Izzie has prezzies...

Happy Weekend Everyone! I did something very impulsive yesterday. I headed to Kitchener, Ontario (yup, Canada)to attend Scrapfest. I wasn't planning on attending becuase my cousin was coming from NY to visit with us. Unfortunately she was unable to make it so I starting coniving (I mean wishing). I knew about the event, knew that Stamping Bella was having a booth in the Marketplace and knew that my two favorite Bella Babes were going to be doing make-and-takes. I was dying to go once I found all that out. So when I came home from work on Friday, Auggie said, "make the trip, you know you want to see your girls and it's only 2 hours away." He followed it up with "cripe, you drive 45 minutes each way to work everyday so this should be a piece of cake and I was with my Homie's last weekend." Is he the best DH or what?

I also had a list of Bella's I wanted especially with the new images that were released on Friday. I knew that Emily was offering 15% off online orders through Tuesday the 20th but I couldn't wait. There were so many great new stamps - I just had to have them now! If you haven't already, you should head on over and see all the new, adorable, stamps. Did you hear that Mo Manning is joining Stamping Bella as a designer to release her unique images in rubbah? Head to Stamping Bella and check it out. Woo Hoo - my two favorite stamps in one place. Don't forget to check out the Blog to see all the creations the Babes have made.

Ok on to this lovely little lady. This is Izzie has a prezzie. She is my favoritist (my word not a typo). I bought about 5 new Izzies. Since they came out I have been wanting to get my hands on them. Paula Tracy and Linda Heavens do a phenominal job of providing us inspiration on how to color them up. I went with prismacolor pencils, gamsol, and blending stubs. I stamped her on Neenah classis crest solar white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. The design paper is also purchased from Stamping Bella and is called The Thrift Shop by October Afternoon. I love this. I should have bought more though 'cause I can see me using this alot! The colored cardstock is Prism and the satin ribbon is Offray and I finished it off with a Martha Stewart floral border punch. The last addition was some glittah on the presents - also from Bella land. Linda and Tracy use this alot and I love the way it's so super sparkly. It's a very fine dust and doesn't take much.

I did learn how Linda adds shading around her images and I gave it a whirl here. She uses Wheat colored VersaMagic chalk ink with ColorBox sponge applicators. She starts off the paper and using a swirling motion comes onto the image so that you don't get globs. When I watched her, I was like - "that's how they do it!" We all need to spend a day with our idols so we can learn their tips. I can't wait to sit with Paula again on May 1st!

Well that's the start to my Bellas. Don't worry, I have lots more to show you and hope that I can find the time during the week to get them going.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cath