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 Cards for World Card Making Day

I know the official day has passed but I had a couple cards featured on other blogs for the celebration and I thought it would be fun to show them to you here.
The above card won a contest by Prism and they used it on the PaperCrafts Magazine WCMD web site. I love to use just squares of papers on a card and they colors go together so magically! The owl is an Inkadinkado stamp. I embossed it and cut it out.
This card was created for Scrapbooks & Cards Today's blog. They asked some designers for special cards with kids in mind and so it was fun to use this new chipboard dinosaur that I had by BasicGrey and did these Bo Bunny Press dot papers every work perfectly to create my "hilly" background.
I hand cut my little leaves and accented them with rub-on stitches and Copper Stickles dots.

LITTLE OWL card

Materials: Cardstock - Prism

Owl stamp – Inkadinkado

Ancient Page stamp pad - Clearsnap

Fluid Chalk stamp pads – ClearsnapClear

Paper Glaze – Aleene’s®/Tulip

Leaf punch – Punch Bunch

ABSOLUTELY ALL BOY card

Materials: Cardstock-Core’dinations,

Patterned Paper-Bo Bunny, Chipboard-BasicGrey,

Stickles-Ranger,

Rub-ons-We R Memory Keepers and Making Memories

Creating Backgrounds PART 5 - Emerging Color & "give away" winners

First order of business today is to announce the

winners of my little "give away"!!!

Congrats to:

Kimberly A. & Cassie

I have emailed each of you and thank you so much to all of you amazing gals who played along. It was sooooo hard to just not pick everyone!

The background technique I wanted to share with your today is called "emerging color". I don't think I had really paid any attention to this until I found it on Ashley Bowen's blog, Ashley's Creative Corner. Her example is just stunning and I knew right away that I had to figure out what she did. She points crafters to a tutorial at SplitCoast Stampers, so that is where I got my information of what to do. I wanted to break down the steps I took to create my card because this kind of a technique is better understood with pictures.
The biggest trick to this technique is trying to figure out what stamps to use to make it work. You need at least two stamps that are going to somehow coordinate and one of them needs to have a rather large, flat surface. So, you need a stamp or stamps to create your background with small stamps and then you need another stamp that can be stamped over the small, background images.
#1. I stamped my branch stamp by inking it with the Marvy stamp pad and I spritzed that each time with the fine mist of water so that my stamped image had a watercolor look. The watercolor effect was just the look I wanted, not something that would be required.
#2. I inked my solid pear stamp with the Watermark stamp pad and embossed it with clear embossing powder. I pretty much filled up my paper with the yellow, branch stamp that way wherever I stamped my pear, there would be plenty of leaves underneath it. I decided on where I would want my pear to be on my paper and stamped it once.
( If you look real close, you can see the clear, embossed pear in the above image. This has to be done with the clear ink and embossing powder because you want the underneath images to show through in the end.)
#3. Now I took my red stamp pad and rubbed it directly across my stamped paper and across my clear, embossed pear. You can see where the term "emerging" comes from as the clear pear and the underneath stamped leaves instantly are revealed. There would be other ways to apply the stamp pad ink, I rubbed the pad directly to my paper until it was colored with a solid coat of the red ink.
#4. After you have completely colored the paper with your color, take a soft cloth or Kleenex and whip the ink off of the clear, embossed image. If effect, you are polishing it.

I added a few other stamped images to my finished card.
This close up gives you an idea of how dramatic the finished work is.
Thank you for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

ENJOY - PEAR card
Materials list:
Cardstock – Prism
Broad leaf stamp – Paper Source
Solid pear stamp – Stamp in the Hand
Flourish stamp – Crafty Secrets
Border punch – Martha Stewart
Ribbon
Watermark stamp pad and clear embossing powder – Clearsnap
Ancient Page stamp pad in Henna - Clearsnap
Brilliant Yellow stamp pad – Marvy

Celebrate!!!! World Card Making Day

The real celebrating starts tomorrow morning, October 4th but I thought I would get an early start with some fun - some cards and a give away!!!
Be sure to check in at PaperCraft magazines WCMD site for the activities all day long. There are lots of card examples there too.
I wanted to put up a few cards here. If you are like me, you love to see ideas of what others have created with paper, scissors and glue!!!
The card above and the one below are created from the same collection of patterned papers.
And, now for the "give away" information. I have two copies of PaperCraft Magazines, "Cards, Gifts, & More" to send out. You can see in the photos below, the magazine and a few other supplies that I have added.
Give Away #1
Give Away #2
Each set includes a mini pad of Christmas/Winter themed papers by Paper Salon with matching rub-ons and a package of metallic, scallop edge cards with envelopes. Fun supplies to get you going on Holiday cards. I used the papers in these pads for the cards I posted here and you can see that one card had a"baby" theme and another one is a "back to school" theme from these same papers so they are good for other occasions besides Winter.
Just leave a comment on this thread by Saturday night. If you want to be included, just say in your comment "include me"! You might already have this magazine and so you don't want to be included in the drawing but I still would love for you to leave a comment.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

CPS #84 and MORE

Remember that World Card Making Day is coming up fast and to add to the celebration I am posting a couple cards. If you have forgotten, it is this Saturday, October 4th. Both were created with the inspiration of sketches. The first one is the sketch for this week at Card Positioning Systems blog. I LOVE this sketch and I have used one of my absolute favorite paper companies right now, We R Memory Keepers.I used a black chipboard shape from Cosmo Cricket. I just love black chipboard, LOVE the contrast it gives against so many colors of papers especially this yellow I used here. To dress it up just a little bit, I coated the flower with pink Stickles. That's it, a coat of Stickles and I have some SERIOUS bling!!!
Then I also needed to play along with Kazan's Sketch #10 at 2 Sketches 4 You this week. I decided it was time to pull out some Christmas/Winter themed papers because you just have to work ahead when it comes to projects for the holidays.
These little snowmen were cut out of one of the prints by My Mind's Eye and to give them a little more punch, I coated each one with Gloss Accents by Ranger. This just gives them so much life. The littlest snowman is attached with foam tape so that I also added some dimension.
These little felt snowflakes by Creative Impressions come in white, light blue and dark blue and I got mine to fit in with the winter look by adding some of the Glitter 3-D Fashion Paint by Tulip. I love this stuff. You can find it in the t-shirt decorating department of stores like Michaels. I put a dot on each of the brads too. It is just hard to really show you the sparkle that this added.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)
YOU ARE MY FAVORITE card
Materials:
Patterned paper – Delight and Gala/Hoopla/White Out collection/We R Memory Keepers
Black chipboard swirl/flower – Fleuriste/Blackboard/Cosmo Cricket
Stickles – Ranger
Glitter brad – Creative Impressions
Rub-on words – Making Memories
Fluid Chalk stamp pad – Clearsnap
Coluzzle circle template

THREE SNOWMEN card
Materials list:
Cardstock
Patterned papers – Be Merry collection/My Mind’s Eye and BoBunny Press
Felt snowflakes – Creative Impressions
Brads – Making Memories
Self-adhesive paper ribbon – K&Co.
Stickles - Ranger
Gloss Accents– Ranger
Glitter 3-D Fashion Paint - Tulip
Fluid Chalk stamp pad – Clearsnap
Machine Sewing

Remember WCMD is coming up

October 4th, this coming Saturday, is the day!

Card Makers everywhere can rejoice as we celebrate with paper, scissors, glue and all of the other supplies

you love to use.

Check out the schedule here at the WCMD web site, sponsored by PaperCrafts Magazine.

The magazine cover on the side here is a sneak peek of the give away I will have here for those who post a comment on Saturday on my blog.

I thought I needed to post a new card here today to celebrate a little early. The side view below gives you an idea of the plastic patterned paper that I used with a green paper card insert. The clear patterned paper is by Page Frames. It is printed when you get it, you can cut it any size you want and it folds for making a card.
The sticker letters, the rhinestone swirl and the flower and leaves are on the outside of the card. Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)
GOD BLESS YOU card
Materials:Patterned Plastic sheet – Page Frames
Patterned paper – Sapid/Mellow/BasicGrey
Sticker letters – Maude/Mellow/BasicGrey
Felt Flowers and leaves – Creative Impressions
Rhinestone swirl – Prima

Did you know there is a WORLD CARD MAKING Day???

If we can have a National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day (January 3rd), National Licorice Day (April 12th), National Bubble Bath Day (January 8th) and National Pancake Day (September 29th), just to name a few special days, then paper crafters can have a World Card Making Day!WCMD is next Saturday, October 4th. The festivities will be sponsored by PaperCrafts Magazine and they will be going on here, but you are going to want to check in at my blog too since I will have a neat giveaway. I'll talk more about this special day during the next week.

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I am adjusting to the fact that FALL is upon us and so I thought I would show off a card today that is very fall related. You have to remember that I live in Southern California and it is pretty much just like any other summer day here right now!

I just love the mosaic look of this pumpkin stamp. I wanted you to see a close-up of the design in it and the way that I colored it.
I took my Marvy markers directly to the rubber and used a few different shades. When you do this, you just start with the lightest color you want to use. Then add a few coordinating shades of markers here and there. I spritzed the image with water when I had it all colored and stamped it.
Thank you for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

AUTUMN’S PALETTE card
Materials:Card stock
Patterned papers – Pumpkin Bead Board and Harlequin print/Bo-Bunny Press
Pumpkin stamp – Eureka Stamps
Marvy markers to color stamps
Fine water mister – JudiKins
Chestnut Roan Fluid Chalk stamp pad
Phrase rub-ons – Deja Views
Flourish rub-on – Mini Marks/American Crafts
Zig Zag scissors – Family Treasures