AAA Cards Starry Night Challenge

 I was able to pick the theme for this weeks AAA Cards challenge and I think the banner turned out so cute.  I wanted stars but not necessarily patriotic although that is what I am thinking as we just celebrated the Fourth of July. 

 I created my background with Distress Stains on watercolor paper.  I used blue, red and white just because those colors go so nicely with stars.  Plus my sentiment by Tim Holtz has the word Sparkle in it so again not really patriotic and one about celebrating. 

The white dots were created with a Copic white ink in a little bottle.  My stars were punched and I ended up creating a little banner with them by sewing them together.  The dots on the stars were created by Liquid Pearls.  

My card also fits the Addicted to CAS Patriotic challenge although it doesn't have a specific Patriotic theme.  

Be sure to join us at AAA Cards.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

The embossing paste journey

I love to experiment and to just sit and play with my crafting supplies.  I always learn so much, sometimes failures, most of the time victories.  

 I picked up some Crackle embossing paste and so I wanted to see how I could use it. I started out with the matte black embossing paste and a stencil.  It looks bad here so I wanted to be sure to show you that fun step!

 In removing the stencil, it is almost breathtaking the beauty that is unveiled.  This was left to dry. It could even be left just like this too.

I put the stencil back in place and gave my leaves a coat of the Crackle embossing paste.  That goes on white and the cracks are revealed as it dries.  I then took some Worn Lipstick Distress Stain and started adding color over the entire surface.  Again, I left this to dry. The color here is a little bit too orange from the real color.

 Here is the finished card.  I thought it ended up being a fun mix of colors and techniques.

 The fancy circles pieces are cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities with an vellum kind of paper.  The amazing black leaves are a Waltzing Mouse stamp and the label sentiment stamp is from Altenew.  The color combination was to go along with the Colour Me challenge but that has ended.  

 The card fits the Simon Says Emboss IT challenge.

And the Addicted to CAS Celebrate challenge.
And for a photo...

This is a new plant to our yard this summer, it just opened it firsts "flower".  Kind of odd but actually pretty artistic.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Distress Stains

Oh how I love Distress Stains! There is so much that can be created with them.  

 For this card, I simply used the color combination at Colour Q.  They are so pretty and springy.  

 I took three colors of Distress Stain and made "splats" of stain on my paper.  I think that look is just so much fun and pretty much unpredictable.  The butterfly is cut from paper that I also colored with that yellow Distress Stain.  The die cut words are new to me from a set by Die-Versions. 

Here is the Colour Q combination.

My card also fits the "three" challenge at CAS-ual Fridays.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Is it winter?

Well, we do not ever get snowflakes here in my city, but I sure love to use them when it comes to creating winter themed cards, so I pulled out a few for these two cards that I want to share.

 First off, I am playing with the Seize the Sketch challenge along with the CASology "Black" challenge. 

 I pulled out an adorable My Favorite Things stamp to use as my center piece.  I kind of consider this coloring method a type of "cheating" or a "less is more" look.  I keep the coloring to a minimum and mostly just outline the image with a gray Copic marker.  I also used limited bits of turquoise.  I think he turned out adorable. 

 Here is the Seize the Sketch challenge. 

 And the CASology challenge although I just found out I am too late to link to that. 

 Now for the Freshly Made sketch. 

 I just got this die cut word "Joy" from PaperTrey, Inc and I so wanted to use it.  I thought it fit the sketch nicely with snowflakes as accents.  I did coat the smaller snowflake with Distress Rock Candy although you can't really see it in the picture. 

Here is the Freshly Made sketch.

And for a few fun photos...

 Our youngest grandson picked a Minion for his Halloween costume.  He became quite the clown when I asked for some pics!!!

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Love and a Big snowflake

This first card kind of ended up by accident!!!

 What I mean about that is that I was sitting at my desk and I keep bits of this and that around, things that didn't fit what I was using them for.  I picked up the little strip of border punched white cardstock and added the paper tape to that.  Then I picked up the golden yellow die cut word, "love", and thought that would work just right with these two. 

 I had just picked up this embossing plate on my last Michaels visit so I needed to try that out too.  I finished with the black heart.  That is a wooden heart, colored with a Copic marker and then coated with Glossy Accents.  I loved how it also fit with the CAS(e) this Sketch.

 Here is the CAS(e) this Sketch.
And this is for the Simon Says Anything Goes Challenge.

 For this card I wanted to use the retro sketch.  This big snowflake seemed like a great starting point.  The blue strip of cardstock is sprayed with a white spray ink.

 I love using Distress Stains so I picked up two colors and applied both of them to the stamp.  These stains have a dauber top so this is so easy.  I spritzed the stamp with water so the colors would run a little bit, then stamped it. 

Here is the retro sketch.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Chevron love

Both of the cards I wanted to share today have a chevron kind of design.  I love that look.

 First off, I wanted to play along with the 10 minute craft dash.  The color combination is so cool.  I was really able to create this little goodie in just under the 10 minute deadline! I can't believe I could do that but let me tell you, when you are on a time limit you sure can't sit around and try to make decision's!!! You just grab stuff.

The process -

1.  I picked out the Hero Arts stamp and the three colors of Distress Stain. START!

2.  The three colors of the Distress Stain were applied to the stamp and then spritzed with water.

3.  I stamped this on the white cardstock and cut this out to size.

4.  I punched the leaf sprig and added that and the two flowers to the card.

5.  I picked up the set of Heidi Swapp epoxy words that were on my desk and used one of the words for my sentiment.

6.  I took a bottle of red Clearsnap spray ink, took out the sprayer and flicked some of the red ink on my card.

7.  DONE!!!

 Here is a close up of the neat way the colors mixed.

 The 10 Minute Craft Dash

 For this card, I wanted to use the Seize the Sketch challenge.  I turned the sketch on it's side for my card. 

 The sentiment is from a stamp set I just purchased from Verve stamps.  I love sentiments like this that are meant to encourage a friend.  The leaves I stamped on here are from Paper Source and then I accented the tap with some punched leaves, the same punch as on the first card.

 Here is the Seize the Sketch challenge.
And for a photo...

I was watering some of my plants this week and just had to share how pretty this guy is.  It just keeps going with those wonderful blooms.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Happy Blessings

In order to use a couple sketch challenges, I created two cards, one "Blessings" and the other "Happy". 

 First off, I wanted to play along with the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge with their great sketch.  I so love this notebook paper die so I used that as the foundation of my card and the main piece that follows the sketch. 

 This is actually a tiny card.  After I cut the die piece, I took a Distress Stamp pad and "stamped" that directly to the paper, giving me a square piece of color.  I also gave this a small spritz of water that made some of the color run.  I cut out the leaf from a piece of cardstock after I added some color to that paper with a few colors of Distress Stain.  I coated the leaf with some Distress Rock Candy.  I tried to turn the card so you could see a little bit of the sparkle.

 Here is the Paper Smooches Sparks sketch.

 For my "Happy" card, I used the retro sketch.  I picked up some new papers from Echo Park.  It is always fun to use papers that coordinate. 

 I love the little grouping of accents in the corner.

Here is the retro sketch.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Can we talk about PINK!

Now pink is not my favorite color, in fact I will most often avoid it but I just have to pull out my pink papers now and then for a project or two. 

 The first great reason to use some variations of pink is the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger.  The photo for that is further down in this post, tell me you don't want a piece of this goodness! It was fun to try for the hombre look for my card.

 All I did was to pick out a nice combination of pink cardstock, cut them in strips to cover my card front and then I punched out these flower shapes in the same colors, adding on buttons of the same colors too.

 The Tuesday Trigger - YUMMMMMM!

 Now since we are talking about the color pink, I also wanted to share this card.  I used was using a stencil and some Stephanie Barnard Clearsnap spray ink.  I had sprayed the pink color to decorate a piece of white cardstock and as usual, the stencil was then covered with ink.  I always hate to waste any of the ink so I turned the stencil over and placed it on another piece of white cardstock.  I think I like this use of the stencil better then the first use!

I finished the card with some Hero Arts stamps. The two flowers and the ring.  Instead of coloring the big flower, I sprayed it slightly with some of the same spray inks.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)