Sometimes someone just needs a little smile

With this busy time of year we can often forget that there may be people in our lives who just need a lift, or a smile, and something to just take their mind away from the craziness going on around them.  I have someone like that in my circle of friends right now and today she talked about her story. You may know her, she is a fellow babe and one of  the sweetest gals I have ever met. Her name is Cath and she talks about her journey here. 

Since she IS a babe, how could I not use a Stamping Bella stamp and I chose Ramona and her wagon because how could you possibly hold in a smile with something so adorable in front of you. I'm thinking some other current and past babes may also be thinking of Cath so you may want to head on over to see what Emily has cooking.

Later, 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!

up UP and AWAY!

Last night I decided to put my girl through the ropes...we BOTH need the exercise...and the ropes for us is a long walk. If you don't know who my girl is, that would be my beloved West Highland Terrier Bessie and her pic is on my side bar. Isn't she just like the cutest girl EVER!

This is one of our first long endurance walks since her second knee surgery back in February. We have done many short walks and lots of sprints (she LOVES to sprint and fetch...that is how she messed up her knees) but no marathons. But last night we were gonna start our marathon training and for us a marathon used to be an hour. With her short (15-20min) walks and sprint 'training' I thought I'd put her to the 1/2 hour test. She was all guns and roses for the first 20 mins and then slowed right down. When we got home after 30 mins she was pretty much 'spent' (as my kids would say). And I have to remember she IS getting older and turned 9 this spring but I'm determined to get her back in tip top shape because she is a happy healthy dog with a lot of years left in her (not to mention TWO new knees!). We are gonna take it slow and steady and hopefully by September we will be back to our hour long walks 2-3 times a week again. So up UP and AWAY we go!

I kinda think that Bessie and I are like Stamping Bella's Ramona and her Teddy taking off on an adventure to exciting new places. New neighborhoods to scout out while keeping tabs on the old familiar ones to see what has changed.

As always I started out on bella's BESTEST paper but I coloured this one primarily with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. However, I did start with a base of some very light shades of copics because I am partial to the rich base of colour I get with them.

After taking the picture I thought ...shoot! ....I forgot the glitter, so just try to imagine this one with glittered clouds okay...because that is where the glitter will go. The one thing that made this card come together so nicely was the fab sketches I had to choose from and that was all the sketch challenges that Stamping Bella has sponsored since the beginning of the year.

Next week our challenge is INK UP THE GIRLS....come on! How freaking easy is that...I can pretty much predict that an Uptown Girl will be in my future!

'till next time...later....Linda

Guy Cards

That was our challenge this week and I know it can be a challenge for most of us, me included! When it comes to guy cards I usually trend towards nature...leaves, trees, etc...but this time I thought I would stretch my stamps and look to use something that might not otherwise be considered a 'guy' image. Bring on Paula's porch swing by Stamping Bella.

I stamped it on bella's BESTEST paper and coloured it with copic markers pairing it up with Bo Bunny's Weekend Market Collection paper. Kind of a perfect match for a weekend lazing on a porch swing!

Now there was a method to my madness here because my brother turns 50 this summer and he is an electrical engineer by trade but a woodworker by night and made a beautiful swing that hangs from the porch of his century home so I thought this will make a perfect card for his birthday. I am also lucky enough to own one of his swings but sadly I don't have the deep porch to hang it from so for a while it hung on my back deck but now I'm looking for a stand so I can perch it in a shady part of my yard. I might have to commission him to make me one because I know exactly where I want it.

Next week is a sketch roundup, pic your fav from the sketches below and get crafty!

 Happy Stamping everyone!

Happy Birthday to ME!

YUP...today is my birthday and I am not at all afraid to say that I am a whopping 53 years old....you know what that means...one year closer to retirement. My g'friend dreaded turning 49 this year and I say...hey it's all good! Another birthday is just a good excuse to get myself something I don't really need. This year I think it is going to be that Singer 160th anniversary sewing machine that Paula talked about here. She sent me a pic and over the weekend I slipped in front of my hubby and said in my sweetest voice....don't you think I need one of these for my birthday? When you throw in the 'B' word how can he possibly say no...not that he ever would...but it just makes the 'game' more fun.

Speaking of the weekend, we were back on 'tour' with Dave Matthews and on the way home we realized we drove around the entire shore line of Lake Erie! We started in Chatham and drove east to Toronto. Dave played to the crowd there for sure belting out all of the fan favourites. Then we headed east crossing into the US in Buffalo, NY en route to Cayahoga Falls, Ohio. A very different crowd there, much older and the set list was very eclectic and so different than the night before. Blossom Music Center is a beautiful venue tucked away in a heavily wooded area. It really is a peaceful place and if I were ever temped to park my butt on the grass somewhere, that would certainly be the place I would do it. From there we headed back to Chatham by way of Detroit! An entire loop of Lake Erie!

In honour of my birthday, it is only fitting that I colour up a birthday card! This is Stamping Bella's Ramona loves cake. Me and cake, not so much...if I'm gonna indulge I'd much rather eat an entire bag of potato chips or some really good keilbasa...yes, I am more salty than sweet.

At the risk of repeating myself, she was stamped on bella's BESTEST paper and coloured with copic markers, topped up with some prismacolor pencils. To make that cake extra yummy, I added some 'icing' with liquid applique. Don't forget about our masculine challenge this week and be sure to keep checking out the sneak peeks over at bloggabella.

As I always do, I'll leave you with a couple pics from the weekend....

Dave rocks Toronto

inside Blossom Music Center - LOVE it...reminds me of an old wooden rollercoaster

Blossom, view from the lawn.

And that's it! For the non-Dave fans...I'll be giving you a break because we don't have another 'date' until he plays DTE in July.

Bench Buddies

Have you been enjoying the little sneak peeks that are going on over at Bloggabella? Well how 'bout you see something done up in colour! This is Belinda and Bernadette, the Bench Buddies!

I am not kidding when I say that one on the left reminds me SO much of my friend Colleen. If you have been around for a while, you might know her as my Vegas partner in crime. And when you're sitting next to her it won't be long before one arm is wrapped around your neck and the other is holding out her camera to snap a picture. Just to prove my point...and you can see she is much better at posing for these shots than I am!

Back to the card, as always I stamped it on bella's BESTEST paper and coloured these gals up with copic markers...a LOT of markers... Then I used pencil for the tufts of grass and shading around the image. You can't really see in the picture, but Colleen loves bling so I added some black spica pen to her belt. Finally some ultra fine flower soft added a bit of texture and colour to the grass.

We all know how Emily likes to surprise us so I'm not exactly sure WHEN these will be available, but you can be sure that once she starts revealing those sneak peeks it won't be long.

Twirly Birds

Happy Bellarific Friday, and just plain old HAPPY FRIDAY works too! I can't believe how busy my days are after a week vacation.

But never too busy to relax and immerse myself into some colouring. These are Stamping Bella's Twirly Birds by Vicki Boutin. Sentiment comes from Jane Davenport's Birdie Jane.

I may have mentioned that I scored the entire set of distress markers when I was at Kitchener's scrapfest and that is what I decided to use on these little birds. Start small I say! For you local shoppers did you know you can get them at Pickle...and you online shoppers can pick them up at Stamping Bella. Do I like them....OH YA! I used a smooth water colour paper and just a bit of ink directly on the image and then blended it out with a watercolor brush. Easy peasy! Then I finished them up with bit of pencil for highlights and shadows and sponged the blank areas with versamagic chalk ink. For a first try, I was pretty pleased with the result and can't wait to experiment more with these markers.

Next week our challenge is all about the men in our lives. So you got it, make something masculine!!!! I've got an idea in my head already and it won't be the typical image you might think for a 'guy' card...but I'll have a perfectly good reason why I chose it! I'm so looking forward to getting it done I just may work on it tonight!

That's it folks...not much else to blab about today.

Birds on a Wire

A little something different today...very Tim-like, very masculine, very artsy. I started with Stamping Bella's Journal your ART out THINKING BIRDS as my inspiration and stamped them with VersaMark ink onto some heavy weight smooth surface paper

Then using the tip of a small straw that I cut on an angle I picked up some Indian Corn embossing powder and carefully sprinkled just the heads of the birds, then I added detail black to the remainder of the bodies and tapped the paper from underneath to spread out the powder and cover all areas. The remaining powder was discarded onto a scrap piece of paper for later use.

Then I used a VersaMark pen/marker and inked over the birds again and repeated the process, except this time for the heads I used the discarded embossing powder from the first step, then added black detail again. I repeated this process one more time, and where I thought it needed it, I did it again. This is a closeup look. It almost looks enameled with the three layers of embossing powder. You can click on the image for a larger view....but trust me, it is A VERY COOL blend of black, bronze, with specs of white.

Once the embossed images were totally cooled and set, I sponged on distress inks....antique linen, rusty hinge, vintage photo and walnut stain. Using vintage photo I stamped the 'weeds' (a Tim Holtz stamp) in the background because I thought it looked too plain otherwise.

For the background piece I started with a piece of smooth ivory cardstock and again sponged on some antique linen, rusty hinge and vintage photo. Then I ran the piece thru my Vagabond with, yes, a Tim Holtz embossing folder and sponged on some walnut stain onto the raised portions of the result.

Because the embossed background was too wide for my focal image, I cut it and removed about a 1/4" then repieced it. The ribbon hides the seam...pretty brilliant eh! I do have good ideas sometimes!

Well, that is it about it....I mounted it up with a few layers and I think this is a PERFECT masculine card! If you are interested in more of my masculine cards, click on the 'masculine' label below, or the masculine label in my sidebar. I really do try to label my cards into categories, especially when I post Christmas or Masculine cards.

That's it! Pretty simple actually and it almost took me as long to write this post as it did to make the card! But don't tell the 'man' who eventally gets this card, let him think it took you/me HOURS to complete! We girls have to keep our secrets!

Linda.

Dancing Daffodils

Sunday morning coffee, moss, and a card!

Yesterday I was busy trimming up some overgrown holly bushes in prep for some new front yard landscaping then I was moving moss. YES...MOSS! I FREAKING LOVE MOSS and with the mild cool winter I have an abundance of it. so i've been painstakingly moving it from one location to the gaps in my interlocking brick sidewalk at the other side of the house. I have some natural growing moss in those gaps but i want EVERY gap filled. It is crazy sometimes the things I enjoy that occupy my time.

This morning I decided to do another cleanup project, but on my laptop. As I take pics of my cards I move them to a folder. Then as I post them I move them to the 'posted' folder. Then at the beginning of a new year, I archive the posted folder to the prior years posted folder and start again. Yes, I AM a bit organizationally obsessive. If I had more time on my hands I would organize and label every single in my house.

Anyhow...as I was moving some pics to the posted folder one card caught my eye. I made this for Scrapfest but moved it before I posted it and forgot about it. For those of you who didn't see it there, you get to see it now...Stamping Bella's Dancing Daffodils.

I rarely use blue, but when I looked at these they reminded me of bluebells so blue it was. I stamped them on bella's BESTEST paper and used copic marker to match up with a piece of very old Basic Grey. And even though I coloured this up about a month ago, I pulled out my little red moleskin and found I listed the markers I used...so here you go:

B000, 00, 02, 12, 05, 07, YR30, 01
BG72, 75, 78, Y11, G43, 24

Almost done my coffee and it still a little bit too cool outside for me so I'm gonna get some colouring done before I go transplant more moss!

May your Sunday be filled with doing the things that make you happy.

Gotta love Friday!

Especially when it is a BELLARIFIC FRIDAY!

Last weekend was a chic getaway in Chicago...me along with 6 current and former work gals. Those 3 'former' are lucky retirees and the other 4 of us are retiree-wannabe's. Although I'm sure when I am retired I will have to curb my shopping somewhat....3 pairs of shoes, a couple tops, a sweater, a skirt and a new Return to Tiffany bracelet tapped me out. Oh, not to mention some art supply goodies from Blick's.

With all that I was sure to leave money for food and there are certainly no lack of restaurants there. The best time had was at a fondue place..I think we should have skipped the entree and just eaten cheese appetizers and chocolate deserts...MANY a laugh had in there. We also went to the TOP and stayed in a penthouse condo on State and Grand...can you say GORJUS...it was AMAZING...the view at night was beyond breathtaking. Is it even possible to have too much fun?

Now that I'm back I've had a very busy week at home and work and need to get myself back into some type of normal routine. I did manage to get in just a bit of crafty time for this weeks Bellarific Friday.

This is DAHLIA flower head and I coloured it up with my new KOI WATERCOLOR BRUSH markers that I picked up at the Stamping Bella booth at scrapfest. If you are interested in what they are like, they are more like copics than say Tombows in that they are blendable on paper yet they are easier to blend than copics. Will I give up my copics...NEVER! Will I have fun with my new toys...DEFINITELY!

I'd also like to welcome a new Babe to the house, Katarina Menzies. I'm sure you know her because she has been around for a while and it seems I've been stalking her since the day I started stamping. I also LOVE that she dabbles in everything... tombows, reinkers, copics, pencils, you name and she's used it and churns out a MASTERPIECE! I'm soooooo thrilled to be on a team with her.

Next week is EASY PEASY! ....sew it, or faux it....hmmmm....since I usually sew, I just may try to faux it next week for a real challenge.

see ya soon....I have another image coloured up here and it will make it onto a card very soon!

Mixed Media Flowers

Just because they are called EM's mixed media FLOWERS does NOT mean they are meant to be used just for mixed media. Us card lovers can use them too and this is what I created.

I stamped these BEAUTIES on some hot press watercolour paper (I prefer the smooth texture of hot press!) and 'painted' them up with my Tombow markers. I say 'sort of' painted because it wasn't really traditional painting. I added marker directly to my paper and with a wet paintbrush pulled out and blended the colours. If you want to add more depth, let it dry and then add more. It is important to let it dry between layers. After cutting it out I decided it was so pretty and bold I just wanted to mount it on a plain white background and let my work of art steal the show. Before mounting it, I did sponge some distress ink around the edges...sorry, just had to do it!

When I was thinking about accessorizing I pondered glitter but just couldn't decide on where to put it and when I finally decided just to add some glossy accents to the tiny bubbles I was super satisfied with my choice. With such a clean contemporary card the glitter just wouldn't have worked but the glossy accents...OH YA BABY...it was just the look I was after. Gotta love when that happens!

Next week our challenge is a sketch...I'll say it again (because it sounded good)....OH YA BABY...we all love a sketch, and we ALL LOVE Ebru's sketches. I know I say it all the time, but I still don't think I say it enough...EBRU IS A SKETCH GODDESS and we'd love for you to come join us.

Email your card to Emily and/or upload to our splitcoast forum and you just may be lucky enough to win some of those pink Bella BUCKS!

You ready for a Flynn?

I know I've been MIA lately but I'm in a bit of a slump. No creative motivation. Do you ever feel that?

This weekend while hubby and the boys hold down the fort with the pooch along with our pooch buddy JD I'll be shopping and eating with JD's mama and a few other gals from the day job on a weekend getaway. I'm gonna make you hold your breath though and not tell you where we are going until we get back! How mean is that! Sorry!

But until I spill the beans I have a Flynn to show you! This is Stamping Bella's Sunshiny Flynn and I've been DYING to colour up their fab thick hair ever since I laid eyes on them.

I sort of broke away from my typical E33, 35, 37 for hair and decided to go a bit red by using:

E21, YR12, E95, 97, 99

other colours used on Flynn:

E000, 00, 11, R20, 14, 08, B000, 00, 41, Y00, 11, 15, YR20

I cut her out with one of my new spellbinder dies and used my 'out of the die technique' on the balloon. This card is just a tad bit larger than an A2 and cut it out to an A6 which is 4 5/8 x 6 1/4. I'm loving the yellow, blue and red combo....so country and cosy. I'd love to have a sunroom in these colours but sadly, I do not have a sun room and if I did, I'm sure hubby would nix that colour combo pretty darn fast.

Don't forget about our flowery challenge this week over at bloggabella, mine is all done and I'm pretty excited about it!

Be back on Friday!

I'm just resurfacing!

after Scrapfest! and I was only there for the day!

Christine Dol, a show newbie, might not come out of hiding for weeks after holding down the fort at the make and take table for two days! LOL!!!!! Her and Emily were doing FAB little samples with with Koi Markers, sprays, stencils and stamps. Of couse I made one, then of course I had to buy the markers! If it comes in a little tube and has a brush tip, I gotta have it. I also scored a entire set of the new distress markers. A pretty good day I would say!

Paula spent the weekend here and I even made her desert for Friday night. She might not know this, but that is a BIG DEAL for me because the last time I made desert might have been back in the 90's!  This was just 3 ingredients, my speed...however if you asked me to make beef bourguignon I'd be all over it. See I like to cook, but I don't like to bake. This is what I made, and it was a hit!

Skor Bar Squares

1 box Ritz crackers (225gr) crushed fine
1 bag skor chips (or Heath for US Residents)
1 can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk

-combine all ingredients, spread in a 8x8 pan sprayed with non-stick spray
-bake at 350 for 25-30 mins until they start to brown on top.

I have something else to share! A card made with the dress form in Stamping Bella's funky barcode set. Since I have been watching Tim's Creative Chemistry 101 classes, AND seeing Paula's latest cards, I was determined to use something from this set.

This week's sketch even worked out well for me because I got to use some of the new metal findings I picked up at Scrapfest. Other product used:

distress ink - peeled paint, pine needles, brushed corduroy

stamping up punch

cosmo cricket paper (an oldie!)

wide ribbon from a local fabric store

brown embossing powder (yes that dress form is all embossed and shiney!)

the sentiment comes from the same funky barcode set.

Remember that challenge we had for spring showers....well it is time to BRING ON THE FLOWERS! Use a Stamping Bella Stamp, pick a flower image, flower paper, or a flower embellishment and get busy! Email your finished card to emily@stampingbella.com, or upload to our SCS gallery to be eligible to win some bucks. We ALL love a good flower image and with some new ones to choose from and MANY old ones in my stash I will certainly be decision impaired! 

till next time, Linda

April Showers bring May SMILES!

Early April is a busy time for us here in Lindabellaland...our twin boys celebrate their birthdays, and 5 days later hubs and I celebrate our anniversary. And typically Easter falls right in there somewhere. We traditionally have a very Polish Easter weekend with ham, keilbassa, eggs, grated horseradish and beets (there is a name for it that has slipped my mind) and our BELOVED Polish Easter soup, White Barszez, google it and you'll find dozens of recipes...it is delish!

This year we had exams, work, plus a 90th birthday interrupt our Easter plans so hubby and I enjoyed Mom's FAB spinach pie and some of my signature greek dolmades (YES, mine are as good as you would get in any greek restaurant).

I didn't make Easter cards but I did make an Anniversary card for hubby and tried to multi-task to pick an image that would work with the Spring Showers challenge over at Blogabella. Hubby was on to me though and asked if his card would 'fit into a challenge' and I had to fess up and tell him as a matter of fact it did and I was using Uptown Gal Lucille to 'shower' him with love! LOL...we both got a good chuckle out of it!

Somehow my pic turned out much darker than it really is...so trust me, she is much prettier up close and personal. As always I stamped her on bella's BESTEST paper and coloured her with a blend of copic markers and prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol.

Next week we are back to a sketch! YAY!

I know how WE all love them, so pull out one of the lovely bella stamps and play along.

Tomorrow I'll be at Kitchener's scrapfest along with Paula and Pauline so be sure to stop by Stamping Bella's booth because you will most likely see us hanging around there. Me thinks there may be some other babe's making an appearance as well!

Late Bellarific Friday...AGAIN!

Earlier in the week I thought I'd write my post Friday morning, because I didn't have to go to work! YAY! Then yesterday I woke up and thought it was Saturday....I didn't even bother to turn on the TV to watch the Today show because I thought it was Saturday. So I do my regular Saturday things and putz around the house and once it warmed up outside I spent the rest of the day cleaning up in the yard.

By the time I realized it was Friday I was immersed in trimming back an overgrown dogwood shrub and was too tired to do anything else. So early to bed and early to rise (I've been up since 6) and I have another whole day ahead of me. The agenda...

• coffee!
• a trip to the garden center
• plant some Heather
• mail cards to Emily (so PAULAbella doesn't take over Scrapfest)
• put some ribs on the smoker
• make a quick trip to Costco (maybe..or maybe hubby will go alone!)
• COLOUR!!!!

Before I get to that I DO have a card I made for yesterday, and I see that Emily was having some probs uploading pics to her blog so this is your FIRST viewing! I made this card for Baby B, aka Derek, aka Peanut, aka Spinky. We called him peanut as a baby because he (they) were 5wks preemie and Derek had that preemie body, big belly, skinny limbs etc. Then somehow, and I wish I could remember why, we started calling him Spinky/The Spink. I wish I would have written down how we came to that because there was a reason which I cannot remember for the life of me.

Derek loved dogs and in one of his school primers he wrote that he wanted to be a vet, but didn't want to work on poodles because he didn't like them. It had something to do with the way the groomed them with all those poodle puffs. Heeehee! So I thought an appropriate card for him would be Stamping Bella's Woofin' it up by Christy Croll.

I coloured it up with about 5 million copic markers, okay, not that many....but LOTS and took a stab at writing Bessie's name on there. She is our crazy West Highland White Terrier. The paper is from Kaiser Craft and the tickets were out of the same pack. On one of them I wrote the date of his birthday.

On the inside I again used some labels from the paper pack and paired it up with another one of my River City sentiments and the arrow from Stamping Bella's journal your art out GRUNGY SET..

Now for some Babe news. We have a new girl on the block, Natasha Kara...she is new to the blogging world and you REALLY MUST check out her blog HERE. She has a wonderful style, very Tim-ish, which I love and I CANNOT wait to see what else she has to share with us.

Next week our challenge is all about showers...APRIL SHOWERS....or baby showers, wedding showers, raindrops....whatever....use your imagination. Pick up a sketch out there if you are sketch challenged and play along.

Whew, that was long winded! See, that's what happens when I'm gone for a few days.

Tim inspired

Me, along with about 5 billion other people probably have just finished taking Tim Holtz's first ever online class. Many of the techniques I have seen and even done before, but a refresher never hurts. And I have a whole new appreciation for my 'large' supply of glossy paper.

Do you know how smooth and silky distress inks apply to that paper? well just look below.

In his technique he used archival inks with distress, but I only have black so attempted to use Versafine, then regular dye inks and neither gave the results he achieved. Note to self: get some archival inks in various bright colours!

I used a variety of Stamping bella stamps here for my background, as well as my focal image:

eclectic mini bubble wrap

eclectic mini checker

eclectic #8 ticket background

curly silhouette

solid funky bamboo

I must say of all the stamps I own, these are among my most FAV because of their versatility. Did I say LOVE...I don't think I did...I LOVE these stamps.

The background paper was also 'hand made' by me...well, not the actual paper...it is kind of a tissue like paper that was dyed with various concentrations of andirondak sprays, stencils, stamps and H2o paints. I made it in a class that I took with Fred B Mullett several years ago. If you ever get a chance to take one of his classes...JUST DO IT...he is genious!

That's it for today, be back later this week with something more conventional....but in the meantime, embrase the technique and as Tim says, enjoy the journey!

Linda

 

Spring is in the air!

I don't know about where you live, but here in Southwestern Ontario we have been getting some real spring like days as of late. Although we have had a couple chilly days this week, those 80's of last week are still very much with me. Now, I HOPE this means we aren't gonna have a super HOT and HUMID summer because I don't want that....but mid 80's, no humidity I could easily take until say maybe November????? I know I'm asking a lot but maybe the weather God's will hear me!

So what does spring mean to you? To me it most definitely, without question, means cleaning up the backyard and getting that ugly cover off the pool. I spent several hours this past weekend pulling grass that migrated into my flower beds. Usually it is weeds, but this year it was GRASS! I'm sure that was due to the mild winter but it was a CHORE and I was one achy babe come Monday. Once the grass/weeds are pulled I ponder over what I'm gonna plant. The garden around our deck is a mix of shrubs, perennials and open space to tuck in some annuals and every year I switch it up. Pull some perennials, add other ones and change the annuals.

With all that in mind I thought Stamping Bella's Sadie by Mo Manning was the PERFECT image to bring on our Spring challenge this week.

Now for the deets, I stamped her on bella's BESTEST paper and paired up with Basic Grey Oxford. I used a Stamping up punch on the 'lined' paper and sponged it with Scattered Straw distress ink. The flower names were stamped with a VERY old set of snap alphabets (the little individual alphabets snap together so you can make words...I wish I could print so perfectly random!)

Only copics were used on the image, I ONLY used pencils for the blue shading, grounding and some shading on the paper pieced pieces. Now you know HOW MANY copics I use when I use them alone....it took me a crazy amount of time to finish this one...

E000, 00, 11, 21, 50, 51, 53, 33, 35, 43, 44, 47, 49

Y000, 00, 13, G20, 24, 43, 85, YG03, 23,

R20, 22, 24, 39, BV000, 00, BG53, 72, 75, 78

B91, 93, 95, 97, 99, W2, 4, 6

We are back to a sketch next week....are you feeling a trend here....every other week we are featuring a sketch. We know everyone loves them, but that doesn't mean you can't play on NON-sketch weeks....just take one of your fav sketches out there and use it along with a stamping bella stamp and you are good to go!  Enter your card in both challenges and you could win a double whammy!

Now if you want ANOTHER WHAMMY you could upload your card to our SCS gallery and use the keyword BELLARIFFIC1214 for yet another chance to win some bella bucks!

This weekend promises to be another good one with Sunday the better of the two days. I gonna 'try' to focus and get some colouring done on Saturday so I can spend Sunday out in the yard again. Oh how I love spring!

Lantern Flowers are on the block today

But before I get to that, I want to tell you about an email I received today. It was from Canadian Blood Services and it said that over 4000 people will receive that email and if only half of them gave blood 400 cancer patients can receive treatment.

I started giving blood several years ago when a co-worker was diagnosed with cancer and we had a blood drive in her name. Sadly she lost her battle at 37yrs old but I never stopped giving. Dragging myself to a clinic on a beautiful summer night when I'd rather be sitting here on the deck or on a snowy wintery night when I'd rather be snuggled on the sofa has never stopped me. I still go, knowing that I have helped someone somewhere.

Really, it is painless, it takes only about an hour from the time I leave my house until I get home and it costs only a few pennies in gas to get me there and back...as they say, it's in you to give. If you've never done it, try it just once and I know you'll feel good about yourself that you did it.

I'll get off my soap box now and talk about what you came here for....STAMPING BELLA'S LATEST RELEASE! Did you see it? Do you love it? I have some fav's in there for sure and will place my order tonight. I should have done it last night but was busy writing this post and pre-cleaning for the housekeeper. Don't laugh, because I KNOW some of you know what I'm talking about!

These are Em's lantern flowers...YES....designed by Emily herself! She should be SO proud of them because they are BEAUTIFUL!



 Do I have to say it again? I stamped it on bella's BESTEST paper and paired it this time with some sublte papers from Basic Grey's Indian Summer. However, the center panel I embossed with a sizzix embossing folder and sponged on some gold ink and vintage photo distress ink. I did omit the sentiment from the sketch because I didn't have one suitable.

I coloured it with the following copic markers:

G40, 43, 46, 99, W9
Y11, 15, YR12, R24, E15, 33
W00, 0, 0, 2, 3

I had a question in my last post about why I haven't been posting my copic colours. Well, two reasons

1. if I have used more than 25 or 30 markers it gets to be where you wouldn't know where I used them anyhow
2. I've been using a lot of pencils lately and the pencils can really alter the copic colour underneath so it would be deceiving for me to list the markers because if you used them alone you wouldn't get the same result

So, if the colour palette is reasonable and I've used minimal pencils, I will list the markers. Otherwise I won't bother because it won't make sense and you won't get the same result.

Now that my air is totally cleared on all topics that are looming in my head I do want to talk about next week's challenge. Now that the calendar says it officially SPRING...although the temps here are more like summer...our challenge is all about SPRING....and what does SPRING mean to you...for some it may mean Easter, for others it may mean flowers blooming, and for others it may mean something different entirely! So whatever SPRING means to you....bring it on....and email your card to Emily by Thursday, and/or upload your card to our SCS forum with the keyword BELLARIFFIC1213.

That's it for today!
Later....Linda

If you thought Flora was cute, wait till you see.....

Bunny!

Yes, another new Uptown Gal from Stamping Bella. I think her name might be Uptown Girl Bunny and her daffodil. We'll know for sure TODAY because Emily's blog tells me that is when the release will be. I don't typically send Easter cards but her cuteness just make me change my mind!

Of course I stamped her on bella's BESTEST paper and coloured her up with copics AND as always, added some depth and shading with pencils. I dare you...don't be a copic snob and try this sometime because I guarantee you will be THRILLED with the results.

That's it! I'll be stalking Bloggabella today along with the rest of you!

Are you ready for a sneak peek?

The weather here in Southwestern Ontario has been SO AMAZING I almost have to keep pinching myself to know that it's real. It is what springtime should be like, mild temps of mid 70's during the day and cool nights that allow you to sleep with the windows wide open.

I would have pulled out my bike if I wasn't busy occupying myself cleaning closets, purging and re-organizing. But you know who did pull out her bike? Flora the cyclist....one of the new Uptown Girls coming to Stamping Bella real soon! I wish I looked so cute on a bike.

I'll have sneak peeks popping up all week as will the other babes so stick around! We will also be posting our cards on this SCS Stamping Bella March Release thread so you might want to keep checking there as well!

Later....