July's Camper Bus

Hello everyone! I can't believe that another month has flown past. We're moving into summer territory and with that comes some vacation time and adventures. To help put us in that mood, I inked up Flower Power Camper Van by Helz Puppleditch, a Stampavie photpolymer clear stamp. This is the image (and card) we are going to do for my July Copic Class at Mary Maxim. I fell in love with the novelty of a VW camper and this one with it's colorful flowers just called my name. And then I happened upon some delicious flower design paper by Little Yellow Bicycle and I knew where I was headed.

As you have probably guessed, I have stamped the image on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock with Memento Tuxedo black ink. Colored cardstock is Prism. Have you guessed that I used Copics to color with? Well I did, but I also used a couple Prismacolor pencils with gamsol to add some shading.

I've been trying to mix up the colors and we have yet to hit the purples in class so I decided to pull that color as my main component. I've used it as the base color of the bus, and brought it out as highlights in the background cardstock and my strip across the middle. Believe it or not, that's a piece of bias tape that I found in my ribbon drawer from my Grandmother's stash of craft supplies. So glad I scarfed so much of that up - I love when I can incorporate her supplies into a card. Brings me fond memories of Grammy!

My second highlight color is yellow. I knew that it would compliment the purple nicely and also bring some sunshine into this joyride so I added a strip of cardstock across the middle of the card cut with the Martha Stewart Daisy Border punch to anchor the flower theme.

The sentiment is computer generated and I hoped for one that could be used to wish someone a Bon Voyage or Happy Trails. The pink flower is a button from the sewing department at Mary Maxim. They have a huge novelty button bin that I never noticed because I rarely make my way out of the scrap and papercraft section. There were many colors to choose from but I loved the way this pulled out the vibrant pink I used in the flowers around the camper.

I little glitter was added to the ribbon on the top package using a clear glaze pen to adhere it to. I then added some clear glaze to the headights so they could shine too!

I'll be taking a trip in July and hope to rent a Motorhome to tour the UP and the Wisconson countryside with my sister's famiy. What do you think Madison and McKenz should I rent one of these colorful campers for us?

Hope you all have a wonderfu Memorial Day! While you hopefully have time to play, I hope you also have a spare moment to share some thanks to the honorable soldiers that serve to protect our freedoms.

Hope to see you again soon.

Cath

Happy Birthday Madison and McKenzie!

I've already shared their birthday card with you - Little Miss Al Tee 'tude a few weeks back, but I promised my nieces Madison and McKenzie that I would wish them a Happy 9th Birthday here on the blog.

They have a big day planned and then an evening Ice Cream/Pottery making bash with their friends.

I hope they have a scrumptious day! As McKenz says - they are almost in their double digits and I added that soon they will be teens and then sweet sixteen and driving and then off to college. She retorted with - "Don't push it Auggie!" Sometimes I wish I was so young again. I am so looking forward to this long holiday weekend. I feel like I have a huge case of Senioritis.

Happy Holiday everyone!

See ya soon.
Cath

Mini-Bellas play along

Many of you know that my twin nieces, Madison and McKenzie play along with the Stamping Bella Bellarific Friday posts. They have been keeping up with the Bella Babes and are now known as the "resident Mini-Bellas." I thought it might be nice to post their cards for this weeks challenge right here as well. They have come so far with their Copics and shading skills. I hope you enjoy their cards as much as I do.

First up is Madison with the Birthday Boy:



And McKenzie with The Catch of the Day:



You have until Thursday to send a Father's Day or masculine card to play along in this weeks challenge. What are you waiting for? Why not give it a try?

See ya back here soon.

Cath

King of the Wild Things

This little cutie was part of the cards we colored in my last session with Paula Williamson. I've loved him since the day she first posted him on her blog. When she listed him as part of last months class for local girls I was thrilled. I even bought the stamp in Kitchener so I could duplicate him. I've made the layout for this weeks submission for Bellarific Friday. The challenge was to do a Father's Day or masculine card. I simply added a computer sentiment to fit this theme.

This was colored using prismacolor pencils and Gamsol (OMS). Since this came from Paula it was stamped on Bella's Bestest paper. I've added shading to mimic clouds and at first I thought they were too much, but now that it's all done - I love it! I had a little trouble with the grass so I'll admit that Paula quick grabbed my paper and "fixed" it right up. When I told her I could live through an hour class of grass coloring - she about fell off her chair. Of course, it comes so easily and naturally for her - you should see her work it. I on the other hand could use a little more practice but didn't think I did half bad. She agreed - it wasn't half bad, which translates to it was half good and I'll take that!

I've also posted this at Jeanie's blog for her Krafty Chick challenge. If you haven't yet visited, you should check out her blog and her Kraft paper challenge. She has some awesome cards and you can easily play along. Just use Kraft paper on a card and link it up. You have until Wednesday night to play along.

I spent most of Sunday out in the garden and under the sunshine so I'll tell you that I didn't get much crafting time in. Tonight I finished my last May class at Mary Maxim and I look forward to stamping up the July, August and September stamps we've picked out. One's a Mo again girls so get ready.

Have a great week and thanks for looking.

Cath

A Sweet Celebration!

It's that time of year again...the twins have a birthday. The tradition has continued and I have been asked to create the invitations for their party. They upped the number this year so I had 11 invitations to crank out. The theme this year is an Ice Cream party. I looked and looked for an appropriate stamp and finally found what I had been thinking of in the new Stampin Up! mini catalog. I ordered this the day they became available and then had to wait for them to ship. In the meantime I made the backs of all the cards and sketched a layout for the front. Once the stamps arrived, I had two days to get them all done and boxed up so that the girlies would have time to deliver them to their friends.

I love the fresh ice cream colors and had great fun with the layout. Ok, honestly it took me quite a few attempts to get the look I wanted but once I figured out what clicked I was psyched to get these done.

I made this postcard style and added a detail panel on the back.

Can't believe that I didn't do any coloring for this but I hadn't just stamped a card in a really long time. Maybe it felt ok since I used a variety of ink colors and so it gives the impression of a colored image.

Enjoy the rest of your week and see you back here soon.

Cath


PS I have an update on the Cards for Soldiers event Mary Clark was sponsoring. My Mom, Joyce Gilmore, actually won the $200 worth of product on Saturday. Woot Woot - Mom! So glad that your number was picked and you have some scrumptious new papers, stamps and embellishments and copics heading your way!

Bellariffic Friday Sketch

Well another week has flown by. The weather is starting to turn nice and I spent some time getting our back sun room ready for the season. While it feels good to have the walls and windows cleaned, I couldn't let the weekend pass without getting in some craft time. The Bella challenge this week is a sketch so I set right out to get that done. If you have time to play, why don't you give it a try? Just follow the sketch and submit your card by Thursday evening.

Here's the sketch but notice that I turned it to compensate for my stamp choice.



For my image this week I used one of the new releases, Prezzies for Lulu. It's actually not even my stamp. My friend Denice bought it on our adventure to Scrapfest in Kitchener and she just handed it over to me last week and said make something fun with these. Notice I said these? She gave me about 7 stamps she bought that she wanted me to make something with. I picked this one first because I loved the quirkiness of it. It looked fun and hip. I colored it with my Copic markers but added some shading with my prismacolor pencils and gamsol. The cardstock is Neenah Classic Crest and the ink is Memento Tuxedo Black. My typical combination - hey if it works why change it right? The design paper is from The Cafe' Mediterranean stack by DCWV. It's full of orange, yellow, teal and olive combinations and this is the first time I've used it.

Once I finished coloring, I added some clear glaze pen on the polka dots and some of the ribbon. I like the way it catches the light and makes it glisten. If you click the picture you can view an enlarged image to show you the details a little better. I also used my Quickie Glue pen and some Bella glitter to dress the flower on top up a bit. The sentiment is computer generated and punched using Oval Nesties. I then shaded the image and the sentiment panel using Wheat VersaMagic Chalk ink. Linda Heavens showed me this and I love the way it softens the edges.

The sketch called for another strip across the cardstock and I chose to use a ribbon. If I had kept the sketch going the same way it was given, I might have made this a bow. But since I had to turn the sketch to compensate for the stamp I left it straight. I really wanted to add some polka dots to mimmic the stamp ribbon but I didn't know how to get it to look the same. Anywhoo, three little Dew Drops finish this off.

Hope you have a great week and squeze some crafting time in with all your chores.

Love Ya,
Cath

Al tee 'tude Bellarific Friday

In case you haven't heard, this week's Bellarific Friday challenge is a color challenge; pink, green and brown. I knew the image I wanted to color but I didn't have a layout. So I hunted the internet and got some ideas and this is what I've settled with. The image was easy - in my last visit with Paula Williamson, she shared some of her stamped images with me. I fell in love with this little cutie.

This is Little Miss Al tee 'tude sitting on her cloud 9. I colored her up with Prismacolor pencils, gamsol and blending stubs. Since it's from Paula's stash I can bet that the paper is Bella's Bestest. It's my first time using it and it felt very similar to my Neenah Classic Crest. I spruced her up with some Bella glitter as well as some clear and black glaze pens. I brought the sewing machine out again but don't look close - it was a little more difficult to do the curve than it was straight lines.

The design paper is by Imaginisce called Baby Powder/Baby's Breath. Since it was double sided I had a perfect match for the green and pink papers. Cardstock is Prism and my favorite Neenah. I love the large scallop from EK Success so I couldn't resist putting it on both ends. Martha Stewart ribbon, a random button and some jewelry floss finish it off. Nesties made an easy task of getting the ovals cut. I know that this is not the sentiment that comes with this stamp but Happy Birthday just seemed to fit for my intended recepient - it was computer generated to fit in the limited space I had.

I hope you get a chance to get a card done for the challenge.

Have a great week and hope to see you again soon.

Love Ya,
Cath

King of the Jungle

June is quickly approaching and I set out to finish my card for the June Copic classes at Mary Maxim. I fell in love with this Whipper Snapper wood mounted rubber stamp called King of the Jungle. Since many Dad's feel they are King of their Jungle, I thought this would be very appropriate.

This guy was stamped on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White paper with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. He was then colored with copics. I really had fun with the blending of the golds and the browns in the mane. Believe it or not, I used 5 colors in the mane. I found this a little tricky but I know the girls can handle it. This one will really build on the skills we have learned to date. I even added shading in the golds with a little brown to futher deepen the shadow that the mane casts on his paws. I really had fun with this and hope that everyone else does as well.

The design paper is by Graphic 45 Playtime Past Collection, called Jack and Jill. The rich colors accented the prism cardstock and helped make this image pop. The sentiment was computer generated and aptly named by Brenda Miller. I hoped that this was a little opened ended so that it could be used not only for a Father's Day card but also as encouragement for a student or friend.

Hope you're having a good weekend. It's just plain freezing here. We've had rain and hail today. I made the husband turn the heat on and he finally relented. It was 56 inside. He has a rule about no heat after April 1st but I have a rule too, I'd like for my nail beds to not be blue! See for all his ruling...I still won. Now whose King of this castle?

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by.

Have you got your cards out to Mary Clark for the soldiers and a chance to win some awesome blog candy? What are you waiting for? Mine are ready to head out on Monday.

Cath

Flowers for Bellarific Friday

So I'm just a little early. Much better than my typical late. Having bowed out on last weeks challenge, I decided to get my weekend start on this one. The theme this week is flowers. Anything to do with flowers, paper, image, embellishments. Not so hard if you look at my paper stash.

I knew that I wanted to use the new Mo released in rubbah through StampingBella. Mo's images have always tugged at my heart and this one was no different. See, this one reminded me so much of my sister and I growing up. I was the older - and a dancer no less - who was a little quirky in how I dressed. I can hear my family now chuckling about the memories of me leaving for school each day in my catholic school blue dress uniform with tube socks up to my knees (my soccer socks) and clogs. Loved the clogs because it was an old school with hard wood floors and the clogs made a great sound as you moved about. The tube socks, well I went to an all girl school and I just didn't care. Anywooo I digress, I was also notorious for wearing pearls with everything, even my sweaty headband bandana while I danced. My sister on the other hand was younger and while I can't remember any frogs, I do know she's the artist so the crayons in the pocket seemed to fit. She also tells me now that I was mean to her. I don't recall. She's much younger and maybe I was just busy working, dancing and playing soccer and boys took up time too of course. But I guess if she feels that way it would make sense that I might have teased her enough to get her to pout like this little girl while I tormented her with my fingers behind her head. I cracked up when I saw this release and knew I had to have it.

How does this relate to flowers, I'm getting there. The sentiment, "sisters are different flowers fromt the same garden". How true is that! While we no longer torment each other and she is much skinnier than me, and we like alot of the same things, we are still very different. I love my sissy and know that life would just not be the same if we did not share the closeness we have today. So Sissy, this one's for you!

Now on to the details...I stamped this on Neenah Classic Crest paper using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I then colored it with my Copics but did some shading with prismacolor pencils, gamsol and stubs. The sentiment comes with this stamp so it's a Bella as well. The flower is a double - one silk, one sheer called Fabric Fancies by Prima. The aqua center is from Mary Maxim. They are plastic half moons. They were being promoted to add as holders in flower vases and such. I thought they would be perfect as "brads" for my cards and they were cheap! The top DP is Bo Bunny - Alyssa Twirls and the bottom is Blushing Daisy by Lasting Impression. I added a small friskars border in black CS. Now bring out the drumroll please 'cause I also used a finishing technique that I have seen on so many cards but have never done myself - I stiched up the border. Ok this was my first time and I have never been the sew-er in the family so it took me a little to get the tension right and the feel for the needle in the paper. Not half bad though!

It's pouring rain here right now, so it looks like I'll be stuck inside. (Yeah, that means I can create a little longer!) Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Cath