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)

Pops of Color

Hold onto your hats, my card that I want to share is full of COLOR!!!

 I loved the color combination at Colour Q and so of course I had to play along.  First off, they are colors I would probably have never used together. I wanted to take it way over the top. 

 That circle is a stamp from Neat and Tangled. It is so much fun to use.  The banner is from My Favorite Things and the flower and leaves is from Wplus9 Designs.  My stamps have matching die cuts making them so easy to use.

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

A cute sign in my backyard.  I found it at Joann's.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Loving yellow!

The card I want to share uses the CAS(e) this sketch for this week.  

 I went to my grunge circle stamp from  Neat and Tangled.  I simply inked it with a few colors of Distress Stain and stamped it only watercolor paper.  

 To add a little additional interest to the circle, I used a stencil from Crafter's Workshop and inked some of the rays.  I stamped black circles that are from the same set from Neat and Tangled, adding some enamel dots to a couple of the stamped circles.  I also sprayed some Heidi Swapp gold spray to the circle.  The sentiment is from Mama Elephant. 

 Here is the CAS(e) this sketch.

 Next I want to share a little project I just completed.  This week is teacher's appreciation at two of my grandsons school so as one of the treats, I created these cute little pencils built around a package of Rolo's.  

I cut papers to create the pencil look, stamped a number 2 on each one, used a Hershey's Kiss for the pencil point and some adorable PaperTrey, Inc tags were tied around with red twine.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

It's all about backgrounds

I wanted to share two cards in this post, both using some online challenges. 

 First off, I used the CAS(e) this sketch challenge.  The sketch is simple and, what I love about that, open to some great interpretations.  I started out creating a neat background with a Crafters Workshop stencil and some Distress Stain on Tim Holtz watercolor paper.  That bottom border piece is a die from My Favorite Things.

 My main element is a digital image from A Day for Daisies.  What I love about using these is that I get to pick the size of the image.  I printed it out and gave it some subtle coloring with Copic markers and then cut it out.  The sentiment is from a set by Neat and Tangled.

 Here is the CAS(e) this sketch challenge.  

 And, for more about backgrounds, I wanted to play with the Lawnscaping challenge to create your own background.  I LOVE the trend to use feather images and die cuts.  It is one trend I want to stay around for awhile.  I particularly like the Lawn Fawn feather stamps and matching dies because the image is the outline of the feather meaning I get to create the design of the feather.  

 I started out with some Heidi Swapp gold spray.  This just might be one of my most favorite newer products.  It is the best gold and can be used as a spray or you can use drops of it.  I created a grungy background with the gold and then stamped the smaller of the feathers randomly all over that.  I did emboss the black ink because it makes that a little more vivid and intense.  I finished the card off with some cut feathers and a sentiment that is also from Lawn Fawn.  

 I added little drops of a purple Distress Stain and a great blue Heidi Swapp spray, using that in drops.  

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

Golden Tipped Feathers

I recently got a new set from Lawn Fawn and I thought they would go pretty good with the Less is More sketch challenge.

 That circle is the coolest stamp from Neat and Tangled! It just seems to go with a watercolor look.  

 I used Tim Holtz watercolor paper.  The circle stamp was inked with two different colors of Distress ink, I love how the colors mingle.  I colored another piece of paper so I could stamp the feather on it and then cut them out with their matching dies.  The tips of the feathers have Heidi Swapp gold on them.  The sentiment is also part of that Lawn Fawn set. 

 Here is the Less is More sketch.

 This also fits the Simon Says Wednesday challenge which is Anything Goes using Lawn Fawn if you want. 

And, we are playing baseball these days. I just know that the slide into home is the all important move!

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Fun Color Combinations

It is so fun to give an online challenge a try. For this card I used the Color Thowndown combo.  

 This was a combination that was such a fun challenge.  I don't use gray often so I had to scramble for products that were gray.  

 I used an acrylic block and inked it with orange, stamping it directly to a piece of Tim Holtz's watercolor paper.  I then inked it again with gray and stamped that too.  The leaf sprig is a stamp from Paper Source, the cut doily is a die from My Favorite Things, the flower dies are from Memory Box and the sentiment is from My Favorite Things.  

 Here is the Color Throwdown combo. 

 For this card I used the Colour Q combo.  Another combination that was pretty cool to use and part of what it even more fun was that text print was part of the combo.  

 The ray stamp is from Neat and Tangled.  I inked it with Distress Stains that were spritzed with water and then stamped.  I glued a page from an old dictionary to white cardstock and then cut out the Paper Smooches die word.  The leaf stamp and die are from Lawn Fawn.  

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