It was definitely NOT a WW friendly meal today!

As promised, Mom and Dad came over today and I traded her 4 cards for a Mom-cooked meal...BUT, when Mom cooks it is SO NOT a WW friendly meal. Baked Tilapia, her special home made rice pilaf and steamed green beans with mushrooms....sounds pretty decent...EXCEPT...I think she used a quarter pound of butter! OH MY! Top that off with the fact that I had a dinner to attend on Monday night to get inducted into the 2nd quarter club at work. A dinner to honour those who have worked at the company for 25+ years. This was my first year so I decided to celebrate by not counting points! What the heck, one good indulgence can't hurt! Well it cost me 2lbs at the weigh in, now I have this butter-rich meal doing a number on me AND thanksgiving weekend is approaching for us Canadians. I think I may call in sick for my next weigh in!

Lulu's Slice O' Cake was NOT one of the cards that was in my stash to give her, but when she saw it on the desk she fell in love and asked if she could have that one too! Why not! That tilapia floating in butter had to be worth it!


Sadly again, I do not have the markers used on this project because a) I was just messing around, and b) I used so many pencils over the markers you'd never have a true representation if I listed them. What I will tell you though, is that I added some liquid applique to create an oozing of some butter cream filling and then after I took this pic, and the liquid applique was good and dry, I took the heat gun to it to puff it up a bit. So it now looks like whipped cream/butter cream filling! I know you sweet tooth's out there are probably salivating by now! Me, not so much! I'd take a hunk of good home smoked kielbasa over cake any day!

To move on to something different, I leave you with a couple things...first and most importantly did you see we have TWO NEW BABES....NO, not the contest winners, some ADDITIONAL babes! First we have the uber super talented fellow Canadian Kim Teasdale. She uses primarily (maybe exclusively) tombow markers on her images and they have a deep rich watercolor glow to them that CANNOT be imitated (and I've tried). Our second new babe is Ebru Vatansever our new videographer AND also fellow Canadian who is creating a Bellarific Youtube Channel! OMG....you MUST go check out her blog and her video's. Especially if you want to 'meet' the 'real' Emily. I personally know Emily, and let me say, this video is uncut, and unsensored! It's the REAL DEAL!

Finally, for you fashion forward followers...remember 'the boots' that I raved about! Those Michael Kors babies that I bought at Nordstrom's in Chicago! Well here they are! In all their glory! I decided that I would wear them to the 2nd Quarter Club dinner on Monday. Heck, when you have been working somewhere for 25 years it is evident you are likely getting up in years, unless you started working at the ripe old age of 5! And I wasn't ready to look old yet so 'the boots' were the way to go, no doubt about it! I love my new boots!

Now, it is still early on Wednesday night so you still have time to sneak in a card for our FALL COLOUR challenge! Get your card to Emily by tomorrow at 5pm and you'll not only see your creation up in lights, but you could win yourself some bella bucks!

oh how I love Mondays when...

I have the day off and get to sit here at my kitchen table sip on tea and watch the squirrels go CA-RA-ZZZY in my yard. They are sooooo active right now and making my little Bessie-girl go nuts! She wants those little rodents OUT of her yard! Well, actually I think she really wants to get her teeth into one of them and snap it's little neck....she's all terrier that one!

I had a very bizzy weekend colouring and making cards...some for Emily's upcoming Creative Festival show this weekend in Toronto and FOUR, yes FOUR various b'day and anniversary cards for my mother. Since they are going to different people I was able to duplicate a couple of them which was a big time saver for me. Her and my dad are coming over on Wednesday for supper and I needed to have them done. It's a trade off, she makes dinner for me, I make 4 cards for her! Pretty sweet deal!

When I sent Heritage Tree for their anniversary last month my mom told me that Aunt June LOVES trees! Perfect, cause I had Lulu's Cherry Blossom that had never seen ink yet and I needed a card for her birthday. Because I was not intending to use pencils here except for the bit of grass, I stamped it with memento ink on x-press it blending paper. Did I tell you HOW MUCH I LOVE this paper for copics? I think I did! And a little birdie told me that Stamping Bella should have it in the shop any day now!

These are the colors I used here, starting with B000 and B0000 for the sky in behind the tree and blended the edge heavily with a colorless blender to soften the edge.
B0000, 000, E41, 43, 44
R32, 35, 43, 85, Y11, YG67, G99

I paired it up with some Basic Grey porcelain paper and finished it off with tiny dots of of glitter in the center of the flowers, flower soft again on the ground and sponged the edge with VersaMagic Sea Breeze chalk ink. It matched the paper perfectly, and oh how smoothly does it blend on that x-press it paper!

That's it for today...off to the drawing board again cause I have ONE more card to do for my mom. Got to decide If it's gonna be another duplicate, or something different. If I can't make up my mind in the next 30 minutes then a duplicate it will be!

bellarific friday is HERE!

...AND SO IS THE WEEKEND!

oh man, after the week i've had at the day job i think for the first time EVAH I'm more excited about the weekend than I am about Bellarific Friday! I plan on spending the next 2 days (and hopefully 3) decompressing! For a change we have NO plans, NO dave, NO travel anywhere and I don't plan on leaving my dwelling for anything....like if they drop a bomb on my house and I am warned it's gonna happen I totally plan on going down with the ship!

Am I weird? do you peeps who have a day job feel the same way about the weekends as I do? Don't get me wrong, I ADORE seeing my friends, travelling to different cities, rocking with Dave....but if I do that too many weekends in a row, I need down time....to putz, to cook, to colour and to just wind down! This weekend, I plan to just wind down...and putz and cook and COLOUR! And spend some time with the hubby who has been in Houston all week! I think he'll be looking forward to some home cooked meals.

So all of this had absolutely NOTHING to do with my card this week...the challenge was to make a halloween card!


Now, I said last week I don't really do those so I turned my halloween card into a general purpose card and used Stella's Chariot pairing it up with a Stampers Anonymous sentiment that I picked up YEARS ago at a stamp show in Novi. I have no clue if they even sell it anymore!

I also have NO clue what colours I used on this card because I worked on it while at Emily's last weekend and was more interested in experimenting with the x-press it paper. YES, this was coloured on x-press it! It was that evening when I took my pencils to it and realized it is way to smooth for pencils. If you missed my last post, I'll repeat myself...if you are a copic purist, this paper is THE BEST I'VE EVER USED...but not enough 'bite' if you like pencils too. So it all comes down to what you like....the purists should really try this paper, and us hybrids should stick with the bella's BESTEST paper cause it works REALLLLLLY well with both! And don't think for a minute that I came up with this layout myself, it is this sketch from Taylor!

For next week's challenge we are moving away from Halloween just a little bit! Use fall colours! Yup, it can be any image, any sketch of your choosing, but use a bella image and pull in those reds, oranges and blacks or browns, or whatever colors that speak 'fall' to you and create something extraordinary! Send it to Emily by next Thursday to be entered into the weekly draw!

That's it for now, my weekend starts in 8 hours!

a pseudo-tutorial and x-press it blending card!

well girls...this is NOT really a tutorial, but it may be helpful. The No.1 question I get asked is how much pencil do I add! Well, I'll tell you, to the image, not very much AT ALL! But all shading around the image, and the grounding is ALWAYS done exclusively with pencil. So I've decided to show you three images that we coloured up at Stamping Bella this past weekend and what the image looked like with just copics, and after I added the pencil. Hope this WOW's you cause it always WOW's me!

In these three examples the left image is just coloured with copics, and the right after adding some pencil. (you can click on all of them for an up close look) In all cases, I would have initially used 2, but probably 3 colors of copics but I don't get as much depth, contrast and texture as I would like so that is where the pencils come in. If I increased the number of copics used to say 5 instead of 3, I could certainly achieve the depth and contrast, but it still lacks the texture of pencils which I LOVE for the softer look. So that is why I went 'hybrid'!

When I add the pencil, I almost always use a stump with some gamsol to blend it out a bit. BUT...I'm careful not to blend it out over the entire area! You only want to blend it out over half to two thirds of your darkest copic you used! And I don't always blend it out, sometimes I like the way it looks just as is. Now be careful though! This is NOT the same as if you were gonna color your entire image with pencils, where you want a good heavy application of pencil down so you have enough pigment to spread over the entire area! We DON'T want to cover the entire area so a light hand here is all that's required.

Below are the three images and some examples of where I added pencils.

Izzy has a cake

After colouring the green icing with G20 and G21, I used some Kelp Green to deepen it up a bit. The stripes were done with YR0000, Y00, 11, 15, YR31, 23. Then I used mineral orange pencil to shade under the cake, the underside of the skirt and on the polkadot layer where the striped layer is shading it. If I don't think I have enough, I might have added some light umber here, but just a very thin line and not really pulling that out at all, but just softening the line with a stump that is on the 'dry' side.


Izzy has a cupcake

Most often I just choose a color of pencil that is darker, but in the same color family to deepen things up a bit. Here I used BG000, 11 and 72 for the dress. Then I added some aquamarine pencil and again, just a thin line of a deep french grey to create that 'pop'. And remember, don't blend that french grey out, just a sweep with the stump to soften the line is all that is required.


Jill is two

You know I love MO....this is where pencils really come in handy. I did not want to tackle all the folds and creases in those tights with markers, especially cause the tights are striped!!!... so I just coloured the stripes using two colors for each stripe. Then following the contours I added some light umber and blended it out with a stump and gamsol....staying away from the center because I wanted to keep that light. Then just a teeny tiny bit of dark umber under the bulge of her diaper got me the look I wanted!


So that's it...not to tough eh! Just so you know, I RARELY do anything with pencil on the hair...I like it the way it is with just copics.

Now speaking of just copics...I got my grubby fingers on some of the x-press it blending card. Let me just say....if you are a copic purist, this is THE HANDS DOWN THE BESTEST PAPER FOR YOU! It is brilliant white so your copic colors are not distorted in any way and ULTRA smooth....like silky smooth! The copics blend like a DREAM! i LOVE THIS STUFF!

BUT....(for me there is a but!)

if you are a hybrid gal like me and like to use pencils with your copics....don't use this paper. It is way too smooth for pencils, there is absolutely NO 'tooth' to it at all. that means there is nothing to 'grab' the pencil....it's like colouring with a pencil on glass! get my drift! and if you do manage to get pencil down on it, you can't get it to move and blend as smoothly (or at ALL) like you can on bella's bestest paper.

so for you hybrid gals....stick with the bella paper!

So my verdict, if you are a copic purist...go for it! You'll LOVE IT! I'd rate it a 10 out of 10! If there is a remote chance you may want to use pencils over or in addition to your copics, stick with the bella paper because i would rate it a 9 out of 10 with both mediums.

Don't forget our halloweenie challenge this weekend! There is still time to get your card to Emily by tomorrow! Just so you know, I coloured mine on the x-press it paper!

Christmas card of the week - it's a PEEP!

I'm home from Bellaland and had a wonderous two days there! Hung out with Em and Helen on Saturday and while Paula talked the ears off her students we did a bit of shopping. Nothing exciting...a kitchen supply store where I ONLY came out with a new instant read meat thermometer and DeSerres Art/Craft supply where I ONLY came out with a couple tiny stumps. Now I will say I did NOT show that much restraint at Stamping Bella! LOL!...I came home with every new stamp from the latest release and a few sheets of the Echo Park paper.

While I showed restraint in the kitchen supply store, Emily showed great restraint with her Jenny Craig commitment! I was sooooo proud of her and I don't know if I could have done it! While Paula and I were inhaling Greek food, Jim and Ryan enjoyed a pizza and Emily had this most delish looking meal of salad and steamed veggies topped with a Jenny Craig entre. I'm originally from Windsor, and it is a very multicultural city. One thing I learned there is that I think Greeks make better pizza than Italians! I soooo wanted a piece of that pizza! But that was where I showed my restraint, eat my chicken souvlaki and be satisfied being satisfied!

After dinner the 'boys' watched a movie with the volume too loud while us girls coloured, okay, I only coloured a 'little' bit, but spent a good chunk of time organizing Emily's markers! We found doubles, we found missmatched lids, we even found lids for colors of markers she doesn't even own! Like what's with that! I'm totally OCD about the organization of my markers! You can be certain that the next time I go I WILL be checking in on that basket of hers to see if it is still in order!

My classes were wonderful and I hope the students had as much fun as I did! I saw some old faces and met some new ones and the classes were a bit smaller this time which gave me lots of time to demo at each table and meet and greet everyone. I really had a good time and made it home safely while rocking to Dave on my 3 hour drive home! Gotta luv Dave!

On to my Christmas Card of the Week! I didn't work today and made it this afternoon after lunching with Paulineabella at our local almost-Thai restaurant, Rice and Noodle. The lack of multiculturalism in Chatham is what I miss most about Windsor...but moving on...beforeI get carried away. Meet the Christmas PEEPS! Because these peeps are so small, I kept the card really simple and paper pieced the tree with a piece of green from the new Basic Grey Oliver paper pad and use a sheet from the same pack for the background.


I stamped them on Bella's Bestest Paper and coloured with my copic markers. Not a lot of colouring on these little guys, but these are the markers I used:
E00, 11, B95, 97, R24, 27, Y19, CO, 1
E42, 43, 44, B0000, and a special blend of a colourless marker with several drops of B00 added to it...a VERY VERY light shade of 'B'.

To finish it off I added some shading to the tree with a Kelp green pencil....seriously....you should ALWAYS shade your paper piecing because it will look sooooo much better, bella dots for the ornaments, some liquid applique for grounding with glitter sprinkled on top and just a bit of machine stitching. I'm now thinking about the star...hmph...what was I thinking! Will add some glitter there too before this gem goes out in the mail this coming December.

Coming up this week! My verdict on X-Press IT Blending Card! Yes I have it, yes I tried it and you'll get my opinion of it later this week. Stay tuned!

I can't believe the weekend is here already!

Because I have lots of vacation left due to two months off on disability after the horrible accident I have been taking one vacation day a week! OMG! I WANT TO WORK FOUR DAY WEEKS FOR THE REST OF MY WORKING DAYS! I love it...and it sure does make the week fly by.

I do not have today off however, I am at work! But I'll be taking Monday off to catch up on chores that will go by the wayside while I am at the Bella Headquarters this weekend teaching my class on Sunday. Do you know that I am actually arriving on Saturday, and just gonna hang out at the store, smell the rubber, drool over the paper, pester Dena if she is there and pop in on Paula's class on and off just to harass a bit! I love to do that!!!! hehe!


This week our challenge was faux or sew! Can you guess? I sewed! I not only sewed, I even added some REAL lace trim to the card to make it look really sewed! now when I say REAL, it means I bought the trim at a fabric store and not a craft store, not that there is really any difference...except that i think they jack up the price when you buy it at a craft store...so don't discount the trim section in your local fabric store...you may find some real gems there!

As always, I stamped Prince Edward Island girl on Bella's BESTEST paper and coloured her with the following copic markers:
e0000, 000, 00, 11, 02
E30, 31, 33, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44
R0000, 000, 00, 20, 21, 22
G40, 12, 21, 82 94
BG0000, 000, 00

I didn't write down the pencils I used, but likely some nectar to deepen the pinks, and maybe some white to add some highlights to the dress. I don't know about you, but me, I WANT that needlepoint bag of hers! So Ralph Lauren-ish! If I chould choose a 'look' for myself it would definitely be her! I love her and I think she is a picture of me when I was in my early 20's. ...that would be before I embrassed the 'Out of Africa' look! I'm such a victim of fashion trends! wait till i show you a pic of the new boots I picked up in Chicago! OMG! can you say HOT!!!!!!!

Now before I leave you I want to give you a heads up on next week's challenge....You know it is the 1st of October...and what is October know for.....HALLOWEEN!....and that is our challenge! Now I don't send halloween cards myself, but my mother ALWAYS gave our boys halloween cards! she would usually put 5 or 10 dollars in the card because she lives in a different city and couldn't indulge them with treats at her door. Now me, i would just buy extra bags of chocolate bars so the boys would have treats to indulge in at home...but now that they are off at school (YAY!) I just may send them a card with 5 or 10 dollars in it so they can buy their own treats.....ya....I'm a sucker mom!!!!!!

Till next time, enjoy the Halloween tradition!

Christmas card of the week, and do you remember when...

...Emily would sneak in new rubbah here and there, and you had to keep checking her blog or online store to see when new stuff would be there! I was one of those peeps and she is at it again! SPONTANEOUS RELEASES!

OMG....this is sooooooooooo fun! I would sometimes order online, or sometimes go into my local LSS Pickle and say did you see what Emily just released! I felt like I was a 'spy'....stalking out new images that they had to order for their store! LOL!!!! Well, we are all gonna have to start 'spying' again! YUP...no more monthly releases, she is just gonna dribble them in when the urge hits her! Personally, I think this is exciting cause I loved when she did that. It would draw me to her blog and read her crazy stories. I'm so happy that the 'old' Emily is back because I kinda missed her.

This spontaneity brings me to today's card....the choir with a star on top by Mo! Em sent this one to me and asked if I would have time to color it...I did NOT have a lot of prep time, just sayin'...when she says spontaneity she means it! But I didn't care, it was a Mo, it was rubbah and it was a Christmas image and I could use it for my Christmas card of the week so I quickly said YES!


My pod mate Kathy (who watched the Bessie girl last weekend) was the inspiration for this card. She does short term mission work and always comes home from her travels with the most INCREDIBLE photographs of children...she is a scrapbooker and photographer extraordinaire and her photos were my inspiration. I didn't have any experience with colouring various skin tones so I went to my go to site for all things copic, Copic Creations and remembered they did a challenge on Ethnic skin tones. So I checked out the post and read the links from the experts and used them as a guide. The only thing I strayed from was to add a bit of beige prismacolor pencil to add some highlights on the darker skin tones, I'm rather happy with my first time attempt and hope to be doing much more of this in the future! I love this image and the unity of cultures with the Joy to the World sentiment that comes with it just says it all!

What else can I say...but....peace out!

If I were a golfer...

I would be certainly enjoying the cooler temps we have had the last little while...and even though I don't golf, I'm still enjoying it! However, I'm NOT in ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM ready for snow...not even a dusting...thinking of you Dana and hoping some better weather comes your way soon!

In honour of what I consider perfect golf weather I coloured up Mo's Big Guy Golfing. I'm gonna gush a bit here, I LOVE this card...the colors, the paper, the ribbon, it all came together perfectly for me and that always makes me happy.

This Big Guy was stamped with Memento Ink on Bella's BESTEST paper and coloured with the following copic markers.
E50, 51, 53 (i always use these colors for flesh tones on my 'male' images)
E40, 41, 42, 43, 44
E13 for his little bit of hair
B0000, 000, 41
Y0000, 00, C00, 1, 3
W00, 1, N0, 1, 2

As always I added just a small amount of shading on the image with pencils, and all grass and hint of blue sky was also with pencils.

In case you were wondering where my usual Sunday morning post went...it was because hubby and I spent the weekend in Chicago. No, not a shopping and eating adventure (although I did manage to squeeze in some shopping)...we were there to see Dave...ya...Dave Matthews AGAIN...this time at Wrigley Field. I'll admit, seeing a concert at a sports venue is NOT my fav cause there are just wayyyyy too many peeps for my liking and the place is just too big...but on the other hand...to see so many fans in one place is pretty cool! So here are some pics...

Mark bought me a new scarf...and I was glad I had it because the temps were on the nippy side! Hmmm....shoulda photoshopped that zit off my forehead!

Wrigley Field....CA-RA-ZZZZY general admission fans!


And finally, this is so cute....Bessie had a little vacation of her own and spent the weekend with my friend Kathy, and her friend JD. The two were born within months and have know each other since they were pups. Kathy took this pic with her iPhone while they were out on a walk and sent it to me. JD is the laid back relaxed one on the right, and that is Bessie taking the lead (as always) on the left! Aren't they adorable!!!! Thanks Kath!!!!

Now don't forget about our challenge this week...FAUX or SEW...can't get any easier than that. And I also want to shout out a HUGE thanks for those who played in the sketch challenge last week...I took just a quick peek at the cards on the Bellablog last night and I've got to go back and take some closer looks because they were amazing!

That's it for today...I have the pleasure of a day off work so I'm gonna finish up my class stuff for this weekend and maybe get some colouring time in!