Fall Floral

I'm actually not ready for this, but fall has officially arrived. 

 To go along with that idea, I wanted to play along with Curtain Calls challenge for Fall Floral using some Altenew stamps because seriously their stamps are pretty much my favorite right now.  

This also fits the CAS on Sunday challenge for a one layer card.  I often struggle with a one layer card but for some reason this came together so easy.  Once the flowers and leaves were stamped and embossed in white, they were then simply colored with Distress Stains on watercolor paper.  I love the intense colors and the loose, watercolor look.  

 I added a quick and simple accent by using a stencil and some silver embossing paste.  

 Here is the CAS on Sunday challenge.

Here is the Curtain Call Fall Floral challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Guest Designer for Inkspirational challenge blog

I get the fun opportunity to play along with the Inkspirational challenge blog team this week as their guest. I love online challenges for the kick start they give to my creative process and this weeks photo challenge was another great challenge (see it further down in this post).  

 I loved the defused gray background and then the subtle little teddy bear sitting on the suitcases.  I created a background that I thought was similar to the photo background by using embossing paste and a stencil.  When this was dry, I added gray Distress Stain over the entire piece.  Water helped make the ink run and fill in the spaces.  

 The pumpkins that are stamps from My Favorite Things reminded me of the color of the teddy bear and the look of the stacked suitcases.  

 Here is the Inkspirational Photo Inkspiration, be sure to check out what all of their team created to go along with the challenge. 

Plus this fits the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge of Stamp It.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

A Cup of Cheer

I've become a big fan of succulents so finding stamps of succulents was the perfect answer.  

 The challenge at Wednesdays Simon Says Stamp is Hip to Be Square so I picked up my succulent stamps from a set by Simon Says Stamp and created this card.  I'm sure a big fan of Distress Stains so I created my backgrounds with those inks along with a stencil.  

 The squares were cut with a stitched set of dies from My Favorite Things.  I love those stitch accents making the squares so much more fun.  I used some Liquid Pearls in red to add the final accents.  

 Here is the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

 I also love photographing flowers and plants so I wanted to share a couple here. 

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Summertime Dreams

The challenge at Simon Says Monday blog is Summer Fun.  

 The sentiment on this bookmark says it all as far as I'm concerned.  Summer is a whole lot of things but I can sure dream of the island breezes.  I created a bookmark just for summer time reading. That sentiment is a stamp from Printworks Rubber Stamps.  The flower and leaves are stamps from Altenew.

 For the background on my piece, I first used embossing paste with a stencil to create this gorgeous pattern and then washed over a few different colors of Distress Stain mixing those inks with water so that the inks ran and created a watercolor look.  I so love a watercolor background because it is always irregular and unpredictable yet always wonderful.  

 Here is the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

 This also fits the Just Us Girls watercolor challenge.

I have become rather obsessed lately with photography so I thought I'd share a few photos.  

Getting up close and personal with some Hummingbirds. 

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

A smear of color with Watercolor

It's no secret, my favorite inks to reach for are anything and everything Distress from Ranger.

 This might be one of the most simple ways to use the mini Distress Stamp pads to create a background.  I added a few different colors of the inks to an acrylic block, gave that a spritz of color and ran the block downward on a piece of watercolor paper.  The inks slightly run, creating a place to add other stamps and elements.     

 I then just stamped a leaf sprig on this pre-prepared background and added soft colors to that.  I used used a little bit of water and a little bit of added color with Copic markers. The leaf sprig is a stamp from Altenew and the sentiment is from a set of stamps by Simon Says Stamp.

 The layout for the card goes along with the Freshly Made sketch.

 Casology's challenge for this week is watercolor.

Plus this fits the Addicted to Stamps and More Photo Inspiration challenge.
This also fits the Simon Says Stamp flickr challenge of Emboss it.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Summer means Sunshine (hopefully)

It was fun to work around the theme of sunshine and yellow.

The starting point for the card design was to use a stencil and a few shades of Distress Stain.  The result was so fun and so cheery.  This fits the theme at The Paper Players of Watercolor.

 This sentiment is from Technique Tuesday and fits so nicely.  I added a few sequins for some extra accent and that fits the CAS on Sunday challenge.

Here is the CAS on Sunday challenge.

Here is The Paper Players challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

CardMaker Magazine and Clearsnap blog hop

I don't need any excuse to play with inks and stamps and making cards, etc. but a blog hop using some wonderful Clearsnap products makes playing even more fun.  The blog team for CardMaker Magazine and for Clearsnap are joining in to show off specifically the ColorBox Fluid Chalk stamp pads.  I have loved these inks for years.  The results are so beautiful and interesting and I created two very different cards to try to show off what they inks are about.  You should be coming here from Kim's blog.

 One of my absolute favorite ways to use the Chalk inks is to add color to my surface.  The resulting look and feel is like velvet.  I stamped the flowers and leaves first using some Altenew stamps. I used a white ColorBox pigment stamp pad to stamp the images and then use white embossing powder.  The pigment inks stay wet long enough to add the embossing powder.  Once the images are heat embossed, I then took the Chalk stamp pad in the color Cheeky and rubbed it directly over the entire surface of my paper.  It covers so nicely.  The embossed lines of the images resist the ink.  I added in a little bit of color to portions of the flower and leaves with a Copic marker just to add dimension in the colors.  

 I then used a stencil that I placed on my pink card front.  I used the white Chalk stamp pad and added that ink directly over the stencil.  I loved the soft design that resulted.  

I also wanted to show how these inks stamp, especially with a solid image.  I did use a watercolor paper.  You would get a different result from a smooth finish paper.  I again used a set of stamps from Altenew.  First of all I stamped the outline image of the flower randomly around my card front.  I used a simple black Clearsnap for that.  I used the Splash color ink for the solid flower image and then used the Chive color for the leaves.  I added a little contrast of color by rubbing the Cheeky color pad directly along the edges of my card front.  These pads are just perfect for this and I liked adding that surprise of color.  

I did accent the middles of each flower with some Glossy Accents and the black tag with the white words was stamped with the ColorBox white pigment pad and embossed with Clearsnap white embossing powder on black cardstock.  

From here complete the hop by stopping by the Clearsnap blog to see what they are up to plus there are prizes to be won.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

lll

Red roses....

Not sure what is better then red flowers and then add a watercolor look to that.

 I just received a new set of stamps from Altenew so of course I had to play a bit.  The solid flower shapes are very forgiving when you are after a loose watercolor look.  The stamps come with the possibility of stamping layers of the flowers but I did see that the layers pretty much mingled when I added the water.  The gorgeous word dies that says Happy Birthday is from Penny Black.  The set has a few sentiments in it.  This fits the TEXT challenge at Inkspirational because I used a simple text stamp from Stampers Anonymous to just fill in some of the white space.  I wasn't using it so that you could read the words, I just wanted the typewriter look. 

 Here's a close up of my resulting flowers and leaves.  I used another set of stamps that has an outline stamp in it so that I could further define my flowers.  I use some black Liquid Pearls to give a little highlight and dimension.  

Here's the Inkspirational Challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Reverse Confetti stamps and CardMaker Magazine blog hop

I sure hope you hopping along and taking in the fun creations that both the Reverse Confetti stamps team and the CardMaker Magazine blog team have created for this joint hop.  You have probably come here to my blog from Lisa's Blog.  

 I picked the Tie-rific stamp set along with the matching die set to create with and I'm going to share two cards created with that set.  I was excited to get a masculine set of stamps since I always find that theme to be a challenge.  I also got the Topped Off Tag die set.  The background for my card was created with Distress Stain.  I used the blue and the orange ink to help set the color combination I wanted to use.  

 Here is a close up of the tie and the word "dad" that I used.  The tie is stamped first and then cut with the matching die and the word "dad" is cut twice from cardstock.  

 I wanted to use a completely different color combination for my second card.  That helps show that the stamps and dies can be versatile.  The background was created with a Clearsnap stencil and a chalk stamp pad from Clearsnap.  

The word "dad" is cut out of the black pocket and then cut again from the kraft colored cardstock and then the word is inlaid in the cut out words.  I created a simple handkerchief to insert in the pocket.

From here, hop on over to Leigh's blog to continue the fun.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Stamped Flowers

I love using flower stamps from Altenew stamps.

 I used the Color Throwdown color combination for this week as my inspiration.  You can see the colors they used if you scroll down in this post.  That wonderful sentiment is from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous.  I love the font that is used on this.

 I embossed the flowers with a silver embossing powder and then added color with Distress Stains on watercolor paper.  I'm rather addicted to creating watercolor looks and it is so neat how easy it is to create that look with Distress Stains.  

Here is the Color Throwdown combo although I am too late in posting to have this included in their challenge. 

The card also fits the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge for "flowers".

Thanks for visiting, Linda ((lbpost)

Amazing!

So many people in our lives are amazing so this sentiment would be a welcome way to let them know it.  

 I went with a couple online challenges for the inspiration of my card I'm sharing.  This has to be one of the easiest ways to create a card.  I stamped the flower outline many times to cover my background using inks from Altenew.  I used watercolor paper and this ink reacted when I gave my stamped images a spritz of water making for a fun look.  That adorable little tag that has the word "AMAZING" cut out of it is from Technique Tuesday.  The placement of the flower and tag went along with the CAS(e) this sketch for this week.  

 I then stamped one single flower using a few of the layers in this stamp set by Altenew.  I love that the layers work together so nicely plus the inks in the set work together too.  

 Here is the CAS(e) this sketch. 

The colors and the flowers were my way to use this inspiration card from Time Out Challenges.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)