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)

Give me a challenge

Love challenges, so that is what this post is about.

 First up, the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger for this week.

My mind zeroed in on that one tin with the yellow print on it.  I could see drawing the pattern with a white crayon on white cardstock and then coloring the paper with yellow Distress stain. The white crayon would act as a resist to the stain. I sat right down to play!  Since I love experimenting this was FUN!

 To finish off my card, I went to the other tin with the orange background and the white flowers.  I stamped a Hero Arts stamp with white ink on orange cardstock and embossed it with white embossing powder.  Next I used the die that comes in the same stamp set to cut the flowers. Wow, are these easy to use!

 Next, I wanted to play with the Colour Q color challenge.

 I went to a digital set of butterflies that I purchased from Jessica Sprague along with a pack of woodgrain digital papers that I purchased.  I put these together along with a sentiment that I had.  I layered all of these elements before printing them out on white cardstock.

The butterflies come in several colors, I picked out ones that went along with the Colour Q colors. I added black rhinestones to each butterfly.
And, last but not least...

The retro sketch for this week.

At Target this week, I found these wonderful printed tapes. There are three sets of four tapes each. I picked this blue/green set. They are in the office supplies section with paper clips, etc. I love them. 

I filled a strip of white cardstock with three of the patterns.  My strip was a little too long for my card so I cut off a piece and realized I could use that too, I just flipped it so the pattern arrangement was reversed. The little scallop edge is circles covered with the solid color of tape.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Park Play and Rain Play

I wanted to share a couple layouts I created some time ago based on a day at the park.

This is our youngest grandson and believe me, this guy knows how to play and have a good time!  I feel in love with these adorable papers from Little Yellow Bicycle and thought they fit the theme perfectly.

 The tree and kite are chipboard accent pieces.

I had started out to only make one page but then realized I had so many photos from this one day that I wanted to use more so I created a simple collage using Picassa. Once you pick your photos for the collage, you can also pick borders and the colors of the borders so I picked a great turquoise to match. This was all printed out as one piece and then I used stickers from the collection to decorate all around the collage. SIMPLE!!!

And, onto a completely different subject...

We had LOTS of rain on Sunday and that leads to more fun for this guy!

He finds every puddle!

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)

A Sketch Here and a Sketch There

I get to share two different sketches with you in this post.

 First up, the Unscripted sketch for this week.

I found it pretty fun to interpret this weeks sketch with some of my new Hero Arts stamps.

The background in the squares is a Newsprint Background stamp. I added in some color after stamping on white cardstock.  The pink flower and the smaller flower are stamped and cut with a Sizzix die set.  I loved using this set.

 Next up, The Craft's Meow stamps is having a birthday party and part of the party celebrations is a sketch to use. 

When I first saw this set of stamps of snowflakes, I knew I had to have it immediately. It was so fun to use it on my card.  The snowflakes were stamped in white on white cardstock and embossed with white embossing powder.  Next, I used Broken China Distress stain to color over the stamped snowflakes and to color the background of the card.  I spritzed it with water to help the color run together.  I then took a brown Distress stamp pad and rubbed over some of the areas, especially the edges.  This made the snowflakes stand out even more and it also gave a distressed look.

The ornate frame is cut with my Cricut Expressions and the Martha Stewart Elegant Cake Art cartridge. I placed that over the sentiment that was stamped the same way as the card front.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge and more

Today is the day for a new challenge at the Paper Smooches SPARKS blog, March 22 - April 4.

 Talk about adorable!

 Of course, I wanted to start with the bunny since Paper Smooches has a cute bunny stamp and they are the focus of the inspiration piece.  Notice my background? I used one of PS's new background stamps.  I stamped it repeatedly with white ink on white cardstock and then embossed that with white embossing powder. Now let me tell you, this was something I am not going to try again soon.  It is basically impossible to line up images when they are stamped in white on white!!! I sprayed this piece with a few colors of Chalkboard spray.  I used pastel shades to match the cute bunny ears in the inspiration piece but I wanted to have green be one of the main colors.

 I kept the coloring of my bunny to a minimum and then used the chevron background stamp to mimic grass behind the bunny.  I had to include a cloud in my little scene.

And, for something new to me...

 I played along with a new sketch blog, retro sketches.  Plus I am also playing with the Practical Solutions week: Household items challenge at Moxie Fab and that is to use "found" pieces on a card. 

 The apple stamp is by Paper Smooches and I paper pieced the two sides of the apples with patterned paper.

This is fun, for my "found" items, I spied the cute bag that apples came in that we had picked up at Targets.  The green print is from the label, the bread tag was used to close the bag and that cool bow is the neat thread net that held the apples. I just couldn't throw that stuff away, it is so soft and made a fun accent.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Soft beige - Bright green

Gotta share a couple cards.

First up is the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger for this week.

I love the soft and subtle little scene with beige, a touch of pink, a touch of black and a touch of green.  I wanted to do something that would give my card that same soft light brown/beige background like in the rug.  I used a stencil from Crafter's Workshop. I rubbed it with a Distress brown ink.  I also used a text stencil and sprayed that with some brown and pink Chalkboard mist.  I like that I can make a random pattern with the stencil. 

I used a stamp set by Waltzing Mouse.  I used two layers of doily stamps from the set.  The pink layer is my brand new Martha Stewart punch and the leaf pieces are leftovers that were cut with a Cricut cartridge.

And now for the Unscripted sketch for this week. I turned the sketch upside down for my card.  I also changed the size/shape of my card.  The piggyback challenge this week is to use green. 

I think this is my favorite shade of green and I love it with black.  This sentiment is cut from the Martha Stewart Elegant Cake cartridge. 

The central image is cut with a Cricut cartridge. I liked that it has a quilt look. I cut out the first layer from a piece I had stamped with a Hero Arts stamp. Then I cut the outline layer from black cardstock. The butterfly is a punch.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Bella Blvd and Card Positioning Systems sketches

The Bella Blvd blog posted a sketch to play along with...

I was instantly in love with it and sat right down to find the photo I wanted to use.

I wanted my photo to be the largest piece on my layout so I switched some of the parts of the sketch around.  I so love these papers!!!

Is this the perfect time to use these adorable Paper Smooches snowpeople stamps??? I stamped them and gave them just a bit of color.  The lips are one of the stamps in the set and I added red mini brads to the larger snowman.

I used some other Paper Smooches stamps to give two of my corners an extra accent.

This pink snowflake is a die cut from Bella Blvd.

And, here is my card for the CPS sketch for this week.  I used some Teresa Collins new papers from a mini pad.  The stamped sentiment is a stamp by Wplus9 Designs.

I cut the flowers out of one of the prints in the set and notice that great, punched border? It is a punch by Kreaxions, one of their 4-in-1 punches.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)