Belted Kingfisher

Belted Kingfisher

Friday, December 30, 2011

Girls just wanna have fun

Happy Friday! Normally this would be a Bellariffic challenge day, but we are taking a break over the holidays, and will resume on Jan 13th. But... I still have a card to share with you.

With New Years Eve just around the corner, I thought this image would fit it perfectly.  Two young gals out celebrating the new year.  This is Victoria and Juliette's Night Out - from the Uptown Girl series.


I started by stamping the girls on bella's bestest paper.  Skin tones were coloured using Copics and all the rest was coloured using prismacolour pencils and blended with gamsol.  I then trimmed the image down to 5 x 3 1/4, then layered this onto a piece of eggplant c/s.  The designer paper is from MME - 6x6, A Beautiful Life. Nice thing about the Uptown Girl stamps is that they come with their own sentiment. I stamped the sentiment on some white c/s then cut it out using a s/binder tag die, left the die in place, sponged some versamagic aloe vera inside the die area.

Finishing touches - stitching, lots of glitter, glossy accents on the wine glasses, and a tiny chiffon bow.
Card measures 5 x 7.

If you would like a head start on our first 2012 challenge I have attached the sketch for you to get a head start on. Same rules apply, just email Emily your card by Jan 12/12. 

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.  May 2012 bring you lots of love, happiness and good health.
See you next year!!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Happy "Bee" Day

I'm sure many of you are still off work for your Christmas Holidays, but this gal is back to work.
While I was off for a few days, I did manage to get a couple of cards made - which I"m happy about.

One of the images I coloured up was a Huggabugg.  This cutie is called BEEday Huggabugg, which happens to be a Christy Croll image by Stamping Bella.



I stamped her on bella's bestest paper and coloured her using Copics and pencils for shading.
Designer paper is by We R Memory Keepers, and I used Kraft c/s for my card base.  After cutting her out with a circle spellbinder die I sponged some versamagic persimmon around the image while the die was in place. I then cut out a lacey circle to layer the image on.  I also used this sentiment and used a  spellbinder tag to cut it out.
Finished off with some stitching, glitter (glitter ritz), seam binding ribbon and twine.

I'll be back on Friday with an Uptown Girl card to share with you.  See you then!

Monday, December 26, 2011

Special Day

Happy Boxing Day! Did everyone have a good Christmas? Did Santa bring you what you wanted?
Well today marks a special day in my calendar - it's my Birthday!!! Yep, I'm 52 yrs young!

So in celebration of that, I made myself a card to post for you today.  I've had this image for quite a while now and never got the chance to colour her up.  Here we have Sneaky Sneaky birthday bella.


Sneaky bella was stamped on bella's bestest paper and then I coloured her using pencils and copics.
Designer papers are by Basic Grey - Lemonade.  I used a border punch by Martha Steward and a MFT die to cut out a frame for happy birthday.  Finished off with some stitching, glitter, pink pearls and ribbon.

So what are my plans for the rest of the day??? Absolutely nothing!! Although since Santa was very good to me this year and brought me a MAC (OMG I'm in love with it!)- I need to learn how to navigate this new system  - so think I will play around with that today.

Well thanks for stopping by today, and enjoy the rest of the day.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas Eve with Charlotte

First of all I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and may 2012 bring you much peace, joy and love.

I was a busy gal today, getting some last minute gifts (gift cards - gotta love them!) came home cleaned the house,had a glass of wine, made dinner, and then worked on this card I'm about to show you.

I thought it was time to colour up some of my neglected Ketto's.  Charlotte is one of my favourite Ketto's, right up there with Anise and Ivy. 



I stamped Charlotte on bella's bestest paper and used my prismacolour pencils to colour her up. Used a skinny oval die to cut her out, left the die in place and sponged some versamagic sea breeze around her.  The layer underneath her was cut from a spellbinder die called twisted metal tags and accents.  DP is from Basic Grey called Indie Bloom. I wanted to keep this fairly simple, so I added a small pink prima flower and punched a couple of leaves using a Martha Stewart leaf punch.

Finished off with some stitching, pearls and glitter.

Well that's it for me for tonight.  I'll be back at the beginning of the week.

Merry Christmas to all!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

On the pot...

Hi! I can't believe that it is Wednesday night already.  I'm working overtime this week again, which is making the week fly.  I have one more day of work this week and then off for 5 days - can't wait! I hope to get some colouring done while I'm off, and just do some relaxing.

Tonight I coloured up a darling image from Stamping Bella.  This is a Mo image  called On the Pot girl - she is so cute!


I stamped her on bella's bestest white and then coloured her using Copics, and then did my shading with prismacolour pencils.  I think I'm getting the hang of doing hair!  DP is by October Afternoon - Sidewalks.  You know me and my dies and border punches, well I saw this one a month or so ago and just had to have it. It's from Cheery Lynn Dies. So pretty isn't it?
Finished off with some stitching and buttons.

Sorry I couldn't link up anything from my post to Stamping Bella, but her site must be down for a bit.

Well, best be heading to bed, 5:30 comes early!  Thanks for stopping in.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Peeptini

Hi! Last night I watched the season finale of Dexter! OMG do any of you watch this series?  It was quite the cliffhanger, sad part is not sure if Micheal C Hall (Dexter) has renewed his contract.  I sure hope he does!

I thought I would share something other than Christmas cards with you today.
I still might do up a few more cards over the next couple of weeks, just to get a jump start on next years.  I figured if I did one card a week next year,  I would have more than enough.

My card today is using a Peep image called Peeptini!  Aren't these Peeps adorable?


I used bella's bestest paper for my image and coloured using prismacolour pencils.  Designer paper is from MME - Stella Rose - Hazel papers. The doily was cut using a Cheery Lynn Die. This stamp also comes with a sentiment -"here's to you" which I used.  I stamped it using black versafine then cut it out with a tag from s/binders.  Finishing touches: glitter, stitching and a bow.

Thanks for stopping by.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Last challenge of the year

Hi everyone!  So glad it's friday, it's been a busy week, working lots of overtime at work because of year end.  I still have a couple more Christmas cards to get out in the mail as well.

Yes this is our last Bellariffic friday challenge for 2011.  We have lots of great ideas for 2012 challenges as well.  This weeks challenge was a sketch done by Robinbella! Love this layout.  I pulled out another new image I have yet to colour up, and this one is called - cupcake with a holly on top.


Wasn't quite sure what colour I was suppose to colour the balls on the cupcake, so I just went for it.  Eveything was coloured with prismacolour pencils on bella's bestest paper.  For the small gold balls I used my gold krylon pen.  DP is by Echo Park - Season's Greetings.

Finished it off with some glossy accents on the red berries, and added glitter to the green balls.  You can see along the bottom of the cupcake all that sparkle (well I hope you can see it, don't know how well the camera picked it up) anyway it is diamond dust- it's finely ground glass - love this stuff, need to use it more.
I also added a die cut holly branch under the image.

Don't forget if you didn't get a chance to participate in this weeks challenge, you can still hop over to bloggabella and leave a comment.  Emily is giving away bonus bella bucks this week.

Our next friday challenge begins on Jan13/2012 and for those who would like to get a head start over the holidays I have posted below the sketch for you.



Thanks for coming by today, have a great weekend!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Harriet

Hey, how are you all doing?  I'm back tonight  with a quick post, still have Christmas cards to get done and out in the mail. 

I'm using one of Stamping Bella's images, which I don't think I have every coloured one of these before.  I have several, but for some reason just don't know why I haven't gotten around to colouring them.  So here we have Harriet!





Harriet was stamped on Bella's bestest paper and then coloured with Copics.  The shading around her was done with pencils.
Urban Prairie by Basic Grey was my inspiration for the colours I used.
After she was all cut out and layered onto the card, she looked to plain.  I tried ribbon, na didn't do anything for it, tried baubles, nope couldn't even see them in the pattern paper, so next I reached for my Prima flowers.  I hope this one isn't too big and overpowering her.  Then I punched out some leaves using a Martha Stewart leaf punch. Finished off with some stitching and glitter, oh and a little bling in the center of the flower in her hair!

In case you haven't heard Emily is giving you a chance to win triple bella bucks this week- that's $60 SMACKEROOS, as Emily put it!!  All you have to do is follow this weeks challenge guide - which is a sketch layout- and submit to Emily by thursday night.  Your name will go into a draw, and who knows you could be the lucky winner - don't have a chance unless you play, so what are you waiting for!!

See you on friday... I better get movin' I don't have my card done yet- yikes!!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Spit Happens

Hi everyone! Hope you had a good weekend! Can you believe that it is only 2 weeks till Christmas?  And I'm still making Christmas cards to mail out. 

I thought I would change things up a bit and share something other than a Christmas card with you.  A good friend of mine, her daughter had a baby boy a couple of weeks ago, so needed a baby card to send off to her.  I'm using a new image - well new to me - it was released back in August by Stamping Bella.
Today's image is called Spit Happens by Mo Manning in rubber.



As the routine goes, I started by stamping the image on bella's bestest paper and then coloured using Copics and did the shading with pencils. Designer paper is by My Minds Eye - Alphabet Soup.  What I also like about the Mo images is that most come with a sentiment.  Now not always do I use them, but this time around I did. The sentiment was a bit big for where I wanted it to go, so just cut the words to make it fit better. Finished the card with some stitching.

This friday is our last bellariffic challenge for this year, so hope you will play along.  It is a sketch challenge.  Email Emily your card by thursday night.
Thanks for visiting today, have a good one!

Friday, December 9, 2011

White card challenge

How are your Christmas card making going?  I still have a few to make, but I have completed my card orders, which I am very happy about.  I think I will continue to work on Christmas cards until the end of the year, then whatever I don't send out I will have towards next year's orders.

I was excited about this weeks challenge - All white card - because there is just something about an all white card - the clean crisp look of it, lots of white open space that I love.

So for my card today I'm using another Christmas image (are you surprised??) lol. I pulled out Holly in jar. Although I did colour this image last year, I thought the simplicity of the image would look great on an all white background especially with the red berries. So without further ado here it is:


After stamping it on bella's bestest paper, I coloured it with Copics.  Cut it out using a square s/binder die, then layered in onto another piece of white which was cut out using the fleur de lis s/binder die.  This is similar to my card I posted on Tuesday.  Finished off with white liquid pearls, glitter and some tiny pearls.

Be sure to hop over to Bloggabella to check out all the other gorgeous entries - lots of inspiration to be seen.  While there leave a comment for a chance to win some bella bucks and Emily is doubling up on the bella bucks this week, so you have a chance to win $20 instead of $10!!

For our challenge next week, we have another great sketch designed by another talented babe - Robinbella. We love to see you join us next week, for our last challenge of 2011, so be sure to email Emily your card by thursday night.   There will be some bella bucks up for grabs, and  Emily is doubling up the anti - she is giving away $40 instead of $20 - pretty cool eh?   Here is your sketch for next week:

Have a wonderful weekend, and thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Simple and Elegant

I'm back today with another Christmas card to share with you.  Now this one you can definitely mass produce.  I actually did up this card before going to work this morning.  Woke up with a vision of how I wanted to do it, and low and behold it actually turned out the way I visioned!! (bonus)!


I started by stamping minty wreath on some cream cardstock and embossing it with gold embossing powder.  I then cut it out using a square s/binder die, layered this onto a piece of gold miri paper.  I then popped this up onto a piece of cream cardstock that was cut using the fleur de lise s/binder die and the adhered this to my card base.  Added some gold glitter to the dots around the wreath, and then finished off with a simple gold shiffon bow.

Pretty simple eh, see I told you it was a fast card.  White/silver would be very pretty  as well.

Don't forget about our challenge this friday, you still have time to submit your card to Emily.  Theme is ' all white card', so everything is white except your image.  You can email Emily your card by thursday night to be included in the draw for some bella bucks.

Until next time....

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Another Snowman

How was everyone's weekend? I did manage to get my card order completed and mailed away and then my sister asked for 5 cards, so still have those to do.  Tonight I finished cutting papers for my card class on wednesday - another thing checked off my list! :).

I did manage to squeeze in a card tonight as well- and it's another snowman image.  I just have a thing for snowman.  I'm using a Krista Schneider image called snowman circle,  from Stamping Bella.


 I stamped the snowman on bella's bestest paper and colour with copics and shaded with pencils.  I matched up my colouring with some papers from Echo Park.  This card seems to have a masculine side to it - which is okay, I'm sure I can find a home for it.

Finished size is 5 1/4 x 5 1/4. Supplies used - bella's bestest white , echo park - winter park, grey and red c/s, s/binder dies, glitter, stitching and some grey seam binding ribbon.

Just want to mention as well that our challenge this friday is an All White Card- the only thing that should have colour is the image, everything else is white.  Hope you can play along then email Emily your card by thursday night.

Okay better wrap this up, Dexter is just about to start (gosh I love that show!). See you soon with another card....


Friday, December 2, 2011

An old fashion christmas tree

Hey, it's Friday and you know what that means  - well 2 things, it's a bellariffic challenge day and also the weekend - woohoo!! Do you have any plans for the weekend? my plans are to finish my last Christmas card order - 8 more to go, and then I need to make my own to send out, but I don't send very many so that's good.

Today's challenge was make a Holiday card.  After seeing Linda and Cath colour up this image a few weeks ago, I knew I needed to colour this image.  This is one of the newest images in the Uptown Girl collections called - Uptown Girl's Christmas Tree.



This image reminds me of a very old fashioned tree, and I wanted to keep it somewhat vintage looking.  After I coloured the image I sponged some antique linen around the edges then a bit of brushed corduroy to give it that antique look. It's hard to see in the picture but I did some soft shading around the tree in a pale sage  then a bit of ginger root.

My card measures 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 - products used - bella's bestest white paper, prismacolour pencils and gamsol, clear glaze pen,  glitter (lots of glitter), gold ribbon, Memory Box Paper - Mistletoe, confetti red and river rock card stock.

Hop over to Bloggabella to see what the other babes and sistah's have to show you this week - and while there leave a comment for a chance to win some bella bucks!

Next weeks challenge is an ALL WHITE CARD (except for your image). So please play along with us and email Emily your card by thursday night.

That wraps it up for this week.  Enjoy your weekend whatever you are up to.
Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, November 28, 2011

CPS Card Challenge


Hi everyone!  Well today I get to showcase a card I did for this weeks CPS challenge.  Being that Stamping Bella is the sponsor for this week, I pulled out another new stamp of mine to colour up.  I'm using one of the Uptown Girls - Madison has a margarita!




I stamped Madison on bella's bestest paper and used my prismacolour pencils to colour her. The designer paper is Basic Grey - Origins. The sketch did not have a place for a sentiment but I wanted to use the sentiment that comes with the stamp, so I stamped it using black versafine, cut it out using a s/binder label die and then sponged some antique linen white the die was in place.  Used some pop dots to adhere to the card.
Finished off with some glitter and stitching.


Thanks for dropping by, have a great day!

Friday, November 25, 2011

Free form friday

Welcome back to another Bellariffic friday challenge.  This weeks challenge is Free Form, which means you can use any Bella stamp, any layout, embellishments etc.

For my card today, I pulled out Hockeymomabella.  Now I know many of you are hockey mom's, but I wasn't one of them.  Mark never played hockey other than road hockey, he was more into soccer.  I remember going to many hockey games my brother played as we were growing up.  Dad would every year build a skating rink in our back yard and that's were my brother would practice.  Me, I would try to do the twirls and spins the figure skaters would do - lol -what fun -  oh the memories!!

Okay on with the card.


I stamped her on bella's bestest paper and coloured with prismacolour pencils.
I paired my colouring with papers from Basic Grey - Nordic Holiday. Used a MFT die for the red strip, finished off with some stitching and glitter.

Be sure to stop in over at Bloggabella, leave a comment on this weeks entries and you have a chance to win some bella bucks.

Next weeks challenge is a Holiday/Christmas card.  All you have to do is use a Bella image on your card, then email Emily by thursday night.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Felines singing

Sorry about not posting on Monday- actually I did post a card, but had to remove it until next week.  Kind of a mix up on the dates for the Bella sponsored CPS sketch, and then I didn't have anything ready, but here I am today, with another Christmas image to share with you.

Here we have two adorable cats - Singin' so Beautiful by Mo Manning.  I love cats, but they don't love me - I am highly allergic to cats!


I started by stamping on bella's bestest paper and coloured them up with prismacolour pencils.  After cutting out the cats with a large square s/binder die, I left the die in place and sponged some versamagic wheat around the image.
 Designer papers are from MME called Signature Christmas (from a few years ago!).  I added some white flock to the brim and pompom's on the hats.
Finishing touches - glitter and some ribbon.

Just a reminder to play along in this weeks bellariffic challenge - Free Form. Email Emily your card by thursday night.  Also if you would like to have a chance to win Paula's giveaway you need to submit a card and your name will go into the draw, it's that easy.  You can read about her giveaway here.

See you on friday....

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Under the Christmas Tree

HI - Happy Sunday!  Hope your enjoying your weekend so far. I have a busy day ahead of me today.  First I have Church, then we (our choir) is putting on a 'poor boys" luncheon - baked beans and weiners and fresh rolls!  This afternoon, I plan on working on my Christmas cards orders - just got another order for 12 on Friday, so I'll be a busy gal over the next few weeks.

Which leads me to this card I want to share with you today.  Now I partially CASED this card.  Once I saw it, I fell in love with it and just had to have the stamp! You will see why.....


Is this not the cutest? So I must give credit to the original card owner - and that would be Kartina - and her version of this card can be seen here.
The image is from Lilly of the Valley  .  I coloured it up by using copics and pencils.  Papers are by Jillibean Soup - Christmas Eve Chowder.  Added lots of glitter and a red/burgundy coloured bow!  And there you have it... another card done!


Thanks for stopping by today, see you tomorrow with an Uptown Girl image.

Friday, November 18, 2011

A Bellariffic sketch challenge

Hi everyone! Can you believe that it is friday already? Where do the days go? and the weekends seem to go just as fast!  I think winter is starting to arrive :(.  On my way home last night I drove through a mini blizzard - only lasted for a few minutes - but the air has really turned cold and the winds just whipping those snow flakes around.  I'm so not ready for winter to arrive - I would be content with Spring and Fall weather all year round! Okay enough complaining about the weather, it is what it is!

For this week's challenge we had a sketch to follow.  It was a great one at that - thanks to Ebru! I thought I would change things up a bit and give you a change of scenery so instead of a Christmas image I'm using one of the new green bean baby images called Jamie. I love these gbb images, and I bought them all so you will be seeing more of them!

As always, I stamped and coloured her on bella's bestest paper.  She was coloured with Copics and I did some shading and the grass with prismacolour pencils.  Don't you just love her hair???? It was my third attempt at her hair and this one turned out to be my fav! She is so adorable! My papers are from MME - Life of a party.  I used a sizzix dot embossing folder on the green c/s to give it some texture. I also added some tiny polka dots to her bows in her hair - so cute! Finished her off with some brown seam binding ribbon.

Don't forget to hop over to Bloggabella to check out everyones cards this week, I'm sure they will WOW you!  Leave a comment for a chance to win some bella bucks.

Also, Paulabella is giving away some of her favourite rubber in celebration of her birthday.  All you have to do is play along in two challenges - today's and next weeks challenge. If you play along both weeks you get two chances to win, or if you only play along one week you get one chance.  You can read all about it here.

Which brings me to next weeks challenge - it is FREE FORM - so any image (Bella that is ) , any layout, anything your heart desires - it's your choice! 

Thanks for stopping by today, have a great weekend!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Quick Christmas card

I completely forgot to do my post last night.  I had my class at Paper Pickle, and ended up having 15 ladies.  I must say it went better than I thought.  Out of the 15,  I had 4 regulars and all the rest 'newbies'. Needless to say I didn't get home until 9:40, had a cup of tea the hit the pillow! Totally exhausted!! Overall everyone's card's turned out fantastic.

So I'm posting a quick card for today, since I don't have much time before heading off to work.
Remember the cards I posted on Sunday (you can see them  here) - they were ornament cards - well I have been playing around with one of Stamping Bella's ornaments for the last few weeks, everything I tried I garbaged, but then on the weekend, it came to me, 'case' my cards that I posted on Sunday.  So that's what I did, and like the outcome!


I used Ornament with Holly for my stamp along with season's greetings for the senitment.  I used an Crafty's Too embossing folder for the background layer.
I embossed the ornament in gold and well as the senitment.

For the ornament I coloured the leaves and berries with copics, then applied a light layer of glue using my glue pen and rubbed some glitter ritz on them to give it some sparkle. Popped the ornament up on the card, and finsihed off with some gold shiffon ribbon.

Another quick and easy card ladies - great for mass producing!!

Also, I heard that Paulabella is having a giveaway!! Yep, you can read it over here on her blog.  The rules are simple - so hop over to Paula's blog and read all about it.

Have a wonderful day - see you back here on friday for our sketch challenge - do you have yours done yet? If not you still have time.  Love to see you participate!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Penguin with Gift

Happy Monday everyone!  Hope you had a good weekend.  I managed to get some colouring done - which I am happy about. 

I have another Christmas card to share with you today, and a few more yet to come. Hope you don't get bored with them.  I pulled out another Mo Manning imaged called Penguin with Gift.


He was stamped on Bella's bestest paper and then coloured up using primsacolour pencils.  The designer paper is from Basic Grey - Jovial.  As I was playing around with a layout for this image, I was undecided whether or not to sponge a colour around the penguin.  Hubs, came into my room, so I asked him.  He suggested a yellow/orange. By gosh he was right on - it's just what it needed!

To finish the card off I did some stitching, added some light aqua seam binding ribbon, glitter and some chunky glitter on the ground called diamond dust.

Don't forget about our challenge this week.  It's a sketch (you can see it on my friday's post). Love to see you play along.

I'll be back on Wednesday with another Christmas card for you.
Til then......

Sunday, November 13, 2011

White as Snow

No we don't have snow yet,( and hopefully not for a while)  but the winds out there today do sound pretty cold - haven't stepped out yet, too early and it's still dark.

There is something about all white cards that I love.  I think it's the clean, fresh, cripsness of the white that becomes striking.

I have a couple of cards to share with you today.  I used a new embossing folder I bought at Paper Pickle a  couple of weeks ago. It's by Crafts Too. Very similar to the cuttlebug embossing folders.


The ornaments I used for these cards are from Justrite stamps (which you can order from Kim at Paper Pickle) and I cut them out using the Spellbinders 2011 Heirloom Ornament dies.  After embossing the ornaments with the folder,  I layered it onto a piece of goldleaf c/s, then onto my white card base. You might have to click on the photo to get a better view of the embossing folder detail.

The ornaments were embossed with gold embossing powder.  I added a rhinestone on each of them, then finished them off with some narrow gold shiffon ribbon.
These were very fast - a great card to mass produce- which I need to make more of!

That's it for today.  If you live in the Chatham area, don't forget to stop in at the Paper Pickle for their Christmas Open house.  Lots of bargins, make and takes and if you have a sweet tooth (like I do!) well let me tell you, you are in for a real treat- lots of squares and goodies to sample.  I will be there, hope to see you there as well. It's from 12- 4.

Back tomorrow with another Christmas card!  Enjoy your day.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Holiday challenge

Yep, it's another bellariffic friday challenge and I hope you had a chance to play along with us.  Our theme this week is make a Holiday/Christmas card. With the season fast approaching hopefully this challenge will kick-start your Christmas card making if you haven't already done so.




For this weeks challenge I pulled out Jinglebella to colour up. She was stamped on bella's bestest paper and then coloured with prismacolour pencils.  Designer paper is by Basic Grey - Jovial collection. Dies used were s/binder oval, oval scallop and an ek success scroll border punch.
Finishing touches - glitter, white flock, and some red satin ribbon.

Need some inspiration? then hop over to bloggabella and check out this weeks submissions.  Be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win some bella bucks!

Next week our challenge is a sketch - woohoo!  I love sketches!  Ebruabella was the designer of this sketch - dontcha just love it! So be sure to play along - email your card to Emily by thursday night, then you have a chance to win some bella bucks! Here is your sketch-
Well that's it folks, have a wonderful weekend! Thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Mixed Media and a card

I tried something new tonight- I attended Lindabella's Mixed Media class at Paper Pickle.  I've never done this before, just don't have the imagination to pull it all together.  So with some excellent direction from Linda, I managed to do a canvas piece - it wasn't as hard as I thought.  Nice thing about it is if you don't like something you painted on your canvas, just cover it with some gesso and start over - easy as that.
So here is my masterpiece.  I'm pretty proud of this, it will hang in my little 'studio'!

Now onto my card. It's not done in my 'comfort' colours - I very seldom use yellow - well bright yellow that is.  But it's a cute card.  I coloured up snowfight - a Christy Croll image from Stamping Bella.






I coloured the image with prismacolour pencils after stamping her on bella's bestest paper. Designer paper is by Cosmo Cricket - Jolly by Golly. I used some neglected s/binder dies to cut the image out.  I used let it snow sentiment as well.

Finished off with lots of glitter, white flock on all fur trim, and some dark pink satin ribbon.

Just a reminder about our challenge this week.  It's a Holiday/Christmas card.
We would love for you to play along with us.

Thanks for stopping by,
Pauline

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Bismark

Hi All!  Hope you had a good weekend.  Weather here was gorgeous.  Temp's in the 50's and lots of sunshine.  I spent most of the weekend working on Christmas card orders - making headway so that is a good feeling.

Tonight I coloured up one of my favourite images - meet Bismark by Mo Manning available at Stamping Bella.

Bismark was stamped on Bella's bestest paper and coloured with prismacolour pencils and blended with gamsol.  Designer paper is from Cosmo Cricket - called Wonderland - I think it is about 3-4 years old!!

Finishing touches: glitter, flock (for hat) and a bow. Spellbinder die - large square. Finished card size 5 1/2 x 5 1/2.

Have you heard about the giveaway???? If not, you can read all about here over on Lindabella's blog.  Be sure to participate, you then have a chance to win $25 in Bella Bucks! You have until Friday, so what are you waiting for - hop on over!

Well, I'm out of here, need to colour up another image!

Friday, November 4, 2011

Lulu's Snowman

Happy Friday! I can't believe that it is Friday already again.  With working full time again, the days are so jammed full of lots of work to do, the days just fly by.

I was happy to see that this weeks theme was 'snow on your card' because I'm still working on Christmas card orders, and this theme fits right in.  I'm using an image I bought last year called Lulu's Snowman.  I didn't have time to colour her up in time for Christmas last year.


Well you already know that I stamped her on Bella's bestest paper, but this time I coloured with Copics - I wanted to use the Mauve Copics #RV91,95,99.
So I rummaged through some pretty papers from Memory Box and found this piece.  It's not really Christmas paper, but it has some red and green in the background along with  the mauve - perfect.  So I coloured up Lulu usng the copics and then did some shading with some pencils.  I did colour the snowman's hat with pencils - I don't know why I did, but I just did.

For my snow I added some white liquid pearls to the snow flakes falling and some glitter on the ground.  Trim on the hat, and scarf were done with white flocking.

I know you probably think the flower just doesn't fit for a Christmas card, but I could not find any ribbon I liked, and secondly the ribbon just didn't look right. So I thought maybe a flower - hmmm pulled out some Prima flowers and this one I used was just the right mauve tones on the tips of the petals.  Then punched some leaves using MS leaf punches.  I added some glitter to the flower using a quickie glue pen.

I know there are some gorjuss cards being posted over on Bloggabella, so be sure to stop over there and leave a comment - then you have a chance to win some bella bucks.

Next week our theme will be HOLIDAY WISHES.  So dust off some of those Bella chrismtas images and get the coloured up!  Email Emily by thursday night your submission.

Also, us Bellababes  would like some feed back from you gals!  We would like some suggestions on challenges you would like us to do on fridays? Whether it be a layout, colour theme, a shape card, image theme etc, we would love to hear your thoughts, so please leave us a comment as to what you would like to see in the future. Thanks!

Have a great weekend, see you on Monday!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Snowbunny

Just home from teaching tonight at Paper Pickle, and thought I best get my post written up to share with you another Christmas card.  I am on a roll now!

Today's card I'm using an older Bella image.  This one is called Snowbunnybella. I love her coat, with all that fur around the hood and cuffs, just looks so cozy and check out her boots- I think I use to have a pair like that in my younger years!


Image was stamped on bella's bestest white paper and coloured with prismacolour pencils.  I wanted to use these papers from Echo Park - Season's greetings, so to make it all work, I coloured her coat in red.

After cutting my papers, and laid out how I wanted it to look, it still lacked something.  So instead of using a border punch, I used some class-a-peel gold stickers (which I have tons of and never think to use it!) on each side of the strip paper. It's not a lot, but just enough.

Finished off with some white flock on all her fur trim, glitter and a snowflake.

Well that's it for me for tonight.  Hope you can join us on Friday with the "snow on your card" challenge. If you can, make sure you email Emily by thursday night.


See you on friday.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Joyful Village

Hey it's Monday again, which means a new start to another week.  Can you believe that this is the last day of October? I hope the weather holds up for those trick or treaters tonight, they are calling for isolated showers, so maybe we will get lucky.

I'm was in full steam ahead with working on my Christmas cards this weekend.
I coloured up Joyful Village to share with you today.


Yep, you guessed it, I coloured this on bella's bestest white using prismacolour pencils.  Designer paper is from Basic Grey called Eskimo Kisses.  This was a simple card to put together, although I just realized as I'm typing this that I forgot to add glitter to the snow on the ground! Must go do that before I forget, so just visulize that I do have snow on the ground- lol!  For the roof tops I applied some liquid appliqué then sprinkled some glitter on it while it was still wet, then took my heat gun and heated the appliqué until it puffed up a bit.

 Just a reminder for this weeks challenge - bring on the snow, not real snow, but snow on your card.  Email Emily your card by Thursday night.  Can you believe I already have my card done - I can't wait to show you!

See you on Wednesday!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Class Supplies

Hi - This is just a post for all you gals that are taking my Paper Pickle class on
Nov 1 & 15th.  Here are the list of Tombow markers and Prismacolour Pencils you will need. 

Tombows: 098, 228, 990

Prismacolour pencils - caribbean sea, light cerulean blue, peacock blue , slate grey, light aqua, cool grey 30% & 50%, limepeel, kelly green, olive green, canary yellow, yellow oranged, orange, light umber, dahila purple.

Also please bring a pair of small, sharp scissors


Thanks!

Friday, October 28, 2011

Almost forgotten post

OMG I almost forgot to write up my post.  It is Friday morning at 12:01 as I'm typing this.  I'm burning the midnight oil - trying to get liners in my cards to take out to Dresden tomorrow night to sell at my hairdressers. 

So I will keep this post short as I need to get to bed! This weeks challenge was 'bring on the stripes" - so I coloured up Bunny with gift, by Mo Manning. I just love her designs.


Well you know the routine, stamped on bella's bestest paper and coloured it up using prismacolour pencils.  Designer paper is from Basic Grey - Jovial.  Now for my stripe paper I used some coordinating papers - it looks a bit like plaid, but hey it has lines (stripes) so I went for it!

Finished off with lots of glitter, and some white flock on his hat.  Dontcha just love that bow, I love the colour!

Be sure to hop over to Bloggabella and be inspired by all the talent over there, you won't be disappointed.

Next weeks challenge is SNOW- Add snow to your card. Lets see what you come up with.  You can email Emily by thursday night to be included in the showcase on friday.

Well this chick is out of here, I hear my pillow calling me! LOL - Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Confused??

Today, I did up another Christmas card - I have about a dozen or so done, but many more to go - I best be getting into high gear!

I have a cute card to share with you today.  It's called Confused Christmas Dog!
I don't think he looks all that confused, what do you think?



I stamped him on Bella's bestest paper and coloured using prismacolour pencils.
I used spellbinders labels 22 to cut out the image, then sponged some sea breeze versamagic around the image. I matched him up with some Christmas papers by MME called Twelve days of Christmas.

Added some Diamond Dust on the ground to represent the snow and a bit of prisma glitter on the holly berries. I used  happy holidays for my sentiment, which was cut out using spellbinders grommet tag. I ran some red bakers twine through the holes on the tag and finished it off with a bow.

Just a reminder for our challenge this week - bring on the stripes! Easy peeps, so hope you can play along.

thanks for stopping in today, enjoy the rest of your day!

Monday, October 24, 2011

You are so sweet

Happy Monday!  Hope everyone had a good weekend.

I finally got around to colouring up one of the new Uptown Girls.  The one I'm showing today is called Claudia has some Candy.  She was so fun to colour.  Can't wait to colour up the rest of them.


I picked my paper first which ended up being one of my favourite Basic Grey collections - Sweet Threads.  After stamping her on bella's bestest paper, I coloured her using Copics this time  and did some shading with pencils.  I stamped out an extra candy so I could pop it up.  I tried colouring the candy using copics, but first time I made a mess, so this being the reason for the extra layer, but this time I coloured it using pencils- was happy with the outcome.  This stamp set also comes with it's own sentiment - 'you are so sweet', which I stamped using black versafine ink and then cut it out using one of the spellbinders tag die. 

Finished off with some stitching, lots of glitter and a taupe bow.  I tried pink but I think I had too much pink on the card, so the taupe kind of picks up the candy stick colour.

Well that's it for today  - don't forget about our 'bring on the stripe' challenge this friday.  Email your card to Emily by thursday night.

Have a wonderful day, and thanks for stopping by.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Christmas Ornament

Hi there.  I hope your enjoying your weekend.  A sure sign of fall, when you are woken at 6 am with the sound of crows cawing - I mean hundreds of them, they swarm over the fields behind us looking for food.  They are a nuisance, we have a big issue here in Chatham with the crows, as I'm sure many of you do. It's been a gorgeous weekend here in SW Ontario, sunny and upper 50's, a typical fall day, and the same for today.  Yesterday we managed to get all our outside chores done - lawn furniture put away, flower pots all emptied and put away, gazebo put away, grass cut (hopefully for the last time), bird feeders all topped up, so bring on the fall.

Well as you know the Christmas season is fast approaching and I need to get working on my Christmas card orders- yes already have requests.  So I wanted to come up with some simple yet elegant and something that I can mass produce - do you hear me on that one! So this is what I came up with.


The ornament stamp is from Our Daily Bread and I used the Spellbinder 2010 Heirloom ornament die to cut it out.  It is embossed with gold embossing powder on cream cardstock. The layer behind the ornament is a sizzix embossing folder.  I did up several of these doing all different colours of chiffon ribbon - dark hunter green, burgundy, deep fushia, deep turquoise, and brown.  I also added a coordinating gem in the center of the ornament to match.  The ornament is popped up to give it some dimension. This was very quick to make. 

I'm going to try doing some in silver embossing powder on a white card.

I'll be back tomorrow with an Uptown Girl card - can't wait to show you.  See you then.

Have a wonderful day!
Pauline

Friday, October 21, 2011

A new car

Hey, here we are again, for another bellariffic friday challenge.  Where did this week go? So glad it's the weekend and hope the weather co-operates.  It's been raining the last couple of days, it would be nice to see the sun.

The inspiration for my card today, came to me from my daughter Karen.  She bought herself  her first car.  It's a 2012 Honda Civic. Remember the day when you got your first car? She is so excited. So in honor of that  I wanted to give her a card to congratulate her, and remembered I have Cruisabella! A perfect image for such an occasion.

Now her car is not red, it is a brown/taupe - very nice colour.  But I thought it would be too much brown, so I coloured it red!

I stamped it on bella's bestest paper and coloured using prismacolour pencils and blended with gamsol. Paper I used was from MME - Gertie  Papers. The 'congrats' is taken from this stamp.

Finished off with some glossy accents on the headlights.

We also have a couple of new babes - I like to welcome back Shannon Teubner, 
she was one of the original Babes, and we also have Regan Vanbiesbrouck joining us.  Give a big welcome to these two talented ladies! woohoo!!

Our next weeks challenge is 'bring on the stripes'! Another easy challenge ladies!  Just email Emily your card before thursday night for a chance to win some bella bucks!

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful weekend.

Pauline

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Make a Wish

Hi! It's Wednesday, which means we are half way through the work week.  It's been a busy week and I almost forgot to post my card for today! So here it is -
Make a Wish.


I started by stamping the cupcake on bella's bestest paper and coloured it up using prismacolour pencils.  After I cut the image out I sponged some Key Lime Versamagic ink around the image.  I then layered it onto brown cardstock which was cut using spellbinders picot edge circle. I came across this cute cupcake paper from MME callled Life of a Party - perfect paper for my cupcake!
This stamp set also comes with a mini cupcake as well as a sentiment - make a wish - but I wanted to use this sentiment -it's a cupcake thing. 

Finished off with some glitter and stitching.

Just a reminder about our challenge this week - it's a sketch - so easy, so if you don’t' have your card done you still have time.  Here is the sketch for you.

Well that's it for tonight peeps.  See you on friday!

Pauline

Monday, October 17, 2011

A BIG fish

Hi Peeps!  Hope everyone had a great weekend.  It was pretty cool weekend here in SW Ontario, I even had to turn the heat on just to get the chill out of the house. I'm not ready for this kind of weather, but then again it is fall.

I have a really cute card to share with you today.  Well you know I love the PEEP images and this one is no exception. They are so cute and fun to colour.
The image I'm using today is called Fishing PEEP.


As always I stamped the image on bella's bestest white paper with black memento ink and coloured with my prismcolour pencils.  I'm no expert on the colour of fish, so I just started with some yellow, golds, oranges, greens and then added some french grey for some shading.  The plaid paper is from We R Memory Keeper - Autumn Splendor.  I cut out the image using the wonky rectangles, and since this was the largest die and I wanted to layer my image on the rust paper, I traced the largest die around the outside edge onto the rust paper and then cut it out - there you have it another layer!

This stamp also came with it's own sentiment, which I used.  I stamped the image then cut each line and then layered it onto some orange/yellow c/s.
Added some copper brads in the corners.  I used the clear glaze pen and traced the fishing line a couple of times to make it kind of shiny to represent fishing line. I also added some glossy accents to the fish's eye.

Just a reminder this weeks challenge is a sketch.  You can see it here or on Bloggabella. If you get a chance to play along, email your card to Emily by thursday night.

Thanks for stopping by today,
Pauline

Friday, October 14, 2011

Halloween

First of all, I just want to mention that Stamping Bella is offering free shipping on all orders over $55.00 as a thank you to all supporters and to celebrate going back to mini releases.  The free shipping is until Monday Oct 17 @ 11:59 PM EST.
So if you haven't been shopping lately, what are you waiting for... hop on over to Stamping Bella and start shopping.  Tons of new images to pick from including the latest craze - the Uptown Girls! (dontcha just love them!)

Now onto this weeks challenge card.  Our theme this week was Halloween. One of my favourite lines from Stamping Bella is the Stella's.  So I coloured up
Stella and her broomstick.


  I don't have very many halloween papers so I pulled out my trusty 6x6 pack of Basic Grey - Eerie. Started by stamping Stella on bella's bestest paper and coloured with prismacolour pencils and gamsol. 
Used skinny oval dies as well as an EK Success scallop border punch.


Ribbon is some seam binding by Martha Stewart (found some on sale - woohoo!)
and then added some glitter to her dress and star.


I'm sure there will be losts of 'spookiness' over on Bloggabella, so be sure to check them out and leave some love as there is bella bucks up for grabs.


Next weeks challenge is a sketch by Ebruabella! Love sketches, makes card making  so easy. If you would like to play along this week, you can email your card to Emily by thursday night.



I wish all of you a wonderful weekend.  Have fun whatever you are doing!
Thanks for coming by today.


Pauline




Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Another Christmas card

So what did you think of Emily's mini release yesterday? Don't you just love those Uptown Girls? If you haven't had a chance to check them out, hop over to Bloggabella and you can view the sneak peaks there.

To keep on target with my Christmas cards, I'm trying to do at least one Christmas card a week.  I coloured this one while I was off on Monday. It's a Mo image called A snowman and a Cardinal.  


I did colour up this image last year, but I had a vision of doing it in purples.  So.. went through my odds and ends of christmas paper and found this piece from Bo Bunny. Perfect - just the colour I had in mind.  As usual I stamped it on bella's bestest paper and coloured with prisma colour pencils and blended with gamsol.

I also used last years release snowflake from spellbinders.  I cut it out of a piece of shimmer purple bazzill - kind of hard to see the shimmer though. For the snow on the ground I applied a thin layer of glossy accents the poured on some Diamond Dust.  I've had this for a couple of years and think I only used it once! It looks like shaved pieced of glass, really sparkly too. Also added some diamond dust to the stems of the snowflake.  For the pompom on his hat I applied some white flock.

Don't forget about our challenge this friday - Halloween.  You still have time to send your card off to Emily.

Thanks for stopping by,
Pauline

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Summer Days

I know it's fall but it sure feels like a summer day today. Sunny skies, not a cloud in the sky and temp is 81! What a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend we are having and tomorrow some of the same weather. Yesterday we went to my sister's house in London to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. Good times, lots of laughs, and way too much food.  It's always nice to get together since we don't see each other as often as we should.

For my card today I'm using one of the 4 stamps that come in the set  called Summer Days and the artist is our very own talented Paulabella - how cool is that. I have both of her sets and love them.  Can't wait to see what else to comes out with.  Myself, I'm hoping for Santa's!


This was stamped on Bella's bestest paper and coloured with primsacolour pencils.  The paper is from Memory Box.  I wanted to keep this card fairly simple - didn't want to take away from the image.  Instead of layering the image onto some papers, I made kind of a shadow box.  I first cut a square out of a piece of white cardstock using a square nestie then cut a frame using 2 of the square postage stamp dies. I glued the frame onto of the square frame I cut out and made sure the square frame piece did not extend outside of the postage frame.
Then I pop dotted the frame over my image.

The white border around the dp is a corner and border punch from SU. It took a few tries to get the right size square so that when I punched it would come out evenly.  The white measured 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 before punching.

Finished off with some tiny white pearls around the inside edge of the frame. I didn't add any glitter to the flowers, I think the pearls were enough. I was very happy with the outcome of this card.

If you haven't heard, make sure you check out bloggabella on Toosday, sounds like Emily has another surprise for us - hmm maybe another release????


Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, thanks for stopping by.

Friday, October 7, 2011

The Colours of Fall

Hey TGIF!!!! and a long weekend for us Canadians as we celebrate Thanksgiving.
So looking forward to having 3 days off and to spend time with family. The weather forecast is even going to co-operate - mid 70's and lots of sun - can't get any better than that!

Our challenge this week is to use Fall Colours on your card.   Since it is Thanksgiving this weekend, I have the perfect image for such an occasion. I introduce to you Chefabella


As always, I stamped the image on bella's bestest paper using black memento ink.
I pulled my papers first - Basic Grey Indian Summer, then coloured using prisma colour pencils and blended with gamsol.  I gotta tell you, it took me almost 2 hours just to figure out a layout for this image - can you believe that? I was getting a bit ticked with myself, so this is what I ended up with after all that. Pretty simple layout - I think sometimes I try too hard.

Dies used were some skinny ovals and skinny scallop oval, and the wonky square.
Also used a flourish die from MFT. Finished off with some glitter on the pie, and a small bow on the flourish.

Make sure you stop over a Bloggabella for some more creativity! Leave a comment and you could win some bella bucks!

Oh, also our next weeks challenge is HALLOWEEN.  We hope you get a chance to play along.  If you do, email your card to Emily by thursday night.

That's it for today.  I wish all my Canadian friends a Happy Thanksgiving.  We all have so much to be thankful for.  Enjoy your weekend. Hugs!

Pauline

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Daisy Lion

Well, I feel like I accomplished something tonight.  I actually made two cards! The one I'm posting now and my friday challenge card!

Tonigh'ts card is a cute image called Daisy Lion - another adorable Christy Croll image by Stamping Bella.


I stamped Daisy on bella's bestest paper and coloured with primsacolour pencils.
Now I am no expert on the colours of a lion, other than kind of goldy yellow!
I think it turned out okay.
The papers I used are from the 6x6 pk from Bo Bunny called the Zoology Collection.  I sponged some versamagic wheat around Daisy, then added some bella dots in the corners. A real simple card!

Don't forget about our challenge for friday - use FALL COLOURS on your card. You still have until  tomorrow night (thursday) to email it off to Emily.

It's getting late, and 5:45 comes to quickly, so I'm heading to bed!

Thanks for stopping in,
Pauline

Monday, October 3, 2011

Sweet Sunday Sketch on a Monday!

Hi - hope your weekend was good. I had a busy weekend, but I did manage to get a couple of cards made.

I don't usually do sketch challenges too often, but when I saw this weeks Sweet Sunday Sketch I gave it a whirl.

I used one of the 3 baby mermaids under the sea. With the images being small, it fit perfectly inside the circle of the sketch.



I stamped the mermaid on bella's bestest paper with black memento ink.  Then I coloured with prismacolour pencils and blended with gamsol.  Paired it up with some pretty papers from Basic Grey Sweet Threads.   Dies used were circles, corner rounder punch and a Marianne's doily border die.
Finished off with some glitter ritz which was applied to her mermaid body and then used regular glitter for the star. I applied some glossy accents to the center of the flowers. Card measures 6 1/4 x 3.5.

Thanks for stopping by today.
Pauline