Spring challenge card

Woohoo it's Friday! and I don't know why I'm so excited because I am working Saturday.  Oh well, someone has to do it. 

I must say it sure doesn't feel like spring weather lately.  We were so spoiled last week with 70-80 degree weather and this week it plummeted down to the 40's - 50's. But really, I guess this is our normal temps for this time of year. With our challenge this week being spring/easter theme, it was kind of hard to get into the mood.  But I managed.

I pulled out an image I bought last year to use and never got around to it.  This is Izzie is a bunny. I just love these Izzie images - sure wish Emily would come out with some more - hint, hint!

Is she adorable or what?  I stamped her on bella's bestest paper and coloured using  copics and pencils.
DP is from Simple Stories called Fabulous.  I used an oval and oval scallop s/binder die as well as a Martha Stewart eyelet border punch.

Finished her off with some stitching, lots of glitter and a pretty pink silk bow (I've been hoarding this ribbon for quite some time) - thought this card was deserving of it.

Be sure to stop over at Bloggabella to check out what the other babes and sistahs did this week. Leave a comment for a chance to win $10 in bella bucks.

Our next week challenge is another sketch, and next week is April already, can you believe that? Where did the last 3 months go?  If you would like to play along next week, you can either email Emily your card by thursday night or upload your card on SCS using the keyword BELLARIFFIC1312.  By playing along you have a chance to win $20 in bella bucks, so come on, get inky and get creative this weekend.
Here is your next weeks sketch - thanks Ebru!!!

 Thanks for coming by today, have a wonderful weekend!

Queen for the Day

Hi blogging friends! Well, we are half way through the work week - woohoo!  I taught class last night at Paper Pickle.  It was a great group of ladies, I even had 2 gals that this was their very first time ever stamping!  Do you remember the first time you made a card?  Like when you embossed, and your image transformed from the dull look of the powder to the shiny image - how cool was that? (That's what sold me into buying my first stamping supplies - I was just amazed of the outcome after you heat set it). Well, these ladies did a fantastic job, they were thrilled with what they made.  At the end of class they even asked when the next one was! I always bring my Bella samples that I've done to show my class, and one gal (Jolene) bought one of my cards - that was nice! Thanks Jolene!

Then I came home and made this card.  Yes burning the midnight oil once again. I pulled out this cute set from Emily's release in January.  Need to get some of these images coloured up before I get my new rubber from last weeks release.  This cutie is called Queen Millie.  she comes with her mate King Milo. (maybe I'll colour him next).

Millie was stamped on bella's bestest paper using black memento.  I then pulled out my copics to colour her and a bit of pencil for shading.  I dusted around her using versamagic grapefruit and pixie dust.
Dies used were circle, blossom and ribbon tag.  I also used a new m-bossibilities - love the new size of these embossing folders.  This one is called Elegance.

This stamp set also comes with 3 different sentiments.  I'm using 'queen for a day'. DP is from basic grey, but not sure of the name, I used scraps from my scrap bin.

Finished off with some polka dot ribbon from papertrey ink, prima yellow rose and the greenery was punched using Martha Stewart punches.  And of course a queen must have all the glitz, so added 3 rhinestones to her crown and lots of glitter on her dress and flower.

Do you have your challenge card done yet?  If not, you still have time. Our theme is Easter/spring.  You can then either email Emily your card by thursday night, or upload it on SCS using the keyword BELLARIFFIC1212.  Just by playing along you have a chance to win $20 in bella bucks.

Okay this babe, is tired and heading to bed.  Thanks for stopping by, see you on Friday!

Natasha

Hi there.  Did you have a good weekend? Saturday wasn't a complete washout, the rain stopped and it cleared up later in the day.  Sunday was beautiful, lots of sun.  I managed to get two images coloured and one put together.  The other, well lets say it is now in the garbage! So, now I'm behind -- grrrrrrr. It just didn't work out the way I planned, and it wasn't even salvageable!  Enough said about that, let me show you the card that did turn out.

I pulled out some of the green bean baby images that haven't seen ink yet.  I have so many, and they are all so cute, it was a big decision  - and Natasha won my heart.

 As always, stamped the image on bella's bestest paper and coloured her using Copics.  I also did some shading with pencils and gamsol.  DP is from Bo Bunny - Alora Collection - (one of my findings during my road trip on saturday). I used a scallop die to made the scallops on the bottom portion of the card.
Adhered some tiny pearls on the bottom tips of her dress.  Added lots of glitter to the flower centers as well as her wings. Finished with a piece of turquoise seam binding ribbon and stitching.

If you have time to play in our challenge this week, our theme is Spring/Easter.  You can email your card to Emily by Thursday evening or you can upload it on SCS using the keyword BELLARIFFIC1212. There is $20 in bella bucks up for grabs just for playing along.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great week!

Flower bottles

Good morning!  This morning I woke up to a cloudy and rainy day - although the good thing about these types of days is that you can't do anything outside, so you might as well get crafty, right?
So after my cup of java, 2 loads of laundry, baked a banana bread for our bake sale at church tomorrow, I worked on finishing this card that I started on Thursday.

You know how much I love flowers, and with lots of spring birthdays, and Mother's Day not so far off I thought I would work on some of those types of cards.

I'm using an older Stamping Bella image called Flower Bottles.

As usual, I stamped the image on bella's bestest paper, coloured with Copics and the shading done with pencils. I used a couple of different spellbinder dies.  Papers are from Basic Grey - Plumeria - so in love with this pack - lots of soft mauves and purples - I'm in heaven! For the pink flower, I cut out an extra one, coloured it up and then used a pop dot to give it some dimension.

Didn't think I needed to add much more to this since the paper behind was quite busy, so finished with some glitter, glossy accents on the centers of the flowers and then added a few small pearls.

I now need to clean up my work space so I can get creative again.  Thanks for stopping by, hope the sun is shining where you are. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Tea for Two

Happy Bellariffic friday everyone.  Aren't you glad it's the weekend again.  We have been blessed with such wonderful warm weather this past week, it's almost unbelievable! temps in the high 70's and low 80's for March?? kind of unheard of, but we are not complaining.  Cooler weather for the weekend though, we actually I guess you could say normal temps for this time of year, in the mid 50's.

SOOOOO, what did you think of Emily's release yesterday? Pretty exciting eh? Uptown girls,  flowers (luv flowers), romona's, some new Mo's, and more.  I can't wait to get my order!

Okay enough chit-chat, lets get on with my card for today.  As you know it was a sketch challenge for today, which Ebru has supplied the sketch once again.  She rocks!!!
Today I'm using CUPPATEA for my image.

I started by stamping the image on bella's bestest paper and the coloured using Copics and a bit of shading with pencils. After cutting out the image I sponged some oasis green versamagic around it leaving the die in place. The designer paper is by Kaisercraft called Lil' Primrose.  When I first saw this paper in the store, and flipped through the pad, I came across this paper (the bottom piece) with the teapots and cups on it, and thought of this image right away.

I embossed the middle strip of c/s using  one of the new m-bossabilities called mystic.  Love these embossing folders from S/binders.  They are reversable - yep, for basically the same price as many of the other embossing folders you get 2 embossing folders in one.  You simply just open the folder and flip it over and there you have another design to emboss.  Pretty cool!

I used a little sentiment called T for 2 , just the right size too.  Finished off with some seam binding ribbon.

I'm sure there is some pretty eye candy over on bloggabella to see, so make a trip over and leave a comment as well.  You will have a chance to win some bella bucks, to spend on Em's awesome release yesterday!!

Next week our challenge is SPRING/EASTER.  With this great weather we have been having, it should put you in the mood, so get busy stamping!  You can email your card to Emily by thursday night or upload it on SCS and use the keyword BELLARIFFIC1212.  By participating you could win  $20 in bella bucks!

Enjoy your weekend, and thanks for coming by today!

Sneak Peak

How was everyone's weekend? No complaints from me - the weather was fantastic - summer like temps and lots of sun.  Managed to work in my gardens - cleaning up all the dead stuff from the fall.  I can't believe how everything is starting to bud.

As promised I'm here with a sneak peak for Emily's GINORMOUS release this week. Have you seen some of the sneak peaks over on Bloggabella? If not, you must check them out. Emily sent me this cute image to colour up, not 100% sure of her name, but let's call her Fixer girl. I'm pretty sure this is a Mo image in rubber.

When I saw the image I was to work with, I knew right away I wanted to use some of the wood grain papers from MME.  I coloured her with Copics and shaded with pencils.  I loved the way Paula used black c/s for her layering - (see this post)- it just makes her card pop - so I had to give it a try.  Years ago I used to layer everything using black c/s - now I hardly ever do that. I computer generated the sentiment. The green strip border is an MFT punch.  Paper is MME - On the bright side - One.  Finished off with stitching and some antique gold nail heads.

Not sure who else is posting today so best check them all out, you don't want to miss anything!

Thanks for stopping by, till next time....

what's cookin?

I know I don't usually post on a Saturday, but this week kind of got away from me and I fell behind in posting, so if you landed here today, it's your lucky day! And Happy St. Patrick's Day as well!

I'm sharing with you a Mo image in rubber by Stamping Bella.  The image is called what's cookin?

I started by stamping her on bella's bestest paper, and coloured her with copics and shaded with pencils. Papers are from Basic Grey - sugar rush.  This image does come with a sentiment which says 'what's cookin? but mine is missing, so I computer generated the words and punch them out with an oval punch.
Finished off with some stitching, glitter and a tiny silk bow - love this silk ribbon - it ties beautifully.
Card measures 5.5 x 5.5.

That's it for me today, hope your enjoy your day.  It's going to be a nice and sunny day here in SW Ont, temps up around the 70 F mark!! love this weather.

I''ll be back on Monday with a  sneak peak for next weeks release.. stay tuned!

Charlie and some sneak peaks

Have you heard the news? Emily is have a GINORMOUS release next week!  If you want some sneak peaks head on over to Bloggabella and take a looky see! I'm so excited - Uptown girls, looks like a new Christy Croll image and flowers - omg I love flowers - bring them on - I can't wait.

For this weeks challenge we thought we would honor St. Patrick's day and use GREEN on your card.
I had this cute image sitting on my desk just waiting to see colour.  This is Charlie - one of the many green bean baby images by Ella.

I stamped him on bella's bestest paper and paired him up with some MME - Fly a Kite. I coloured the image with copics and shaded with pencils.  This layout I used is from this weeks MFTWSC63.
It fit perfectly with my image, so this card came together fairly quickly.  I added the fence - punched a piece of kraft cardstock using MS fence border punch, and then sponged some brushed corduroy distress ink on it.
For the clouds on the image, I just cut a piece of paper in the shape of clouds and then used this as my template, and sponged the clouds on.  I think it really adds to the image.  I also added some Barbara Trombley's elements called earth textures to the bulrushes. I'm not sure what it is made out of, but it  smells like nutmeg.  Finished with a some glitter and green ribbon.

Now I know you would like to win some bella bucks to spend on next weeks release, so hop over to bloggabella and leave a comment on today's submissions.

Next weeks challenge is sketch #6- see below. If you play along you can email Emily by thursday night or upload it on SCS and use the keyword BELLARIFFIC1112.  $20 up for grabs ladies!!

 Thanks for coming by today, have a great weekend!

My weekend and an Izzie

Happy Monday! Well I'm not glad it's Monday, I could use another day off.  We had a busy weekend, and took advantage of the wonderful 'warmer' weather we were blessed with.  Bill and I took off to Hamilton, Burlington, and Oakville on Saturday on a mission to see the Snowy Owl and some ducks.  We were successful on both.  The Snowy Owl is gorgeous, unfortunately we couldn't get a good picture of her because she sat out on the break wall down at Bronte Harbour - closest we could get was about 300 ft or so, but zooming in with the binoculars she is beautiful.  Lots of ducks at Bronte - there must of been at least 1,000 if not more of the long tails. It was just amazing to see that many ducks in one area.  With the warmer weather and mild winter the birds are starting to migrate sooner. We then went to LaSalle Harbour saw lots of swans - tundra, trumpeter, mute, - mallards, juvenile king eider, american black duck,  mergansers, hooded mergansers, and so many more. We then proceeded to Burlington Harbour and saw a pair of Peregrine Falcons - pretty cool.

The yesterday we took a drive down to Pt. Pelee and surrounding area.  Saw lots of hawks, gulls and some of the smaller birds are starting to arrive.  Should be an exciting spring!

Okay, so after all that, lets get on with the card.  I'm just loving the new papers from MME, and as I was going through them I noticed this particular piece that had a sentiment already on the bottom - start everyday with a smile.  Since I had one of the Izzie's already stamped out, I knew she would be perfect for this paper.

Here is Izzie has a Daisy:

I stamped Izzie on Bella's bestest paper and proceeded to colour her with Copics, and some shading with pencils.  Cut her out using an oval s/binder die, left the die in place and sponged some sea breeze versamagic around her and a bit of aloe vera around the grass area.  Next, layered her onto a piece of pink c/s cut with a larger scallop s/binder die.  The MME paper is from the Dolled Up collection.
I didn't think I needed to add too much more to the card because I didn't want to take away from the sentiment at the bottom, so kept it simple, added some glitter and some pearls on the scallops around her.

Okay, well that's it for me today, need to get ready for work.
See you again soon, thanks for coming by....

BFF's

Hey, it's Friday again, and that means another Bellariffic challenge.  This weeks challenge was a sketch done by our very own Ebruabella! She rock's doesn't she?  I love our sketch weeks because it takes all the thinking out of card making.  Instead of spending a couple of hours on a card - deciding papers, layout, colours - this weeks card took me less than an hour!

My image this week is a cute pair of huggabuggs called BFFaBUGGS - a Christy Croll design in rubber through Stamping Bella.

Now, I changed up the layout a bit, I turned the image to go sideways rather than vertical.  My papers I think are We Are Memory Keepers - found these in my scrap bin. Fun colours, love the stripes and polka dots.  I coloured the image using Copics - (getting a good feel for these now) and then did shading with pencils. And of course they were stamped on bella's bestest paper using black memento ink. Used the sentiment BFF on my tag, and tied a couple of pieces of twill on the end of the tag.  Finished up with some glitter and glossy accents on the hearts.

Want a chance at winning some bella bucks? Then be sure to hop over to bloggabella, leave a comment at all the gorgeous entries for a chance to win.

For those who would like to get ahead on next weeks challenge it is use GREEN on your project.
Then email Emily your project by thursday night or you can upload it on SCS using the keyword BELLARIFFIC1012. There is Bellabucks up for grabs as well.

Well that's it for me for today.  Have a safe and wonderful weekend.
Thanks for stopping by... till next time....

A morning fix

Hey, it's Wednesday, a gorgeous day here in SW Ontario - suppose to be around 60 - it will feel like spring!

Well I don't know about you, but I need my morning fix - a cup of java! And that's what it looks like Lulu is doing, having her coffee and gabbing on the phone.  This is  Lulu 's Morning Fix.

Lulu was stamped on bella's bestest paper and then I proceeded to colour her using Copics, and then shaded with pencils.  Now this was not the original designer paper I picked to base my colours on.  I started looking through my paper pads after she was coloured - should never do this to myself- and came across this paper, it was a better match then my first pick.  The paper is Basic Grey - Picadilly.
I used a MS border punch for the white underneath the olive green paper which was cut using an EK Success border punch.  Finished off with some glitter, seam binding ribbon and a brad.

Don't forget about our challenge this week.  It's a sketch.  You can email Emily by thursday night or upload it on SCS using the keyword BELLARIFFIC0912.  If you have not seen the sketch, you can view it here.

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by.  See you on Friday!

Big girl pants

How was everyone's weekend? We has some wicked weather here Friday and Saturday.  Very strong winds, with gusts up to 90km, rain and even some snow flurries.  The winds have died down tremendously today and even saw a bit of sunshine.

Today, I'm using a Mo image that I have had for a while.  This is called - Big girl pants by Mo Manning in rubber through Stamping Bella.

Well you know the routine, I stamped her on bella's bestest paper using black memento, and coloured her with copics and shaded around her with pencils and gamsol. I also sponged some versamagic sea breeze around the image.  I had a lot of turquoise papers but nothing seem to match the right tones of her t-shirt so I made my own paper.  I cut a piece of white slightly larger than my image piece, then took my BG11 copic maker and coloured about 1/4" around the outside edge, and voila, there you have it -  matching paper! DP is by Basic Grey - Curio collection. I used an EK Success scallop border punch and a Marianne die.  Image was popped up onto the front of card, stamped the sentiment which comes with this stamp using black versafine, trimmed it up and then adhered to card.  Finished off with some stitching, ribbon/cording, and some rhinestones.

We have a sketch challenge this friday, hope you can play along.  All you have to do is use a Stamping Bella image, then email your card to Emily by thursday evening or you can post on SCS using the keyword BELLARIFFIC0912. You can see the sketch layout on my post below.

Have a good Monday and thanks for stopping by.

Felix the cat

Before I begin my post I just want to bring to your attention: if you are playing along in our Bellariffic challenge, could you please link your card on SCS with the code BELLAIRIFFIC0812. Thanks!

Okay, so for today's challenge is was to use Polka dots on your card, and I delivered!  Here we have
Felix Ketto with a flower.

Felix was stamped on bella's bestest paper using black memento ink.  I started colouring the base layer using copics, then did the shading with pencils. I used a few different s/binder dies behind Felix.  Is this paper not the cutest, and how perfect it fits in with Felix?  I picked up this paper pack when Linda and I went over to visit Paula a few weeks ago. It's called Frisky by Three bugs in a rug! It's basically all cat themed papers - so cute!

 

The brown circles (dots) underneath the brown strip is cut with a die from MFT.  Finished up with some glitter on the flower and in the center I applied some glossy accents, and a polka dot ribbon!

Be sure to visit Bloggabella, leave a comment and you have yourself a chance to win some bella bucks. Also if you go to SCS you can search for BELLARIFFIC0812 to see more samples.

Next week we are back to a Sketch Challenge.  (see below).  Play along, and email Emily your card by thursday evening, or you can post on SCS using the keyword BELLARIFFIC0912.

Thanks for dropping by.  Have a wonderful weekend.