Happy Balloons

What goes with Happy Birthday greetings better then balloons.

 I wanted to use this "happy birthday" die from Paper Smooches and I knew I wanted the words to be multicolored.  I also wanted some simple balloons for accents so I used a stamp and die cut set of circles by Simon Says Stamp.  This set also includes an outline stamp to match each circle.  I used Distress Stamp pads for the coloring of the balloons and I hand drew the little strings.  

  For my colored words, I took a piece of watercolor paper and made colored stripes with Distress Stains and a stripe stencil from Clearsnap.  With some spritzes of water, the inks ran and created the neatest, soft colored stripes.  I cut the die cut word from my colored piece of paper and I also cut it out of a plain piece of watercolor paper, making sure of my placement of the words.I wanted to use the negative of my word and fill that with my colored set of words.  Because my background piece of cardstock for the card base is turquoise, I let that show through the openings of the letters.  

 This fits the Stampin' Celebration challenge because of the colors and the strings on the balloons. 

It fits the Seize the Birthday Toppings challenge to use the negative. 

It fits the Happy Little Stampers challenge to use die cuts.

Plus the Pals Paper Arts color challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

A fun mix

I wanted to use the Seize the Sketch for this week so I pulled out some rather unexpected accents and put them together!

First off, I had been playing around with my Distress Stains and created this strip with the splashes of color.  The tops of the stains are round and I just hit the paper rather hard so that the ink splashed.  This was just sitting on my desk asking to be used and I could see it fitting the sketch.  

 That great striped paper is from Crate Paper, the word, "kisses" is a stamp from Paper Smooches, the star is from Heidi Swapp and I added some red Liquid Pearl dots.  

Here is the Seize the Sketch sketch.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Let it Snow!!!

At least on my cards! No actual snow around these parts.

 My first card uses the retro sketch for this week along with some pretty cool My Favorite Things products.  The papers are from Teresa Collins.

 I cut the large snowflake with a My Favorite Things die and a page torn from an old dictionary. I wanted to match the little book print snowflakes on the patterned paper. I added some chunky glitter to the middle of my large snowflake.  The cool sentiment is a banner die and stamp from My Favorite Things.

 Here is the retro sketch.

 This card uses the Seize the Sketch for this week.  The larger and smaller, white snowflakes were stamped with white paint.

 The cool die cut words are from Paper Smooches.

Here is the Seize the Sketch.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Is it winter?

Well, we do not ever get snowflakes here in my city, but I sure love to use them when it comes to creating winter themed cards, so I pulled out a few for these two cards that I want to share.

 First off, I am playing with the Seize the Sketch challenge along with the CASology "Black" challenge. 

 I pulled out an adorable My Favorite Things stamp to use as my center piece.  I kind of consider this coloring method a type of "cheating" or a "less is more" look.  I keep the coloring to a minimum and mostly just outline the image with a gray Copic marker.  I also used limited bits of turquoise.  I think he turned out adorable. 

 Here is the Seize the Sketch challenge. 

 And the CASology challenge although I just found out I am too late to link to that. 

 Now for the Freshly Made sketch. 

 I just got this die cut word "Joy" from PaperTrey, Inc and I so wanted to use it.  I thought it fit the sketch nicely with snowflakes as accents.  I did coat the smaller snowflake with Distress Rock Candy although you can't really see it in the picture. 

Here is the Freshly Made sketch.

And for a few fun photos...

 Our youngest grandson picked a Minion for his Halloween costume.  He became quite the clown when I asked for some pics!!!

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Chevron love

Both of the cards I wanted to share today have a chevron kind of design.  I love that look.

 First off, I wanted to play along with the 10 minute craft dash.  The color combination is so cool.  I was really able to create this little goodie in just under the 10 minute deadline! I can't believe I could do that but let me tell you, when you are on a time limit you sure can't sit around and try to make decision's!!! You just grab stuff.

The process -

1.  I picked out the Hero Arts stamp and the three colors of Distress Stain. START!

2.  The three colors of the Distress Stain were applied to the stamp and then spritzed with water.

3.  I stamped this on the white cardstock and cut this out to size.

4.  I punched the leaf sprig and added that and the two flowers to the card.

5.  I picked up the set of Heidi Swapp epoxy words that were on my desk and used one of the words for my sentiment.

6.  I took a bottle of red Clearsnap spray ink, took out the sprayer and flicked some of the red ink on my card.

7.  DONE!!!

 Here is a close up of the neat way the colors mixed.

 The 10 Minute Craft Dash

 For this card, I wanted to use the Seize the Sketch challenge.  I turned the sketch on it's side for my card. 

 The sentiment is from a stamp set I just purchased from Verve stamps.  I love sentiments like this that are meant to encourage a friend.  The leaves I stamped on here are from Paper Source and then I accented the tap with some punched leaves, the same punch as on the first card.

 Here is the Seize the Sketch challenge.
And for a photo...

I was watering some of my plants this week and just had to share how pretty this guy is.  It just keeps going with those wonderful blooms.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Fun stuff to share

Because I found a couple more online challenges to work with, I have a couple new cards to share with you.

 I pulled out some Paper Smooches stamps and a piece of My Mind's Eye paper to create my card. I used the CAS(e) this Sketch for this week as well as the neat color combination at Colour Q. 

 To get my splash of another color for the Colour Q combo, I masked the little telephone and sprayed my piece of plain white cardstock with a great yellow Stephanie Barnard Spray ink from Clearsnap.  I think that is such a fun way to add some color. 

 Here is the CAS(e) this Sketch.

And the Colour Q combo.

 I also wanted to play with the Seize the Sketch challenge.  I pulled out some really fun Simple Stories products. 

 It was so fun to create a little grouping with the matching products in this collection.

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

Some blue here and some blue there

My two cards today show off some great shades of blue.

 First of all, I used the Seize the Sketch and created this card. 

 I just received some neat, new stencils from Clearsnap and I knew this one with small hexagons would work just right with the sketch.  I used a blending sponge and two colors of Clearsnap inks, only adding color to some of the hexagons.  I also gave the finished card front a spritz of some Clearsnap spray ink.  The stamps stamped with black ink are from Paper Smooches, the stamp inked with the soft blue is a stamp from Close to My Heart.

 Here is the Seize the Sketch.

 Next up I wanted to play along with the 10 minute Craft Dash.  This challenge uses three neat colors together.  I didn't actually time my project down to the minutes and seconds but since I basically only needed to repeatedly stamp this great burst stamp from Hero Arts, this really was a fast and easy card.

 The three colors of ink are done with some Clearsnap inks and I added some additional interest with matching Liquid Pearls.

Here is the 10 minute Craft Dash.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Great color combos

How about a couple challenges?

 First off, I just had to play with the wonderful color combination at Dynamic Duos.  LOVE these sunny and happy colors together.

 The medallion is a stamp from Impress Rubber stamps colored with Copic markers.  I also used a couple pieces of some paper tape.

 Here is the Dynamic Duos combo. 

 Next up, I used a sketch from a brand new sketch blog, Seize the Sketch.  I loved finding another sketch to play along with.  I pulled out my Brush Strokes stamp set from Hero Arts.  I am having so much fun with these stamps. 

 I kept with a simple color combination, blue, red and black.  These are inks from Clearsnap.  Do you love the feathers!!!

Here is the sketch from Seize the Sketch.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)