Oh Canada!

I thought it was a fitting title since Winter or Winter Sports is the theme for this weeks Bellarific Friday, AND the Olympics are on...AND they are in Canada...AND we won another gold last night. I've never been a fan of competitive sports myself, but I guess it is a pretty big deal for some, including my better half.


Due to my lack of sports interest I don't actually own any winter sports stamps! SHOCKING....guess that means I'd better get some just for an occassion like this don't ya think? So I borrowed daisyboardabella from sistah Paula and she gasped when I said I was gonna color her in a funky lime green outfit. I'm like...what?...if some strange alignment of the planets were to occur and I actually decided to take up a sport such as snowboarding I would SO wear something funky and lime green. Heck, I'd need them to find me when I landed face first and got buried in the snow. LOL!!! I just had a visual! It wasn't pretty.

As usual, she was coloured with my beloved copic markers and I added some shading with prismacolor pencils in gamsol. If I looked so good in a snowboarding outfit I just might try it!

One more sleep girls!!!!!!!!!! See ya tomorrow at bella central! Until then, hop on over to Bloggabella later today and pass the time gazing at what all the sistah's have been up to. Or, if you've got those creative juices flowing maybe you want to get a head start on next week's challenge. POLKA DOTS...Polka dots big and small, we love them all! Your polka dots could be in your image, on your patterned papers, in your embellies, whatever.

Have fun with polka dots!

Three More Sleeps

Yup...that's how many sleeps until my Bella visit...I always get sooooooooooo excited in the days before a bella trip! Now I understand they are calling for snow the next few days, 5-10cm per day, that would be 2-4" for my American friends. But no fear...they are not predicting fast heavy snowfall so that should give the road crews plenty of time to keep things clear and safe on the roads. The hubster is coming along with me on this trip...I think he plans to do a bit of shopping...might even pop in to see his 'personal dresser' at Harry Rosen...LOL!!!!!!!!!! Okay, he does NOT have a personal dresser but on his last trip to TO he bought a pair of pants there and a couple days later got an email from his salesperson wanting to know if he wanted a personal shopper....LOLOLOL!!!! I can't stop teasing him about it. Maybe I can talk him into popping his face in and saying hi....he's a cutie!!!!


Alright...on to business...today's card! I mentioned I'll be needing some baby cards in the next little while so last night I thought why not give it a head start. I pulled out Pookie Lollipop and my copics and got to colorin'. I knew I wanted to add some pencil shading to the petals and pot so I started with those first so they would be good and dry before I went at it with pencils. Quite often if I have time, I will color something in copics and let it sit overnight before I take my pencils to it. I don't know why, but my copic colouring always seems to look better, softer and more blended the next day. Weird! But none the less, it always seems one notch prettier to me if I add just a teeeeeeeny tiny bit of pencil to it.

If you are interested in using copics with pencils and OMS check out these blog posts for some great info and inspiration! (These are from two of my GO-TO copic blogs....LOVE BOTH these sites!)
Copic Creations Challenge 12 - Copics and Pencils
Marianne Walker - using pencils to lighten areas
Marianne Walker - pencils and markers part 2
marianne Walker - pencils and markers part 3

Well folks...I'm off to walk the pooch and then come home to do a bit of laundry and some last minute organizing for Saturday's class.

Feels like Spring!

I don't know what the weather was like in your neck of the woods, but it felt like spring was in the air here in Chatham this past weekend. Oh, it was still cool...temps just over zero (in the mid 30's for my American friends) but it was sunny and the snow was melting. It made for messy walking for me and the Bessie girl with all the wet sidewalks, but so nice to be outside.



To celebrate the sunshine, and wish for an early spring, I pulled out i-wish-i-looked-so-good-on-a-bike-abella. She is such an appropriate image for me cause there is a little Bessie girl riding on the back! However, I would NEVER get my girl to sit still in a basket on a bike, one squirrel or another dog and she be gone in a flash! AND she would never allow me to put a bow in her hair...more so, hubs would NEVER allow it...LOL! But the thought of it is something I can wish for! Did you notice what I did to the basket? I took my .005 marker, held my breath, steadied my hand, and added the weaving to make it look like more of a basket! Gotta admit, I'm pretty proud of that little piece of artistic mastery since I can't draw worth a darn!

Don't forget....this week's theme is winter or winter sports! Even though some of us are wishing for spring....winter ain't gone yet so let's at least try to embrace it while it is still here!

Color Challenge Friday

Happy Friday Everyone! I don't know about you but I am certainly doin' the happy dance! So what did ya think of our color challenge this week, I loved it. And because I loved it, I chose another lovey image and pulled out Green Bean Baby's Valentina poking her little head out of a heart shaped box.

As much as I loved these colors, the only place I could work the blue in was in was to create some shading around her. I am anxious to see what everyone else came up with.

Another thing I am anxious about is my upcoming class at Stamping Bella!!! Are ya coming? I know I've got a couple new faces I have had the pleasure of meeting at bellaland and look forward to seeing them again...hi Christine and Carolyn!!!!!! Eight more sleeps!

Our Challenge for next Friday will be Winter or Winter Sports. If you have turned your television on this past week you would know that the Olympics are in Canada this year. Have you been watching them? Me, a little bit but I'm certainly not glued to them. In keeping with the Olympic theme, pull out those Stamping Bella Winter, or Winter Sports themed stamps and get creative. If you don't have a winter sports stamp you could always pull out any winter themed stamp and get a super head start on one of this years Christmas cards!

A Bella, A Fella and a baby

Hi everyone! I'm in need of a baby congrats card for a co-worker who is expecting her first little bundle of joy! I gotta say, at all of 5ft tall, she is making a pretty darn cute mamma to be!



I pulled out Stamping Bella's Babyfellabella for this card, and the funny thing is that this fella really does remind me of the dad-to-be...I think it is the short, yet styled hair and big broad smile that is doing it! As always, they were stamped with Brilliance ink on Bella's bestest paper and coloured with copic markers. Do I really have to keep saying this????? LOL! AND, to no ones surprise, I added some shading around the image with pencils and gamsol. No pencils were used on the image this time though. The paper is from Memory Box and this little mom-to-be is also a fellow stamper and I know her style is very clean and simple so apart from the photo corners, no embellishments were used! Not even glitter! I also kept the colors rather gender neutral since I don't whether there is a boy or girl in that oven.

Well, it's only 8:30 here in Chatham but it feels like about 10pm for this tired babe! I think it is gonna be a cup of tea for me and call it an early night!

Vintage Izzie

I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the Izzies and this Izzie has a daisy is my fav. I CANNOT wait until Emily releases more of them. I'll be getting the ENTIRE collection for sure.


When I showed Paula this card she said it looked just like hers...but I'd like to point out that mine has a coral skirt with a pale aqua jacket and hers was pink and soft blue! Just wanted to get that out there! She is so vintage looking I knew I wanted to pair her up with lace so I pulled out this very wide piece from my stash that I bought a while back at a local fabric store. A little bit of stitching and a demure bow out of satin edged ribbon was all it needed.

She was stamped on Bella's bestest paper with Brilliance graphite black ink and coloured with copics. I couldn't get the shading quite right with the copics though, so most of the shading was done with pencils and gamsol.

Like I said yesterday, it was a holiday here for some of us in Ontario. I did a bit of colouring and worked on my card for the Friday challenge. Well...I knew I wanted this certain piece of orange ribbon and do you think I could find it...so I pulled out my ribbon drawers and this is the mess that faced me! Needless to say I spent a good chunk of time organizing those ribbons! LOL! Not exactly how I wanted to spend a 'free' day off work, but it was time well spent.

Well, that's it for today, an Izzie and a ribbon mess!

Where does the time go?

I just realized I did not post my Bellarific Friday card yet! I guess I was so consumed with going out with friends that evening and our boys coming home for the week that I was a bit preoccupied. Yup...the boys are home from school on what they call Reading Week....I'm not exactly sure if they have read anything yet besides the captions on x-box though! Yesterday I was also having a bit of anxiety over working all day and then cooking for 4+ adults again. I've gotten kinda accustomed to just winging it for Mark and I. Needless to say I pondered over some cookbooks yesterday morning to get the mojo going and planned a couple crock pot meals. Good thing that tomorrow is also holiday for some of us in Ontario so that is one less hectic day to worry about.



Anyhoooooo....how is your Valentines Day going? I got a little surprise from the hubs this morning and he bought me a new charm for my Thomas Sabo bracelet! A little black dress...wicked cute! I didn't buy him anything, but I am cooking up blackened filet mignon for dinner tonight and that is making my entire fam a happy group! For my Lovey Do card I chose Eloise is in Love and I do think she is lovely! She was stamped with Brilliance ink on Bella's bestest paper and coloured with copic markers. The BoBunny paper was the inspiration for the color scheme but I did have a bit of trouble with the bright pinks only because I am not a lover of hot pink so I added a lot of soft beige shading around her with my pencils to tone it down a bit. I was pretty happy when it was done! Lots of glitter on her wings and some clear glaze pen on her shoes and heart finished her up.

Our challenge next week is a color challenge!!!!!!!!! What do ya think? Are you up to it? I know I am and as soon as I get off this computer I'm heading to the paper stash to find my inspiration. It is turqoise, pink and orange and since they are three of my FAV's I shouldn't have any trouble with this one. I'll be back tomorrow, with the card I was going to post today!

Leslie and Lori Lulu

Aren't they adorable! Gaze your eyes on Leslie and Lori from Stamping Bella's Lulu Collection.



As always...they were stamped on Bella's bestest paper with brilliance ink and coloured with copics. I've had this one coloured up for a few weeks but I do recall that I used only copics on the image and shaded around the edges with pencils and gamsol. I was asked how I do my shading with pencils. Well, I'm sort of at a loss for words and don't really know how to explain it without showing you...and paleezzzze don't ask for a video because a) i'm not photogenic! LOL!...and b) after working all day I just really don't have time to devote to it.

Having said that though, if you want to see a great pencil tutorial for grass, check out this tutorial that Paula put together for the Bella forum on Splitcoast Stampers. As for myself, I ALWAYS colour my image in copics first and add shading around the edge of the image with pencils to soften it up. I usually start with a light color, blend it out with gamsol, then add just a bit of deeper shading. Then sometimes I think it might need some highlights so I will use my white color pencil to lighten up some areas and if I want to add just a bit of deeper shading somewhere I might do that with a darker pencil. That darker color will depend on what color copics I used. For the smelly cat red chair I added white for highlights and I think probably a 90% cool grey for some really deep shadows.

Hope that helps a bit. Finally, if you have some valentine cards to make there is still time to join in on the Bellarific Friday Lovey challenge. Make any card with a LOVE theme and get a pic of you creation to Em by 5pm EST on Thursday for your chance at some bella bucks.

Smelly Cat

LOL!!!! That is what Paula said when I showed her this card....not that she thought it stunk...more that it reminded her of the show Friends! Hahahaha! I'd have to agree! I've always loved this miss you lots cat on a chair and have pondered buying it a few times then finally caved a while back. It has taken me a while to color it tho...NOT enough colouring time in my day I tell ya! If this were a dog it would remind me of my girl who sits on the back of the sofa looking out the window patiently waiting for me to get home from work. Every morning I give her a little peck on the head and say...momma's got to go to work...and she sulks her head while she looks at me with sad eyes....OMG...it BREAKS MY HEART!!!!!!!!!!!!



As usual, I did start with copics on this card....R05, 8, 29 and 59 for the chair. Then I took my pencils to it to add some highlights with white and shading with deep greys. I wish you could see this up close and personal because I really had a hard time getting a good pic and in person, the chair looks like it could be leather. Bright red plush leather! Oh I wanna just sink in it! This is another one of my cards which I call 'white space'....I really don't have a problem with lots of white space, actually, I REALLY like it and should do it more often. There is absolutely NOWHERE for your eye to wander except for the image....which is where it should go!

Are you all watching the superbowl? Me...NO! I did get the heads up from hubby that it was half time and just finished watching The Who.....oh the memories! I'm almost embarassed to say that I knew the words to EVERY song they sang! Remember that movie Tommy...OMG...I was OBSESSED with it! LOL! I said to Mark that maybe in 20-25 years we will be watching Dave at half time! hehehe! Did I mention that we have SIX....yes SIX...concerts lined up for this summer! WHOOOHOOOO!!!!!!!!!! And we may add Houston to the line up which will make SEVEN! SOOOO FUN!

Now don't forget....pull out those LOVEY stamps for this weeks Bellarific challenge! I've got mine done and it is sitting here looking all pretty and glittery just waiting for Friday.

In other news....THE PICKLE STORE IS NOT CLOSING....I repeat....NOT CLOSING! A birdie told me that those rumors were flying so I just wanted to get that out here. AND....I'll be teaching copic classes there starting in March! ARE YOU EXCITED! Our first class will be geared toward beginner techniques concentrating on basic shading and feathering but I'll spill anything and everything you wanna know! Copics will NOT be supplied for this class and you must bring your own. Please contact the store for more information. If you can't make a weeknight class, let the store know and if there is enough interest we'll see about a class on a Saturday.

That's it folks! See ya soon!

A sketchy Bellarific Friday

Hi everyone!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a sketch Friday today and I KNOW how you all lovey da sketches so I'm hoping for a good burst of joy later today when I go check out Emily's blog.




I decided to go for a flowery theme...what do ya think? It's a little early for spring but one can only hope eh! (how do ya like that Canadian slang?) This is Funky Freesias and I ADORE freesias...they were in my beautiful wedding bouquet that trailed down past my knees! Even with the very artsy bouquets of today's bride, which are nice, I still LOVE my ginormous trailing bouquet of fresh orchids, princess white roses and freeshia.

As usual, these freesias were stamped on bella's bestest paper and coloured with copic markers. I left the nestie in place and sponged some pixie pink chalk ink around the edges and when it was all glued down I added a good thick layer of ranger glossy accents to the glass jar.

Now for some non-card things before I get to next week's challenge. I happened to be looking thru the what's new section on Stamping Bella last night (YES...i was shopping!) and came across something so adorable I just need to share...it is a Cuddly Bear Girl Pink Baby Onesie...with My Beary Best Friend on the front....soooooooooooo cute! I'm not sure when it was added, and you may have already seen it but I had to mention it anyhoo because I thought it was sooooo cute! The other thing that caught my eye was this real dudes surf the web mousepad...I may need to get me one (or 3) of those for the dudes in my house! And did you read Emily's post about the Japanese masking tape! Well they are here and should be up on the website soon. YUP...I need me some of those too so my order may have to wait a couple days!

NOW it is time for next week's challenge...with Valentines day just around the corner pull out those LOVEY stamps and make a card filled with LOVE. We all need a Valentines day card anyhow...so here is your chance to get started. And how do you like us Babes giving you a heads up on the challenges? You get a WHOLE ENTIRE weekend to work on a masterpiece so there are no more excuses not to play....how 'bout in the spirit of the challenge we show Emily some extra LOVE this week and flood her with your creations! Let's show her the love!

Well, I don't know about you, but I've got a quiet weekend ahead of me and that means only ONE thing....this babe is gonna color!

CASE'ing a Sistah

Since Paula tried to draw you over to the pencil side with showing you how you can achieve some copic feathering techniques with pencils, I thought I would show you how to get that pencil look with markers! Fair is fair, right! LOL!



For anyone who may have taken a class with Paula you may recognize this image...YES I took that class too in Livonia. I melted over Lilly Bittybloom and the colors Paula chose and warned her that I was gonna post it one day! Well here it is with a twist....(don't hate me Paula!)...I colored this one in copics! It was a good challenge for me, and a good learning experience too because I had to experiment at layering different colors to get the same soft look and subtle shades as Paula brilliantly does with her pencils.

These might not be all the colors I used because there were so many on the table and some I used, some I didn't, but these are the basics. I started with B0000 with RV0000 on the lower right corner, but YIKES it was too bright so I went over the entire thing with C00 to tone it down. Then I added some B93 to the left side and shaded with C0 and 1. I probably went back with the B93 after adding the grey's. It was still a little too blue for the paper so I went over the blues with some G0000 and 000. Can you see a hint of the green below the bow? I was pretty pleased with how that turned out. Then probably B93 and grey's again to darken it back up where it got too light from the G's. Finally I took a darker grey pencil to just a few spots to add some deeper contrast.

This was a really good exercise for me because it made me think of using different colors together and achieving different looks! I'm pumped now! Paula has such a keen eye for color and I learn so much just by studying her cards. One last thing I should mention is that when I was finished I thought this card was worthy of another one of Meahni's mom's beautiful crocheted flowers!

In other news...my beloved Paper Pickle store is on the selling block! You can read all about it here. For all you ladies out there (or gents), if you have ever dreamed of owning an adorable store with a great customer base (peeps like me!...LOL!), here is your chance!

Pinch me!

The super talented Mary Giemza emailed me a couple weeks ago asking if I would be a guest designer for the Copic Creations Blog! For anyone who listens to me harp you should know that I think this is THE BEST copic blog on the WORLD WIDE NET! I seriously LOVE that site!

They have challenges the 1st and 15th of every month to spotlight a technique or color challenge. Not only to they provide links to tutorials for the featured technique, they also have a sponsor who donates a generous gift to a lucky random winner who plays along in the bi-monthly challenge. It is just a fantastic copic resource and for anyone who has asked me for tutorials I strongly suggest you check out this blog because it is all there right at your fingertips. It is MY go-to website and I hope it becomes yours too!

Without further ado, this is my card.



Today's challenge is Feather Blending and we are using the technique to showcase some new Victoria Case images being release by Susana's Custom Art & Card Design. This little one is from the Aurora Collection. Besides basic blending, feather blending is something I strongly encourage everyone to learn. It is so versitile and I use it on just about every image I color. If you've ever wondered how I do hair....it is just several layers of light feathery strokes using the feather blending technique. If you want a soft blend, add your layers while those beneath it are still wet, for crisper lines, wait until your previous layer is dry. Or like I do, add several layers while the colors are wet, then let them dry and add a few very light defined strokes.

If you have difficulty blending two shades of the same color family together, try feathering those colors together and you may find it easier. That is what I did on her hat. Or be daring and feather two different colors together like I did on her skirt. Use a light touch and ....Practice! Practice! Practice! Before you know it feather blending will become your #1 Copic Technique and will take your skills to a higher level!

Finally, I would like to thank Mary and the entire Copic Creations DT for inviting me as their Guest Designer today. You girls ROCK and I encourage everyone to check out their work!