Race Day

What’s your passion?

Well ya all know that mine is anything crafty. But for some unbeknownst reason, there are others peeps in this world that actually run for pleasure…they enjoy it…you might say it’s their passion! Why, I’ll never know. Personally, I don’t do anything that requires sudden movement. The hubs is in that mysterious group of runners and today he ran a 30K in Hamilton. Along for the ride, or should I say run, were Jenni and Heather. I went along for the ride…yes RIDE, not RUN and my duties basically entailed cheering them on and taking pictures.



I even made a celebratory card for the event. This is Stella with an olive on top…and you might say it is me at the finish line, sipping a Cosmo and congratulating them on their efforts. I might have been doing that if it wasn't pouring rain. She is coloured up with my copic markers and I used various nesties to mount her on. The paper is some Crate paper that has been in my stash for quite a while.

I’ll leave you with some pictures of the event and then I'm off to paint my bathroom!

Pre race, look how happy they are, even if they know they will be spending the next 2 1/2 to 3 hours in the pouring rain!



This was my first photo stop along the route and I managed to spot Jenn in the crowd. Sadly, I lost Heather, but I'm sure she is in there somewhere.



Stop number two near Lasalle Park. It was much easier finding Mark here since the runners were thinned out. There he is, waving hello.



And here are the runners post race, Mark, Jenn and Heather. Look at them, still happy! I suppose I would be happy too if I just ran 30K in the rain and was still alive to tell about it.



So, this post is a toast dedicated to all the runners out there and their loyal fans who stand out in the rain to cheer them on! (and Jenn...how does it feel now that you have been blogged!...LOL!...mark warned ya! Jenn's husband John wants to be blogged, but we don't know that he has any talent.)

Felix the Cat, The Wonderful Wonderful Cat...

Do any of you remember that song??? I’m probably hinting at my age by saying I do…I’ve even had the silly tune stuck in my head for two days since I colored up this little Felix Ketto stamp. He doesn’t look a darn think like the original Felix…he is WAYYYYY cuter. I also drastically strayed from the original black and white Felix colors and went with something totally funky and chose a pink and orange color scheme. The background was done by stamping the small and medium circles from Stamping Bella’s circle shadow set with Memento inks and overstamping with Anise Ketto’s Flowers. Felix was stamped in Brilliance Graphite Black and colored with my copics. (Except for the grass and sky which were done with my Lyra pencils) In keeping with the circle theme I cut him out with my Nesties, and for the final touch added a bit of glitter and some ribbon!

I think he is purrr-fect!

Now don't forget about this weeks challenge. You have an extra week to play and the colours are totally bright and cheery, just what we need to bring spring on. Email your card to Emily by April 2nd at 5pm with BELLARIFIC FRIDAY APRIL 3rd in the subject line. You'll have a chance to win $10 bella bucks. And when she posts the challenge cards, don't forget to comment because she will draw for more bella bucks. So make a card and leave a comment on post day and you have a chance to rake it in!

Happy Birthday Mom and Dad!

Yesterday was my Dad's birthday and tomorrow is my Mom's. This is the card i made for Dad and is reminiscent of his early days of hunting and fishing. I grew up eating all kinds of wild game but I drew the line when he went to the Sportsman club and brought home leftover muskrat! Eating something with the word rat in it just doesn't seem right. I made my Mom's card a while back and have been keeping it hidden from her. I did post it and you can see it here, but I know she doesn't read my blog so no fear of her seeing it.

This is an SU set called Wildfowl and I bought it a while ago specifically with Dad in mind. I coloured it up with my pencils and a bit of gamsol, cut it out with my nesties and the background hounds tooth is a Cornish Heritage Farms scrapblock.

My brother and his family drove down from London for the day and we headed to our fav Italian restaurant in Windsor for dinner. With my parents in Windsor, us in Chatham, and my brother in London we don't get together as a family all that often so it was a wonderful day!

Happy Spring!

Even though it didn't feel much like spring here in the last couple days I made this row of 'kinis to help bring on the warmer weather. Now myself, I don't wear a bikini....good grief...it is enough for me to just put on a bathing suit and we even have a pool in our backyard! But I have a friend who looks fantastic in a bikini and she is always busy 'tanning'. I think i may use the you glow girl sentiment on the inside and give it to her. HeeeHehehe!

I think this stamp is just so fun! I coloured it up when I was at Paula's last weekend and had no paper in front of me...just picked some random copics and went at it. Well, when I got home, I started looking through my paper stash and came across this Basic Grey paper. It was perfect, except that my blue bikini's were purple! No worries because copics are VERY forgiving....I just went over my purple suits with blue markers and voila! Now they are blue and match my paper. Yet another reason to love that extravagant copic purchase! I added lots of glitter and now these 'kinis just glow!

Thinking of copics...I want to show you what I bought on that Paula visit. Pauline and I stopped at the new Hobby Lobby in Canton and I printed off some 40% coupons for us. This is what we bought with them! It is made by The Paper Studio and was only about $15 with the coupon. I had a smaller one that I bought at a scrapbook show in London and I used to keep my sketch markers in it, but now I have ALL my copics in ONE handy dandy case, and with the handles, it is perfect when I want to tote them around. This afternoon I spent a good chunk of time reorganizing them in color families and I even made a divider for the large side so they would stay contained easier. I tell ya, I could spend all weekend puttering around and reorganizing stuff. It's my fav way to spend the day. Those pencils you see there are a Lyra skintone set that I also picked up at Hobby Lobby. I haven't used them yet, I may just 'admire' them for a while. The polka dot thing behind the pencils is a tray that came with the bag and I'm pretty much using that and the pencils to take up space until I finish off my copic collection.

Now don't forget to check in on the Stamping Bella blog tomorrow for our next challenge. And remember, there is LOT'S of time to play because we will have two weeks to complete this one because Emily is skipping next Friday!

Well, that's it for today. Let's hope for some warm weather soon so that everyone who looks good in a 'kini can get one on soon!

Another Bellarific Friday!

I gotta confess, I really lucked out on this one! When I was visiting Paula Saturday I colored up one of my new Ketto's in one of my fav color combo's. I had just finished putting the card together when Emily posted the challenge. I almost FAINTED when I saw it...I looked at the colors, looked at my card and said to hubs...CHECK THIS OUT....I couldn't have matched better if I started from scratch! It must have been mental telepathy!

I paired her up with the Bloom and Grow collection from My Mind's Eye. I love the colors and all the patterns. I picked them up on my Paula road trip and scooped one of each pattern they had, thinking in my head that I could possibly swing mixing up a couple of them on a card. Well, I did bring myself to use three! But I also think I managed not to stray too far from my clean lines and simple style. My BFF Kathy is even surprised that I am using circles these days because I tend to keep things very 'square'...LOL! Yes, Kathy I'm branching out! Maybe one day I might even round corners on the pics in my scrapbooks...but don't hold your breath! LOL!

I colored her in copics, added liquid pearls on the fringe and glitter to her wings and her skirt...in my opinion, all wings need glitter! I also positioned her 'hovering' over the grass which was done with pencils. With her little toes pointed down it almost looks like she is ready to take flight. Maybe she is an angel that just got her wings.

I love my little Agnes Ketto and hope you like her too!

Happy Retirement!

Sadly, not my retirement! That is wishful thinking...I still got some years left in me. But I long for the days when I can get up, take poochie for a morning walk, tidy up the house a bit then spend a couple hours stamping in the afternoon before I start cooking a wonderful meal! Yup...that is my fantasy. But with both boys (twins) heading off to university in September it seems more like a pipe dream right now!

Anyhoo...hubs needed a retirement card. I asked him if he wanted something pretty and 'old' looking, or something 'FRESH AND FUN'....he said FUN!...so Stella rose to the occasion! You all know how much I love Stella so any opportunity to use her makes me happy. I also wanted to say something fresh and fun, something that Stella would say, so I chose two Stamping Bella sentiments, Life is a Party for the front of the card and Sit Back Relax for the inside. I thought it was a perfect reflection on how I want my retirement to be!

The paper is October Afternoon and I bought it on one of my stops on the way to Paula's on Saturday. Image was colored with copics...my medium of choice for Stella...except for the grass which was done with pencils (my medium of choice for grass!)...and lots of glitter. Since I knew many people would be signing the card I made the inside pretty too and added strips of DP to finish it off.

The layout for this card was inspired by Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge. A fantastic layout and one I'm sure to be using again. Thanks Taylor!

Now don't forget to play along in this week's Bellarific Friday. Nickabella has outdone herself again with this inspiration. The colors are to die for yummy! Send your submission to Emily by Thursday at 5pm and don't forget to put BELLARIFIC FRIDAY MARCH 20th in the subject line.

Dare to be different!!

First off I'm still reeling from my Paula visit yesterday! Oh what fun we had, and OMG what eating we did! You should go check out her post because I think she included her mom's bread appetizer recipe. Seriously, I could have maken a meal out of it. I think my two weeks of hard work on the elliptical was blown in one afternoon. This was my first trip to Paula's house and I can see where she gets her inspiration from because when you are there it is ALL AROUND YOU!!! So fun! I think her daughter's bathroom should be one of Bellarific Friday challenges.

Today's card was inspired by the sentiment Dare to be different and it fits so many of the Stamping Bella images. For this one I chose Bloomin' Pots with Basic Grey's Marrakech paper. I colored it up with pencils and gamsol and added a funky bright ribbon. I also added crystal laquer to the orange pot to pop it out. It really is a fun pretty funky card!

Well, off to make something fat free for supper!

What a week!

I'm still spinning over the Ketto release, then there was Bellarific Friday and this afternoon I took some time off work to spend it with my BFF from grade 1 thru infinity who I have not seen in almost TWENTY YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was like I had just seen her yesterday...but with years of stuff to share! She looks FANTASTIC and we are already plotting our next outing! If you are reading Cathy, I'm still smiling!!!!

Now, one more cute story before I get on to my challenge card. The hubs had cataract surgery on Wednesday and as they were wheeling him down to the operating room the nurse looked down at his chart and said..."Are you the Bellarific Babe's husband?"....bwwwwhwhwhwhwhahahahahahaha.....poor guy, he really likes to stay anonymous and now he is known as a Bellarific Babe's husband! I may start calling him Bella-Babe-a-hub-a-bella! Bwaaahahahahah! OMG....he'd better not read this or i'm in trouble!

Okay, enough goofy stories 'bout my week and on to the card. I had a bit of trouble with the colors on my monitor and mistook the ivory for white, BUT I think I got the blue red and black figured out. This is Chatty Cathy and she is one of my fav's of the Chichi's. (but that is a weak statement cause i love ALL the chichi's). Anyhoo...when I get a color challenge I pull out the colors and place them in front of me. Then I flip thru my bella bindah and gaze at the images trying to decide which one would look good in those colors. There was something about these colors that reminded me of my Cat in the Hat Beginners Dictionary that I had when I was a kid! And Chatty Cathy could very easily be a Dr. Seuss character with that little pixie face of hers. So the decision was made, Chatty Cathy got center stage! I colored her with my copics, the ribbon is a misc piece from my stash and I think the paper might be Memory Box, but not sure about that either!

So to top off a wonderful week, tomorrow I am heading to Paula's with my BFF Pauline. I'll have my pencils and copics in tow along with my Bella Bindah's! We will eat, stamp, color, chat and laugh! I'm so looking forward to seeing those gals again! And as a bonus, since I now have a GPS there is no excuse for me getting lost on the way home!

Hope you have a Bellarific week just like I did!

That 70's show

If you are as old as I am you didn't watch the 70's show...you LIVED IT! My boys used to watch it, but when I was their age I watched Happy Days. One day I showed them a pic of my high school graduation and they HOWLED!!!!....they took a look at one guy and said..."It's Fez!"...Now, I'll admit, I've never watched the 70's show myself...as they say..been there, done that! However, when Emily came out with the daisy fridge and oven I couldn't help but recall those 70's days!

Fortunately we did NOT have avacado appliances in our house, but ....don't laugh.... i have an avacado fridge in my basement. How do you think I got the color so perfect..LOL! Honestly, I did NOT buy it, it was given to us to use as a second fridge about 15+ years ago and the price was right so we took it! I keep hoping it will konk out one day but the darn thing just keeps on tickin'.

That avacado fridge was the inspiration for my card today along with some nice retro papers from the Basic Grey offbeat collection. I even used more than one patterned paper on my card just to accentuate that 70's look! It was hard for me, but I did it in honor of my '78 high school graduation class! The entire card was colored with copics and the little dots are also from Stamping Bella.

Don't forget about Bellarific Friday. This is your inspiration and if you haven't got your card to Emily yet, there is still time! Email you submission to her by 5pm Thursday to get a chance to win bella bucks. AND if you haven't commented on the Ketto's yet you can do that here for you chance at $50 bella bucks!!!!!!

Shoppabella Sunday!

If you are as old as I am you can remember the days when stores were closed on Sunday's in Ontario! Living in Windsor if we were in the need for some retail therapy we would hike across the 'pond' to Michigan and do some shopping there! Boy how times have changed!

Anyhoo...I had a busy couple days. First off was the Friday excitement with Emily posting those TO DIE FOR Ketto's! And I gotta say I am sooooooooo envious of those peeps who live close enough to the bootique to get your inky fingers on them before I do! HMPH! But as they say, all good things come to those who wait!

After the excitement of Friday I went out for dinner with friends to celebrate my BFF Kim's b'day. well...a few glasses of Merlot and it was after 1am before I hit the pillow! Normally I could handle that, but I had to get up at 5:30am for work! YIKES! I was fortunate enough to be able to work from home so I didn't have to get out of my comfies. Since I had an early start on the day I decided to get some colourin' in and the shopabella's said 'pic me'.

This was one of the first Bella images I ever bought and has sadly never hit ink until yesterday. AND another realization I had when colourin' these little bella's was that I REALLY need new glasses! But I persevered and at an arm's length got them done! AND I LOVE THEM!!!!!!!!!! See that one on the right...that's me! I'm not a frilly girl like the one on the left and god forbid I wear a halter like the one in the center! I also must have been feeling really creative because I got out my .005 marker and gussied up their shopping bags with some funky stripes. I am pretty sure they were shopping for purses because they are all carrying very glittery purses, a sure sign of a love affair! And do you see that hot fix crystal on the bag in the lower right corner...I think I have a purse just like it!

Here is to all of us who live vicariously through a Bella!

Are You Ready!

For another Bellarific Friday…AND the release of the Ketto's. If you have not seen them yet you will just DIE!!!!!!! I tell ya, as a working girl Friday’s have always been my fav day of the week but now with these challenges it just gives me something else to look forward to! Go home, sip on a glass of Merlot and look at all the wonderful creations. (yes, I am a self confessed Winobella!...a tad bit of a Cosmobella too!...i feel a card coming on!) And I am seriously loving these challenges. There are some REALLY talented sistah’s out there. My google reader is overflowing with all the blogs I’ve added in the last couple weeks.

For this challenge I chose the Daisy VW…I have both the guy and the gal version of the van and they are just way to fun! The color combos could be endless, but I stuck with the challenge. I used my copic markers on this one, except I used pencils for the grass. I much prefer the look of pencils when I’m gonna do grass. Hubs and I have a friend who keeps telling us that we are gonna need a bus like this when we go ‘touring’ with Dave (as in Dave Matthews) and tailgate before the concert. Dave is a jam band and has a lot of hippie followers…but I don’t think I’ll be wearing tie die any time soon. Oh, one more thing...that little daisy on the license plate was drawn on by yours truely! I don't draw AT ALL, but a teeny weeny flower I can handle!

Hope you enjoyed this week’s challenge as much as I did! Now go get yourself some Ketto's because I'm sure as the sun sets, you'll LOVE THEM!

Someone's having a baby

I have had this Pregabella all colored up in my stash for a while but she had not made her way on to a card until now. Likely because I colored her to give to a co-worker, but just never got around to finishing it. Now that her baby is about 8 months old I think I’m a little late. I’m just awful about sending cards…sad isn’t it? Kinda like a plumber who has leaky faucets in his house!

Anyhow, hopefully someone in my circle will have a baby and then I can use her up because she is way too purty to sit in a drawer. I colored her with my copics and the patterned paper is Basic Grey. The sentiment is also from Stamping Bella and if you don’t have any yet, you really should check ‘em out because there are a LOT of them and in typical Emily style, they are fresh, fun and funky! The big flowers are Maya Road and I held them together with a Kajinker Gem. I gotta say, that kajinker is something I thought I could live without but I find myself going to it quite often.

Now that I look at this card again, it could ALMOST qualify for this weeks Bellarific Friday color challenge…but I have another one for that! Now don’t forget you have one more day to get your card done to enter the challenge. Email you submission to Emily with BELLARIFIC FRIDAY MAR 6 in the subject and you could be the winner of $10 bella bucks.

sorry for the late post! It helps if you hit 'publish'!

Special Request

My Aunt had a knee replacement a couple days ago and while she is recouping my cousin is doing her laundry so my mom asked for this particular card. I bought these stamps years ago when I first started stamping and when my mom had hip replacement a few years back I made a similar card for her because my dad was going to be doing the laundry. Now, in our house, hubs does most of the laundry, so if he ever gets laid up, I may have to make one of these for him! LOL!!!!

Anyhow, the stamps are from Stampouri and each one is individual. You sort of make your own scene. I also have some little stuffed animals that could be hung on the clothesline to dry. So, it's not a quickie card, that's for sure, it requires some thought on where you are going to place the images, what you will mask, etc. I stamped this in versafine and used my prisma pencils and gamsol for the colouring.

Inside, the sentiment is computer generated (the same thing I put in my mom's card way back) and I decided to edge the lining with my martha punch. I like to add liners to my cards, and usually stamp something simple on the inside. However, after an hour of colouring I didn't want to look at another stamp so I opted for the lace edge instead.

On another note....I just wanted to say WOW...thanks for all the wonderful comments on my white space card! And here I was afraid I might bore you all.

And don't forget to play along with Bellarific Friday. You can check this post on Emily's blog for this weeks color challenge. It's a yummy one and soooooo springy!!! And OH MY!!!!!!!!! when i scooted over there to get the link I see she has a sneak peek posted...must go see!

White Space

I read all the time that people have trouble making a card and keeping it simple. Me, I'm the complete opposite. I have trouble using more than one patterned paper on my card. Actually I once told my mom that if I had my way all of my cards would be white, with a simple dry embossed frame and a pretty little colored image sitting in the middle gettin' all the attention.

So when I saw Stamping Bella had these little purses in the Cilla Rose Collection I immediately thought of colouring them up in nice bright colors and giving them center stage on a pure white card. I think if I mounted them singly like that it would make a nice little set of note cards to give as a gift. Emily...if you are reading, I would LOVE to have some really cute single shoes to go with these purses!

On to the details...I colored these little purses with my copics, cut them out with my nesties and mounted them on another piece of white paper. then I embossed the edge of the card with my scor pal and cut another piece of white paper to sit just inside that scor line. The sentiment is also from Stamping Bella and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that font! Actually, I love everything about this card!

Enjoy!