Easter is still a few weeks away...but....

I coloured up THE CUTEST image and made THE CUTEST card I just had to share. (see Bren, I'm not always humble!..LOL!) And I figure this will give you plenty of time to get inspired if you are one to make Easter cards.

This is Stamping Bella's Cracked Up HUGGABUG by Christy Croll.

Again, I was inspired by the Miss Caroline My Minds Eye paper and I even went all crazy and made an Easter egg shaped card!

If you are challenged by these round or oval shaped cards I have a little tip for ya. Others may have done this, but I've never seen it posted and I thought I had some kind of brainstorm! Chances are that I'm just probably not on top of the current tips!

It was really simple. I cut the two ovals for front and back with my dusty Creative Memories cutting system. On the 'back' piece, I scored 1/2" down at the top so I could have a place to glue it to the front and fold it back. Then I cut 1/2" off the bottom. That way I could open the card and I had a ready made flat edge to make the card stand straight.

I used a lot of pencils on this card and didn't write down the copics I used, but I did have a question about Jamie's hair from this post. It was done with E41, 42, 43, 44 and JUST A TAD of E47.

Don't forget, the theme this week is polkadots and I KNOW we all love them and there is still time to play along so get busy!

Lettering 101

I'm taking Joanne Sharpe's Letter Love class and I'm totally LOVING it! I've always wanted to know how to letter like the art journalling pro's and have tried, but there was always something I just didn't get. But Joanne makes it easy and doable for everyone! Once you register for the class, it is open to you forever so there is no pressure, no timeline and you can just work at your own pace. I'm hoping by the end of the lessons I can letter just half as good as Joanne. If you are wondering how I found out about this, it was from jumping in on the Stamping Bella SCS forum! You should check it out because you never know what you might learn about there.

This is my page for lesson 5, Whimsey Grids. Joanne used pan pastels to colour her grids, but I opted for prismacolor pencils to 'qualify' for Emily's AJ Monday (although I don't think she is that fussy and you could submit anything from your art journal to qualify!)

This turned out a little busier than I had hoped, but heck...it's my first try and I'm pretty proud of it if I do say so myself! I think I'll try another one with pan pastels just to see the difference. And I'm sure it will take me less than half the time because it did take me a while to colour this in with pencils.

I think I just might go get my lettering journal out tonight and practice some more. REALLY...we all say it...JUST PRACTICE!

later...Linda.

New Beginnings

Last week after 27 years of going to work at the same office 5mins (and one street light) from my house, my department has been relocated to the Downtown Mall...all of the IS and IT departments from the Union Gas Head Office have been relocated to the mall, all 170 of us were moved over two weekends. It's strange and different, but not horrible...just VERY different. I feel like we have invaded their space.

No longer can i saunter into the cafeteria and ask one of the gals to make me a 'sunrise on an english muffin'. Or have one of Brandon's fab soups for lunch if I didn't want to go home...(at HO we always had AT LEAST 2 soup of the days to choose from and no matter what you chose it was guaranteed to be good). Now I have no impromptu sunrise sandwiches to enjoy and I have to drive through NO LESS than 5 street lights to get to the office.  My commute from my house to my desk has stretched from 6mins to between 10 and 13 mins....which probably doesn't seem like a lot to someone who lives in a big city, but for me, this has doubled my travel time. And since I go home for lunch most days that equates to approx 25mins out of my day where I could be doing other stuff.

What it boils down to is that it took me a lot of years to appreciate it, but now, I do like small town living. I LIKE not having to commute to work. If I want a day in 'the city' (Windsor, London, Toronto) I can do it, but if I just want to hunker down in my small city of Chatham I'm totally happy to do so.

Our boys are home this week from school because it is 'reading week' and the other night I didn't have dinner ready till 7pm...I told them it was because I now have to 'commute' to work so dinner will be later than what they were used to! They got a good chuckle out of that one, because having grown up in Chatham, they now attend schools in much larger cities and can appreciate the difference.

While I was thinking about these new beginnings I was admiring my new My Minds Eye paper while flipping through some of my newer Stamping Bella Stamps. When I came upon Jamie with that little butterfly on her finger I knew I had to do this one....from a caterpillar to butterfly it is like a new beginning.

I don't think I could ever give this card away. Actually, I think I'm gonna have to smashbook it along with some other special memorabilia that I just can't part with. Union Gas celebrated its 100 anniversary in 2011, hopefully my smashbook page with my memorabilia will be kept preserved through the generations and maybe displayed with pride on their 150th anniversary and forward!

This is crazy...and SO not like me, but there could be a moral here! Let's remember the past, but not dwell on it, and move forward and enjoy the future no matter how weird and strange it may seem at the moment..

Moving on to something comfortable, let's talk about next weeks Bellarific Friday...it's all about dots...POLKA DOTS! ....use polka dots somewhere...like ANYWHERE....in your card and upload your card to our SCS forum, and/or email to Emily to see it up in lights on her blog and be eligible to win some bella bucks! 

Next post I'll keep you up to date on my life 'at the mall' and I promise to be more upbeat and less sentimental about my last 27 years of a 6 min commute and less whiney about my new 13 minute commute and try to find the 'up side' of working downtown.. I know those upsides are there...I just gotta find them!

Linda.

A new piece of paper is all it takes....

....to get my creative juices flowing! This past weekend I picked up a couple pads of the latest My Minds Eye and I am TOTALLY smitten with them! So smitten, I coloured images all weekend specifically to match this paper.

For my first one I chose the cherries from Stamping Bella's Lulu's set of fruits. There is something about the soft yellow paper with the doilies that just screams grandma's house to me. Now, I'm not a fan of yellow because it is hard to work with, but I reallllly do love the vintage look of this paper so I pushed myself to JUST DO IT.

Now that I look at this again, I'm thinking I should have added a touch of yellow to some of those cherries. Not too late though, I may go back and do that. But for the image as is here, I stamped it on Bella's BESTEST paper with memento black ink and coloured with the following copic markers:

R12, 14, 27, 29, 39
YR30, Y11, 23, 17, 26, 28, E33, 35
YG13, 17, 67, 99, E47

I find it really hard to colour yellows with these markers...it usually ends up way too bright and harsh for my liking. So that second line of colours with the YR, Y's and E's were ALL used on the bowl and those layers of colours gave me the perfect warm yellow I was hoping for. Isn't it nice when things turn out as planned!  I didn't even have to use pencils on there to 'correct' my colour! However, I DID use pencils for all the shading and grounding around the image and I'll never stop doing that.

Don't forget about our sketch challenge this Friday over at Bloggabella! My card is already done, and YES, I used some of my new My Minds Eye paper :)

Coffee and Friends

Is that a good blend or what! These are Stamping Bella's Uptown Girls CLARISSA and CAMILLE with a café.

You guessed it, I stamped them on Bella's BESTEST paper with memento black ink and coloured with the following copic markers to pair up with Basic Grey's Hello Luscious paper.

E000, 00, 11, R20, RV10, 23, 25, 69
BV01, 11, BG10, 32, 57
E41, 43, 47, 21, 23, 25, 29, 50
Y11, 26, 17, 23, W0, 1, 2

Copic Chart Update

Now I have something for you copic fans. I taught a class at Pickle on Saturday and a couple gals asked how they could get their hands on my copic chart. I posted it somewhere in the Stamping Bella SCS Forum, but it was buried in another thread. I thought the easiest way to find it was to put it in a dedicated thread so here you go...you can find it here, or if you need it again, I've added a link to it on my sidebar under Great Stuff on Splitcoast.

Thankfully it is a holiday here in Ontario today so I'm gonna catch up on some colouring, watch the Today Show and Ellen and have me a cup of coffee or two!

Be Mine

With Valentine's Day this week I couldn't let the occassion go without a card, albiet I'm a little late posting it, but just overlook that okay and keep the inspriation tucked away for next year. For this Anything Goes Bellarific Friday I decided to colour up Stamping Bella's Hanging Hearts block.

With hubby home this week I had a late breaking idea to make us reservations somewhere nice for a Valentines day dinner. Well, I was a little TOO late on that thought because three of our fav spots I called were already booked and my #4 pick had a prixe fixe menu which was over the top for what they were serving. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about dining out and paying top dollar for a fine meal but it HAS to be worth it and I'm not into paying a premium for something based on a 'date on the calendar' that I could get the next day for half the price.

In the end we 'dined in' and I made one of the hub's fav's...chicken parmesan. And in typical 'dining out' style, we didn't eat until 7pm and enjoyed a nice bottle of red all in the comfort of our kitchen.

Next week we are back to one of your fav's, another sketch! I know you love them, heck I love them too so get busy! And for us here in Ontario it is a long weekend so that means lots of extra crafty time! WHOOO HOOO!

Mixed Media Frenzy

As I mentioned Pauline and I took a road trip to Paula's on Saturday and it was a mixed media frenzy day. Paula lives about 1 1/2 hours from my place and the roads weren't the best for driving. Okay, to be really honest they were the WORST we have seen this winter but we made it and thankfully we had dry clear roads on the way home. And now that it's behind me, I'll admit...I was not looking forward to driving home in the dark on bad roads. I don't mind so much during daylight, but it is not pleasant in the dark so I kept a keen eye on the weather that day and thankfully winds died down and snow stopped which made for a pleasant drive home.

That was until I got home to the news of Whitney Houston's death. Although I lived my 20's during the 80's I was more into alternative rock than the disco scene but her voice, and the movie The Bodyguard will stay with me forever. RIP Whitney.

With crappy roads and a life ended too short behind me, I do have an AJ Monday page to share today which I worked on at Paula's.



Our challenge this week was to use fabric and I knew immediately what I wanted to do. Draw a pretty Suzi Blu inspired face and 'make' her a dress out of fabric. The real challenge for me was that I was playing around with my new Derwent Inktense water soluble pencils which I don't quite have the feel for yet so I threw in some prismacolor pencils and koi watercolors for the face and an acrylic stencilled pattern in the background. What I loved about using the acrylics with the stencil is that I could go back with watercolours and the acrylic would resist the watercolour paints. It was pretty decent and I'll be doing that again in the future for sure.

Before i leave, in addition to stalking Emily's blog to see what everyone else did with fabric, you should also stalk Paula's blog because she was busy snapping pics of food and mixed media projects in the making that I hope she posts. The gals did some FAB projects that you won't want to miss out on.

Till next time...Linda.

Sometimes an image just reminds you of someone

Now I'm not gonna say exactly 'who' this one reminds me of because I know she reads my blog sometimes but I'll just say....this is SO her and I think I'll be keeping tucked in a safe place until her birthday rolls around.

On another note, my housekeeper called last night and cancelled her date for today because poor thing is sick as a dog! She sounded terrible. Jane is a total sweetie and has been my right hand for the last 20 years. Without her, I'd never be able to do the things that I do while maintaining a full time job. Now, as crappy as it is that she is sick, for me it was a bit of a weight lifted because I could go plop myself on the couch with the pooch and forgo the 'pre-cleaning' ....okay, so I don't really 'clean' but I do tidy up EVERYTHING and that takes me quite some time. (remember, I craft in my kitchen so there is usually LOTS that has been left out that needs putting away). The bad part is that I'll have to clean my house this weekend :(.

Back to the topic at hand. This is Stamping Bella's Uptown Girls PATTIE and DOTTIE friends FOREVER.

Do you have a forever friend? I have some friends today that I certainly hope will become forever friends and only hope our lives will continue to cross paths so we can remain friends long into our senior years.

For this card, I stamped these gals with Memento ink on bella's BESTEST paper, paired them up with Basic Grey out of print 6x6 paper and started colouring them with copic markers. Again, lots of pencils were used here...my copics just gave me the base...and Ebru's sketch fit perfectly with this 5x7 card.

Next week is easy peasy, just use a Stamping Bella image and anything else goes. That means you can go to one of your fav sketch or colour challenge blogs and combine them all into a bundle and knock off three challenges with one card. Email your card to Emily at emily@stampingbella.com by next Thursday to see it on her blog, but if you wanna a chance to win some Bella Bucks, upload your card to SCS using the keyword BELLARIFIC0612. All of the challenge details over on SCS can be found in the forum here.

See ya soon....tonight I pack up stuff for crafty goodness at Paula's tomorrow.

Road Trip

Pauline and I are taking a road trip Saturday to Paula's. LOVE going to Paula's, sometimes when I'm there I just sit quietly and try to absorb the inspiration! Crazy! And this roadtrip pairs up perfectly with Stamping Bella's Molly makes a Detour. That's me, sitting on top of all the suitcases that will packed with my paints, inks, sprays and mixed media stuff I'll be bringing along!

You guessed it...gonna be a wild and wonderful artsy craftsy day and I'm pumped. Not sure yet what I'm gonna work on, maybe my AJ Monday page, or maybe play with my new Inktense watercolor pencils that will be waiting for me. Now it's been a LONG time since I used a watercolor pencil...like probably 10 years ago when I first started stamping with Stamping Up. I think I have long given that set away but I'm looking forward to playing around with 72 new colours!

As always I stamped Molly on bella's BESTEST paper and started colouring her with markers, but finished up most, if not all, of it with pencils. I wanted a softer more vintage look and that is why I leaned more toward pencils. If you are curious, I paired her up with Simple Stories Baby Steps paper and that leather belt, well it all started with a piece of paper and was made by me. If you wanna know how I did it, check out Kittie's faux leather post here.

And don't forget about our sketch this Friday. Email your card to Emily at emily@stampingbella.com by next Thursday to see it on her blog, but if you wanna a chance to win some Bella Bucks, upload your card to SCS using the keyword BELLARIFIC0512. All of the challenge details over on SCS can be found in the forum here. Good Luck! I know you all love a sketch so no excuses! Get Busy!

AJ Monday

It's been a while since I played along in Emily's AJ Monday and I think it takes me the entire month of January to get back into a routine after the Christmas holidays. But now that February is here, hopefully I will be back at it more regularly. Next week the challenge is to use fabric on your page and I already have some ideas looming in my head. I'm pretty excited about it and can't wait to get started.

But this week, we are using tape and I chose washi tape and created a grid over my entire page.

Then to tone it down I rolled over a couple coats of golden titan buff mixed with clear glazing liquid. Now the fun stuff! It was such a gorjus day on Saturday when I made this I was thinking of spring, so naturally I had to make some flowers and used felt this time around cutting them out with a spellbinders die. I only had white and green so used my Tumble Dyes to brighten up those pretty flower heads. I even got a little crazy on them add added some hand stitching. However, after the first one I was starting to regret that decision.

That's it! another pretty page for my journal.

Blow a Kiss

Our challenge this week over at Bloggabella and the Bella Forum on SCS was to make a Valentine card, love card, or just pretend and use red, pink and white. I decided to one of Jane Davenport's new images BLOW a KISS Jane and pair her up with Basic Grey's Little Black Dress. LOVE that line! That reminds me, I made another little valise for Pickle using the same line of papers. Kim has it at the store if you wanna go take a look. Back to Jane, I'm really liking her style and I hope Emily comes out with more soon. {hint hint}

I started by stamping jane with Adirondak Sandal, then using my stamp positioner, stamped her again off to the right a bit with black versafine. TIP! when these solid stamps are new, they don't hold ink that well. Whenever I get one, I LIGHTLY sand the surface a bit with a fine grain piece of sandpaper to get some tooth on there and if you try it, you will be much happier with your results. Despite doing that, I still had some 'thin' spots but that was easily remedied with a black prismacolor pencil and some gamsol. Or, you could also use a copic, but the copic may be so dark, you'll have to colour the entire thing. AH...too much work! Get out that pencil!

Then I  used some pencil again to add some extra shading over the adirondak ink. Because I wanted her to fit nicely in my oval frame I tipped her to the left a bit, but when I did that her dress was not completely stamped inside the oval so copics to the rescue and I just extended her dress a bit. Even after stitching around the oval, I used my black marker over the stitching so the white wouldn't stand out so much over the black. Then of course there was glitter, ribbon, more ribbon, punches and sponging to bring it all together.

And guess what! Next week we are back to a sketch! And AGAIN, it is sponsored by our super sketch talented babe Ebru. Email your card to Emily by next Thursday to see it on her blog, but if you wanna a chance to win some Bella Bucks, upload your card to SCS using the keyword BELLARIFIC0512. All of the challenge details over on SCS can be found in the forum here. Good Luck! I know you all love a sketch so no excuses! Get Busy!

Orchids for Lulu

actually, there weren't for Lulu, these Orchids for Lulu turned into an anniversary card that my mom was sending out. It has been a while since I pulled these out and I had forgotten how pretty they were. I kept everything quite simple and the sizzix embossing on the white paper gave just the right amount of texture.

I kept the colours very soft using the palest of the BV's and some cool grey on the flowers. I also used BG0000 and BG00 for the shading, and if you look closely you'll see I added some grey pencil below the petals to make those flowers pop a bit more. Yes, I did soften off the pencil with some gamsol.

Have you all gotten your new copic colours yet? I just got mine this week and that meant a new chart to colour up. I won't lie, it IS time consuming, but so worth it and also a great way to go thru all my markers and see which ones need reinking, and which ones need new nibs. Now that everything is all juiced up I'm ready to roll!

Don't forget about our challenge on Friday, make a valentine card, or use pink and red and email it to Emily to have it uploaded to her blog and/or upload it to our Stamping Bella Splitcoast gallery with the keyword BELLARIFIC0412 to be entered into this week's challenge.

Speaking of that challenge...I'll see ya Friday.