Play along with Addicted to CAS

I have one last challenge with Addicted to CAS as their guest designer.  I've loved playing along with them.  

 I love how easy it is, just create with blue.  

 Once again, I turned to my Distress Stains to create my background.  I applied the ink directly to an acrylic block, spritzed it with water and then pressed it to the watercolor paper.  Working with the Distress Stains this was is always unpredictable but I always love what happens.   

I used my Lil' Inkers dotted label die and used it to emboss a design into my paper.  LOVE those dots.  The stamps with matching dies I used are from a set by Wplus9 Designs. I wanted my look to be very simple so I didn't color my giraffe except for the bottoms of his little feet.  The big balloon and the sentiment are also from the same set.  I only added some accent to the balloon with a light gray Copic marker.  I hand wrote the string for the balloon. 

Check out what the rest of the Addicted to CAS team created and be sure to play along too.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Welcome Baby

When I purchased this adorable set of stamps by Wplus9 Designs with this super cute giraffe, I knew it should be used for a baby card.  

 Because I wanted to color my giraffe with yellows and soft browns, I created my background in those colors with some Distress Stain with a watercolor look.  I added in a few spots with a dark brown ink.

 This completely adorable giraffe stamp has a matching die making it so easy to cut out.  I added my color with Copic markers and a little accent of some watercolor inks.  Plus some Glossy Accents here and there.  A few little epoxy stars finish off the fun. 

This fits the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge of Anything Goes.  Since I purchased my stamps from Simon Says Stamp, I think that really makes my card fit their challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Just a Note card

 I wanted to play along with Freshly Made sketches for there birthday celebration so here is my card.  The sketch itself is extremely simple leaving it open to some creativity.  I put a piece of tape across my watercolor cardstock and added two different colors of Distress Stain on either side of the tape.  This did leave a white space down the middle so I took a stencil by Tim Holtz and added some dots with more Distress Stain.  

 Next I used a flower and stem stamp from Wplus9 Designs and just stamped it in black.  The middle of the flower was centered over one of the turquoise dots, the rest of the flower was not colored.  The sentiment is from that same set of stamps and I added a couple buttons to the middle of the flower.  

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

Hello Beautiful

Who wouldn't want to receive a card with this sentiment!

 I wanted to play along with the CAS(e) this sketch for this week and so I created this card.  I buy my watercolor paper in a tablet that I tear the sheets out of and so there is always this edge that gets cut off when I cut my paper to the sizes I want. I love to use it, especially with the tears in it.  I had cut out the word "hello" from from Lawn Fawn outof this piece of paper and it was just sitting on my desk so I decided to play with it and some Distress Stains.  It just seemed right to become part of a card, I cut the bottom edge with a die from Mama Elephant.  The perfect accent seemed to be this word "beautiful" cut from metallic gold paper.  That die is by Paper Smooches.  

 I decided sewing it onto my card would be a fun look so here is a closeup of my sewing lines and the strings I left hanging off the card.  A tiny little flower completes the look.

Here is the CAS(e) this sketch.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Thanks Friend

First off, I wanted to use the Colour Q color challenge to create a card.

 The first thing I went to were my Distress Stains to create a background and to use a couple of the colors in the challenge.  

 Next, I turned to one of my Altenew sets of stamps with matching dies to stamp the leaves.  I added color to those with more Distress Stains to use the rest of the colors.  The sentiment is from a stamp set by Wplus9 Designs making this card fit the Friendship is Golden challenge at Time Out. 

 Here is the Colour Q challenge.

Here is the Time Out challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

School is around the corner

 Another week to play along as a guest with the Addicted to CAS team and the challenge is SCHOOL.  I sure don't want to even have to think this way but the time has arrived for moms and dads and kids to think about back to school.  I don't want summer to end so I pretty much refuse to admit its that time but I do love that theme so it was fun to create a card for the challenge.

 Plus I get to pull out one of my favorite stamp sets by Reverse Confetti.  I so love that  adorable apple.  

I wanted my card to be super quick and very CAS so I went to a favorite technique and that is to use an assortment of Washi or Paper Tapes.  I grabbed three patterns that went together nicely and it took me seconds to add strips of these tapes to my card.  Then the card was finished off with my stamps and I also used the matching dies.  

Be sure to check out what the rest of the Addicted to CAS team created for this challenge and take the time to play along.

My card fits the Freshly Made sketch.  It is a very simple sketch so I added in extra goodies.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Blessings to You

I started in with another challenge to use a lot of white space.

 In order to do that, I started out with my new background circle stamp from My Favorite Things.  I stamped it with white ink and embossed it with white embossing powder.  I love the white on white and this makes the perfect start to adding a little bit of color in one focal point.  I used the CAS(e) this Sketch for my layout although I reversed the side the main element was on. 

 I used Distress Inks to add color to just a portion of my stamped background.  I then stamped and embossed the flower, coloring that too with Distress Inks.  I like using my image as a palette, focusing more color in some places, less in others.  I just got the matching dies for this Altenew flower set so I cut my flower out.  The wreath is a die from Simon Says Stamp and the word "blessings" is from Winnie & Walter.  Both of those were cut from the same watercolor paper that I used on my card background. 

 Here is the CAS(e) this Sketch.

Here is the CAS-ology Precious challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Keeping white space

Why does it seem so hard to create a card and still keep lots of white space?

 The challenge at CAS-ology this week is Precious, meaning that white space is precious.  I of course had to give it a try.  

 I started out by mixing a little bit of orange and purple Distress Inks onto a piece of watercolor paper. I spritzed these inks with water and created the little burst of color that I wanted.  I stamped this great sentiment on the ink once it was dry.  Then stamped the flower with white ink and embossed it with white embossing powder.  I added color with Distress Stain ink.  The flower and sentiment are stamps by Wplus9 Designs and the flower has a matching die.  I added Glossy Accents to the middle of the flower and then added some white pearls with Liquid Pearls.  

Here is the CAS-ology Precious challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Some wings and a sketch

Yes, another card inspired with some online challenges.

 Parts of my card are pieces that I had previously worked with and they were just waiting to be used.  Always fun.  I was playing one day with a stencil and some embossing paste so that is my background piece.  The butterfly that is a stamp by Clearly Besotted was also created during a play session and the little cut tag was sitting on my desk.  

 The background is watercolor paper that had been colored with Distress Stain.  When it was dry, I took a Memory Box stencil and added some white embossing paste. To go along with the sketch, I cut the little banner with a My Favorite Things banner die and helped it fit in with the rest of the card by adding white embossing paste with the same stencil.  The "forever" tag is cut with a Technique Tuesday die.  The die cuts several tags and this one was just waiting to be use.  I didn't take out the cut letters.  I was using so much white on my card I thought it fitted in just like it was.  To make the white even more yummy, I added pearl dots with some Liquid Pearls.  

 Here is the CAS-ology Wings challenge.

And here is the Freshly Made sketch that I followed.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Cute Baby Banners and Addicted to CAS

 Guess who gets to play along with the Design Team at Addicted to CAS this month!!!! This will be so fun, can't wait to share my cards with you.  We get to start with this great challenge to use banners on a project. 

 I decided to turn to my PaperTrey, Inc set of tags and make a banner with some of them.  I colored a piece of watercolor paper first with Distress Stain.  Once that was dry, I cut out the tags.  There are a number of tags in this set, I picked out three of them and went with a star theme.  

My background was created with Distress Stains too.  LOVE using a bit of the Brushed Pewter because the metallic silver is such a neat accent.  I thought that the result of the blues and yellows and the stars made for a baby boy theme.  Creating a background like this is so fast and easy and looks more complicated then it is. The hard part is walking away and letting it dry.  I like to let it dry  naturally rather then using my heat gun because I think this allows for a little more character to the splotches of colors.  My little elephant stamp from Avery Elle.  The sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

Be sure to check out the Design Teams cards for this challenge and take the time to play along at Addicted to CAS.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)