is it Spring yet?

Man, it has been cold and windy here in Chatham the last couple days. Yesterday is was so grey and gloomy it looked like it could snow! YIKES! I am NOT ready for winter....NO NO NO! Don't get me wrong, I do like cooler weather but just sweater weather. Not the entire ordeal of hats, boots, coats, gloves etc! YUK!



Enough whining! As I was sitting here in the kitchen the other day looking out at dying flowers in the pots I realized I really need to get out there and clean things up. But then I thought, I'll do that later....right now I'd rather be coloring so I pulled out Stella Digs it. Isn't she a cutie! I stamped her on Bella's Bestest paper with Memento ink and coloured her with the following copics:

E0000, 000, 00, 11
R20, 24, 29, 81, 83, 85, 89
BG0000, 000,G0000, 00, 24
YG41, 45, Y11, YR23, C0, 2
E41, 43, 53, 33, 35

Now for other exciting stuff! What are you doing on Saturday? Do you know that it is World Cardmaking Day? Last year on that day I told my family "don't bug me, I'm stamping" and sat at my kitchen table and played in the challenges on Splitcoast. This year is gonna be WAY more exciting than that because I'm gonna be at Stamping Bella teaching a couple copic classes. The little store will be BURSTING with activities so if you are in the area stop in and join the fun.

Finally, don't forget there is a challenge over at the Bella Blog. This week our theme is anything Fall or Halloween! Since I just recently posted cards with my ONLY two Halloween images I had to come up with something else so stop by on Friday to see how I improvised!

Are you thinking about Christmas yet?

I know I am, and I actually feel behind already. I typically start fussing around with Chrismas images on Labor Day Weekend, but with moving the boys, the cottage, and Toronto I've got myself a bit behind. Well today was the day and I pulled out Stamping Bella's Holly Ornament and got to work.



I tried a couple different things then settled on my Lyra's because they really haven't been feeling the love lately. And this year I have it in my head that I want my cards to be pink...I REFUSE to make a traditional red and green card...After it was colored I fussed it up with my versamark pen on the leaves and holly and embosses it with JudiKins Amazing Glaze. I bought this stuff at the Stamping Expo in Novi and it really is AMAZING! Nice thick SUPER shiney coverage. Then I added glitter and finally some gold liquid pearls. Click on the picture to the left if you want a super close up.



Then I thought....geeeze!...I'll never be able to color 40 of these for my Christmas cards unless I somehow win the lotto and can quit the day job. So I pulled out the mini version. Now these babies can be whipped up pretty darn quick. To speed things up I colored ball initially with copics (R0000,000,01, G82, 85, RV32, 34) then added some shading with the same lyra's as I used on the large image. For some odd reason though it looks kinda coral in the picture. Trust me, it's a super shade of pinky rose. Rather than emboss I used my clear glaze pen on the leaves and holly, added glitter and couldn't help myself but to add some liquid pearls on there too. Those are REALLY tiny area's so I don't know that I would do the liquid pearls again. I edged my paper with the EK success dotted scallop punch which is just dainty enough to not overpower this mini image. The card is 4.75" square and very pretty and very dainty.

I just think I may be coloring up a few more of these this afternoon.

Every stamp I own has a story...

...let's pretend this was our home prior to the boys leaving for school! This would be Derek, sucking up the bandwidth that I pay for so he can download season 'x' of House, How I met your mother, Seinfeld, or Lord knows what! I am NOT lying when I say for two months before they left for school I had warning messages from our ISP saying our usage was at 80 or 90%, or MAXED OUT. I would 'lovingly' forward those warnings to my teens and remind them that if they wanted free Internet here they would have to shave down their downloads just a TAD!



Because if this, when I set my eyes on Noah the Computer Guy I JUST KNEW I had to have him! Plus, it worked perfectly with this week's Bellarific Friday sketch. He is one of Stamping Bella`s new releases from the Green Bean Baby stamp line. Just to go off topic for just a bit...did you see that if you go to the Stamping Bella website and click on Stamps there is a category for New Stamps! How easy is that for all us stampers to zero in on new stamps!

Now, back to Green Bean Baby. Whenever Em introduces a new designer I ALWAYS check out their website, blog or etsy store and this release was no exception. Well...not only did Ellia create computer guy for me, she also has a batman embellishment in her Etsy store! Now, my other son (grown son) has a batman addiction and decorated his entire dorm room with Batman `stuff`...sheets, posters, toys, etc. So when I saw the Batman embellishment I just had to scoop it up. I`ll be framing it for him and when I get it done I`ll be sure to show you all the finished product....it is sooooooooooooo cute!

So for the details, the image was coloured with copics to match my new cosmo cricket 6x6 boyfriend paper. The shading was done with prisma pencils and gamsol and the edges with sponged with Versacolor Bisque ink. I accented his eyes with black gel pen and used clear gel pen on the world image on his laptop. The swirled arrow is a quickutz die that I bought at Stamping Bella a while ago.

Copics used:
E0000, 000, 00, 11, R20
E07, 41, 43, 44, 30
C0, 1, 2, 5, W3, 5
YG91, 95
BG11, 24, Y000, 15

Have a good weekend everyone and head on over to Em's blog later today to see what all the sistah's have been creating. I`m hooking up with my best friends from childhood and I know we are gonna have a good time!

It's here! It's here!

It is another release day over at Stamping Bella and she's got something for everyone today....stampers and scrappers alike. I got some sneaky peeks when I was there on Friday and I gotta say her journalling blocks are making me want to scrapbook again. I even got to do a little bit of 'shopping' in the pile of new images and I'm so excited to show you rumball with a cherry on top, even though I coloured my rumball pink! LOL!.



I colored it up with copics and added a bit of glitter on top and glossy accents to the cherry. The shading around the image was done with prisma pencils and gamsol. One final bit of bling was to cover the squiggle with liquid applique and sprinkled some glitter on it. I gave it a good 24 hours to dry then heated it just slightly to puff it a bit. It looks just like icing! Totally YUMMY!

copics used:
Y000, 23, YR12,14, 24
RV19, 21, 23, 34
R24,29

If you haven't been over to Emily's blog yet, jump on over now because she has TONS of new stuff to share and everything is just AMAZING!

On a personal note, Bruce Springsteen turned 60 today....that leaves me hope that Dave might be singing for another 20 or so years!

BEWARE!

Oh, don't be scared...that is the name of this adorable Beware House that is one of the newer releases from Stamping Bella and part of the studio PETITE line. It is also one of the images I coloured while I was away at the cottage so I don't have the list of copics used. Those girls kept making me move my stuff off the table so we could have somewhere to eat! The nerve! Anyhow, that is how my markers kept getting all mixed up and I didn't get the colors jotted down. All I can say is that I used a LOT of colors. And you might also see the little stepping stones in front of the house, they are not part of the stamp...I branched out, took a dare and drew them in with a fine copic multiliner. I added some glitter around the house and popped the windows with my clear glaze pen. If you ladies don't have the clear and black glaze pens in your arsenal yet, you really don't know what you are missing. One or both of those make their way on almost every one of my cards these days. I don't see the black one on the website, but I know she has it in the store (cause i bought more!) so if you want them, I'm sure if you email her she will get them uploaded.



Yesterday was one busy house here FILLED to the brim with crazy stamper ladies! I kinda felt sorry for Mark at times because the poor guy ran about 17 miles in the morning training for his upcoming Marathon and we were overtaking the majority of our small house! But it was fun, and Mark was a sport. Kraftin' Kimmie, our first timer, did not at all seem to be bothered by the craziness and fit right in like a cog in the wheel! And speaking of Kimmie...have you read her big news! If not...go check it out here! I'm not gonna be the one to spill the news.

Between concerts, bella visits, shopping, travelling I have been busy working on my next images for classes at the Boo-tique. October 3rd is the big day! Two different classes are in the works and if you haven't signed up yet, call the store for your spot!

Suzette

This week's sketch was presented by our Danabella and thankfully it was a nice easy one 'cause this babe has been BUSY....two back to back weekends away completely throws off my psyche. Not to mention two days after getting home from the cottage I was off to Toronto. Actually, as you are reading this I am probably on my way to the Bella Boo-tique to enjoy the company of Emily and Laura. Laura is down from Texas and as luck would have it I was going to be in Toronto the same time! She is a total sweetheart and I can't wait to see her again!

If you are wondering why I was in Toronto, well it was to see U2. We saw them last time they toured and they were FANTASTIC...this show was good, but I really think the Vertigo tour was better. The concert was at the Rogers Centre and although we had 4th row seats at side stage, we were still miles away because the place is so darn big...there were apparantly 62,000 peeps there. Cripe! That is larger than the population of Chatham! Can you imagine, we could stick ALL OF CHATHAM in that venue.

Anyhoo...on to this weeks card! Like I said, I loved the simplicity of this sketch and paired up Suzette Ketto with Basic Grey Indian Summer paper. She was colored with copics and shading was done with prisma pencils and gamsol. The edge was sponged with Thatched Straw chalk ink.


copics used:
E0000, 000, 00, 11, 31, 33
Y02, R20, 85, 89, V12
RV02, 32, 34, 91, 93, 95, 99

Have a nice weekend everyone. I've got another buzy but FUN day planned for tomorrow. Paula is coming over with Mary, Dana and Shannan....whoooooohoooooo!!!!!!!!!!! But not only that, we hooked up with Kimmie and Andrea when we were at a stamping show earlier this summer and they will be making the trip down from London. It's gonna be wild at the Heavens' home this Saturday with 8 crazy stampers!

Happy Happy Halloweenie!

I thought it was time I color up some Halloween images, now I don't actually send out Halloween cards, but this year with the boys off at school I thought it might me nice to send them a card. I'm sure if I put some money it it they will REALLY appreciate it! LOL!



I colored the Row of Pumpykins at the cottage this weekend SO I APOLOGIZE NOW....but I DO NOT have a list of copics used. I was sort of out of my element there and am lucky enough just to get this done because there was lack of good lighting and I didn't bring my ott-lite! You will also see I attempted sewing again...and AGAIN, got a slipped stitch! dratz! I really gotta switch out that microfibre needle.

I'll leave you with a few pics of the cottage I stayed at. Now I gotta tell you, I am NOT a cottage person, and I am NOT someone who generally likes to go off on weekend getaways, I am content in my little house. But I make an exception once a year for my BFF work-chicks and Bev always finds us an ideal spot. This year our cottage was more of a small quaint house and the only thing that was missing was Richard Chamberlain because that glassed in portion of the house with all the white curtains looks like it came straight out of the Thornbirds....my hands down fav mini series of all time!







Bye for now....be back in a couple days! Don't forget to check out the Stamping Bella Blog tomorrow for this weeks sketch.

The life of leisure! (I wish I had one)

Well folks…gotta keep it short and sweet today because I’m heading off to the wilderness! Okay, not quite, but I am going to a cottage this weekend with my chick-mates from work. Wine is packed, NEW canon camera is packed, and I am even gonna tote alone my markers to get some colorin’ in if time permits. Don’t know how much time there will be though because we are heading out for a fantastic meal tonight. Then tomorrow we will spend the afternoon at the Shores of Erie Winefest…wine tasting, food tasting, jazz, cooking demos…sounds like a pretty decent weekend now that I say it!



I changed up the sketch ONLY slightly this week and replaced the oval with a circle because it better suited my image. Isn’t she a stunner! I have a friend who thinks that cruising is her destiny so I thought the enjoy life sentiment was a good match. I stamped Captain Stella in her Dingy with memento ink on Bella's Bestest Paper and coloured her up with the following copic markers (water and sky was done with prisma pencils and gamsol):

E0000, 000, 00, 11
Y11, 15, YR21, 23, 24
E13, 35, 53
G20, YG23, 25
R20, 22, 29, 24
B02, 05
BV00, V12, 15, 17

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

I love Monday Holidays

It seems that whever the holiday lands on a Monday the week just seems to fly by, can you believe it's Wednesday already! If the day ever arrives that I can work a 4 day week I will most definitely seek out Monday as my day off.

ETA: sorry everyone, I guess I omitted some important details! the balls at the top of the posts have a nice thick coat of ranger glossy accents which is creating the shine. I also used black glaze pen on the flower dots below. The sky and grass were done with prisma pencils and gamsol. And finally, that beautiful white border (yes I LOVE IT!) was done with a Spellbinders Pinking Pierceability that I picked up in Novi.

The ketto clothesline has been calling my name ever since I picked it up on my last trip to Toronto. I bought all the accessories for it except for maybe one, which I will be adding to the collection VERY SOON. I will admit that my fav of the bunch is the ketto fancy dresses.




If there was ever a reason that I would have loved to be born very tall and very slim it would be so I could wear a dress like this. Flowing organza studded with beads and sequins....can you say Great Gatsby! It was one of my fav movies of its time and not just for Robert Redford, but for the wardrobe. My next fav movie for costume design would be Out of Africa...can you see a Redford trend here gals! Actually dressing up in a very tailored Khaki wardrobe is much more my style and I remember owning many an "out of africa look" outfit when I started working 25 years ago. I'd still be wearing many of them today if I could fit in them! LOL! Oh the woes of aging!

Enough reminiscing about Robert Redford and my desire to dress like Meryl Streep and on to the card. I was only able to fit two dresses onto the clothesline, but I'm thinking....if I selectively ink the image and only stamp the 'poles' at either end I could hand draw the clothesline and add as many images as I want! CHA-CHING! I just may have to do that in the near future. I tell ya, I could create a month of posts just with this set and it's accessories! Can you feel the love here!

Long list of copics used here gals so get out your pens, bookmark it, or whatever!
Y0000, 11 ,15, YG25
YR0000,000, 01, 02
R22, 24, 85, 89
RV0000, 000, 00, 10, 11, 32, 34
V0000, 000, 01, 12, 15, 95
C1, 2, 3
E41, 42, 43, 44

If you haven't played along in the Friday challenges, there was no excuse this week since you had a HUGE heads up on the sketch so I'm expecting to see a whack of entries ...and the sketch was a GOOD ONE so there are no excuses!

And there off!

As of this moment, and for the next 8 months we are empty nesters. There were no tears shed, no agonizing goodbye's, no depression....just excitement as they embark on a whole new life! I remember taking them to kindergarten that first day. Poor Derek had a look on his face as if I were walking him into a death camp and it broke my heart but I knew he had to go! Not today though...no fear...no anxiety...no hanging on to my coat tails....oh how they've grown!

I couldn't have let them go without farwell cards so I paired up some Whipper Snapper images with a couple new Buggawumps sentiments that I picked up in Novi.

For Alex, who bought himself Batman sheets for his dorm room I colored up Batman chicken paired with this sentiment...Life is just a leap of faith so believe in yourself, trust your heart and hang onto your cape!



And for Derek, our budding engineer who is a TOTAL car freak!....if it ain't barkin', don't fix it


And for Brenda, who thinks I'll have time for more posts! Not likely, I just may get more sleep now! LOL!

For those who are wondering, Batman chicken was done with copics and before you ask, I did not take the to time to record the colors, and Ford chicken was done with prisma pencils and Gamsol.

Lulu Love

Happy Sunday everyone!

After what seems like a summer of endless weekends of dinners, parties, commitments and/or travelling somewhere, yesterday was a TOTALLY relaxing day for me. Finished up some last minute packing for Derek who is off to school today and other than that, I just colored ALL DAY! Well, I did watch The Terminal with Tom Hanks in the afternoon and it was just the right amount of background noise. Not too intense so I was able to color and still follow along.



One of the fruits of my labor was Henrietta. I've got a couple Lulu's and I think this one might be my fav...of course I say that until I do up the next one! My first attempt at it was to emboss it in black and then watercolor it. I wasn't too happy with it, so i redid it in Copics on bella's bestest paper and then added black gel pen to her hair and skirt. MUCH HAPPIER with this version. The cherries in her hair were topped up with clear glaze pen and the cherries on her skirt were done with red liquid pearls. I also ended making up another 'special blend' copic with an empty marker to which I added about 8 drops of YR31 and colorless blender. That along with the YR31 marker is what I used for the glow around her. The shading under her feet was done with prisma pencils and gamsol. Finally, I sponged some Versamagic Wheat around the edge. Have you also noticed that Stamping Bella is now carrying Martha Stewart punches! I used the lattice border on this card.

copics used:
E0000, 000, 00, 11, 07
YR31, 31(SPECIAL) 65, 82, 09
R24, 59
YG03, 67, W0

Tonight we'll be packing up son #2 and shipping him off tomorrow, then come Tuesday we'll officially be empty nesters! Well, for the school year anyhow! I'll be back in a couple days with the 'offical' going away cards I made for them.

Happy 50th Max!

Max, if you are reading, you are a day early! I know it's not till tomorrow, so if you haven't got your card yet....stop reading NOW! That's Maxine, on the left celebrating my big birthday and to the right is Cathy. These girls are the best friends anyone could ever have and after life changes over the years kept us apart I'm so grateful to have them back in my life again.

Enough weepiness...but I seriously do love both these girls!...I agonized over what card to send Maxine. You'd think having hundreds of stamps (maybe even over a thousand!) I'd be able to pick something no problem. But I really wanted something pretty and pink because that is how I think of her, but it also had to have an element of fun and something that represented our life growing up! Since most of those years were spent at the Riveria Hotel on Dougall Ave (aka, the 'Riv') I decided Springtini would be most appropriate.


Usually after a night at the Riv I would head home, grab some clothes and tell my folks I was spending the night at Maxine's. Once there we were either greeted by her mom who would make us grilled cheese sandwiches (like it was 1am!...was she a saint or what?), or her sister Linda who would insist we ate burnt weinie sundaes! Those were the days! And if I was lucky, it would be a Saturday night and I would hang out all day Sunday so I could stick around for the Prime Rib and yorkshire pudding dinner!

Happy Birthday Max! Have a 'tini for me....I'll be having one for you!

ETA: Copic colors:
RV0000, 000, 00, 10, 11
RV21, 23, 25, R32, 37
Y11, 15, 26
YG0000, G20, 40, 82, 94
B60, 63, N0, W3, 7

Shading and grass was done with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. Edges were sponged with chalk ink.