Gifty Tree

Gosh...I feel like I've been MIA on the blog cause I have so many things going on. I'm still working on getting those Toronto class cards done....I gotta say, I'm a little angst cause I usually like to have that done and out of the way at least a week in advance! Images are done, and colors are finalized so contact Emily to see what colors you will be needing.

This morning I made my VERY FIRST batch of cabbage rolls! Can you believe I am of PURE polish decent and this is my FIRST batch of cabbage rolls! I guess I've always relied on my mother or grandmother to do it, but the time has come that I need to take over the tradition! All I am gonna say about the whole ordeal is that I need to clean my oven! Note to self....use a larger roaster and/or less liquid! (AND thank God for self cleaning ovens!)

After that live and learn on the cabbage rolls I headed on over to Paper Pickle for their Holiday Open house! Kell manned the make and take table, Kim was busy at the cash, Deb answered any and all questions and yours truly did a copic demo! I got to catch up with some old friends (Bonnie and Brenda!) and met some new ones....Hi Kate!...plus I had my BFF Pauline hanging out most of the afternoon. I had soooo much fun!


That leads me to my card of the day! After getting home from the open house I whipped up this card with Gifty Tree...okay...I'll fess up, I didn't exactly WHIP IT UP cause I'm NOT a fast card maker. But I did color it and get it all put together all in one day so that has got to get me some points! LOL!

I stamped it on Bellas bestest paper, coloured it entirely in copics and added some 'stuff' for snow. I have no idea where I bought this stuff but it is like little tiny squares of shiney white confetti. The paper I used is some Scenic Route from last year and I love it's retro look with this funky tree. The tag was created with a spellbinders die, stamped with the merry holidays sentiment and tied to the lamp with some fine white and gold ribbon that I picked up at pickle.

To finish it off, of course I added lots of glitter around the star and ornaments, and popped those ornaments with a nice thick glob of ranger glossy accents. It is a very tactile card!

Oh ya....there is still time....GO SEE THE MICHAEL JACKSON MOVIE! you won't be sorry!
RIP MJ!

A Christmas Bellarific Friday

I think we should just do Holiday cards for the next four to six weeks to help me grow my stash! I STILL have not made a firm decision on my Chrismas card this year, or my mom's for that matter and I'm getting just a little bit angst! At least all the prototypes I have posted in the last few weeks can go into the stash and get put to good use so that will reduce the number that I have to mass produce.

I really don't mind mass producing and sometimes my Holiday cards are just one design reproduced 40 times, or maybe I do 2 or 3 different designs, or sometimes I even make about 10 really special ones and mass produce the rest. It all depends on how much time and energy I have! And let me tell ya, right now, my energy level is at a low so I'm leaning toward something that can quickly be mass produced and still have my stamp of approval.


I think that little Reindeer Circle might just be one of those that get's the approval! He is stinking cute, yet small enough to do several of them without a huge investment in time, and everyone can still get a hand coloured card which I know they all want! A total crowd pleaser! I think next weekend while at Bella Land I may also pick up a couple more circle holiday images!

As usual, he was stamped on bella's bestest paper in brilliance ink and coloured with copic markers, the blue shading was done with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. The greetings of the season sentiment was stamped in Imperial Purple versafine ink, then embossed with detail clear embossing powder. Embossing a sentiment on the front of your card is always admired by non-stampers! They always say....how'd you do that? Hehehehe! If they only knew how SIMPLE it was! In case you want to give him a try and maybe mass produce him yourself, here are the colors I used:
E40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 47, 33
W00, 1, 2, 3
Y21, 23, 26
R20, 24, 59, G94

Hope you all have a good weekend, me and the hubs are going to Windsor to see the Michael Jackson movie then out for dinner on Saturday. Sunday I'll be at Pickle for their Christmas open house doing demos with copic markers! If you are in the area stop by and say hi....I'll be there between 1 and 3pm! Let me just say Kell has been baking all week and she is a baking GODESS! And they make the BESTEST hot apple cider EVAH!

Do you ever mess up?

I do! And I messed up on this card so I've been holding onto it for a while not really wanting to share it. But I thought, what the heck, we all make mistakes and I'm not immune to them so I'll tell you where I messed up and what I did to recover it.


I don't know about you, but me, I'm short on time! I work full time and enjoy spending time with my hubs, friends and my dog so that leaves very little time for me to create. And I don't color FAST, and I struggle with layouts! Because I generally use copics for the main image and pencils for shading I start with the main image first. You can ALWAYS add pencils after copics, but NEVER try to add copics over pencils!

SO...I coloured Stamping Bella's Ketto dolly in copics then tried to add a yellow 'glow' with pencils. I took some of my sistah Paula's advice and used a dirty stump. Well, I think it was a bit tooooo dirty and I ended up with a red streak over her head. ACK! So I picked up some oranges and worked that red streak into the orange to create that orange/red glow around her head! I think I need some more lessons on how 'dirty' a stump you should use!

I should also mention, that I was experimenting a bit with my markers and ended up with a dress that I think looks a bit muddy. At this point you are probably wondering why I continued! Well, it was because I spent a lot of time on it and I didn't want that time to go to waste so I tried my best to sacrifice it.

In the end, it is not my most fav card, but totally acceptable! So learn from your mistakes, recover from them and move on! But NEVER stop trying new things and experimenting because you can only learn from it!

Have a nice day! Linda!

My first Digi Image

I'm busy here cutting paper for class at Pickle on Thursday and putting together cards for the upcoming Bella class and felt the need for a break! What better way to take a break than to sit down with a glass of merlot and post a card!

This is my first digi image card, not the first I've coloured, but the first I've put into a card and this is Hockey Boy from from Mo's digital pencil. I love her images! But I'm still fence sitting on the whole digi thing. I'm old (remember I'm 50!), but I am computer savy (I AM a programmer afterall!), so I'm not 'afraid' of them....but I'm also a very touch and feel kinda girl. I own CD's, but I've also downloaded music from iTunes. The CD's I really want to OWN, I buy, and a single song that might give me joy for a short period of time I download. And I would consider myself a collector. As a collector I don't want to collect on my laptop because it is too immaterial for me, I want to hold it, smell it, fondle it...so I continue to buy rubbah! And I probably will because when someone wants to see my collection I don't want them to sit down and browse my laptop!

Now digital does have it's advantages....primarily it's FAST, especially for those in remote areas. But it is still NOT rubbah and I can't hold it. Case in point....when Dave Matthews Band came out with their new CD earlier this year we pre-ordered it (cause we are groupies!) but we didn't get it the day it came out....SO I downloaded it from iTunes the day it was released because I wanted to hear it THAT DAY! So I spent 9.99 to get the CD online, but I have no regrets that I also own the 'hardcopy'.

I realize I am a different generation, but in years to come, your computer images will likely be gone unless you are careful with them. And they will never show the signs of age and love that rubber does. And in generations to come, no one will probably ever know you enjoyed rubber stamping because you will have nothing material to show for it. I want to leave a bit of me behind and I want my kids and grandkids, and maybe even great-grandkids to see that rubber, touch it, and feel it and know what made me happy!

WOW! That was pretty deep wasn't it! Must have been the wine! Better go finish cutting my paper now.

Chichiboulie Blog Hop

This weekend I decided to play along in the Splitcoast Stampers Chichiboulie blog hop. My chichi's have been just a wee bit neglected and since two of my all time fav Holiday images are in the chichi line up, what better excuse!

If you just happened to pop in, you might want to start at the beginning with Emily's blog, (I wouldn't want you to miss a BEAT!) and if the link got broken along the way, you can find the master list here. If you want to just skip over me, the next stop on your list will be Nancy. But if you DO decide to skip over me, you'd better leave a comment because there is a secret surprise along the way and NOBODY KNOWS where it is! Good Luck!



I used Polly Packages for my card and this now counts as another Christmas card done! Like, only about 50 more to go! YIKES. I so wish I had time to make 50 of these! She is so rustic with her chunky boots so I decided to mount her with some softly distressed DP...I think it is cosmo cricket, but not 100% sure. I coloured the main image with copics, but added shading with prisma pencils and OMS. Some paper piercing and a pretty Joannabella buttony bow finished her off, but still kept her uncluttered.

Copics used:
E000, 00, 11
Y000, 00, 11, 15
E30, 31, 35, 41, 42, 43, 44
G20, 21, 24, YG67
R20, 21, 24, 29
RV32, 34

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. It is hubby's b'day tomorrow so I'll be going to the Lion's football game with him. (okay, so I HATE professional sports, but it IS his b'day after all and I'll have my iPhone all charged up to keep me entertained for a couple hours!....email me please and give me something to do!)

If you are still here, it's time to hop on over to see what Nancy has conjured up!
Linda.

Feeling Blue?

Well, I hope not! I'm not a blue fan myself, unless of course it is a nice soft blue and paired up with yellow or green. I'll admit, I have to FORCE myself to use blues or purples as the main color of my image. But sometimes you just gotta do it and surprise yourself at the results!


I couldn't be happier with how Ella turned out in her blue dress with green dots. This is the card I chose to do for our Bellarific Friday Cards for Kids challenge....and I must be a BIG kid because I seriously love this card! It is simple, cute and I just wanna give her a big ole' hug! What do ya think of that little valance I created with the Scraplines Scallopy Border? Pretty clever eh? I just stamped the smaller of the images on a scrap piece of paper, cut it out and added the ribbon. You have NO IDEA how long I wavered between adding ribbon or buttons, but ribbon won out! Maybe buttons next time, or MAYBE a Joannabella buttony bow, cause I think I'll be using this layout again soon! The Happy Birthday sentiment was stamped in versafine vintage sepia ink and quickly embossed with clear embossing powder. No glitter on this card, shocking I know, but I was happy with her as is so just added some clear glaze pen to the polka dots on her dress and hair bow. I thought it was a nice balance to the embossed sentiment.

If you wanna color this yourself, here are the copics that I used (note, the grass and yellow shading was done with pencils and gamsol)

E0000, 000, 00, R20
B0000, 41, 52
Yg03, G82, 94
YR31, 24, E35

Did you know that Emily is releasing these little yummies online today...so it's a double whammy! I think there are 11 lollipop images, some new lulu's and even a Bella for you Bella fans out there...have fun shopping...I know I'll be getting more to fill my arsenal!

If I had to choose!

This post is primarily for Diana who has asked me a couple times what would be the 12-18 most needed colors for the ABSOLUTE beginner! Well Diana, this post is for you!

Let me start by saying I have likely 300+ colors and only missing a few of the blues and the darker neutrals so it is REALLY HARD for me to narrow that list down to 12-18 because sooooo much depends on a) what colors YOU like, and b) what PAPER you are trying to match it to. The BG's for example have a WIDE range of values from very blue to lots of green so to pick a couple from that list is purely based on what I PERSONALLY would choose to start with, and I've included some very light E's in here because I almost always color faces so those colors would be essential for ME!

So here goes!

E000, 00 (good for flesh, use R20 for cheeks)
R20, 22, 24 (nice coral reds)
G40, 82 94 (3 of my current fav greens, also really like the YG's)
YR31, 23 (nice golden yellow)
BG000, 01, 05 (because i'm not fond of pure blue!)
E30, 33, 35 (nice warm browns, good for hair!)
colorless blender and refill

Note that there are also no purples in there (V's or BV') but if I were to add those in it would be:
BV000, V12, V15 (these tend to be on the greyer side, because that is what I like)

I have also avoided pure yellows because they can be look too bright (to me!) so I opted for the YR's in my must have list. But, if I had to pick some yellows they would be:
Y00, 11, 15

Another good thing to know is that any of these combos could be lightened or darkened by adding pencil crayon so just because you don't have a full range, don't despair! Get some pencil crayons, and OMS (Gamsol, Sansodor, etc) and you can EASILY add depth and highlights right over your copics after the copic ink has dried. Also, these colors may not match the paper you want to use, so again, you can use those pencils to vary the shade of the copics. If my fav's are not your fav's, you should also check out the combinations that Flourishes has put together, because I think they have done a GREAT job and I LOVE the combinations they have come up with. You can find those here.

Experiment! It's only paper!

So that's it! Linda's choice (please don't make me choose between my children or my dog!...LOL!)

Snow Fight!

Now this isn't your down and dirty snow fight, like the grade school guys against the girls where the guys want to plaster the girls because, heaven forbit, they admit they actually LIKE girls! This is a cutie patootie snowfight, all soft, pastel and glittery!


Snow Fight, is one of Stamping Bella's Tiddly Ink images and another stamp that I picked up on a summer visit to Toronto with good intentions to start my Christmas cards in July! Like did that happen....ah....NO! Here I am again, with less than two months till Christmas and I have maybe a handful of cards in my arsenal. I do it every year! Why don't I learn!!!!!!

All I can say is that this one is very pretty and glittery and she will be going to someone real special.

Here are the details. She was stamped with Brilliance Graphite black on Bella's bestest paper and colored with copics. I cut her out with a square nestability and added Glamour dust glitter with a glue pen. The snowflakes are a spellbinders die and after cutting and embossing I again added glitter to the raised portions with that trusty glue pen. The crystal brads are Making Memories and DP is Basic Grey Eskimo kisses. Finally, I added some flower soft at her feet for a bit of texture. I LOVE texture on my cards!

If you want to give her a try, copics used are:
E0000, 000, 00, 11, 33, 35
R20, 22, RV10, 11, 32
C00, 0, 1, 3, T3
B60, 91
BG0000, 000, 11, 45

The blue shading around the image was done with prismacolor pencils and gamsol.

Another Christmas card done! So happy!

Finally, you've got one more day to play in this weeks Bellarific Friday. Theme this week is ANYTHING kids! How fun is that! Personally kids cards top my list of fav cards to make these days. Kids are always so excited to get a personal card and the look on their face is priceless when they open it. It makes me happy! So make a card for a kid this week and play along!

OH...I promise, this is REALLY the last thing!...I thought with the release of the lollipops coming I would post a little picture tutorial on SCS on how I color those faces with copic markers. You can find it here!