Friday, October 28, 2011

I don't know about you....

...but I'm doin' the happy Friday dance! Tonight we are gonna have a little celebration with friends to bring on hubby's 50th b'day (which isn't until Tuesday). Then Saturday I think I just might sleep until 10am because I have not quite recovered from the West coast time change yet.

On a crazy note while I write this post Thursday night I have reduced myself to watching Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin because our cable adapter is on the fritz in the kitchen and I can't get anything over channel 18 and I'm not comfortable on the sofa typing with my laptop on my lap. I'm missing my art journal too because I have not even opened it in almost two weeks. This weekend I'm gonna get messy with paints I think...I'm needing it.

For Bellarific Friday this week it was all about stripes. Let me say, this babe is NOT lacking any striped paper...I cannot resist striped, polka dot or plaid paper. I'm weak, and there is something really homey and rustic about them that I like. However, I don't go overboard, especially with stripes and usually go with the less is more rule when I use them. Just like I did with Anastasia here! This one is for Bren who always leaves me the nicest comments and she wanted to see what I did with her hair.


I just LOVE those blue frames on her glasses and wish I had the confidence to wear something really funky like that. I matched up with some Basic Grey Pyrus and after stamping her on bella's BESTEST paper I used the following copic markers on her. (and of course some pencils for the shading!)

E0000, 000, 00, 11, 15, R20, B95, 97
E51, 53, 41, 43, 44, 33, 35, 37, 95, 97, 99

In case you are wondering, the doily was cut from a Cheery Lynn Designs die that I picked up at the Stamp Show in Novi. Those dies are SO intricate and I wish I had bought more.

Next week our challenge is a scary one...and not in the halloween way! IS THERE SNOW AT YOUR HOUSE? Yup, that is the challenge...use some snow on your card. I certainly hope there will be no snow here and I hope this doesn't put a jinx on it.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Where's Linda?

I've been MIA for the past few days because I went on a weekend Vegas getaway with 5 of my work BFF's. I'd love to say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas but the truth is, we didn't really come home with any memories that I want to leave behind. Not like when I broke my wrist zip lining last year! I've given up on doing ANYTHING that requires me to sign a waiver.

I will say that we had a MOST FABULOUS day trip to Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon and I'll show you a couple pics after my card. Let me just say that the Grand Canyon has to be one of the most breathtaking places on earth. Scary, but breathtaking. I don't think I would let myself get within 20 feet of the edge, and I wanted every single person to stand at least 20 feet away from me for fear that someone might lose their footing and grab on to me for balance just to end up taking me down the canyon with them.

The highlight the next day was the Elton John concert. I've seen quite a few concerts in my day, and Elton is FAR from my beloved Dave Matthews but I must say he is one of the best performers I have ever seen. He is so cute,so funny, so humble, and so genuinely appreciative of the audience. And unlike other aging artists, his voice still holds the same magic that it did 30+ years ago. I'd go back and see him tomorrow if I could.

Now for a card! Remember back in September we had a back to school challenge and I coloured up Betty the Bookworm. When I was doing her up, I also did Stamping Bella's Spencer but never got a chance to post him until now, so here he is!


I actually think I like him better than my first card, but it might be the Basic Grey oxford paper that is making me happy. LOVE the colours in that pack. After stamping spencer on bella's BESTEST paper, these are the copics I used on him:

E0000, 000, 00, 11, 51, 53, 13, 15, 17
E31, 34, 35, 37, 07, 09
G40, 12, 82, BG70, 72, 75
RV91, 93, 95, 55, 66, R20
C1, Y23, W9

If you are still with me, and still interested, here are a couple pics from our road trip.

On our way to the canyon I was really taken with the field of cacti. It made me want one for my yard, and if it wasn't for the cold winters here, I could probably grow one because our ground is hard and dry!

This is called Guano Point and you see those little specks on that pointed pile of rock. Those are people! You could hike up there and see a spectacular view of the Colorado River but I didn't take the chance. No waiver had to be signed, but I know a risk when I see one.

Pictures of this place will never capture the beauty or the vastness. Again, look at the far left, about half way down and you will see a little white speck. Those are people!
That's it for tonight. I'm off to watch Dexter that hubby pvr'd for me and I've been waiting for this all week! See ya Friday.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Ah the memories...

This one is a little nostalgic, and dearly close to my heart. I grew up in a family of sewers from my Grandmother, to my Mom, to me. My grandmother had a treadle Singer sewing machine which she used all her life and when I was little, she would make clothes for my Barbie on it. I think (I hope) I still have the teeny tiny white pleated kilt she made. She really was an amazing seamstress.

Now I don't have anyone to pass on my sewing passion to, my boys never really took to it! HOWEVER, Alex's girlfriend is an AVID sewer and just recently made herself this incredibly amazing fully lined pleather jacket. I was gushing when she showed me because it was a work of art. She even took the pattern and altered it from a hoodie to a collar, and a button front to a zipper. If there was ANY hope at all that I could have fit into it, I would have most definitely tried it on! So you guessed it, this card will be going into my stash to eventually make it into her hands.


I started by stamping Stamping Bella's sewing PEEP on bella's BESTEST paper and coloured her with the following markers, following up with some pencil and distress ink. Sadly, the pic looks more on the grey side, than the warmer sepia shades that the real life version sports:

G000, 00, 12, BV00, Y13, YR15, 02, 23
R12, 14, 39, E07, YG97, 99
E00, 11, 13, 17, 21, 42, 43, 44, 47
W0, 2, C1, 3

When it came to putting the card together and adding embellishments it was a snap with our awesome sketch this week. I added some lush vintage looking ribbon and a button on the lower right, with a Tim Holtz hanger clip on the upper left. Just a little shout out to Kim at Pickle for pointing those little hangers out to me! Next week our challenge will put you in stripes! YUP...use STRIPES ON YOUR CARD...on paper, in ribbon, on your image, anywhere. Just make sure it is a Stamping Bella image and send your submission to Emily by Thursday at 5. Remember, Christmas is just around the corner and if you should win those bella bucks did you know you can gift them!!!! Now how awesome would that be for one of your BFF's...a gift of some Stamping Bella Bucks!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Paula's Poppies

Hiya everyone!  I've been a busy busy sister this week working on a deadline at the day job,  preparing for a girlfriend weekend and a 50th b'day celebration next week for the hubster. I am not quite a cougar, but I am a couple years older than him although you would never know that from looking at us! LOLOL!!!! Now I'll leave it up to you to decide whether I think I look younger, or he looks older! Haaahaa!

All kidding aside, I do have something be-uuuu-ti-ful to share today and that is another Paula image, this is the poppy from Paula's Framed Florals. I am so smitten with the simplicity and beauty of these little stamps.



I decided to let the poppies take center stage here and matched my patterned paper to the background colours I used on the image. I used a lot of pencil here so didn't keep track of my copics but I will say that I did start my background with copics. Feathering some BOOO from the flowers out, and some YG00 (or YG0000?) from the corners in. Then I added some BVO1 from the flowers out. After that was done, I did add some pencil to deepen the background shading. I really wish you could see this one up close and personal because the picture makes the poppies look a bit drab, but take my word...they just pop out off that card! This is also just a bit smaller than my normal 5.5" cards and I made this one 5 1/4" square.

I'll be back on Friday with the Bellarific challenge and remember, it's a sketch so NO EXCUSES, all the hard part is done for ya! Finally, for you AJ lovers, I don't think I'll be here Monday with that challenge because I have a busy weekend ahead of me, but the love is still there, and I'll still be stalking Emily's blog to see what everyone came up with.

See ya soon!

Monday, October 17, 2011

AJ Monday

Hiya all! Are ya ready for the start of another work week! I tell ya, once my age counter rolled over the 50 mark all I can think about Monday mornings is how I will spend the day, and week, once I'm retired. I have it all planned out in my head, and it a beautiful dream for now!

Emily wanted us to use stencils and sprays this week and that was NO problem for me, however I couldn't resist getting my fingers a little messy too.


My fav part of this page is the upper right corner. I spread some molding paste over the stencil and while it was still in place I sprayed on a couple colours of adirondak color wash. I love molding paste to give just that little bit of dimension to the page.

The quote comes from a book by Autumn Leaves called Quote Unquote. I think there are 4 or 5 volumes and I have 3 of them which I purchased back in my scrapbooking days.

That is it for today....I'll leave you with another little reminder of our Bellarific sketch for Friday...LOTS of time to play, and with Christmas just around the corner and that AWESOME mini release that just came out how can you resist an opportunity to win some Bella Bucks!

Friday, October 14, 2011

Boo!

Sorry I'm late gals, I COMPLETELY forgot about this last night and quickly uploaded the pic to a draft post hoping I would be able to get to it today, but no such luck. So now I have 20 minutes waiting for my cabbage rolls to heat up and I thought...GEEEEZE....I have NOT posted my card yet!

I totally blame it on the age thing...I think there might even be a name for it! It is called OLD! LOL!...actually I don't think of myself as old at all, but my memory and aches and pains remind me otherwise.

Before I start ANYTHING, I want to give a HUGE welcome back to Shannan Teubner. She was one of our original babes and I for one am more than thrilled to have her back. Check out her blog, if you haven't seen it already, and show her some love. WELCOME BACK SHANNAN we have missed you!!!!

AND, if you haven't already seen on Emily's blog, or in email, Stamping Bella is having a FREE shipping event with the coupon code freeshippingoctober on orders over $55. A perfect time to grab that Uptown Girl collection, come on...I KNOW you love them.

This week was our halloween challenge and although I don't really make halloween cards I did find something that was appropriate....monstah BASH. I even got a bit creative and added the Boo! with some quickutz alphabet dies and the Tim Holtz branch tree. Pretty clever I thought.


You just know that I stamed it on bella's BESTEST paper and coloured with copic markers. I did 'cheat' and add some shading to the beasts with some pencils though. Here is a list of those markers

BG70, 72, 75, 78, YG11, 23, 25, 67
R24, 37, 89, 39,  W1, 2, 4, 6

Next week we have a sketch challenge!!!! YAY, my FAV!!!! This one is a beauty with all those little details that I never think of adding so while it is fresh in my head I think I'll get on it as soon as I eat my cabbage rolls. I just took them out of the oven and they smell so yummy and delish, especially since it is cold and windy outside here in Chatham tonight. I actually had to turn the heat on for a bit just to get the chill out of the air.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

not the colour purple

Before I say anything....did you hop on over to Emily's blog and check out the mini release? TWO new Uptown Girls...they are so urban chic how can you NOT resist them, and their funky Uptown Christmas tree!!! To temp you even further she is offering free shipping on orders over $55 with the code freeshippingoctober! Seriously, what is stopping you!!!! GO LOOK!

Moving on to my journal and this weeks theme. I am not fond of the colour purple, my fav colour is green, not pure green like that Christmas green....I REALLY don't like that colour, but greens with yellow or blue undertones. Limes, turquoise, olives....those kind of greens. And when you mix them up together it is even yummier. Emily's AJ challenge this week was to create a page using your fav colour and here it is....all pretty in green!


Prior to making this page I was watching a video workshop with Beryl Taylor that I downloaded from Cloth Paper Scissors. She does these amazing things with paper, fabric, stitching, and beading. That inspired me to dive into my fabric stash and make these little quilted squares. 

Then I tore the page from a dictionary that had the definition of green and everything else just sort of fell into place. And I must say it really felt good to sew on fabric instead of paper for a change and I'm sure it made the Bernina happy too! This page really makes me smile when I look at it.

Not sure yet what our challenge will be next week yet, but Emily said she would be posting it on the blog later today so for sure I'll be stalking.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Ready for another peek?

Keeping with the vintage look I coloured up another image from Stamping Bella's mini release tomorrow. Not sure the name of this one, but I will tell you that it comes with a good size Merry Christmas sentiment.

Again, I paired it up with some older Basic grey paper. Figgy Pudding, Wassail, and Fruitcake remain my all time Christmas papers EVER!!!!! I'll be sad when I run out of them.


bella's BESTEST paper, copic markers, LOTS AND LOTS of glitter, gold gelly roll pen on the ribbon, paper pen on the lights, sponged background, ribbon, stitching and I even popped it TWICE all make this card a joy to hold with all of the understated glitz and detail.

These are the markers I used:
G20, 21, 12, YG61, 63, 93
BV01, 02, 04 (used these to deepen the green)
Y11, 23, E42, 44, R24, 29, 39, Y26, 28, E87

I do have an AJ Monday page, but for you journal fans, I am gonna make you wait till tomorrow. BUT, if you stalk Emily's blog today you just may get a peek at it. And don't forget, TOMORROW is the mini release day over at Staming Bella and, I have a sneaky suspicion that Paula has posted another peek today.  

So lots of sneakiness going on here with the bella gang! And don't forget, get those ghost and goblins out of you Stamping Bella stamp stash and play in our Halloween Friday challenge, if you win, you could use the bucks to buy the new release!!!!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

My girl wears mink!

I was going to just show you just a teenie bit of her and make you come back for more, but Emily said I could post the entire thing and that made me just as happy! Quite frankly, I HATE just getting a little corner of something, give me all of it, or just go away. And that applies to cheese cake too! If I'm gonna eat it, I'm gonna eat a big piece.

Let me show you Uptown Girl Eva and her mistletoe, just one of Stamping Bella's suprise 'mini' release lineups...I LOVE when she sneaks in little things like this...it makes me giddy! I 'dressed' her up in velvet trimmed in mink, not cheapie velvet and fake fur, no way, my Uptown Girl is all about high end fashion. Then I gave her a smokey vintage look pairing her up with some basic grey and cosmo cricket. I think I may send this card to myself this year! HAHAHAA!


I probably don't have to say it, but I will. She was stamped with Memento ink on bella's BESTEST paper and coloured with copic markers. Didn't use any pencil on the dress, just to shade around her. Then I sponged on some versafine thatched straw and finished up with a bit of Tea Dye Distress ink.

These are the copic markers I used:
E000, 00, 11, 15, 17, 18, 29
E40, 42, 43, T5, W7, C8, 9
R20, 24, 46, 39, 89, G24, 29

Now don't go away for too long, because I'll be back tomorrow with another one....can you say Christmas?

Friday, October 7, 2011

Delicious Apples

With crisp cool mornings and warm, but not HOT afternoons, it is definitely starting to feel like fall here in Southern Ontario. Spring and Fall are definitely my most fav seasons of all and as much as I don't like the humidity of summer, not to mention the snow of winter, I don't think I would be happy living somewhere that did not have seasons. With that said, it is fitting that our challenge this week is FALL COLOURS and I chose a most appropriate fall image....Lulu's apples from Lulu's set of Fruits.


Now seriously, do those apples look 'delicious' or not...and i'm not just talking about my colouring, but I'm talking about the variety of apple. I actually googled images of apples in a basket and searched them out to gain some inspiration. Low and behold, I came across a basket of delicious apples and got to colouring to somewhat match the picture. As much as blogs and galleries can be a great source, so are google images, especially when it comes to capturing 'still life' objects...fruits, veggies, trees, flowers, etc.

I stamped Lulu's apples on bella's BESTEST paper with memento ink and used the copic markers listed below, of course I added a bit of shading with some pencils. And just in case you are wondering, I used a couple shades of yellow pencil to shade around the apples and basket, then sponged some versafine thatched straw ink in from the edge, meeting my pencil shading. So it looks like I may have sponged right up to the image....but i'm not THAT good!!!!! LOL!

here are the copics I used:

R22, 35, 37, 39, Y23, 26, YG13, 21
E50, 51, 31, 43, 44
YG61, 63, 97, RV13, 14, 17, Y38

Next week our challenge is creepy in a good way...all about Halloween!!!!! get thinking about orange and black...or maybe try out some non-traditional halloween colours....by golly, I think I just got an idea! But you'll have to wait till next week to see it!

Tonight, I'll be eating Windsor pizza for supper (Windsor pizza is THE BEST) and then messin' up my kitchen table creating something wonderful for AJ Monday.

Hope to see you at BOTH challenges next week...but if you only play once, that's okay too!

'till next time,
Linda

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

A little Ketto today

This was another card I did up for the Stamping Bella booth at Scrapfest. Isn't little MISSMATCH ketto a cutie, and really quick and easy to colour up too...gotta love that when I am short on time.

And speaking of time, I'm short on that right now because I'm writing this up before work. I was gonna do it last night but Paulinabella came over and we had big plans on colouring but we ended up just chatting and drinking latte's and cappuccino's! YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gotta luv girl time.


Little MISSMATCH was stamped with memento ink on bella's BESTEST paper and paired up with Basic Grey out of print from a 6x6 pad. I coloured her with copic markers, and added just a wee bit of pencil for shading.

You still have lots of time to play in our FALL COLOUR challenge this Friday over at Bloggabella and I'm starting to see the leaves change a bit so it's time to get in the mood!!!! And if you are ready to take the AJ plunge yet, you can play along on Monday ....here is what Emily has to say about the next challenge:

"USE YOUR FAVORITE COLOR on your page.. Do all versions of that color.. add white, make it lighter.. add black , make it darker.. find pieces of collage with that color… fabric… anything that doesn’t MOVE in that color, stick it down.. use pencils, paint, watercolor, crayons, oils.. let’s see your creations!"

I'm ready to take it all on, are you?

Monday, October 3, 2011

AJ Monday

Hi All...I had a very busy and productive weekend and it all started with my AJ Monday journal page. The challenge this week was to use an actual picture on your page. I already did that a couple weeks ago so this time I took a different route to use some pictures.

A couple years ago hubs and I took a trip to Nashville and Memphis on our quest to follow the Dave Matthews Band around North America. We didn't see much of Nashville, but did get to spend a couple days in Memphis. We LOVED it there...the music, the food, the atmosphere, the history, all of it was amazing. We took in as much as we could and took a lot of pictures of our favourite spots, some of which I collaged in this page.


I selected a few of my fav's and inserted them into a word document mirror imaging the pictures. I printed them on my Epson ink jet printer on regular printer paper, nothing special. Then using any of the image transfer techniques you may find on the web I transferred them to my page. It was necessary to print mirror images of the pics because you glue them 'image side down' and this way they end up right side facing when you are done.

The technique I used was with gel medium, mod podge or PPA. I used PPA here, but I think mod podge or gel medium works better for this technique. Cut your pictures down to size, or even tearing the edges gives a nice effect. Apply some gel medium and stick it down onto your page. Now you do not want to paste over that piece of paper because you don't want the paper completely sealed. Just use your fingers and press it down good.

Wait for it to dry, or if you are like me take a heat gun to it. Speaking from experience, it does work a lot better if you can wait and let it dry naturally....but I wasn't seeking out perfection here! Then spritz your paper with water and start rubbing it off. The paper will roll off and your image will be revealed! It's like MAGIC! I dried it again with my heat gun and gently sanded it to remove any 'hairs' and soften off the edges. Then I sealed it with PPA because when I overlapped my next image I didn't want to chance any of my first one coming off.

The hardest part was that I five pictures so I had to repeat the above process 5 times so there was a lot of drying involved. Then I added some ink, some paint, some gesso...more ink and paint and I was almost done.

I stamped the word 'Memphis' and the date with a VERY OLD acrylic River City alphabet set, and because Memphis is all about the music I couldn't help but stamp some of Stamping Bella's eclectic music on there.

I hope this has inspired you, and be sure to check Emily's blog for her AJ Monday post sometime today. The gals who have been playing along in this have been wowing me week after week and I can't wait to see what they do this week.

Linda.

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