Follow Your Bliss…

I’d like to wish all of you a very Happy Mother’s Day! I just got home from brunch at the Biltmore Estate. It was delicious.

I created this card for my Mom, using the Lizzie Anne set, “In the Meadow”. It’s paired with some Basic Grey Sugared patterned paper, and features the “poppin’ pastels” technique.

I love the vintage feel of these two patterns, and used that as my inspiration for the card. I used several colors of SU! pastels for the flower: pretty in pink, regal rose, caramel, moss, olive. It’s also heavily sponged with Ranger Distress ink in antique linen, and vintage photo. Cardbase is one of my new favorite colors, Prism frosted azalea.

I didn’t have a button that perfectly matched, so I airbrushed a celery colored button with my YG95 Copic marker. Yet another fabulous use for that awesome tool! I stamped “mom” on a piece of scrap, then covered it with a page pebble, and trimmed. This word is from Lizzie’s “Just Words 2″ set. The sentiment is also from Lizzie Anne: “Au Naturale”.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

TGIF!! As usual, I am SO GLAD it’s Friday! My favorite day of the week.

A few days ago, I shared a very simple card, using this daisy from Lizzie Anne’s In the Meadow set. I created this card at the same time, but gave it a totally different look.

I’d been wanting to use more of my Basic Grey Sultry paper, so I flipped through the pad to see what inspired me. I LOVE this larger floral print, so I used that as my inspiration. The cardbase is Prism intense kiwi cardstock which had been run through my Wizard with the long rectangle Spellbinders Nestability die. I placed it on the edge of the cardfront to give the scalloped edge.

The focal image is on cryogen white cardstock, colored with my Copic markers: RV11, RV17, RV34, YG03, W2,W3. I added Lizzie Anne’s Say it in Script sentiment, Paris Dew Drops, and a lotta’ Stickles to the flower centers. The inside of the card is lined with the solid bright pink paper from the Sultry pad, that had been stamped with the solid flowers from the Lizzie set in Adirondack raspberry ink. A large “no tie” bow in this divine May Arts ribbon with some frayed ends finishes off the design. This is a standard A2 sized card (4 1/4 x 5 1/2)

So what do you think? This will be going to my Aunt, so I hope she likes it! Have a fabulous day, and thanks for visiting!

Hello!

I was chatting with Lindsey the other day, and she mentioned she was having a challenge with her new Design Team. The challenge was to use pink, green and gray for a Thank You card. It’s been awhile since I participated in a challenge, so I accepted!

When SU! came out with this basic gray cardstock and charbon (is that the right name?) patterned paper, I just HAD to have it. Hmmmm…let’s see that was about 10 months ago?? This is my first time using it! *eyes rolling* Can you relate? LOL! I paired it with Neenah classic cream, and Prism frosted azalea.

I just love this Far East set from Lizzie Anne! I stamped the branch in Adirondack slate ink, then stamped the tiny flowers in Adirondack raspberry ink. I cut and embossed this with the new Spellbinders long rectangle Nestability die, and matted it with the azalea scalloped panel. I still needed to add my green element, so I chose to stamp the lantern in Adirondack meadow ink, trim it out, and cover it with Ranger glossy accents.

The sentiment is embossed with detail white embossing powder, and the tiny flowers have lime green Stickles in the centers.

Thanks for a fun challenge, Lindsey!! If you all would like to play along, upload your card in the Jacksonbelle member forum on Splitcoast HERE!

Sometimes, I just feel like a clean design. Most of the time, I have an aversion to “wide open spaces”, though. I think it’s because I enjoy backgrounder stamps and patterned paper so much. This design is about as “clean” as they come. Hope you like it!

I’ve completed 4 designs today using this “In the Meadow” set from Lizzie Anne Designs. I absolutely adore this daisy image! It’s stamped on shimmery cryogen white cardstock, then colored with my Copics. I used B00 for the sky, Y17 and Y38 for the daisy center, YG17 for the stem, B21 for some highlights on the white petals, and W2 for shading. It’s matted with Prism black cardstock.

The “pennant” style sentiment adds a fun element to the design, by stapling it to the focal image with a single black making memories staple. I adhered this to the Prism sunflowers medium cardbase on foam dimensional tape.

I was going through several of my square making memories rhinestone brads, trying to decide on the “right” color. I had 4 choices: yellow, blue, green, and clear. I went back and forth with them for what seemed like an eternity! I finally settled on the pale green. I like how it ties in with the tiny bit of green in the flower stem.

I removed the prongs from the brads, and simply adhered the square jewels with mini glue dots. I didn’t want the prongs of the brads to show inside of the card. A final touch of Stickles on the flower petals complete the design.

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

Happy Monday! (lol)

I have one more design to share with you, using the Lizzie Anne Designs set In the Treetop. This card, like my previous two, also uses a paint brochure as color inspiration.

I just love these rich colors, and thought they would work well with the trees! Nothing fancy here, other than a little bit of stitching with green thread for the ground, and a border across the top. I added the sentiment as a “pennant” with some chocolate brown gingham ribbon. The trees are stamped on poison ivory cardstock, which gives a lovely shimmer!

Hope you like this simple card, today. Have a good week!

Ink: Adirondack cranberry, stream, butterscotch, espresso. Cardstock: Prism intense teal, sunflowers dark, arjo wiggings poison ivory.

Hello!

I’m so glad that many of you enjoyed yesterday’s post using paint brochures! I have another design today using a different brochure and the same Lizzie Anne Designs In the Treetop set.

Birthday Balloons

While I know blue and yellow are common colors to pair together, I rarely do it. This brochure reminded me of a birthday celebration for some reason? So, I thought it would be perfect to use for my “tree balloons”. I know what you’re thinking. Tree balloons? Has Trudee lost it? LOL! Well when I first saw this shape in this LAD set, I said “Hey! that looks like a balloon!” Apparently, I wasn’t the only one, because my good friend Michele posted a card with the same idea! I must have been having a good day, because I never think on the same lines as Michele. (she’s brilliant, ya know!!!)

The cardbase is Prism cielo blue, stamped with the So Swirly set in Adirondack sailboat blue ink. The swirls reminded me of party streamers! I stamped 3 “balloons” (Adirondack sunshine yellow and sailboat blue) on shimmery cryogen white cardstock, cut them out, and added dots with my Signo white gel pen.

I knew this was going to be a fairly simple card, so I wanted to add a couple of elements to kick it up a notch. I decided to use some wire for the balloon strings, which is simply taped to the back. I adhered them on pop-up glue dots to a panel of Prism papaya medium cardstock. The center balloon is popped up slightly higher.

To finish off the design, I added the sentiment from LAD’s set Shapes and Stitches across the bottom, and tied the balloons together with some SU! white taffeta ribbon. Lastly, I curled the wire ends to tie in with the swirly background.

Are you inspired by this brochure? What does it make you think of? How about a challenge? Use this brochure as your inspiration, and upload your card to SCS for me to see! Use the Keyword FYBIS02 for your upload! I can’t wait to see what you do!

Have a great day!!

Hoorayyyyyyyyyyy for Friday!

I have 3 cards to share with you in the next couple days, all of which use today’s favorite: paint brochures!

Yep, it’s true. I am absolutely in love with paint brochures. I think they are such great inspiration pieces! As you know, I love color and unique color combinations. I’m always on the lookout for fresh combinations, which is how I first came across using these brochures. I was in Lowe’s one day and one of them caught my eye. I ended up walking out with about 15 different different ones! LOL! I have quite a collection in my stamping space, and use them often. Best of all…they are FREE! WOO HOO!

Here’s a design I created this weekend using Lizzie Anne Designs In the Treetop stamp set.

This is why I love the brochures. I would NEVER in a million years have chosen these colors together! But they are so fresh and funky, I just love them with this stamp set! I used Prism cardstock: frosted kiwi, intense kiwi, frosted teal. Also cryogen white. Adirondack inks are: espresso, pool, citrus, meadow, lemonade.

It’s a rather simple design, so I won’t bore you with the details. Some items of note: I created some more grass under the tree (I would say I’m addicted to grass, but I don’t want you to take that the wrong way! BWAHAHAHAHA!!! ) I used some fun May Arts ribbon from StarLitStudio’s store, a couple of yellow Primas, and silver hardware from the new SU! silver hardware kit. Here’s a pic of the card closeup:

If you have a hard time combining colors, I encourage you to hop on over to your local Lowe’s, Home Depot, Sears, or any paint counter and check out the brochures! I think you will really like what you find! Check out a couple of other times I’ve used these as inspiration: HERE (Challenge on SCS), HERE (blog entry for the challenge), & HERE!

ENABLER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lindsey has the NEW Basic Grey in stock in her store!!! RUN!!! Check it out —>HERE!!

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

…No Spring skips it’s turn. Isn’t that a beautiful sentiment? My sweet friend Lori suggested it for the Lizzie Anne Designs Say it in Script stamp set, and I’m glad she did! This sentiment was the inspiration for this card, which also features the LAD set In the Treetop.

Spring Bling Tree

When I was digging through my patterned paper this weekend, I came across my Basic Grey Blush 6×6 pad, which is one of my top faves. With the idea in mind to use this sentiment and the “naked” tree, I chose this striped pattern with the tiny flowers. I thought it would work well with the tiny Sping blossoms (Heidi Swapp bling) on my tree.

My tree is stamped on cryogen white cardstock in Adirondack espresso ink. I sponged the edges with Adirondack aqua ink, and added some “grass” with the solid aqua colored paper from the 6×6 pad. I seem to be addicted to making grass, LOL! It’s matted with the solid dark brown paper from the pad, too.

The challenge was how to add the sentiment? I wanted it to be crisp white, so I chose to add an acetate layer over my Prism perfect baby pink cardbase. The sentiment is embossed with detail white embossing powder. I machine stitched the acetate to the card, then added the tree on dimensional foam. A couple of pink eyelets and pale aqua grosgrain ribbon from Anna’s store complete the design.

Wishing you a beautiful Spring day!

While teaching at the Copic booth at CHA, I met a lovely lady named Sandra “Sam” Wilkinson. She represents a Canadian company called GCS ArtStamps. (their site is under construction, so if you’d like a catalog, email her stamphanatic@gcsartstamps.com and tell her you saw the stamp on my blog.) She was kind enough to give me a stamp, and I told her I’d be happy to use it!

This stamp image, called Flower Collage, was drawn by the president of the company. I colored it with my Copic markers: Y00, Y15, Y17 R11, R14, R27, YG23, YG63, then mounted it on a piece of glossy black cardstock for a little “pop”.

I used my Ornare piercing template to add some visual interest at the base of the card, and also at the top corner. The sentiment is from Lizzie Anne Designs: Sketched Sentiments. After adding the May Arts ribbon and Prima hydrangea, I adhered the panel to the Prism intense kiwi cardbase, then added Stickles all around the image.

Thanks so much for the stamp, Sam! I had fun coloring it.

Here’s my last design using Lizzie Anne Designs Dreaming of Dots!

I used some of my very favorite Tres Jolie paper from My Minds Eye, and for the cardbase, I used Valley Forge Parchment in scroll tan. Inks used were Adirondack espresso, hazelnut, juniper, and shell pink.

I knew I wanted this flower on a tag, so I rummaged through my Spellbinders dies, and found this one from the Variety tags set, which was a perfect fit! Love it when that happens! LOL! I stamped and cut out another flower, added the bling brad, added ribbon to the tag, and attached the flower on a pop-up glue dot. Hmmmm so what else was I gonna do? I couldn’t come up with anything, and it was about 1am, so I set it aside and went to bed. Woke up the next morning and thought, “Oh! a flowerpot!” So, off I went to figure out how I was going to do that.

As I was looking through the different patterns of paper, my eye caught a glimpse of a flowerpot shape in the dots. Don’t ask me how I saw a flowerpot shape in dotted patterned paper–I just did, LOL! I trimmed the paper around the dots to make the flowerpot shape, then added some May Arts velvet rickrack across the top. (from Lindsey’s store which will be opening SOON!) I sponged the edges, stamped the circle of dots inside the dots on the paper, and machine stitched to the floral pattern.

So, what do you think?