Blue Thank Yous

I'm on Day 3 of recreating cards from the Stampin' Up catalogue.  Okay, I'll be honest, this was not my most successful recreation but I appreciate when people show their meh work as well as their best.  We can't be rock stars all the time!

This card is from the bottom of page five and is not my usual style at all.  It's way more fussy than I am comfortable with and I think it shows.  I didn't have any lovely Coastal Cabana so I substituted Tempting Turquoise, which I think is just too bright for this card.  I couldn't find my swish stamp from Sheltering Tree.  I know it's in there somewhere but lost polymer stamps are impossible to find! I substituted with raindrops figuring I would at least go with a nature theme.  The tag is from some cheap dollar store DP.  The stamped image is a very old one from Stamping Bella that I directly coloured.  I think my Tempting Turquoise marker's ink is going slightly off.  Has that happened to anyone?  The markers are very old.  The sentiment is an old Sale-abration set.  Once again, I had to go on an archeology hunt to find some ribbon for this card.

All in all, it was fun to try something different and I used two stamps that I hadn't touched in at least five years.  So despite the way it looks, maybe it was a marginal success.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone.  I hope you have a wonderful, peaceful day.

I'm hoping for snow but I that's just because I've only had a few White Christmas's in my lifetime.  They are exciting when they happen.

This was my first attempt at using my sewing machine on a card.  Not bad.  My sewing skills have really improved in the last year.  Of course, most don't sew on cards anymore now that all the pierced stuff has become more popular.  I'm always late to the game.

Shine Bright...

I'm on a Bella kick I think.  Either that or a use up my stash kick again.  I love this Bella.  It reminds me of my sister, Twinkle Toes.  As a kid, her report card often had comments about her having great ability but would be more successful if she did not dance or tap her feet in class all the time.  She's going through a tough time right now and could use a bit of brightening up.

This card is all stash.  The green base in one of my last two green Brazzil pages that I got a closing down sale of a LSS.  The image was pre-coloured from my stash.  The DP was part of a card kit and was in my scrap pile.  The pearls were in my give-away pile.  The sentiment came from my Say Everything set from Freshly Squeezed Stamps.  Have I mentioned, I miss them before?

Challenges This Card Meets:
Everybody Art - Pearls
Amusing - Feminine
Fairy Tale Stamper - Favourite Stamp
Sunday Stamps - Colour Challenge of Pink, White, Lavendar, Green
Suzy Bee's - Anything Goes with Dies or Punches
Chocolate, Coffe and Cards - Use a Diecut
Kitty Bee- Fantasy/ Fairy Tale (Tinkerbell anyone?)

Witch Way?

Oops, I did it again... I pulled out all my new stamps to play, and ended up making a card from old stash.  I do love this old Witchie Bella though.  Isn't she fun?  I love purple witches instead of black.  I used my old spider web embossing filer and I ran it through twice to get the webs.  The patterned paper is some old CM paper.  The sentiment is new.  It's my Waltzingmouse Halloween sentiments.  I love this set.  I'm thinking of sending Halloween cards this year instead of Christmas cards.  I have more time to write in October.  Do you think anyone would care?  I used some dark pearls on the chipboard and some purple jelly dots just for fun.  I'm glad this worked out so well.  I've had this layout in my head for about 2 weeks and I had to cut her out at an angle because she was pre-stamped for me so close to the edge of the paper.  I'm still using up images that people stamped for me when I was pregnant and couldn't stamp.  My babies are now in school!

Challenges this Card Meets:
Crafty Calendar - Add a Sentiment
Hiding in my Craft Room - Free Style
Suzy Bee's Blooming Challenge - Anything Goes as long as you use a die cut
Chocolate, Coffe and Cards - Use die cuts
Kitty Bee - Fantasy/Fairy Tale (The wicked witch of the west)
Sister Act - Anything Goes
Throwback Thursday - Anything Goes with a retired stamp
Everybody Art - Use Pearls

Little Sis

This Stamping Bella image always reminds me of my little sister.  Unfortunately, she's no longer a teenager.  She's getting married this year!  The image was in my pile, precoloured and I was thinking of her so this is what I came up to send her way just so she knows I've been thinking of her.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Loves Rubber Stamps - Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Shopping Our Stash - 3, 2, 1 - 3 heart rhinestones, 2 patterned papers, 1 image
Make It Monday - Anything Goes
Stamps & Fun = Creativity - Hearts
Challenges for Everybody - Anything Goes
Glitter N Sparkle - Anything Goes

I'll Be Home For Christmas

I really had to laugh at myself when I finished this card set.  I made 6 of these for a Mo Manning card swap I'm participating in.  The image is Door with a Wreath by Mo Manning from Stamping Bella.  Despite the fact that I hate the colour of my house, when I was colouring them late at night I subconsciously recreated my own front entrance, including the horrible salmon pink of my stucco.  Oh well, it must just go to show that home truly is where the heart is, especially when thinking about Christmas.  It's hard to see but the snow is all done with glitter.  The bow was done with white organdie ribbon that I coloured with copics.  I used embroidery floss  to tie the bow.  Any other way made it just overpower the image.  The pearls were originally turquoise and I coloured them too.  What a great way to use up those odd colours I bought when I first started papercrafting.

Challenges these Cards Meet:
Christmas Card Challenge #22
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Bows
Crafty Hazelnut's Extra Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes for May
Mo's Challenge - Anything Goes with a Mo Image
Everybody Art - Pearls

A Natural Witch

I had such a wonderful afternoon.  After the DS's got up from nap, the three of us coloured together for about an hour.  I love that they will craft with Mommy.  My eldest drew a picture that we are going to have made into a set of cards for grandma.

The image in this one is a Tiddly Inks by Stamping Bella that I just adore.  I tried playing with Sketch Saturday but I'll be honest, while I have all the elements, things have been shuffled around a bit.  I can't seem to follow a sketch to save my soul.

The card is part of my Hope You Can Cling To challenges as my Monster Mash inspiration.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Cupcake Crafts - Two's Company
Creatalicious - Halloween
Oldie but Goodie - Inspired by Song - Witchy Woman
Papertake Weekly - All Creatures Great and Small - Witch's Familiar in her lap
Sketch Saturday #229
Stamping with the Dragon - Halloween
Stamptacular - Boo-tacular

An Apple for the Teacher

Happy New (School) Year!  I love the start-up of school.  I enjoy putting up the paper and setting up the room.  I love getting out all the new school supplies and meeting the students.  I love finding out about their summer and seeing how they've grown.  Somehow the glow tends to wear off in about 2 weeks to a month but there is always so much hope and promise in the first few weeks.

I'm playing with my new Bella stamp.  I normally wouldn't have sponged the background of the image but I managed to drop a brown Copic marker just as I was finishing colouring and I didn't want to start over or throw away my effort.  I cropped much of the mistake off with my Nestie, softened what was left with my blender pen and then sponged over top.  I'm hoping no one will notice if I don't tell.  Shhh!  Don't rat me out!  I didn't have a "Welcome" or "Welcome back" sentiment and went hunting.  I thought it was an absolute score when I found this "Happy New Year" sentiment from Mark's Finest Papers.  It was with the Pussywillows set.  Will probably send this to our librarian.  She is amazing!  I love to acknowledge all the people that help me so much during the school year.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Friends of Speedy TV - Back to School
Crafty Creations - Back to School
Critter Sketch - Back to School
Milk Coffee - Back to School
One Stop Craft - No Floral Embellishment
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - Back to School

Dandilion Wishes

So simple, so elegant.  The dandelion wisp is from Stamping Bella and I've been dying to try it out.  I embossed it in blue and then added the sentiment from Stampin' Up's Wonderful Words retired set, also embossed.  I needed a bunch of quick thank you cards for my students who were so generous this year.


Challenges this Card Meets:
Bellarific Friday - Embossing
Crafty Bloggers Network Monday Challenge #1 - Anything Goes

Creatalicious - Anything Goes

Oldie But Goodie - Summer Holidays (Spent Gardening)

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Tuesday Throwdown - Summertime

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Everyone else is working on Easter and visions of Halloween are floating through my head.  Actually it was the sketch from Bellarific Friday that inspired me so I pulled out the Bellas I have pre-stamped.  This one is one of my favourites, that and Cosmobella.  I'm still working on my stash reduction so all the paper are scraps.  I know the DP is Bo Bunny but it's several years old now.  The sentiment was sticking to my Halloween bag so I don't know where it came from.  The flower was made from one of DH's science fiction books and mentions aliens - Bonus!

Challenges this Card Meets:

Simon Says - Anything Goes

Red Solo Cup

I was looking back on my blog and realized I hadn't used my Bella's in over a year.  GASP!  I look at the Bellarific Friday Challenge every week and comment and always mean to play... where does the time go?  Anyways I totally had to remedy the situation since I also have some that haven't even been inked yet.

Had lots of fun with this one.  The stars are from my Starbucks cup holder.  I didn't have any really good masculine embellishments so I had to make some.  I love the the strip of binary code on the brown DP since DH works with computers.  Both this Beerafella and the sentiment were in my pre-inked box so I've met my January New Year's resolution to use up those images.

Better yet, I had the most amazing stamping night.  After finishing this, I managed to complete the last of my set for my girlfriend that moved including sentiments on the insides of the cards and addressing the envelopes for her.  I even finished 20 ATC Valentine cards for my mom!  I haven't had such a great craft night in months!  Expect to see both in future posts this week.


Challenges this card Meets:
Bellarific Friday - Sketch
Do You Stack Up - Patterned Paper
Mark's Finest Papers - Birthday Card
Saturday Challenge - Food or Drink
Sentimental Sundays - Diecuts (image and stars)
Stamping with the Dragon - Anything Goes
Stamptacular Sunday - Seeing Spots
Truly Scrumptious - Something Forgotten (My poor Bellas!)

Bella Easter Wishes

I'm in a real purple and green kick, which is strange. I almost never reach for purple but the Easter basket seemed to work in purple and it just snowballed from there. Oh well, it fits with this week's Bellarific Friday Challenge to make an Easter Card. The sketch came from this week's Critter Sketch Challenge. I will definitely use this one again.

Now I really should get back to work. Must finish my paperwork this week!

Additional Challenges this Card Meets:
The Pixie Cottage - Easter
Simon Says - Anything Goes
Paper Sundaes - Stripes
Tuesday Throwdown - Use Scraps (I'm using up my big pile of green scraps. I still haven't cut a base yet.)
Fab N Funky - Make it Girly

Christmastini Between Friends

I am so happy with this card. It was for the Bellarific Friday Challenge which is to use all white except for the image and the sketch from this week's Paper Sundaes. I'd seen others do white cards with multiple cuttlebug folders and just thought they were so elegant so I really wanted to try.

The image is coloured with copics and the glass is then covered with Crystal Effects to make it look like a glass. All the paper edges have been outlined with Frosted Lace Stickles. I also used gold Stickles for the star. The bauble was outlined with a jelly roller pen to give it the sparkle. The ribbon is a bit of scrap.

The part I love is the sentiment on the inside. I used the My Favourite Things Merry Christmas? sentiment, "What I need right now is an Elf and an Appletini." It just matches the image perfectly.

I was originally hoping to use my new Bella images that arrived today but it was snowing and after dragging the kids to shovel out a relative, I couldn't ask them to sit in a sled for another few hours for me to hike up to the mailbox. It was very tempting though!!!

Challenges this card meets:
Charisma Cards - One for the Girls
Christmas Card Challenge
Crafty Creations - Christmas
Creative Inspirations - Christmas
Fab N Funky - Go with the Flow
Lexi's Creations - Christmas Colours
Oldie But Goodie - Glitter (Stamp is from Boxing Day Sale last year)
Paper Sundaes - Sketch
Simon Says - Let it Snow!

Retail Therapy

I don't know what it is about Bella's but they always make me think of my sister. I think they both have that "Here I am World, Love Me!" attitude. I wanted to play with this week's Bella sketch. I really should have used another more rectangular Bella, this gave me so many issues trying to get this card balanced but I bought this Bella as part of last year's Boxing Week sale and I'm embarrassed to say, this is the first time it's seen ink. I just had to use it. The dessert option was to use stitching on the card. Since I've promised DH not to use needles until baby doesn't eat everything in sight, I decided to go with "faux stitching" on my background paper and on my ribbon.

The part I love is the little glitter flower charm I found in my stash that perfectly matches Bella's top. This is a happy coincidence. I think it came as part of some stash I won this summer. The button on the bottom was cut off some jeans I was using for the fabric.

The card is HUGE, 6.25 x 6.25. I kept trying to get the background from getting lost in the large image and now I think I went too far the other way. Oh well. I still like how it turned out.

Challenges This Card Meets:
Stamping Bella - Bellarific Friday
Fab N Funky - Forget Me Not (uninked stamp bought 11 months ago!)
Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes
Delightful Challenges - Glitter it Up
Oldie but a Goodie - Glitter
Simon Says - Sparkle
Stamp with Fun - Square
Tuesday Throwdown - Buttons and Bows

Holly Jolly Winter's Night

I am so happy with how this turned out. I am going to have to admit that pink is growing on me. The sketch came from this week's Stamping Bella challenge. I will definitely use this sketch again. It's so easy, crisp and clean. Since I am still working on getting caught up on my Hope You Can Cling To Challenges, I wanted to use pink. I had a brain wave to emboss the mitts with silver and paper piece it. Not usually my favourite technique but I love it when your ideas work out better than in your head. The picture does not do justice to the beautiful texture of the paper, embossing and Flower Soft to create the fuzziness on the pompom and edging of the hat. It just screams to be touched. I ended up making two of this card because I couldn't bear to give it away to strangers and not a friend see this.

The green paper is SU's Old Olive, stamped with the same colour ink using the background stamp from SU's Snowflake set. The DP is Eskimoo Kisses from Basic Grey. I picked it up after Christmas last year. The Snowflake punch is from Creative Memories and I can't believe how much use I'm getting out of this punch. It's probably my most used one.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Stamping Bella - Sketch for October 22nd's Bellarific Friday
Hope You Can Cling To - Felt It Up
Meljen's Designs - Anything Goes
Tuesday Throwdown - Anything Goes
Craftalicious - Anything Goes
Christmas Card Challenge
Christmas Cards All Year Long - Something Metallic
Lollipop - Winter Play
Dottie's World - Christmas
Delightful Challenges - Christmas
Mark's Finest Papers - Diecuts or Punches

Let's Get Together

Wow, this card was difficult for me. I managed to use two different DP from two different lines and orange on the same card. Plus this is my first colouring of a blonde. I wanted blonde but when I went to look at all the tutorials, I realized I have none of the colours needed in copic so I used the tip-to-tip technique and experimented on lots of paper until I found something that didn't look scary.

Every once in a while I try to do a Friday Sketchers layout but I admit they are a real stretch for me. Just finding DP is a challenge. I have lots but am not confident about mixing patterns. Then there's the fact that I can't cut a straight line. My mother HATES my quilts. I think they're cute. Just don't use one as a bedspread since they are NOT straight. All these little pieces on the card was a real challenge but I got it pretty straight I think.

Since Paper Sundaes challenge is to use your stash, I think I should mention all Items on the card, including the image and sentiments were purchased last Boxing Week. For our American friends, that's traditionally December 26th-December 31 when Canadians get the best sales. We don't get Black Thursday.

The image is my Cosmobella which I seem to use a lot. It's a great general celebration image - birthday, new years, let's get together, etc. I paired it with My Favourite Things sentiments from Call Me. I love MFT sentiments. They stamp so clearly and are so versatile.

The prismas were coloured with my copics and I love how they shaded. They were much darker and lightened as the ink dried. The multishading gives it a great soft look I think.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Bellarific Friday - Autumn Colours
Charisma Cardz - Autumn Colours
Craftalicious Challenge - Autumn Colours
Creative Card Crew - Blooming Marvelous
Cupcake Craft - Happy Hour
Friday Sketchers
Paper Sundaes - Use Your Stash

Witching You a Happy Halloween

This week's Bellarific Friday is to make a Halloween card. Didn't need any more incentive than that! Love playing with this image. Witchybella is coloured with Copics. The layout is from this week's Friday Sketchers. It made this so much easier. All items are at least 2 years old from my stash. How's that for scary?

DH's First Car

The second I saw this stamp, I just had to have it. DH's first car was a bright, baby pink Volkswagen bug that he drove in university. Needless to say, he gets lots of ribbing about this. He's been working very hard recently, so I thought he needed a pick me up.

The paper and the paper ribbon are all Creative Memories. Thanks, Lynn! The whole package is gorgeous! The image is Stamping Bella's Love Beetle Hugbug. I coloured the image with Prismacolour pencils and baby oil. I added a bit of Stickles to give it some bling. I love glitter - it must be the primary teacher in me.

Wish me luck. This is last week for Stamping Bella's design team trial run.

Other Challenges this card meets:
Charisma Cards - Die Cuts
Creative Card Crew - Sparkle and Shine
Moving Along with the Times - Glitter
Totally Papercrafts - Summer Fun (Road Trip!!!!)

Which Witch?

I was just talking to a friend today about how we are starting to see Halloween cards and we were both still in summer mode. It must have put a bee in my bonnet because as soon as she left, I was digging through my stash to play with my Halloween Bella. Of course, having just got the pumpkin Nesties this week, I was in the mood to play with them. (I love being a teacher and having an excuse to buy the fun shapes!)

The image is coloured with a mix of Copics and SU markers. Bella was pre-stamped and looked very stark on the white paper so I distressed the edges with a kitchen knife and inked the edges with my versafine ink. I then sponged black and pumpkin pie ink around the image to create a softer, dusky background. The patterned paper are scraps from Bo Bunny an the brad is unkown. I got it as part of a thank you basket from the LSS when I found the owner's stolen car when out for a walk last summer. Why on earth would you steal a car that has the owner's phone number on the back window?

The card is for Stamping Bella's sketch this week. This is the third week of their design team call challenge. Wish me luck. I was very lucky to win $10 last week for commenting. Thanks Em! There is a new Christmas image that came out this month that has my name on it. Well, several of them if the truth be known...

Other Challenges this card meets:
Stamp Something - Fairy Tale (Many of them have a witch!)

Warm Wooly Mittens

I am once again entering the Friday Bellarific Challenge to "bling it up" and am going WAY out of my comfort zone. Not only have I made a card, but I've made an attempt at jewelry.

First the card:

I just love how this turned out. I wanted to play with Paperworks sketch again this week. It just called to me. To do that, I needed to find some DP that coordinated. I scoured my stash for red Christmas paper that matched to no avail but I did find this gorgeous blue DP from Creative Memories. I normally save that for my scrapbooking but once I started I realized it had the makings of an exquisite monochromatic card, which I really wanted to try since it matched Paper Jewel's challenge for the month. The image is Stamping Bella's Hat and Mittens and is coloured with my copics. I used white Fun Flock to add the fuzziness to the hat. I also distressed the scalloped circle with my copics to make it stand out against my background. The sentiment is from SU's Take Three (retired) which I had cut up to separate the sentiment from the image. It's so much more versatile that way!

Now the pendant:


I found the pendant at Michael's months ago on sale. I didn't know what I wanted to do with it but I knew it had possibilities. When I saw the challenge to Bling it Up I knew the time had come to experiment. I went online to look at different techniques and saw some amazing art. Unfortunately, much of it required special supplies that I just don't have right now. However, I did have Stazon Ink for stamping which worked really well. I could try and wipe off a few attempts first before the ink set and then I was ready to go. The image is then painted on the back with my long neglected acrylic paints. I may leave them out for a while since I've seen several techniques with them I'd love to try. (On second thought, with a 3 year-old that loves to paint, that may not be the best idea.) Once the paint dried I sealed the back with some varnish. Since the glass it quite thick, I ended up having to paint backwards, looking through the glass to try and stay in the lines. Even still, it will be slightly off if not looking at it straight on, which gives it a very folksy feel. This stamp is great for that but it's not my usual style. I really like the idea and will definitely try it again though. Some people tried it with beach glass and I loved the idea of making that into a magnet. Stay tuned!

Other Challenges This post Meets:
Tuesday Throwdown - Monochromatic
Simon Says - Sing it Baby (Let it Snow)
Cute Card Thursday - Whateva
Moving Along with the Times - Christmas