Follow Your Bliss…

Have you heard the news?! It’s true. I’m back! Sorta. HAHA!!

Well, let’s put it this way…*I* am most certainly back. My *muse*, however, might still be on vacation. With that in mind, I beg you…be kind as she finds her way back to me, okay? YAY!!

A lot of things have happened in the past few months. The most major of those things being that I’ve been laid off from the bank. Don’t panic, it’s gonna be okay.  I know that things happen in our lives for a reason. I dunno what the reason is yet, so I’m just walking on this path for awhile to see where it leads.

I spoke with Lindsey last week, and she invited me to join her team of fabulous designers! I’m very excited, and also a little nervous to get back up on this horse. I hope that you will welcome me back into your creative lives, and find inspiration here once again. So, with that, I present to you my debut design for Jacksonbelle Embellishments!

I really enjoyed working with this sketch. Having been out of the loop for so long, I was very thankful to have a layout provided to me!  This design features patterned paper from October Afternoon (Fruit Stand & Patio Umbrella). I just love the fresh color palette on these papers! The cardbase is Intense Teal, by Prism.

As I was searching through my very neglected stamping supplies, I came across this Stampendous butterfly stamp. I thought it would work nicely with the floral pattern of the Fruit Stand paper.  The image was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Cryogen White cardstock, and colored with Copic markers (BG11, BG13, BG09). I trimmed it out, and added Stardust Stickles to the flowers on the wings. Ahhhhhh…Stickles. Hello, you beautiful, sparkly bottle of happiness! Oh, how I’ve missed you…

The butterfly is mounted on dimensionals to the black, scalloped oval (Spellbinders). The “Hi” sentiment is a rub-on from Basic Grey, and the small flower bling in the center of the butterfly is by Hero Arts. A bit of wire for the butterfly antennae, and some May Arts ribbon complete the design.

Be sure to stop by the other DT gals’ blogs and see what they’ve done with this fun sketch!

If you’re uploading to SCS, it’s JBE063. Don’t forget…ALL Inkadinkado is on sale this week 25% off at Jacksonbelle!!!

Thanks for visiting! Hope to see you all again very soon. I’ve missed you all!! *HUGS*

Wow, another week has come and gone, and Friday is upon us again! I am thrilled that we have a long weekend here in the US, as I have quite a bit of designing to do! Tomorrow is World Cardmaking Day, and I will be spending it with some stamping friends doing what else?? Making cards of course!

Stampendous stamps have been a favorite of mine for many months. I love the wide variety of styles…from cute and whimsical, to bold and sophisticated, you are sure to find something you like from their line of high quality stamps! Not only do they offer wood mounted rubber, they also offer clear acrylic sets as well! Stampendous is celebrating 25 years in the business, which tells me that they must be doing something right! I have several designs here on my blog using their images, so just scroll down on the left sidebar and click on their name under “Categories“. You’ll see what I mean about variety!

My favorite is their wood mounted stamps. The blocks are high quality maple, with a clear label. The rubber is gray, deeply etched, and gives an excellent impression with any type of ink. (pigment, dye, hybrid, chalk, etc.)

This particular image is new, from their Pixel and Pookie line. I am totally in LOVE with these little elves! Not only are they totally adorable, but my nickname with several of my friends is “Pookie”, so needless to say, I had to have them ALL! LOL! This is Pixel. I am also in LOVE with Max the Mouse, and Ollie & Olivia. You can see all of their new stamps HERE. Some of my other favorites lines are Scenic Serenity, Flower Garden, Bee Happy, and Butterflies. As you can see, I have a long list of favorites!

I purchase my Stampendous stamps from Addicted to Rubber Stamps. They have a huge selection, and many times they are on sale. Anna also has a few on sale in her shop HERE.

This is a simple card using sweet little Pixel! She is stamped in Adirondack pitch black ink on shimmery cryogen white cardstock, trimmed as a tag, and colored with the following Copic markers:

I chose these colors, because I was dyin’ to use this new K&Co Marcella line of Christmas paper from Target. It’s so fun and retro, and I thought it would work great with my friend Pixel. I machine stitched it to a Begonia Memory Box notecard, and highlighted some of the circles with my Copic Spica glitter pens. I also used the Spica to highlight the tree.

I doodled around the tag, and added a bit of ground under Pixel with my Copic Multiliner .3 pen. I double matted the tag, added the sentiment with Karen Foster Snap Stamps, and adhered it to the cardfront on dimensionals. To finish it off, I added the celery colored button with a snip of May Arts black gingham, and added Stickles to the star of the tree and all the “fur” on Pixel’s outfit.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend!!

Well we are at it again! Michele, Lindsey, Julia and I have decided on Daisy D’s paper and Stampendous stamps for this challenge! I love both of these companies!! Be sure to click on their names to check out what they have done with the challenge!

This Daisy D’s Attic Heirloom swatch double sided paper is so yummy and vintage shabby! Click on that link and head on over to Lindsey’s store–it’s on sale, and practically free!!! I used two of the patterns, and tore the green side for a more distressed look. I sponged all the edges with Ranger vintage photo ink to really bring out the depth.

I colored the Agapanthus stamp using markers: garden green, lilac, eggplant and cocoa. Then I misted the stamp with water and stamped it on vellum cardstock. I then over stamped that with the linen bg stamp using creamy caramel ink, and sponged all of the edges again with vintage photo ink. That is by far my favorite ink to use for distressing. I love the warm reddish brown hue that it has.

I attached the focal image to the main panel by machine stitching some small, random zigzag stitches around the sides with brown thread. Then, I added some faux stitching at each corner for a little more interest.

I stamped the PaperTrey sentiment on another piece of the patterned paper using Ancient Page chocolate ink, then punched it out with the small oval, and sponged the edges again. I mounted this inside of the aged copper hardware label holder, then ran the May Arts ribbon through. I put 2 pop-up glue dots on the back side, adhered to the card, then tied the ribbon.

Finally, I mounted all of this to a chocolate chip “tent style” cardfront.

I hope you enjoyed our challenge this week!

I have a special day coming up next week, and I am going to celebrate it with you!! Be sure you keep checking back, as there will be some fabulous “Treats” involved!!

I wanted to use my other Stampendous “Scenic” stamp this morning, so out came the lavender!

This is a very simple, clean card allowing the focus again, to be on the image. It’s watercolored on PaperTrey white cardstock using wasabi, garden green, marigold, lilac, ruby red, cocoa, choc chip, soft sky, and bashful. I cut it out following the shape of the image, and layered it with pop-up glue dots on to a piece of marigold cardstock that was first wet, then scrunched up, and dried with my heat tool. The edges are slightly sponged, as well.

That piece is then matted with wasabi, and black. The sentiment is stamped to the side with Clearsnap Ancient Page coal black ink (same as the focal image). I love this ink!! A gorgeous rich, deep, waterproof and archival black ink!

Next comes the fun. I custom dyed my SU! white grograin ribbon using my Copic Marker! Since these markers are alcohol based, they can be used on so many surfaces, including fabric! I used Grass Green (YG17) which is nearly identical to wasabi.

Here’s how I did it…

FABULOUS!!!!!

The ribbon becomes slightly stiffer, when dry. No messy re-inkers needed, and no green fingers, since it dries so quickly! I love these Copics. They are so amazingly versatile! I can’t wait to use them in more interesting ways. Ellen Hutson will be carrying them soon in her store, in packs of 12, 24 and 48!
Feel free to link this on your blog if you would like to share it with your readers!

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

I didn’t know where I wanted to go with this card, but here is the final destination, LOL! I had the image colored, the layout planned, and didn’t know what else to do!

So when I can’t think, I fall back on my old standby…background stamps and sponging.

The “Scenic Sunflowers” are watercolored on watercolor paper using several inks: marigold, celery, wasabi, garden green, ruby red, soft sky, bashful, choc chip, and cocoa. I stamped flannel plaid on the marigold card base using marigold ink. Then, I sponged all around everything with Ranger vintage photo ink.

I wanted to keep it simple, and let the image be the spotlight. So, I just added three chocolate knotted ribbons, a PaperTrey sentiment with some piercing, and faux stitching around the focal image. Wallah~ done!

Hope you are all having a great weekend! Thank you for stopping by!

Stamps: scenic sunflowers (stampendous), flannel plaid, faux ribbons (papertrey)

Ink: marigold, celery, wasabi, garden green, ruby red, soft sky, bashful, choc chip, cocoa, ranger vintage photo, palette burnt umber

Paper: watercolor, marigold

Accessories: sponge, aquapainter, mat pack, pop-up glue dots, sm. corner rounder

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!

Hello!

I made this card for Beate’s weekend challenge at her blog! I thought this sketch would work perfectly with my new Stampendous “Fresh Bloom” stamp!

In person, those Prima Hydrangeas are the same color as the coral bloom. Stinkin’ camera, LOL!

The image was stamped on watercolor paper using Palette noir ink, then watercolored using markers and ink from the lid of the pad. I used summer sun, cameo coral, and chocolate chip. I wanted these colors to really *pop* so I chose ballet blue for the card base, and stamped it with the Paisley bg stamp. Since the card measures 5×5, and is larger than the bg stamp, I stamped the top section, then the bottom section; leaving a gap where they meet. This is fine, because I knew I’d be covering it with the saffron panel.

The saffron polka dot panel is from the pallette o’prints pack of paper. (wow thasa lotta p’s LOL!) I added the little “friend” tab to it first, by punching it out of a piece of white scrap using the designer label punch. Then, I machine stitched it to the cardfront.

I dug through my stash of Primas and found these yummy peachy/coral hydrangeas. I attached them with rhinestone brads, following the layout of the given sketch.

Finally, I cut out my bloom, ran the coral marker around the raw white edges, adhered to the cardfront on pop-up glue dots, and added some Stickles.

Thanks for the fun sketch, Beate! I loved it

Hope you all have a great day today!! Bye for now!!

Stamps: paisley, fancy flex phr, fresh bloom (stampendous)

Ink: ballet blue, summer sun, cameo coral, choc chip, palette noir

Paper: watercolor, ballet, saffron palette o’prints, papertrey white

Accessories: aquapainter, primas, rhinestone brads, stickles, sewing machine, white thread, designer label punch, papersnips, pop-up glue dots