Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Hi Mom, are you reading this?

This is a super exciting post for me today because it will be the first time my mom will be able to read it  from the comfort of her own home! YUP! This Christmas my brother and I got our parents online and I'm so excited!

I talk to my parents frequently but sadly not as often as I blog so having them 'connected' will keep them up to date on my crazy life at the touch of a button! The best part is that they are embracing it and loving it and that just makes me so happy. They have my number and I have offered myself up as their 7x24 support! And lucky for them, they won't even have to pay a support maintenance fee! Pretty sweet deal!

Personal excitement aside, I do have a card today! I know I've been laying low for the past several days but I was kind of carded out! Early Christmas morning hubby asked if I had cards for the boys and I said NO, give them a boxed one! How sad is that? I made close to 95 Christmas cards this year but didn't even make one for hubs and the boys! They all laughed it off but I hope to rectify it next year! You might equate me to a plumber who has leaky faucets in his house! Get my drift?

In my colouring hiatus I was feeling a little scrappy and decided  to create a scene with Stamping Bella's Artsy House as the focal image.


This is how I did it!

I started by stamping Atrsy House on a couple different papers and pieced it together after sponging the edges with distress ink. Then I stamped lulu KETTO's heart clusters on red patterned paper and cut some of them out to create the 'smoke' out of the chimney. Ketto was used again and I stamped tripletree on a piece of subtle green patterned paper (actually the same paper as the foreground grass) with versamark and embossed it with clear EP, then coloured in the open leaves with a black water based marker. Why water based? Because I could be sloppy and get it on the embossed portions and then just wipe it off the excess with a damp paper towel and not worry about staining the embossed portion. The trees were stamped again with black versafine on the same brown DP used for the roof of the house and I cut and pieced the trees together.

The rolling edge of the foreground grass was cut freehand, the fence is a Martha Stewart punch and the hills were cut from some cosmo cricket paper. The blue patterned paper was from my scrap drawer and I have no idea where it came from! The clouds are a Papertrey die and the I just love you sentiment is Stamping Bella but I can't find the link so it may have come as a sentiment with an image. I've emailed Emily so when I find out exactly where it came from I'll update the link.

Finishing touches include liquid applique doused with glitter on the clouds, glossy accents on the windows and heart on the door and a product from JudiKins called Speckles to give some texture to the foreground grass.

That it is! I had a lot of fun doing this card and i felt like I was piecing a quilt...don't get me started on quilting though...that is whole other passion that I won't get into here!

Later, Linda.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

This is why I make cards...

Besides the comfort and relaxation I get from colouring, every once in a while I get an email or a phone call from some one who received one of my cards and it may go like this email I got from Kathy this morning...

"I LOVE IT!!! …thanks so much …I was thinking since you had given the first one to Emily I would never see it again!!! …so very excited to see it again …it’s truly beautiful …

..I’m planning on doing a scrapbook with just pictures of children I’ve taken and this card will be in that book!"

Remember this post...when I got the CHOIR with a star on top by Mo Manning I coloured it 'specifically' for my friend Kathy. Then Emily, knowing it was for my friend, asked if I would have time to colour another one for her before the Toronto Creative Festival. Well...heck, it was probably only September and I knew I wouldn't have time to do another one for her on such short notice so I gave that one to her and PROMISED myself I would do another for Kathy. But I never let on! hehehehehe! It was SO hard to keep it a secret!
 

Feeling pretty good right now that I kept my promise and I DID colour another one for Kathy because she is my friend, and my pod mate for 8 hours a day and if ANY image was meant for her, this was the one...and i HAD to do it!
 
I hope it looks as good as the original Kathy!
 
Now I'll be taking a few days off to spend Christmas with my family but I won't be gone long...I should be back next week. Maybe with some stray Christmas cards, maybe something different...who knows! I'm just gonna wing it!
 
Later, Linda! ....have a wonderful Holiday!

Monday, December 20, 2010

A repeat

Same image, different colours!

I've seen so many cards out there done up with this Door with Wreath and no wonder, it is a stunning image. I know I've coloured it before but knew I wanted to do it again...mainly because my original card went to Emily for display at her booth and I couldn't let this Christmas slide without sending one out. I could have just done a repeat of my original, but how boring would that be. I wanted to do a red door but Paulabella screamed noooooooooooo when I told her because she was doing a red door (we no likey to compete) so I decided to do a brown door with a red shovel.


I used E40 thru E44 on the door and warm greys on the frame with G82, 94 and 99 on the wreath. Again I added some green glitter to the wreath and liquid applique doused with glitter for the snow. I let the liquid applique dry overnight and then heated it just slightly to puff it up a bit. Helen, who works for Emily at the Stamping Bella boooo-tique said many people asked what glitter I used on the wreath, so for inquiring minds it is Art Institute, Ultra fine, #167 Rain Forest Transparent. whew! And for the snow, I used Hero Arts prisma glitter (one of my fav all purpose go-to glitters when i want iridescence)

After I had it all coloured I searched my paper stash and had NOTHING to match it...a good excuse to make a trip to Pickle and low and behold, this piece of Crate Paper from the Restoration collection could NOT have been more perfect. I think I may go back and get a couple more sheets just in case I decide to make a few more of these for my stash.

Till next time, later....Linda.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Whadoya think about a Christmas Penguin

I think it is ADORABLE on so many levels!

A) it was relatively easy to colour
B) it paired up nicely with Basic Grey's jovial paper, and
C) he's just darn cute!

This is penguin with a gift by Mo Manning available in rubbah at Stamping Bella.


As I ALWAYS do, I stamped him with memento ink on bella's BESTEST paper and coloured him up with my copic markers. I think I used EVERY shade of cool grey on this little guy. Then added just a small bit of white pencil for some highlights.

For all my friends and family on my mailing list, I FINALLY got the cards in the mail today. It was bittersweet to see them go because some of them I really love and had trouble parting with so soon. Like this little guy....hmmm....wonder who he will go to?????

Later, Linda.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

It's a birthday surprise!

A surprise birthday blog hop for our very own Danabella! Happy Birthday sistah!

If you just popped in here, you might want to step back a bit and start at the beginning on Karen's blog, yes that Karen, the former KarenMotzabella. It is so fun playing with her and some former babes again!

For Dana's card, I was lucky enough to get putyourFEETupabella in the mail this week and I think it is THE PERFECT card for her. This is how I hope she is spending her day, kicking back, relaxing and lounging in a big chair. Maybe even with a drink in hand!


Now you can hop on over to another former babe Joanne Basile.

Enjoy your day Dana, and enjoy the hop everyone!

Friday, December 17, 2010

Happy Friday!

And oh what a happy Friday it is because I am now on vacation until January 3rd! Of course, I shouldn't really call it a vacation because Derek comes home from Hamilton today and Alex will be home Wednesday that means lots of cooking and spoiling their bellies! But it also means lots of bodies in the house to protect me from any future attacks. And I should also mention that the pooch will be the happiest one of all because order will be restored and the entire family will be under one roof. She really misses snuggling up with Derek.

Another reason that it is a happy Friday is because I have another Christmas card under my belt. I was hoping to have my two more done so I could get those cards mailed out today, but no such luck. I'll get them done today though. This is Stamping Bella's Polly Packages and another one of my all time fav images. I love her little work boots!


I've had her coloured up for a while and used Basic Grey Pyrus paper for my inspiration and Paulineabella's sketch fit the bill. Of course I stamped her on bella's BESTEST paper and used the following copic markers:

E000, 00, 11, R20
E50, 53, 55, 40, 42, 43, 44, 49
B0000, 41, 95, 97, BG10, 72, 75
YR20, 21, 23, 24, G82, 94

To complete the sketch, I cut a tag with a spellbinders die and stamped your book is due to give some interest to the background, then stamped season's greetings and finished it off with a double bow made on my bow easy.

That's it for today....tomorrow I have a surprise!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Tall trees and birds again!

This time we are using Stamping Bella's birds decorating TREES and although it was super easy to colour, I could not whip up 20 in a day! But that is what makes this one special...cause it is one of a kind! And whoever on my list gets it, they are the ONLY one who will have it! I kinda like that aspect of the one of a kind Christmas cards I have been sending for the past couple of years.  However, I do now keep track of who gets what image so if I use an image again the following year, no one will get the same image twice. So it is a bit more planning on my part, but I do enjoy looking back on what I sent them the past year and deciding who gets what! It's like organizing and I do LOVE to organize things!

Okay...on to the card...I did not colour this one last year, I don't even think I had it last year and I'll NEVER know why because I just LOVE LOVE LOVE this image!


I started with a base of copic markers, but coloured it primarily with pencils to match up with the cosmo cricket paper. Just as I was about to start adding some snow or glitter (or both) below the trees I decided that the  merry christmas sentiment would fit PERFECTLY stamped below that solid line. (hmmmm....do you think Emily planned that one out?)

My biggest stress was hoping I would stamp it straight! It is just a bit off so note to self...USE THAT STAMP POSITIONER WHEN YOU WANT TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS IN THE FUTURE! oh well, I'm not stressing over it...the teeny little flaws make it even more 'one of a kind'. I even decided that I wanted to keep the card 'cosy' so mounted it on an A2 size card which I rarely do. But it seems when I want a cosy feel, that is the size I use. Besides, when I display my xmas cards, it is always the smaller ones that get a spot 'up front' so I hope this one gets front and center wherever it may land.

That's it for today...tomorrow my card using the FANTABULOUS sketch from our fellow babe Paulineabella!

Later, Linda.

Case of a Case!

I've been soooo bizzzzy my head is spinning. Do you know that tonight I just finished up close to my 95th Christmas card! YUP! I do 45 for myself, about 30 for my mom and 20 for Mark to give out at work! I'm freaking exhausted! Mine are ALMOST done (just a couple more to do), Mom's are done and I think she has got them in the mail already and this past Sunday I needed to get going on Mark's. Needless to say I wanted them to be simple, yet striking. So I decided a CASE was in order and sifted through all my past received handmade xmas cards (yes, I've kept all hand made cards that I've received...one day eventually I will start to purge them because I don't hoard things, but for now, I still have them all).

I came across a card that I have ALWAYS loved that Paulineabella sent me a couple years ago which I think may have been inspired by a Michelle Zindorf card. So I took Pauline's card and simplified it just a bit to make construction easier and came up with this. I LOVE IT! And by golly, I whipped up 20 of them in no time!


The trees come from a Stamping up retired set called Trees Three (one of my alltime fav SU sets), the sentiment is Verve and those little cardinals, well, I borrowed them from Pauline! I think they are also SU. I used my pan pastels to shade below the trees and that embossed border on the left is a cuttlebug embossing border edge. Like Paula, I also have a Sizzix Vagabond and whipping these thru that electric machine was a snap! And oh so much easier on the old wrist of mine!

Thanks Michelle and Pauline for the inspiration!

Tomorrow, more trees, Bella style!

Later...Linda.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Mo-Bella Snowman!

I LOVE this stamp....I love most all snowman stamps but there is just something about this Snowman and a Cardinal that I love even more...hmmm....maybe 'cause it is a Mo....and we ALL know how much I love Mo. This one is available in rubber at stamping Bella, just in case you are a rubber fan, like myself.
 

The papers I chose are scraps left over from last year and had a bit of vintage grunginess to them so I let that theme carry over into my snowman and kept the colours very muted. These are the copics I used, but pencil helped to soften everything off. If I were to do it again, I would use the blues on the mitts so they would not compete with the cardinal. Oh well! I'm probably my worst critic!

BG000, B41, 52, BG72, 75
R22, 24, 39, 59, 35, YR12, 18
E25, W00, 0, 1, 3, 4, 6, 9

To finish it off  I added Stamping Bella's happy holidays sentiment and some poloar white flower soft applied to wet viva decor pearl pen.

That's it! Another one done!

Later, Linda

Monday, December 13, 2010

5 for 5 continues!

Yup, over the next 5 days I have 5 more cards to display on the ole' bloggypoo. I'm gonna start slow though, cause I'm tired tonight! I had the day off, but spent over an hour of it on the road in nasty weather! It sounds pretty lame especially for those who might live in the midwest, calgary, or london area, but you see, Chatham is a very small community and ALL I DID was drive hubs to work, pick him at lunch and drop off and pick up the dog at her little spa. That is NOT worthy of spending 90 minutes on the road in a city of just over 40,000! And I think the city is trying to save money on salt or something beause it truely seemed that not a single road was salted, or even plowed for that matter! Maybe they are gonna wait till spring, I don't know but I was not a happy driver today!

Ya, I'm kinda bitter. But on a good note, hubby was supposed to head back to Huston today but that got cancelled because the highway between here and Windsor was closed due to nill visability! So I'm kinda happy about that...someone to protect me against another pede attack! And Alex was home for a few days to study before exams and was gonna drive one of the vehicles back to London, but because of road conditions I nixed that and put him on the train. But I did give him money to take a cab back to his house so he wounldn't have to brave the cold and snow on the bus...WITH all the leftovers I sent back with him...SUCKER is written all over my head, I know!...but what can I say, he's my boy!

Now that I'm done complaining about the weather I'll get on to my card! I made this one a couple weeks ago with a Sizzix die that I bought at Archivers during my weekend in Wixom with Paula and Emily. I thought it would make some quick and easy cards, but honestly I spent more time fussing with this that I do with my other cards.


I think it was the paper I chose. It was a Kaisercraft 6x6 pad which I loved when I bought it, but every time I tried to use it I struggled. So after I finished this card I tossed what was left of it! No point in keeping anything that frustrates me every time I use it! This paper on the ornament is textured, all the gold part is glittery and embossed. I think if I tried this again, I would use a smoother paper that I could sponge around the edges to give some dimension. I think the lack of shading is what is really eating at me! You KNOW how I love to shade things! My fav part of the ornament though, is the little 'pearls' I added with my Viva Decor Pearl Pen! Now just imaging shading around the edges of this ornament AND pearls! Wouldn't that be better!

Well, that's it for today...I'm tired and gonna re-watch the season finale of Dexter tonight. I did watch it last night but fell asleep before the 10pm show started then woke up and caught it at midnight! WAY to late for this sistah to be watching TV. So I'm sure I missed something that I hope to see tonight.

Tomorrow, a bella...a MO-bella! Later, Linda.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Life with Linda...it's always entertaining!

Sitting here having a coffee and thought I'd throw in a little bit of life before I get back to the card groove on Monday. So, if you are ONLY here for a card....exit NOW...but you may be a bit entertained if you read on!

I am TOTALLY FREAKED OUT BY CENTIPEDES...i know there is an official word for it but I am too freaked to google it for fear I might see a pic of one! Ya, I am that FREAKED by the sight of them! I think it might be the number of legs they have...anything with more than 4 is CREEPY, and more than 8...well, you'll see!

Okay...so this is how my day started out Thursday. It is just me and the pooch cause boys are away at school and hubby was out of town,. I get up, shower, make a coffee, and sit on the sofa with the pooch and my laptop. Coffee gets cold so I go put in in the microwave and retreat to the couch. Microwave beeps and I head to the kitchen and my eyes BUG OUT OF MY HEAD BECAUSE THERE IS A FREAKING CENTIPEDE SITTING ON THE FLOOR IN FRONT OF THE MICROWAVE!!!!!!!!!!

OMG! In all my 51 years this is the FIRST time I have come face to face with a pede and nobody around to save me....(the dog is useless in these matters)...At this moment I am determined to kill it, my FIRST KILL (just like Dexter)...the mega-legged beast is not moving so I run a short few feet to the living room and grab a stack of magazines, like maybe 20! Then I take a deep breath and realize I CANNOT throw a stack of 20 magazines accurately so I reduce the stack to 4 making sure the one on the bottom was one I did not want to keep, and the two in the middle had lots of weight...I think they were old SU catalogs. Yes, there was a lot of planning that took place in a few short moments! I let out a huge blood curdling cry and threw the stack on the beast! Then I stand there, hands shaking, knees wobbling, entire body frozen while I watch the stack of magazines hoping the beast did not escape it's fate! You see, I didn't have a backup plan!

After what seemed like an hour but was probably only a minute or two I am convinced the beast is dead so I snap a pic of the 'scene of the crime' wth my iPhone and post it on facebook. Thankfully a work buddy just happened to be there at the time and knowing my fears calmed me down a bit (in between a few chuckles I'm sure)! I told him that if I wasn't at work by 8:30 he should call paramedics! The situation was serious!
 
My first kill....just call me Dexter.

(oh, by the way, Alex came home from school for a few days and the stack of magazines remained there until he got home that evening and could clean it up...there were a lot of rules around that ordeal too but I won't get into it now!)

Thursday, December 9, 2010

A bellarific giftabella Friday

Do you give money at Christmas, maybe an extra little something for your hairdresser, dog groomer, that lady who keeps your nails looking all pretty! Well I need a couple cards like this and a few years back I bought some envelopes from Stamping Up that were the PERFECT size just for this purpose, I think they are called small open end envelopes.

I wanted to keep it simple so had some pre-planning to do and cut my paper to 6 1/2 x 8", then from the short ends, scored at 3 1/4" from one end and 1 1/2 " from the other. Then I folded it each end in so when you open it up it looks like the picture below! Perfect size for a Canadian or American bill....I stuck a 5 in there just so you could see that it fits perfectly! The sentiment is Stamping Bella, but sadly I could not find it on the website.


For the outside of the card I knew I wanted to use Stella needs a prezzie because it is wide and short and would work perfect for the space. To keep it really clean and simple I just added a strip of patterened paper with a narrow ribbon tied on it....not too fussy, but a little something to make it special. Then I placed my rubber stamp on the front of the card just to get an idea of placement and to know how large I should cut my patterned paper, which is 6 1/2 x 3/4". Then I temporarily placed the DP in place and stamped stella close to the edge. I used copic and pencils on her but the copics did bleed thru my paper so that is why the inside of the card has the nice decorative edge because I needed to glue another piece of white paper inside to hide the bleeding so mounted it on some matching paper! Pretty clever! And it looks great!

This is what the front of the finished card looks like. Lots of glitter, another Stamping Bella sentimet and I was pretty pleased with how it all turned out!


Next week is our FINAL bellarific friday of the year and we are gonna make it easy on ya...just in time to whip up a last minute Christmas card we have a sketch from one of our newest Babes, Paulineabella! This is her first sketch so how 'bout we show her some love!

See ya all next week 'cause I'll still be here....and probably STILL posting Christmas cards until the last bell tolls!

Later, Linda.

Christmas card blitz continues and some new Bella's!

Before I get to my card of the day I want to enable you a bit, just a teeny tiny bit! Did you see that Emily just happened to 'feel like' realeasing a bella or 2, OR 3! Yup she did! And THEY ARE YUMMY....you can catch a glimpse of them on her blog here. I'll be getting them all, and you JUST MIGHT want to drop a hint to your loved one that they will make really nice stocking stuffers! (and less fattening than chocolate!)

Now...other stuff. This is an impression obsession stamp called Tall Trees that I picked up in Novi, Michigan this past summer. Another clean, contemporary and quick to colour image that needs no huge amount of shading to make it stand out. It is a large stamp, measuring almost 3x5" so I simply mounted it on a 5x7 card and added a nice contemporary greeting which you can find here at Stamping Bella. It is one of my fav's and I use it often.


No patterned paper because a) I coloured the image with no particular paper in mind then couldn't find anything to match, and, b) even the papers I found that did match in colour, were too busy for the image. So I just went to my bazzil stash and found some cardstock to match. I stamped it on Bella's BESTEST paper and coloured primarily with copics. To fuss it up I added some copic atyou spica glitter pens here and there and of course, if it is a circle, it must be an ornament and needs a good glop of Ranger Glossy Accents to give it some dimension. That's it! Pretty quick and easy and I have a couple more stamped off because I need FIVE more cards to finish this weekend to hit my goal of 45.

Tomorrow, it's Bellarific Friday and I have a cutie little card that is perfect if you give money as a gift, although it work well for anything, even a gift card, or forget that altogether and just send it as is! Again, I kept it clean, uncluttered and simple....I'm feeling a trend here!

See ya tomorrow!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

A bunny dressed up as Santa?

Really? Okay, if I had a bunny I just might do this! LOL! I would dress up my Bessie girl but I know if I ever suggested it, hubs would squash the idea! He does NOT want his tom-boy, roll in the mud, wrestle like a tiger, girl dressed up in some fru-fru outfit! That's why I need a bunny! It makes total sense!

But he won't let me have a cat, so the chances of getting a bunny are pretty much out of reach for me. A girl can dream though! This is Bunny with a Gift by MO Manning available in rubber at Stamping Bella.



He/she was stamped with memento ink on Bella's BESTEST paper and coloured the bunny primarily with pencils. Copics were mostly used for the reds, oranges and greens in likely these combo's:

R22, 24, 27 and 59 for the hat and bow,  
YR01, 02, 4 and 7 for the carrot and 
G40, 82, yG93, and 67 for the carrot top.

To finish it up, I paired her with some Basic Grey Jovial 6x6 paper and added glitter to the carrot top and the santa hat. I couldn't find a Bella sentiment in my stash that fit the void space so went looking in my archives and found this vintage looking Crafty Secrets sentiment that fit perfectly! Except that after I stamped it I kept chanting 'Ho Ho Ho Green Giant' in my head all day! I think it was a curse!

Tomorrow, something different again! Not vintage like this bunny, but another clean, contemporary, BUT NOT WHITE card!

Stay tuned!

Linda

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Crisp, clean and white...

...with spashes of black, red and green! You like her? This is Penny Black's Christmas Usher and she was a SNAP to colour up! Did you notice? I didn't even add any shadows under her feet! OMG! I just noticed myself and may have to go rectify that pronto...but maybe not...because I kinda like the very clean look just the way it is.

I stamped her with Tuxedo Black memento ink on papertrey white paper. I used papertrey because I often use that cardstock for the base of my cards due to its sturdiness and I wanted the whites to match.


She was quickly coloured with the following copic markers, and I say quickly because I really didn't blend at all, just swiftly went from colour to colour and let it blend naturally. NO pencils were used on this card!

E000, 00, 11 (flesh) 33, 35, 27 (hair)
R22, 24, 59 (dress)
G82, 24, 94, 99 (tree)
Y11, YR23 (glow around star?)
YR23, Y 26, 28 (tray below tree)

The sentiment is also Penny Black and I added a teeny tiny gold bow on the cake plate, some black glitter to her dress, and stickles around the glow of the star (?) above the tree! Done, done and DONE! A really quickie card and I made 6 of them for my stash! All stamps were purchases in Chatham at Paper Pickle.

Tomorrow, more Mo Manning in Rubbah goodness!

Monday, December 6, 2010

the first full week of december means.....

I'm gonna post a Christmas card a day EVERY DAY until Friday! So for the next five days in a row you are gonna be DROWNED in my Christmas cards! I've been busy! Got all my mom's card done on the weekend, now I'm a busy busy babe finishing up on mine! I didn't work today and got 6 previously coloured images all mounted up. That is how I usually roll...I colour like a crazy person for an entire weekend, then spend the next weekend putting them together. But to get 6 done in a day, OMG, that is miraculous for me! I'm NOT a fast card maker.

Now, there is not going to be any pre-determined posting schedule, for example they will not be posted at midnight EST every day...it is going to be as time permits me to write up the post. So could be up at midnight, but might not be till later in the day. You'll just have to keep checking!

Okay, ready.....I hope you enjoy them!

I'm gonna start with Mo's Singing SO BEAUTIFUL available in rubber at Stamping Bella. I don't kow about you, but I have lots of kittie lovers in my circle of friends who would BUST to get this card!


Do you love them! OMG...I do! Makes me wanna get a kitty! They were stamped with Memento Tuxedo black ink on Bella's bestest paper. I started with a base coat of copics, but the bulk of the colouring was done with Prismacolor Pencils. I'm not a fan of the traditional christmas red/green combos and am always looking for something different and original so chose a paper from Basic Grey Papyrus for this color scheme. I gotta say, I LOVE the offbeat funkiness it has!

Tomorrow, I'll give you a hint...clean, crisp and white!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Done, Done AND DONE!

I've been on a bit of a card making marathon since yesterday morning working on getting my Mom's Christmas cards made. It takes me usually a couple days but I must say it is a labour of love and one of my fav annual events.

This year I chose a Hero Arts cling mount stamp called Hanging Christmas Ornaments. It was totally inspired by a card that Bernice gave me when she took my last copic class at Pickle. Hers was done in more traditional holiday colours but I knew that mom would love greens, gold and bronze and of course lots of glitter.


I started with a hot press watercolor paper  because it is smooth and embossed my image in gold. Then I coloured the ornaments with tombow markers and softened it off with wet paintbrush. Pretty quick to do and it actually took me less time than I had originally thought. Then I added lots of superfine Glitter Ritz glitter and ranger glossy accents on the smaller ornaments. I kept everything else real simple because I had almost 30 of these to make so time was critical and I didn't want to distract from the image. I'm undecided on the bow. I only have it on this one and not sure if I'm gonna put it on the rest of them. I actually think I like it without the ribbon better.

That's it for today! My hand is a little cramped from glueing for the last couple hours and I think I need to go take a long hot shower. Then I'll be ready to work on my challenge card for Friday.

Have a great day!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

another bellarific friday....

...and another attempt at staying awake to watch an entire episode of Dexter...he's not exactly a profiler, but he is a blood splatter expert and that qualifies him as a forensic guy, even though he IS a serial killer! Ya, I'm a Dexter fan! Here in Chatham I can see the first glimpse of the weekly episode on Sunday at 10pm...like good luck with that, I usually fall asleep about 9:30. My next shot is Monday at 8pm...usually doable, but I have a nasty cold this week which is messing with my bed time. So tonight (Thursday) I have another shot! Dexter at 8pm, and if i miss is I can catch it ONE MORE TIME Sunday at 9 before the new episode at 10.

I'm sure you don't care about ANY of this...and it is pretty long winded but I ONLY watch Dexter and Criminal Minds and it makes me feel happy to spill it! So I'll move on to snow! Thankfully here in the banana belt of southern Ontario we have only seen a dusting of snow and that happened today. I'm serious when I say a dusting, it was NOTHING but yet at work they salted our parking lot! SEROIOUS OVERKILL! But my little Stamping Bella Lulu's Snowman has lots of snow on her and it is FAR from overkill!



I used mostly pencils on her but started with a base of G0000, 000 for her coat to get a nice solid base of colour. Now the best part is the snow! I used liquid applique on the 'dots' of snow and then lots of glitter flowing down. Then I used some liquid applique under the snowman but while it was wet I dumped some Polar White Flower Soft on it! OMGAWSH!....if you could only see it! The perfect snow!

Our challenge next week is something a little different...it is called Giftabella! ....you are to make a gift or a gift card. Me, I'll tell ya now that I am gonna make a giftcard for my right arm (aka housekeeper) Jane! If it it wasn't for her my house would be a total disaster because she keeps me in check. That is because every night before she comes I pick up all the 'stray' stuff that is laying around and tidy up. It is a chore I tell ya, but when I come home after work every other Friday to a nice clean house I am totally thankful for Jane!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

I've got exactly 15 minutes...

...to write this post before Criminal Minds starts at 9! I'm a TOTAL junkie! I could watch that show for 12 hours a day. No reality TV for me, but give me some good twisted profiler or forensic shows and I'm  hooked! Thanks for all your comments on my identity theft and GOOD FOR YOU if you changed your passwords! I KNOW it is a pain, but really is important and I'll never let mine slide again.

Alright...tick tock, time is running out so I'll get on with it...this is Pia Puddingtop from Stamping Bella and I know I said it last year, but must say it again....she is one of my ALL TIME FAV CHRISTMAS IMAGES EVER! I wish I had the time to colour one of her to send to every single person I know. I think this is the third time I have done her up and each time I like her better.


This version is VERY vintage when paired up with Basic Grey Wassail paper. I even splurged and used some of my 'premium' ribbon that I bought at Pickle....I think I paid a dollar for 18" of it, but OH SO WORTH IT!!!! Nothing but the best for my Pia!

She was stamped on bella's BESTEST paper and coloured with these copic markers and also used some prismacolor pencils for added shading:
E000, 00, 11, 51, 53, 55
E31, 33, 35 (hair)
YG91, 93, 95, 97 (dress)
R30, 32, 24, E07 (under dress and hat)
Y28, R59 (ornament and cherry)

Darn, Criminal Minds is a rerun! But gonna snuggle on the sofa with the pooch and watch it again anyhoo!

Later...Linda.

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