Do you experiment in your creating?

One of my favorite things to do with creating is to sit and experiment. I love to see what inks do and what things work together. Of course, I also end up finding out what doesn't work!!!

 My two card today show off some of my "playing".  This first card goes along with the retro sketch. 

The background behind the black flower is my experimenting piece.  I had stamped a Hero Arts chevron stamp three times on a piece of cardstock and I had embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I took some of my spray inks and sprayed them on this piece. Those spray inks sit on top of the embossed design.  I turned that piece over and blotted it on another piece of white cardstock and what resulted was this great watercolor looking design. The embossed stamped images served as a stamp themselves.  I couldn't waste that great piece so I stamped the black flower over that.

Here is the retro sketch.

The strip along the bottom edge of this card is another piece of experimenting. The main technique was similar to what I tried to describe in my first card. 

The yellow/orange portion is the result of stamping that already stamped piece that has other spray colors sprayed on it and then I added the flowers that were inked with a purple Distress Stain.  The stain gives the image a watercolor look.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Hi everyone and welcome to the Just Imagine Crafts / Kreaxions Punches Haunted Blog Hop!
We’re giving away a Kreaxions 4-in-1 Punch and a Kreaxions Circle Cutter to one lucky blog hop participant! To be entered into the drawing for this prize, simply visit each DT blog leaving a comment on each one. Leave the final comment on the Just Imagine Blog.
We’ll announce the lucky winner on Monday! In support of the blog hop, all Kreaxions products will be 25% off from October 26th through October 28th!! We hope you will join us this weekend!! Discount good online only and CANNOT be combined with any other offers.
For international shipping rates please contact customer service at justimagine@cox.net.
Be sure to start off at Just Imagine Crafts – http://justimaginecrafts.typepad.net
From there the hop starts with
http://beeceecreativity.blogspot.com – Bev
http://ginniscrappyworld.blogspot.com – Ginni
http://alittledabofglue.blogspot.com – Jasmine (Jazz)
http://pkod.blogspot.com - Linda
http://royalpumpkinart.blogspot.com – Lisa B
http://lisasscrappyhideaway.blogspot.com – Lisa M
http://thegovsplace.blogspot.com/ - Joan
http://scrapperqueen.blogspot.com – Lucy
And after Lucy back to Just Imagine Crafts – http://justimaginecrafts.typepad.net
I am so excited to share my project today, a super simple and just plain cute, little treat bag.

The main tool I wanted to feature on with my project is the Kreaxions circle cutter. Honestly, there just isn't a circle cutter that is easier and faster to use. For my little treat holders, I could place the circle window exactly where I wanted it with the Kreaxions circle cutter. 
These were created by cutting a 2 sided piece of patterned paper, 3 1/2" x 12'.  It was then scored at 4", next at 2", next at 4", this left a little 2" piece for the flap.  Fold on these lines. 

 For this holder, I also added a border that was punched with a Kreaxions 4-in-1 punch. 

Because this piece of patterned paper has a print on each side, I used both sides, one for each bag.  The paper is from Reminince.
Thanks for visiting and be sure to hop along to be in the running for the prize.
Linda (lbpost)

Nativity stamps from Flower Soft

Flower Soft has been releasing a whole bunch of stamp sets recently and the ones the team is featuring this week just might be my favorites.

 The set I used are silhouette in style, the Nativity Set.  I love the look of silhouette stamps and they work perfectly with this theme.  That blue border piece is cut with a My Favorite Things die.

I found a free piece of Christmas sheet music to download and then I printed it out. I distressed it with stamp pads, etc. and then stamped the mother and child stamp and the JOY sentiment stamp directly on the sheet music. 

From here, go on over to Jeanne's blog for more inspiration.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Simple does it

I think the two cards I want to share in this post are on the "simple" side. I always find that to be a challenge. 

 This first card is for the CAS(E) this sketch challenge so one of the requirements is that the card is on the clean and simple side. 

 I got this great sentiment stamp from Verve recently and have wanted to put it to use so I thought it fit here along with a butterfly stamp that is also from Verve.

 Here is the CAS(E) this sketch.

This card also fits the Cas-ual Fridays challenge for "Over the Edge".

 For this card I put to use The Play Date Cafe combo.  At first my thought was it was a combo I was going to find too hard to use but once I sat down to play with it, I liked how it turned out.

 I just picked up this new embossing folder at Michaels and wanted it to fit here. The flowers are a punch from Martha Stewart and the leaves are the dark blue of the combo.

Here is The Play Date Cafe challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Challenge time again

Gotta play with a couple challenge...

 First off, I wanted to use the Colour Q combo.  I saw this combo as a chance to play with some alcohol inks.  If you have ever used alcohol inks, you will understand the "play" part. These are a supply that takes on it's own mind as you use them and that is what makes them so fun.  The punched edge is done with a Kreaxions 4-in-1 punch.

 I took a piece of white glossy paper and just started dropping colors and the blending liquid.  The more you use of any of these supplies makes your piece keep changing. I worked until I liked the combination. Once that was dry, I stamped the flower stamp with black ink.  I did emboss that black ink with clear embossing powder. Each of the flowers were accented with black Liquid Pearls. I love how the Liquid Pearls levels itself as it sits.

 Here is the Colour Q combo.  I love that it is shown with a fall/halloween theme to it but I wanted to think outside the box a bit. 

 For this card, I used the challenge at A Blog Named Hero.  That challenge is to be simple and clean.  My version of being simple here is to not have to color in the stamped image.  I stamped the flowers on white cardstock and I embossed that with clear embossing powder.  Now I added Glossy Accents to each of the flowers and let that dry.  I rubbed the piece with stamp pads and added some spray color with Chalkboard spray.  I added a couple stamps of the writing stamp to the background.  The black lines are a piece of paper tape from Recolletions.. Another really quick and simple accent.

I just love the way the Glossy Accents acted as a great resist to the colors that I added to the piece. 

 

 Here is the A Blog Named Hero Challenge.
And for a few photo...

 Have you even seen a baby flamingo? We hadn't and we had always wondered if they had babies in captivity when the public could see them.  We read that the flamingos at our zoo were having babies so we made it a point to get in a visit.  This mother was still sitting on the nest.  We got there as she took a few minutes to stand up and to let this little guy get some air. 

 They have mounds at one end of their exhibit with a few other birds sitting on their nests. 

 These are some older babies.  There were several of them in various sizes.  It was so cute to see them all gray and fuzzy. 

 These are some of the mothers on their nests.  The staff came into the exhibit to feed the birds and these flamingos ruffled up their feathers.  It was so pretty but we were pretty sure it was a defense mechanism as they protected their nests.  One of the mothers did stand up to expose an egg she was quite protective off.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Flower Soft and a winter scene

The Flower Soft team is showing off the Snow Globes this week.  Here is a link to the globes and the Christmas Snow globe kits.

 The globes work wonderfully paired with the beautiful, blue, snowy card toppers but I wanted to mix my example up a bit by using the gorgeous poinsettia card topper set with mine.  Plus the sentiment is a stamp, part of a new sentiment set from Flower Soft. 

This set of card toppers is so easy to use. The images come all colored and many of the petals are cut so that you can just lift them up with your fingers for a great 3-D look.  I like to put a bead of Glossy Accents under the lifted up petals to help them remain 3-D. 

I also used the gold Flower Soft for the middles of my flowers and the flames on the candles.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Reindeer, Snow People and a Party

First off, a card and a color combination that goes a bit "out of the box"!

 I used the Colour Q challenge for my card along with some Hero Arts stamps.  The color combination says "halloween" but I wanted to see if I could adapt it to a Winter/Christmas theme. 

 I am in love with this cute reindeer and his purple sweater!

 Here is the Colour Q combo.

 I also wanted to play with a brand new sketch blog, CAS(e) this Sketch.  The thought would be to keep the card simple so I tried to do just that.

 I interpreted the sketch as having some kind of a design that goes across the bottom edge of the card.  I did this by stamping the Paper Smooches dot border stamp twice, it was inked by rubbing a Distress Stain directly to the stamp.  I adore Kim's snow people so this guy seemed like the perfect accent.  He is a simple addition since he is supposed to be white making for a limited amount of coloring needed. 

 Here is the CAS(e) Sketch.

 This card puts to use The Play Date Cafe combination.  I have wanted to do a card with some long banners on it so I used that look to put the colors together on my card.

 Instead of a plain white background, I used a stencil and just put color in a few places on the card. 

 Here is a close up of my little banners.

And, here is The Play Date Cafe combination.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

More Stamping Fun

Here I am, picking up some of my stamps again.

 I used the color combination at Dynamic Duos for the starting point for creating my card.  I so love using this set of stamps from Wplus9 Designs. They make the neatest patterns.

 I gave the pattern some additional accent with Liquid Pearls.

 Here is the Dynamic Duos combo.

 For this card, I used several Hero Arts stamps. I love this label.

 The dictionary print is a background stamp that is also rubbed with brown ink.

And for more PATCH photos...

 The reptile lady did a neat little demonstration and she picked out my grandson to hold a corn snake. He definitely thought this was cool.

 This was one of my favorite pumpkins and you can see that he couldn't pick it up even though he tried.

He had to look out of every cut out, so cute!

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Some Pink and Some Pumpkins

First off, the pink...

 We are seeing pink everywhere for the month of October.  It was fun to use that color on both of the cards that I want to share with you in this post. This first one goes along with the Colour Q combo. 

 I cut the Best Wishes piece out with my Cricut.  It is a 2 piece image.  I thought it fit as a nice greeting to a girlfriend plus it goes with the color combination.

 Here is the Colour Q combo.

 Next up, I wanted to play along with the Paper Smooches Card Making Day challenge.  I used the challenge to make a card that has pink on it. 

 I love this rose stamp by Paper Smooches so I thought it fit pretty well as a greeting to a girlfriend.  The other pieces were cut with the Cricut. 

 Both cards go along with the For the Girls challenge at Cas-ual Fridays.

Plus we had our first pumpkin patch visit of the fall season...

I love all things "FALL"!!!
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)