Unique is overrated

LOL!....A couple things lead to the title of this post...first, I had a bunch of images that I had coloured up sitting on the kitchen desk and hubs asked why they are all brunette and why I never do red heads! ????? I said, that I don't like colouring redheads and I prefer to colour nice deep rich auburn hair because that is what I wish I had! LOL!!!!....Besides, my last tea cup baby was kinda a red head so what was his point?



Then last night Paula and I were skyping and colouring and while I was desperately trying to break her mojo by showing her everything I have been doing this week, I told her the story about no redheads....then we kinda chuckled because these Stamping Bella You are Unique girls are ALL coloured with the SAME colour hair and WHAT is unique about that! So I said I would post it today with the title You are NOT unique, then Paula came up with Unique is Overrated! LOL!!!!! So, that is the story of the title!

So yes, they may not be unique, but if you are heading out for a Girls Night Out and you just finished sharing the same box of hair dye, AND you are all wearing a variation of pink and green...who cares if you are unique...you are with your GIRLFRIENDS! AND it's gonna be FUN!

Here is hoping that a GNO adventure is in your near future!...

fyi....the image was coloured with copics and the GNO was cut with my Quickuts Studio Alphabet set.

Peace out...Linda (fyi...NOT a unique sign off...I stole it from Paula)

Adorable on so many levels!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had wonderful holiday celebrations and are now safe and sound snuggled in your dwellings...and if you are REALLY lucky, you'll be snuggling in new comfies that you got for xmas! My family get togethers have come to an end, it was a busy and fun few days, but I'm glad it is now settling down and I'll have time to unwind before I head back to the day job.

Today I watched almost the entire Season 1 of Dexter while I coloured my fingers to the bone. Now I'm watching one of my FAV movies of all time, The Sound of Music. It is right up there with The Thornbirds (really a TV mini series) and Gone with the Wind. Seriously, I think I could recite these movies I've seen them so many times!

Anyhoo...I was so 'stoked' (a teen phrase meaning totally excited!) over my framed batman scene I decided I needed to color another Green Bean Baby to make me happy! This is Miranda the teacup girl and when I was sorting thru my paper the other day I came across this random piece and the vines were a perfect match for this image. She was stamped on bella's bestest paper and coloured in copic markers with the yellow shading and grounding done in prismacolor pencils and gamsol. The adorable definition block was stamped with black stazon on vellum cardstock...the perfect soft suble touch!

Please don't ask what copic markers were used because if I don't list them, it means that I didn't track them...likely because the pile was so large I didn't have the time or energy to try to make sense of them! The crocheted flower is a GEM that was part of a package sent to me by fellow babe Meahni...it was crocheted by her mom and I really think she should start selling them on Etsy because you just can't find exquisite flowers like this anywhere else! Thanks Meahni's mom! They are beautiful!

For the next few weeks many of my cards will be dedicated and sent to some close friends, family, and/or co-workers who are going thru some pretty tough life hurdles and I'm hoping to bring smiles on their faces and a spark to their day!

Now for business...since I have removed the word verification for comments (and I LOVE LOVE LOVE your comments so please don't stop!) I have been getting a lot of spam comments. I manually delete them, but it takes more time than I have, so without having to turn the word verification back on (I know it's a pain!), I have decided to remove anonymous peeps from leaving comments. Hopefully this will save me some time, and if you comment anonymously, please accept my apologies and consider creating a google account. It is free and easy and will allow you to comment on any blog...you DO NOT have to be a blogger to have a google account! Thanks for your understanding.

Regards, and see ya soon!
Linda

To Grandma's house we go!

Well, not exactly...but I'm sure many of you, like myself will be spending time on the road the next three days. For all who are travelling, I wish you safe and happy journeys.

This is another last minute card I made up yesterday for that 'whoops-i-need-another-card' moment. Plus, I had to use my new martha punch that I picked up at Michaels on monday. I went with a 50% off coupon in hand only to find everything I wanted was already on sale. For the Toronto class gals, I'll now be travelling in style with my new craft tote! ....I already gave Paula the colors so she can make me a tag! LOL! So with that 50% off coupon burning a hole into my hand I had to buy something that wasn't on sale. It's a catch, isn't it!



The inspiration for this card came from a scrap piece of paper that was sitting in front of me, and I really wanted to to use the car with a tree on top cause that tree is so grinchy and I love everything grinch-like! How the Grinch stole christmas is my fav Christmas movie of all time. That once a year event that you'd have to wait a WHOLE ENTIRE YEAR to see again because recording devices weren't invented yet! LOL! Did ya notice that I also used Paula's snow globe glitter effect here! I just love it.

While I was on a roll, after I finished up the card I put together this little framed piece of art for our son Alex. He is a batman FREAKAZIOD! I think I have said before that he even has batman sheets on his bed in the dorm, and posters all over the wall, and a lego batmobile..and, and, and...



When Emily introduced us to Ellia, the green bean baby, I headed over to her Etsy shop and came across this little batman that I couldn't resist. I got myself a 4x6 frame and went to work cutting out the trees and grass with quickutz dies and cutting the rolling hills free hand. It turned out sooooo cute! If you ever decide to order anything from Ellia you will be most pleasantly surprised when you get the package. She adds all kinds of little details. This guy came with a little joker face and a bitty batman magnet She arranges it on a piece of paper placed in a cello envelope inside another envelope. That envelope is wrapped in tissue sealed with another green baby surprise and a personal note! THEN...she draws a little pic on the mailing envelope. Let me tell ya, that was a fun package to get in the mail!

Now...I'm heading off to do some last minute shopping and finish wrapping, then settle in for the evening possibly with a giant chai tea latte!

Happy Holidays!

You Decorate my life!

YUP! I'm still doing Christmas cards. Actually, I really like doing them and will probably continue for the next couple weeks. Maybe get a head start on next year! While I was colouring this one up tonight I had this idea that if I make one a week starting NOW, I'll have all my cards done by October. What do ya think? In theory, it sounds like a great plan but I'm not very good at staying on track so I don't hold high hopes!


Today's card uses another adorable Christy Croll image from Stamping Bella called You Decorate my life! Kinda reminds me of me and my brother when we were little, of course, the image would have looked a bit different, maybe with us pulling each other's hair out! LOL!....we were your typical siblings with typical sibling rivalry and no matter what we did it ended up in bickering. Much to my mother's dismay, I'm sure!

I coloured this image with copic markers and used pencils and gamsol for the grounding. Glossy accents were added to the ornaments, glitter on and around the star and some puffed up liquid applique created the 'popcorn' garland. Lot's of markers were used, too numerous for me to keep track of, but I will give you a tip. Whenever I have an image that is 'busy' with lots of elements like this one it is essential I pick my paper first. I usually try to pick one that has a subtle pattern so it won't compete with the image but has three or four colours for me to work with. This paper had pink, green, turquoise and red, and as a bonus it also had the sandy brown that I used on the hair. With this approach I can be certain I won't be pulling in a color that won't work with the paper. It's a tried and true method that always works for me. Give it a try next time you have an image that may overwhelm you.

Faux or Sew!

Today's Bellarific Friday challenge is to Faux or Sew, use faux or real sewing on your card. Now how easy peasy was that! I must admit, if this challenge was three months ago I would have been tempted to faux! Why?...well because I did not have anywhere to keep my sewing machine out on a permanent basis so I would have to drag it out to the dining room table. It's big, and it's heavy, and it's not something I liked to do often. But since the boys went off to school I have put it on Derek's desk in his room!

Todays card uses one of the new Stamping Bella releases and this little cuttie is The Birthday boy from Christy Croll. He is gonna be perfect for one of Mark's little nephews b'days this summer so I'm planning ahead here! I coloured him with copic markers but used my prisma color pencils and gamsol for shading. The happy birthday sentiment was stamped on a spellbinders tag and I was thinking of maybe adding a couple buttons to the upper right corner but decided to leave well enough alone.

Today is my last day at work for a couple weeks and right now I'm just too tired to even be excited! Christmas cards are done and I'll have those in the mail tomorrow but I won't stop making them just yet 'cause I never know when I'll need a last minute one and I have NO spares!

Don't forget to pop on over to the Bella Blog today to see what the sistah's have been up to! And be sure to check out the latest news on her Scrapping Bella designers...i wanna make scrapbook pages just like them when I grow up!

Da Bella needs some luv!

You know I luv Mo, but my heart belongs to Bella! Can you FEEL the luv? I realized that my absolute fav holiday Stamping Bella image, Pia Puddingtop had not made it onto a card yet this year. We did one in class, but since I left those cards at Bella central I did not have one in this years stash. So I finished one. I'll be honest, this is one that I started colouring quite some time ago and did it with a mix of Lyra and Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I think I was trying to hone my pencil skills at the time because last night I wasn't really happy with it so added some deeper shading. For anyone who has ever taken a class with me, you KNOW how I love to add that deeper shading! Hold it at an arms length away, squint your eyes and if you don't see any range of color you don't have enough highlights or shading! How's that for a tip of the day!

I've got a REALLY busy couple days ahead of me and at this moment I'm so wishing I could just hunker down in my house and color! But holiday festivities are upon me and it just wouldn't be 'me' to be anti-social! Plus Alex comes home from school on Thursday and Derek early next week so you know what that means! This sistah will be spending a LOT more time in the kitchen for the next couple weeks. Hmmm....do I miss cooking EVERYDAY for those boys of mine?...well....NO...but I do miss the gratitude 'cause they do know that ole' mom is a pretty good cook and eating residence food for the last couple months I'm expecting a lot of raves!!!!!!!!! Hmmmm, maybe I'll email them this post just as a little hint hint that mamma is expecting raves!

If you can find the time, don't forget to play along in this weeks Faux or Sew challenge. It is our last one until the new year and how cool would it be to win some Bella Bucks to spend over the holidays!

Jingle Bells

This is another one of those beloved Mo's images called Jingle Bells. Now if that was me and my girl singing...Bessie would be howling trying to drown me out! I CANNOT sing to save my soul! I think I once scored a whopping 30 points on Rock Band! LOL!

Speaking of Mo, have you been to her blog lately....OMG...she is KILLING me....soooooo many new images! I need them ALL! Especially the teen boys, you MUST know how hard it is to find images appropriate for boys. I have two myself and I know it's HARD! I wish I could color as fast as she is pushing them out. Darn that day job!

I printed this image on Bella's Bestest Paper and coloured it up with my copic markers. Then I added the blue shading and grounding with my prisma color pencils. The edges were sponged on with ink, a tiny bit of glitter, some stitching, a bow and another card done! Actually I coloured up this image over a month ago but it has been sitting unmounted until this past weekend.

Thinking of stitching, did you know our challenge over at Blogabella this week is called Faux or Sew...come on, how easy is that! Hope you can find the time to play along.

Just like Dad

This is another image from Mo called Boughs for the Wreath. It is really too bad you can't see it in person because the colors look a little faded in the picture and I even tried to fix it but still can't quite capture it. I think I've said it already...I LOVE MO...they are very special for those one of a kind cards because they take me so long to color, there is no way I could mass produce them.

I printed the image on Bella's Bestest Paper and coloured dad and his little son in copic markers, then took a break. I really wanted them to look like they were walking home down a wintery path but was so afraid that the vision in my head wouldn't translate onto paper. So I went shopping!

That little break seemed to work out for me. I got home, put away the copics, pulled out the pencils and VERY slowly went to work. Little by little it was coming together and when it got close enough to my vision I stopped for fear of messing it up!

I'll be keeping this card in the family and sending it to my folks this Christmas...I may even see if I can pry it back after the holidays, but slim chance that will happen!

Got another Mo for ya tomorrow so be sure to come back!

Congratulations!

My pod mate Matt and his cutie wife Tanya are expecting their first child and it is so nice to see them so happy! It was without question I needed to make them a card, I'm just a little late as they announced it last week, but better late than never! I had to get those Christmas cards out of the way first....oh ya...update on my progress...4 more to do! I got a few more of the Noel cards done and then spent an INCREDIBLE amount of time on a Mo for my mother. Then I got side tracked shopping but I did get a lot accomplished there so all in all it was a productive day.



Todays card is brought to you by none other than Stamping Bella and this beauty is called Babycarriageabella....she is a recent release and I love that buggy...it is so Dr. Suess like! I did color her bangs in fuller than the image because Tanya wears full straight bangs with her dark hair.

I used the following copics for the image, except as always, pencils for shading and grounding and I think I might have even used a bit of pencil to add some darker shading to the buggy and dress:
E0000, 000, 00, 11
T1, 2, 3, W2, 5
BG0000, 000, 10, 11, 32
YG0000, 00, 23
V000, 01, 12, 15, 17, BV01
E21 25, 27, 29, 49

A little bit of stitching, some ribbon and bella baubles finished her up! Then after I took the pic I decided to add a crystal to her bag...no bag is complete without a pretty crystal latch!

See ya soon...I've still got more Christmas cards to show you this week!

Noel

This is a really super quick card I put together last night with a Rubber Stamp Tapestry set that I bought this past summer in Novi. I just took a count and I still have 10 more cards to make so I may whip up 3 or 4 more of these to get that number down. I am hoping to have them all done by the end of the weekend...but my hopes often exceed my energy so we'll see what gets accomplished! I also want to put my tree up this weekend so lots to get done! Plus Mark just got home from Houston last night so I think I should probably cook some decent meals!

I guess it's all fun stuff so I'm not really complaining! Catch ya later!

Scarlett the Teacup Girl all Blinged up!

OMG! That is about all that could come out of my mouth when I set my eyes on these little teacup green bean babies! This little doll is called Scarlett. Aren't they JUST the cutest things EVAH!!!!!!!!!! And hair! So many fun hairs to color! Did I ever mention that when I was a girl I wanted to be a hairdresser! YUP! I would even experiment on my friends...clearly, I had very trustworthy friends to let me cut their hair! My second occupation of choice was a grocery store cashier {insert really confused scrunched up face here}...why? Well because I was obsessed with pushing buttons! Good thing I never ventured down that road now that everything is bar-coded! LOL! At lease as a programmer I get to type all day so I guess that is kinda like pushing buttons!


Let's get on to the card details...which I am sure is why you are really here! What do ya think of that hair! I'm VERY proud of it, if I do say so myself! Lots of light feathery strokes created the smooth area and lots dots softened those puffy pom pom ponies. I used the following copic markers for the hair:
E30, 31, 41, 42, 33, 35

Then came the teacup. I so wanted to make this card match the lemonade Basic Grey paper but copic does not have a lot of yellows that I like...too bright or something....so I coloured the teacup with a base of Y0000 and when it was dry, I went over it with prismacolor pencils and gamsol.

Finally there was the bling, because that is what this challenge was all about, wasn't it? So to finish it off I added some crystals to the flower centers and went over the flowers in the lemonade paper with spica copic pens. The pretty yellow die cut is a spellbinders lattice border and even it is pretty blingy for a die cut!

There you have it...my version of bling! Don't forget to peek in on Emily's blog later today to see what the other babe's and sistah's have in store, and leave a comment for your chance at some bella bucks!

Little drummer boy

My friend Pauline, a key enabler in my life, told me about these new Whiff of Joy stamps she just ordered. Of course I had to check it out and fell head over heels in love with this little piece of rubber called Wee and Drum....isn't she cute!



I coloured her with copics, but used my white prisma color pencil for some highlights. I used the pencils again for the shading below her feet and the yellow glow around her. Finally, because I coloured this on white paper I used a sponge dauber and ink around the edge of the paper to tone down that bright white. Again, a simple mount, a little bit of machine stitching and another card done! I think I have about 10 more to make! Yikes! don't get too excited though, I think I be duplicating a lot of them from some of my quicker-to-color designs.

Don't go too far, because remember, I have a super cute card for tomorrow's Bellarific Challenge! See ya then!

Polar Bear Circle

I've been MIA for the last couple days but I'm still alive! I decided that after a full week of working during the day, and making cards all night I needed a day off. So Monday night I just hunkered down on the sofa with the dog and a glass of wine. Last night I did some coloring, but nothing has made it onto a card yet. Maybe tomorrow, but no promises!


Remember that gifty tree, and snowy house...my fav's of the season! Well, they have taken a back seat to Polar bear circle! I think I'm in love with this icy blue and shimmery white combo! Plus he was pretty quick to color so that was a MAJOR bonus! I'll share a little secret...I can sometimes spend up to an hour colouring an image...and if they are REALLY detailed, I can take longer! I'm NOT a fast stamper! And then, I have the entire layout business to deal with. I get into a rut and tend to use the same three layouts repeatedly....have you noticed?...do you know which ones they are??? I sometimes go look at various sketch challenges, but they are often too busy for my taste so I just snuggle back into my comfort zone.

I used minimal copics on the scarf, present and bear, but then went at it with pencils for shading, and even added a bit of pencil shading on the bear. Then liquid applique was applied and doused with glitter! The large cut out circle is another spellbinders pendant die and it reminds me of a pretty lacy paper napkin that you might get in a fancy smanchy upscale piano bar to put your drink on! hmmmm....gives me an idea! I bought about 100 of those ultra thin coasters on ebay a couple years ago for the purpose of die cutting...maybe I'll make some fancy smanchy coasters for the holidays! Brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I do still have more xmas cards that need putting together and if I don't get back here tomorrow I will DEFINITELY be back on Friday for this weeks Bellarific Challenge! You have until tomorrow at 5pm EST if you want to play and this week's challenge is Bling It On!...AND I have another one of Stamping bella's new releases for the occassion....hint....I think this is THE BEST hair I have evah done! I even impressed the hubs!

Thanks for dropping in....see you soon!

Betcha thought I was done with Christmas Cards!

NOT!....I slipped in a little something different for yesterday's hop but I'm back at Christmas cards again. Wasn't that the best hop EVAH! Did you play? And if you didn't play, did you remember to leave comments everywhere? There are lotsa bella bucks to be won and there is still time!

Hubby and I were shopping in Michigan yesterday and I was AGAIN so happy for the iPhone so I could hop along when I had time. Man...don't want to see that data roaming bill! We were supposed to be Christmas shopping but instead I bought myself two giant Latte mugs from Pottery Barn and a funky piece of wall art for the bathroom at Crate and Barrel. I also wanted to get the apothocary jars from Restoration Hardware but was fearing that if I bought any more they would for sure charge me duty at the border and I did not to risk it. Oh well, another reason to shop again! It is sooooo fun to browse those stores cause the best thing we have to that in Chatham is, let's see...Walmart! Just not the same! Then we stuffed ourselves silly at PF Changs and called it a day! ...'twas a long day, but fun!


This is a sneak peek of one of Stamping Bella's new releases that will be revealed tomorrow! I've seen a few, but not all of them and CANNOT wait. This is Falalalala Bella and she is soooo festive. I even stuck with the traditional red and green because I couldn't imagine her in any other color. She was done up in copics and I did shade her with some french grey prisma pencil, although it is not too visible in the picture....those darn pictures just don't always capture the moment do they! Some flock on her fur and opaque gold glitter created the tinsel. And what do ya think of that big fat bow! WOWZER! I picked up the ribbon at a new store I hit yesterday called My Craft Room. A tiny gem of a store with something for everyone...beaders, knitters, stampers, scrapbookers! It was just too bad there wasn't something nearby to occupy the hubs while I soaked it all in.

Copics used in this card are:
G40, 12, 82, 94, 85, 99
E000, 00, 11, 42, 44, 15, 18
W00, 0, 1
YR31, Y0000, YR0000
R22, 24, 27, 37, 59

Well...off to do more colouring! Maybe another new release! You never know!

It is FINALLY HERE....the BIG BELLA B'DAY BASH BLOG HOP!

OMG! I am sooooooooooo freaking excited...the only thing that bums me out is that I won't see the expressions on the face of the winners! Too bad we can't do it like the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes and have Emily arrive at your door with a giant cheque! LOL! Now, if you just happened upon me, you may want to start at the beginning with Emily's blog, your next stop will be one of my BFF's, the uber talented Paula who I'm very certain will blow your mind! If you want to keep reading, I'll repeat these links at the bottom of the post so you don't have to scroll back up...ISN'T THAT NICE OF ME! LOL! AND, if the chain get's broken...let's hope not...you can find a master list here.


For this special hop I decided to use Knitabella and make a card for a VERY special friend who has taken up knitting! I've had this stamp FOREVER and for some reason it always kind of scared me to attempt to color it, but because it was PERFECT for the occasion I forged ahead and tackled it. You know what....it wasn't that bad, actually, it wasn't bad AT ALL! I started by colouring bella's dress and chair with a solid very light color of copic markers and added just a minimal amount of shading with markers. I made sure it was thoroughly dry, then added deeper shading over the copics with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I stamped the knit happens sentiment in versafine deep lagoon to match the color scheme and pulled out that trusty bow easy AGAIN! That's it! I had a joy making it and I hope Colleen gets some joy in receiving it! NOTE: the sentiment may be discontinued because I can't find it on the website!

FINALLY....DO NOT FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT CAUSE THERE ARE BUCKS TO BE WON ALONG THE WAY! LIKE FOUR $100 BELLA BUCK CERTIFICATES! Three are hidden, and one is random! GOOD LUCK! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY Stamping Bella....we LOVE YOU!

Now prepare yourself to be wowed and hop on over to Paula's blog!
Or, start at the beginning with Emily's blog.
Or, if the chain is broken, the master list is here!

Later, Linda!

Mom's Cards...finally DONE!

As you may know, I took this past Monday off and busted my butt on Christmas cards! This is the card that I made for my Mom to send out this year...I should say cards...cause I made 25 of them. I thought I needed 30 but she gave me a break!


It is very classy and regal, just like my mom, all done up in taupe, gold and black. The Penny Black wreath was embossed in glittery black on the subtle patterned crate paper and the 'ornaments' were created with gold liquid pearls. Bow easy came to the rescue again to make the pretty uniform bows and a cuttlebug folder on gold glimmer paper contributed to the elegance. It was an easy card to mass produce and I hope all her recipients like it.

Sorry, no card tomorrow....it is our glitzy glam company xmas party and as Mark has said in the past...cinderella is going to the ball! Isn't he a gem! NOT...he says it with a VERY sarcastic tone! LOL! That's okay...I can dish it...and I can take it! LOL! Maybe I'll get a picture and let you judge for yourself!

BUT, just cause I won't be here tomorrow...do NOT forget to come back Saturday for the Bella b'day bash hop and BE SURE TO LEAVE A COMMENT CAUSE THERE IS LOTS OF MOOLA TO BE WON! GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE!

Oh....a Bessie update for those who were in my class last week...the girl will survive! Her cough worsened over the weekend so I took her to the Vet on Monday and as I suspected she has Kennel cough (Debbie B ...yes, it was a canine self diagnosis! LOLLOLLOL!...but I didn't DARE tell the vet that! LOL!) She likely picked it up at the groomer or the dog park which she visited the week before. So a course of antibiotics and predisone (yuk) and she'll be better in no time!

If it's Wednesday...

....it must be a Stamping Bella card! Have you figured that out yet? That I usually post a bella card on Wednesday? The rare week, it might be Thursday, but usually it is Wednesday.


Today's card uses Stamping Bella's 3 Little Trees and I prefer happy whimsical Christmas cards rather than your traditional red and green stuff. So, I tackled this one in pinks and purples! I'm not a purple fan but I do like this card. Not sure if I like it enough to push over gifty tree or snowy house, but I do like it. I coloured it with a blend of copics and prisma pencils and gamsol. The initial layer was done with copics, then some deeper shading added with pencils. Lots of glitter and some glossy accents and liquid applique and ANOTHER CARD DONE! Still got about another 20 to make so you can just imagine what I'll be doing in my spare time over the next week. Many will be duplicates of some of the easier ones, but if I come up with something new I'll be sure to post it.

Happy Hump Day everyone!

Shocking!

I have another Christmas card....okay, maybe that isn't so shocking! But I have NOTHING to say...THAT is a little shocking. My life isn't all that interesting so if I post every day I don't really have anything interesting to share!

I did take yesterday off work, THAT WAS EXCITING...and a very productive day for me. I got ALLLLLL my mother's xmas cards made and am just finishing up with the bling. Hubby was surprised that I was up and about by 6am and he said...don't you have the day off?....i said yes, that is why I'm not wasting it in bed! HAHAHA! Why is it that it is soooo much easier to get out of bed when I don't have to go to the day job? It has got to be a mental thing.


Anyhoooooo....this is something that I coloured LAST year but never made it onto a card. Since I am realllly pressed for time I figured I'd mount it all up. I coloured it with Lyra pencils and gamsol and I KNOW you won't notice, but I do see vast improvement in my pencil colouring over the past year....so for all you pencil addicts out there who want to improve....just keep at it, practice means everything!

Well, that's it for today....I'll be back tomorrow evening with another Stamping Bella card....YES...it will be a Christmas card! But if you are sick of Chrismas, I will have something different for Saturday's hop! If you haven't signed up yet....you shoud....there are LOTS of great prizes....did you know there is even a chance at being a guest babe for a month!. Click on the bella b'day bash badge on my sidebar for all the details!

Later....Linda!

Mo Monday

Got another Christmas card for ya...surprise surprise!


This image is from Mo's Digital Pencil and I am crazy smitten with her images. This little guy is called Bismarck and I made him for a special friend who lost her beloved Mollinator to cancer this past summer. Molly was a minature schnauzer with major 'tude....hence she was nicknamed the Mollinator! I loved her! I coloured 'her' with copic markers and kept it very clean, crisp and simple. I picked the the blue paper because it reminded me of cotton ticking used to make quilts so I carefully stitched around it place Moll's in the center.

The card will find it's home with Molly's family this Christmas and I am pretty confident they will enjoy it!

Get 'er done!

I worked like a mad woman yesterday morning colouring up three more Christmas images and I'm gonna be inundating you Holiday cards all week! I've got a couple more bella's and even a couple Mo's so sit back, relax and come back often!



Today is Stamping Bella's Snowman Circle and I think he is a TOTAL cutie paired up with the Jolly by Golly Cosmo Cricket paper. I love that the colors are so non traditional. I coloured this little guys hat, bird and present with copics, but everything else was done in prismacolor pencils and gamsol. Liquid applique doused in glitter was added to create the GIANT snowflakes and of course I couldn't resist adding the glossy accents to his nose and buttons. A few dots of black glaze pen on his eyes and nose and another card DONE!

This afternooon I'm gonna clean up the GINORMOUS mess I made in the kitchen while creating then get a start on my mom's Christmas cards...oh ya, that will be another one I'll get to show you this week! Gonna be a busy week on the Heavens blog!

And don't forget...there is still time to sign up for the BIG bella birthday bash blog hop....did you know that there will be FOUR, yes FOUR $100 bella buck gift certificates to be won!

Kraftin Kimmie December Blog Hop!

Hi again....it is me with another Kraftin Kimmie image for ya. I'm thrilled to be part of the friends of Kraftin' Kimmie Blog hop for her new release.


Today marks the release of the December images from Kraftin’ Kimmie Stamps! There are 4 new images from Crissy Armstrong, 4 new images from Annie Rodrigue, two new sets of sentiments and two new images from a brand new artist, Jean Grant! You’ll get to check out all the images throughout our fabulous blog hop!!

If you want to start from the beginning, just head over to the Kraftin’ Kimmie Challenge Blog! As you hop from blog to blog, be sure to leave a comment at each and every stop because three lucky stampers will win packages of stamps from the new release!! And when you’re done hoppin’, be sure to head over to the Kraftin’ Kimmie store, because ALL the new images are NOW available!

This IS a hop....so if you want to start at the beginning, start with Kimmie...otherwise, if you are hopping along you can head on over to THE ONE AND ONLY ANNIE!

Kraftin' Kimmie Emmylou-hoo sneak peak!

Kimmie graciously invited me to play along in her December release and because she is such a DOLL of course I said YES! I've only met her a couple times, but I instantly liked her...plus I love to give away little sneak peeks and to be on the 'giving' end instead of the 'receiving' end is SUCH FUN!!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!! It is the little bit of evil in me I guess! {insert evil grin}


Today I am going to show you a little gem called Emmylou who was created by Crissy Armstrong with the image of Kimmie's daughter, Emileigh, as inspiration! I coloured her in copic markers and I am pretty sure I've said it before but I LOVE to color hair, and her hair was no exception! I seem to always gravitate towards deep auburn hair because my hair is naturally light mousy brown with lots of grey that is covered up every 5 weeks with my trip to the salon! Oh how I wished I was born with deep rich shiny auburn hair that stayed that way forever!!!!!!!!!!! A girl can still dream can't she!

There are other sneak peeks going on today so check out Kraftin Kimmie's challenge blog for a link to all of them, and I'll be back tomorrow with new Moonlight Whispers image for the release hop!

Move Over Gifty Tree...make room for Snowy House

Happy Friday everyone! And happy Black Friday to all my American sistah's! Even though I don't live in the states I do love to watch the morning Detroit news to catch all the frenzy. I would SO be one of those crazy shoppers if I lived there.


For today's Bellarific Friday challenge card I chose Stamping Bella's Snowy House and up until now Gifty Tree was my fav card...NOT NO MORE....this pink and aqua beauty has taken over that spot. I followed the sketch pretty closely by adding the glittery snowflakes to the ribbon. How'd she do that? I taped a piece a piece of scor tape to some white cardstock and then punched out the teeny snowflakes. Then I removed the cover of the tape and sprinkled them with silver glitter ritz, brushed off the excess and there are my nice glittery snowflakes!

Other little details include a nice thick coat of liquid applique on the roof that was also glittered, clear glaze pen on the christmas lights, crackle accents on the windows and red liquid pearls on the berries. Whew! LOTS of copic markers used on this card...when I looked at the pile I counted 29 of them...too numerous to even try to remember where I used them so I just threw them back in their cozy tote. Finally that pretty double bow was again made with my bow easy!

That's it! My current fav Christmas Card. Be sure to hop on over to Emily's blog later today to see what else everyone has come up with....AND....if you are in the mood to shop but don't want to wrestle with the rest of the crazy black Friday shoppers, take advantage of her thanksgiving coupon!

Minty Wreath

Good Morning and Happy Thanksgiving for all my American Sistahs!

I really meant to get this post out yesterday but I was busy cutting paper for tonights Pickle class....lots of little pieces...oh my...it took me MUCH LONGER than I planned on. But then I was a bit sidetracked while I watched Criminal Minds....they caught Foyet, but not before he KILLED Hotch's wife! OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!! The saddest thing that has happened since they killed of Warrick on CSI...if you haven't figured it out yet....I'm a CSI, Criminal Minds junkie. However since Grissom left CSI I really can't embrace his replacement so I haven't been watching it that much.


Well, now that I have that out of my system I tell you about todays card. YES, it is ANOTHER Christmas card....I may have about half of what I need done. It's gonna be an eclectic collection this year so friends and family who are reading....you don't know WHAT you are gonna get! This little gem is called Minty Wreath from Stamping Bella and as usual, it was coloured with copics and shaded with prisma color pencils and gamsol. The little bow was created with the Bow Easy! The tool is a little ackward at first but once you have it figured out, it does make FABULOUS bows! The neat thing about it is that you can make double or triple bows, and I like that the 'tails' are always at the back. A cool tool that I'm glad I got!

That's it for today! There is still time if want to participate in this week's Bellarific Friday. Hop on over to Emily's blog for the details....ooooh...I just happened to notice that she is celebrating American Thanksgiving by giving everyone a $10 coupon if you spend over $50!!! How's that for some thanksGIVING! AND finally, if you haven't checked out the Bella B'day bash details you really should cause there are LOTS and LOTS of great prizes to be one!

Stamping Bella Turns 3!

Stamping Bella.com turns 3 on December 7th and we're celebrating with a Birthday Bash contest, blog hop and a new release!!! Read on for all the details.

Birthday Bash Contest:
We're looking for the most delish creation in Bellaland!!! Let your creativity guide you to create a project that celebrates Bella's 3rd Birthday. You must use only Stamping Bella stamps in your creation and you can choose to use any of the lines that Stamping Bella offers.
Upload your project to Splitcoast using the keyword "BELLABDAY3" before the deadline of 10pm EST on Saturday, December 5th. The Bella Babes will scour the gallery for the most delish project in Bellaland. Only projects that are uploaded to the Splitcoast Gallery before the deadline, using the keyword, will be considered for the grand prize.
Grand Prize: The winner will receive the entire new release from Stamping Bella, a value of lots of mooooolah!!!!! The winner will also be featured as a Guest Bellarific Babe on Bloggabella during the month of January. The winner will be announced on Bloggabella on December 7th.

Birthday Bash Blog Hop:
You're invited to join the Birthday Bash Blog Hop on Saturday, December 5th. Please use any Stamping Bella images and sentiment for your blog hop post. We’re celebrating all the adorable lines that Stamping Bella has to offer!!! Your post should go live at 10am EST on Saturday, December 5th.
Prizes??? Of course!!!! Three gift certificates for $100 in Bella Bucks will be hidden along the hop, but we’re not telling you where so be sure to leave some love as you hop!!! But wait...there will be another $100 in Bella Bucks given to one random blog hop participant so be sure to sign up for the blog hop on THIS THREAD in the Stamping Bella Forum on Splitcoast. Get all your friends to sign up too because we know they’d love a chance to win a Stamping Bella Shopping Spree! Let’s make this THE BIGGEST Bella blog hop EVAH!!!! The winners will be announced on Bloggabella on Monday, December 7th.

Birthday Bash Release:
Em has an awesome release planned for the Stamping Bella Birthday on December 7th featuring a little bit from MOST of the artists!! So be sure to pop onto Bloggabella on December 7th to see all the new rubbah goodness along with the winners of the Birthday Bash blog hop and contest.

Birthday Bash Blog Photo:
Feel free to add this birthday bash photo to the sidebar on your blog to let everyone know you’re coming to the Bella Birthday Bash! Please link the photo back to THE BIRTHDAY BASH THREAD on Splitcoast for all the Birthday details.


Good Luck Everyone!!!!!!

Baby Love!

I am in need of a baby card, and thankfully that baby is overdue and it gave me some time to get 'er done! BUT now...if that little baby could just see this card I think it would be pushin' it's way out! LOL!


For all the local's, I'm sure you must know I'm talking about Kell from the Paper Pickle! Every scrapper and stamper in Chatham is anxiously awaiting the arrival of this little pickle, not to mention Kell and Matt. If you haven't seen this pregnancy portrait of Kell, you should really go take a look cause it is GORJUS.

It is no secret to us who frequent the store that Kell's colors for the nursery are Squash, Latte and Robin's Egg Blue so I tried to stick within those colors for the card. I think this is sooooooooo cute, and I'm really tempted to put in in a frame! I pulled out daisy lion and meowy from the tiddly inks collection and coloured with copics, then grass and sky was added with prisma color pencils and gamsol. The baby love words were cut with my quickutz Abigail alphabet and each square was mounted on a twinchie to give it some 'lift'. I was gonna color the animals directly onto the twinchie but the white color of the twinchie was off a bit from the other paper so I used bella's bestest paper instead.

Hope Kell is busy delivering that baby today and not busy blog hopping so this card can remain a surprise!

Get busy Kell!

Anything Bella!

Yup, she is the original, the one we all came to know and love and easily find one (or a few) that totally relates to our individual personality! For me, oh there are a few, but cosmosbella is my first love and just screamed to make her way onto a Christmas card! With a little imagination, I can make just about ANYTHING into a Christmas card...LOL! So I colored her in blue, added some silver glitter ritz to her belt, used a silver copic spica pen on her shirt, paired her with the silver and blue SEI paper from last year and added a tag with the holiday cheer sentiment that was embossed in silver....there you have it!....cosmobella ready for the holidays!


Now for some family updates...and the reason for my late post! Our boys came home from school this weekend, I think primarily for some home cookin' so I have been working hard so I wouldn't disappoint! Chicken Parmesan last night with lots of leftovers. (Derek ate it for breakfast!) This morning I made Greek stuffed grape leaves and my parents came to dinner tonight. My mom brought her signature spinach pie to go along with the grape leaves and OMG!!!! Talk about food HEAVEN!!!!!!!!!! Mom went home with a bunch of stuffed grape leaves and I have several pieces of spinach pie for my freezer! Greek food is one of my fav's and these two dishes freeze really well and make a quick and delish dinner for those days when I get home late from work and don't feel like cookin' but want a home cooked meal!

So that's it! Tomorrow I'll make quiche for brunch and Derek will be heading back to Hamilton around noon. Thankfully hubby offered to make the longer drive and I'll just have to get Alex back to London...which is a MUCH shorter drive...hopefully that will give me some time to get some colorin' done tomorrow!

Right now, I'm watchin' the late news and trying desperately to stay awake to see my guy, Dave Matthews and his band, on SNL. I'll let you all know if I made it!

Special Doggie Request

I've had a couple ladies request this image and I promised both of them I'd get to it this week....one request is from Toronto this past weekend and another from one of my local gals! This is confused Christmas dog....and after seeing him all colored up, I really think I gotta get my Bessie-girl some antlers this Christmas.

Gonna digress for a moment...

...hubs said when I started blogging I was NOT allowed to blog ANYTHING about HIM unless he approved....and he really didn't officially approve of this pic (maybe cause I didn't ask him!), but I'm gonna sneak it in anyhow! The girl LOVES her daddy! Look at how she looks at him! hehehehe!....Now, he does read my blog from time to time (to find out what's going on!), but hopefully by the time he gets to this post, it will be too late to make a fuss over it! LOL!


Alright...enough about my girl and the hubby and I'll get on to the CARD! He's a cutie! And I must be in a bit of a distressed vintage mood these days cause I paired him up with a blend of last year's cosmo cricket and basic grey papers, both which have a vitage feel. Don't they look great together! The season's greetings sentiment is also Stamping Bella and the little fluff of leaves was created with a couple Martha Stewart punches.

He is stamped on Bella's bestest paper, cut with a deckle edge nestie and he is for sure a vintage confused doggie! Did you know that bella's bestest paper now is available in CREAM....I prefer copics on white paper, but if you are a pencil fan, this is A GREAT PAPER FOR YOU with the same great qualities of the white paper!

Now, if you want to color him yourself, copics used are:
E41, 42, 43, 33, 35, 39
E07. 09, G12, 82, 94
W0, 3, BLACK, colorless blender

Finally this weeks challenge is 'ANYTHING BELLA'...How easy is that, especially for all the bella fans out there! I have my card all ready and done and I've turned a non-holiday bella into a holiday card with a sentiment and a little imagination! Hope to see you participating on Friday!

You're SO cool!

Hi everyone! I'm back from Bella land and had THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME!!!!!!!! With a few copic classes under my belt I am getting a better sense of what you need to know. SO I have an entirely new handout brewing in my head for next class in addition to the pics of the finished works and color guide! I'm NOT gonna give anything away, but it is based on my most frequently asked questions and things that I have observed during class. I think you are REALLY gonna like it! I am also going to work on some 'hybrid' coloring using copics and pencils....who says everything has to be done entirely in copics! Remember we are making a CARD and not entering a copic contest! But, with holidays coming up I MOST DEFINITELY won't be back until the new year!!!!!! Hope to see you then!


Now for today's card! It is a little scrappy isn't it! Not my typical style but I really like it! I used a few new things that I picked up at Stamping Bella this weekend....Dylan who comes with the you're so cool sentiment, a quickutz notebook sheet die (LOVE IT!), a spellbinders tag trio and that uber cool very masculine Bella Blvd plaid paper. This one is appropriately called Couch Potato! BWAAAHAHA! Do you know I met someone this weekend who owns EVERY quickutz die ever made...honest...she admitted to ALMOST EVERY ONE....OMG! I think I instantly LOVED her! I PRAY to win the lotto!!!!!!!!!!

This is an A6 size card and Dylan was coloured with copic markers on bella's bestest paper and shaded with Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I am ALWAYS in need of boy cards and this one is gonna be a good addition to my stash! If you want to color him yourself, copics used are:
E50, 51, 53 R20 (my preferred color combo for boys/men faces)
E40, 42, 44, 47, T1, 5
YG01, 03, 25 17

I'm so happy I took today off...guess what i'm gonna do???? See you all very soon....thanks for dropping by!

Linda!

got flu?

It is Bellarific Friday today and I've been bizzy bizzy bizzy getting ready for the classes this weekend. Hope you like what I have in store for ya! It's gonna be a blend of someting old, something new, something glittery, something blue! Geeze, was that corny or what! I don't think I got enough sleep and I'm a little giddy this morning.


The other morning I woke up REAL early, like at 3:30. By the time 4:30 rolled around and I still wasn't sleeping I just decided to get up and color my image for the challenge. It was early and I wanted something simple so I pulled out Fluey Huggabug. With everyone around me sneezing and hacking I thought it was a good choice for this weeks wild card. Then I had this idea to make it like a milk add so I pulled out my quickuts studio skinny minni alphabet and created got flu? How cute is that! Even the hubs got a chuckle out of it when he came home from the gym. If you want to create something similiar but don't have quickutz, go check out Paula's card today because she used her computer for her got love sentiment....and if you are wondering, we knew each other was doing this....our brains aren't quite that connected!

If you want to color fluey in the same colors, here they are:
E0000, 000, 00, 11, R20
V0000, 000, 91, 93, 95, 17
E40, 42, 43, 44
C00, 0, 2, W00, 0, 1, N3
E31, 33, colorless blender

Have a wild and crazy Friday everyone, don't get sick and make sure to check out Em's blog later today to see all the other wild card ideas. For those in my class tomorrow....ONE MORE SLEEP! See you soon! And I'll get to those c-box questions today too!

One confused kitty

I don't know if you all get confused or not, I don't get easily confused, but the older I get the more forgetful I am getting! Like you don't know the half of it! If I don't leave myself a note, it's gone!


Gonna be short and sweet today, I just got home from Windsor to celebrate my girlfriends 50th birthday. We went to this FAB Lebanese place called Mazaar's...OMG...sooooo good! Happy Birthday Cathy! So now I'm full and tired so I'm just gonna get on with the card. This is little confused kitty and I coloured him with pencils for a change. Why? Because he is a variation of a card we will be doing in the upcoming classes at Pickle so I stuck with pencils. I'm not sure if the post went up on the Pickle blog yet, if it hasn't, you got a bit of a sneak peek!

The merry holidays sentiment is stamped on a piece of cardstock that I cut out with one of the spellbinders labels trio. They are a perfect size for many of Stamping Bella's sentiments.

Before I head to bed, I just want to remind you of this week's challenge over at Stamping Bella. The theme is Wild Card! How FUN is that, any card, any size, any layout, just use your imagination and a Stamping Bella stamp!

Nighty Night Sistah's!

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!