Hey Sunshine - Color Happiness

Again, a couple online challenges inspired the card I want to share.

 The start of my creation is a messy background with some Distress Inks on watercolor paper.  I love the unexpected result.

 Using a color challenge most often takes me out of my own comfort zone and I find that so fun and so challenging.  The flower is a stamp from Altenew, stamped and embossed with white and then color was added with Distress Stain.  That great circle die cut is from My Favorite Things.  

 Cute sentiment from Sinon Says Stamp with a few little drops using Nuvo Drops.  

Here is the CAS(e) this Sketch challenge.

Here is the Color combo from Color Throwdown.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

My Heart Smiles

I don't what challenge I loved the most as I created this card.  

 I'll start with the Color Throwdown color challenge because I knew I had to play along with this combo.  The layout of the card was then inspired by the Freshly Made Sketch and the CAS(e) this Sketch.  

The bottom border design is a stamp by Lawn Fawn and then the color was added with Distress Stains.  The flower is from Altenew.  

 Here is the Freshly Made Sketch.

 Here is the CAS(e) this Sketch.

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

You're Awesome

Again playing with some great color challenges and various Distress Inks.

 The background is a mix of Distress Stains.  One of them is a silver metallic ink and I tried to get the light on the card so that you could see the metallic ink.  The flower from Altenew is simply stamped in it's outline form so that background was able to show through. 

 I used a few white Nuvo Crystal drops for accent and the sentiment and the banner stamp and die are from Avery Elle.  

 Here is the Paper Players color challenge.

Here is the Color Throwdown challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

The Colorthrowdown Challenge #528

Recently I was the featured stamper and that means I get to be the guest designer for this weeks color combination.  

 One of my favorite challenges are color related and wow did I love this weeks challenge combo and how much do I love that owl!  I started out creating a messy background with Distress Inks and a leaf stencil on watercolor paper.  Once I had that the way I wanted it, I stamped the leaf spring and colored it with Zig Clean Color markers.  The leaf sprig is a stamp from Simon Says Stamp from the Beautiful Day set with a matching die.  

 The "thank you" word die is from My Favorite Things.  I colored it with Distress Ink too so I could get the exact color I wanted.  The small sentiment is from Reverse Confetti.  

 Here is the adorable Color Throwdown Color challenge combo. Take a few crafting minutes so you can play along.  

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Big Hugs

Starting a card by playing with Distress Stains is my favorite. 

 This card base started out with some red and pink Distress Stain then I used a leave design stencil to add some of that leave design with Distress Stain and then with white embossing paste.  Using the stencil helps it fit the Simon Says Flickr challenge.  This provided the ground work for the elements I then added.  

 The wreath was stamped and then cut out with a matching die.  The words "big hugs" and the "thanks" were then cut out from black cardstock.  All of these dies are from Simon Says Stamp.  

Here is the Card Concept challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Browns and Blacks

I love online challenge blogs because I can find myself going in a direction in crafting that I hadn't planned on, out of my box so to say.

 The Color Throwdown Challenge for this week was a simple black, brown, white.  I thought that would be easy until I started working on it.  This might be my third attempt!!! I stamped a Simon Says Stamp background stamp in white on watercolor paper, embossed it with white embossing powder and then just blotted a brown Distress Stain all over that, letting the ink sit in puddles as it dried.  I love this "resist" technique especially with the white lines.  

 The large "thank you" die is by Altenew and the leaves are from Paper Smooches.  I covered the leaves with Nuvo Crystal Glaze. I love how easy it is to spread this liquid and how evenly it dries with a great crystal shine.  The black dots are Nuvo Crystal Drops.  I purchased both from Simon Says Stamp and they might be my new obsession.  

 Here is the Color Throwdown challenge.

And the Just Us Girls challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost0
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The Little Things

I have such a huge love of Distress Stains or Distress Inks and Altenew stamps and dies, these were my go to for the card I want to share plus I used the January Altenew challenge for my inspiration.  

 The background is the simplest, I used watercolor paper and Distress Stains blotted onto a thin strip of acrylic, one color at a time.  The wet ink on the acrylic was spritzed with water to make it a bit diluted, then pressed onto the paper, one color at a time.  I love the "messy" results of these inks and watercolor paper.  

 This flower die set is a new tool for me.  It is unique in that it doesn't require any stamping, just cutting.  I cut each piece from white watercolor paper and then added Distress Stains to each individual piece.  Spritzing the papers and the inks with water helps them run and mingle.  I love that the flower is layers and you actually can get a little creative, not adding them together as they were intended.  

Here is the Altenew Inspiration Challenge piece.

Thanks for visiting, Linda 

Spray of Blossoms

To fit the Card Concept challenge, I created a very simple spray of flowers scattered over my card using an Altenew stamp.  

 The flowers were stamped with white ink and embossed with white and then a few Distress Stains were used on this watercolor paper for a quick way of adding color.  

 The word die "congrats" by My Favorite Things was cut from watercolor paper and then also colored with Distress Stains.  

 I gave the background a wash of more Distress Stain.  

 Here is the Card Concept challenge.

And this fits the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

All about Green

The Addicted to CAS challenge is LUCK or LUCKY and I really had to think about that until I remembered a set of sentiment stamps from Stampers Anonymous that fit.  

 To start off I created a background using a stencil and some Distress Inks.  

 The flower is from a stamp set from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous and by coloring it in greens I was able to also make this card fit the Sundays Stamp color challenge. The top part of the flower is coated with Glossy Accents for some added interest.  

 This is a close up of the result of the inks with the stencil.  

 Here is the Addicted to CAS challenge.

Here is the Sunday Stamps challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Bold - that is the challenge

I so love anything red but I don't always create in what I would call BOLD colors.

 But since the current Time Out challenge is BOLD, I knew I had to give it a try.  The background is a messy inky style with lots of Distress Stain.  

 The further my attempt at BOLD I cut out the leaf die from Memory Box and colored it with more Distress Ink in blues and used a blue card base.  To further the BOLD look on the card I colored the stamped sentiment piece with a strong yellow.  

 The butterfly stamp from Clearly Besotted finishes off my look and I added white dots to that.  

Here is the TimeOut challenge of BOLD.

This also fits the Simon Says Wednesday challenge of Anything Goes.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Yellow is such a Happy color

I wanted to use the CAS(e) this sketch for this week and since I picked this "happy" die from PaperTrey Inc, I just had to pick yellow for my main color. 

 I learned today that "smooching" is evidently a crafting term and that is what I did to create my simple background.  I tapped a few shades of Distress Stain directly to an acrylic block, spritzed that with water and then "smooched" the block onto my watercolor paper.  I love that it is really such a random way to add color and that so works especially with these inks and watercolor paper. 

 The flower is a multi step flower from Altenew stamps.  Again, another stamp that I really love and you can create your flower from any number of color combinations.  

 See the little specks of gold because one of the Distress Stains that I used is tarnished brass, a metallic ink.  

Here is the CAS(e) this sketch that I used.

It also fits the Addicted to Stamps and More Anything Goes challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Purple Butterfly

I found a fun bunch of online challenges and created a card. 

The colors are a result of the Color Throwdown and I used a layout for the card to match the Freshly Made Sketch. For the side element, I used a hole die from My Favorite Things and accented it with browns using Distress Inks.  

I placed my sentiment slightly different from the sketch but I thought this fit my card better.  The sentiment stamp is from Stampers Anonymous.  

I used a set of butterfly dies from My Favorite Things.  In order to use the colors in the challenge, I cut the top layer from watercolor paper and colored that butterfly from a variety of Distress Inks.  I like the resulting distressed look.  

 Here is the Color Throwdown challenge. 

And the Freshly Made sketch.

And even though my butterfly is purple and not pink I thought my card fit in with the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)