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.

Girls just wanna have fun

Happy Friday! Normally this would be a Bellariffic challenge day, but we are taking a break over the holidays, and will resume on Jan 13th. But... I still have a card to share with you.

With New Years Eve just around the corner, I thought this image would fit it perfectly.  Two young gals out celebrating the new year.  This is Victoria and Juliette's Night Out - from the Uptown Girl series.

I started by stamping the girls on bella's bestest paper.  Skin tones were coloured using Copics and all the rest was coloured using prismacolour pencils and blended with gamsol.  I then trimmed the image down to 5 x 3 1/4, then layered this onto a piece of eggplant c/s.  The designer paper is from MME - 6x6, A Beautiful Life. Nice thing about the Uptown Girl stamps is that they come with their own sentiment. I stamped the sentiment on some white c/s then cut it out using a s/binder tag die, left the die in place, sponged some versamagic aloe vera inside the die area.

Finishing touches - stitching, lots of glitter, glossy accents on the wine glasses, and a tiny chiffon bow.
Card measures 5 x 7.

If you would like a head start on our first 2012 challenge I have attached the sketch for you to get a head start on. Same rules apply, just email Emily your card by Jan 12/12. 

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.  May 2012 bring you lots of love, happiness and good health.
See you next year!!

Happy "Bee" Day

I'm sure many of you are still off work for your Christmas Holidays, but this gal is back to work.
While I was off for a few days, I did manage to get a couple of cards made - which I"m happy about.

One of the images I coloured up was a Huggabugg.  This cutie is called BEEday Huggabugg, which happens to be a Christy Croll image by Stamping Bella.

I stamped her on bella's bestest paper and coloured her using Copics and pencils for shading.
Designer paper is by We R Memory Keepers, and I used Kraft c/s for my card base.  After cutting her out with a circle spellbinder die I sponged some versamagic persimmon around the image while the die was in place. I then cut out a lacey circle to layer the image on.  I also used this sentiment and used a  spellbinder tag to cut it out.
Finished off with some stitching, glitter (glitter ritz), seam binding ribbon and twine.

I'll be back on Friday with an Uptown Girl card to share with you.  See you then!

Special Day

Happy Boxing Day! Did everyone have a good Christmas? Did Santa bring you what you wanted?
Well today marks a special day in my calendar - it's my Birthday!!! Yep, I'm 52 yrs young!

So in celebration of that, I made myself a card to post for you today.  I've had this image for quite a while now and never got the chance to colour her up.  Here we have Sneaky Sneaky birthday bella.

Sneaky bella was stamped on bella's bestest paper and then I coloured her using pencils and copics.
Designer papers are by Basic Grey - Lemonade.  I used a border punch by Martha Steward and a MFT die to cut out a frame for happy birthday.  Finished off with some stitching, glitter, pink pearls and ribbon.

So what are my plans for the rest of the day??? Absolutely nothing!! Although since Santa was very good to me this year and brought me a MAC (OMG I'm in love with it!)- I need to learn how to navigate this new system  - so think I will play around with that today.

Well thanks for stopping by today, and enjoy the rest of the day.

Christmas Eve with Charlotte

First of all I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and may 2012 bring you much peace, joy and love.

I was a busy gal today, getting some last minute gifts (gift cards - gotta love them!) came home cleaned the house,had a glass of wine, made dinner, and then worked on this card I'm about to show you.

I thought it was time to colour up some of my neglected Ketto's.  Charlotte is one of my favourite Ketto's, right up there with Anise and Ivy. 

I stamped Charlotte on bella's bestest paper and used my prismacolour pencils to colour her up. Used a skinny oval die to cut her out, left the die in place and sponged some versamagic sea breeze around her.  The layer underneath her was cut from a spellbinder die called twisted metal tags and accents.  DP is from Basic Grey called Indie Bloom. I wanted to keep this fairly simple, so I added a small pink prima flower and punched a couple of leaves using a Martha Stewart leaf punch.

Finished off with some stitching, pearls and glitter.

Well that's it for me for tonight.  I'll be back at the beginning of the week.

Merry Christmas to all!

On the pot...

Hi! I can't believe that it is Wednesday night already.  I'm working overtime this week again, which is making the week fly.  I have one more day of work this week and then off for 5 days - can't wait! I hope to get some colouring done while I'm off, and just do some relaxing.

Tonight I coloured up a darling image from Stamping Bella.  This is a Mo image  called On the Pot girl - she is so cute!

I stamped her on bella's bestest white and then coloured her using Copics, and then did my shading with prismacolour pencils.  I think I'm getting the hang of doing hair!  DP is by October Afternoon - Sidewalks.  You know me and my dies and border punches, well I saw this one a month or so ago and just had to have it. It's from Cheery Lynn Dies. So pretty isn't it?
Finished off with some stitching and buttons.

Sorry I couldn't link up anything from my post to Stamping Bella, but her site must be down for a bit.

Well, best be heading to bed, 5:30 comes early!  Thanks for stopping in.

Peeptini

Hi! Last night I watched the season finale of Dexter! OMG do any of you watch this series?  It was quite the cliffhanger, sad part is not sure if Micheal C Hall (Dexter) has renewed his contract.  I sure hope he does!

I thought I would share something other than Christmas cards with you today.
I still might do up a few more cards over the next couple of weeks, just to get a jump start on next years.  I figured if I did one card a week next year,  I would have more than enough.

My card today is using a Peep image called Peeptini!  Aren't these Peeps adorable?

I used bella's bestest paper for my image and coloured using prismacolour pencils.  Designer paper is from MME - Stella Rose - Hazel papers. The doily was cut using a Cheery Lynn Die. This stamp also comes with a sentiment -"here's to you" which I used.  I stamped it using black versafine then cut it out with a tag from s/binders.  Finishing touches: glitter, stitching and a bow.

Thanks for stopping by.

Last challenge of the year

Hi everyone!  So glad it's friday, it's been a busy week, working lots of overtime at work because of year end.  I still have a couple more Christmas cards to get out in the mail as well.

Yes this is our last Bellariffic friday challenge for 2011.  We have lots of great ideas for 2012 challenges as well.  This weeks challenge was a sketch done by Robinbella! Love this layout.  I pulled out another new image I have yet to colour up, and this one is called - cupcake with a holly on top.

Wasn't quite sure what colour I was suppose to colour the balls on the cupcake, so I just went for it.  Eveything was coloured with prismacolour pencils on bella's bestest paper.  For the small gold balls I used my gold krylon pen.  DP is by Echo Park - Season's Greetings.

Finished it off with some glossy accents on the red berries, and added glitter to the green balls.  You can see along the bottom of the cupcake all that sparkle (well I hope you can see it, don't know how well the camera picked it up) anyway it is diamond dust- it's finely ground glass - love this stuff, need to use it more.
I also added a die cut holly branch under the image.

Don't forget if you didn't get a chance to participate in this weeks challenge, you can still hop over to bloggabella and leave a comment.  Emily is giving away bonus bella bucks this week.

Our next friday challenge begins on Jan13/2012 and for those who would like to get a head start over the holidays I have posted below the sketch for you.

Thanks for coming by today, have a great weekend!

Harriet

Hey, how are you all doing?  I'm back tonight  with a quick post, still have Christmas cards to get done and out in the mail. 

I'm using one of Stamping Bella's images, which I don't think I have every coloured one of these before.  I have several, but for some reason just don't know why I haven't gotten around to colouring them.  So here we have Harriet!

Harriet was stamped on Bella's bestest paper and then coloured with Copics.  The shading around her was done with pencils.
Urban Prairie by Basic Grey was my inspiration for the colours I used.
After she was all cut out and layered onto the card, she looked to plain.  I tried ribbon, na didn't do anything for it, tried baubles, nope couldn't even see them in the pattern paper, so next I reached for my Prima flowers.  I hope this one isn't too big and overpowering her.  Then I punched out some leaves using a Martha Stewart leaf punch. Finished off with some stitching and glitter, oh and a little bling in the center of the flower in her hair!

In case you haven't heard Emily is giving you a chance to win triple bella bucks this week- that's $60 SMACKEROOS, as Emily put it!!  All you have to do is follow this weeks challenge guide - which is a sketch layout- and submit to Emily by thursday night.  Your name will go into a draw, and who knows you could be the lucky winner - don't have a chance unless you play, so what are you waiting for!!

See you on friday... I better get movin' I don't have my card done yet- yikes!!

Spit Happens

Hi everyone! Hope you had a good weekend! Can you believe that it is only 2 weeks till Christmas?  And I'm still making Christmas cards to mail out. 

I thought I would change things up a bit and share something other than a Christmas card with you.  A good friend of mine, her daughter had a baby boy a couple of weeks ago, so needed a baby card to send off to her.  I'm using a new image - well new to me - it was released back in August by Stamping Bella.
Today's image is called Spit Happens by Mo Manning in rubber.

As the routine goes, I started by stamping the image on bella's bestest paper and then coloured using Copics and did the shading with pencils. Designer paper is by My Minds Eye - Alphabet Soup.  What I also like about the Mo images is that most come with a sentiment.  Now not always do I use them, but this time around I did. The sentiment was a bit big for where I wanted it to go, so just cut the words to make it fit better. Finished the card with some stitching.

This friday is our last bellariffic challenge for this year, so hope you will play along.  It is a sketch challenge.  Email Emily your card by thursday night.

Thanks for visiting today, have a good one!

White card challenge

How are your Christmas card making going?  I still have a few to make, but I have completed my card orders, which I am very happy about.  I think I will continue to work on Christmas cards until the end of the year, then whatever I don't send out I will have towards next year's orders.

I was excited about this weeks challenge - All white card - because there is just something about an all white card - the clean crisp look of it, lots of white open space that I love.

So for my card today I'm using another Christmas image (are you surprised??) lol. I pulled out Holly in jar. Although I did colour this image last year, I thought the simplicity of the image would look great on an all white background especially with the red berries. So without further ado here it is:

After stamping it on bella's bestest paper, I coloured it with Copics.  Cut it out using a square s/binder die, then layered in onto another piece of white which was cut out using the fleur de lis s/binder die.  This is similar to my card I posted on Tuesday.  Finished off with white liquid pearls, glitter and some tiny pearls.

Be sure to hop over to Bloggabella to check out all the other gorgeous entries - lots of inspiration to be seen.  While there leave a comment for a chance to win some bella bucks and Emily is doubling up on the bella bucks this week, so you have a chance to win $20 instead of $10!!

For our challenge next week, we have another great sketch designed by another talented babe - Robinbella. We love to see you join us next week, for our last challenge of 2011, so be sure to email Emily your card by thursday night.   There will be some bella bucks up for grabs, and  Emily is doubling up the anti - she is giving away $40 instead of $20 - pretty cool eh?   Here is your sketch for next week:

Have a wonderful weekend, and thanks for stopping by.

Simple and Elegant

I'm back today with another Christmas card to share with you.  Now this one you can definitely mass produce.  I actually did up this card before going to work this morning.  Woke up with a vision of how I wanted to do it, and low and behold it actually turned out the way I visioned!! (bonus)!

I started by stamping minty wreath on some cream cardstock and embossing it with gold embossing powder.  I then cut it out using a square s/binder die, layered this onto a piece of gold miri paper.  I then popped this up onto a piece of cream cardstock that was cut using the fleur de lise s/binder die and the adhered this to my card base.  Added some gold glitter to the dots around the wreath, and then finished off with a simple gold shiffon bow.

Pretty simple eh, see I told you it was a fast card.  White/silver would be very pretty  as well.

Don't forget about our challenge this friday, you still have time to submit your card to Emily.  Theme is ' all white card', so everything is white except your image.  You can email Emily your card by thursday night to be included in the draw for some bella bucks.

Until next time....