Yellow is such a Happy color

I wanted to use the CAS(e) this sketch for this week and since I picked this "happy" die from PaperTrey Inc, I just had to pick yellow for my main color. 

 I learned today that "smooching" is evidently a crafting term and that is what I did to create my simple background.  I tapped a few shades of Distress Stain directly to an acrylic block, spritzed that with water and then "smooched" the block onto my watercolor paper.  I love that it is really such a random way to add color and that so works especially with these inks and watercolor paper. 

 The flower is a multi step flower from Altenew stamps.  Again, another stamp that I really love and you can create your flower from any number of color combinations.  

 See the little specks of gold because one of the Distress Stains that I used is tarnished brass, a metallic ink.  

Here is the CAS(e) this sketch that I used.

It also fits the Addicted to Stamps and More Anything Goes challenge.

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)

The big red flower

 Even though I am almost out of time, I really wanted to play along with the Colour Q challenge for this week. It has to be one of my most favorite color combos.  Part of the challenge was to use a newsprint look so I stamped a Stampers Anonymous ticket stamp and then cut that in a square with a My Favorite Things stitched die.  That was matted with a black MFT stitched square.  Because there are several sizes of squares in this die set, it is easy to do graduated sizes.  

 For the flower, I added two shades of Distress Stain to a piece of watercolor paper and then stamped a PaperTrey, Inc. flower over that colored piece.  It made for such a pretty flower and a real easy one too.  The leaves are from the same stamp set, I colored them with Copic markers.  The die cut word is from a set by Die-Versions.  

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

LOVE and red seem to go together

I am so loving creating cards that fit for Valentines Day and the biggest reason is because of the RED!!!

 Todays card is no exception, lots of red.  I created a messy background with a stencil and some Distress Stain on watercolor paper.  I love how the Stains work with water and watercolor paper and I love the resulting messy look.  

 To keep with the Sunday Stamps sketch, I used a couple strips of Washi Tape on the side.  On top of that I added a little bow from Recollections. The die cut word, "love" is from PaperTrey, Inc. 

 Here is the Sunday Stamps challenge.

 This also fits the Friday Mashup challenge.

And the Curtain Call challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

A blackboard look

The blackboard look is popular today in basically everything and I love it.

 It is a fun look on a card so I used the inspiration photo at the Fusion challenge to help me create my card. The verse is from a set of stamps from PaperTrey, Inc.  I stamped it in white, embossed it in white and then added some Black Soot Distress Stain.  The embossed design acts as a resist to the ink resulting in a blackboard look.  Mixing that in with lots of pink accents just seemed like the right thing to do. 

 I added a line of sticky adhesive across my card and applied some wrinkled ribbon to that. The little bunch of flowers is from a little set by American Crafts and of course some fun sequins helps finish off my card. A card that is sure to be an encouragement for a friend. 

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

Encouragement

Using a scripture verse on a card to a friend is such a neat way to send some encouragement.

 I got an amazing set of stamps from PaperTrey, Inc and I am trying to use these great verses as often as I can.  They mix so well with flower images.  I used the retro sketch for my inspiration on this card.

First off, I used a set of flower stamps from Altenew.  I inked the flower with various Distress Stamp pad inks and stamped them on watercolor paper. I loved the diffused result.  I then stamped the verse image over that with black ink and embossed that with clear embossing powder so the black was a little more intense.  

Here is the retro sketch.
And....

How about a sunset photo.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

AAA Cards Challenge - It's all about GOLD

 I can't even think of a more fun challenge for the New Year then to use GOLD.  It seems everything is about Gold this holiday season and so be sure to pull out your Gold accents and give the AAA Cards challenge a try.

 I wanted to use a new stamp set from PaperTrey, Inc that I bought recently so I stamped the leaves and embossed them with gold embossing powder.  

Next I simply played with several colors of inks to create a watercolor background.  I kept playing with it and adding more colors until I liked it, then I left it to dry. I just love what happens when it dries! I also used some Gold Heidi Swapp Color Shine and a little Gold dot piece of chipboard.

Be sure to play along at AAA Cards.

My card also fits the Runway Inspired challenge.

I am also submitting this to the Simon Says challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

AAA Cards challenge time again with some orange and black

 Be sure to hop on over to the AAA Cards challenge blog to take in the newest challenge.

 I love this cute PaperTrey, Inc pumpkin so it was fun to get to pull it out again.  That black and white background was created with a Simon Says stencil and some black spray ink.  I used the Freshly Made sketch for my inspiration.  

For my pumpkin, I added some Distress Stain ink to a piece of watercolor paper and then cut out the pumpkin with the die.  That label is it on is from Reverse Confetti.

Here is the Freshly Made sketch.

Be sure to play along at AAA Cards

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Lets get this party started!

Every year at this time my heart gets just so happy - there is actually a World Card Making Day, a day for something that I enjoy so much.  

 Of course, I wanted to sit down ahead of time and create a couple cards to share.  I was playing with watercoloring techniques this week and created the background to this card.  I used two colors of watercolor paints.  The paint comes in little tubes, I squeezed out a tiny amount on a piece of acetate then used my waterbrush to dilute that paint and pick up some.  I just painted simple lines on my watercolor paper, spritzed it with water to help the inks run a little more and then walked away to let it dry.  I always love the surprise that comes as the inks dry on the paper.   I used a Happy Birthday stamp from Wplus9 Designs.  I seem to not make many birthday cards so I thought that was a good theme for this card.  

 The big flower is a stamp from PaperTrey, Inc.  I stamped it with black ink on white watercolor paper and then added color with three shades of Distress Stain.  I love how the Distress Stains are so easy to use and give a watercolor look.  I did add a few sprays of Heidi Swapp Gold Color Shine.  

 Be sure to check out the tons of fun planned for World Card Making Day.  You can also find lots of fun posts on Instagram.  So many companies are offering specials.

 Another card I wanted to share uses the Fusion Challenge for my inspiration.  I didn't use the colors in the challenge, but I did use the sketch and I also stayed with a big flower, mine is just black and white with some great bright green.  The background was created with a The Crafter's Workshop stencil. I love stencils and I love theirs.  I just gave it a spray with some black spray. 

 I gave that background some splotches of green Heidi Swapp Color Shine.  My flower is a stamp from PaperTrey, Inc.  I kept the coloring extremely simple so I could stay with my black and white color combination.  Can you see that little bit of neat sparkle?  I used a Wink of Stella pen to outline parts of the flower.  Some green Liquid Pearls finished it off along with a die cut word from Clearly Besotted.  

Here is the Fusion challenge.

This also fits the Addicted to CAS Stencil challenge.

Thanks for visiting and I sure hope you get to do some paper crafting today.

Linda (lbpost)

Using Die Cuts

I so love color challenges, so it was fun to create this card to go along with the Color Throwdown plus to use some die cuts to go with the Less is More challenge.

 I just got a new large dot stencil from Simon Says so I used that with some Distress Stain to create my background on watercolor paper. I love the resulting watercolor look.  I cut my piece into a banner shape.

 I also just got this great die cut of "thank you" from PaperTrey, Inc.  I cut the word out of the light aqua cardstock and also cut that same word out of the watercolor piece.  This allowed me to "set in" the word, I love that look.  I also used a leaf branch stamp with matching die cut from Wplus9 Designs.  My new obsession is stamp sets with matching dies, way too much fun. 

 Here is the Color Throwdown challenge.

Here is the Less is More challenge.
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)

AAA Cards Guest!

How much fun, recently I was asked to be a guest designer on a brand new challenge blog, AAA Cards.  

 To make this even better, Victoria had noticed one of my cards on my blog and wanted that to be the inspiration piece for this week.  Above is my original card.

I created another card using the original card for the inspiration.  In the first card, I had used a stsencil to create colorful dots.  I took that same stencil and created a reverse of the dots.  I embossed the dots with white embossing powder and then added color with Distress Stamp pads to the background.  The white embossed dots acted as a resist to the stamp pad inks.  I thought the bright colors looked like a party waiting to happen.

That great word "happy" and the word "birthday" that I used to create a background are stamps from Winnie and Walter. 

 Next I just had to play along with this super cool color combination from Color Throwdown.  I just loved that silver was one of the colors. 

 I created a very simple background with a dot stencil and two colors of  Distress Ink.  

To add the silver, I cut the "Hello" that is a die from PaperTrey, Inc from silver cardstock.  The little doily piece is a die cut from My Favorite Things.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)