Two shades of blue and some roses

Time to play....

 And when I get to play a little bit I turn to online challenges for my inspiration.  For this card I used three different challenges, the first one being the Repeat challenge at CAS-ology.  I wanted to make a statement and yet keep my card very simple.  I picked up some of my favorite flower stamps by Altenew.  After I stamped the outline of the flowers, I stamped the base of the flowers with the two shades of blue in the Colour Me challenge with Distress Stamp pads on watercolor paper.  A spritz of water helped the inks to run a bit.  

I used my brand new dotted label die set from Lil' Inkers Designs. The size of die I used cut both of these pieces.  I mounted the inside one with foam tape for a little bit of dimension.  The sentiment is by Heidi Swapp, plus a few Liquid Pearl dots.  

 Here is the Colour Me challenge.

 Here is the CAS-ology challenge.

Plus the Happy Little Stampers Stamping challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

LOVE everything red

So I did retake pictures of my card in the daylight.  You can read below about the card and my last minute picture taking last might.

 I love the way the stamped paint strips ran when I spritzed them with water.  I did add a small spray of some Heidi Swapp Color Shine.

Plus a close up of the flower and the leaf stamps. I stamped the flower with white ink, embossed with white ink and then colored the paper that was on with red Distress Stain.
Last Nights post...
I need to take a better picture of my card in some good light but this has to do for now because I just had to play along with a challenge that all about red.

 On watercolor paper I stamped a paint brush swipe stamp from Avery Elle.  Because of some spritzes of water, the Distress Ink ran a bit for a watercolor look.  That is the entire background of my card.  

I used a flower and a leaf stamp from Avery Elle plus the "Hello" sentiment.  This was all finished off with white sequins and white Liquid Pearls.

Here is the Colour Me challenge.

Plus the Paper Players The Great Outdoors challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Favorite Techniques

The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge is to use your favorite technique.

 I have so many favorite so narrowing it down is hard but I would say my most favorite right now is stamping an image with white ink and embossing it with white embossing powder on watercolor paper and then adding color with Distress Stains or Distress inks.  This is always one of the "wow" moments as the inks reveal the white embossed lines.  To say a favorite product, high on the list are Distress Inks.  I almost think I could only have those inks and be happy but not quite, I like variety.  The flower is a Tim Holtz stamp.

 My resulting card actually shows off some of my other favorite techniques.  One is using stencils.  Here I used some Golden Soft Gel Gloss instead of embossing paste.  The dried design of the Soft Gel acts as a resist after I added more Distress Stains, again on watercolor paper.  I also used a Paper Smooches die to cut out the word "wonderful".  I am crazy for dies right now, especially words for a card sentiment.  

 Here is the Colour Me color combination that I used on my card. 

And here is the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Using Red, White and Blue

I love the color combination for the Colour Me challenge, red, navy and white.  

 I wanted to use it in an unexpected way though.  I turned to this little boy stamp by My Favorite Things.  I know that he looks like it is winter and it is summer here but I love him and I think these colors are just right for him.  

I used a star stencil by Memory Box to create my background.  I just used some Distress Stain on watercolor paper.  The little boy is colored with Copic markers and my balloon is a stamp from Reverse Confetti.  

Here is the Colour Me challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Texture and Color

I wanted to play with some online challenges with a stencil background, great colors and a neat sketch. 

 First off, I used the Simon Says Wednesday challenge to use a stencil and I used the featured company, The Crafters Workshop.  I love their stencils so this a pretty easy choice.  I reached for my embossing paste in white.  Once this was dry, I used three main shades of Distress Stains to color the dried paste.  The colors fit the Colour Me challenge. The sentiment is also from Simon Says Stamp. 

 I took this photo at an angle to try to show off the amazing texture of the paste.  Plus I love how the inks colored the stencil designs.  The butterfly is a stamp with a matching die from Clearly Besotted.  I stamped it in white, embossed it with white embossing powder and then added color with Distress Stains.  

 Here is the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, stencil it. 

Here is the Colour Me challenge.

Here is the Freshly Made sketch.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

AAA Cards Challenge - There's a hole in my card

 Another fun challenge at AAA Cards - creating a card with a hole in it. 

 I ended up with many holes in my card, I used a fun die from My Favorite Things.  I did cut it from watercolor paper, then I went to my trusty Distress Stains and added lots of color.  I even used some gold Color Shine from Heidi Swapp.  That added a fun metallic glimmer to it. That adorable "HAPPY" tag is a die from Technique Tuesday.  

 Then I just had to use my new Tim Holtz flower stamps!!! LOVE these.  I added color with Copic markers first and thenDistress Markers.  

This also fits the Colour Me challenge.
Be sure to take some time to play along with the AAA Cards Challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

A Cup of Succulents!

Because I have more recently found how fun and rewarding it is to grow succulents, I am planting more and more of them.  

 When Simon Says Stamp offered this adorable set of stamps with a matching die set, I had to have it.  It is such a fun set.  Several cups or pots and several plant styles that all work together.  This cup and plant were the foundation of my card that fits in with the Colour Me color combination and the Simon Says Stamp texture challenge.  I added some Distress Stain ink to a piece of watercolor paper and then cut out the cup.  I stamped the clear stamp version of this cup over that for a black outline.  I wanted a ton of texture to my background piece so I used a Simon Says Stamp stencil and some embossing paste. To get the yellow, I ran some yellow Distress Stain over the stencil first, placed it on my paper and then ran the embossing paste over the stencil with a palette knife.  That way you get a mix of white and yellow.  When that was dry, I added some other colors of stain and spritzed it with water.  For a little added interest, I cut out a square with a My Favorite Things stitched square die and then I added the square back into the resulting hole with foam tape. 

 I tried to turn my card to the side so you could get a glimpse of the resulting texture.  The die cut word "thanks" is also from Simon Says Stamp.  I colored a piece of watercolor paper with green Distress Stains and then cut out the word.  

 Here is the Colour Me challenge.

And the Simon Says Wednesday Texture challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

While I was at it...

You know that snowflake stamp I said I picked up on clearance after Christmas...

 Well, I just had to put it to use again especially when so many of my friends are finding snow at their doorsteps lately.  I love using snowflakes on crafting projects so it is fun that even though Christmas is over, snowflakes still fit in January.  I add some Broken China Distress Stain to my white cardbase to help that fit in with my stamped image.  

 I stamped and embossed the snowflake with white and then ran some Distress Stain in black all over that but I didn't totally cover my white cardstock.  I then used some Broken China Distress Stain on the exposed areas.  I loved that little accent of the turquoise.  I layered a die cut snowflake over that.  The die is from Wplus9 Designs. 

 This fits this Colour Me challenge.  You could go back over the year and pick a favorite combination.  

They are having a little party over at Colour Me!

Plus, check out the Friday MashUp challenge to use snowflakes, my card fits right in.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Stepping up with some Fall colors

I wanted to play along at Colour Me because I fell in love with the combo.  I wouldn't say they really looked fall related but I was able to get a fall slant to my card.

 I went to the Freshly Made Sketch for the layout of my card.  Add to all of that some brand new to me stamps from Simon Says Stamp.  The word "Hello" is a stamp from Avery Elle and I added some sticker letters from Teresa Collins. 

 That neat tag is a die from Reverse Confetti.  The stitch marks on my card front were created using a die from a set by Lil' Inkers.  The biggest die in the set doesn't cut, it just cuts in the stitch lines.  I stamped the wreath with white ink and embossed it with white embossing powder.  After I cut it out with the matching die, I coated the stamped image with Glossy Accents just for some added interest.  The flowers and leaves were stamped with various Distress Stamp pads in the colors of the combo.  Because of the dies for the wreath, flowers, leaves and tag this fits the Cuttlebug Mania challenge too.

Freshly Made Sketch

Colour Me

Cuttlebug Mania: Anything Die Cut

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Watercoloring

I have started playing around with watercolor techniques and "I CAN'T STOP"!!! Don't want to either!

 I sat down just to play with the Colour Me Monochromatic challenge.  My entire card base uses watercolor paper. See below for my most recent find that I LOVE! The first thing I did was to emboss the front of the card with a die cut from My Favorite Things.  I just used an embossing pad so that it would emboss and not cut. I sprayed the front with water and started adding some color along the bottom portion of the card front with some Distress Stain in Broken China and Distress Stamp pad in Peacock Feathers.  I kept adding water because I wanted this to move up the card with more color at the bottom. 

 While this ink was puddled because of all of the water, I stamped the flower stamp into the water and ink mixture and started stamping it randomly on the front of the card.  The result is faint images in the same blues. I also splattered some Heidi Swapp gold spray. 

 Next I stamped two flowers using a set of stamps from Altenew.  WOW are these layered flowers fun. On their web site they offer a cheat sheet of how to use the layers and that sure helped. The sentiment is from Mama Elephant. 

 Here is the Colour Me challenge.

Here is my new find in Watercolor paper. I picked mine up at Michaels.  The sheets in this pad are 9 1/2" x 11" so I can cut an entire card from one sheet. This is heavier then the Tim Holtz watercolor paper that I do love but this heavier paper seem to warp less and I like that I can cut the size I want.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)