The MFT challenge

I have been a huge fan of My Favorite Things stamps for a really long time and so their new challenge blog is good news to me.

 I wanted to make sure to play along with their newest sketch challenge. For some reason I am in the mood all of a sudden to create in yellow, so here is my "HAPPY" card.  

 This card shows off my newest MFT purchases and can I say how happy I am that I got this banner die set!  OHHHH it is fun. How can you go wrong with a ton of banner sizes that all stack on top of each other?  I also got the pegboard background die and I have to say that that is pretty fun too.  I also used two little doily does on my card. That little gold "make a wish" sticker is from Teresa Collins.

Here is the sketch I used.

This also goes with the Friday Mashup challenge although I ended up placing the banners a little different.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Love, Love, Love and some hearts

So I picked up a set of stamps by Tim Holtz, these are the mini version and the set covers several holidays.  I picked out the three that went with Valentines day and sat down to play.

 I stamped each image on a square of watercolor paper. I stamped them in black and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I like to do that because it makes the black lines more intense and I can use any other inks on it and the black won't run.  I created a background piece for my card base with a stencil and various Distress Stains.  

 I turned this closeup on it's side so you could get a good view of my little sequins that I placed in some glitter glue.  It also helps the golds to show up.  I colored my "14" image with Copic markers. It is really fun how these work on watercolor paper.  I then added color by spritzing my piece with water and swiping mini Distress Stamp pads across it.  I could add the browns and pinks were I wanted them and the inks ran because of the water.  I sprayed on some Heidi Swapp gold Color Shine and those wonderful gold chipboard pieces are by Teresa Collins.  I embossed a stitched square into the paper. 

This fits the color combination at Curtain Call. 

 For this one, I cut the little cupid piece with a banner die from My Favorite Things when I was done coloring it.  That background is also created with a stencil and Distress Inks.  The little row of hearts is a die from Reverse Confetti. I used the red negative of the cut and placed the pink cut hearts into that with foam tape.

 After I colored in the little Cupid, I added a coating of glitter glue.  The LOVE die cut word is from My Favorite Things.  

This fits the retro sketch for this week.

 For this one, I did all of my coloring of the candy heart piece and then cut it out with a My Favorite  Things banner. I love this banner set because there are so many choices in size.  You can see I cut it again, slightly larger from gold metallic paper and then again, slightly larger from pink cardstock.  

 The kraft colored doily is from Recollections, I distressed it by wrinkling it and adding inks to it.  The word "LOVE" is cut from the gold metallic cardstock and added to the one banner.  You can see my dotted embossed background on the kraft cardstock base. I embossed a die from My Favorite Things into the paper. 

 This fits the My Favorite Things sketch.

They all fit the Crafty Gals Corner Sweethearts challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Dinosaurs and Butterflies

I am so honored and humbled with a recent honor, if you haven't checked it out, please do! It just warms my heart.

Next up, I promised some photos of the cutest dinosaur cake from our little dinosaur birthday party that we celebrated along with our Easter celebration while the family was together on Sunday. 

This seriously has to be the coolest cake ever! A local gal made and decorated it and it was a hit for a little 4 year old who lives, eats, sleeps dinosaurs.

 Here is a back view so you can see all of the work she put into the leaves, etc. It was very hard to convince him to allow the knife to cut into it!!!

 Gotta love this cute pose.

These are the sketches for the Hero Arts April contest and I wanted to play with one of them.

 Here is the finished card.  I used two different background stamps by Hero Arts. I stamped them both in black ink on white cardstock and then embossed the images with clear embossing powder.  Once that was done, I used an orange watercolor crayon to scribble over the stamping.  I then took a watercolor brush to wash the color over the surface.  Next I took Scattered Straw Distress stain and went over the orange.  I love how that yellow merged with the orange.

 The butterfly is a digital stamp available at 2 Peas in a Bucket.  I love that you can print out digital stamps in any size you want. I colored it with Copic markers.

And, I also want to share my card using the Card Positioning Systems sketch for this week.

Sharp Crochet Hook is our sponsor. This took me out of my box a bit.  The papers are Teresa Collins and the stamps for the little wish list are by Wplus9 Designs.

The Sharp Crochet hook is designed to by used on fabric and paper when crocheting.  The hook has a very sharp tip, letting you make a hole for your crocheting. I used to crochet alot so it was pretty fun giving it a try with paper.  The little envelope was cut with my Cricut.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

A card and a layout

A couple projects to share...

First off is the newest Unscripted sketch.

This would be a sketch I would want to use over and over and I'm sure it would look pretty different each time. I picked one of my newest stamps from Paper Smooches.  Since Easter is on it's way, I thought that would be a fun theme.

The white shapes are cut with the Cricut and the patterned paper is new by Teresa Collins.

And I want to share a layout since I don't do a whole lot of those.  I used Simple Stories papers.  Where there was the look of machine sewing, I did actually add sewing and I added real buttons.

Come on people....join in the movement to BAN word verification!!!! There is a new system on some blogs that make verification almost impossible. I turned mine to moderate a post that is posted after 14 days and I have not had any problems at all. 

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

My Core'dinations Creative Frenzy

For awhile now, I have had the amazing opportunity to work with Core'dinations Cardstocks.  I  am pretty sure there isn't a project that I work on that doesn't include it in some way.

I love the texture, I love the colors, all of the Core Impressions designs that have embossed designs on them already that they have released are wonderful and so fun to work with but my favorite part is what happens when you emboss this paper. The core that is revealed when you sand the paper makes for a great look and all of the embossing folders that have been introduced by a variety of companies make this technique even more fun.  SOOOOOO...are you ready for my entry as I reapply for the team!?

For my first layout, I discovered this amazing piece of Sable Core Amour that somehow I missed before! It just seemed that it needed to be paired with a beach photo and theme. 

I hand wrote the word "beach" and then cut it out for my title. 

My little sun accent was created with a punched circle and hand cut rays that were cut from a larger circle. 

For my pleated border, I took a piece of Cosmo Cricket Neutrals Core Impressions that has a notebook kind of embossed design it in . I cut a strip and then hand folded it on some of the lines that are embossed in it. It was so easy and I love the 3-D look of it. 

This layout highlights a couple of the very newest cardstocks by Core'dinations. The pink piece is from the Teresa Collins collection and then I used a piece of silver Glitter Silk. Wow is this combination "girly"!!!  I had just picked up some pieces of Teresa Collins patterned papers so I used them for accents. 

The flowers were cut out of one of the patterned papers. And, the photos are actually ME!!!

Can you see that great embossed pattern in the Core'dinations Core Impressions and I wanted to also try to show you the wonderful glitter of the silver piece. 

Next, a card using four colors from the Cosmo Cricket Core Impressions collection. 

This collection comes with that great embossed design in it already, all I did was sand it a little bit. And, when it comes to sanding, you HAVE to get the new Sand It Gadget! I have never found anything that sands like this thing. I use it on all of my Core but on every other kind of paper that I sand too.

I pleated a strip of patterned paper for an accent and the sentiment is a rub-on by EAD Designs and Paper Smooches, Martha Stewart border punches. 

One last card, here I wanted to show how great these cardstocks look when you used embossing folders.  I used three different ones by Cuttlebug and Sizzix.  I used Card Patterns for my inspiration.

The labels are cut with a Spellbinders Nestabilities and the sentiment is a sticker by SRM stickers. 

Thanks for visiting and looking around, Linda (lbpost)