Oh the Places You'll Go

With so many kids packing up and going off to school in the next couple of weeks I thought it would be an appropriate time to ink up packitup-ABALLE. Rather than using the sentiment that came along with the image I decided to use the Dr. Suess quote Oh the Places You'll Go on the inside instead and the card will be a perfect going off to College/University card.


I inked her up with Memento ink on bella paper and colored her with Copics to match the Basic Grey June Bug collection. I shaded the image with pencils and gamsol and cut her out with the mega curved rectangular nestie. I can't quite remember the colors I sponged the edges with, but it may have been pixie dust and pink grapefruit. The white edge was created with Fiskars Apron Lace border punch, another one of my favorites!

Copics colors for this card image:
RV00, 11, 43, 46, 81, 83, 85
Y000, 00, 11, 15, 17
E41, 42, 15, 000, 00, 11
C0, 1, 2, 3, 5, W3, 5
B60, 93, 95, Blender

Shock of shocks...I don't think I'll be doing any colorin' today! It is sunny and warm and the pool is looking a little too tempting. This afternoon you'll find me in my floatie chair with a pina colada!

Happy Anniversary!

So happy it's Saturday! I did NOT get to bed as early as I would have liked last night, but I did get an early start on the day and this is what I did this morning! We have a 25th Anniversary party to attend tonight and in my last minute fashion, I made the card this morning! Not a ton of coloring on here but it sure seemed like it took me a long time to do it. The stamp is by American Art Stamp and I picked it up a while ago at Pickle. They have a good selection of them and I think they are seriously FUN!



I stamped it with Memento Ink on my fav Bella Paper and added shading with pencils and gamsol. The edges were sponged with Ranger Distress ink in Antique Linen and Brushed corduroy. The punch is Martha Stewart. I had to bling it up so i added black glitter to her dress, black gell pen to her hat and his glasses and clear gell pen on the drinks!

I'll be back tomorrow with another Bella!

Doin' the happy dance

That is what I think of when I look at Francine Flapper and let me tell ya, after two weeks of stay-cation I am doing the happy dance today after a full week of work. I cannot believe how tired I am! Seriously, I could just fall asleep at my laptop here. It's gonna be an early night for this sistah so I can get up early and have a nice long day at home...well, at home until 4 at least when we have to leave for an anniversary party. That reminds me, I gotta make a card!

Shannan's sketch this week was right up my alley...nice and square! Whenever I look at cards that are done with things mounted on angles, I love the interest and the way your eye wanders around the card, but this babe just cannot do it...I try, but my right brain takes over and makes me square everything up again. Maybe that would be a good challenge card for me...try something on an angle! Just do it!

Francine Flapper was stamped with memento black ink on Bella Paper, colored with copics and shaded with pencils and gamsol. Pencils were also used for the grass and some glitter was added for sparkle:

Copics used (sorry the list is not totally complete, i used some W's which I forgot to write down)
E0000, 000, 00, 11, 31, 33, 35
R20, RV0000, 00, 10, 11, E04
YR31, G20, 82

Now head on over to Em's blog because I've already had a peek and there are some WOWZER entries this week! Say hi too and you might just win some bucks! And speaking of BUCKS! I JUST noticed on the Stamping Bella website that there are new shipping rates....FREE shipping for all orders over $55....now won't that make winning some bella bucks go further!

Gone to the dogs!

And the story of the dogs continues! I colored these Woffin' it Up dogs up a couple weeks ago to give to my work pod-mate Matthew for his 30th birthday…YIKES, I am biologically old enough to be his mother…LOL! Let’s see, as I was starting my life as a programmer, he was just entering grade 1! OH MAN, retirement has got to be hitting me soon.

Alright, back to the card. I had it in my head that Woofin' it up dogs would have been absolutely PERFECT for the last sketch challenge I sponsored over at Emily’s blog. Paper was picked, image was all stamped and ready to go and Meahni emailed me all excited that she just colored the DOGS! HMPH! Well I thought for SURE she would use it for the sketch….like it was PERFECT….so I set it aside, not wanting to submit the same image the same week as my sistah…you may know that Paula and I have a thing about posting the same image too close together…we like to leave ‘breathing’ room in there. And it’s funny, we NEVAH tell each other which image we used for the challenge until maybe Thursday…and we also NEVAH share the card with each other prior to the big reveal on Friday…we like the surprise! Typically I don’t like surprises, I actually hate them…even at the ripe old age of 50 I still sneak around looking for presents at Christmas! HAHAHA!

So now I decide it’s time to post the dogs, I have them all ready to go and PAULA posted them on Sunday. Oh well, not much breathing room there. I hope you enjoy them all! I especially like that Meahni googled each breed so she was sure to use appropriate colors…on the other hand Paula colored my little Bessie the Westie black but I am sure Bessie doesn't care since Paula did give her some home made biscuits in her own personalized jar.

As usual, the image was colored in copics with prismacolor pencils and gamsol used for grass and shading. I cut the image out with my deckled edge nestie and left the die in place while I sponged the edges with wheat ink and a dauber.

Copics used:
W00, 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7
C00,0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
E40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 49
E13, 33, 15, 11
R00, 02, 24, 29

Have a wonderful day everyone...and go hug your puppy!

Hanging Sports Block

Our Big BBQ yesterday was completely washed out! It rained non-stop ALL DAY! We have a nice large yard with lots of outdoor seating, a perfect party yard (even though we rarely HAVE parties), but the house is not large at all. Fortunately knocking out the wall between our living and dining rooms made it much easier for 16 people to move around and if you sit in the living room you no longer feel cut off from those in the dining room. Money well spent!


Little Andrew got his turtle card and this Hanging Sports Block went to Jake. I colored the image with copics on bellah's bestest paper, shaded with pencils and sponged wheat ink on the edges with a dauber. Sorry for the dark picture!

copics used (get out those E's!):
E11, 13, 15, 30, 31, 37, 95, 97, 99, 40, 42, 43, 44
W3, 5, C3, 5, 6, 8

Tomorrow is back to work for me so I think I'll spend the rest of the day doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Well, maybe I'll throw in a bit of pouting just for good measure!

Friday is here again!

As I write this post I'm sitting having a coffee and watching Jason Mraz sing on the plaza on my fav Today show! He was the opening act when we saw Dave this spring and that song I'm Yours just makes me smile! As much as I love Fridays, this one is bittersweet for me because it's the last day of my stay-cation! Oh how I have LOVED my time at home. I got some things done around the house, spent some time with family and friends, got some colorin' done and basically lazed around to re-energize for what I know will be a buzy September. The boys will be heading off to different Universities and haven't been doing much to get prepared. I'm sure once they get there it's gonna be a lot of "mom, i need this". Fortunately, one is heading to Hamilton and the other to London so they are in the same direction and at most 2 1/2 hours away.


I took some creative liberties on Paula's sketch because I needed to make an anniversary card for my mom and chose Funky Irises. I didn't have any appropriate sentiments to fit the sketch so I replaced those with embellies instead. Three light olive glass pearls on the upper left and a bow down to the right. I colored with copics and added some sponging on the edge with my dauber and wheat and thatched straw ink.

short list for a change on the copics:
E40, 41, 50, T1
YR000, 12, 20, 31
R22, 24, YG03, 67, G82

Best get moving here, got groceries to do and some housecleaning to prep for another family bbq tomorrow! 16 people...YIKES!

Got on the Turtletot Bandwagon

Looking at those cute as a button turtle cards that Joannabella has been posting lately made me want to color one up and see what all the fuss was about! See...I get sucked up in blogs just like everyone else does!

My little nephew's birthday is coming up so I thought I had the perfect excuse to get me one (okay I bought three!) and pulled out Turtle Tot Cowboy. They are seriously fun to color and I stamped this little guy on bella paper and used my copics but added the sky and dried out grass with pencils. then I took my colorless blender to the belly to create some dots and highlighted them a bit so they would look a bit dimensional. THEN, I went over the dots with my clear glaze pen to add some texture and added some sponging to the edges with versamagic wheat chalk ink and a dauber.

In typical Joannabella style, I even used THREE co-ordinating Scenic Route papers. However, unlike Joanne, I did NOT stitch on my card. I just can't seem to bring myself to use my beloved Bernina to sew paper! And check out the dots! They fit just perfectly into the doughnut circles!

Don't forget to play along in this week's Bellarific friday sketch challenge brought to us by Paula....and don't worry folks, she was much easier on us this time!

ETA! Sorry folks, I forgot to list the copics used....here they are

E11, 13, 33, 35, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44

W2, 3, B41, 52, 95, 97

YG11, 13, 17, G82, 85, Y15, 26

It's a shoe thing

I have a shoe thing! I love them and there was a time in my life when I would not even leave the house unless my shoes complimented my outfit! Sick I know! All that changed last summer when I got plantar fasciitis and a heel spur in my left foot! A year of pain, and ORTHOTICS...ACK!!! really put a damper on my little obsession. Now when you see me I will likely be wearing sensible shoes, I still try to keep them fashionable but more importantly, sensible. I recall when I started stamping 6 or 7 years ago the hubs asked where I was getting the money to buy all these stamps...I said "haven't you noticed that I haven't bought any new shoes lately"...LOL! Now when I am not spending my disposable income on stamps, I buy purses!


So now, since I can't buy hot looking shoes for my feet, I buy them in rubber! These daisy hightops just called my name! And if it's a girl thing I always reach for pink, yellow and green...my hands down fav girly color combo. I stamped the image with memento ink on bellah paper, colored them in copics and finished off the shading and grass with pencils. The edges were sponged with a dauber (that I see Emily now is stocking!!! YAY!!!) and Versamagic Thatched Straw ink.

Get ready...copics used in this image:

Y0000, 00, 11, 15, 17
YR0000, 000, 04, 14, 18
R24, 81, 83, RV0000, 00, 10
YG03, 25, 67, W00, 0, 1, 2
C0, 1, 2, 3, E42, 43

On a final note, yesterday I made the trip to the Heirloom Rubber Stamp Festival in Novi, Michigan with my Chatham stamping buds Lynn and Pauline and even hooked up with some of my American stampin sistahs, Paula, Dana, Shannan and Mary. While I'm chatting with Mary she points out Kimmie Ried standing a few feet away. I don't know her but I sheepishly walk over and say Hi Kimmie Ried, I'm Lindabella!!!! LOL!!!! We jumped, squealed and hugged like we had known each other FOREVER! Too fun!

ETA: Kimmie, I've been thinking and 'cause I'm central to you and Paula the next girly girl get together we have at my place I love for you and Andrea to join us in Chatham....think about and we'll keep in touch! It's all about stamping...and maybe pizza!

I've got a nice quiet day planned which hopefully will include some coloring!