Stamped images

I wanted to share a couple cards with you today.

 

 I used stamp images to create my cards.  First off, some great medallions from Wplus9 Designs. I love "doily" style images.  I used the simple color combination challenge at The Play Date Cafe for my card.

 What is fun is that I really could have made this card any color after I stamped the two shapes of the medallions. I did emboss the images with clear embossing powder.  That makes the image stable for using water, etc.  I used a watercolor crayon and scribbled that in the middle of the images and then used a water brush to finish the look.  I then sprayed the entire card with Shimmerz Paintz Coloringz.  It was the exact color to work with the color challenge.

 Here is The Play Date Cafe combo.

 Next up, my Card Positioning Systems card for this week.  All month long our sponsor has been The Stamps of Life and my main focus was her great hexagon stamp set.  The sentiment and the second sentiment are from another set by her.

 I just love the different patterns she has for her hexagons and I used one of Stephanie Barnards Colorbox stamp pads too. 

Here is the CPS sketch we are working with.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

How about some orange???

I might not use orange a whole lot, but it was sure fun for these two projects.

 I wanted to do some experimenting so I took the chevron border stamp by Hero Arts and stamped it three times, turning it in the opposite direction each time. I stamped it with black ink and embossed that with clear embossing powder because I love how intense that makes the black. Next I took the Spiced Marmalade Distress Stain and colored over the embossed design. I love how the Distress Stains add color plus the black embossed image acted as a resist.  The Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge right now is to use a favorite technique and using the Distress Stains for coloring in one of my more favorite to play with.  This was now the foundation of my card using a sketch at Hero Arts for their August contest.

 The card base was embossed with a texture plate from PaperTrey, Inc but you really can't see that embossing in my photos.  After I used that Marmalade, I thought that using something purple would be a great contrast.  I stamped the flower twice by applying the purple Distress Stain directly onto the rubber and then stamping it. I loved the watercolor look that that produced.   I only used the stem of one of the flowers and this stamp comes in a set that includes a matching die. I LOVE these die/stamp sets from Hero Arts.  The sentiment strip was created by stamping the sentiment a few times on white cardstock and then coloring that with Distress Stain. 

 I also wanted to share my card for a recent CPS sketch.  The patterned paper and the little tag are both from digital kits.

 The Stamps of Life stamps is our sponsor this month and I used the Hexagon set for my card. I stamped an outline hexagon stamp over the patterned paper and then used one of the hexagon stamps for an accent piece.

Now for a couple photos...

 We went down to the beach for a bit yesterday. I took a few photos with the Hipstamatic camera on my phone.  Does this just look like the "life"!

How does it get better to swing with a view like that.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Sun, Clouds, Crabs, etc

I have a fun mixture to share with you today.

 Cath at Moxie Fab issued a challenge the other day to use the color MINT and I was right there to create something. I used Kimber's Saturday sketch at 2 Peas for the layout of my card. The label shape is cut with my Cricut.  This also fits the Cas-ual Friday challenge for square cards.

 I just received this adorable little stamp set from PaperTrey, Inc and I just had to give these adorable clouds a chance.  I stamped the clouds and the sun with white ink on white cardstock and embossed them with white embossing powder.  Now I took each piece and "colored" them with Distress Stain. I love using the Stains and the white embossed image acts as a resist so the image stays white and the background paper gets colored.

 Here is the sketch I used.

 Next up, I used the Freshly Made sketch

 I printed out some digital elements I had purchased from Echo Park. I love using digital images, I love that you get to pick the size you want them to be.

 Do you just love this guy???

 And, for the Card Positioning Systems sketch for this week.  The Stamps of Life is our sponsor.  I am using her amazing hexagon set. 

 The set includes a number of different hexagons in different sizes and patterns.  I used two of the stamps.

I thought this sketch was just so much fun! I pulled out my Kreaxions circle cutter to cut out my largest circle and then pulled out my various paper punches for my other little circles. These are the kind of punches that you pound with a hammer to cut out the circle.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Gotta keep stamping

Yes, I love stamps, I love stamping!!!

 Another new stamp set for me is this amazing set of hexagons from The Stamps of Life.  The set contains different patterns and different sizes so that really, you could create with this over and over.  I used the Colour Q color combo for this week as my color inspiration.  This also fits the Moxie Fab Hexagon challenge.
(ps - I found another hexagon challenge at City Crafters!!!)

 For my card I used three of the stamps in this set along with the sentiment.

 The Colour Q combo

 This card fits the Card Positioning System sketch for this week along with some great Hero Arts stamps and a matching die.

 I stamped the background with white and embossed it with white and then colored the cardstock with some Distress Stain.  The butterfly is colored with two shades of the Distress Stain and what I love is that this shape has a matching die for cutting it out.  I accented the butterfly with some Glossy Accents.

 Here is the CPS sketch.
Gotta share some photos...

 We stopped for lunch and this neat sculpture was sitting on a bench.  My grandson immediately was trying to interact with it. It was so fun to capture these photos with my Hipstamatic camera on my phone.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Flowers and Hearts

I found another challenge that I just needed to play along with!

It's CAS-ual Fridays and the theme is Both & Beautiful or pastel colors with an accent of black. What I loved about this particular challenge is that it could be played any number of ways with any number of pastels colors and still be amazing with a black accent.

Here is my take. I had previously colored this digital stamp from A Day For Daisies. It is actually a row of jars and flowers, I had experimented with a different way to color it and then set it aside. I thought it would be fun to cut out one of the jars, the coloring was pretty pastel and pretty subtle. 

Do you love the dotted background? I stamped a dot stamp by Paper Smooches a couple times on white cardstock and then embossed the dots with white embossing powder. Next I used some Distress Stain to color the background. One thing I really like about using the stain is that you can get an irregular color and I really like that look.

Next up, my Card Positioning Systems sketch card for this week. 

The Stamps of Life is the sponsor and I picked this great verse stamp. I love it in every way.

I added the three hearts, this isn't really on the sketch but that is what is cool about using a sketch is you can interpret it any way you want. I did some spraying and rubbing to distress the white cardstock that I had stamped the verse on.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Think Snow Flower Soft challenge

The Flower Soft team is featuring a

THINK SNOW challenge starting today. 

I'm going to share a few cards that I have shared here

before but when we are thinking of winter and snow,

they need to be shared again.

 When you think of Snow and Flower Soft, nothing beats their Polar White Flower Soft for the perfect "snow" look to projects. 

This first card uses a topper that is also by Flower Soft.  These come all colored and ready to accent.

 These stamps are by The Stamps of Life, gotta love a cute snowglobe and of course, some wonderful, fluffy Flower Soft snow.

 These stamps are by JustRite stamps and behind that snowflake is a bed of Polar Ice Flower Soft.

This is another topper by Flower Soft with a fluffy little bear and some fluffy snow, both Polar White Flower Soft.

Thanks for visiting, Linda, lbpost

Christmas Trees and Owls

 First up, my Unscripted sketches card.  I turned the sketch for my card.

 I used my Art Philosophy Close to My Heart Cricut cartridge.  This cartridge cuts several card shapes and for this one it cuts out the three trees in the front of the card.  I placed a white piece of cardstock behind those trees.

 To go along with the sketch, I pleated a piece of Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker patterned paper from the Gingerbread Lane collection.  I used my Martha Stewart scoreboard to makes my pleats. Across that I placed a sticker strip from the same paper collection. The little sentiment oval is also a sticker from the collection.

Next up, my Card Positioning Systems card for this week.

 The Stamps of Life is our sponsor. It is always so much fun to play along with their stamps.

The owl is a two step stamp.  The branch and leaves are from a different set by The Stamps of Life.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

SKETCH 132 TIS THE SEAON card

Materials list:

Cardstock – Core’dinations
Patterned papers and stickers – Gingerbread Land/Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker
Art Philosophy Close to My Heart Cricut cartridge - shift, Card, 5 ½”
Self adhesive rhinestones – Queen & Co.
Scallop scissors – Fiskars
Martha Stewart score board



SKETCH 244 – OWL ALWAYS BE HERE FOR YOU card

Materials:
Stamp set courtesy of The Stamps of Life
Cardstock – Core’dinations
Patterned paper – Lime Twist/My Mind’s Eye (mini pad)
Black Versafine stamp pad and Memento stamp pads
Foam tape – 3M
Oval shape - Cricut

Coffee and Clouds

I need to share my Card Positioning Systems card for this last week.

 The Stamps of Life was our sponsor for this week and I picked this really cool coffee set of stamps to play with.  The set comes with this large coffee cup and then a variety of stamps to use on the front of the cup and other extra words. 

 My main coloring was done with Copic markers and then I used a stamp from a "tree" set to repeatedly stamp in the cream colored areas to stamp a texture.  The doily shapes are cut with my Cricut using the Storybook cartridge.

And, I need to share some fun stuff...

I have been playing with a new app on my phone - the Hipstamatic camera.  This app is an old fashioned kind of camera. It comes with a variety of lens and films, these can be mixed and matched and you can also buy more lens and films.  I have had so much fun playing around with what my favorite lens and films are. 

This camera also works in that you are taking the photo with this camera. Some other camera apps work that you can use any photo you take and alter it.

 This photo was taken with the Lucifer VI Lens and the Kodot XGrizzled film. 

This photo was taken with the Jimmy lens and the Kodot XGrizzled film. 

I have tried many combinations and I am learning what my favorite are. I will be sharing more photos in the future.

Thanks for coming, Linda (lbpost)

SKETCH 232 – GOT CAFFEINE? card

Materials:
Stamps courtesy of The Stamps of Life – Coffee4Two
Cardstock – Core’dinations
X-Press Blending Card – Copic Markers
Patterned paper – My Mind’s Eye
Cricut cartridge - Storybook
Copic markers
Black Mix’d Media Arts/Clearsnap
Clear embossing powder
Twine – Karen Foster

Green and more Green

GREEN is the color we associate with March and the two cards I want to share with you in this post have alot of green on them - green shamrocks and green trees. 

You might have noticed, but Kim Hughes has started her own stamp company, Paper Smooches,  with her adorable way of creating stamp designs.  She is also offering a few  free digital images and so I wanted to play with these really cute shamrock and sentiment images, very fitting for March.  I printed out several of the little shamrock images and then created a little banner with them.   

Can you see my little "plaid" design in each shamrock?  Each image was colored with Copic markers.  I colored each one with a solid color and used a little darker shade of each color in the little loopy part of the shamrocks.  Next I drew lines in each colored shamrock in a plaid style with the Copic blender pen.  This was a little tricky because the blender pen worked almost instantly in some of the colors and some took a little more work with repeated lines drawn. 

The little sentiment is one of the free digital designs she is offering, I just punched mine in a circle shape.  That was finished with some rhinestones in rainbow colors.  Notice the embossed, white cardstock too.  I always think that this particular embossing folder has a look that goes with the celtic look. 

Now for the trees part of the post, The Stamps of Life stamp company is the sponsor at Card Positioning Systems sketch blog for this week.  I love this little "Trees2Build" set. 

The tree trunk and branches are one stamp and then the set comes with a couple designs of leaves, so I added some dotted leaves to my tree. 

And for a couple more photos...

Part of visiting the Santa Barbara Zoo is taking the time to play in the kid's play area.  They have formed a hill with artificial turf on it and let me tell you, it is a POPULAR place at the zoo. The kids love it. 

This little guy is still figuring out how it all works but the use of the "tongue" in the whole process cracks me up!

Once he figured out going down on his tummy, it was pretty hard to say we needed to go!  Is that JOY on his face or what?

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

LUCKY TO HAVE YOU card

Materials list:
Core'dinations Cardstock
Patterned paper – BoBunny
Digital stamps – Paper Smooches
String – Karen Foster
Copic markers
Cuttlebug embossing folder
Rhinestones – Me & My Big Ideas
Corner rounder punch – Fiskars
3D Foam squares – Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L
Sanding block - Core'dinations


SKETCH 208 – IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY card

Materials:
Stamp set courtesy of The Stamps of Life – Trees2Build
Cardstock – Vintage/Core’dinations
Copic x-press
Patterned paper- Fine and Dandy/My Mind’s Eye
Black Versafine stamp pad
Clear Detail embossing powder – Stampendous
Broken China – Distress Ink/Ranger
Cottage Ivy Memento - Tsukneko
Copic markers – YG93, G40, 0
Flower – Prima
Self adhesive pearl – Queen & Co.
Foam tape – 3M
Corner rounder punch – Fiskars
Sanding block – Core’dinations