The colors of fall

While my post today holds fall leaves and fall colors everywhere, we are actually in a heatwave here!!! We are pretty sure it is still summer.

 First up I played along with the color combination at Colour Q.  I used "FALL" as my theme since these colors fit so perfectly. 

 The sentiment piece is cut with my Cricut.  The leaf is a Tim Holtz stamp that I inked with two different colors of Distress Stain.  I applied the stain directly to the stamp. 

 This is the Colour Q combo. 

 This also fits with the Cas-ual Fridays challenge to use your own blog banner as inspiration. Since mine is a photo of some leaves that I took, I thought this fit really well.  PLUS - this fits the "leaf inspiration" challenge at Simon Says Stamp & Show. 

 Next up, my Card Positioning Systems card for this week.

 Again, I used a set of leaves from Tim Holtz.  The set comes with larger leaves and smaller ones.  This card uses the smaller ones, again inked with Distress Stains applied directly to the stamps.

Here is the CPS sketch.  This card also fits the same Cas-ual Fridays challenge and the same Simon Says Stamp & Show challenge.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Comfort - Pull up a chair and get your coffee cup

Some fun projects to share...

 I used this amazing chair stamp by Gourmet Stamps and the color combination at The Play Date Cafe.  The little red square border is a die from My Favorite Things. I cut extras of these and they are sitting on my desk. I seem to be reaching for them for so many projects!

 The sentiment is also from Gourmet Stamps. I love this little combination.

 Isn't this The Play Date Cafe combo amazing! I want to use it over and over.

 Now for my card for Card Positioning Systems blog with My Favorite Things as our sponsor. 

 The girl stamp and the hexagons shapes are die from My Favorite Things.

Here is the CPS sketch.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Balloons, Flowers and Squares

I love sharing new creations.

First up, the card I created to go along with the Card Positioning Systems sketch.  My Favorite Things is our sponsor for the month and so I used this adorable little girl stamp. 

 

While I love coloring in these images, I also love the "less is more" idea of leaving her mostly black and white.  I outlined the black stamped image with a very light blue and added some lines to the balloon for a plaid look. 

This is the CPS sketch.

And, since I love using color challenges, this card is for The Play Date Cafe challenge. 

I am in love with this die from My Favorite Things stamps so it seemed like a great way to use the soft and wonderful colors in the combo. 

Here is The Play Date Cafe combo. 

 Now for my last card, I used another sketch from the past at Freshly Made sketches. 

 The flowers are a stamp from Verve, colored with Copic markers.

 This is the Freshly Made sketch I used.  (Not sure how I did this again, but I missed the cut off for adding this the FM web site)

And for some photos...

 One grandson is playing football and this one is playing soccer this season, so that is where we were on Saturday.  Let me tell you, he keeps up quite the pace.  You get tired just watching him.

 

Can you see that I caught both of his feet off of the ground! Pretty cool.

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

 

Some Stamping Time

Time to play...

 Weekends tend to be rather busy with all kinds of activities, but I still love to find crafting time.  I so wanted to play with this wonderful The Play Date Cafe color combination.  It ended up being a simple bit of this and that.

 All of the really dark colored pieces are a navy blue, they look rather black in the photos.  The sentiment is a stamp by Ali Edwards and the other stamps are by Hero Arts.

 Here is The Play Date Cafe combo.

 And, I want to share my Card Positioning Systems card for this week. Once in a while a sketch becomes an instant favorite and this is one of those.

 I was sitting, playing with a set of stamps from Wplus9 Designs and this was one of the little combinations I came up with.  Cutting it in a circle and using it for this sketch was just right. I accented it with a bit of Liquid Pearls and the white cardstock is embossed with my Cuttlebug.

 Here is that great CPS sketch, you should try it.
And for a couple photos...

 Part of our busy weekend included being at one of our grandson's football game. He has to be the best looking football player ever.  I would say he is cute but don't tell him that!  He might be getting too old for those words.

 He is #42, right there in front. I loved how seriously he took his responsibilities as being part of the team.

 Here is one action shot.

This big smile has to do with a great game, 30-1, his teams favor!
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Not just for Christmas

A color combination that we associate with Christmas is red and green but I love using it for other occasions.  The Dynamic Duo combination for this week helped me put this card together along with a new Page Maps card map. 

 I pulled out some Paper Smooches stamps for my card.

 What is funny is this border piece is a "happy accident".  Plus, when I finished it I really didn't like it so I walked away from my desk. When I came back later, I was pretty sure it was going to work for my card.  After I stamped the border twice and embossed the black, I sprayed the piece with a green and a pink/red spray. That wasn't the colors I really wanted so I picked up two different Distress Stains and dotted it here and there with those colors.  After it dried, I really liked how it used the colors. 

 I used a PaperTrey, Inc label die for my label. I colored the piece of paper that I cut it from by placing a red Stephanie Barnard ColorBox stamp pad directly on the paper and then cut out the die. I love that color of red.

 Here is the great Dynamic Duos color combination.

 Here is the Page Maps sketch that I used.

 This card uses the Card Positioning Systems sketch.  Our sponsor is My Favorite Things. Not only do I love their stamps but I want more and more of the really neat die shapes.  I started out using the Dynamic Duos combo for this card but it just seemed that I needed to add that blue color to go along with the blue stripes in the patterned paper. 

 The die set that I used is two part.  It cuts the border with the squares cut out and then it cuts the plain border. These actually can be added together but I liked them separate.

 Here is the CPS sketch.
And for some fun photos...

 We went to the beach the other night, two of my grandkids and their mom. It was so much fun to capture some great photos of them playing together.

 Several times I managed to capture some amazing reflections in the water on the sand.

We went just before sunset.  This is looking down the beach, loved the black and white look in the photo even though I took it in color. 

Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)

Stamped images

I wanted to share a couple cards with you today.

 

 I used stamp images to create my cards.  First off, some great medallions from Wplus9 Designs. I love "doily" style images.  I used the simple color combination challenge at The Play Date Cafe for my card.

 What is fun is that I really could have made this card any color after I stamped the two shapes of the medallions. I did emboss the images with clear embossing powder.  That makes the image stable for using water, etc.  I used a watercolor crayon and scribbled that in the middle of the images and then used a water brush to finish the look.  I then sprayed the entire card with Shimmerz Paintz Coloringz.  It was the exact color to work with the color challenge.

 Here is The Play Date Cafe combo.

 Next up, my Card Positioning Systems card for this week.  All month long our sponsor has been The Stamps of Life and my main focus was her great hexagon stamp set.  The sentiment and the second sentiment are from another set by her.

 I just love the different patterns she has for her hexagons and I used one of Stephanie Barnards Colorbox stamp pads too. 

Here is the CPS sketch we are working with.
Thanks for visiting, Linda (lbpost)