearl to the middle of that to give the look of the jewelry on the little jacket.

I also used the Unscripted sketches sketch for this week. I turned it like I am showing you here.

The piggyback challenge was to not use any flowers so of course, a card for a little boy just seemed like the right fit. 

I also picked some October Afternoon supplies for my card.  It was fun to use all chipboard sticker pieces for my accents, sooooo fast and easy.

And for a few photos...

More from our SNOW or Big Bear trip.  How can a snow trip be complete without a snowball fit! It was so much fun to try to capture the snow "in the air"!

It didn't actually snow while we were there and our granddaughter so wanted to see snow falling so this photo of the fit captured the feel of that pretty well!

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge

If you enjoy challenges like I do, today is the time for another SPARKS challenge at Paper Smooches. 

 This is the SPARKS challenge, is it cute!!!

I realize that the SPARKS challenge photo is rather Christmas related and I was going to go in that direction but then I created this card and it so fit! The colors are exact.

 I used some Crate Papers for this, I couldn't believe how fitting they are to a DAD theme and to go along wtih this adorable card stamp by Paper Smooches. 

I have another card I want to share too using Paper Smooches stamps. I used some digital Cosmo Cricket papers for the card.  I just printed out small pieces of these two patterns.  I cut around some of the swirls to look like swirling snow.  The card base is cut with my Art Philosophy Close to My Heart Cricut cartridge.  I love that I could cut the card base and then two label shapes that are a perfect fit and matted just right.  

 I love this little snowman stamp.  I used mini buttons on him. 

And, to share some photos...

 Our family took a couple days to go find snow.  We are all Southern Californian's so we had to drive to play in the snow.  We went up to Big Bear Lake. Of course, we had to build a snowman!

 This is our youngest grandsons first "snow" experience. Talk about excited!

This is the finished guy.  Kind of a bear with a mohawk!

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Christmas on my mind!

Are you like me, happy to be creating cards that have a Christmas/Winter theme!  I love so many of the papers and elements for this season.

 First off, I used the Unscripted sketch for this week.

And the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger color combo! Isn't this photo of ornaments just wonderful!

 Love, love, love this collection by Pink Paislee and they have been giving away little kits all week long.  What is expecially fun about the dotted card base is that it is a piece of digital paper and I printed it out so the front and the back of the card are the same print.

 The two labels and the little snowman and snowlady are digital elements from the set.  Notice that punched border.  I used one of my Kreaxions 4-in-1 punches to create it.

 Next up, my Card Positioning Systems card.  That wonderful, vintage card is free from The Graphics Fairy. I just printed it on textured cardstock. I think that adds to the vintage feel. 

 The embossed piece behind that vintage card is embossed with a Tim Holtz embossing folder.  And if you look close, you can see the blue and green Flower Soft that is added around her shoes. 

The snowflakes are punched from a digital piece of "text" print paper.  I added bits of Flower Soft to the greens that she is holding and I also added some chunky glitter here and there.

 Another collection of Christmas/Winter papers that I am in love with are some from Bella Blvd.  This card is created from them. 

That circle is cut with my Kreaxions circle cutter. This cutter is the perfect tool to use to cut a ring like this.  I cut a larger circle first and then changed the size on the cutter and cut a smaller circle.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

SKETCH 136 BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE card

Materials list:

Digital papers and elements – Pink Paislee

Tulip 3-D Glitter Fashion Paint

Kreaxions 4-in-1 punch

Foam tape – 3M

SKETCH 248 – LOVING CHRISTMAS WISHES card

Materials:

Ultra Fine Flower Soft courtesy of Flower Soft – Ocean, Pine and Sage

Cardstock – Core’dinations

Clip Art – Free/The Graphics Fairy

Sizzix embossing folder

Snowflake punches – Martha Stewart

Distress Stamp pad – Ranger

Glossy Accents – Ranger

Chunky glitter – Impress Rubber Stamps