Hollyhock Bittybloom

Well, back to work I go today but I took friday off so have another 4 day weekend coming up! woohoo. 

While I was off I colored up Hollyhock Bittybloom. Now wasn't all that sure what color hollyhocks were, so googled and to my surprise they come in a variety of colors. 

I stamped her on bella's bestest paper and colored her using my Caran d'Ache pencils and blended out with gamsol. I started out with a nice soft yellow dress, but as I kept adding color to shade with, it turned out to be more of an orangey tone rather than just soft yellow, but I love how it turned out. I sponged some versamagic sea breeze ink around the image.  DP I'm using is from Memory Box - paper is so pretty almost hated to use it!
Finished up the card with some pretty pink satin ribbon and lots of glitter!

Thanks for stopping by, see you again soon....

The same but different

Since I'm still enjoying my last day off before returning back to work for a couple of days on wed and thurs, I thought I would take a break from coloring and do some real stamping.  When I was at Archivers a couple of weeks ago, I picked up the new Hero Arts catalog.  I find their cards are fairly simple - not a lot of layers, ribbons, embellishments etc, but they do have some good ideas. 

So with saying that, I saw this idea for a Sympathy card.  Although this type of card is the least favourite we like to make, it seems these kind are the first to sell from my card baskets.

These worked up fairly fast as well.  The background was done with distress inks as well as the leaf stamp.  After stamping I trimmed up the image, then went around the edge with my gold kylon marker, then layered it onto a piece of cream.  No glitter required for these cards but I thought it needed something, so I added a little bow using my bow maker (love that little tool!).

That's it for today.... back tomorrow with a Bella card... and she is cute!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yep, today's my birthday.  So in honor of this special day I thought I would make myself a birthday card! lol, plus I needed a card to post so killing two birds with one stone as the saying goes.  So do I feel any older? No! Do I feel any fatter? Yep! Too much food over the last week, and today I have a home made carrot cake with cream cheese icing, and this is not a WW friendly cake.

Okay, on with my card. I have loved this cute image ever since it was released but just never had a chance to color her up.  It's a Stamping Bella image called
Little Peeps Birthday Cake.

So what do you think, cute eh?  I stamped her on bella's bestest paper and colored her up with pencils, not my prismacolor pencils but my new Caran d'Ache pencils!! OMG I love them, the color choices you have and they color and blend so smoothly! So, back to the card - used my oval s/binder die to cut out the image as well as the scallop layer.  I left the die in place and sponged some spring pansy versamagic ink around the image, stitched around the oval, then layered this onto some pretty papers by Memory Box.  Of course, had to use a Martha Stewart border punch - vintage floral as well. To finish it off I used some glossy accents for the flame on the candles, pearls for the flowers and of course glitter.  And... did you notice my 'watermark'?  Pretty cool eh? no I didn't do it, my son Mark did it for me yesterday.

Well, that's it for me for today.  Think I will go for a much needed walk - the wind is  very cold, but the sun is shining so brightly.

Have a great day everyone.  Till next time....

Merry Christmas....

Wishing you love, joy, peace and laughter as you celebrate this wonderful time of year with family and friends.


Pauline

Christmas Peeps!

I had great intentions of posting this yesterday, but it just never happened.  Too many things to get done before Christmas.  But I will say, that all the presents are wrapped, and groceries bought.  The only thing left to do is house clean - yuck, but that's today's job. I work until noon, then home I go to tackle the house.
Mark (my son) is coming home late afternoon to spend a few days, then back to London he goes, to finish up his Co-op program next week, then next semester (January) he is back to Fanshaw for his last year.

So for my card, I had this image colored up for quite a while - like a month or so- but just never did anything with it.  Thought best I make it into a card.  I share with you today Christmas Peeps, by Stamping Bella.

As always, I stamped with black memento on bella's bestest paper and colored it with prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol. I always liked the way Paula rounds her corners on some of her images, so thought I would do that with this one. Before stitching around the image, I did some sponging with Antique Linen distress ink.  DP is from the Snowy Day 6x6 collection by Crate Paper. Added glitter to the tree and glossy accents to the balls.  Used some white flower soft for the snow under the little Peeps feet!

Well, that's it for me for a few days.  I hope to get some coloring down while off work until next wedesday, so will have some new cards to share.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas,  and may the holidays bring wonderful memories as you spend with your loved ones.

See you soon..... Pauline.

Minty Coffee Anyone?

I must say my Christmas card making for this year is slowly winding down.  I finished my last card to mail out last night, but I still want to make a few more so I can put them away for next year.  I always think I have lots of time to get all my cards done, but I never do. 

For today's card I have Minty Coffee. I colored this with my pencils and gamsol. Used the spellbinder dies to cut out the circle as well as the red layer underneath.
DP paper is last years Basic Grey - Wassail.

I used a couple of Papertrey dies for my scallops and the green circle chain. Also added some glitter to the leaves, candy cane and the swirls of steam, and glossy accents to the leaves.

I will be back later in the week with another card to share with you, till then...

Last challenge of the year

Friday once again, which means another Bellariffic challenge - actually it's our last one of the year.  Yep, another year has come and gone - like where did that go?

This weeks challenge is a sketch. Now I know how much everyone likes sketches, so I made this one pretty easy for ya!  I hope you had a chance to play along.

I am using Penguin with Gift by Mo available in rubber at Stamping Bella! I loved this guy since the first time I saw him.  This is the first time I've had a chance to color him up.

As usual I stamped him on bellas' bestest paper and colored him up with my  prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol.  I layered him on some dk grey and green c/s and stitched around the edge. I did sponge around the edges with some aloe vera versamagic but doesn't seem to show up in the picture. The DP paper is from Fancy Pants called Tradition.  I love this paper (okay what papers don't I love?!!).  And did you notice the border punch I used? Yes, it has penguins on it, now how stinkin cute is that?  Of course, my sketch called for a sentiment, so I pulled out Merry Christmas - which fit perfectly into my slender oval s/binder die. To finish off the card I added glitter to him, and that's it!

I wish I would of made this card up a month or so ago, then I would of made a bunch of these to send out this year.  Oh well, maybe I'll do some over the winter for my stash next year - always gotta think ahead!

Well folks, that's it for the challenges this year. We will start up again, with our first challenge being January 14, 2011! Not sure what the challenge will be, but we will keep you posted.

If you would like to see what the other babes and peeps did for this challenge, hop on over to Bloggabella and have a peek.

Off to my sister's for our Christmas get-together tonight.

Have a great weekend everyone! till next time....

Something different.....

being something other  than a Christmas card.  No I'm not done all my Christmas cards, but needed to make a birthday card.  I have 5 birthday cards to make in the month of december, on top of all my christmas cards, yikes - a very busy month to say the least.

I wanted to do something really pretty, something with flowers, so looking through my bella binders came across Dandelion Wisps.

I started out by embossing the dandelion with white embossing powder on watercolor paper.  I then spritzed the paper with some water.  On my teflon mat (or you could use wax paper) I rubbed some distress inks ( I used peeled paint, dusty concord, and broken china) and then spritzed it until it beaded up.  I then layed my image face down in the ink, pressed down all over then turned it over, sprinked some salt on it, then took my heat gun and dried it.  The salt will rub off when it's dry. The salt kind of gives it that molted look.

I then used  my hexagon s/binder dies
to cut out the image as well as the scallop hexagon in white.  Now doing this without any papers in mind (only because I know the recipient loves these colors) I wasn't sure what I was going to use.  I tried plain c/s but did nothing for this image.  Ah! then I remembered this paper pack I bought back in late summer called Fairy Flora by Prima- this paper is a must have - so many beautiful floral patterns and colors- they are so pretty I almost didn't want to use it but hey, you get 4 of each pattern, so I still have some left (hehe- I'm a paper hoarder I tell you!).  Okay sorry, back to the card - so from there it all came together.
I also used my new MS border punch.

Finished it up with a bit of glitter on the dandelion and a bow.  Overall a pretty simple card.

So tonight hubs and I are going out for dinner at Mama Maria's to celebrate our Anniversary  - #31!  Where do the years go?.

Also, don't forget to participate in our last bellariffic challenge of the year.
It's a sketch challenge. Send your card to Em by thursday night for a chance to win some bella bucks.

See you on friday!

This & That and Bismark

Happy Monday!  How was everyone's weekend? Busy I'm sure, as was mine.
On saturday night we had our choir's potluck Christmas party.  Fabulous food and lots of laughter. Yesterday we had our Christmas Cantata at Church, it was wonderful.  We had 23 choir members.  It took many hours of practice but it was so worth it.

So lets get to today's card.  I share with you Bismark.

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Bismark was stamped using black memento ink on bella's bestest paper, and colored with my prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol. I based my colors on my background paper from SEI called winter song. This paper has glitter all over it, so pretty in real life.  I used by s/binder dies to cut out my layers, did some stitching around the image as well as around the dp paper.
Finished it up with some white flock on the hat and some glamour dust glitter on the scarf and bow.

And there you have it, he is cute eh?  Well this card already has a home, going out in the mail tomorrow.

Don't forget about our last bellariffic challenge for this year. We will be taking some time off over the holidays, then we will return to the challenge's on January 14/11.  This weeks sketch challenge is by Me!  Hope you can play along, if so please email Emily your card by thursday night.  Here is the sketch:

see you soon,

Gift Card

It's friday again (woohoo!) which means another bellariffic friday challenge.  This weeks challenge was to make a gift or a gift card.  I chose the gift card.

For the image on my card I used Gifty Tree (how appropriate eh, just realized the name now as I'm typing this post - hehe!).

I colored up gifty tree using my pencils on
bella's bestest paper. Used an oval s/binder die to cut it out, left the die on and sponged some wheat versamagic ink around the image (doesn't show up very well in the picture). Next layered the image on some red c/s.  DP used is some new paper  from Echo Park called Merry Christmas. I thought I should have a sentiment on the front so I used Happy Holidays.

Finished it up with some glitter, ribbon, button and some clear glaze on the christmas balls.
For the inside of the card I adhered a piece of red scallop behind the green polka dot DP paper and glued to the inside of the card along 3 sides.
Then slipped my Tim Horton's gift card into the pocket.

Here is the inside of my card:

Next weeks challenge will be the last one for this year (wow- where did this year go?) we have another sketch for you. The sketch this time was done my ME! It's a pretty simple layout, so hope you can all play along.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Lulu's Ornaments

I have another Christmas card to share with you.  Now before I get into the deets on my card, I must say that my card today was inspired by this card Lindabella did.
I'm using Lulu's Ornaments which was released in last month.

I stamped the ornaments on bella's bestest paper using black memento ink. Colored it up with my prismacolor pencils.  After cutting it our with my s/binder square die I left it on and sponged some antique linen distress ink inside the die area.
I pulled out my Tim Holtz bracket die and cut a piece of brown c/s with it - which I used across the top of the ornaments.  DP paper is from a 6x6 pk of Basic Grey Jovial. I added some glitter to the ornaments as well as some clear glaze (using my glaze pen) on the center knots on the bows as well as the light green centers on the green ornaments.  Finishing touches - gold and turquoise ribbon, and a turquoise rhinestone.  So what do you think -  too much with the ornament paper- does it look too busy? I tried plain cardstock, but it was just too plain. Oh well, it's done and going in the mail this weekend.

Also, Emily surprised us with another release today.  This time 3 new Bella stamps.  You can check it out here. They are a must have!

And this friday's bellariffic challenge is  A GIFT/OR GIFT CARD. You still have time to email Emily your entry. Send it to her by tomorrow night, there is some bella bucks up for grabs.

Back on friday with my challenge card.  See you then!

Mojo Monday and a card

I don't usually play along with various sketch challenges that are out there, not because I don't like to but mostly because I don't have the time.  But tonight I needed to get some more Christmas cards done so I came across Verve's Mojo Monday and new it would work perfectly with what I had in mind.

My card today uses Stamping Bella's Snowman Circle.

Image was stamped on bella's bestest paper and colored with prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol.  I cut the image freehand just inside the black circle then layered him onto some pink, green and turquoise paper cut out with some s/binder dies. The DP paper is from last years Basic Grey line called Eskimo Kisses.
Next I stamped the sentiment Let it Snow using black memento ink, onto a piece of Eskimo Kisses.  Ribbon is from Papertrey - love the richness of this color.

Finishing touches - 3 turquoise rhinestones, glitter on the snowflakes and I applied some white flock to the ground area.

Okay, well that's it for this time, off to make another card.  See you soon.

A bit of snow

Ah, Friday at last, which means another Bellariffic challenge.  This weeks theme is snow - pretty simple eh?

 The Stamping Bella image I used is called Door with Wreath by Mo! I can tell you this was a very fast and simple image to color up, it took me twice as long to come up with the layout.

Isn't it pretty?  I just love it.  Love the white space around the door, just so crisp and clean looking.

Okay onto the card - as usual I stamped with black memento ink on
bella's bestest paper and colored with prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol. After cutting it down to size I layered it on to some light blue and dark grey bazzill c/s and then stitched around the edge.  The DP paper is from Memory Box - Dewfrost collection- I think it was from last year.  For the snow I added some liquid applique and sprinkled glitter on it while it was wet.  I did not heat set it this time.  I didn't want the snow to be too puffy, so just left it as is.  I also added some small little dots of liquid applique on the wreath - hard to see in the picture though and added some glitter as well.
Finished it all with a piece of dark teal satin ribbon.

Next's week bellariffic challenge theme is Giftabella - make a gift or a gift card. 
Email your card/project to Emily by thursday night for a chance to win some bella bucks!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

cosmo girl

Seems like forever since I colored up a Bella, so with a friends birthday in mind in a few weeks I decided to color up Cosmobella. This was one of the very first bellas I bought way back when.

I stamped Ms. Cosmo on bella's bestest paper and colored her up with my trusty  prismacolor pencils.  DP paper is last years Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses.  I used a SU border punch on the white c/s.  Added a bit of glitter to her drink, then finished up with some soft blue chiffon ribbon and a blue pearl brad. Now the blue border around cosmo and her pants are not really that bright of a blue IRL.

For those who love to play along in our friday bellariffic challenges, this weeks challenge is  'snow on a card'! Now how easy is that.  Submit your card to Emily by thursday night.

Thanks for stopping by, see you on friday.