Puppy Dog Friends

I found a few online challenges I wanted to play along with so here is my resulting card. 

 I thought the color combination at the Color Throwdown was pretty fun and then I found that the Happy Little Stampers were having a spray or mist challenge.  Those were combined with the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge about Friends.  Where else would I turn to work with that challenge but these super cute little doggy stamps and dies from Reverse Confetti.  

 I reached for my Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Citron, it seemed just right for the color challenge.  I sprayed it on a stencil but it is pretty hard to see the resulting design since I then decided to emboss the finished background with a tiny square die from Tessler Crafts.  I added the gray color to the background and the tan color to the doggies with Distress Stains.  I also stamped the heart with a Distress Ink.  My coloring on the dogs is messy because I just tapped the color on with the tops of the dabber on the Stains.  I love how fast it is to color an image that way.  

 Here is the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge about Friends. 

 Here is the Happy Little Stampers Sprays or Mists challenge.

And here is the Color Throwdown challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

AAA Cards Birthday Party and Blog Hop

Everybody loves a party and its time for AAA Cards Challenge blogs 1st birthday.  I think that is pretty exciting not only because this cupcake is completely adorable but because there are prizes, lots of prizes, you just have to play along. Check out the AAA Cards blog for all of the details.  You should have come here from Jane's blog.

 I wanted my card to be very pink to match that adorable party banner.  Of course, I started out by coloring a piece of watercolor paper with some Distress Stains.  There seems to be no way I can get enough of that technique, maybe because it turns out different every time.  

 Next I cut the flowers and leaves by Essentials by Ellen from plain white paper and cut the "happy birthday" by Paper Smooches from plain white paper and then sprayed the words with Heidi Swapps gold Color Shine.  I wanted to keep my card very simple and let my die cut shapes have all of the glory.  

I knew I needed to do another card, maybe because you can't have too many for a party.  Simon Says Stamp has supplied one of the prizes for the celebration and they sent me one set to play with so I wanted to have that be part of my celebration.  The little kitty is from a set from the Falling For You collection. 

That adorable frame is a stamp with a matching die from Lawn Fawn and the super cute sentiment is from Wplus9 Designs.  The balloon is also from the Party Animal set.  Once again, my background is simply Distress Stains and watercolor paper. 

This also fits the Simon Says Wednesday challenge regarding sentiments.

Plus the Lawnscaping watercolor challenge.

This is a birthday hop so you can hop on over to Vicki's blog so see what she created for the party. If you missed any of the blogs along the way, you can always go back to the AAA Cards blog.

Now it's your turn to create.

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)

Trying something new

It is always so much fun to try a new technique.

 I had seen this one used a few times lately.  It is actually so easy yet ends up looking so neat.  And, of course, it fits for all of the Valentines and heart things we are thinking of this time of year.

 I began by adding a gold section to the bottom of my card with Gold Distress Stain and Heidi Swapp gold Color Shine.  The top of my card was plain white and I didn't really like that so I added interest with some stencils and more Distress Stains.  How yummy did the golds turn out? Once I was done and it was all dry, I cut the word "love" out, cutting along the divide of color.  That great die is from Lawn Fawn.  Next I cut that same word out a couple times from recycled kraft colored packaging.  I wanted the thicker paper of the packaging.  All of the layers were glued together and added back in the opening that was cut out.  Love the resulting dimension.  I also used this amazing heart die from Simon Says Stamp and a few sequins scattered here and there.  The stencils are a dot one from Tim Holtz and a postage style from The Crafters Workshop Stencils.  

This fits the CAS-ology challenge for NBUS - Never before used Schtuff.

Also the Just us Girls Stencil challenge.

And it fits the Crafty Gals Sweetheart challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Simple Goodness

I started out with a very simple background using a stencil and some Distress Stain.

 I gave it some spritzes of Heidi Swapp Color Shine gold and left it all to dry.  I just picked up that medallion stamp on a recent visit to the Paper Source store. I just stamped it twice, both of the images going off of the paper.  I loved the stunning simplicity.  

 That adorable sentiment is from a set by Studio Calico.   It is so simple too and packs a big punch.  I used some Gold Silk that I picked up from Fun Stampers Journey.  It is in a bottle like nail polish.  It was so easy to add the gold accents to the medallion images with the brush end.  

I am adding this to Virginia's View challenge for a Clean Slate.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Lets get this party started!

Every year at this time my heart gets just so happy - there is actually a World Card Making Day, a day for something that I enjoy so much.  

 Of course, I wanted to sit down ahead of time and create a couple cards to share.  I was playing with watercoloring techniques this week and created the background to this card.  I used two colors of watercolor paints.  The paint comes in little tubes, I squeezed out a tiny amount on a piece of acetate then used my waterbrush to dilute that paint and pick up some.  I just painted simple lines on my watercolor paper, spritzed it with water to help the inks run a little more and then walked away to let it dry.  I always love the surprise that comes as the inks dry on the paper.   I used a Happy Birthday stamp from Wplus9 Designs.  I seem to not make many birthday cards so I thought that was a good theme for this card.  

 The big flower is a stamp from PaperTrey, Inc.  I stamped it with black ink on white watercolor paper and then added color with three shades of Distress Stain.  I love how the Distress Stains are so easy to use and give a watercolor look.  I did add a few sprays of Heidi Swapp Gold Color Shine.  

 Be sure to check out the tons of fun planned for World Card Making Day.  You can also find lots of fun posts on Instagram.  So many companies are offering specials.

 Another card I wanted to share uses the Fusion Challenge for my inspiration.  I didn't use the colors in the challenge, but I did use the sketch and I also stayed with a big flower, mine is just black and white with some great bright green.  The background was created with a The Crafter's Workshop stencil. I love stencils and I love theirs.  I just gave it a spray with some black spray. 

 I gave that background some splotches of green Heidi Swapp Color Shine.  My flower is a stamp from PaperTrey, Inc.  I kept the coloring extremely simple so I could stay with my black and white color combination.  Can you see that little bit of neat sparkle?  I used a Wink of Stella pen to outline parts of the flower.  Some green Liquid Pearls finished it off along with a die cut word from Clearly Besotted.  

Here is the Fusion challenge.

This also fits the Addicted to CAS Stencil challenge.

Thanks for visiting and I sure hope you get to do some paper crafting today.

Linda (lbpost)

More Color Choices - Focus on Yellow

One of my favorite color challenges is black and white with a color.  

 I am working with a "new to me" challenge blog and it is a color challenge adding yellow to the black and white.  I started out by stamping my sentiment from Printworks.  I put a mask over that and gave the white paper some sprays of color.  I used Heidi Swapp Gold and Clearsnap Yellow.  

 That really neat flourish design is from Darcie's, I stamped it and then cut it out.  Some buttons and an enamel dot along with your yellow Liquid Pearls were the finishing touches.  

Here is the CAS Colours & Sketches challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Card with a Tag

I managed to get in a card that uses the Freshly Made sketch.  Too often the week flies by and I don't get to play along with that challenge blog.  I so loved this weeks sketch though, so I really wanted to play.

 I started out with a Heidi Swapp tag.  This comes in a package of tags, all with a cut out word/words on them.  The paper goes along with watercoloring techniques.  I went to a set of Wplus9 Designs set of flowers and stamped them with Distress Stains spritzed with water.  I just wanted a simple, artsy look.

 To go along with the sketch, I created a little accent at the top with some leftover orange tulle, some twine and a button.  

Here is a close up of the cut out word, Hello.  I backed the tag with some orange cardstock so the letters would show up better.

Here is the Freshly Made sketch.

And for a couple photos to share:

 I was over at a new shopping center close to my house this week and just had to take some photos of this fun fountain.  I used my Hipstamatic camera on my phone. 

Aren't the colors fun?

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Loving yellow!

The card I want to share uses the CAS(e) this sketch for this week.  

 I went to my grunge circle stamp from  Neat and Tangled.  I simply inked it with a few colors of Distress Stain and stamped it only watercolor paper.  

 To add a little additional interest to the circle, I used a stencil from Crafter's Workshop and inked some of the rays.  I stamped black circles that are from the same set from Neat and Tangled, adding some enamel dots to a couple of the stamped circles.  I also sprayed some Heidi Swapp gold spray to the circle.  The sentiment is from Mama Elephant. 

 Here is the CAS(e) this sketch.

 Next I want to share a little project I just completed.  This week is teacher's appreciation at two of my grandsons school so as one of the treats, I created these cute little pencils built around a package of Rolo's.  

I cut papers to create the pencil look, stamped a number 2 on each one, used a Hershey's Kiss for the pencil point and some adorable PaperTrey, Inc tags were tied around with red twine.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)