Bold - that is the challenge

I so love anything red but I don't always create in what I would call BOLD colors.

 But since the current Time Out challenge is BOLD, I knew I had to give it a try.  The background is a messy inky style with lots of Distress Stain.  

 The further my attempt at BOLD I cut out the leaf die from Memory Box and colored it with more Distress Ink in blues and used a blue card base.  To further the BOLD look on the card I colored the stamped sentiment piece with a strong yellow.  

 The butterfly stamp from Clearly Besotted finishes off my look and I added white dots to that.  

Here is the TimeOut challenge of BOLD.

This also fits the Simon Says Wednesday challenge of Anything Goes.

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)

Some wings and a sketch

Yes, another card inspired with some online challenges.

 Parts of my card are pieces that I had previously worked with and they were just waiting to be used.  Always fun.  I was playing one day with a stencil and some embossing paste so that is my background piece.  The butterfly that is a stamp by Clearly Besotted was also created during a play session and the little cut tag was sitting on my desk.  

 The background is watercolor paper that had been colored with Distress Stain.  When it was dry, I took a Memory Box stencil and added some white embossing paste. To go along with the sketch, I cut the little banner with a My Favorite Things banner die and helped it fit in with the rest of the card by adding white embossing paste with the same stencil.  The "forever" tag is cut with a Technique Tuesday die.  The die cuts several tags and this one was just waiting to be use.  I didn't take out the cut letters.  I was using so much white on my card I thought it fitted in just like it was.  To make the white even more yummy, I added pearl dots with some Liquid Pearls.  

 Here is the CAS-ology Wings challenge.

And here is the Freshly Made sketch that I followed.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Using Red, White and Blue

I love the color combination for the Colour Me challenge, red, navy and white.  

 I wanted to use it in an unexpected way though.  I turned to this little boy stamp by My Favorite Things.  I know that he looks like it is winter and it is summer here but I love him and I think these colors are just right for him.  

I used a star stencil by Memory Box to create my background.  I just used some Distress Stain on watercolor paper.  The little boy is colored with Copic markers and my balloon is a stamp from Reverse Confetti.  

Here is the Colour Me challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Fun Times Two

My card today uses one challenge from two challenge blogs.  Of course, it was fun to play along.

 It represents some firsts for me and since I love to experiment, I was happy. The main focus is lots of white.  I started out using a stencil and some Gesso.  Once I had my card front covered with the Gesso, I sprinkled some Pearl embossing powder on the stenciled design.  I heated the embossing powder now but that did take awhile since the Gesso was wet.  In the inspiration piece, I saw a green butterfly although it just might be gold.  I did have it in mind though that I wanted to use a green butterfly against all of the white.

 I tried to catch a lot of light so you could really see the Pearl embossing powder.  Because I had to heat it for awhile, the embossing powder started bubbling up and I thought that really added to the finished look.  The banner pieces are cut strips of vellum.  The little banner piece and sentiment are from Clearly Besotted.

 Here is the Fusion and CAS(e) this sketch challenge.

And for a photo...

From our day at the beach on the First Day of Summer!

And, for a teaser, watch the AAA Cards blog for a fun challenge starting this next Sunday.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

This was a fun one!

Another online challenge to play with, the Color Throwdown challenge.

 I so loved the soft shades of the pretty colors.  As I set out to use the colors, I started out making a background with Distress Stains, Distress Stamp pads and watercolor.  I then set this aside to dry. This is always fun because some really neat character comes out with the watercolors when it all dries. This also had a great Mama Elephant sentiment and a Memory Box butterfly die. 

 I took my stencil and added some pink inks to the stencil with Distress Stain and then placed that on my card.  Next I took some white embossing paste and used a palette knife to spread the paste over a portion of the stencil. The pink inks on the stencil added an irregular color to the paste so that I then had my two shades of the pinks. The butterfly has an underneath layer in that same pink. I also used some pink Liquid Pearls for accent.

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

You're Amazing!

Who would not to receive a card with this greeting!  I went to the CAS(e) this sketch for my inspiration.  

 Although I did not follow the sketch to the letter, I did let it be my launching point and that is what a sketch is about to me.  I used a die cut of some leaves by Memory Box for my main element.  The sentiment banner stamp is from My Favorite Things with the matching die.

 Take notice of my background.  I started coloring it by using a dot stencil and some Distress Stains.  I used water to give the look of watercolors.  After it was colored and dry, I took another stencil and embossed the paper using an embossing pad and my Cuttlebug.  The texture is oh so cool.  

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

Some Flower Soft and a Color Combination

The Flower Soft team is taking this week to focus on some of the Flower Soft card toppers.  I LOVE the toppers. They come completely colored, ready to use.  Of course, they work great on a card but really they can be used for other kinds of projects and that is what the team wants to show off.

 For Christmas this year, Flower Soft released some great toppers that are Santa related. I used this one from the set to create an envelope/gift bag.  I just too some kraft colored cardstock and created a simple envelope. 

 I wanted to show off what adding some white Flower Soft does to this great looking Santa.  I added it to the rim of his hat, his cuffs and the bottom edge of his jacket.

I added some of the gold Flower Soft to some of the stars. I LOVE the gold Flower Soft.

Be sure to visit the Flower Soft blog and the other team members projects.  From here go to Deb Felt's blog.
Another project to share is my card using the Dynamic Duo Color combination and the retro sketch.

 I am always in love with black/white and green so I had to play along.

 I pulled out my little star die cut from Memory Box. LOVE this die! Plus I used some Unity stamps, I always have loved this set with trees in it. I stamped a flourish stamp over the tree after I colored it with some green Copic markers.

 Here is the Dynamic Duos combo.

Plus the great retro sketch.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Flowers and Letters

Can I say YUM!!!!

 I just got an alphabet die set by Memory Box from Simon Says Stamp.  The letters are all in one piece so I wanted to cut them from the black cardstock that way. I soon discovered though that two of the letters were upside down so they would fit better so I did cut them to arrange them correctly.  I quickly put my new die into use with the Tuesday Trigger and the inspiration piece at Simon Says Stamp challenge.

 Everyone is using the negative of cut out letters these days so I needed to get in on that great looking technique.  I just placed colored cardstock behind the letters using a wonderful color combination piece.  Since the inspiration piece used white also, I just didn't put any cardstock behind the letters for "hi", giving me a title for my card.

 Here is that adorable inspiration piece. I want to just print this out and frame it, that kitty cat is so gorgeous.

 And, here is the Tuesday Trigger. I kept with the black of the typewriter with all of the black cardstock that I used on my card and then I thought the colored behind the cut out letters looked like the colored typewriter keys.

 And, I used the Colour Q combination for this card.  I pulled out a set by Hero Arts that includes stamps and matching dies. These sets are my new most favorite, it is so easy to cut out the image with these.

 I used the score board to score the lines on the white cardstock that makes my grid. The embossed card base is Core'dinations cardstock. I used some great new stamp pads by Clearsnap for the flowers.

 Here is the Colour Q combination.
And for a couple photos...

 This is our youngest grandson and our two doggies. He isn't supposed to feed them his snacks but he just can't help himself and they know he is an easy prey.  They are waiting for him to drop anything!

This is his way of feeding them and pretending he didn't mean tooooo!!! We do have to laugh!

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)