Izzie is a Bunny

With only a few days until Easter I thought it was appropriate to throw an Easter card up on the old bloggo. Do you celebrate Easter? My family is Polish and Easter is a HUGE deal when it comes to feasting. Over the years we have scaled down the amount of food on the table (thank goodness!) but one thing remains on the menu...we call it Easter Soup, but the Polish name for it is White Barszcz. OMG...it is sooooooooo good!


I thought I'd match up Izzie is a Bunny with Basic Grey's Green at Heart paper, another new one that I really like! As always, she was stamped on Bella's Bestest paper and coloured with LOTS of copic markers. Pencils were used for the pink shading and grass and a little bit of stickles on the egg and in her ears, I was too lazy to pull out the loose glitter!

What do ya think of this weeks challenge...Gettin' Hitched...I don't know what the weather is like where you live, but spring is sure here in the air in Southwestern Ontario and I know at Pickle lots of brides are busy making preparations for their summer weddings. Do you have a wedding coming up? Maybe an anniversary? Get those pencils sharpened, copics ready, or reinkers out and make a card for that special someone. Email it to Emily (emily@stampingbella.com) and you just may win some bella bucks!

Time to get dinner ready here and then get the princess out for her walk. THEN, get busy finishing up b'day cards for our boys who will turn 20 this weekend! OMG....feeling OLD now!

Another weekend....GONZO!!!!!!!!

Geeeeze...I can remember back, oh maybe 25years ago, when I first moved to Chatham and started working how the weekends used to DRAG ON! I didn't know many people here, didn't have a car, public transit in a city of less than 40,000 people that is situated in the middle of farming communities is let's say, LACKING! Work was my livelihood! NOT SO MUCH ANYMORE! Now, I live for the weekends and they fly by WAY too fast.

Yesterday Paula and the Michigan gals came over and Paula was a COLOURING machine! I think she 'gloated' that she got like FIVE things coloured! hmhp! me...not so much...got one done and then messed up my shading so it no longer matched my paper that I wanted to use so into the "coloured with no matching paper" pile it went! LOL!...but this morning I pulled it out and persevered because I really wanted to use it for this weeks GETTING HITCHED challenge. You'll be happy to know I finished it, but it does help when you have 5, 675, 346 pieces of patterned paper to choose from! LOL! After finishing that up I got down to some colouring and pulled out Izzie has a Brelly which I can show you today.


This card could also be used for this weeks challenge because Mom needs a bridal shower card, so I made two for her to choose from...this one, and the one I will feature on Friday. If I had to pick...it would definitely be Izzy cause I love her! That shy expression, those cute little stovepipe legs, and her vintage style just appeal to me. You know what else appeals to me....this Kioshi paper from Basic Grey! OMG! I LOOOOOVE IT! I think it is my most fave paper from Basic Grey EVER!

One last thing....Paula had a good stash of cards with her yesterday and besides her jaw dropping colouring, the thing I have never really noticed about her cards is that she 'pops' them. I asked her if she always does this and she gave me a weird look like 'Yaaaaaah...don't yoo'! For all the dozens and dozens of cards I have seen of hers there has always been something about them besides the colouring that I have loved....FINALLY I just realized it....she pops them up...ever so slightly, but they are popped! so that is what I did today....I popped my Izzie...and I think I just may pop up ever card from here to eternity!!!!!!!!!!! It is like after nearly 10 years of stamping, I have suddenly rediscovered pop dots!

It just goes to show you how it is always the little things that bring me joy!

Well, since there is NOTHING good on TV, I'm gonna watch some Dexter on DVD and hit the pillow early to get ready for another week of work that does not excite me as much as it did 25 years ago!

hmmmm...hope the boss isn't reading my post today!

Bellarific sketch Friday!

Hi everyone! Are you doin' the happy dance! You all gotta know by now how much I love Friday and today means just one more sleep until Paula and the Michigan gals come on over! WhoooHOOOOO....I've got some Weight Watcher delights planned for the day, ya...we are ALL on WW!!!! So we will have goodies without guilt. (I just wish I could find a zero point wine out there!)

On to the challenge! What did ya all think? Nice and easy wasn't it! You know if I had my way, I would use this sketch for every card I made! I love it. I used the usual colors for Priscilla's face but don't recall what else I used. I do know that I branched out and used E25, 27, 29 on her hair but it was too dark for my liking so tried to lighten it up with a white pencil....not bad, but not my most fav colors I have ever used on hair, too dark and not enough contrast. The rest of her is so tiny i can't say for sure what I used but I do know that it wasn't a vast list... LOL! I can say with certainty though that i used a dark pencil to add some shading on the left side of her body.

To finish up the card I got to use some other goodies that came in my Stamping Bella order....the NEW big scallop ovals (love Love LOVE THEM!) and the Crate paper Pink Plum collection pack. I also got the matching brads but settled on this simple tiny one to cinch my bow.

That's it for today folks, it is late Thursday night while I write this and sleep is calling my name. Before I leave though I want to tell you that our theme for next week is Getting Hitched...think shower, wedding, anniversary, brides, bridesmaids and get that creativity flowing.

Bellarific Flowers!

OH MY! I finally got my grubby little fingers on the Lulu flowers from Stamping Bella's latest release. You might recall that I posted the orchids as a sneak peek. Well I thought I loved that one, until I coloured up these Morning Glories for Lulu! Could you die? Have I mentioned that I love to color flowers? I think so!


And the funny thing is that I don't like to color with blues...I just don't like blue. But wanted to keep the colors true to the flower so went with it and soooo Happy I did! It matched up wonderfully with the Basic Grey Marakech paper.

For you inquiring minds, here are the colors:
G40, 12, 82, 94, 85, 99
B0000, 000, 01, 02, 14, 37
BV000, 01, 02 ,31
Y00, 11, YR321, 23, 24, 31 (lots of yellows for such a teeny amount that is on the card! LOL! I think I was having trouble deciding)

Quick post today...I have some Hot and Spicy Turkey Curry ready for dinner and it a beautiful day here in Chatham so I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing walk with the dog.

Catch ya later!

Another Manly Card

Hello everyone! Happy Monday...okay...NOT! I do NOT like Mondays AT ALL and if my dream could come to reality and I could work a 4 day week I would NOT work Mondays. I just dread them. But I do have a Monday treat for ya today....a masculine card!


I've said it before...you KNOW you gotta make them...and as much as us girly girls would rather wallow in pink and yellow sometimes we gotta force ourselves to branch out. This card is going into my Mom's stash (she needs A LOT of cards for upcoming May b'days) and will eventually find a home with one of my uncles. He is a total sweetie and loves getting my cards as much any girly girl I know. Because of that, I always want to throw in just an extra bit of love when I make one that I know is going to him.

For this card I started with a Magenta Peel Off that I likely bought at Pickle. I say 'likely' because I have a LOT of them purchased at various places but I also know that many I have bought were from Pickle so I'm hoping that is where this one came from. These were three separate trees which I laid out on some smooth watercolor paper overlapping them. Then I carefully cut away the portions of trees that were 'underneath' another tree so they looked like one image. Then I roughly coloured on some Tombow markers (any watercolor based marker will do) and with a slightly wet paintbrush I blended the colors together. Once dry, I added just a bit of Sakura Gelly Roll pen in Forest Green Sparkle close to the branches and blended that out again with a wet brush. Careful with that Forest Green...a little goes a LONG way. This gave the trees some extra depth near the branches and an overall sparkle.

I did add some shading with marker around the trees but wasn't overly happy with the way it looked so went at the background with a sponge and a variety of pigment and/or chalk inks. Finally I got to the rustic manly look I was after. To finish it off I added a bit of pencil for grass. The paper is one that I have had FOREVER and I have another card to post later this week where I'll fess up a bit more on my past (and current) paper obsession.

That's it! Happy Monday to you all!

A kiss is just a kiss...

...a smile is just a smile...

alright...I'm NOT gonna sing! i promise! why? because i am totallllllly tone deaf! seriously...last new years eve i played rock star on x-box and scored like 30 points! I totally embarrasses the hubs! My singing career is like DONE! However...if you search LONG AND HARD...you may just find that moment on you tube! But I'll NEVER give up that link!


Okay...I know you are NOT here to listen to me sing so I'll get on with today's card. Kiss me you fool! It is sooooooooo Cary Grant, don't you think? I'm NOT even gonna try to list the colors I used in this card because I'll fess up, it is not the vision I started out with. I wanted her dress to be a soft grey, which ended up to be...I dunno...light caramel?...But I was determined to use this My Minds Eye paper that I picked up at Stamping Bella on my last visit so I added LOTS (like LOTS!) of pencils to her dress to get somewhat close to the paper! It is still not a perfect match, but WAY better than where it started!

I will say the mice were coloured with cool greys for the 'guy' and warm greys for the 'gal' and his shorts were done in YG 91, 93, 95 and I started with E40 and 42 for his shirt and her dress but again...LOTS of pencils were added here!

One thing I am very pleased with is the addition of another one of Meahni's Mom's beautiful crocheted flowers! I have a limited supply so only pull them out when I think the card is 'flower worthy'....and even after my trauma over the soft grey dress that turned out caramel, I still think this is flower-worthy!

Well...I've been busy busy busy this weekend...Mom needed some cards so I got a couple of those done and I'm just finishing up my challenge card for Friday! Talk about organized! I'm soooo not like this! Don't worry, my life will all fall apart again tomorrow when I head back to the 'day job' ! hmph!

I envy those who 'craft' for a living!

Monochromatic Color Schemes

Well, what did you think of this weeks challenge? Personally, I found it VERY challenging. Now I do love monochromatic color schemes in fashion and home decor because I think it is very sophisticated...(just like me! ....LOL! NOT!!!!) but in a card! oh my...it was a challenge!


I chose Chichibouli's Eva Bloom for my card and decided I wanted to use soft shades of copic B's, BV's and V's because I thought there were enough colors in there for me to work with. So here you go...these are the colors I used:

E0000, 000, 00, 11, R20
E41, 42, 43
Y0000, E40 (for some highlight at the tips of her dress)
BV0000, 000, 00, 11, 31
V0000, 000, 01, 12
B60, 63 (I used this on the egg, but it was too blue so went over it with some BV's)
C00, 0, 1 for shading around her, then added just a bit of cool grey pencil to darken it up a bit
Finally I used a Prismacolor Black Cherry pencil to add some depth to the egg and shadows on her dress.

As hard as I found it, I was pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Next week we are gonna make it REALLLLLLL easy on ya...it is a sketch! I know how you all love a sketch and this one suits my style to a 'T' so I can't wait to get started on it. I also can't wait to see what everyone did with the monochromatic color scheme so be sure to hop on over to Emily's blog later today and check it out! And if you are impatient like I am go stalk the rest of the Babe's blogs to see if you can get a sneak peek! hehehe!

Jackson the Champion!

His name is Jackson the Champion and isn't he a cutie! I could just eat these little Green Bean Babies up. Speaking of Green Bean Baby, I have another framed piece of paper art in the works!!! SO excited about it. Don't worry....I'll be posting it as soon as I get it done.


As always he was stamped on Bella's Bestest paper and coloured with copic markers. The blue shading was done with B0000 and LOTS of colorless blender to soften off the edge. Then I added in some Cerulean Blue prismacolor pencil close to the image and blended with gamsol. I've been doing that a lot lately...starting the shading with copic, then adding some pencil. I'm not that particular about what color of blue pencil I use, I just pick one, scribble it on a piece of paper and see if it is a color I like. But I do like the Cerulean Blue and use it a lot.

These are the rest of the copics I used:
E50, 51, 53, R20 (face, arms and legs)
E41, 42, 43, 44 (hair)
YR31, 23, Y32
B41, 52, 34, C00, 1

For the layout I fussed around for the longest time then settled on this simple uncluttered look because everything else I tried was too distracting behind my little Jackson. To finish it off I just added a few Bella dots.

How are you all coming along with this week's challenge card...remember it is monochromatic! Mine is done and she's a stunner! Here is a hint...think purples!

AND finally...did you all get an email from Emily today? If you aren't on the mailing list you might have missed out that there is a SALE! Yes, 10% off your entire order and no minimum!!! WOWZER...the sale has been extended till midnight Thursday using the code spring10 when you check out.

Dreary Sunday, Monsters and CPS158

Morning everyone! It wasn't bad enough that we lost an hour sleep last night but to add to that I could NOT fall asleep! Wonder if it had something to do with Alex being home for the weekend and heading over to Michigan for a concert. It's funny, but when those boys are away at school I don't worry about them...but if they are home I get anxious every time they step out the door!

What did you all think of the new stamps over at Stamping Bella! I put my order in pronto on Friday and cannnnnnnot wait to get my grubby little fingers on those Lulu flowers. Have I mentioned I love flowers? LOL! I think so. I should be colouring flowers today to brighten things up around here...it has been ONE GLOOMY WEEKEND in Chatham.


I should also mention that Stamping Bella is the sponsor over at CPS this week! Play along and you just might get lucky and win! How could I NOT play...the sketch was nice and simple, just my style, i needed a card for a little 6yr old guy, and Monstah Bash would fit PERFECT in the sketch. All in all, I think I completed this card in record breaking time! Thanks CPS for the jump start!

For you copic fans, here are the colors I used (but of course all shading around the image was done with pencil, VERY little pencils were used on the monsters):
G40, 12, 82, 94, 85
B41, 52, 34
R05, 08, 29
Y11, YR31, 21, 23, 24
N3, 4, C00, 3

I hear some birds chirping outside! Hope that means the rain is gone and we might see a peek of sunshine!

Stamping Bella March Release Day is here!!

AND so is Bellarific Friday. Did you all submit your bestest work to Emily?????? Did you all enjoy the sneak peeks this week? Are you just waiting to fill your carts with Stamping Bella goodness? I can most definitely answer YES to all these questions.

Today I think I saved my best till last and I bring you orchids, not just ANY orchids but Lulu Orchids! can you hear me squealing? I think the best part is that my mom also loves orchids and with her b'day coming up shortly this card will be going straight to her!

Unlike our dearest Chicken (aka, spotted chick, aka, Jeanie) I LOVE LOVE LOVE flowers! If there is a stamp of a flower, yours truely WANTS IT! I would love to have my backyard deck full of pots OVERFLOWING with them, but I don't go overboard because with the heat here in Southern Ontario in the summer and me working all day, I just don't have time to devote to keeping them hydrated. I try though...I REALLY TRY. Every spring, right around memorial day I spend WAY too much money overflowing my pots with flowers with the promise I will water them three times daily, but it never fails...by August those pots are dry as the Sahara and the plants are withered to straw. It don't matter...I will try again this year and make that same promise once again!

I must apologize to my copic friends, because I'm not lising colors! NOT because I want to keep it a secret, but because I used very little copic markers and did most of the colouring with a multitude of pencils!

Now the ABSOLUTE best part of today is that it's FRIDAY!!!!! YAY! Nobody can be happier about this than me! Wishing you an entire weekend of joy doing whatever makes you happy!

Our challenge next week will be 'boring' {wink} compared to the excitement of this week! Well, NOT really BORING...the challenge is MONOCHROMATIC! Use a color of your choice, but stick to shades of that one color...obviously flesh tones are exempt! So pick your fav color and get inky for next week!

sometimes you just gotta do it!

That is...make a MANLY card! I know, I'm sure many of you are just squirming at the thought of it. Your thinking...like what?...I can't color flowers, or a whimsy little bella? I've got to color an image and use something other than my pink, yellow and orange markers? Please say it isn't so!

The truth is, those guys like getting cards too so whenever I find something that will work for one of the many mid to late teen guys in my family I scoop it. Such was the case when I spotted this Penny Black dude a couple years ago at the Scrapfest in Kitchener. I knew I'd have use for him eventually. I've also got a couple Mo's teen guys in my arsenal just waiting to get inky! I'll be getting to those pretty soon too since I have a couple guys of my own who will be turning the big 2-0 next month. They always expect some witty card from their Mom and I would hate to disappoint them!

This dude was stamped on Bella's bestest paper and coloured with copic markers. The brass embellishment I think is Karen Foster that I've had in my stash forever and I cut out 'dude' with my quickutz Rollerskate alphabet. Gotta LOVE them quickutz!

For you copic marker fans, here are the colors I used:
B41, 34, 95, 97 (but I also used some indigo blue pencil to add some extra depth and texture to the jeans)
E50, 51, 53, R20 (i prefer these shades of neutrals for 'male' flesh tones)
W00, 0, 1 (yup, i did MOST of the shading around the image with copics this time adding a bit of french grey to finish it off, then used just pencils for the 'grounding' under his feet)
E40, 41, 43, 44 (jacket, also shaded with sepia pencil)
E30, 31, 33, 35 (hair...my fav go-to colors for hair!)

Well, that's it! Now don't forget....tomorrow is the big release day over at Stamping Bella and I have one last sneak peek for ya so get up early! Now, I'm off to creep the bella babe's blogs some more to see what else they may have in store.

Luck of the Irish

Are you a lucky person? I'm not. Well, I've been lucky in life and love but not so much when it comes to winning a car or cash for life or anything like that! Hmmm, wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that I am Polish, not Irish!

Maybe just maybe colouring up this new Stamping Bella Green Bean Baby will change my luck! She is sitting in her pot of gold and I could do that! After all, I AM in THREE lotto groups at work so it's not for lack of trying!

Have you all been creeping the other babes blogs? I've seen a new Ketto flower bud and a beautiful flowering Heritage tree over at Dana's. Chicken (aka Jeanie) claims she knows nothing about flowers but has managed to WOW me with a fuschia and morning glory. Joanne apparently squealed when she got to show us a new Turtle Tot. Karen has a cutie easter butterfly, and finally Paula is in love with a new Lulu.

Again, I had some time on my hands so gathered up my copics used on McLucky and here ya go:

E0000, 000, 00, 11, 31, 33, 35, 37
G12, 24, 20, 85
YR00, 02, 04, 09
R20, 22, 24, 27, 59
B000, 41, 34, BV01, 02, 04
W1, 3, 5, C0, 1

Whew...that was a lot to type before this babe has to get to work, so I'd better get a move on!

Let the games begin!

If you don't know yet, Stamping Bella is having a release on Friday...I haven't seen everything, but what I have seen is gonna ROCK YOUR WORLD!

I'll have three new images to show you this week, but keeping with the challenge over on the Bloggabella, I'm gonna save the best for last! Remember it's an 'open' challenge, just send your bestest work to Emily by Thursday.


Meet Izzie has a letter...I think it's a love letter and she is saying 'miss Linda, I love you too!'...LOL! Seriously, I do luv her and just want to snuggle her, but it is a card and I wouldn't want to crumple it.

AND..bonus...for all you copic fans out there...the sun was shining down on me yesterday and I had nothing on my to do list except to color so I took the time to track down the colors I used in this card...just in case you wanted to order a few when you add izzie to your cart ;)

E0000, 000, 00, 11, R20
E40, 41, 43, 04, 07
YG0000, G20, 40, 12
BG10, 11, 32, 34, 72, 75
T0, 1, 2, 3 (to shade the BG's)
W00, 0, 1 (the letter)
E30, 31, 35 (hair)

Now I did add just a small bit of pencils to shade to the dress, but not a lot, just a tiny bit. And I also used a brown pencil to color over the black polka dots just to tone down the harsh black. Finally, in case you are wondering, the patterned paper is Memory Box.

On another topic, I'll answer some recent questions:

1) For Renee, nesties for newbies. I would probably recommend the large set of circles or ovals...you can always cut a square or rectangle without having to use a die but it is pretty tough to cut an oval :)

2) Copic tutorials for Frannie. Run, don't walk to the copic creations blog. They have bi-monthly challenges which are listed on the sidebar so just go to the one you are interested in and they provide links to FANTASTIC tutorials related to that technique. It is one of my fav places to hang out.

3) Pencil or watercolor pencil tutorials for Jocelan. I can't help with watercolor pencils, but for prisma and gamsol check out this grass tutorial that Paula put together and for a basic pencil/gamsol tutorial check out this one that Paula often recommends.

Whew! That's it for today...off to get inky again...be sure to keep checking on all the Babe's too cause I'm pretty sure they'll be sneaking some new stuff in as well!

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood!

Sorry, just had to say it! (Darn that Mr. Rogers!)

It is a beeeeeuuuutiful day here in Chatham.....so sunny and mild. (except the sun beaming in is REALLY showing all the dirt that has accumulated on my windows over the winter) I've already had a chat with Paula this morning and a visit from my friend Kathy and her puppy JD! What nice surprise for a Saturday morning! Kathy and JD were out for a walk and JD dragggggged Kathy by our house to see if Bessie was outside! hehehe! so the dogs 'chatted' thru the fence and Bessie must have said 'hey come and play'. So they stopped by for a few minutes and ran around the yard! Gotta love those fur babies!


That has absolutely NOTHING to do with my card today, but I thought it was cute! I've always liked this Bella Dream House and I finally have a purpose for it! I'm sending it to my childhood BFF who is starting a new life on her own! She just bought a simply ADORABLE new home and I wanted to send her some happy mail. It is always fun to open the mailbox and get something that isn't a bill! LOL!

Couple things I should mention about this card. I stamped the house first, then masked it off and added the mini skinny scribble tree. A house isn't a house without a tree! And how cute is that tree anyhow! I think I will need the fat scribble tree too. Then I took my .005 marker to add shingles to the roof, and slats to the garage door. I also added some clear glaze pen to all the windows so they are all clean and sparkly (not dirty like mine). As usual I coloured with copic markers and kept the house all neutral except for the teal door. Why teal? Because I wanted to match it up with the TPC Studio Ancestral Teal Brocade paper. The blue shading around the house, hint of green grass and a small bit of shading on the house was done with prisma pencils and gamsol.

Well, if it was just a little tiny bit warmer, I just might go out there and clean my windows...but instead I'm gonna sit at my kitchen table and let the warm sun beat down on my back and do some colouring. Hope you have a wonderful day!

Seeing Dots

It is Bellarific Friday and today's theme is Polka Dots! Now I would say that is one pretty easy challenge so I'm hoping for a big turnout on the Bella Blog today. And remember folks...if you submit a card you have a chance at some bella bucks, and if you comment, you could win again!


I decided I was gonna use dots on my papers because I really wanted to use Savvyshopabella for my image AND I wanted papers to match my new Happy Tape that I picked up on Saturday. Then when I started colouring her, I realized that one of her bags has dots! Double Dot bonus! She was stamped on Bella's bestest paper and coloured with copic markers. My hair got a little dark on me, it looks even darker in the picture, but it really isn't that dark. I added pencils for shading around the image and also for some subtle shading on bella herself, just to tone down the copics. And NO glitter! What's with that? I just couldn't figure out where to put it.

It has been a whirlwind week here for me. Bella classes on Saturday as always were a blast. I love going there, it is my happy place. I didn't have too much time to bond with sistah's Paula and Emily though because I had the hubs with me. We got a bit of shopping in on Friday and then headed down to the Danforth for some yummy greek food at Pantheon. Gosh I LOVE LOVE LOVE Toronto!!!!!!!!!!

Then I had not even come down from my Toronto high and I had another exciting event here in Chatham....our first ever copic class at Pickle! What fun! And for you locals, YES, Pickle is selling Copic markers. Our first class was copic 101 and covered basic shading techniques but next round of classes we will be quickly moving on to adding pencils to those images. Looking forward to seeing everyone out there for that! Please note, these are not 'card classes', we will not be making a card in class but will concentrate only on colouring techniques.

Finally, Emily is having a release next Friday!!! WHOOOHOOO! So our theme will be ANYTHING GOES!!!!!! Send your best work to Emily by Thursday and you'll have a chance at some Bella bucks...and trust me, they will come in handy! And stick around, cause the Babes just might have some sneek peeks for ya!

My Girl

no....I'm not talking about the Temptations song...I would have only been 5 when they recorded it. I'm thinking of the Michael Jackson version that is on the Ben soundtrack. Remember that movie? That song? I have the LP and it is the only original Michael Jackson album I own. I moved on to Bowie, Pink Floyd and Led Zeplyn after that...and now of course, Dave! NOBODY can touch Dave!
So why My Girl? Well, Bessie of course...that four-legged fur baby I lovingly refer to as 'my girl'. She needed a host family to take care of her while Mark and I were in Toronto this past weekend. For this trip she got to stay with friends who lost their little schnauzer last summer. Bessie can be a bit of a handful, typical terrier traits...mouthy, bossy, demanding...so I try not to burden her on people who aren't used to that terrier temperment. It is kinda like when my twins were babies...I would never leave them alone with less than 2 adults because I honestly thought the only person who could handle two babies was their mother, or someone else who had experience with 'multiples'. Weird...I know! But I got past it when they turned 18! LOL!

Anyhooooo...I thought a thank you card was in order for Bessie's host family and I obviously chose Walkabella...look at that puppy...how could I have picked anything else! That could be me and my girl, except that Bessie WOULD NOT be wearing a bow in her hair and I WOULD NOT be carrying a hand bag (my iPhone maybe, with Dave hooked up to my ears). And look at those shoes....cute, but NOT what I would walk the dog in! LOL! This bella is clearly just out to show off her curvy figure and freshly groomed dog! She was stamped on Bella's bestest paper and coloured with copic markers. the blue shading and grass, as well as some subtle shading on the left side of her dress, were done with prisma color pencils and gamsol. But remember...only take those pencils to your image AFTER you are completely done with the markers! And EMBRACE those pencils! Remember, you are making a card, you are not in a copic colouring contest so IT IS NOT cheating to add subtle detail with pencils! It can only enhance your work and make people go WOW....how'd she do that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Despite the crappy weather, classes at Bella central were a HIT (for me anyhow)...met some new people, and even one who's blog I have followed for quite some time. There were regulars, and newbies and some I have met before, but have never taken my class. And I MUST send some special cyber hugs to Dianne....I missed you girl! Get well soon! So fun to meet fellow bloggers in person! I love being at Bellaland and it always makes me sad when I have to come home.

Finally...don't forget! POLKA DOTS!!!!!!!!!!! That is our theme for this week's Bellarific Challenge. Use them anywhere! Let your creativity flow! I don't have my card done yet, it will be on tomorrow night's agenda...tonight, I must prep for my very first Copic 101 class at Pickle! SOOO EXCITED!