A little birdie

Hi all.  This will be a fast post.  My weekend turned into not being so good.  I've been fighting sinus headache since Friday, congestion, sneezing, cough... well you know how it is.  So needless to say, I'm heading to bed after sleeping almost 15 hours last night.  Just can't get rid of the bad sinus headache, which make your eyes feel sore and tired, and watery.

Okay enough about me, I received my huge Stamping Bella order on Thursday, so I was so eager to colour up something new.  I pulled out Little Birdie Jane by one of Stamping Bella's newest artist
Jane Davenport. 

I stamped her on Bella's bestest paper using black memento ink.  She was coloured  using prismacolour pencils, after putting a base coat down with copics first.  I made the frame around her but using a couple of punches from Martha Stewart -around the page Vintage Floral.  I saw a tutorial over on Kittie's blog- she has some fantastic tutorials on frame making, flowers, wreaths, etc, you should check it out! It took me a few tries to get the exact paper measurements to get the frame I wanted.  I started with a piece measuring 3 1/2 x 5 5/8.  After punched around, it gave me just enough room to place my image.
Paper is from Memory Box called Aerial.  I thought this would be perfect paper because of the little birds on it (which most of it is covered up, but you can still see a bit of the birds).

Finished off with some stitching, glitter and some baubles.  I was really pleased on how this turned out.

Okay, I'm off to bed, hopefully I'll feel somewhat better tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by.
I have a new Uptown Girl image to share with you on Wed... see you then.

Sketch 0212

Woohoo it's Friday again! Weekend weather is not so great, which is okay with me because I received my Stamping Bella order yesterday, so I have lots of rubber that needs to see ink! So I hope to get some cards made this weekend.

For all you sketch lovers out there, our challenge this week was just that - a sketch.  This one is #2 of the year. Did you get a chance to play along with us this week? Regardless of whether you did or not, be sure to hop over to Bloggabella  to check out all the entries for this week or you can check them out over on SCS - just do a search for BELLARIFFIC0312 (case sensitive).

Okay, lets get on with my version of the sketch.  I followed it quite closely except my image is in the shape of square rather than a circle.  What can I say, it just wouldn't fit into a circle!

I'm using one of images in a set of four designed by our very own Paulabella!  This set is called
Framed Florals.  As usual, I stamped the image on bella's bestest paper and coloured with Copics, and the shading is done with pencils.  I used the Fleur de Lis s/binder die behind my image as well as the Fleur de Lis accents for the corners.  The strip of paper behind the image was run through the cuttlebug using a sizzix embossing folder and then I sponged some scattered straw distress ink over the embossed leaves.
DP is from Memory Box.  Finished off with some stitching, yellow silk ribbon and some tiny white pearls.

Next weeks challenge is VALENTINE.  Now that shouldn't be too hard, we all have loved ones that we can make a card for.  You can email Emily your card by thursday night for your card to be included in the showcase on Bloggabella or you can upload to SCS and use the keyword BELLARIFFIC0412.

Have a great weekend, see you back here soon.

I'm sorry....

Happy Wednesday!  I'm actually ahead of the game this week, which doesn't happen to often.
I have all my cards done for this week's post even my sketch challenge card for friday! Now I just need to work ahead and start next weeks cards.

I coloured another Mo image in rubber by Stamping Bella.  This cutie is called Sorry Shanna.

Doesn't she make your heart melt? Look at those freckled cheeks! I stamped her on bella's bestest white using black memento ink. I used both prismacolour and Caron d'ache pencils and blended with gamsol.  Designer paper is from Basic Grey called Lilykate.  Finished off with some glitter and silk ribbon.  Finished size is 6 1/4 x 4 1/2.

Don't forget about our sketch challenge this week. You still have time to get it done and email Emily by thursday night.  You can also upload it on SCS using the keyword BELLARIFFIC0212. Bella bucks up for grabs!

Thanks for stopping by, see you on Friday.

Let's Hang Out!

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was good, and a very busy day today.  Went to church as normal this morning, then had to be back at church for 4:30 to practice for our Massed Choir which was at 7:00.  This is the finale for Week of Prayer.  We have choir members from different church denominations across the city participate in the choir.  It's a lot of fun,  and lots of singing, which gets crammed into about an hour.  In total the choir sang two Anthems, plus with the congregation we sang another 8 songs. My throat was just a tad dry by the end!

So for my card today, I coloured up this cute design called 'Hanging Sign'.  I've wanted this stamp for quite some time, but always forget to order it, so I finally remembered.

I stamped the image on bella's bestest paper using black memento ink.  I then coloured the image using prismacolour pencils and blended with gamsol.  Used a rectangle s/binder die to cut it out and then sponged some distress stormy sky around the image while the die was still in place.   This stamp comes with 3 sentiments - let's hang out, happy birthday, and thinking of you.  I thought the 'let's hang out' suited this image to a 't'. I stamped the sign portion again onto a scrap piece of white, sponged some stormy sky on it and then stamped the sentiment.  I used some pop dots to layer it over the main image.

Designer paper is from Memory Box.  White scallop border is a Martha Stewart punch, and the kraft colour flourish is a MFT die.  I then punched 3 hydrangea flowers using a Martha Stewart punch, pressed each center of the flower into a rubber foam mat using a stylus to give it some shape, glued these to the flourish and finished them off with tiny white pearls.

That's it for me for tonight.  This Babe is exhausted, I'm heading to bed!  See you soon,

A favourite image

Hello Everyone! Welcome to another Bellariffic friday challenge.  This weeks challenge was to ink up one of your favourite images.  Well, I had a very hard time deciding which image was my favourite.
There are so many from the Uptown Girls, stella's, bella's, green bean babies, and my list goes on.
So to make my decision on what to do I tried to narrow it down -  since I love flowers and love the pixie images, I pulled out an image that has never seen ink yet! (and I have lots of those!).
This is Patsy Pixie. Isn't she adorable peeking through the bouquet of flowers?

As always, I stamped her on Bella's bestest white paper using black memento ink and then coloured her using prismacolour pencils and blended with gamsol.  I based my colours on a piece of Basic Grey - Kissing Booth.  So pretty, love the little flowers on it.  I then trimmed around the image and used a corner rounder for my top 2 corners.  Did the  same with the pink and yellow card stock.  I sponged versamagic thatched straw, and then with some  distress ink - scattered straw around the image.

The white strip behind the image is cut using a Cheery Lynn die.  All of these dies are so detailed and intricate, I think by far one of my fav companies for this type of die.

Finished off with some stitching, glossy accents on the center of the daisy's and on the little stamens, and glitter on the some of the pink flowers.

Next week's challenge is another sketch. Our multi-talented Ebruabella has designed 25 great sketches for us for the upcoming year - whoohoo Ebru!! For all you sketch lovers, looks like we will be doing a sketch every other week.  So here is next weeks sketch.  Be sure to email Emily your card by thursday night. If you would like to post it on SCS be sure to use the keyword BELLARIFFIC0212.  

Have a good weekend, see you soon.  Thanks for peeking in today!

Happy Neighborhood

So, what did you think of Emily's release yesterday? Pretty awesome eh! It didn't take me long to fill my cart, it was overflowing with all the new and some older images! Can't wait to get them.

I was asked to make a card for a house warming.  I don't have much in the line of houses, but I did have this funky  house stamp from Stamping Bella called Happy Neighborhood! 

I came across this paper once I decided on the stamp I was going to use. The designer paper is by Imaginisce - Happy Camper. The trees are all glossed - so pretty.  I just love the colours in it as well- brown, green and teal tones - perfect. So I began by stamping the houses on bella's bestest paper then proceeded to colour using copics and pencils.  I cut the houses out using labels 14, and then the teal layer was cut with labels 20.  I ran the brown c/s through the cuttlebug using a sizzix embossing folder. Tied a piece of twill around the card to finish it off.  Card measures 5x 7.  I rented a stamp from Paper Pickle for the inside sentiment - it say's : Wishing you Warmth and Happiness in your new home.

Hope you get a chance to play in our challenge this week.  Do you have a favourite Stamping Bella image? well that's all it takes.  Colour it up and email Emily by Thursday night for a chance to win some bella bucks.

I'll see you back here on Friday.  See you then,

Sneak Peak

Hi - hope everyone had a good weekend.  Have you had a chance to hop over to SCS to the bella forum? If you did you would of seen some sneak peak images that Emily is teasing us with.  The release day is tomorrow, Tuesday Jan 17, and all I can say is that I'm excited.  Looks like some new Uptown Girls, and a couple of new designers! woohoo!!

The image that I coloured up to show you is so cute! Who wouldn't love to receive a card with this adorable image?  Okay, enough said here she is - Matilda Swinging!

Isn't she just darling? I coloured miss Matilda using prismacolour pencils and gamsol.  I needed to do something with the big white open space, so I pulled out some of my cloud dies, and traced lightly around some of the cloud formation,  then added a bit of a darker blue and blended out. After I finished colouring her, the image was still lacking something.  So I pulled out my chalks (haven't used these in ages) and sponged some blue chalk in the cloud area.  What I did notice though is that it kind of removed my outline markings of my clouds, and left it with a white outline - does look kind of cool!

Designer paper is by MME - Happier collection.  This cute image also comes with her own sentiment - thinking of you.  I trimmed it up and layered it onto a piece of pink c/s to make a tag.  Finished off with some stitching, glitter, and a couple of pink pearls.

Well that's it for me, but be sure to check out all of the other bellababes for some awesome sneak peaks! You can also see them over at SCS - do search in the gallery using the keyword SBJANRELEASE. Be sure to check out the store over at Stamping Bella tomorrow for the release - have fun shopping!

Have a wonderful day!

First bellariffic challenge of 2012

Hey, happy Friday everyone! Today marks our first bellariffic friday challenge for 2012! And we start this years off with an awesome sketch, done by Ebruabella!!

As soon as we were shown the sketch I knew I wanted to put a Huggabugg image in that circle.  Question was what image was I going to use.  So with Valentine's Day creeping up on us fast I pulled out
Lovey Huggabugg. These little guys are just so adorable!

I first stamped her on bella's bestest paper and then coloured her up in the yummy pinky/red colours using prismacolour pencils. The DP is by MME called Love Me.  I just love all the paper in this pack! For the sentiment part of the sketch, I used a s/binder heart.  I wasn't going to put anything else on the heart, but as I was putting the card together, I noticed a small piece of paper that had the words 'love' across it - it was off of the back side of the striped piece.  So guess where I put that! Yep you got it - glue it onto the heart - a perfect little sentiment!.  I also used a couple of circle dies along with the lacy circle die.  Finished off with some stitching, and I applied some glitter ritz to the wings.

Be sure to hop over to Bloggabella today, and leave a comment on all of the wonderful submissions.  You have a chance to win some bella bucks if you do.

Do you have a favourite Bella image?  Well, if so, get it coloured up because next weeks challenge is "ink up your favourite image'. Email your card to Emily by thursday night for it to appear on Bloggabella.

If you haven't been following Bloggabella lately, there is another release coming out on Tuesday!
Emily says it's bestest and biggest yet!! You can follow her on Twitter for some sneak peaks.

Well, that's it for today, have a great weekend!

Walkabella

Hi all! Can you believe it's Wednesday already?  The last few weeks have been flying by for me, with

working lots of overtime- not complaining, just saying!  It's a quick post today,  for some reason, Blogger was not saving last night, so writing this up this morning before work.

For my card today, I coloured  another Bella image.  Here we have  Walkabella.

Doesn't she look cute and sassy in her strapless dress walking her pooch? So for the details, as you know she was stamped on bella's bestest paper with black memento, and then coloured her up using prismacolour pencils.  Again, I used some papers from my scrap basket by Heidi Grace. I drew some lines on her purse to spruce it up a bit! Finished up with some black bella dots.  Card measures 5 1/4 square.


You still have a couple days to get your card done for this weeks challenge.  You can email Emily by thursday night to have it show up on bloggabella or you can  upload your card on SCS, link your card using BELLARIFFIC0112.

Gotta go, see you back here on friday.  Have a great day!!

Forgotten Birthday

Happy Monday everyone!  Hope you had a great weekend.

Have you ever forgotten someone's birthday, and never have the right kind of card to send? Well I can tell you that I will be prepared for the next time I forget, because the card I have today to share with you is one of those.  This great image is another Christy Croll image released in rubber by Stamping Bella called No Fair Girl!

Now doesn't she look a bit peeved that she forgot a birthday?  I stamped her on bella's bestest paper and then coloured her with prismacolour pencils and blended with gamsol.  I used my Wonky s/binder die to cut her out as well as the pink layer.  I then ran the pink through my cuttlebug using the swiss dot embossing folder.
This stamp  also comes with 3 different sentiments. I punched the sentiment out using an oval punch.The DP is by Fancy Pants - Crush, I used the front and back side.  Finished off with some glitter, stitching, a mft flourish  and a prima flower.

This Friday, marks our first bellariffic challenge for 2012 (see sketch).  If you do get a chance to play along you have 2 ways to win some bella bucks.  First of all you need to use only Stamping Bella stamps. You can email Emily by thursday night, for your card to show up on Bloggabella, and also now that Stamping Bella is back on SCS, you can upload your card there.  Simply link your card using the keyword BELLARIFFIC0112 (case sensitive) and one person will win a $20.00 gift voucher to shop at Stamping Bella! Pretty cool!! We are leaving this challenge open until Jan 19th.  Good luck everyone!

That's it for me today, thanks for stopping by.

Baby Kirby

Hey, sorry guys, I thought this had posted today, while I was out, but obviously it didn't.  That's a couple of times this has happened.  Oh well here it is now!

It seems that I never have enough baby cards  -  so another one for my stash.

Today I have Take a stand Kirby, an adorable image by Christy Croll, which can be found at Stamping Bella.

I started by stamping Kirby on bella's bestest white with black memento ink.  This time around I used Copics and a bit of shading with prismacolour pencils.  I pulled some papers from my scrap bin - these are by MME - Alphabet Soup.  Finished off with some buttons.  Card measures 5.25 x 5.25.

Also, I hope to have some more pictures of the Great Gray Owl this coming week.

In case you haven't heard Stamping Bella is back over on SCS as a Member Company.  You can visit Emily and the Bella Babes here.  Emily has a few sneak peaks of some new Uptown Girls soon to be released, so hop over and take a look.

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the rest of you weekend.

Hello Dear Friend

It's Friday and that means the weekend is upon us once again! Woohoo!!  And the weather is suppose to be fairly nice - which is always a bonus for the weekends.

For my card today, I decided it was time to colour up a Bella image for a change.  I have Gossipabella to share with you.

She was stamped on Bella's bestest paper and then I coloured her using prismacolour and Caran d'ache
pencils and blended with gamsol.  I used a square s/binder die to cut her out and then sponged some versamagic key lime then toned it down with some sea breeze.  I used a Cheery Lynn doily die to lay behind gossipabella.  Love the intricacy of this die.  DP is a scrap piece from my scrap bucket - I believe it is October Afternoon. this stamp comes with her own sentiment which I chose not to use only because it was a bit too long, so instead I used this sentiment which I thought went well with the image.  On my Christmas card from Paula, she put a sentiment on the front and did a little stitch at the end with her sewing machine and I loved the look of it, so I cased her idea here on my sentiment tag.

No glitter on this card just some stitching to finish it off.

So don't forget about our first challenge of 2012 next friday, have your card to Emily by thursday night.
It's a sketch challenge, to see the sketch just scroll down a post.

Also some more great news - Stamping Bella is now back on SCS.  We have our forum up and running and have lots of fun and exciting ideas for the up coming year.  You can read about it here.

Thanks for coming by today, have a wonderful weekend.

Eclectric Butterfly

What you say, no more Gray Owl pictures??? Bill went down again today and got some more amazing pictures, so stay tuned over the next week and I'll be sure to share some more of her with you.

I do have a card to share with you today as promised.  Although I probably should be still working on Christmas cards for next year I need a break from all that.  So leafing through my bella binders I came across this butterfly which I have not inked up yet.  I am a big nature fanatic - whether it is flowers, birds, butterflies, trees, I have to have it!

As I was saying - I decided to use the Eclectric Butterfly in print by  Isabella Norris which you can find at Stamping Bella.

I had no idea what I was going to do with this stamp.  So I played around a bit and this is what I came up with.  I stamped the image on bella's white c/s using burnt umber palette ink.  I then cut out the center portion of the image using a circle s/binder die, then sponged some soft pink while the die was in place. I then stamped another image off on white cs using aqua mist ink, then  cut out the butterfly.  I used a glue pen and colouring in the wings, then added crystal glitter ritz, rubbed it in good then tapped off the excess. I used one of the s/binder dies from  the Fancy Tags Two set to cut out the brown swirly piece underneath the butterfly.  Designer paper is by Memory Box - Valise.

Finished the card off with some tiny white pearls. Card measures 5 1/4 x 5 1/4.

So remember no bellariffic challenge this week, but we will start up again next week Jan 13h.  Here is the sketch for you gals that would like to play along.  Just remember to email your card to Emily before Jan 12.

That's it for day, I'll be back in a couple of days with another card.  Thanks for stopping by.

 

More Pics of the Great Gray Owl

Hi there.  Well since today was a holiday for most I had to work.  Bill had the day off so again he headed down to Kingsville to take some more pictures of her. Once in a lifetime chance, so might as well take advantage of it while you can!  I won't bore you with chit chat - you can read my story on yesterdays post, so here are some more gorgeous pictures.

I'll be back tomorrow with a card - promise!!

Great Gray Owl

Happy New Year to everyone!  This post today is all about how I spent the last couple of days, so if you were hoping for a card post I'm sorry to disappoint you but I have something exciting to share with you.

If you live in the surrounding area of SW Ontario, I'm sure you would of heard about this rare visit from the Great Gray Owl, so now I will tell you our experience seeing her.

So yesterday morning Bill and I headed down to Kingsville ON to see the Great Gray Owl.  Now this owl is not common to our area, her (I was told it was a female, so I'm sticking with that for now!) home is north of Lake Superior.  How she arrived  here is unknown. Whether she got off the path or caught up in heavy winds and blown down this way I guess we will never know.

So we pulled up on Road 2(country road) in Kingsville around 7:40 am and there were about 1/2 dozen cars or so.  Got out of the car, Bill grabbed is camera and walked down to where everyone was standing taking pictures.  I looked over at the tree and OMG I was in awe!  There she sat, the most beautiful, stunning bird I have seen.  I just starred at her, I could of cried I was so overwhelmed.  After about 10 min or so, she flew over about 20ft or so and landed on a post in the ditch, so we all moved across the road, so those taking pictures could get a better view.  A few more people arrived, and and she just sat there as if she was posing for us.  She then decide to move again, and this time she flew straight at me!! I literally had to duck as she flew over my head, behind some houses and down the road. All I could see was these 2 eyes coming for me.  Holy cow!

So the rest of the day until about 4ish we followed her along the road with everyone else as she moved from perch to perch.  She did not seem bothered with people, vehicles, noise etc, she didn't spook easy like some birds and animals.  We saw her dive to the ground  a couple of times as she pounced on a mouse and devoured it right in front of us - that's basically what they live on - mice and moles.

Today Jan 1 - Bill and I went back and we were the 2nd car to come upon her.  She was stunning as she sat on a lower branch on the edge of forest along McCain Road. It wasn't long before a crowd of spectators joined us. The rain had stopped just before we arrived, the sun tried to peak out a bit and about an hour later she flew away back towards where she was yesterday.  It started to rain at that point so Bill and I called it a day and headed home.

We met some great people over these two days  from as far away as New Hampshire, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, as well as Southern and SW Ontario.

The first 3 pictures are from today, the last 3 are from yesterday.  So many to pick from, these were some of my favourites.

On the way home we took the scenic route through Wheatley and came across this duck:

So there you have it, my story of the Great Gray Owl.