The embossing paste journey

I love to experiment and to just sit and play with my crafting supplies.  I always learn so much, sometimes failures, most of the time victories.  

 I picked up some Crackle embossing paste and so I wanted to see how I could use it. I started out with the matte black embossing paste and a stencil.  It looks bad here so I wanted to be sure to show you that fun step!

 In removing the stencil, it is almost breathtaking the beauty that is unveiled.  This was left to dry. It could even be left just like this too.

I put the stencil back in place and gave my leaves a coat of the Crackle embossing paste.  That goes on white and the cracks are revealed as it dries.  I then took some Worn Lipstick Distress Stain and started adding color over the entire surface.  Again, I left this to dry. The color here is a little bit too orange from the real color.

 Here is the finished card.  I thought it ended up being a fun mix of colors and techniques.

 The fancy circles pieces are cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities with an vellum kind of paper.  The amazing black leaves are a Waltzing Mouse stamp and the label sentiment stamp is from Altenew.  The color combination was to go along with the Colour Me challenge but that has ended.  

 The card fits the Simon Says Emboss IT challenge.

And the Addicted to CAS Celebrate challenge.
And for a photo...

This is a new plant to our yard this summer, it just opened it firsts "flower".  Kind of odd but actually pretty artistic.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

AAA Cards challenge - Shaker cards

The AAA Cards challenge for this week is to create a shaker style card.

 This is so not a technique that I usually try, but can I say I had fun! Hope you will play along too. Plus there is a very nice prize available.

 For my card, I went with a brand new set of dies from Spellbinders.  When I saw these cute clouds and the sun dies, I knew I had to have them.  Not to mention there is a piece that allows you to emboss a design or not.  The sentiment is from Printworks.

 I knew that a cut out cloud would be the perfect start to my shaker card.  I only wish I had put more little sequins in it, but that is part of the learning as you go kind of thing.

 Notice that I also just embossed one of the clouds with the little pattern piece in it.  

And for a photo...

We visited a park this week with the best Koi pond.  I could take tons of pictures of these beauties.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Paint and Stencils

I love experimenting and so my card for today is a result of some of that and it fits the Freshly Made sketch. 

 I took plain white craft paint and with my finger, spread that over a dot stencil on white cardstock.  I left that to thoroughly dry and then colored it with some Distress Stains.  I also spritzed it with water because I was using watercolor paper and the water helps the inks to blend. The paint acted as a resist to the red color.  I just needed to take a clean cloth and wipe off the excess color. 

 That neat pointed circle is a Spellbinders die, see the added embossed line and the sentiment is from Printworks.  

Here is the Freshly Made sketch.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

AAA Cards challenge #12

Another week, another AAA Cards challenge.

 This week, the challenge is to use Angela's card for inspiration.  

 I found so many things about her card that I wanted to put to use. I started out with the long, skinny shape, a size I don't usually do.  Next off was that black and white background. How wonderful is that word "thanks" cut from metallic silver paper! That die is from Clearly Besotted. 

Here was where I got to pull out my grand new Tim Holtz stencil! Be sure to check out Blue Moon Scrapbooking for you supplies.  I used Distress Stain and the stencil and then when I picked up the stencil, I spritzed my piece with water because I wanted a diffused look to that design.  Those adorable flowers are stamps from Wplus9 Designs.  They also have matching dies. There isn't a die for the leaves though so I fussy cut those out.  

Be sure to take some time to play along at AAA Cards

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Watercolor Goodness

I love Distress Stains and Distress Stamp pads because of how easy it is to get a watercolor look, especially with watercolor paper.  

 I started here with a flower stamp from Endless Creations and went from there, planning to use the color combination from Colour Q.  

 I inked the stamp with Distress Stamp pads, spritzed it with water and then stamped it a few more times to get more subtle images.  Other design elements were added with a dot stencil and by just rubbing the edges with a stamp pad. Again, spritzes of water helped make the look.  That great sentiment is from Printworks.

Here is the Colour Q combination.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

AAA Cards challenge #11

More fun, the AAA Cards challenge, this time to use windows.

Here is the challenge.

 I love thinking outside the box so I used four stars in place of the windows.  The star stamp is from Printworks. 

I created my background with a Simon Says stencil and some Distress Stains.  I love stencils, I love the watercolor look when using the Distress Stains.   The adorable little airplane and the sentiment is a stamp from Reverse Confetti.  

Be sure to stop by AAA Cards.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

You Are Amazing!

Another fun card to share with you...

 I went to the Freshly Made sketch and some great stamps from Avery Elle.  I am so in love with creating watercolor looks so this card is no exception.  I so love the way the Distress Stain color ran with the water.

 I took one of the image stamps, inked it each time with Distress Stain, gave it a spritz of water before each stamping and created a background with that image.  I then added a smaller image in a different color to the middle of each of those images.  Next, I used a frame stamp, inked it too with Distress Stain, spritzed it with with water and stamped it.  I stamped this great sentiment on the label and then cut out the label. The leaves were also inked with Distress Stain, stamped and then cut out with the matching die. I just love the resulting soft colors. The doily is from Martha Stewart.

Here is the Freshly Made Sketch.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Blue and Red and Fun

I have a new set of stamps and a new stencil and out they came for this card.

 I used the Colour Q combo for my card. I started out with a Simon Says big dot stencil and all I did was take my Faded Jeans Distress Stain and I dotted that into each circle on watercolor paper. I thought the end result was pretty fun.

Next came my Reverse Confetti stamp and matching dies.  How cool is that little airplane in red! The tag, the little row of hearts, the airplane are all dies.  I used a Distress Stamp pad for the red.  In order to get in the Sand color in on my card, I used a brown to stamp the sentiment.  That cute little cloud is a stamp from Simon Says and I used a stencil to add some interest. 

Here is the Colour Q combo.

This also fits the Addicted To Cas SKY challenge.

And for a photo...

We were in a restaurant this weekend and they have three big windows full of really cool glass floats. So amazing with the light coming in.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

AAA Cards #10 - Watercolor

Well, if you ask me what my first love in creating is right now, I would clearly say watercolor techniques so this challenge is everything I love!

At AAA Cards the challenge this week is to create with a watercolor technique!

 The watercolor paper I am using comes in a tablet that you tear the pages out of.  I used that torn, top edge as part of my card.  I first played around with some browns/oranges in Distress Stains with spritzes of water.  When this was dry, I took a dot stencil and some gold embossing paste and added a few dots.  I love the fun accent this adds.

I stamped this really cute coffee cup stamp from Endless Creations.  It is colored with Copic markers and I cut out the band from a piece of watercolor paper that I colored with more Distress Stains and a stencil.  The tag is from Avery Elle, the sentiment from Endless Creations.

Thanks for visiting and be sure to play along at AAA Cards,

Linda (lbpost)

Sunny turquoise and yellow

I got to play along on a new-to-me challenge blog, Keep It Simple, it's all about turquoise.

 I get going and I seem to forget about the "simple" part! Oh well, I had fun and this really was a fast little creation.  Mostly because I started out stamping the large medallion images with gray ink and then used Distress Stains here and there to add my color.  Because I used watercolor paper, a little spritz of water made the colors run a bit giving it a nice effect.  

 The smaller, yellow images were inked with Distress Stain and stamped directly to the paper.  I stamped one extra smaller image and punched that out in a circle for some added interest. LOVE these stamps from Mama Elephant.  That neat word bubble is also from Mama Elephant.  

 Here is the Keep it Simple challenge.
And for a couple photos...

 This star hangs in my backyard, thought I should take a picture of it for the Fourth!

Love these flowering succulents.  These things grow like weeds! Just pretty weeds!

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)