Hitchedafella - Lucky you!

In all the excitement of yesterday, I had a hard time sleeping. What to do? Hate laying in bed doing nothing when there is stuff that could be done. So I headed to my craft room and worked on a layout for a card I need next weekend. We have a wedding to attend for our friend's daughter. So glad to celebrate Christine's nabbing a fella. I had just the image in mind...Stamping Bella's hitchedafellabella.



I couldn't resist getting my Copics out so I pulled out my Neenah Classic Crest cardstock and stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. As you might have guessed, I pulled out my prismacolor pencils and gamsol to add shading. With the exception of worrying about the grays bleeding out, this was pretty easy. Just some subtle coloring on the Bella. It took me longer to do the grass under their feet. And ACK I didn't do nearly the justice that Paula would have done to this. It just wouldn't come tonight - ever have days like that?

Oh well, a little Bella glittah to sparkle this girl up and you'll hardly notice right? I also used a Signo Uni-ball white pen to add some dimension to the rose bouquet and a Black Glaze pen to the Groom's buttons.

Here's a closeup of all the glittah...



I pulled my Making Memories 8x8 Wedding pack. I love these. They give you just enough paper for a project and they all coordinate. And very little scraps are left behind. Good thing as I constantly feel like I'm drowning in scraps because I'm too frugal to throw them out! I did use a small piece of the blue cardstock for a border with a Martha Stewart punch.

A simple sheer bow and jeweled hat pin finish this off. I don't have to worry about mailing this card or I probably would have omitted these bulky adornments.

In case you didn't know, it's Tantalizing TOOOSDAY at Stamping Bella. Hop on over to the blog to see what Emilly has on sale this week. I saw some stamps and Maya road chipboard shapes on the specials page. And don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win $20 in BellaBucks before next week. Easy peasy.

See ya back here a little later this week.

Cath

Happy Birthday to me!!!!!

Hey there blogarooni's. Just thought I would post a quick note about some exciting news I received today. A message was sent to me from da Bella Babe herself - Emily. Whad'it say??? "WOO HOOO check out our new group."

So I flew like a butterfly right on ovah to the Bella Babe Blog. And there it was, a post about the new Bella Babe. Results were in from the August DT search. I was almost afraid to scroll down but low and behold there was my name along with Wendy and Pauline. Yeah - three new Bella Babes! Won't you help me welcome them to the Bella line up?

Is that the bestest birthday present or what? Can't wait to get home from work so that I can do some rearranging on my sidebar to include links for you to all the Babes blogs.

Looks like I have some coloring to do too. I've got my card done for this week's Bellariffic Friday Challenge. The theme is ANIMALS. Won't you join me with your creation as well? Just send an email to emily@StampingBella.com by Thursday night.

Have a great week!

Cath

Look How You've Grown...

September is quickly approaching and with it comes a few boy birthdays for our family. My nephew, John Patrick, has a special birthday - he turns ONE. I wish I lived closer so that I could celebrate with him but alas, he's going to get the card and late gift from me. Well, I might not be late but I'm anticipating it so that when I actually get everything wrapped and packed and mailed ahead of time I can pat myself on the back. But I can say that I have his card done.



I was up at the crack of dawn today to get to work on this. The image I chose was from Mo Manning called "Look How You've Grown!" So now you know where this posts title comes from. This is a digital image that Mo gave as a freebie to her followers on Paper Craft Planet. She was celebrating how quickly the members in her group were growing. It's Jack in the Beanstalk in case you were wondering. I thought it would still be appropriate for a first birthday for a little boy named John Patrick who was supposed to be a Jack.

I wanted to color him with Copics so I printed this on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock. I hardly ever color and then search for my papers, sorry McKenz I know that's what you like to do...but today that is what I did. I got very lucky because one of the single sheets of Cosmo Cricket I picked up yesterday was from their new line, Wanted. It had all the colors I had just used. Yeah!!! I love Cosmo Cricket. I have some more single sheets on their way this week that I found on their website. I never knew you could find it there but it sure beats running around trying to find a specialty shop that carries it.

I printed the sentiment on my computer and framed it in my new EK Success punch. See Paula - I knew I would use this! I finished it off with a strip I cut using Martha Stewart's Embossed ZigZag border punch.

I added lots of shading with prismacolor pencils on the image and around. I love to color! It is so much fun!

Hubby is preparing my Birthday dinner so I am off...

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Cath

A shopping adventure...

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope you're enjoying your weekend. I have had a great time so far. This is my birthday weekend, (Yup, you get to celebrate for the whole weekend when your birthday falls on Monday as mine does). Saturday started with a massage for me - a present from the DH for Christmas that I just put to use. I've never had the pleasure of this little splurge before and I must say, he could definately give that gift again.

Next up, I headed down I-94 towards Detroit to hook up with Paula. We had a day of retail shopping planned with the hopes of hitting all kinds of stores for me in search of the latest and greatest. Paula had the route all mapped out and she drove since I had not a clue where we were going! We had one little - "where is this place?" - but the aid of her GPS unit got us back on track. Where'd we end up - I'm sure you're wondering - so here you go...first up was The Craft Room. It's a neat little store that has papercrafting, knitting, and jewelry making supplies. Lots of wonderful cards (nice and small) so you could see a stamps potential but not overwhelm the space. Got a few 6x6 paper packs here - I know, I told you I was addicted to paper.

We continued on to The Paper Hollow. Paula had received an e-mail that Suzanne Dean was coming to town on her road tour to teach a couple Copic classes sponsored by this shop. We had to check it out. We asertained that the classes must be held elsewhere since this shop is very small. But I got an Inky Antics Halloween stamp set I hope to get to work on and some 6 1/2 square envelopes. I know - extra postage will be required for these bug guys but it's worth it to send out some of the larger cards I'm now making. Pray that the stamps make ink soon or they too shall fall into the "what was I thinking, I don't possibly have time to use these!"

A trip to Du-All was necessary - it was just around the corner - so I picked up a prismacolor single pencil color I had seen Paula and Linda use that I didn't own. On to JoAnn's, Michaels, Archivers, JoAnn's again (had another 40% off coupon we HAD to use) and yup another Michaels. I must say, I don't have access to a Michaels or a very good JoAnn's. I usually find tons at Michaels and little at JoAnn's. Not the case this weekend. JoAnn's has Chirstmas crafts out already - see the K&Co 12x12paper pack I found and the EK Success snowflake punch. They even had some really neat Christmas Sizzix embossing folders and die sets. Paula scarfed up one of those but when we headed to Michaels they didn't have any Chirstmas out. None of the tools we had just seen at JoAnn's for sure. And we used our 40% off coupons on magazines that Michael's refused to give. Hmpf.

So this is my stash...



Lots of fun stuff right?

A trip to Cold Stone was lunch...ok it started lunch and then she snagged me for a bite at White Castle. Reminded of college days back at University of Dayton. First place I ever saw the little burgers.

Phew... have ya kept up with me? By the time I was delivered back to my car my feet were killing me and I couldn't wait to be home. Hubby made dinner so I got some more spoiling. Couldn't wait to head to my room and start to play with my loot. I was on a mission though. I had to work on this week's Bellarific Friday challenge...Animals. Had my image and paper picked out so I set about to get'er done.

I'll be back in a little bit with today's project.

Cath

How about a Kiss?

Meet Kissy. I made her for this week's Bellarific Friday challenge. She's an image by Mo Manning released in rubbah through Stamping Bella. I fell in love. Who wouldn't want to pucker up to get a kiss from this little cutie?

To get things going, I stamped Kissy with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto Neenah Classic Crest solar white cardstock. I then colored her with Copics. Shading was added with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. Gel pens, Glaze pens and lots of Bella glittah was added to bring lots of glitz and glamore. Tiny pink rhinestones were added to the crown and tops of her shoes to make this sparkle even more.

The paper is from a Webster pages 6x6 pad. I recently found this on my trip to Archivers. I used one whole sheet so this is a 6 1/2 inch square. The teal cardstock is from Papertrey Ink and the peach is from Bazzil. The grey Square Lace Nestie came from my trip to the Novi stamp show It's from the new releases Spellbinders introduced at CHA last month. I wanted the circles too but LindaBella was quicker on the draw than I was and she got the last one. UGH. The silver paper came from JoAnn's - Paula sent me there to find it. It's sold as a single sheet and has a texture to it. She used it on her Diva image. I loved the shinny accent it brought to this card. The sentiment comes with this stamp and was cut with two circle Nesties. I then shaded with Wheat VersaMagic chalk ink.

I added a sheer white fluffy ribbon I purchased last year from Mary Maxim to make a bow to finish this off.

Isn't she just cute as a button?

And here is Mini-Bella McKenzie's card...



Girlfriend you're getting better and better at this...this card is fabulous!


Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your Bellarific Friday and have a great weekend.

Cath

To Grandma's House...

I finally got my recent order from Stamping Bella this week. I was doing the happy dance because there were lots of goodies from the last release in there I was itching to get my hands on.



First to catch some ink is a Mo Manning image released in rubbah - Prince Edward Island. I loved the free flowing, caught in the moment feeling of this image. It reminded me of carefree childhood visits to Grandma's house or if any of you have visited Macinac Island and stayed at the Grand Hotel this little girl would feel right at home. I imagined this in muted shades not bright ones with a richly colored bag. I had so much fun coloring the bag first and then using the tone from the colors there to guide me on the dress, hat and hair. To color this I used copics of course, for the vibrant shades. Once you start playing with colors and mixing them you too will catch the bug. The more and more I use mine, the more thrilled I am with them.

For anyone stopping by for the first time, you'll find that I like to use Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink. I'm impatient and like to start coloring right away so that's why the combination works so well for me. I then shaded the image with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. I first used Slate Grey and then added Blue Lake. This way I got muted blues instead of bright blue which I thought would look nicer with the deeper shades of greens and browns. I shaded the ground with French Grey 50% and 90%.

The bottom tab was cut from a Tim Holtz die first with Bazzil cardstock and then with Basic Grey Capela 6x6 paper. The background design paper is from The Paper Loft which I had never heard of. What caught my eye was not only the colors but the name - Grandmas House, Feather Bed. My family just loves the John Denver song - Grandma's Feather Bed. So now you can understand this posts title.

The tag was hand cut and stamped with a new sentiment I bought from Stamping Bella called Billboardabellas words only. Jodibella used it a few weeks ago and I had never seen it - perhaps because I always look through the images and not the sentiments. But these were neat little phrases that could be added to tags and such. Perfect here. The ribbon was a scrap from my stash. I think I received a gift tied with it and saved it for just this sort of occasion. The string tie came from Lizzies shop and I topped it all with a crystal. I was dying to add some glitter but it just didn't seem to fit the scene. So I pulled out some upholstery tacks and cut the stems off to use as brads. They reminded me of something you would find to adorn the period satchel.

A little stitching with my sewing machine was the finishing touch.

I'll be sharing this with the Mo DT Challenge blog for this weeks entry here. You're task this week is to use the theme "Thank Heaven for Little Girls". Not a hard task with so many wonderful Mo girl images to choose from. Won't you join me and give it a try? You have until Wednesday night before the link closes.

Have a wonderful week and thanks for stopping by.

Cath

Have you caught the Halloween Bug yet?

As I've been cruising through cyberspace, I've noticed that it's time to dust off the old Halloween stamps. I love fall and that includes Halloween. Now I'm not one for dressing up and the whole Trick-or-Treating deal especially since all the kidlets have grown up and are out of the house. But I do love the colors and with that comes papers and stamp supplies. I was able to work on a few projects this weekend that got me excited for October. First one was for the Stamping Bella Bellarific Friday challenge. This week we had a sketch challenge from Paulabella and I must say that it was so simple that I struggled with it. Actually the sketch wasn't the challenge - it was making the sketch into a WOW card. My first attempt was so-so, so I'll be saving that for another post. I liked the card mind you but it didn't jump at me.

So I cruised blogland I had an Ahh-Haa moment. On one of my visits to color with Paulabella, she let me stamp some images so that I could expand my card possibilities. (She's the most generous stamper out there I know. She's always willing to show you what she does and she genuinely loves to see you grow.) I digress - sorry. Now, my Bella Box has quite a few images in it and when my last order arrives I'll be bursting at the seams but I don't have nearly the number of stamps that Paula has. That girl came to my house with a piece of luggage filled with the Bella Binders full of stamps. I felt like a kid in a candy store. I found little miss Bewitched-a-'tude and couldn't resist. So here goes...



I was limited to a sketch in the shape of a sideways square or diamond. I dug out the Nestie's Label 3 dies because it's in the shape of a square but has room for a circle. I didn't think I could get the image I stamped into a square so I cut and layered it in a circle and then placed it into the square and tilted it. Voila - I was able to satisfy the sketch. I brought out my Copics for the rich vibrant color but shaded with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. Then I added some Bella glitter as if this witch just lit up the evening sky.

The papers are from last year's Martha Stewart collection. I loved them so I had gotten two 12x12 packs and have lots left to play with. I'm sort of a paper hoarder so it did feel good to put this to use. The Martha punch around the page Spider Web boarder caught my eye last year but I couldn't find it locally. Having a Sissy that has lots more stores to cruise than I do helped as well as having twin girls to drag along. Armed with Michael's 50% off coupons the girls picked up both the border and corner punch for me - Woo Hoo. I've added the border down the center of the papers to separate them and then added a sheer black ribbon tied into a bow. To tie it all together, I punched a small hole into the orange frame around the image and fed it through. To finish this I adorned the bow with a black crystal and then stamped Happy Halloween and paper pieced it in the lower left corner. Done!

Don't forget to go to the Bella blog to see what the Babes and sistahs have in store. There has been lots of inspiration with the DT search so you sould get lots of new ideas.

See what the Mini-Bella's did for this week...

Madison's Card...



McKenz's Card...



Aren't they swell?

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Cath

Bronte and Louis share a cookie

Mo Manning's images share so many facets of childhood and friendship. I loved the simplicity of this image and of course fell for the little doggie who wanted a taste of the cookie too. Our house is a lot like that. Bella loves to put her head right on the table and quickly sneak her tongue out as if you wouldn't notice. Right!!!

Any hoo, I have yet to color this freebie up until now. What was the motivation...well this week's Mo DT Challenge blog theme was based on a photo found here. The soft peach and grays made me think of a little boy so I went in hunt of the perfect image. Found it and then set about coloring it up. I knew that I wanted to delve into my Basic Gray 6x6 Ambrosia pack. That too had yet to be gotten into and it's been in my stash since April. I was saving it for the right project...don't tell the DH.

As usual I colored this with copics on Neenah classic crest solar white cardstock. The shading was done with prismacolor pencils and gamsol.

The lone adornment was a button and simple sentiment I generated on my computer.

Hope cookies are safe in your house...

Enjoy the rest of your week and thanks for stopping by.

Cath

Madison gets creative...

I love unrequested creativity. What I mean is when you can just sit down for no reason and let the creative juices flow. That was the case for my nice Madison (AKA one Mini-Bella). She had some time over the weekend to make cards all on her own. I promised that if she sent them to me I would post them here for you to see.

She loves Stamping Bella images as much as I do and she loves to color with copics...



and another...



Both Madison and McKenzie have made cards for this week's Bellarific Friday sketch challenge. Stop back a little later and I'll post them with my entry as well.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cath

A mistake turns out..

Have you ever started working on a card or image when something just didn't go as planned and then you step back and say "it's ok - this is better". Well I had that moment a while back working on my paper piece challenge card for Stamping Bella. This is how it turned out...



This is Izzie has a Daisy and my first thought was to paper piece her skirt. I was hoping to use the blue design paper in the background so I started by coloring her skirt blue along the edges so you wouldn't see any white space. Well the skirt pattern did not look like I thought it would so I instead decided to just color the whole image with prismacolor pencils and chuck the paper piecing idea. But what was I to do since I had started to color the skirt blue. Well believe it or not, I added chocolate over the blue and it turned out to look more like charcoal and that looked wonderful with a soft blue sweater and black buttons. Whew... another card start salvaged. The rest came pretty easy and with the help of my Black Glaze pen the shoes, headband, buttons and bow popped from the page. A little help from my Quickie Glue pen and some Bella glitter and my flowers sparkled to life.

I rarely make a card these days without the help of my Spellbinders Nestabilites and today was no exception. The Classic large and small circles brought the image panel front and center. A couple crystals in the upper right hand corner and a fabulous Birthday Ribbon bow adorned with a daisy charm finish this one off. I chose design paper from the Making Memories Poolside and Greenhouse 6x6 pack to coordinate with Kraft paper so that I could play with Jeanie in her that's Krafty Thursday challenge. You have until Wednesday night to link up your cards here. Won't you play along?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and thanks for stopping by.

Cath

Bring on the Bling...

That was the theme for those of you who follow the Stamping Bella Bellarific Friday challenges. When I heard that I went right to the Diva stamp designed by Mo Manning that's released in rubbah through Bella. I love this stamp. The expression is so sassy and it just screamed "bring on the glittah." Take a look and tell me you wouldn't agree.



See I told you. Now where did I start? First I knew I wanted to use copics for their nice brillant color. So I stamped the image on Neenah Classic Crest solar white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Then I headed for papers with teal and pink - I wanted the boa to be full of pink and sparkles and teal compliments this color so nicely. Wouldn't you know the new Basic Grey Olivia paper pack had just such a paper for me. My Sissy and her family were kind enough to send me this for my upcoming birthday and I was thrilled. The teal cardstock and background design paper came from an SEI Christmas paper pack called Winter Song. It's full of teals and reds and I couldn't resist it last year.

Then I set about coloring and shading with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. A Sakura Gelly Roll pen gave me some added sparkle to the strand of pearls and earrings, while Bella glitter accents the tiara and boa. A few rhinestones down the left side are my only other embellishment. I tried a ribbon bow and additional glitter but it seemed to clog the card up. Some Metallic Green Ink by Encore gave me shading along the edge of my image. I kept it in my Nestie as I did this so it would give me a nice white border.

I am looking forward to seeing what the rest of the Bella Babes and sistahs have done. Won't you join me in checking it out?

Have a great weekend.

Cath

Dream with me...

Today's post gives me a whimsical feeling. The clarity of Mo Manning's drawings give you the impression that you are alive with the character and Fairy Tabia is no exception.

Last week I stumbled across the Mo DT Challenge blog. You know how much I love to challenge myself so I decided to continue with this week's challenge - things with wings.



I immediately thought of this image and set about bringing her to life Saturday night. Hard part for me was that I have already colored this in soft purple shades. I'm not very fond of purple but it seemed to be how I invisioned this charming fairy. I loved the card then but knew that I wanted to go in a different direction. After heading to Archivers after a day at the Novi stamp show, I found the 6x6 design paper pack from Webster's papers. I've seen this paper around the internet but haven't had access to a store that stocks it locally. As I perused the paper I found this lovely black and ivory piece that I thought would be a great backdrop along with some bright celery green cardstock.

With colors in mind, I set out to coloring this with my prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. Of course you might have guessed that I stamped this on Neenah Classic Crest solar white paper with Memento Tuxedo black ink. The only reason I didn't tackle this with my copics was that I was at Paula's house and didn't want to cart the kitchen sink with me so I only brought my pencils. Besides, they are alot easier to transport and Paula IS the pencil queen!

I love this even more than the one I made using the lavender shades. Lots of glitter is used to adorn the wings and stars along her skirt. A simple sentiment has me dreaming that I was spending the day blowing bubbles in a fairy skirt with very little cares to worry me. Ahhh - we can only hope that someday this does come true.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cath

Bella and Bronte

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend...I went to the Heirloom Stamp show in Novi, Michigan and met up with quite a few of my copic buddies...Kimmy, Mary Jo, Rosa, Heather, and Brenda. Glad to see the Mary Maxim crew. I spent the day with Paula though cruising the booths looking for the gotta have stamp and I was actually very selective. I came home with just a few new stamps, a couple packs of 6x6 paper, a new Nestie die set and a pandora knockoff bracelet.

I spent the evening coloring with Paula and have something to share a little later this week but first I thought I'd show you the Mo Manning image we will be coloring in the September Mary Maxim Classes. Bella and Bronte are a photopolymer clear stamp from Stampavie.



You know the drill, I started with Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock and stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I then colored this with my Copics but did lots of shading with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. Big surprise right? The design paper is by Graffic 45 (love it - the square DP is the reverse of the floral print - score!) and the colored cardstock is Prism.

Copic colors are Y000, Y11, Y13, E000, E00, E11, R20, E33, E37, B95, B97, Y21, Y17, E44 R27, R39, YG95, YG97, R00, R02, C1, C2, C5, 0 Colorless blender,E71

Optional shading with Prismacolor pencils -PC1102 Blue Lake, PC1072 French Grey 50%, PC1076 French Grey 90%

This was so much fun to color and I'm pleased with the bright primary colors. A little different from anything we've colored yet. Hope to see you at one of the classes. Don't forget to call to reserve your seat.

Have a great week.

Cath

Paper Piecing 101

So, many of you may have tried your hand at paper piecing and consider yourselves old hats at it. I on the other hand am a newbie. It's been on my list of things that I've been meaning to try but I hadn't gotten around to it yet. This week's Stamping Bella challenge was to create a card using the paper piecing technique so now came sooner than later. I've had a 6x6 paper pad by Autumn Leaves titled Pretty Poppies that I thought would go nicely with the Poppy Bittybloom Stamp. Red, black, white and green is a favorite color scheme of mine anyway so from there I ran with it.



I started by stamping the image on Neenah Classic Crest solar white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. The dress was paper pieced using the DP while the rest of the image was colored with copic markers. The shading around the image was done with prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol and I even added VersaMagaic Wheat Chalk ink to shade the outer edge while it was still in the Nestie circle die. It added a nice white border around the image without a washed out look - love this technique. I backed this panel with green Bazzil paper cut from a Nestie Labels 3 die. This was then layerd over Autumn Leaves DP. The red cardstock is Stampin Up! Ridding Hood Red while the rest is Bazzil.

The sentiment is also by Stamping Bella but I cut it out and pieced it on cardstock because the middle word was belated. I'm trying to get cards lined up and ready to go so that I can eliminate the "belated" sentiment. Hehe - let's just see if I can stay on the roll I'm on.

Anyhoo, I think this poppy themed card is tied nicely together with the red grossgrain ribbon. Whatd'ya think?

Hope you have a great weekend!

Cath

Copic Colors:
R39, R29, E000, E00, E11, R20, E27, N6, YG03, YG00

Christmas in July - Mo style

I came across the Mo Challenge blog and found that they too were looking for a Christmas card. I've had this Mo digital image titled Boughs for the Wreath since last year. I've yet to color it though so I set out with my Copics and LOOOOVE the way this turned out. I really wanted to focus on the earthy tones so I went to an old SEI Christmas paper pack called Alpine Frost. It's packed with rusty reds, deep browns and wood tones. Yum.

Of course I started with Neenah Classic Crest solar white cardstock, Memento Tuxedo black ink and my copics. The ground and surround shading was done with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. I then added some Quickie Glue and Stampin Up! Dazzling Diamonds glitter. A satin ribbon was the lone embellishment.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy the rest of your week.

Cath

I'm tee'd off...

Hehe. Not really, but I am off and running with a new addition to my Bella collection. For today's card I am sharing Teeoffabella. I couldn't resist her in my last Stamping Bella order. Are you seeing a pattern here? Yup golf is the game!



This cutie will also be part of the assorted gift card collection I will be donating to the golf club this fall. While the outside says "Have a Ball..." the inside reads "...on your birthday". I thought it was a cute sentiment for the ladies and didn't get all mushy or gushy. It's computer generated so I was able to size it to fit perfectly in a Classic Long Rectangle Nestie. I also used Classic Rectangles and Small Labels on the main image panel.

You can probably guess that I stamped this on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I then colored it with copic markers and shaded with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I tried a new technique for me - I paper pieced the shorts and the shirt. I was so excited with the way it turned out. For a first time try - I thought it looked real neat. Can't wait to give this a whirl with some other stamps as well.

The design papers are all from the K&Company Small Wonders 12x12 girl pack. The colored cardstock is Bazzil. A little machine stiching, a grossgrain ribbon, silver brads and the Martha Stewart Deco border finish this off.

Hope you enjoy your week!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cath

Big Guy Golfing...

Having our house back up to a golf course with many of our friends who play gives me plenty of opportunity to use this Stamping Bella image designed by Mo Manning. I've decided to incorporate it into a Birthday Card and will include it in a pack of All Occasion Cards to be given away at the club during the Winter Wine Women Tastings. The owners of the club are our next door neighbors so I thought it might be nice to give Sue something for her door prize packages. They're actually great neighbors...they are always at the club or doing maintenance on the course so we hardly hear them next door and they look out for our house while we are on the go. Nice to have in this day and age.

Anyhoo, I can't take credit for the color scheme or layout. I saw this card on Jeanie Whitmore's blog and thought it was awesome. I actually bought the stamp having seen her card. Then of course I had to do the "hey, I can do that". It was great to not have to do the thinking here except to try to figure the exact prismacolor pencils to use and then paper sizes. I actually already had the Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday design paper so I ran with it.

I started with Neenah Classic Crest solar white cardstock and stamped it with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Then I colored the Big Guy up using prismacolor pencils blended with Gamsol. A little machine stitching finishes this up with a soft grossgrain ribbon. Since it should be somewhat manly, I only tied a knot instead of a bow and I don't think a guy is really going care as long as something is given with this or is included inside... My DH would prefer beer be given but I'm sure he'd take cash if it was offered as well.

I've been real busy in my craft room this weekend so I'll be sharing more with you again soon.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Cath

I also wanted to share with you a picture we took last week while we were home in NY. Some of you know that my Dad finally lost his long battle with Multiple Sclerosis last Sunday. We spent most of the past three weeks with siblings, nieces, nephews and family back in Rochester. It had been a long time since my children were all together so we quick snapped a picture after the funeral. From left to right we are...



DH Shaun, me, Caitlin (Justin's girlfriend), Justin and Jessica. Front and center is Erica