Imagine This!

Your guy says to you "hey honey, let's go shopping, I'll buy you whatever you want, and I'll even carry the parcels for ya"! What would you do? Pull out Retailfellabella and give him a nice little thank you card like this with a sentiment that says oh happy day! Or, if you were me, you'd have to call 911 because I'd be going into cardiac arrest...LOL!!!! Okay, I'm just kidding, my guy is pretty darn good to me, NOW, he won't buy me anything I want, but he will carry parcels for me, and he doesn't even mind shopping.

I also think this card is VERY appropriate for today because have you seen the ***new releases*** over at Stamping Bella. OMG....that ketto clothesline is in my future, not to mention the new Lulu collection , Studio Petite AND some new Krista christmas images. Head on over to this post on emily's blog for a direct link to all the new images. AND to make it even easier on ya, there is free shipping on orders over $50 with this code...julyfs.

I'm gonna digress here for a bit, so skip on over this if you don't want to hear about it. But, one day a couple years ago we decided to go shopping at Great Lakes Crossing in Auburn Hills Michigan. It is shaped like a racetrack with stores in the center and stores around the perimeter. We parked at a center entrance. Just as you walk in there is an entertainment store, FYE which is in the center and two entrances, one on either side of the 'track'. We sync our watches, I go off and and he heads into FYE. Mark doesn't realize that the store has two entrances and enters one side, but exits the other, he leaves the store and gets his bearings as to where we are gonna meet. So now it is time to meet up. Usually when I get to the designated spot he is waiting for me, but not this time. No biggie, I just wait a bit longer. Twenty minutes later I'm thinking...hmmm...this ain't good! So i do a wander around the 'track' but cut thru a walkway just before I hit the entrance to FYE on the other side. I'm now getting a bit worried so I go outside to see if the car is still there. I'm thinking, I ran into him at Eddie Bauer and he told me that he just bought me Neil Diamond's new CD so why would he do that and then decide to dump me at a mall! So I go back to our designated spot. Suddenly all the security guys riding around on scooters seem more apparent and I think...OMG...he has been abducted! Someone snatched him, took him to the men's washroom and performed surgery on him to harvest his organs! I PANIC....just as I'm about to go to the security office to have him paged he shows up! He had been waiting on the 'other' side of FYE! I was never so happy to see him and after beating on his chest like a wild orangutan monkey we head on over to Carraba's for dinner where THREE, yes THREE glasses of wine were needed to calm me down! BWAAAAHAHAHAH! We have been back to that mall since, but he now uses the Liz Claiborne store as his landmark!

Bella and her fella were colored in copic markers and I also did some shading with the copics, but it wasn't doin' it for me so I took out the pencils to add some more!

For those who gotta know, here are the copics used in this image.
E50, 51, 53, 000, 00, 11, 13, 15
E41, 42, 43, 44
YR12, 14, 09, R0000, 00, 02, 05
BG0000, 000, 11, 02, 72, 75, 78
YG03, 25, 67
W00, 01, C1, 3, 5, 9

Now while you head on over to Stamping Bella to do some shopping, I'm gonna go wash those windows that didn't get done the other day!

No fair girl!

I just LOVE the name of this stamp, No Fair Girl...gosh, I don't know HOW many times I whined that while I was a little stinker! And then she's got that little hmph look going on! It is seriously just too darn cute! A bunch of little sentiments come with her and I used my stamp positioner to align a couple of them up for the tag.

I should be making a whole stash of these cards because even though I HAVE a whole stash of cards sitting in my house, I am THE WORST about actually mailing them out and I'm notoriously late getting birthday cards in the mail.

The paper used on this card is a piece of Making Memories that I bought last time I was at da bella's. I really love papers that have a border built into them because it gives a nice layered look without all the work! And heck, after I spent all that time colorin' I'm all about finding the easy way out. In case you are wondering, I typically spend 30-45 minutes to color an image of this size. Longer if they are bigger. Oh ya, and I finally got new specs so that should help to ease my pain, and if I'm lucky, speed it up a bit cause I'll spend less time holding the darn thing out at an arms length to get a good look at it! LOL!

I pulled the following copic markers for this image and stamped her on Bella's Bestest paper. All shading was done with pencils and Versa magic thatched straw was sponged on the edges:
E00000, 000, 00, 11, 41, 42, 43, 44, 47
E31, 15, 50, N0
Y11, YR02, 12, 20, 21
R20, 22, 24, 29
BG0000, 000

Stay-cation update: Last night was our final Dave Matthews concert of the season, so sad to see it come to an end but it was a fantastic show and he sang soooooo many songs from the new CD. We had great seats, 22nd row to the right of the stage. From there we could see into the side of the stage where they walk out and who was sitting watching daddy sing...Dave's twin daughters. They looked so unimpressed, not even toe-tapping! I'm sure it was just a run of the mill day for them. Oh ya, I got busted for taking pictures. You aren't allowed cameras at his shows but every other person seems to sneak one in and I am the one to get busted...likely because I was sitting on an aisle and the security people last night were like Nazi's! So I didn't get as many pics as I normally do, but I'll put this one out here just for my own personal enjoyment!

Copic VS Pencils

I occassionally get asked if I prefer copics or pencils. Honestly, I can't say I like one more than the other so a few evenings ago I sat on sofa and decided to take Butterflyabella and color one with pencils and the other with copics and compare the two. What do ya think? I would say I like the pants, grass and shading on the pencil image, but much prefer doing the tiny areas with my copics, like the shirt and the ruffle. And most definitely I like using copics for flesh which I did on both of these cards. And one thing I really like to do is color a base image with limited shading in copics and then go in with my pencils to add some depth! I'll show you that another time.


Are you wondering which image made it on a card? Well, I decided to use the pencil version and if you live nearby you can see it up close and personal because she landed herself a permanent home at Pickle.


I still have something else to tell you and that is how I did the flower. It started out a plain jane white flower and I know that some people take their copic air brush to them. Well, I have one of those...no surprise...but didn't want to pull it out. Instead I used a Judi-kins color duster and memento ink. Swirled the brush into the ink pad and dusted it on the flower! Voila! I also used the color duster around the edge of my image, but it was a little too bright yellow so I ended up sponging on some versamagic Wheat chalk ink over the yellow to tone it down. Another great tip I learned from Paula! One thing that isn't in the picture is that i added some glitter around the butterfly because it just needed to be there!

If you want to give this a try yourself, here are the colors used (even pencils, which I never do, mostly because I can't read the color on the pencil! LOL! new glasses coming soon to a babe near you!)

copics:
E000, 00, 11, 53, 55, 57
BG000, 32, 34, 07, 09, 72
R000, 81, 83, RV00
E40, 41, W3
YG13, G24, 94, 85, 99
colorless blender

pencil:
929 Pink
1029 Mahogony Red
992 Light Aqua
995 Aquamarine
933 Violet Blue
1095 Black Raspberry
943 Burnt Ochre
941 Light Umber
947 Dark Umber
1094 Ginger Root
1072 French Grey 50%

Have a nice day folks! I'm off to give my bedroom a good dusting and wash a couple windows!

It's here!

My glorius two week stay-cation has officially arrived. To celebrate I'm treating myself to a frozen Cosmo while I write this post (so please forgive any spelling mistakes! LOL!)


In honor of the pink cosmo I have a pink Curly Surpriseabella that I colored up for this week's Bellarific Friday. I tried really really hard to stay within the challenge, however I had to move my circle element down further to balance off my image otherwise my card was looking too 'top heavy'. I colored her up entirely with copics and added some liquid pearls to one of the packages...an idea that I snatched off of Paula. I really wanted to add some glitter but I just couldn't find the right spot for it.

Copics used in this image are:
V000, RV32, 34
E000, 00, C00, 0, 1
YR00, 20, Y000, 11
YG0000, 00, 21, 91
E31, 33, 35, 41, 57
W3, colorless blender

Now go head on over to Emily's blog because I took a sneak look this afternoon and saw she posted early today! Me thinks it was because she made a faboo card and wanted to show it off!

Addy is gonna get herself in trouble!

Happy Wednesday everyone! It's hump day and at the end of this week I have two glorious weeks of vacation. If I wrote out the million things I've got to do around the house it may not seem that glorious to some but I actually like to spend my vacation putzing around and getting things organized. When I'm working it seems I never have time to do it. And if the weather co-operates I may even find myself floating in my pool chair joining Addy with a martini! And of course I'll squeeze in some colorin' time!


As soon as I saw Addy 'tude who loves her 'tinis I knew she had to be mine, typically it would be a glass of wine in my hand but I've been known to enjoy a girly girl martini from time to time. This Addy even comes packaged up with the fun sentiment. The image was colored entirely with copics on my new fav Bella Bestest papah and I gussied her up with some glamour dust on her fur shawl, a rhinestone in her hair and clear glaze pen on her shoes and glasses. I used to use Ranger glossy accents for that bit of shine but the glaze pen is sooo much easier to use in the tiny areas.

Copics used in this image in no particular order are:
E000, 00, 01, 11, 33, 35, 37
BG000, 01
R30, 32, 35, 37, 59
YR20, 21, 23
G21, 24, YG67
W0, 1, 2, 3
C0, 1 and colorless blender

You still have a couple days to play along with this weeks sketch so hop on over to Emily's blog and check out what Karen Motzabella has in store for us this week! Did you know that I personally know two sistah's who have won bucks! What a small world! Oh and I just saw that Em is giving away FIFTY...YES FIFTY bella bucks and all you have to do is fess up a little secret about yourself! OOOOH, I can't wait to read all the comments!

Keep on cruisin'

What a beautiful sunny morning here in Chatham today despite the fact that it is only 14 degrees celcius at this moment...that is only 57 farenheit...what's the deal with that? It is late July, we should have heat and humidity! Now, I'm NOT complaining about the lack of humidity but I would like it to be just a tad bit warmer.

We had a wonderful BBQ yesterday enjoying our steak and lobster. I told my brother I was going to blog a pic of him at the grill and he wouldn't sign the release form...LOL...so I'll just give you a pic of my dinner...oh man, it was sooooo good!


My nephews birthday is also coming up this week so I was up late the night before getting this card finished. Since he is turning 16 and will be getting his beginner drivers license I thought it was appropriate to color up the peace VW...those little vans are so stinking cute! I used my copics and stamped the image on that dreamy silky bella paper. Hmmmm, now that I look at the pic I think I should have added deeper shading below the wheels. Oh well...too late now, it's gonzo! You may also note that I wrote my nephew's name on the license plate and it is clearly obvious that Paula will have NO competition from me on handwriting my own sentiments..LOL...LOL..LOL!!!

I think now I'll go check on the flowers outside and see if they need water and after that maybe just sit around and do some colorin!

Thanks for stopping by!

Doin' the Happy Dance!

Yup...doin’ the happy dance today!

Why you ask? Well, it’s Friday of course and I have the day off and I also have Monday off so nice long weekend for me. Today I need to do some house cleaning and get ready for our annual Steak and Lobster family event with my folks and my brother’s family. My brother, bbq’er extraordinaire, brings his camping cooking gear and he blackens the filets in a cast iron pan, then they are finished on the grill along with the lobster tails. I’m telling ya folks! My mouth is just a watering thinking about it. Maybe I’ll get some pictures if I can get people to keeps their utensils away from their plates for JUST ONE MINUTE!

And, because it’s Friday I have my sketch challenge to show you. Today's sketch was sponsored by our very own Joannabella. (don't ya just love how she takes all her pics in that GORJUS sitting room!) I chose Eloise Greengrass and colored her entirely with copics, no pencils! I added a little edge peeking out of the ribbon with one of my EK border punches. Now I must tell you another love that I discovered on my last trip to the BOOO-tique ...it's Bella's Bestest papah and it is hands down THE BEST paper I have ever used with copics, and I've tried them all. It is silky smooth and the colors blend effortlessly, one swipe of my marker and I fell IN LOVE!

Here are the copics used:
Face: E0000, 000, 00, 11, R21
Wings: E30, 21
Dress: RV000, BV000, 00, 11, shaded with W2, 3
Hair: E55, 57
Underskirt: E40, 41, 42 shaded with W3
Flower: Y00, 11, YR00, YG03
Blue sky: B000 and my B00 special blend
Shadow under feet: W0, 3, 5

Don't forget to head over to Emily's blog later to see what everyone else came up with. Now I'm off to Tim's to get a coffee BECAUSE MY COFFEE POT FRIZZLED AND FRIED AND THEN DIED!

Tri Shutter Card a la Amplee 'tude

I've had this Tri Shutter Card tutorial bookmarked for a while now and the other day I thought it was time to give it a try. I pulled out Amplee 'tude and got to colorin' with my copics. She is another sweetie with the 'big' hair and for this one I tried a more subtle approach and blended a bit more to soften all the hair lines that Gratty 'tude had. I actually colored two heads of hair, one with more prominent hair 'lines' and this one. Since I already posted Gratty I decided to finish with this softer version today. I can't say I like either one better than the other, they are different, and I like them both. But from someone who has very fine hair, I would take either of these voluptuous heads of hair in a heartbeat! LOL!

Onto the subject of tutorials, I gotta tell ya my tutorials would look NO different than any of the other ones already out there, it really is all about practice! Debbie Olson has recently posted this tutorial that is fantastic! She was, and still is, my primary go-to girl for all things copic. I've learned soooooo much from reading her blog. Bottom line, it's really about PRACTICE and PATIENCE! It can easily take me a half hour or more to color an image, blending is key and the more you blend the softer the look. When I compare the stuff I did a year ago to the stuff I do today I see DRAMATIC improvement! And, don't forget to check out Copic Creations and Marianne Walker's blog because there is a WEALTH of information on there.

Now that I'm done yammering (been doing a lot of that lately!), I'll get back to the card details! Little Amplee 'tude reminded me so much of my cousin's daughter so I decided to color her hair strawberry blonde to match Taylor's hair. I really think she even looks like Taylor! (if you are reading sweetie, this card could possibly be YOURS one day!). I love the sentiment and it comes as a package deal with Gratty 'tude.,

For inquiring minds, here are the copics used:
Hair: E30, YR21, Y23, YR23, E35, YR14
Everything else: E0000, 000, 00, 11, R21
R11, 32, 24, E41, 43
BG10, 32, 23, 05
Y000, 23
BOOOO, BOO(special blend*)

*the B00 special blend is another trick I learned from Debbie Olson's blog. I took an empty sketch marker and filled it with colorless blender and maybe 6-7 drops of B00 reinker. I let it sit for a bit to let the ink blend and now I have a perfect pale blue for softening off my shading. GENIOUS! Now COPIC is coming out with some new pale colors and B0000 is among them so maybe soon I won't have to do my special blend anymore! But that's not to say I won't be doing this with other colors in the spectrum!

For those finishing details....the embelishment on the inside was done with an oval cut from my nesties, the leaves are a quickutz die and the polka dot flat back is from Stamping bella. I thought it was a nice surprise to come upon when you opened up the card! Don't you agree?

On a FINAL note...DO NOT pass go, DO NOT collect 100 dollars...scoot on over to Emily's blog immediately to see this week's sketch designed by our sweetie babe Joanneabella! If you play along you could win TWENTY bella bucks and leaving a comment could get you an extra TEN!

See you all at the challenge!

It's all about the hair!

Happy Sunday everyone! How has everyone's weekend been so far? Mine has been pretty busy as usual. I had Friday off and spent the day working on images for my upcoming class at Stamping Bella. Then yesterday my BFF's Pauline and Kathy took a trip to Scrappin' and Stampin' in Livonia and took Paula's advanced pencil crayon class! I only managed to get three of the four images colored but I think I learned to be a bit more adventurous when selecting colors.

After class we headed to Hobby Lobby ...oh, I should say that was AFTER we ate a couple white castle's to see what the hoopla was about, and the three of us concluded we are NOT white castle fans...sorry Paula, but on the way to Hobby Lobby we went and had a Sammy at Quizno's! LOL! THEY were good! Okay, back to Hobby Lobby...Kathy scored the deal of the century and scooped up a Quickutz Revolution for $24 BUCKS!!! How's that for a great deal!


Okay, enough blabbering! My card today is Gratty 'tude and check out that hair!!!!!! Let me warn ya, you'd better not be in a hurry if you wanna do hair like that, but my labor paid off and she is stunning, if I do say so myself! On the topic of hair I want to direct you to this hair coloring tutorial I found via the Copic Creations blog. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor several times after seeing that one! For Gratty's hair I did loosly follow that tutorial and used the colors Mary listed. Sorry, I forgot to write down the other colors I used, but there really isn't much left after you do the hair..LOL! Pencils were used for the grass and shading and I covered the black dots on her dress with Ranger's white opaque pen. The dots in the flowers were done with Sakura Souffle pen and two layers of the clear glaze pen covered the hearts and the black of her shoes.

Have a wonderful day!

New Card, New SHOOOOZE, a Life Map, and an announcement

I'll start with the card, and then those who want to stick around and hear about my quirky personal side can stay and the others can leave! How's that for a warning! But you may want to scoot past the personal stuff for the big announcement!

You GOTTA know by now when it's Friday, its BELLARIFIC FRIDAY...this weeks sketch came together rather quickly for me, and I actually used THREE, yes count 'em THREE different patterned papers. Now, they are all Cosmo Cricket from the Chemistry line and not overly bold patterns so I could adjust! I did change my circle to an oval because it worked a little better with Cupcake with a Huggabug on top. I colored with my copics, no surprise there, but shaded with pencils...again NO surprise! The solid element at the bottom of the sketch was the perfect place for my cupcake thing sentiment which was embossed with some Zing chestnut EP that I brought home from my last Bella BOOOOtique visit. I went a little overboard with the glitter on the cupcake, but think of it as a nice sugared topping!

For inqiring minds, copics used in this image are:
R20, 21, 22, 24, 27, 29
E0000, 000, 00, 11
E50, 51, 53, 55, 57
E33, 35, 93, 95
YR14, YG17

Now, you can leave, and go check out Emily's blog and see if any of the Friday eye candy has been posted yet...

OR...check out my new SHOOOOOZE!!!!!!!!!! These are Toms, and for every pair of shoes you buy, one pair is given to a child in need. That in itself is enough to purchase a pair...BUT THESE ARE EXTRA SPECIAL...the graphics on this pair was designed by Dave Matthews are are only available to purchase on the Dave Matthews official store! SO YOU JUST KNEW I HAD TO HAVE A PAIR!!!!!!!!!!! I love them...their funky, comfortable, ECO friendly and will one day put a smile on a child's face! Could you ask for more?

Next up, my Life Map! One of the boys is heading to McMaster University in Hamilton come September and last week was an orientation day. Part of the activities was to create a Life Map and everyone was given a piece of paper and a marker. WELL, Mark suddenly felt a nature break comin' on and that left me and Derek. Derek wasn't too sure what to do, but ME...I took that marker and EASILY sketched out where I want my life to go in the next few years....Mark had it all figured out except for the broom! LOL!....he never sees me with one of those, but I said once I'm retired I may have some time to actually DO some cleaning around the house....LOL!!!!!!!!!!! So, thought you all might get a chuckle out of this and see if you can figure it out.

FINALLY.......BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!!!!

You've asked and asked and I've finally caved! I will be teaching a copic class at Stamping Bella on Saturday August 22nd. A morning and afternoon class will be available and spots will be limited. I'll spill everything I've learned about copics over the last couple years of playing with them, experimenting, PRACTICING, and reading the vast number of great tutorials out there on the WEB! It will be a hands on class, we will color three images and you will have the supplies to turn those into cards, but we WILL concentrate on copics and coloring! Are you excited? I am!!!

Here Kitty Kitty

Couldn't you just scoop this little guy up and snuggle his little face! Okay...you are probably thinking...paleeeeze...so I'll stop. But I do think he is pretty darn cute! His name is Meowy and he is from the Tiddlyinks Animal series. I colored him with pencils and gamsol because I was short on time...and it takes me a LOT longer to color with copics than it does with pencils.

I cut him out with my nesties, shaded the edges with my fav VersaMagic Thatched straw and mounted him very simply...remember, i was short on time...but despite the simple layout I'm really pleased with how he turned out. No glitter, no ribbon, just four little buttons to finish it off.

If you haven't been over to Emily's blog this week you'd better hop on over and see this weeks sketch supplied by the sketch diva herself, Jen. You still have lots of time to play so lets put a smile on Emily's face and shower her with submissions...and if that's not enough to convince you, remember if you play you have a chance at $20 bella bucks, leave a comment and that could get you $10 more!

Well, this post turned out to be short and sweet, just like my card today!

Thanks for stopping by!

YAAAAAARGH!

That's how I feel about now cause I almost forgot to write this up! It's been a really lazy day for me today. I got up and decided my 'catch all' drawer in my desk really needed some attention....well, two entire hours of attention is what it got. A whole mess of completely unrelated 'stuff' that needed to get relocated into a permanent position or trashed! I did trash quite a bit and I always feel cleansed after a good purge.

Then I putzed around some more and colored a bit but didn't make huge headway in the coloring department....was just way too lazy and unmotivated I guess. But we all deserve that once in a while so I'm not banging my head over it.


Yesterday we went to Windsor to check in with my folks for a bit and then headed to Cityfest in Detroit. My mom needed some cards and Little Johnny Depster was in the stash I brought to her. My nephew's b'day is coming up and when I ran a few cards past my boys they both picked this one....I think it was the YAAARGH that sold them! I even combined a couple different sentiments, Happy Birthday and Matey, for the inside and it worked out pretty good because they happened to be in the same font. I decided to use the soft Cosmo Cricket paper from the 'lil man collection to create a subtle backdrop against the bold image and I'm really happy I did.

For inquiring minds, copics used in this image are:
CO, 1, 3, 5, 6, 8
Black, Colorless Blender
Y11, 13, 15, 17, 26, 28
R24, 29, 59
E000, 00, 01, 33, 35, 42, 43, 44
B32, 34, 37, 39, 95

That's it for today! After a nice 5 days away from the office it's back to work for me tomorrow! YAAAAARRGH!

Sooooo Happy it's Friday!

Yes, I'm happy on so many levels today. First, I took the day off and spent the morning shopping then sitting and chatting with Kim at Pickle for a good long time, second we finally got light fixtures installed over the bathroom mirrors, and last but not least....it's bellarific Friday! This week's sketch was submitted by yours truely, I'm not a sketch person, you'll notice that most of my cards are mounted smack dab square in the center with maybe one or two designer papers behind it. But I'm branching out, trying new things and enjoying every minute of it! I just checked out the blog and it really made me smile that so many sistah's played along this week.


For my card I used Beach Hut and Ball with the Life's a Beach sentiment...love that sentiment...and trailed some bella dots behind it. And I also used pencils and gamsol for a change instead of copics. No particular reason, just wanted a change I guess. And check out my new EK dotted wave border punch...another treasure I came home with on my trip to Stamping Bella last Saturday. I love those punches, they are so dainty and the perfect size for cards and not to mention, they are SLIM so take up VERY little storage. The person who came up with that is pure GENIOUS! Oh, and thinking of pencils...I'll be making the hike to Scrappin & Stampin Livonia next Saturday to take Paula's class! I'm totally pumped! It's only about an hour and a half drive and it will be soooo worth it!

Well, I know it's only 8pm, but I think my day of shopping and holding up those light fixtures while Mark wired them up took the energy out of me. I'm gonna spend the rest of the evening just chillin' out on the sofa with the pooch. For all my American friends, have a great 4th of July tomorrow!