Homemade for the Holidays

Hi everyone! Yup, still alive and kicking. I managed to get all 40 of my handmade xmas cards done plus 20 for my mom. I do have a pic of my mom's which I will post but sadly I was in such a rush to get mine mailed I totally forgot to take a pic. I think I may still have one that is unassembled which I hopefully will get put together because since I have been making cards I do like to keep a chronicle of my cards through the years.

Since I don't have a card I thought I'd share some other homemade stuff that I've been up too over the last week or two, please forgive the nasty pictures because I took them with my phone.

First up these super delish mini tourtiere turnovers. It is a Kraft Canada recipe so it guarantees to be easy....It was a teeny bit time consuming because you have to make and cut the pastry but OH MY, the outcome is SO WORTH THE EFFORT! and if you have a food processor, the pastry will work up really quick and easy. If you are gonna make them....do a double batch because I think the portions are off and I only got 17 or 18 and not the 24 the recipe quotes....AND, they won't last!

 

My next homemade for the holidays are gifts I made for my mom and sister in law....nightgowns. Not just any old nightgown, these are made out of combed cotton batiste which is a DREAM to sleep in and with my little touches of heirloom stiches not only are they comfortable, but a little special too! Almost decadent in a Downton Abbey sort of way. FYI, I have had the pattern for years which is a long discontinued Kwik Sew. 

 

bodice detail

 

hem detail

Lastly, today is Christmas Eve and I typically host my side of the family with a traditional turkey dinner. However, plans changed this year which left my day open so I decided to revive an old Christmas Eve tradition from my childhood. I grew up Polish Catholic and eating meat was a no no on Friday, but ESPECIALLY on Good Friday and Christmas Eve. So every year on Christmas eve we would head over to Baba's where she was busy all day making pierogies. All kinds of them! Potato with white cheddar, yellow cheddar or cottage cheese.Veggie ones with sauerkraut and desert ones with prunes or cherries. And then there was the extra dough that she would just roll thin and boil up for my brother and I.

 

I don't have the stamina that my darling Baba had so I just stuck with two varieties. Potato with yellow cheddar and onion and potato with dry cottage cheese. And I did sort of cheat and made the dough in the kitchen aid stand mixer with the dough hook. This is the fruit of my labour...cheddar cheese on the left, cottage cheese on the right. And in keeping with tradition, all dripping in browned butter.

 

 

 

Finally I want to show you my most fav give that I am giving this year, yet the least expensive. It really doesn't have to be extravagant, and at Christmas I love to share and give some of my favourite things. This year it is a Japanese Salux bath cloth that my BFF Jenny hooked me on to. If you love a loofa, this is loofa feel good times ten! I have very dry itchy skin and bathing myself with this cloth feels euphoric! Ya i'm weird! But I love me a good bath cloth. I paired that up with some handmade soaps that are made by the wife of a guy I work with. These soaps are DIVINE....yes DIVINE! Right now she is just selling them locally but hopefully soon she will have an ETSY store which I will share as soon as it is up. In this gift pack there is also a bath bomb also made by her. Seriously, what girl would NOT love to get this as a gift!

 

 

 

That is it for my homemade holiday edition this year!

 

I wish you all the best this Christmas season and peace and love in the new year.

 

Linda.

 

Just 6 days left!

To save at Purple Onion Designs the 25% off sale runs until December 10th!
I've got one last card to show you... this is Icicle...I think he is intended to be a polar bear, but I leaned toward the 'other' side and coloured him as a little brown bear. I hope you like him. The sentiment is also from Stacey's collection.

 

coming up in the next week...mom's xmas card and a peek at what I will be sending this year!

 

'till next time. Linda!

More from Stacey Yakula at Purple Onion

Been a busy few days here at the Heavens house. Lions football game on Thanksgiving Thursday and they WON! I don't even like football that much and I even thought it was exciting, that is what I saw when I didn't have my nap during the second quarter. HeHehe!

So how 'bout another sweet little guy from Stacey Yakula over at Purple Onion. Remember, the 25% off sale runs until December 10th!

 This is Birch, the most adorable little bunny I have ever seen.

 

Stick around because I still have one more card to share. Plus the cards I have been working on this weekend for me and my mom. No colouring this year....time has run out...but something that I still think is adorable.

 

'till next time, Linda.



Black Friday Sale over at Purple Onion

Hey Ho! Look who is back...ok, not permanently back, just back with a little Holiday cheer! Michele over at Purple Onion was gracious enough to let me colour up some of Stacey Yakula's adorable holiday images for her Black Friday sale. YES, a sale over at Purple Onion, all stamps are 25% off and the SALE STARTS TODAY AND RUNS THROUGH DECEMBER 10TH!

How 'bout a little cuteness....this is Frost standing in front of Snowy View. I really love these little guys.

In other news if you wonder where I've been and if I have been alive, yes very alive and doing all kinds of non stamping crafty things. I FINALLY put up the grasscloth on my bedroom wall and made quilt for the bed. Once I got into the quilting spirit I started another one and bought fabric for a THIRD ONE! Then summer hit and the thought of quilting left me. Right now I'm making some ornaments to change the theme of my little dining room xmas tree. You might remember last years tree here. Stay tuned, and I'll post the new one when it's done.

AND stay tuned for other things because I'll be posting two more cards with Stacey's images this weekend.

For my American friends...happy belated Thanksgiving and hopefully that turkey overload was DELISH!

DIY Christmas stuff

I was in the mood this year to spruce up some of my Christmas decorations and Paula must have channeling my thoughts when she told me about this blog she follows, eighteen25. So I go check it out and boy did I get the inspirational kick in the pants that I needed!

This is my 'mantel'...well I don't have a mantel in my living room but I do have the top of the entertainment unit and this is how it looks today.

The subway art was downloaded from eighteen25 and they have an entire collection that you can download here! SOOO COOL! Then there are the dollar store finds...

• the frames (which I likely will replace with something a bit more sturdy when I find a good deal, but these do the trick for now)
• the white tree, i do plan on painting the pot white but just haven't done it yet...maybe today
• the plastic 'crystal' reindeer
• and the silver tea light candle

Then I have this ....which I shamelessly admit I totally CASE'd off of Nichole Heady's blog! Now I did follow the rules to change 3 things. She did a one layer card, I layered and sewed. She used copics, I used pencils. I also added LOTS of snow flakes falling over those trees and glittered like crazy. And of course, she made a card...I framed.

 

The last piece of DIY up there is this fabric circle tree. I get emails from Cloth Paper Scissors and I almost thought of stopping because they do send a LOT of them but I can't stop for fear I'll miss out on something good...and something good did come! Something that I could easily make! Lord knows there is no shortage of fabric scraps in this house.

 

 



Now lets move to the dining room. My little tree, another shameless total CASE-job from eighteen25, you can see their tree here. It was part of Michaels Dream Tree Challenge.

Lastly, I was driving home from work one day and one of the stores had all these ginormus snowflakes hanging in their window. I'm thinking "I've seen those somewhere! I need them". YES, it was the dollar store! Oh how working in the mall has its benefits!

 

That's it for today!

Off to run a couple errands and move on to the big tree in the family room.

 

Mom's 2012 Christmas Card

If you have been following me for a while you know that I make my Mom's XMAS cards. It is probably the most fun I have all year. I LOVE making Christmas cards more than anything else and I know that all my Mom's friends and realatives look forward to getting one every year.

I make about 25 for her so I have to keep the design simple enough to mass produce yet stunning enough to keep them wondering 'how'd she do that'. This year I was bound and determinded to use this Stamp Shack image that I have had for years and after a few duds, this is what I came up with.

I stamped the image with versamark on some smooth watercolour paper (available at Pickle) and applied three different embossing powders. Verdigras at the top, some PSX topiary in the middle (now retired) and sprinkle and sparkle's midnight black at the bottom.

After heat setting I spread over the entire image with Tumbled Glass distress stain and then sponged some iced spruce and bundled sage distress inks. When it was all good and dry I added the blue shading with prismacolor pencils and blended it out with gamsol.

Sentiment is papertrey, Sprigs and holly leaves are Martha Stewart punches. Background paper is Basic Grey (I think!) which I also sponged the edges,

So there you have it! Mom's Christmas cards, all done and delivered to her on the American Thanksgiving day weekend! The earliest I've ever had them completed!

 

IF you are reading this AND on Mom's list, I hope I haven't spoiled your surprise!

 

{hugs} Linda.

Laurel

Meet Laurel the Reindeer...another just squish it up adorable image by Stacey Yakula available in rubber over at Purple Onion. I will admit, I was a bit of a slacker because I was chatting it up with Paula yesterday and she said she was going to post her Laurel...and I said OMG...I was going to do that too!

So she posted hers, told you all to hop on over to see mine and it wasn't there. I got caught up in my newly acquired Netflix and the post slipped by me. Did I watch anything...NO....did I waste an entire day just cruising through what I could watch...YES! I think I have said it before....sometimes I just have to waste my day away doing nothing productive to gain some productive energy back. So, if you want to see Paula's cutie version...go check it out here! BUT FIRST ...check out mine.

She is all vintage paired up with cosmo cricket paper and to my shock...NO PENCILS were used here! Just copics. A LOT of them! So there you have it...my unproductive weekend. I did make up for it tonight by stringing three bags of red, white and silver glittered Styrofoam balls to make a garland for my little living room xmas tree and cooked up a batch of chicken noodle soup for this week's lunch's to keep me away from the fast food joints in 'the mall'.

that's it for now...till next time....
Linda

the stockings were hung on the chimney with care...

...In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there

I think I could recite that entire poem in my head and I don't even like poetry....WAY WAY too complicated for this simple mind.

How 'bout another Purple Onion Designs image by Stacey Yakula Studios...this one is simply called Stockings.

 

I can't help but be smitten with those little pointed toes! The colour inspiration came from the piece of Basic Grey paper and I coloured them up with copic markers and used some prismacolor pencil for shading. And of course....LOTS of glitter....no Christmas card is complete until you add the glitter.

 

Don't miss out, because Michele has all stamps 25% off and some incredible deals on her specials page so check out this post for all the details...but these deals will only last until Sunday!

 

 

Black Friday Deals

Are all my American friends coming out of their turkey coma and working it off shopping the Black Friday deals? Let me tell ya, my hubby says he would NEVER want anything that bad but I think if I lived over there I would most definitely get caught up in the hype.

We have our own way of enjoying the American Thanksgiving which includes pre-day festivities of steak dinner at the Keg, a late night at the casino followed by an early wake up call to head over to the Detroiter Bar for their Detrioter special ...burger, fries and a beer for $8.95. Now that we are all full we waddle over to Ford Field for the Detroit Lion's Thanksgiving Day football game. NOW...let me get something totally clear...I AM NOT a football fan but it was a pretty exciting game, I even stood up and cheered a few times. Colleen and I even managed to stay awake and not nod off until halfway into the 4th quarter. I opened my eyes just as it was finished and looked at the clock...4th quarter, 00:00 remaining...YES...then in my horror I looked at the score...31-31. I woke Colleen and said "OMG, they are going into overtime!".  So it was a long day, a long game, the Lions lost and I thankfully have the day off work to just chill and get some more Christmas Cards made.

Now if you are chilling out at home like me with no intentions of leaving you can still partake in some  holiday deals because Michelle over at Purple Onion Designs is having a Holiday Sale and Black Friday Specials with 25% off!!!!!!!!!! If you need some inspiration I just happen to have some for you. Paula got me hooked on these Stacey Yakula images and when these new ones came out she sends me a frantic text....DID YOU SEE THEM? I love Stacey's style, it is so soft and I tried to capture her simple style here.

First up, Snowy Trees. I used copic markers, pencils liquied applique, LOTS of glitter and sponged the edges with chalk ink.

 

Next up, Filbert. LIKE how cute is he!!!!! And being quick to colour I'll be doing a few more I think. Again I used copic markers, pencils and one of Stacey's sentiments. Then I cut him out and paired him up with a memory box tree. Gotta luv those dies too. That is liquid applique under his feet that was imbedded with clear flower soft while it was still wet. You can't see them very well, but to create the crystal snowflakes I punched them out of double sided tape. Pressed them down then removed the paper exposing the other sticky side and added glitter.

 

 

That's about it for now. I still have another one of Stacey's images to show you tomorrow and a couple more to colour up. It's gonna be a busy next couple weeks for me.

 

Later, Linda.

 

 

 

Are you feeling Christmasy yet?

I wasn't until today when I went to our local Canadian Tire (home/auto/tool etc store) and all the Christmas stuff was out. And OMG....there it was, a 4 foot tall Santa with a little Westie poo baby girl doggie jumping up on his leg! I'm thinking....I NEED IT! But with a $200 price tag I don't know that I REALLY need it. But I am definitely going to watch for that thing to go on sale.

This past weekend I was a busy bee making Christmas cards. 25 for my mom all done except for the little sprigs of embelishments that need to get added. I also made 8 very Tim Holtz like cards and CASE'd one of Nichole's from her Papertrey Blog. Gotta love simple cards sometimes. I also took a class last week over at Pickle with Nathalie from Magenta. If you don't know, Magenta is a Canadian stamp company and their beautiful samples caught my eye many years ago and I fell in love.

Speaking of Pickle, Kim is getting used to her new digs and just announced she will be open two extra days through the week! SO happy about that! Check out her blog for store hours and some pics she took at the Magenta classes.

Now how 'bout a little Christmas inspiration! This was a card I made for last years stash but somehow never got posted. It is one of those cards that just makes me happy and I think I may make a few more for this year.

 

Trees are Tim Holtz

Peace die and sentiment are Papertrey

 

That's it for today, more Christmas cards coming soon!

Peace out, Linda.

Polly Packages Returns

Last weeks theme of Christmas in July (which I entirely forgot to post) made me think of all those Christmas cards I want to make so I decided to keep the theme going. A theme and a sketch! It doesn't get much easier than that.

Polly Packages is one of my all time fav little Holiday images, those little boots, the tights, her cute little hat, plus it is pretty easy and quick to colour!

Of course I coloured her with copics and finished her up with pencils, some glitter, lace from our local fabric store and trim. The sentiment also comes from Stamping Bella.

And since I didn't post my card last week, I think I'll do it now, while I'm here. I used Lulu's ornaments on this one but only a portion of the stamp so I could fit it on an A2 card. It might look like ribbon at the top, but it is a spellbinders border which I distressed. A little bit of colour on the ornaments and a good heavy coating of Ranger glossy accents make these ornaments pop.

 

Next week we are back to a theme with our challenge....

SUM SUM SUMMERTIME

With the heat we have had here it is not all that hard to remember it is Summertime....but I'm NOT at all complaining. ANYTHING is better than snow!

Finally, I'd like to give a BIG WARM welcome to our newest Babe....Carla Murphy....she has been a long time bella fan and even made a trip from her home in Ottawa to take one of my classes in Toronto. Go check her out and send some love!

Smashing Good Fun

Ya, I caved....I bought a smashbook. Emily has been carrying this line for a while now and told me I needed it. Well, I hedged, like I normally do but I ventured into Pickle a couple weeks ago and now Kim has them and I had a weak moment and caved. And I'm so glad I did. It is like scrapbooking for dummies. I have scrapbooked in the past but when I look at that blank page my mind goes as blank as the paper. This is different, it almost prompts you and that is what I think I needed. And of course, if I was gonna smash, I needed the little Fuji instax camera that Emily and Ebru went crazy for so I had a bit of Christmas day fun and created this page.

To explain "this is now", the opposite page says "that was then" so I'm gonna dig out some early xmas photo's to smash on that side. And what better way to compliment my mini instant pictures than to use Stamping Bella's grunge filmstrip die from the Journal your Art out set. I notice that she has called it set #1 and I'm hoping that means there will be more sets like it in the future.

As for the other things on the page, the trees are Tim Holtz, "this is now" are quickutz and christmas was stamped from a VERY old River City alphabet set that I've had for years. Like so long that alphabet dies were still just a dream in someone's mind.

While I haven't made any cards for the last couple weeks, I have kept crafty in other ways like decorating my house for the holidays

little Baby Jesus in his manger that was always one of my fav things as a kid and
 a few years ago my mom gave it to me. He used to go under our tree, but this year
I've got him on display on an end table

When I moved to Chatham, my mom thought I should have a little tree so she
bought me this one to put on a tabletop. I've had it for over 25 years and it has not
missed a Christmas yet. I do however have to get more ornaments for it though because
mice got to it this year. The quilt hanging on the wall was made by ME! Yup in my
quilting days I made this skinny santa quilted wall hanging. It hasn't surfaced for years
but I thought it  was time to bring it back out. I love skinny santa's.

I even decorated the light fixture hanging in our dining room. The glass
egg shaped ornaments I made a few years ago and this year I made the
round ones. They are decorated with a product called LuminArte which
is a thin glue like liquid you pour into the ornament and then add mica
like powders that stick to the glue. It is pretty cool and no matter what
you do, no two ornaments look the same.

This little tree is in my living room. Our other big tree is in the family room
and I don't really have room in here for a tree that large. And if you look to the
left, you'll see my little collection of Westie poo's! Love my puppy!

That's it for my decorating. I'm sure for some people, this is pretty slim but I don't like clutter so this is just enough to make it a little more festive around here.

Our regular Bellarific Friday's will start up again on Jan 13th and by popular demand we will be featuring a lot more sketches....like LOTS more. I hope Dana, our commander in chief, doesn't slap my wrist but I'm gonna give you a little Chrismas surprise and release our FIRST SKETCH OF THE YEAR! So no excuses, I'm sure you all got some new crafty stuff that you are dying to break into and I'm giving you two weeks to email your card to Emily! Go get inky!

I'll be back tomorrow with a little NON Christmas NON Winter project I completed over the holidays.

Merry Christmas

Seems like I have been away forever, but it has been a busy week here in the Heavens household. I worked Monday and Tuesday then spent the last three days getting in last minute decorating and shopping and cleaning for our family gathering here this afternoon.

Stuffing is made and the turkey is staring me in the face waiting to get dressed to go in the oven. Oh and my new Scentsy is burning bright with the scent of honey pear cider. Kim from Pickle gave it to me and can you say LOVE! I LOVE this thing!!!! It is the best gift I have ever received EVER! Seriously, I think I want one for every room in my house all with different scents in them. I was browsing the catalogue online this morning and I've got my next one already picked out!!!! OH I can't wait!

Now for my last Christmas card of the year (maybe!) I have another Stamping Bella's Mo's door with wreath. And I couldn't help but make another one of Kitty's wreath's either. The white one went to my mom and this one goes to my inlaw's. It has a more rustic look to it with a red door and wood background created with a Sizzix Tim Holtz embossing folder. I like the Sizzix folders so much better than the cuttlebug because they are just a bit larger and work better for my usual 5 1/2" square cards and they seem to have a deeper emboss as well. Gotta love everything Tim.

Well gals (and maybe even some guy's?) that's all I have time for now. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday and I'm off to wrestle my turkey.

Fyi...we are on Bellarific Friday hiatus until the new year and poor Emily has been knocked out with the flu for two weeks so go leave her some love and tell her we've missed her!

Uptown girls are allowed to be late, aren't they?

I have only 3 more days at the 'gas' before I am off for two weeks  (less one day) of holidays! I lost that one day because I took a day off a couple weeks ago to get some Christmas cards done. Since I had to work Monday anyway, working Monday and Tuesday was not so much of a big deal.

I'm certainly looking forward to some time off though. It has been a crazy hectic year because my hubby has been travelling a LOT, which thankfully is ending, and this babe needs a break from everything. I'd like to say I plan to spend my days watching movies, cuddling with my pooch, drinking tea (or cappuccino) and just relaxing my days away. However, if you know me, you know that wouldn't last and I might do that for a day then get busy into some reorganizing project. Or maybe vaccuum every square inch of my house with my new Dyson Animal!  I know when I go back to work the first three months are gonna be hectic so I need some time to recharge however I decide to do that.

Work and life aside, we had an awesome sketch this week. One of my fav sketches by the way and I have used variations of it numerous times in the past but never with Stamping Bella's Quinn.

Isn't she just the cutest thing EVAH!!!!! I know this is a repeat, but I can't help myself. I have to join in with Paula's Uptown Girl support group. And I have a special person who will get this card from us along with her new black Uggs. Since purple is her fav colour, black uggs with a purple coat was the colour scheme I had to go with.

I stamped her on bella's BESTEST paper and used the following copics, along with some shading with prismacolor pencils and gamsol.

E000, 00, 34, 44, 49
RV00, 10, 23, R21, 83, 85, 89
V01, 12, 15, 17, N1, 3, 5, C4, 6, 8, 9

Bellarific Friday will be on hiatus for the next couple weeks but we will be back in the new year with  new challenges incorporating many of your suggestions. And just because there is no challenge, I will still be here so pop in and take a peek.

till next time, Linda

White door with wreath

I've been obsessed with KittieKraft lately. I used to follow her blog years ago and she kinda dropped off my radar but something brought me back to her in the past week and I think the stars were with me when that happened. I had just coloured up Stamping Bella's Mo's door with Wreath and was pondering over the wreath when I came across this INCREDIBLE wreath that Kitty made with a Martha Stewart punch and the stars aligned! I got busy punching and glueing following her instructions and I ended up with a BE-U-TI-FUL wreath to adorn my door!

I wanted this door to be white with just a hint of green to pick up the colour of the trim so after stamping on bella's BESTEST paper these are the copics I used, but I will say, I did do quite a bit of tweaking and shading with pencils!

C00, 0, 1, 7, 9, N0, 1, 2, 3, 5
YG91, 93, 61, E81, 87

I'd better scoot cause hubs isn't home and the princess (that would be the DOG, Bessie) is needing some attention. But she will have to wait JUST A MINUTE MORE because did you know that Emily is having a TRIPLE BUCKS EVENT this week! I think it might be because of all the love she got last week that has made her weak! So if you play this week you have a chance at $30 bella bucks and if you leave a comment on this post you will be entered for another $30 bella bucks. LIKE SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! so comment on this post, and play this week and you could possibly win $60 bella bucks!

See ya Friday for the challenge! Off to make more xmas cards...WHEW....ALMOST DONE!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

NOT!

For my family, Christmas together means 1 hour commutes for most of us, except for the one who is hosting. So I don't dream of a white Christmas, I dream of clear dry roads for everyone who has to drive an hour or more on the highway to spend the day with their families.

That is my wish, and this is my card, Stamping Bells's snowman and a cardinal by Mo Manning.

As always, I stamped this chilly guy on Bella's BESTEST paper in black memento ink and in addition to a combo of warm and cool grey's for the snowman these are the other copic colours I used:

G40, 82, YG67, 63, 99

All shading was done with prismacolor pencils and gamsol and I am pretty sure I used my cerulean blue around the snowman to celebrate prisma bringing back that colour. It is one of my fav's!

Our challenge next week is a sketch which will come in handy for those last minute holiday cards you need to get finished. I know I still have about 10 to make so I'll be sure to whip up a couple using this classic and timeless sketch! I LOVE a sketch challenge!

On a final note, today is Friday here in Southwestern Ontario and a Friday night in the Heavens household means that I am gonna get a break from cooking and we will either go out for pizza or get Thai take out and I'll spend the evening with my art supplies and my journal coming up with something creative for Emily's AJ Monday.

till next time, Linda

Bizmark

Hiya! I planned on posting this a couple days ago but life got in the way. Christmas party, leakly roof blistering the paint on my kitchen ceiling, pizza at Mom's (Windsor pizza to boot!!!!), and a retirement party has kept me busy over the last few days. And if you are wondering why I am boasting about Windsor pizza it is because it THE BEST PIZZA this side of Old Forge, PA where I had the best pizza of my life on one of our Dave Matthews tour dates.

Gosh I missed Dave this year and I can only hope that the band will be announcing tour dates for next year real soon. He brings us to places we would never dream of going and I have great food experiences at 'almost' every place we have visited. Ya...I'm a big time foodie! And I have to throw the 'almost' in there because as we sat in one place having THE WORST hotdog of my life, our son texted me asking where the Thai take out menu was! YA....I was NOT happy, and to top it off hubs rubbed it in that I left them too much money for food! No worries...hubby has paid big time for that because now when we travel I use my trusty Urbanspoon iPone app to find us a great restaurant that does not serve hot dogs!

Alright...with that out of my system I can move on to Stamping Bella's Bismarck by Mo Manning. Isn't he just the cutest thing EVER!

I tried to get him to be a more 'blonde' colour but my copics got the best of me and he ended up a little more brown than I had hoped for. Then I had a tradegy and after he was all coloured up I was reinking my R22 copic and i dropped it getting a nice big blotch of red in the upper right corner. I was not going to let my time go to waste so I thought it was a good opportunity to add the metallic frame with the Verve sentiment. The hardest part was finding a sentiment in my stash that would fit into the frame because it had to be tiny! Thank goodness I have a LARGE stash of Christmas sentiments.

Mistakes aside, I stamped him with memento Rich Cocoa on bella's BESTEST paper and coloured him with the following copic markers:



R14, 22, 24, 29, 59, YR30, 20
YG45, 67, 99, W00, 0, 1, 2, 4
E30, 41, 42, 50, 51, 53, 23, 44, 47
C00, 1, 2, 5

That's it for today, I'll be back on Friday with my white challenge card.

Lulu's snowman 2011

Hope everyone is well today, we had torrential rainfall this past week and we have a wicked leak in our roof, over my kitchen table. Thankfully the ceiling has not come down but it is not pretty...we need a roofing guy here ASAP! What I am most mad about is that we will have to have the ceiling repaired and then I'm gonna have to paint. Me no wanna paint!

Enough whining...how 'bout a card. And surprise surprise! It's another Holiday card, but I have a good excuse because that was our challenge and I still need 20 more cards so this comes in handy. This week I used Stamping Bella's LULU'S SNOWMAN, and what a cutie she is.

Last year I 'dressed' her up in a pale green coat, this year I decided to keep her all white and pair it up with one of my new Cheery Lynn Design doily dies. These are THE MOST intricate dies I have ever seen and they cut like a dream in my Vagabond. I'm even thinking that I could cut one out of acetate and use it with sprays in my journal! LOVIN' THAT IDEA!!!!

I stamped LULU on bella's BESTEST paper and coloured her up with the following copic markers  using the cool greys on the snowman and the warm greys on lulu:

E000, 00, 11, 40, 41, 42, 44, 07, 09

C00, 0, 2, 3, W00, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9

C7, 9, B60, YR15, 18, R22, BG96

Next week our challenge is to keep it WHITE! I know that may scare some, but OMG, I LOVE a white card so I'm looking forward to this one. You might recall that we did this challenge last year and if you are looking for some ideas check out this post.

till next time, Linda



Polly Packages 2011

I have coloured up Stamping Bella's Polly Packages every year for the past three years (I think) and each card I make I like better than the one before it. Hmmmm....could be with all the cards I have been colouring over the years I think I may be getting better at it. I've said it before, but it never hurts to repeat it....PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!!!! It really does make a difference. You'll find your groove, settle into your style and when that light bulb goes off it will become much easier when you find YOUR comfort zone.

This year I gave her a rustic feel and paired her up with Basic Grey's 6x6 Wassail paper and coloured her with the following copic markers:

E000, 00, 11, 41, 42, 43, 44, 49
E04, 07, 09, 30, 33, 37, 55, 57
E51, 53, Y11, 26, 28, R22, 35, 39
G40, 8, YG61, 67, BG93, 96

WHEW! That seemed like a lot of colours for a tiny chichiboulie. I added some sparkle around her with Hero Arts glitter and going with that rustic feel I pulled out my JudiKins Straw speckles to sprinkle at her feet. One thing you should know...it is best to use some Ranger Glossy Accents, or something similar, to glue down these heavier texture sprinkles. AND, in case you are wondering, the holly vine is a Memory Box die.

I'll be back on Friday with my Bellarific challenge card and hmmmmm....did I use texture on that? I can't remember. You'll just have to wait and see.

Later, Linda

Guilded Trees

I coloured up Stamping Bella's birds decorating TREES with no particular paper in mind. Pretty scary thought isn't it, but I knew I was going to colour them all green with blue shades and blue birds so how tough would it be to find paper to match.

After stamping my trees with memento ink on bella's BESTEST paper I coloured them up with the following copic markers:

YG41, 45, G12, B12, 16, BG07 (trees, birds and ornaments)
E42, 44 (tree trunk)
YR30, E50, 51 (shading around trees)

I decided on an elegant background and used a piece of a solid Basic Grey paper that had subtle shading in it. Ran it thru my vagabond with a sizzix embossing folder and then sponged on some evergreen bough distress ink and tsukineko all purpose ink in Vegas gold. For my local fans, I got this at pickle...which by the way, is where I got the idea ;).  The gold glitter at the base of the trees is a JudiKins product called ROXS. I have several of these very textural accents which I have been hoarding for years and I've decided to start putting them to use. It's all about the details and the more little accents you add, the more the WOW factor will be....but remember, LITTLE is the key to my style! I never want to be so over the top with accents that my image gets lost in the clutter...but that's just me.

Now it's only Tuesday so you still have lots of time to get in on our Friday Challenge over at Bloggabella....our theme is keeping with the season and HOLIDAY is your inspiration. And if you are ready to take the plunge....WORDS is the AJ Monday challenge and you can read about it here.

I've still got one more card to show you before Bellarific Friday, so don't wander off too far! K!

till next time, Linda