Celebrate

Yes, another card completely inspired by some online challenges plus purchases from last weeks stamp convention.

 I'm quite sure my favorite stamp pad and favorite color ink ever is the Distress Oxide in Blueprint Sketch!!! That and the new stencil from Stampers Anonymous and Tim Holtz are a match in stampers heaven.  That color also helped me use the Color Throwdown combo.  

 I used a flower stamp set from Altenew and added color to complete the Color Throwdown combo with Distress Inks and Zig Clean Color markers.  The stamp set has a matching die set making cutting out the flower and leaves so easy and perfect.  

 I put a strip of vellum across the card from to help it fit the Freshly Made sketch.  

 Here is the Color Throwdown combo.

 Here is the Freshly Made sketch.

And the Time Out challenges anniversary challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

All about Green

The Addicted to CAS challenge is LUCK or LUCKY and I really had to think about that until I remembered a set of sentiment stamps from Stampers Anonymous that fit.  

 To start off I created a background using a stencil and some Distress Inks.  

 The flower is from a stamp set from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous and by coloring it in greens I was able to also make this card fit the Sundays Stamp color challenge. The top part of the flower is coated with Glossy Accents for some added interest.  

 This is a close up of the result of the inks with the stencil.  

 Here is the Addicted to CAS challenge.

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

Purple Butterfly

I found a fun bunch of online challenges and created a card. 

The colors are a result of the Color Throwdown and I used a layout for the card to match the Freshly Made Sketch. For the side element, I used a hole die from My Favorite Things and accented it with browns using Distress Inks.  

I placed my sentiment slightly different from the sketch but I thought this fit my card better.  The sentiment stamp is from Stampers Anonymous.  

I used a set of butterfly dies from My Favorite Things.  In order to use the colors in the challenge, I cut the top layer from watercolor paper and colored that butterfly from a variety of Distress Inks.  I like the resulting distressed look.  

 Here is the Color Throwdown challenge. 

And the Freshly Made sketch.

And even though my butterfly is purple and not pink I thought my card fit in with the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

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)

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)

CardMaker Blog hop using Ranger Distress Crayons

Talk about exciting, the CardMaker Blog team has been able to play with the new Distress Crayons from Ranger Ink and wow! I still knew it was going to take some playing and experimenting to figure out just what these could do and how I would want to use them so this was my chance.  

 I am such a huge fan of anything related to Distress Inks by Tim Holtz and I knew these crayons would be no exception to the fun and versatility.  The first thing you need to know about these crayons is that they can do many things.  There isn't one correct way to put them to use in your crafting projects.  That's where experimenting comes in for sure.  You have to realize the different things these can do. 

For my first card, I first of all used a Tim Holtz stencil with some white embossing paste to create a background on watercolor paper and left that to dry.  

I took three colors of the crayons and one at a time colored a portion of my embossing paste background.  I then kept adding spritzes of water to my piece.  I wanted the color to sink into all of the highs and lows of my stencil design.  As I added more color and more water, I worked the colors around and together with my fingers.  I wanted this to be rather "sloppy" and uneven.  When I was happy with my mix, I set it aside to dry. 

 I used a Tim Holtz flower stamp to be my finishing touch.  I did color this with matching Distress Stains and water.  This is a big bonus with the Distress Inks, the colors are the same and so they all can work together.  I finished this flower off by adding Glossy Accents to the petals of the flower.  The sentiment is a die from Simon Says Stamp.  

 Once I started working with the crayons I very quickly found a few ways that I liked to use them.  For this card, I used an extremely simple technique. The butterflies were stamped on watercolor paper and embossed with white embossing powder. Those embossed lines now will act as a resist to the other inks I'm adding.  This stamp set includes the sentiment and three different kinds of butterflies plus the little line of hearts.  

 I most often use water with the Distress Inks but for this card I wanted to try just coloring directly onto the butterflies and the paper.  I scribbled a small patch of one crayon on each butterfly and then moved that color around with my finger.  The color is rather thick as it comes off of the crayon and it is so easy to move it and blend it.  For each butterfly I used two colors of crayons, blending the shades.  I love the intensity of the colors and how nicely they added color, making each butterfly highlighted just right.  

From my blog hop on over to Lisa's blog for more Distress Crayon ideas.  

This also fits with the Fusion Challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Sweet bouquet

I recently picked up some new stamps from Stamps by Judith and I so wanted to use them.  

 I also had just gotten my Zig Clean Color pens and I thought this was the perfect chance to use them.  That great sentiment is a stamp from Stampers Anonymous.  Isn't that a great way to great a friend?

 The plant and that cute little colander bowl are separate stamps.  They are easy to stamp together though.  I stamped them with black ink on watercolor paper and then used my new pens to add interest.  Just bits here and bits there.  They were so easy to use.  

 My colors fit the Colour Q combo.

Plus the CASology challenge for SIMPLE.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

A new AAA Cards challenge

 This AAA Cards challenge is a favorite for me, embossing paste and/or stencils.  

 I had to use both! I colored a piece of watercolor paper with Distress Stains to create a background.  I then used a stencil and some silver Studio 490 Wendy Veechi embossing paste.  That flower is from a set by Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous and the leaves are from a set by Altenew.  After I stamped them with black ink, I added color with Distress Stains. My "hello" is a die from Mama Elephant and that was also colored with Distress Stains. 

I wanted to try to show off that amazing shine in that silver embossing paste.  What a fun way to add some serious bling.

Be sure to check out the other cards at AAA Cards and to also play along this week.

This also fits the Friday Mashup challenge to use stencils.

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)

Digital papers, Sketches and Scraps

I just love sharing so here goes...

 First up, the Unscripted sketch for this week.

 It was so fun giving my card a masculine twist. 

 I used two different digital papers, printed out on white cardstock and the old fashioned car is also a digital element from Times and Seasons by Echo Park. Fun stuff. 

 And, remember my paper tape from Target? I just placed strips of it along the side of a piece of white cardstock.

 I then stamped this Sweet Pea stamp from PaperTrey, Inc along the side. I love stamping it in an outline style.  I also sprayed some Chalkboard spray on it.  Caution, don't stamp over the tape unless you use Stazs On, my ink didn't want to dry on the tape. 

 And, I wanted to also play along with the Moxie Fab Practical Solutions challenge to use scraps. 

I was sitting at my desk and I spotted a piece of paper that I had played with alcohol inks on. I love to play with that stuff and find color combos that look neat. This piece had been set aside.  I was looking at the backside of the paper.  Those inks spread through to the reverse side and it just seemed to be saying that I needed to stamp something on it so I picked up this butterfly stamp by Stampers Anonymous.  I only had to stamp the butterfly with black ink and I had a really cool looking image. The dots are circles punched from a piece of cardstock that I had stamped with yellow ink using a background stamp from the same set. LOVE what neat background paper that stamp makes.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Tim Holtz stamps, Cut Card Stock papers and Glimmer Mist

I had the privilege of working with Cut Card Stock as one of their guest design team designers for the month of December and so you can hop on over there for a sneak at some of the projects that I did with their wonderful papers along with Roree Rumph, the other design team designer for December.
Then, for my own blog post for today, I used the amazing combination of brand new Tim Holtz Christmas stamps, some of the wonderful metallic papers by Cut Card Stock and the finishing touches for both cards was a spritz of Glimmer Mist.

One thing I have always done with rubber stamping is to experiment and so that was what I did with this White Gold Curious Metallic card stock. I stamped the reindeer and embossed it with silver embossing powder. Next I took a Distress stamp pad in the Faded Jeans color and applied that to this metallic paper with the Ranger applicator with an attachable felt pad. With this applicator, you are basically rubbing in a small amount of ink at a time into the paper. The embossed reindeer acted as a resist to the ink. What I loved here was the way the metallic paper "soaked" in the ink. Then I stamped the snowflake cluster with the same Faded Jeans Distress stamp pad.

It was very interesting the way the stamped images became "defused" as they soaked into the paper. You can see in this close-up, the variety of shades of the same stamp pad that occured as all of this "settled" into the metallic paper.

The final touch was to spray the Silver Glimmer Mist over the stamped piece and over the piece that I stamped on and cut to use as the greeting. The Silver Glimmer Mist worked like magic on all of the papers and inks.

For this card, I used a regular piece of white cardstock and stamped the trees in white and embossed it with white embossing powder. Next I took the Ranger Applicator with the attachable felt pad again. This time I used the Peeled Paint Distress stamp pad and rubbed that color into the paper. Again, the embossed images acted as a resist to the stamp pad ink but the paper behind that soaked in the color.

You can see in this close-up how wonderful that green color is and how neat the embossed trees look. It is good to "buff" the embossed image after you have the amount of color you want. The embossing resists the color, but some of the ink will be sitting on top of the embossing. You can see that the finishing touch to all of this was the Copper Metallic Glimmer Mist. This particular color of Glimmer Mist is meant to give the project some glimmer without adding a whole lot of color. It is just perfect with the metallic paper of the card base and on the green ink.

This accent piece is a stamped snowflake punched in a circle shape. That paper was then rubbed with that Peeled Paint Distress ink. The large snowflake behind this is metallic paper that was sprayed with Coffee Shop Glimmer mist which gives it a "rust" look. That snowflake is a large punch.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

CELEBRATE THE SEASON card

Materials list:
White Gold Curious Metallic card stock – Cut Card Stock
Sapphire Blue StarDream Metallic card stock – Cut Card Stock
Brocade reindeer and snowflake cluster stamps – Stamper’s Anonymous/Tim Holtz
“Celebrate” stamp – Printworks
Faded Jeans Distress Ink – Ranger
Silver embossing powder and black ColorBox stamp pad – Clearsnap
Silver Metallic Glimmer Mist – Tattered Angels
Ribbon

SNOWY TREES card
Materials list:
White Gold Curious Metallic card stock – Cut Card Stock
Patterned Paper – 5th Avenue/Tinsel Town/Pink Paislee
Machine sewing
Trees and snowflake stamps – Stamper’s Anonymous/Tim Holtz collection
White stamp pad and white embossing powder
Peeled Paint Distress stamp pad – Ranger
Copper Metallic and Coffee Shop Glimmer Mist – Tattered Angels
Ribbon
Circle punch – PaperShapers/EK Success
Snowflake punch