Follow Your Bliss…

Awwwwwwwwww

We received the good news that Sue (jsbrooketrout on SCS) gave birth to a precious baby girl yesterday! How exciting!

This was all the reason I needed to bust out my new Tres Jolie paper from My Mind’s Eye. You see…Michele, Julia, and Lindsey have been using it for weeks, and I could not resist the temptation any longer! This paper is out of this world fantastic. It’s heavy weight, and textured. And the colors….oh my goodness the COLORS!! It’s bliss I tell ya

I trimmed the smaller floral pattern with cloud decorative scissors, then inked the edges in creamy brown ColorBox fluid chalk ink. I adhered it to the panel of larger floral paper, then inked all the edges and machine stitched using caramel thread.

I cut the polka dot circle using my coluzzle template, then trimmed off the right side, inked the edges, and machine zigzag stitched it to the main panel. Then I adhered this entire stitched panel to the close to cocoa card base.

Using chestnut roan ColorBox fluid chalk ink, I stamped the Hero Arts giraffe on the polka dot circle, and also on a piece of PaperTrey’s Stampers’ Select white cardstock. I watercolored him using pink pastel ColorBox fluid chalk ink. I simply pressed the ink pad on to some plastic, and picked up the ink with my aquapainter. These three ColorBox inks are the perfect match to the 3 papers I used!

I cut the giraffe out, and fringed his little mane with my papersnips. Then, I adhered him on top of the stamped giraffe on the polka dot panel using dimensionals. I made his spots sparkly with my stardust gel pen, stamped the sentiment using snap stamps, then added a little knot of ribbon as the finishing touch.

Welcome to the world little LeeAnne!

Paper: darling polka dot, mother floral, sisters flowers (tres jolie-my mind’s eye), cocoa, papertrey white

Ink: chestnut roan, creamy brown, pink pastel

Stamps: hero arts giraffe, karen foster snap stamps

Accessories: sewing machine, caramel thread, dimensionals, aqaupainter, papersnips, stardust gel pen, circle coluzzle template, orchid grosgrain ribbon

Today is a somber day. My heart is heavy for my friend Julia.

This Hero Arts stamp spoke to me as I looked for an image to make a card for her. Julia loves flowers, and by the looks of her garden, so did her Mom.

It was stamped on a large, Fabriano Medioevalis card (4 1/2″ x 6 3/4″) using Palette noir ink. Then I watercoloerd it using all of the new, SU! colors: pomegranate, guava, wasabi, blue bayou, soft sky, and a touch of the soon to be retired marigold. Stickles add a bit of subtle sparkle.

I sponged marigold around the upper two thirds of the card, drew in a bit of grounding, then sponged that with a mixture of river rock and sahara sand. A PaperTrey sentiment conveys the perfect message.

Hugs and prayers for you, my friend.

As promised, here’s my next giveaway! I am approaching 50,000 hits, and thought we should celebrate! We’re going to do that in two ways.

These first two Treats up for grabs are for one of my lucky subscribers! Do you subscribe to my blog by email? If not, it’s not too late! You’ll double your chances of winning! Click on the green and yellow Feedburner box over in the right sidebar just below the Stamping Top 50 to subscribe!

One lucky winner will receive 12 sheets (6×6) of the GORGEOUS, NEW SU! Brocade double sided designer paper, and two unmounted stamp sets: Too Terrific Tags, and Alphabet Soup!

The second Treat is for everyone! Just leave a comment on this post entry and ask me a question! I will save your questions and answer them in the next several weeks The lucky winner from this drawing will receive an assortment of punched scallop circles, squares, rectangles, and ovals! Plus two unmounted stamp sets: Best Blossoms, and Gently Falling.

Only one question/entry per person, please!

The two lucky winners will be chosen at 9:30 pm Eastern time on Tuesday June 19th!

I will also be adding some other random goodies to these packages…things like Primas, Ribbon, embellishments, etc and of course a thank-you card from me

Can’t wait to read all your questions! Have a great weekend!! Hugs~

Happy Friday!

Thank you all so very much for your posts about my PaperTrey contest win! I am still positively giddy about it! Thank you for sharing in my happiness

Today’s favorites are coming from my garden again. I have a few flowers in bloom that I just *love* and photographed on Monday. I wanted to share them with you. I hope you don’t mind?

These are some beautiful red Asiatic Lilies. They are so vibrant, I just adore them! I wish they lasted longer, but each bloom only lasts a few days, then another one will pop open.I guess they bloom for a couple weeks all total.

This one is my dwarf Reblooming Daylily. I positively adore Daylilies, especialy these dwarf rebloomers. They stay rather tidy (about 12-20 inches) and don’t get all wild and leggy like the regular Daylily. In addition, it blooms for a few months: June, July and the beginning of August! I have several different colors. This one is called “Pardon Me” and is a cranberry/wine color. I love the ruffled petals!

And here is one of my very favorite flowers…the Black-eyed Susan (Rudibeckia Goldsturm). Here is the very first bloom of the season. It was tucked down, way under the leaves, as if peeking out to say “Hello? Is it time for me yet?” These flowers are so easy to care for, and they bloom all summer long through September. I have them right next to my Echinacea (purple coneflower). When they are both in full bloom together, my heart sings! Oh how I love them…

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of some of my favorite flowers in bloom this week! I will be sharing more throughout the summer as they appear in the garden.

Come on back tomorrow…there just may be a little “Treat” for you to see!

OMG!!! Can you hear me squealing with delight?! Can you see me dancing and twirling around like a fool?! LOL!

My Little Lady Flowers card (click for tutorial) was chosen for PaperTrey’s Guest Star Stamper!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I am **SO** excited!!! Thanks Nichole, for your fabulous stamps and your awesome contest!! I cannot wait to get your newest set in the mail!!

Bonjour!

I am filling in for Julia today, and hostessing the Ways to Use It challenge on SCS! My challenge is to use flourishes! Click on the link, and come on over and join us! Everyone is welcome! If you don’t want to post your card on SCS, post a link to your blog for me here so I can see!! Check out Michele’s card, too!! It’s hilarious!! LOL!!

I got this new Brocade designer paper from SU! and could not wait to use it! I love this River Rock color. It’s so soothing!

The river rock card base measures 5 1/4″ square. I used a salad plate to cut the curve from the lower right side of the olive designer paper, then adhered it to the river rock patterned paper. I stamped the flourishes (from carte postale) along the curve in artichoke craft ink, then heat embossed with olive embossing powder. The sentiment was also stamped with artichoke craft, and heat set to dry.

I dug through my stash of Primas, and found an exact match to river rock! They are from the Deep Woods collection. I attached them to the patterned paper using the anywhere hole punch and antique brass snaps.

I mounted this entire panel to the river rock card base, then I added 3 curly “vines” to the lower right Prima. I created these using a tiny shaving of river rock cardstock from my fabulous new Tonic trimmer (same as the SU! one but wayyyyy cheaper!). Then I wrapped them around the end of my embossing stylus to create the curl. They are attached under the petals using a mini glue dot! They showed us that little trick at SU! convention last year.

PS: Craft Critique has an “organization carnival” going on right now! Check it out HERE if you need some ideas!! How cool that they linked my ribbon storage!! Thanks, Craft Critique!

Thanks for visiting! Have a great day!!

I couldn’t wait to use my *new* SU! colors! They arrived Monday night, and I had other things to do, so last night I pulled them out and got inky!! I am head over heels in *love* with Pomegranate. I knew I would be.

This card is for this week’s Sketch Challenge on SCS. I thought it would be perfect to showcase several of the colors, and also showcase my fabulous Stampendous Poppy Trio stamp! Please click on that link if you need instructions on how to create the layout.

I began by stamping my image on watercolor paper using Memories black ink. Then I watercolored it using guava for the poppy centers, pomegranate, and wasabi. I shadowed the image using soft sky, and added a touch of banana for some yellow sunlight. I just freehand watercolored the blades of grass. I sponged a bit of soft sky around the edges. Then, I used my quickie glue pen, and dotted some glue on the flower centers, and added some black flocking to simulate the true look of a poppy. I tapped off the excess, added some stickles around the blooms and stems, then set aside to dry.

Next, I chose my background stamps. I wanted something mellow that would enhance the poppies and not take away from them. I chose my CHF paisley backgrounder for the pomegranate, and SU! floral for soft sky. I cut the panels as described in the sketch challenge thread, and mounted them to a piece of wasabi cardstock. Then, I attached that entire panel to a PaperTrey white card base. This is a standard A2 card with the fold across the top, “tent” style.

By that time, my focal image was dry, so I matted it with black for some “pop” and added 2 silver brads to the top corners using my mat pack for perfect spacing.

I was trying to decide on a sentiment and where to put it. I thought a strip of vellum would be soft enough to not take away from the poppies, so I stamped the PaperTrey sentiment on the vellum, then wrapped it around the panel. I still felt like it needed “something”, so I machine stitched it to the panel using a narrow zig zag stitch. Finally, I mounted it to the cardfront on dimensionals and called it done!

Thanks for stopping by! Make today a great day!

This week’s Featured Stamper on SCS is Sarah Vrolyk (”seewah” on SCS). I have long admired Sarah’s clean style, as well as her kind, generous spirit. As I was looking through her gallery, I found THIS CARD and knew that was the one I would CASE!

I am not good at CASEing, LOL. It took me forevah to do. I had to keep looking at her card to get the layout right, then I had to figure out what I wanted to change. I decided to use a variety of papers from Daisy D’s “Gypsy Harvest” line. I first fell in love with this paper last summer. The colors are so warm and rich!

I stamped the LizzieAnne Designs flower on PaperTrey white cardstock, then watercolored it using saffron, summer sun, and mustard inks. The center is watercolored with cocoa and chocolate chip. I cut out the flower, then highlighted it with yellow stickles, and set it aside.

I chose the rich, brown paper for the main panel, then machine stitched the cardboard looking paper on top. Using Sarah’s card as a guide, I zig zag stitched the green panel on the right hand side, then attached all of this to the saffron card base.

I found this purple scalloped die cut in the kit, and thought it would add a nice “pop” factor, so I added the coppery colored May Arts ribbon, then adhered it to the green panel on dimensionals.

To finish it off, I sponged some summer sun at the ends of the petals of the flower, then attached it to the card using a pop-up glue dot. Lastly, I stamped the PaperTrey sentiment using Colorbox Fluid Chalk dark brown ink.(I *adore* this color!!)

Thanks, Sarah, for the wonderful inspiration!!! Hugs, girlfriend!!

Gosh it’s good to be back in blog land! Sorry for the unexpected down time. Splitcoast had a crash on Saturday, so not only did it affect their site, but our blogs as well! YIKES!

I used the down time wisely and did something that I have needed to do for MONTHS—I sorted my ribbon!! Here’s what it looked like before I began organizing:

UGH!! I cringe when I look at that, LOL! It was stored in overflowing Sterilite containers. Dozens upon dozens of little clear plastic bags, no sense of organization at all. Just strewn about in there, LOL! (I feel like I am at confession, LOL!!)

So, rewind to last week, I was surfing the net and saw that Joann’s had these Cropper Hopper 3×3 drawers and the 3×3 ribbon cards on sale. I thought that would be perfect for me! They arrived on Thursday, and I was really looking forward to getting organized. Here’s what I bought:

I love how they stack together so neatly! The ribbon cards have a “grip-teeth design” across the center that holds ribbon securely in place. Then, I just used a straight pin to secure the other end after I was finished wrapping it. Here’s what it looks like now!

I am going to buy 3 more drawers, because I need to still do my blacks, browns, and white ribbons. The orange drawer also has yellows, as I don’t have a lot of those 2 colors. There’s still plenty of room in that drawer

Here’s what the drawers look like on the inside:

Hope you enjoyed checking out my new storage! I absolutely *love* it, now!!

I think it’s about time for another Trudee Treats giveaway, SOON, don’t you? Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Well hello there!

The 4 of us thought it was time to do another Take Two, since we had so much fun last week! This time we loosened it up a bit, as it was becoming more difficult to find the *same* stamp set that we all had. Our challenge was to use a stamp set from Lizzie Anne Designs, and paper by Cosmo Cricket! Be sure to head on over to Lindsey, Michele, and Julia’s blogs to see what they came up with for our challenge!! I can’t wait to see them, too!!

I just love these Lizzie Anne stamps! They are beautiful, unmounted, deeply etched red rubber that is mounted on cling foam. They come in a CD case for super easy storage. The set that I used is called Jolies Fleurs. (French for ‘Pretty Flowers’) It’s a gorgeous set, and also has paisleys!! I am going to get a lot of mileage from this set

I stamped the large flower on the Cosmo Cricket Love Notes paper with versamark ink, then embossed it with copper embossing powder, and cut it out. I machine stitched a square of the Love Notes patterned paper on to a 5″ square of copper cardstock. I found this die-cut frame in with the paper pack, and thought it would be fun to use. I used it as a guide for placement, and stamped the 3 swirls in versamark ink, then embossed in copper.

I stamped the sentiment across the top, using Palette burnt umber ink, then highlighted it with the clear sakura glaze pen. Then, I tied this gorgeous May Arts mauve ribbon across the side. It has gold edges, but it really looks great with the copper accents! I mounted all of this on to a PaperTrey white card base.

To finish it off, I attached the frame on dimensionals, added a copper brad to the flower center, then attached that with a pop-up glue dot. As a final touch of bling, I added little dots of copper stickles inside the tiny squares of the patterned paper.

I hope you like my version of our challenge!! Have a great day today!!!

Stamps: jolies fleurs, wonderful words

Ink: versamark, pallete burnt umber

Paper: papertrey white, brushed copper, cosmo cricket love notes

Accessories: sewing machine, caramel thread, copper stickles, sakura glaze pen, dimensionals, pop up glue dot, copper brad, may arts ribbon