Play Time

Somehow, even with Easter and a little four year olds birthday to celebrate this week, I found time to create!  I pulled out some sketch and color challenges to work with.

First off, the Freshly Made sketch for this week.

 I have been wanting to play with some purples so this card gave me the chance.  Gotta love this wonderful patterned paper by Glitz from the Dance in the Sunshine collection. 

 The green die is cut with a Spellbinders Nestabilities, maybe my favorite shape.  The butterfly is a stamp by Stamps by Judith. I stamped it with white and embossed it with white and then used a purple Distress Stain to add the color.  The sentiment is brand new by Paper Smooches.

Next up, the colour combo at Colour Q. 

Do you notice that same die cut shape? I just used a larger die to frame my little couple.  This great zigzag patterned paper by My Mind's Eye helps me match this color scheme.

  My card uses an adorable set of stamps by Sweet n' Sassy. The little couple are a silhouette stamp. I inked the stamp with black and stamped that on a piece of scrap paper to get off most of the ink. Next I used a dictionary print stamp by Hero Arts and inked it with black. I then pressed my little couple onto the inked text. Now when I stamped them, I got a gray outline because of the left over black and I also got the text print. I thought it was a fun look. The umbrella has an extra stamp that is just the outline of the umbrella so I stamped that on the zig zag print paper. 

And, I also used the retro sketch for this last week. Unfortunately I didn't realize how quickly their sketch ends so I missed the deadline for this one. 

I used a great collection by My Mind's Eye from a mini pad.

I just had to use this sketch when I saw the little house on it.  I used a chipboard house by Maya Road.

For part of the birthday celebrations we went to the Long Beach Aquarium.  I took a few pics with my Hipstamatic phone camera.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

My 5 second background!

Literally, I want to share a background design I put together in seconds. Love when that happens.

 Here are my supplies for the card, including the butterfly accent.
White textured cardstock
Crafter's Workshop Harlequin stencil
Black Ancient Page stamp pad/Clearsnap
Clear embossing powder
Deep Lagoon Chalk stamp pad/Clearsnap
Green Olive/Smooch Spritz/Clearsnap
Butterfly die and stamp/Sizzix/Hero Arts
Writing background and Sentiment stamps/Hero Arts
Buttons/My Mind's Eye

 The main background to my card is right here. I placed the stencil over the white textured cardstock and gave a few little spritzes of the Green Olive spray. This color is amazing and this is a perfect way to use a stencil.  You notice that this stencil is a distress version of a harlequin design meaning it isn't a complete coverage of diamond shapes.  Some of full, some are partial.  I so like the resulting look that gives.

 Here is an important side note. Once you have sprayed ink on a stencil, you have alot of that ink sitting on top of the stencil.  Don't waste it! Have another piece of cardsock ready, carefully pick up the stencil and turn it over, placing it on the extra cardstock.  You get another great piece to use in the future. You never know just what kind of a design you are going to get but it is always wonderful.  (I had a hard time getting the color just right on this photo for some reason)

 Here is my card.  For the background, I also took the Hero Arts writing stamp and inked it with the Dark Lagoon Chalk ink.  I didn't want my piece covered with complete stampings of this image, I just wanted pieces here and there so I didn't press the stamp down totally.  I only stamped it a couple times too.

 I  love that little bit of extra interest with that blue, writing stamp here and there.

And, here is my butterfly accent.  The butterfly was stamped with black ink and embossed with clear embossing powder and then I used the butterfly die to cut this out. Wow are these dies easy to use and make for a great and perfect cut.  I did add a little bit of gray to the butterfly with Copic markers and added a little bit of Glossy Accents.  The sentiment was also stamped and then two little buttons were added.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Flower Soft Butterfly Challenge

Are you ready for something wonderful?

Flower Soft offers die cut kits for easy card making.  Today the Flower Soft team wants to introduce you to new Butterfly Die Cut kits.  These come with pieces that are already printed with the colorful butterflies in a shape and a frame. 

What makes these so pretty and so easy to use is that all you do is punch out the printed shape, I picked one of the oval shapes.  The butterflies are all lazer cut so that all you do is take your fingers and bend the wings up.  The kits come with many extra butterflies too to add to the shape or to use on another project.  They are all colored and so beautiful.  I gave each and every butterfly a quick coat of Glossy Accents.  I loved the glass-like look and it also worked to strengthen each wing.  The sentiment I used is a stamp by Flower Soft. 

Thanks for visiting Linda (lbpost)

Dinosaurs and Butterflies

I am so honored and humbled with a recent honor, if you haven't checked it out, please do! It just warms my heart.

Next up, I promised some photos of the cutest dinosaur cake from our little dinosaur birthday party that we celebrated along with our Easter celebration while the family was together on Sunday. 

This seriously has to be the coolest cake ever! A local gal made and decorated it and it was a hit for a little 4 year old who lives, eats, sleeps dinosaurs.

 Here is a back view so you can see all of the work she put into the leaves, etc. It was very hard to convince him to allow the knife to cut into it!!!

 Gotta love this cute pose.

These are the sketches for the Hero Arts April contest and I wanted to play with one of them.

 Here is the finished card.  I used two different background stamps by Hero Arts. I stamped them both in black ink on white cardstock and then embossed the images with clear embossing powder.  Once that was done, I used an orange watercolor crayon to scribble over the stamping.  I then took a watercolor brush to wash the color over the surface.  Next I took Scattered Straw Distress stain and went over the orange.  I love how that yellow merged with the orange.

 The butterfly is a digital stamp available at 2 Peas in a Bucket.  I love that you can print out digital stamps in any size you want. I colored it with Copic markers.

And, I also want to share my card using the Card Positioning Systems sketch for this week.

Sharp Crochet Hook is our sponsor. This took me out of my box a bit.  The papers are Teresa Collins and the stamps for the little wish list are by Wplus9 Designs.

The Sharp Crochet hook is designed to by used on fabric and paper when crocheting.  The hook has a very sharp tip, letting you make a hole for your crocheting. I used to crochet alot so it was pretty fun giving it a try with paper.  The little envelope was cut with my Cricut.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Birthdays, Babies and BIkes

First off, our Easter weekend was wonderful. We went to church on Saturday night, that is different but helps give more space at church for others on Sunday. The service was amazing, something I would not want to miss. So, then, today we did our traditional plastic egg hunt in our backyard and then a dinosaur birthday party for a little four year old. Wait until I show you the cake!!! I'll do that soon. Our weather was amazing for all of these festivities and now to clean up from our fun!

Let's start off with birthdays. 

 This is this weeks sketch for Unscripted sketches and it is their anniversay celebration so I thought a birthday card would be fitting.

 I thought the pink, black and white was a fun color combo to go along with this cute birthday cake stamp by Hero Arts.

 The white dots are done using another Hero Arts stamp as is the pink swirl background.  I also gave it a little spray with some Chalkboard spray in pink.

 And, not onto celebrating babies. 

 This adorable girly little baby dress is a digital stamp by A Day for Daisies. I printed it on white cardstock and colored it with Copic markers by I also stamped it with a dictionary background stamp by Hero Arts for some added interest. The sentiment is a stamp by Pink Persimmon. The white doily is a Spellbinders Nestabilities.

 And for "Bikes", this cute bicycle is a stamp by Hero Arts, the papers by October Afternoon. 

The postcard is also a stamp by Hero Arts.  After it was stamped, I added alot of distressing with stamp pads and sprays.  The little pink flowers are Liquid Pearls.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Color challenges galore

I found two color challenges that made me bring out more papers and stamps.

Here is a glimpse of the first challenge.

 It is the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger for this week.  This challenge isn't really all about the colors but I did pull them out for my card.

 I knew I wanted to do something with that yummy blue gingham and I remembered how much I love stamping a gingham pattern. I used some hearts by Wplus9 Designs and an embossing folder by Sizzix.  I love the simple, stunning contrast of the gingham ribbon and that great white embossed paper.

 Next up is the Colour Q combo.  This piece just says SPRING!

I also used a sketch from Freshly Made, I just turned it on it's side.

I used a digital stamp by A Day for Daisies.  It was simply printed on white cardstock and then colorsed with Copic markers.

 It is a little hard to see in the photo, but I added some Glossy Accents to the top lip of each bottle to help them look like glass. The letters are new to me stickers that I found at Michael's.

Here is a good view of the colors and shading on the flowers and leaves.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

New Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge

Yeah, a new Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge, April 5-18.

Of course, this could go any number of ways, that is what using an inspiration piece is about. However, Teri Anderson, a Paper Smooches Design Team member recently created a card using Paper Smooches stamps and when I saw it, I knew that look would fit this SPARK just right.

 I picked out three phrase stamps that were of the same theme. I then picked out the three main colors in the inspiration piece.  One word was red and sort of in the middle so that was where I started. 

The embossed cardstock is Core'dinations and I used two little pieces of some paper tape that I had sitting on my desk.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)