Shades of Blue

Not sure why, but both of the cards I want to share use LOTS of shades of blue.

I used the retro sketch for this week for the layout of my card.

I have had some Kaleidacolor stamp pads in my stash for years and decided to pull one of them out. I always loved these because of how easy it is to get more then one color or shade of a color on your stamped image at once.  This one is shades of blues. I used it on the zig zag Hero Arts stamp and on the butterfly. The butterfly is finished off with little beads glued down the middle.

Here is the sketch at retro sketches.

I love this flower bouquet stamp by Hero Arts, it is so fun to play with and to play with different coloring ideas.

I took a piece of transparency to use as a palette and sprayed two different colors of spray mist in a puddle, trying to keep them a little bit separated. After I stamped the flowers with white ink and embossed them with white, I blotted up some of the spray mist by placing the flowers down into the puddle. Of course the paper instantly picked up ink.  I thought it was fun to have the irregular coloring.

I created a little background grouping of stamps on the white cardstock.  The images were all inked by using spray mist as my ink.  The border is an EK Success border punch.

And for some pretty cute photos...

Look what we did this week!!! He is very proud of the new hair cut and the new shoes.

 Yes, he wears a uniform but he still gets his dinosaur backpack!

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Vintage Santa - Flower Soft

The Flower Soft team wants to show off some new, Vintage Santa toppers

 I used one of the pieces from the Forest Santa set.  There are two images in this set with three pieces of each image.  They are all colored and ready to use on a card or other project. My card took me a few minutes since all I needed to do was pick up a piece of this BasicGrey patterned paper, use a little strip of a punched border and it was finished.

I added some white Ultra Fine Flower Soft to the fur on his coat, hat and beard. The white Flower Soft adds so much to the image but it is great without that addition too.

From here, stop on over at Deb's blog to see what she has been up too.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Stamped images

I wanted to share a couple cards with you today.

 

 I used stamp images to create my cards.  First off, some great medallions from Wplus9 Designs. I love "doily" style images.  I used the simple color combination challenge at The Play Date Cafe for my card.

 What is fun is that I really could have made this card any color after I stamped the two shapes of the medallions. I did emboss the images with clear embossing powder.  That makes the image stable for using water, etc.  I used a watercolor crayon and scribbled that in the middle of the images and then used a water brush to finish the look.  I then sprayed the entire card with Shimmerz Paintz Coloringz.  It was the exact color to work with the color challenge.

 Here is The Play Date Cafe combo.

 Next up, my Card Positioning Systems card for this week.  All month long our sponsor has been The Stamps of Life and my main focus was her great hexagon stamp set.  The sentiment and the second sentiment are from another set by her.

 I just love the different patterns she has for her hexagons and I used one of Stephanie Barnards Colorbox stamp pads too. 

Here is the CPS sketch we are working with.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Stamping Flowers and other things

I love to stamp, maybe you have already guessed that much!!!

 

 So I pulled out some stamps for a few challenges in blog land.  First up I used the color combination at Dynamic Duos and the sketch at Freshly Made to put this card together.  That great label shape is cut with my Cricut Expression using the Art Philosophy cartridge and the green cardstock is already embossed from Core'dinations. 

The little stamped pieces are stamps by PaperTrey, Inc.  This is two stamps put together, I thought they created the cutest little accents that make this fit that sketch so nicely.

 Here is the Dynamic Duos combo, this is my first time to play along with this group.

 And here is the Freshly Made sketch.

 Now, I just had to play along with the Colour Q Combo, they always make their color choices to inviting. This also fits Cath's challenge at Moxie Fab for repetition for Card Design week. 

 These stamps are from the same PaperTrey, Inc set as the last card. LOVE the stamps and I also purchased the matching dies. Love how they cut out the flower and leaves.

Here is that amazing color combination for Colour Q.

 And, for another cute flower stamp, I used the retro sketch for this week. The papers are a brand new purchase for me from a mini pad by BasicGrey, the Shine On collection.  The button is from that collection too. I think my little grouping also worked for the Moxie Fab Asymmetry challenge that Cath posted this morning. I was working on my card as I was reading her challenge.

 I used a Hero Arts flower and the matching die. Let me tell you, there just aren't any dies out there easier to use then the Hero Art ones.  You can see through the middle of them to see your placement.

Here is the retro sketch that I used.

 

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Red and Yellow color combo

First off, check out this goodie!!! I thought it turned out so nice in the newsletter.
I wanted to play along with the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger challenge. 

 This gave me a chance to play with a technique I have wanted to give a try.  I can truly say I had so much fun with this one.  I loved the yellow sweater that wrapped around the red top and the black and white scarf so I wanted to put those elements to use in my card. 

I cut strips from yellow cardstock, red cardstock and stamped a larger flower from Hero Arts with just black ink on white cardstock.  I cut a piece of white cardstock, 7" square and added these strips to that.  A yellow strip first, a red strip next, my stamped strip next and then red and then yellow again.  Now I cut this piece in 3/4" strips, cutting down through the strips.  I then added these strips to a 5 1/2" square piece of white cardstock, staggering the cut strips.    I wish I had taken photos of the process so this would make sense.

 I used little word sticker pieces to my sentiment, they are from Authentique and I added black rhinestones, I thought these went with the shiny black sunglasses she has on.

 Here is the photo for the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger inspiration.

 Next up, the Card Positioning Systems sketch for this week.

 I sooooo love October Afternoon papers so I picked these from the Sidewalk Chalk collection. 

The black bingo card is from Jenni Bowlin and so is that rectangle shaped label sticker.  The chipboard is from October Afternoon.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Hearts and Butterflies

First off, I wanted to play along with The Play Date Cafe challenge.

 I picked up my new little stamp set from PaperTrey, Inc.  The set includes the cutest little hearts plus that adorable little sentiment.

 I used some great stamp pads from Clearsnap that helped me use that great color scheme.

 Here is that Play Date Cafe combo.

 Next off, I used the current A Blog Named Hero challenge to use kraft.

 I knew I wanted to use one of my favorite stamp pads on my card. I pulled out a few Hero Arts stamps for my card.

 I love the color of the Clearsnap Fluid Chalk Creamy Brown, I think it looks like kraft.  The other brown for the woodgrain and the writing stamp is Chestnut Roan Fluid chalk. 
Gotta share a couple photos...

 We scheduled a stop at a water play park we had heard about. What a super fun outing on a HOT day.

Different fountains went off at different times, you can tell this was FUN!

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

How about some orange???

I might not use orange a whole lot, but it was sure fun for these two projects.

 I wanted to do some experimenting so I took the chevron border stamp by Hero Arts and stamped it three times, turning it in the opposite direction each time. I stamped it with black ink and embossed that with clear embossing powder because I love how intense that makes the black. Next I took the Spiced Marmalade Distress Stain and colored over the embossed design. I love how the Distress Stains add color plus the black embossed image acted as a resist.  The Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge right now is to use a favorite technique and using the Distress Stains for coloring in one of my more favorite to play with.  This was now the foundation of my card using a sketch at Hero Arts for their August contest.

 The card base was embossed with a texture plate from PaperTrey, Inc but you really can't see that embossing in my photos.  After I used that Marmalade, I thought that using something purple would be a great contrast.  I stamped the flower twice by applying the purple Distress Stain directly onto the rubber and then stamping it. I loved the watercolor look that that produced.   I only used the stem of one of the flowers and this stamp comes in a set that includes a matching die. I LOVE these die/stamp sets from Hero Arts.  The sentiment strip was created by stamping the sentiment a few times on white cardstock and then coloring that with Distress Stain. 

 I also wanted to share my card for a recent CPS sketch.  The patterned paper and the little tag are both from digital kits.

 The Stamps of Life stamps is our sponsor this month and I used the Hexagon set for my card. I stamped an outline hexagon stamp over the patterned paper and then used one of the hexagon stamps for an accent piece.

Now for a couple photos...

 We went down to the beach for a bit yesterday. I took a few photos with the Hipstamatic camera on my phone.  Does this just look like the "life"!

How does it get better to swing with a view like that.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Sun, Clouds, Crabs, etc

I have a fun mixture to share with you today.

 Cath at Moxie Fab issued a challenge the other day to use the color MINT and I was right there to create something. I used Kimber's Saturday sketch at 2 Peas for the layout of my card. The label shape is cut with my Cricut.  This also fits the Cas-ual Friday challenge for square cards.

 I just received this adorable little stamp set from PaperTrey, Inc and I just had to give these adorable clouds a chance.  I stamped the clouds and the sun with white ink on white cardstock and embossed them with white embossing powder.  Now I took each piece and "colored" them with Distress Stain. I love using the Stains and the white embossed image acts as a resist so the image stays white and the background paper gets colored.

 Here is the sketch I used.

 Next up, I used the Freshly Made sketch

 I printed out some digital elements I had purchased from Echo Park. I love using digital images, I love that you get to pick the size you want them to be.

 Do you just love this guy???

 And, for the Card Positioning Systems sketch for this week.  The Stamps of Life is our sponsor.  I am using her amazing hexagon set. 

 The set includes a number of different hexagons in different sizes and patterns.  I used two of the stamps.

I thought this sketch was just so much fun! I pulled out my Kreaxions circle cutter to cut out my largest circle and then pulled out my various paper punches for my other little circles. These are the kind of punches that you pound with a hammer to cut out the circle.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)