Happy Card - Happy Colors

I just had to sneak in a card for the Colour Q challenge. 

 I have been wanting to color this cute A Day for Daisies clown image for awhile and I was pretty sure this color combination was going to work.  I love working with digital images because I get to size them to fit what I want to do with them and I can print them out as many times as I want. 

 This cute clown caught my eye, maybe because of all of those hearts!!! I colored her in with Copic markers.  I did very little shading because I wanted to colors to be bright and vivid.  Each heart is coated with Glossy Accents.  I tried to turn the card to the side to show off the shine.  The corners were accented with a dot stencil and some stamp pad inks.  The "happy" word die is from Clearly Besotted, love their style.

 Here is the color combination for Colour Q.
And for a fun photo...

Seems that wearing lizards on our shirt is a new style around our house!!!

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

AAA Cards Challenge time

Another AAA Cards challenge...

 This week is The MacGyver Challenge - use kraft, glitter, stamps, vellum and a holiday.

 Now that seems like a tall order but I sat down and came up with a card for the challenge and I actually like it!!! I love kraft and white together and that is the perfect combination for snowflakes. The snowflake stamps are from Paper Smooches and so are the die cut words for the sentiment.

I cut the My Favorite Things snowflake die from vellum and then I also cut it out of white paper so I could layer to two together.  The middle of this large snowflake was coated with Glossy Accents and then some wonderful Martha Stewart Chunky glitter.  I took this photo from a side angle so I could hopefully show off the layers and that great glitter.  

Come play along at AAA Cards challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Stepping up with some Fall colors

I wanted to play along at Colour Me because I fell in love with the combo.  I wouldn't say they really looked fall related but I was able to get a fall slant to my card.

 I went to the Freshly Made Sketch for the layout of my card.  Add to all of that some brand new to me stamps from Simon Says Stamp.  The word "Hello" is a stamp from Avery Elle and I added some sticker letters from Teresa Collins. 

 That neat tag is a die from Reverse Confetti.  The stitch marks on my card front were created using a die from a set by Lil' Inkers.  The biggest die in the set doesn't cut, it just cuts in the stitch lines.  I stamped the wreath with white ink and embossed it with white embossing powder.  After I cut it out with the matching die, I coated the stamped image with Glossy Accents just for some added interest.  The flowers and leaves were stamped with various Distress Stamp pads in the colors of the combo.  Because of the dies for the wreath, flowers, leaves and tag this fits the Cuttlebug Mania challenge too.

Freshly Made Sketch

Colour Me

Cuttlebug Mania: Anything Die Cut

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

More Color Choices - Focus on Yellow

One of my favorite color challenges is black and white with a color.  

 I am working with a "new to me" challenge blog and it is a color challenge adding yellow to the black and white.  I started out by stamping my sentiment from Printworks.  I put a mask over that and gave the white paper some sprays of color.  I used Heidi Swapp Gold and Clearsnap Yellow.  

 That really neat flourish design is from Darcie's, I stamped it and then cut it out.  Some buttons and an enamel dot along with your yellow Liquid Pearls were the finishing touches.  

Here is the CAS Colours & Sketches challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Some Colour Q fun

I needed to do some creative playing...

 So I picked the Colour Q combo for my inspiration.  The background was created with several Distress Stains. I love playing with these along with some water. Love the way the inks run together yet remain bright.  I used a dot stencil and some white acrylic paint over the colors when they were dry.  

 I did add most ink after the paint was dry so some of the white paint spots were also colored.  The sentiment is a combination between an Alternew stamp set and a Printwords word stamp.  The butterfly is from Clearly Besotted and it has a matching die.  Since I stamped it in white and embossed it with white, the embossed lines acted as a resist after I colored it with some Distress Stains. 

Here is the Colour Q combo.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

A fun new AAA Cards Challenge

You need to watch closely because the theme of the challenges at AAA Cards changes each week and that is part of the fun of taking part. 

This week we are focusing on fussy cutting.  I have to admit that I really like fussy cutting so I was so on board for this one.  One thing I have discovered that sitting down and cutting out an image really doesn't take that long and the result is pretty cool. 

 I feel in love with this adorable Printworks snow lady when I saw her at our stamp convention and I have had so much fun using her. Most of the other elements were cut with my Cricut.  This was a quick little card to assemble because the Cricut pieces had been cut out previously.  I had saved them for a future use and this card seemed like the perfect fit.   

After I stamped the snow lady with black ink, I embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I really like my black lines on an image to be a little more intense with embossing and I like using that technique when I am going to add coloring with Copic markers.  You can see where where I added some chunky glitter on the red heart and on the golden wings.

Make sure you stop on over on the AAA Cards blog so you can play along.

And, can you stand a few more Maui photos...

 We stopped at this little Coconuts stand mostly because I saw that red truck and just had to get a photo of it.

 One of my most favorite photos from our trip!  We found this old hotel with these colorful surfboards along the front. I had a feeling it was abandoned but sure made a great photo op. 

I couldn't even get enough beach photos. Mostly because each beach we stopped at seemed different from the last.  I loved the shadow of the palm tree across the sand.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Project Life and a Layout

I have a goal to get more scrapbook layouts completed so I want to share one with you today.

I plan to use more Project Life styles and products but I also thought it would be fun to use some Project Life journaling cards as accent to a traditional layout.  

Here is used a digital set that I purchased from Becky Higgins. I loved the colors in the doggie set.  They printed out perfectly, I just had to trim them and use a corner rounder punch on the corners. 

The title letters were stamped and then cut out and I added some corner accents with a stencil and some orange Distress Stain.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Pink goodness

I wanted to play along with the current Fusion challenge so I sat down to do some creating.

 Every once in awhile, I sit down and play with inks and stencils so my background here was created during one of those play sessions.  I thought the resulting pinks went well with the Fusion challenge.  I used watercolor paper and some Distress Inks.  

 To follow the sketch with the Fusion challenge, I stamped these leaves from Wplus9 Designs with some Distress Stains.  The "hello" is also from Wplus9 Designs.  

 Here is the Fusion challenge.

And, I just have to share more Maui photos...

 This is the amazing view from our hotel room.  These cottages are part of the resort complex but we stayed in the tower part of the hotel.  I would strongly recommend The Royal Lahaina Resort to anyone for their Maui visit. It has it's own amazing beach plus other great features. 

 This photo is from our Lahaina visit.  This is an amazing area to spend time shopping and eating. 

This is one of my favorite beach photos.  One of the beaches we visited was Big Beach where the waves were so amazing, not to mention the cloud formations.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

The next AAA Cards challenge

It's Sunday again and time for the next AAA Cards challenge.

 This week, we were to use a team members card for inspiration. 

 Since I am so wanting summer to stay around for awhile longer, the sunburst design on Julia's card was a fun inspiration piece.  For my card, I started out with a favorite stamp from Neat and Tangled.  It is a large, distressed looking circle.  I inked it with two colors of Distress Stain, gave it a spritz of water and then stamped it.  Since I am loving playing with watercolor looks, I loved how this one turned out.  

 I then took a starburst stencil from The Crafter's Workshop and inked some of the rays with a yellow stamp pad.  I tried to be irregular in the length of the different rays while sponging on the ink.  The sentiment is from Mama Elephant and I added some black enamel dots to give it the finishing touches.  

Plus my card loosely follows the Freshly Made Sketch for this week. I love taking a piece of inspiration and making it my own.

And, I have to share some photos...

 We just returned from a magical time in Maui.  I don't know anything more to say then it was wonderful.  I tried to get lots of beach photos since there are so many different kinds of beaches there and it seemed that every day brought more amazing cloud formations.  

 On a beach walk, we came across a sand castle someone had built.  The waves had already taken part of it away, but I just loved the crumbling results, especially with more cloud formations in the background.  

One of our sightseeing trips was to the Iao Valley Monument.  It is a gorgeous garden-like area with great historical significance.  This is just one glimpse of that area. 
I sure hope you can get a chance this week to play along with the AAA Cards challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

AAA Cards Challenge Sunday

Yes, time for another AAA Cards challenge.

 This one is pretty fun, it's a moon sketch!

 

 I thought this was a fun way to add a moon to a little scene.  I simply punched out a circle and backed that with the yellow cardstock.  Since I picked yellow, I hope it looks like a moon and not a sun!!!

The little snowy tree forest is a stamp from Hero Arts.  My snow is some Liquid Pearls.

And for a few photos...

 We recently had a period of HUGE waves.  It was a spectacular sight.  Of course, I went down to take photos. 

 The size of the waves was most noticed and measured against our pier.  It is not too often they get that close to the pier.

Such a neat experience.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

The tropical bookmark

I wanted to take a minute to share a fun bookmark I created.  We are off on an adventure and a new book and a new bookmark were in order.  

 Because of the fun supplies and techniques I also thought it fit the Mixed Media monthly challenge pretty nicely.  

I started out by adding color to my piece of watercolor paper with some Distress Stains and a spritz of water.  Before the Distress Inks were completely dry, I came back and added white embossing paste with a stencil.  That added a little bit of color to the white.  I then left that to dry.  To finish off that goodness I gave it some sprays of a Heidi Swapp color ink in Citron. I liked what that added to the embossing paste.  That amazing, relaxing sentiment is from Printworks and the layered flower is from a set by Altenew. I wanted to add a fun accent to this so I added the sentiment piece with a mini stapler.

The Mixed Media challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)