Big Hugs

Starting a card by playing with Distress Stains is my favorite. 

 This card base started out with some red and pink Distress Stain then I used a leave design stencil to add some of that leave design with Distress Stain and then with white embossing paste.  Using the stencil helps it fit the Simon Says Flickr challenge.  This provided the ground work for the elements I then added.  

 The wreath was stamped and then cut out with a matching die.  The words "big hugs" and the "thanks" were then cut out from black cardstock.  All of these dies are from Simon Says Stamp.  

Here is the Card Concept challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

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)

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)

A smear of color with Watercolor

It's no secret, my favorite inks to reach for are anything and everything Distress from Ranger.

 This might be one of the most simple ways to use the mini Distress Stamp pads to create a background.  I added a few different colors of the inks to an acrylic block, gave that a spritz of color and ran the block downward on a piece of watercolor paper.  The inks slightly run, creating a place to add other stamps and elements.     

 I then just stamped a leaf sprig on this pre-prepared background and added soft colors to that.  I used used a little bit of water and a little bit of added color with Copic markers. The leaf sprig is a stamp from Altenew and the sentiment is from a set of stamps by Simon Says Stamp.

 The layout for the card goes along with the Freshly Made sketch.

 Casology's challenge for this week is watercolor.

Plus this fits the Addicted to Stamps and More Photo Inspiration challenge.
This also fits the Simon Says Stamp flickr challenge of Emboss it.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Its Royal in Purple

I don't often create using purples but I'd say that was a good choice for this card.

 I also wanted to use the CAS(e) this sketch.  I started out with an adorable little stamp from Stamps by Judith.  To go along with the sketch, I added a strip of paper colored with purple Distress Stain and a die cut word from Simon Says Stamp.   

 Once the image was stamped with white ink and embossed with white embossing powder, I just kept adding different colors of Distress Stain, mixed with spritzes of water on watercolor paper. The white embossed image acts as a resist to the inks.  The butterfly is a stamp from Clearly Besotted.  This also fits the Simon Says Flickr Challenge. 

This is the CAS(e) this sketch.

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