Monday, September 22, 2014

Some Colour Q fun

I needed to do some creative playing...
 So I picked the Colour Q combo for my inspiration.  The background was created with several Distress Stains. I love playing with these along with some water. Love the way the inks run together yet remain bright.  I used a dot stencil and some white acrylic paint over the colors when they were dry.  
 I did add most ink after the paint was dry so some of the white paint spots were also colored.  The sentiment is a combination between an Alternew stamp set and a Printwords word stamp.  The butterfly is from Clearly Besotted and it has a matching die.  Since I stamped it in white and embossed it with white, the embossed lines acted as a resist after I colored it with some Distress Stains. 
Here is the Colour Q combo.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Sunday, September 21, 2014

A fun new AAA Cards Challenge

You need to watch closely because the theme of the challenges at AAA Cards changes each week and that is part of the fun of taking part. 
This week we are focusing on fussy cutting.  I have to admit that I really like fussy cutting so I was so on board for this one.  One thing I have discovered that sitting down and cutting out an image really doesn't take that long and the result is pretty cool. 
 I feel in love with this adorable Printworks snow lady when I saw her at our stamp convention and I have had so much fun using her. Most of the other elements were cut with my Cricut.  This was a quick little card to assemble because the Cricut pieces had been cut out previously.  I had saved them for a future use and this card seemed like the perfect fit.   
After I stamped the snow lady with black ink, I embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I really like my black lines on an image to be a little more intense with embossing and I like using that technique when I am going to add coloring with Copic markers.  You can see where where I added some chunky glitter on the red heart and on the golden wings.
Make sure you stop on over on the AAA Cards blog so you can play along.
And, can you stand a few more Maui photos...
 We stopped at this little Coconuts stand mostly because I saw that red truck and just had to get a photo of it.
 One of my most favorite photos from our trip!  We found this old hotel with these colorful surfboards along the front. I had a feeling it was abandoned but sure made a great photo op. 
I couldn't even get enough beach photos. Mostly because each beach we stopped at seemed different from the last.  I loved the shadow of the palm tree across the sand.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Project Life and a Layout

I have a goal to get more scrapbook layouts completed so I want to share one with you today.



I plan to use more Project Life styles and products but I also thought it would be fun to use some Project Life journaling cards as accent to a traditional layout.  
Here is used a digital set that I purchased from Becky Higgins. I loved the colors in the doggie set.  They printed out perfectly, I just had to trim them and use a corner rounder punch on the corners. 
The title letters were stamped and then cut out and I added some corner accents with a stencil and some orange Distress Stain.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Monday, September 15, 2014

Pink goodness

I wanted to play along with the current Fusion challenge so I sat down to do some creating.
 Every once in awhile, I sit down and play with inks and stencils so my background here was created during one of those play sessions.  I thought the resulting pinks went well with the Fusion challenge.  I used watercolor paper and some Distress Inks.  
 To follow the sketch with the Fusion challenge, I stamped these leaves from Wplus9 Designs with some Distress Stains.  The "hello" is also from Wplus9 Designs.  
 Here is the Fusion challenge.
And, I just have to share more Maui photos...
 This is the amazing view from our hotel room.  These cottages are part of the resort complex but we stayed in the tower part of the hotel.  I would strongly recommend The Royal Lahaina Resort to anyone for their Maui visit. It has it's own amazing beach plus other great features. 
 This photo is from our Lahaina visit.  This is an amazing area to spend time shopping and eating. 
This is one of my favorite beach photos.  One of the beaches we visited was Big Beach where the waves were so amazing, not to mention the cloud formations.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Sunday, September 14, 2014

The next AAA Cards challenge

It's Sunday again and time for the next AAA Cards challenge.
 This week, we were to use a team members card for inspiration. 
 Since I am so wanting summer to stay around for awhile longer, the sunburst design on Julia's card was a fun inspiration piece.  For my card, I started out with a favorite stamp from Neat and Tangled.  It is a large, distressed looking circle.  I inked it with two colors of Distress Stain, gave it a spritz of water and then stamped it.  Since I am loving playing with watercolor looks, I loved how this one turned out.  
 I then took a starburst stencil from The Crafter's Workshop and inked some of the rays with a yellow stamp pad.  I tried to be irregular in the length of the different rays while sponging on the ink.  The sentiment is from Mama Elephant and I added some black enamel dots to give it the finishing touches.  
Plus my card loosely follows the Freshly Made Sketch for this week. I love taking a piece of inspiration and making it my own.
And, I have to share some photos...
 We just returned from a magical time in Maui.  I don't know anything more to say then it was wonderful.  I tried to get lots of beach photos since there are so many different kinds of beaches there and it seemed that every day brought more amazing cloud formations.  
 On a beach walk, we came across a sand castle someone had built.  The waves had already taken part of it away, but I just loved the crumbling results, especially with more cloud formations in the background.  
One of our sightseeing trips was to the Iao Valley Monument.  It is a gorgeous garden-like area with great historical significance.  This is just one glimpse of that area. 
I sure hope you can get a chance this week to play along with the AAA Cards challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Sunday, September 7, 2014

AAA Cards Challenge Sunday

Yes, time for another AAA Cards challenge.


 This one is pretty fun, it's a moon sketch!
 
 I thought this was a fun way to add a moon to a little scene.  I simply punched out a circle and backed that with the yellow cardstock.  Since I picked yellow, I hope it looks like a moon and not a sun!!!
The little snowy tree forest is a stamp from Hero Arts.  My snow is some Liquid Pearls.
And for a few photos...
 We recently had a period of HUGE waves.  It was a spectacular sight.  Of course, I went down to take photos. 
 The size of the waves was most noticed and measured against our pier.  It is not too often they get that close to the pier.
Such a neat experience.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Monday, September 1, 2014

The tropical bookmark

I wanted to take a minute to share a fun bookmark I created.  We are off on an adventure and a new book and a new bookmark were in order.  
 Because of the fun supplies and techniques I also thought it fit the Mixed Media monthly challenge pretty nicely.  
I started out by adding color to my piece of watercolor paper with some Distress Stains and a spritz of water.  Before the Distress Inks were completely dry, I came back and added white embossing paste with a stencil.  That added a little bit of color to the white.  I then left that to dry.  To finish off that goodness I gave it some sprays of a Heidi Swapp color ink in Citron. I liked what that added to the embossing paste.  That amazing, relaxing sentiment is from Printworks and the layered flower is from a set by Altenew. I wanted to add a fun accent to this so I added the sentiment piece with a mini stapler.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)