Guest Stamper - Color Throwdown

I've been so excited to share this card with you. 

 I was able to be the Featured Stamper at Color Throwdown this week and that allowed me to get to play along with their team with this weeks challenge.

 When I saw the color combo for this week I was so happy and really couldn't wait to start creating a card for it. 

 I wanted to be able to really feature that amazing blue so I turned to a Stephanie Barnard Clearsnap spray ink in Blueberry.  I sprayed it on a piece of watercolor paper. I actually used quite a bit of the ink so I had enough to be able to move it around.  I used an acrylic block to smudge it abit and I also gave it a spritz of water.  The sentiment is a stamp from Printworks Rubber Stamps.

I used some flower stamps from a set by Altenew.  I stamped the flowers with white ink and embossed them with white embossing powder.  In order to get that bright, strong yellow, I sprayed some Stephanie Barnard Clearsnap ink in Banana on my stamped images.  I did this in order to color my paper so I made sure to completely cover the paper and the images.  After this sat a bit I gently wiped off the excess ink and left it to dry.  The middles of the flowers were colored with a Copic marker.  A Martha Stewart paper doily was used to anchor my flowers plus I thought it gave a nice accent of white since that is one of the colors. 

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Metallic Silver

I played with something new for this card! 

 I am loving playing with embossing paste and for this card I used my new Wendy Vecchi Silver embossing paste along with a stencil from My Favorite Things.  I also used a Tim Holtz dot stencil with black embossing paste and red spray ink.

 I tried to capture the great shine of the Metallic Silver and while the embossing paste was still wet, I sprinkled on some Tim Holtz glitter.  That black banner is a die cut from Reverse Confetti and the sentiment is a stamp from My Favorite Things. I used the CAS(e) this sketch for my inspiration.

Here is the CAS(e) this sketch.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Loving black dots

I love playing with stencils and spray ink.  This great piece with the black dots is the result of those two supplies. The stencil is from Tim Holtz and the spray ink is from Clearsnap. The die cut word is from Paper Smooches.

 I used that piece to create a card to fit the Dynamic Duos challenge and the Less is More "round" challenge.  

 Not sure if my green is exactly correct but I like it so I went with it.  I love the look of using a negative of a cut so I took a circle punch and punched out a portion of the black dot piece, making it a little off center.  The butterfly die is from Cheery Lyn Designs.

Here is the Dynamic Duos challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

More stencils and sprays!

I think one of the things that keep me going back to playing around with stencils and inks and sprays is that there seems to be no end to the cool results. 

 I started out with a simple chevron stencil and a few green and yellow lines and kept adding.  I wanted to make my card fit the Avery Elle Ombre/Gradient challenge so I kept adding yellow and green sprays and inks, making a concentration of yellow at the bottom edge.  

 I so love this label with it's set of sentiments so I made sure to have that be a part of my card.  The flower and leaves were stamped and cut with the matching dies.  The gold dots are done with Heidi Swapp gold spray, that that stuff!

Here is the Avery Elle Ombre/Gradient challenge. I will also add this to the Avery Elle guest designer challenge since I am sooooo in love with their stamps and dies!
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Happy Wishes day

Happy Wishes can be for all kinds of occasions so this is a pretty all purpose card.  

 Lawn Fawn has such cute stamps and this border stamp is so one of my favs.  It comes in a set with some other pretty cool border stamps.  PLUS, I love this set with the cool lanterns. I pulled these out so I could create a card for the Lawnscaping challenge of Clean and Simple. 

 After I stamped the border, I quickly colored it with three colors.  Some of the blocks I then coated with a glitter glue, some with Glossy Accents.  I did this just to "bling" up the border a little.  The one lantern was simply colored with Copic markers and accented with some enamel dots, one of my '"go to" accents these days.  I gave the card a final spritz of yellow spray ink by Clearsnap.

Here is the Clean and Simple challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Did I say I love stencils!

Yep, I just keep playing with these wonderful inventions.

 I created this card to go along with the retro sketch.  I started out with a Clearsnap stencil.  I placed it on white cardstock and sprayed it with red spray ink.  Whenever you do this, the stencil is pretty full of ink so I never want to waste that.  I picked it up and put it down on another piece of white cardstock.  I am in love with the way this worked.  

 I used a sentiment stamp from Avery Elle, a banner die from Paper Smooches and a doily die from My Favorite Things.  To add a little more interest I coated the sentiment with Glossy Accents after I colored it with matching Distress Stain. 

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

Sunny red and yellow

When I saw the color combination for the Color Throwdown, I knew I had to play. 

 This is the result.  What inspired my from the inspiration photo were the striped pillows.  I recreated that look with a Clearsnap stencil and some red Stephanie Barnard spray.  

 When I cut the doily die, I didn't punch out all of the little pieces.  I liked the mix of some punched out and some not.  The leaves are Lawn Fawn stamps and the matching die. I colored the paper first with two colors of Distress Stain.  The button is from American Crafts a the sentiment word is a Paper Smooches stamp that I cut out.  

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

Love black and turquoise!

I love using color challenges.  They really do take me "out of my box".  

 For this card, I used the Colour Q combo.  This might have ended up being one of my favorite cards and here, I would not have ever normally used turquoise as a card base and a black pattern with it.  

 The black design was created with a Tim Holtz stencil.  I sprayed it with a Clearsnap black ink and then picked up the stencil and placed it on my paper. The leaves are a Paper Smooches die cut, that label piece is from Maya Road.  

Here is the Colour Q combo.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Daisies and Leaves

First off, I played along with the retro sketch. 

 I went to a couple of my favorite Printworks stamps. I have loved Printworks for what seems like forever. It helps that they are always at our stamp convention.  In fact, I am headed there this weekend, YEAH!!!

 After coloring the main flowers with Copic markers, I gave the piece a spray of yellow spray ink and some drops of some orange spray ink, both are Stephanie Barnard spray inks by Clearsnap.

 Here is the retro sketch.

 Next up, I attempted what is a huge challenge for me, a one layer card.  That is the current Addicted to CAS challenge.  I always feel I just have to add layers so it was pretty hard to just stamp on the card front and leave it that way.

 My squares of color are just Distress Stamp pads directly "stamped" on the paper.  The leaf is a stamp from Paper Source.  That neat sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

Here is the Addicted to CAS challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

So much color

I was able to play along with a couple online challenges this week, both are a pretty interesting combination of COLORS!!!

 First off, the Freshly Made sketch.  My color combination is on the unusual side for a winter themed card but I thought it was pretty fun.

 I took a piece of watercolor paper from a little pad of paper I picked up at a Crafter's Warehouse.  The paper was spritzed with some water first and then swiped with four colors of Distress Stain.  The stains reacted with the water and ran for a neat look.  This was sprayed with a white spray and then dotted with some watered down white paint.  I finished it off with some stamped little mittens that are a stamp from Wplus9 Designs.

 Here is the Freshly Made sketch.

 Next off, a card using the Colour Q combination. 

 I used some fun Paper Source stamps, the flower and the leaves.  I stamped the flower twice.  The first one was colored with an orange spray of Stephanie Barnard spray by Clearsnap.  The second was sprayed with a pink spray.  I cut out the middle section of the second flower and added that over the first flower.  The spray made for a fast and easy was to color these flowers. 

 Here is the Colour Q combo.

We were at our pet store this week and they had just gotten in some crabs.  I just loved this guy sitting on top of a big rock.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Fun stuff to share

Because I found a couple more online challenges to work with, I have a couple new cards to share with you.

 I pulled out some Paper Smooches stamps and a piece of My Mind's Eye paper to create my card. I used the CAS(e) this Sketch for this week as well as the neat color combination at Colour Q. 

 To get my splash of another color for the Colour Q combo, I masked the little telephone and sprayed my piece of plain white cardstock with a great yellow Stephanie Barnard Spray ink from Clearsnap.  I think that is such a fun way to add some color. 

 Here is the CAS(e) this Sketch.

And the Colour Q combo.

 I also wanted to play with the Seize the Sketch challenge.  I pulled out some really fun Simple Stories products. 

 It was so fun to create a little grouping with the matching products in this collection.

Here is the Seize the Sketch challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

First Christmas card!

First off, a fun toot!

Crafts n' Things newsletter

 

A card I created with some Paper Smooches stamps is featured in this newsletter. Hop on over to get a peek.

 

Next up,

I wanted to use the retro sketch so this card was created. 

 It was fun to give it a Christmas theme. 

 The colors in the first picture are a little more accurate, it is sometimes hard to show the colors as they actually are.  The bigger circle is a Hero Arts stamp and the smaller one is a Paper Smooches stamp. The snowflake is Hero Arts.

 Here is the retro sketch.

 This card was created to go along with a Colour Q color combination but I was too late to submit it to that challenge. 

 I used a super fun new stamp from Stampin' Up with it's matching die shape. I love this tag shape.  The background is created with a stencil and some Stephanie Barnard Clearsnap spray inks.

Here is the Colour Q combo.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)