All the Golden LOVE

Valentine's Day has to be one of the easiest and most fun holidays to create cards for, who doesn't love hearts of any color? 

 My card is actually very simple and good thing is it goes along with a few online challenges. 

 My current love is to work with watercolor paper and watercolor techniques.  This background is just plain some simple shades of red Distress Stain.  That sweet little wreath is a stamp and matching die from Simon Says Stamp and that gorgeous gold word is also a die from Simon Says Stamp cut from gold metallic paper.  

 How about these colors, Color Throwdown.

 My card also fits the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge of It Must Be Love.

It also fits the Simon Says Stamp Flickr challenge.

And the Just Us Girls, LOVE challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Golden "love"

I found a few online challenges that I simply needed to play along with.

 The color combination came from the photo inspiration with Time Out Challenge.  I wanted black and white stripes so I created my own with a black watercolor pen and a Copic black pen.  Once I drew my lines with a ruler, I used a waterbrush to make the watercolor black ink run.  In the photo this ended up looking like it has a lavender cast but it is actually more black and white in real life making it go along with the photo.  The layout of the card went along with the Freshly Made sketch.

 I made sure my card was really on the simple side by adding black and gold glitter.  

 Here is the Time Out Challenge Photo. 

 Here is the Freshly Made sketch I used. 

This also fits the CASology challenge.

 This CAS on Friday challenge is to use markers or pens. 

And the Simon Says Wednesday challenge is Anything Goes.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Silver Glitter "love you"

Yes, my card uses hearts and because of the Color Throwdown Color combo I went a bit out of the box for a "love" theme.  

 I also wanted to make good use of the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge for "layer it up" so I went to this adorable multi heart die from Simon Says Stamp.  

 I first of all colored a piece of watercolor paper with some Distress Stain inks, one of them being the silver metallic.  Once this was dry, I used the heart die and cut the shape out of the turquoise paper.  I then cut the heart die again from white cardstock.  The cut out white shape then fit into the same cut out space.  

 I cut the heart shape piece again from a piece of orange paper that I colored with more Distress Stains and again from a silver glitter paper.  This allowed me to randomly insert a few orange hearts and in order to have even more layers, I added a few silver glitter hearts with foam tape.  

 Here you get a better idea of the dimension by using the foam tape.   The little banner is a die from Reverse Confetti and the Simon Says Stamp cut out words are cut from the silver glitter paper.  

 Here is the Color Throwdown challenge. 

And here is the link to this weeks Simon Says Wednesday Challenge.

I also submitted this card to the Simon Says Flickr challenge of "friend"

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Many Smiles

I turned to the CAS(e) this Sketch challenge for my first inspiration and the Inspired By All the Little Things challenge for added direction.  

 The colors are actually a little more soft, more similar to the Inspired by challenge of the yummy colors on those cookies.  

 The real starting point was the dot background.  I used Translucent Embossing paste with a Tim Holtz stencil and then used white embossing powder on the still wet paste to get my white dots.  

 I then used several colors of Distress Stain on watercolor paper.  When these inks are spritzed with water, the inks run, making for fun designs and the colors mingling.  The leave die cut by Memory Box helps make this fit the Inspired By challenge.  

 Here's a close up of the dots.  

 Here is the CAS(e) this Sketch.

And the adorable Inspired By. . . photo challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Be Still

My card was created around a few online challenges, starting with the soft color combination from the ColorThrowdown Challenge. 

 A The Crafter's Workshop stencil and some Distress Ink on watercolor paper set the stage with the background.  I used a stitched rectangle die from Avery Elle.  

 In order to use the soft kraft color I cut a heart with a Simon Says Stamp die and tried to color the Altenew flower and leave with a soft brown color too.  The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge is to add a sentiment so I used a stamp from them for my sentiment.  

 I made white pearl dots with Liquid Pearls for a little bit of elegance.  

 Here is the Freshly Made sketch.

 Here is the Color Throwdown Color challenge.

Here is the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Big Hugs cuteness

The new year began with the desire to create more so I found a few online challenges to help get a creative spark.  I have lots of supplies but it's pretty interesting how I find direction when I find a few online challenges I want to try.  

 I started with a few brand new supplies I had on my desk that I hadn't even used yet.  How about that really neat background die from Lil' Inker.  It has enough interest and texture to be able to just leave the watercolor paper white.  The circle die and the banner are from another set of dies from Lil' Inker.  

 In order to use the colors in the Color Throwdown Challenge, I added the color pink to the circle die with a spray from Heidi Swapp.  The "big hugs" word die is from Simon Says Stamp and I colored them purple with Distress Stain.  I wanted to still keep my design on the simple and clean side so I just added the cutest little girl doggie stamp and matching die from Reverse Confetti.  

 I used inspiration from two different sketch challenges, the first one CAS(E) this Sketch.

 The second sketch challenge, CAS Colours & Sketches.

 My color choices came with the Color Throwdown Challenge. 

Plus my sentiment choice came from the CASology HUG challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Splatters and flowers

Excited to play along with Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, Splatter It challenge.

I always love challenges and I will most often find an online challenge to be the spark to my inspiration.  I also love to add splatters to a project so this was an easy one for sure.  

I started off with a flower set of stamps from Alternew.  Adding various colors with Distress Stains made for easy and fast coloring. That cute tag is a die from Lil' Inker Designs.

 The main flower was loosely colors with Distress Stains by touching the dabber top directly to the paper.  Spritzes of water make the inks run for a watercolor look. 

I first gave the background to my card a slight wash with a soft green Distress Stain and then added splatters to match my color combination.  Splatters can be added a few different ways but a fast way to do it is to take a spray bottle of Distress Stains or other inks that come in a spray bottle and unscrew the spray cap.  There is ink on the tube that goes into the bottle so with your fingers, flick that plastic tube and you will get splatters of ink.  The only thing is you aren't controlling where the splatters go.  

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, Splatter It.

Thanks for visiting, 

Linda (lbpost)