Just Us Girls Celebration

I love any and all online challenges and so a huge treat for me is to be the Guest Designer at Just Us Girls.

 What is even more fun about this challenge is that it is their 300th Challenge and there's a big party with prizes.  Not sure how it can get it any more fun. Be sure to check out the Just Us Girls blog so you can see all of the Design Teams cards and all about the prizes and the amazing companies offering the prizes. 

 The theme is Congratulations so my here is my card.

 I figured one of the best things for a party is Ice Cream with a cherry on top.  To help me create that I went to my brand new Reverse Confetti dies.  I cut two scoops and even gave them some dots of red with a stencil and some Distress Stain.  Be sure to check out this super cute set of dies.

The doily die is from Spellbinders and take a good look at that yummy gold stencil design with embossing paste.  The congrats is a die from PaperTrey, Inc. and I coated it with Glossy Accents.

Thanks for visiting and be sure to play along with the Just Us Girls party challenge.

Linda Beeson

It's Thanksgiving and time to Make Christmas cards

I love when it's time to pull out my Christmas and Holiday stamps. 

 My first card goes pretty much way outside-the-box for Holiday colors but I did want to use the Colour Q challenge.  I kind of like my little Toy Soldier in these interesting colors and who uses orange snowflakes!!!

 I wanted a simple background to go with him so I simply sprayed some spritzes of water on a piece of watercolor paper and ran matching Distress Stains across the card.  I always love how they run and mingle.  That great sentiment is from a set by Simon Says Stamp, the Toy Soldier is a stamp from Tim Holtz, the tiny snowflakes are from Stampendous.  

Here is the Colour Q combo.

 My next card fits Thanksgiving, a holiday that is closer then I want to think.  How on earth does time fly?  I am stretching things a bit but I am adding it to the CAS-ology challenge to use a FLAG. My banner is a flag shape!  That is a shape I love used on cards but I don't often think to use it.

That amazing, ornate piece is a die by Spellbinders.  It is pretty much hard to believe that one die can cut something so pretty.  The leaf is from Hero Arts.  

Here is the CAS-ology challenge.

This also fits the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge for "thanks".
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)

AAA Cards challenge - Shaker cards

The AAA Cards challenge for this week is to create a shaker style card.

 This is so not a technique that I usually try, but can I say I had fun! Hope you will play along too. Plus there is a very nice prize available.

 For my card, I went with a brand new set of dies from Spellbinders.  When I saw these cute clouds and the sun dies, I knew I had to have them.  Not to mention there is a piece that allows you to emboss a design or not.  The sentiment is from Printworks.

 I knew that a cut out cloud would be the perfect start to my shaker card.  I only wish I had put more little sequins in it, but that is part of the learning as you go kind of thing.

 Notice that I also just embossed one of the clouds with the little pattern piece in it.  

And for a photo...

We visited a park this week with the best Koi pond.  I could take tons of pictures of these beauties.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Paint and Stencils

I love experimenting and so my card for today is a result of some of that and it fits the Freshly Made sketch. 

 I took plain white craft paint and with my finger, spread that over a dot stencil on white cardstock.  I left that to thoroughly dry and then colored it with some Distress Stains.  I also spritzed it with water because I was using watercolor paper and the water helps the inks to blend. The paint acted as a resist to the red color.  I just needed to take a clean cloth and wipe off the excess color. 

 That neat pointed circle is a Spellbinders die, see the added embossed line and the sentiment is from Printworks.  

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

AAA Cards challenge

It's time for a new AAA Cards challenge

 This weeks challenge is to create a card using the inspiration card.  I started out with some paper or Washi tape for my card. The inspiration card has a band of color across the card and I love using paper tape so this made for a quick start.

 I cut out my flower using a Spellbinders die to go along with the flower on the inspiration piece. A die cut and a stamp for my sentiment, both from Paper Smooches. 

Here is the AAA Cards challenge.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Pretty Black Flowers

My card today uses the CAS(e) this Sketch for the design.

 I played with some stamps and matching dies for the flowers.  They are both from Heartfelt Creations.  The pretty frames are die cuts from Spellbinders Nestabilities.

 I stamped the flowers with white ink on black cardstock and then cut out the various layers of the flowers.  Having the matching die shapes for the stamps is so fun and these flowers are pretty easy to form. 

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

Flowers and Coffee Cups

I have some new supplies and it is so fun to pull them out and give them a try so I used the CAS(e) this Sketch for my inspiration.

 I just got this really cool Spellbinders Nestabilities set in the mail and that amazing "thanks" die along with the flower stamp.  I just knew that flower shaped die would fit the sketch so perfectly.

 The banner die and the "thanks" die are both from Paper Smooches.  I love this set of banner dies so much that I cut several banners out of white cardstock so they would be right at my finger tips whenever I think they will fit on a project!! I colored the flowers with Copic markers and sprayed the entire piece with yellow Stephanie Barnard Spray inks by Clearsnap after doing the coloring.

 Here is the CAS(e) this sketch.

 My second card uses all kinds of Paper Smooches stamps.  I love coffee related stamps so I think this set is so much fun.  I am submitting this to the Paper Smooches Guest designer search.

The dot border stamp is also from Paper Smooches. I love the look of the white dots. After stamping it and embossing it with white embossing powder, I sprayed a few different colors of Stephanie Barnard Spray inks over them.  The embossing acted as a resist and the spray colors show off the white so nicely.  I stamped the coffee cup three times in three different colors of ink on watercolor paper and then used a watercolor brush on the images.  The use of the water gave the inks a watercolor look.  This also fits the CAS-UAL Fridays challenge of Polka Dots.

Here is the CAS-UAL Fridays challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Lacey goodness

Since I just received this great flower die cut in the mail, I of course needed to put it to use.

 I decided to pair it with this wonderful, lacey piece.  Both dies are from Spellbinders.  I had sprayed this piece with a wonderful purple spray using a Stephanie Barnard Spray from Clearsnap.  I made sure that the spray was focused on the one side, leaving some white space on the other side. 

I didn't want to leave the card base plain white so I used a "writing" stencil and some light brown ink. I used some white Liquid Pearls to give the finishing touch.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Sweet little bugs

I just received this new adorable little stamp set from Taylored Expressions and of course, had to put it to use.

 I am in love with the trend of "jars" and these little bugs that come in this set are the perfect match for a Valentine's day card.  I wanted to use the Dynamic Duos color combination this week and that fit my theme perfectly plus I used the CAS-ual Fridays challenge for Long and Short. I cut some of the papers shorter to place on top of the longer background paper so I thought that fit the theme.

 The jar stamp has a matching die too, not to mention the really cute sentiments in the set.  The pretty circle shape is my favorite Spellbinders Nestablities die! My Mind's Eye papers from a mini pad.

 Here is the Dynamic Duos challenge.

And the CAS-ual Fridays challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

One die - two ways

I picked up a new shape die.  It is from Spellbinders and it is so cool.

 Of course, I needed to play with it so I made it fit in with a few challenges.  First off, the retro sketch.  LOVE this sketch!

 This die is a two step die. One piece cuts the shape and the other piece cuts the doily design.  Here I didn't cut the doily design, I embossed it.  I used a little bit of a rub of brown stamp pad ink to help the details show off a bit.

 Here is the retro sketch that was my inspiration.

 Next off, this card uses the Dynamic Duos color combination and the Freshly Made sketch. 

 I embossed the silver paper for the card and the die shape is cut with the same die using a mirror finish placemat.  I was hoping that the die would cut the plastic and it wouldn't but how cool is the design that was cut into the plastic?  I had to hand cut the outside of the die along the lines that it did cut.

 Here is the Dynamic Duos color combo.

And the Freshly Made sketch.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)