How about Milo?

Since I showed you Millie earlier this week, I thought you should take a look at her side kick Milo too! Gosh he just melts my heart with that spikey hair, untied shoe and well dressed package. In case you didn't know, Millie and Milo Exchanging Gifts is a single stamp by Stamping Bella that can be easily stamped individually. Woo Hoo - it's a two'fer.

I stamped Milo onto Bella's Bestest paper with Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored with copics. Ground shading was added using prismacolor french grey 50% and 90%. Shading around the image was done with Versamagic Wheat chalk ink. Colors were inspired by the Miss Caroline My Mind's Eye Fiddle Sticks 6x6 design paper. I love this! Nice soft shades...perfect for Spring and Easter right? I finished this off with machine stitching, a silk ribbon bow topped with a button and purple hemp cording.

You still have time to play along in this weeks Bellariffic Friday challenge. This week all you have to do is use Polka Dots on your creation. Pretty easy! Send a photo of your creation to Emily@stampingbella.com by Thursday night and you can be included in the Friday blog lineup. Need a little more time? No problem, link your card to SCS using keyword BELLARIFFIC0812. You'll get an extra week and another chance at Bella Bucks too!

Thanks for stopping by and see ya on Friday!
Cath

Millie day one...

With the last release, Emily gifted us with some wonderful new characters in the Stamping Bella family. Millie is one of them. Actually she has a twin (or is it her brother?) anyhoo she comes in a set with Milo (Millie and Milo Exchanging gifts). Neat thing about these two are they can be stamped alone or together and either way they are cute as a button. So, this is Millie's day one for me...I can see many more cards in her future!

Next note is her hair. You'll notice that it's blonde, dirty blonde actually, just like my daughter and I. My daughter (Jess) has professed that I color too many brown haired girls. We recently moved Jess back into the house and she looked at all the cards in my craft room and declared that I needed to color more blondes. Funny thing is that I rarely see pure blonde and with copics and prisma pencils I don't think the bright yellow is very realistic. So I like to create blondes with golden highlights and sometimes even light brown to tone the bright yellow down. I will typically color a base of Y11 and then add strokes of Y21, Y28, E23 and a little YR14. Now you'll know why you're seeing a few more blondes on my cards.

Ok and the last note is polka dots. You'll be seeing lots of them too. I have an order for 20 cards and all of them have to have some form of polka dot paper. Now the funny thing is when you give me a "rule" like that, I usually have a hard time incorporating it into a card. It's like the Bella challenge this week, to use polka dots, I could very easily make a card and polka dots find their way in but when you stipulate that it has to be there I can't decide how to work them in. But I have some help, the new My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline design paper 6x6 packs have an assortment of complimentary polka dot paper. In fact, I made 5 cards this weekend and each and every one has polka dot paper. Neat thing is that some are soft and subtle like in the middle panel here but they're still there.

Now onto the card details. You know I stamped Millie onto Bella's Bestest paper using Memento Tuxedo black ink. Hey when the formula works, I stick with it! I then colored her with copis and added a touch of shading on her shirt with prismacolor pencil French Grey 50% as well as the ground shading but added French Grey 90% too. Oh and I know I pulled a turquoise for the balloon too. I didn't add shading around her...I really wanted a clean and simple look about this. The layout is from this week's I Spy sketch challenge. They come out on Friday so I find them to be another great resource for my weekend crafting. I did alter the sketch, big surprise huh? They're minor changes though. First, I moved the scallopped edge from the middle panel to the image panel. Millie needed some height so I added it to her border matt. And then I had to place the sentiment in the upper left corner as there wasn't room in the lower right. Finsihed card is 5x6.

Hope you start your week off well. Thanks for stopping by.

Cath

Love Ya

Happy Sunday folks! I have been super excited to share today with you. If you're a regular visitor to the Crafty Cath blog then you know that I love to play with Karen Giron and the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge girls. I'm usually in my craft room on Sundays and having a sketch to start off with makes card making go so much quicker. So I usuallly stop by to see what the girls have in store. Well today, they have asked me to be a Guest Designer with them! Whoopie! Not only did it mean that I got the sketch a little early but have you checked out the rest of the team? They are phenominal so I'm very honored to play with them for the day. Thanks again Karen and crew.






Wanna see what I did with it? Ok, without further ado here is Love Ya designed by Mo Manning and released in Rubber through Stamping Bella. I just love how she comes to life and you can see the joy all over her face.

I stamped her onto Bella's Bestest paper using Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored her with copics. By now you also know that I did add some shading with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. I then cut her out and placed her on designer paper by My Mind's Eye (6x6 pack) from the Follow Your Heart collection titled Be Happy which I cut using a Nestie. I layered it onto a piece of soft green cardstock and then completed with more design paper and cardstock to finish the sketch. Two Robins Egg Dew Drops were placed on the middle panel to give it some attention and the center strip was cut using a Stampin' Up! scallop border punch. I incorporated a piece of the designer paper over the top of that since it had the most appropriate sentiment..."You are such a joy". A little machine stitching finishes this off.

Here's a close up. And check out how the rest of the Sweet Sunday stampers interpreted the sketch.
Karen Giron
Dana White
Karen Motz
Jennifer Tapler
Lynn Putt
Sarah-Jane Kale
Vicki Burdick

If you'd like to play along, link your creation on Karen Giron's blog. You have almost two weeks! Links close Friday, March 9th at 10pm Mountain Time.

Thanks for stopping by!
Cath

Spit Happens!

Here we are again! Another week has brought us back to Bellariffic Friday. Wooeee! And this week we were gifted with another awesome sketch by Ebrubella. I stuck to the sketch...pretty much! It called for a centered Oval image panel and since Mo Manning's Spit Happens released through Stamping Bella is a little on the large side...I layered it a little off center to fit my sentiment. I love that I have very little thinking or hunting to do for that matter now that most Bella images come with the perfect sentiment. And this ones a keeper!

I wanted to keep this card neutral...I'm making it for someone who doesn't know if they are having a boy or girl. They are 50 and learned that, well "Spit still happens!" Crazy huh? I found that the new My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline Dilly Dally 6x6 paper pack was perfect - neither pink nor blue. It was the inspiration for the colors I used. You've probably guessed that I stamped the image onto Bella's Bestest paper (my favorite) with Memento Tuxedo black ink. I colored with copics but I added lots of shading with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. Colored carstock is Bazzil, Stampin' Up! Crushed Curry and Neenah Classic Crest solar white. The photo corners were actually beige but I colored them black with a copic marker.

I love my new Petite Oval Nesties. I bought the set of four large and small classic ovals and complimentary scallops and love they way they layer. I'm not really sure why they call them petite though since they are actually larger than the Classic set. I find they are perfect for larger images like this one. And notice that since the image takes center stage I opted not to add machine stitching. Hardly ever do that anymore!

Next week our challenge is to use Polka Dots on your creation! Make sure you share a photo of your creation with Emily@stampingbella.com by Thursday night. You can also link it up to SCS using keyword BELLARIFFIC0812. Bella Bucks are up for grabs at both locations! Then stop by the Bella blog to see what the rest of the sistahs have come up with.

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for stopping by!
Cath

Prized Fruit

This past fall a couple of the Bella babes created masterpieces using Lulu's sets of fruit. They colored up the apples. Now I think apples say fall as much as falling leaves. And as it's my favorite season, I fell in love. I added the set of four stamps to my last Bella order. Today I decided to color the strainer full of cherries for this week's iSpy Sketch challenge. I had the perfect Graphic 45 design paper to compliment the stamp.

Before I get into the details of the card I have to share that my card was chosen last week as one of the top 2 cards for the sketch challenge. Thanks Kim and crew for the honor. I love a good sketch to get my creative juices flowing and am thrilled to have such great inspiration each week. Here's this weeks sketch ISSC03. True to Cath form, I altered it a little. I decided to make it look more like a prized ribbon so I aligned the 4 pennants along the bottom of the main image panel instead of along the bottom half. I stamped the image onto Bella's Bestest paper using Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored with copics. I added lots of shading on the strainer with cool gray prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol as well as beige surround shading. A little machine stitching and some green brads finish this off.

Hope you're having a great week. Don't forget that this week we have with another Sketch for the Bellariffic Friday challenge. Take a look here and give it a try. Then be sure to send a photo of your card to Emily@stampingbella.com by Thursday night. Can't wait to see what you create!

Thanks for stopping by.
Cath

Feb SFYTT

So I know we've seen Valentine's Day come and go but I wanted to share with you the card I made for my Hubby. I used Jen del Muro's February sketch for you to try as the inspiration. The image is Molly Watt by Stamping Bella. I stamped her onto Bella's Bestest paper using Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored her with a combination of copics and prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. The design paper is by Echo Park, cardstock is Neenah classic crest solar white and black and pink bazzil.

Spellbinder dies helped me with the circles and the sentiment frame. The sketch called for three points of interest along the right strip so I added silver screw brads since I thought they would tie nicely with the robot theme and had one of them hang the sentiment like a picture frame.

Thanks for stopping by...
Cath

Goofy Uptown Girls

As much as I love the class of the Uptown Girls, I love that Emily showed us they have a playful side as well. Check out Uptown Girls Pattie and Dottie friends forever and the peace sign Dottie is giving Pattie behind her head. So makes me laugh!

Our challenge was anything goes so we pretty much had free realm to create. Naturally I colored these girls onto Bella's Bestest paper after having stamped them with Memento Tuxedo black ink. Then I set out to color them with copics. I also shaded their dresses, hair and the ground with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. I was inspired by my new design paper from My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline Dolled Up and Dilly Dally collections. I had a vision of deep blues and golden yellows. The paper came through but on a softer note so I colored dark.

Here's a close up for you... If you haven't noticed, I've also added lots of glitter because these girls are ready to hit the town. Notice too that these girls take up a great deal of room on a card. So, I've kept the adornments to a minimum; some machine stitching, a grey seam binding ribbon topped with a silver embossed button, some black rhinestones and a little dabbled border punch along the edge of the soft blue cardstock. Oh and to get the dots on the yellow dress to pop, I used a Black Glaze pen. Love how that looks! Finished card size is 5 x 6 1/4.

Next week we'll be back with another sketch.

We'd love to have you play along. Send a photo of your creation to Emily@stampingbella.com by Thursday night. You can also link your card to Splitcoast Stampers using keywork BELLARIFFIC0712. There are Bella bucks up for grabs at both locations. Check out the inspiration and leave a comment at the Bella Blog for one more chance to win some Bella Bucks!

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!
Cath

Baby Congrats!

I've got a quick post to share with you today. I'm playing along with this week's iSpy Sketch challenge. It looked perfect for this sweet baby image I needed a card for. My co-worker finally had her baby boy and I'm heading over for a visit. Can't wait to cuddle with the little guy.

So now you know my motivation, let's get to the details. I stamped Julias diaper bag onto Bella's Bestest paper using Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored with copics. I also added shading with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. The design paper is Baby Boy by K&Company. Nesties were used to make the pennant and image panel. Seam binding ribbon was added with brads to make this appear more like a team pennant. Yea - team boy! Woo hoo!

The sentiment is also from Stamping Bella. I stamped it and made a banner anchored with yet another brad. Pretty easy and minimal machine sewing.

Don't forget that this week's Bellariffic Friday challenge is ANYTHING goes! Yup color to your heart's content - just use any Stamping Bella image. Remember that there are Bella Bucks up for grabs for sending an image to Emily@stampingbella.com by Thursday. Double your chance and link to SCS use code BELLARIFFIC0612.

Enjoy your week - but especially your Valentine's Day!

See ya again soon,
Cath

Wryn has captured my heart...

Cristy Croll is one of my all time favorite Stamping Bella designers. So I had to find her in blogland to see what else she was creatin'. Low and behold....she has a super cute new character called Wryn. I had to buy a few of these digi's. Since they are digi's I can't stamp them with Memento ink but I can still use my favorite Bella's Bestest paper. I have a new printer and I did find that I had to wait a little longer to make sure the ink was set. But, then I set out to color using copics. I've also added shading with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol.

The design paper is October Afternoon Farmhouse. Cardstock is Bazzil. Wryn was cut using a Nestie die. I adorned her with a seam binding ribbon bow, some black Bella's Baubles and a sentiment tag. I had to play with that as it comes as a straight sentiment. Since I couldn't it in sections, I instead used the crop feature to take out part of the words and ran my paper through the printer and then did it again with the remaining words. It takes a little time but it can be done.

Head on over to Cristy's challenge blog to see the rest of her new collection.

Have a great week.

Cath

Wilbur's Flying High on Love

This card makes me feel like I'm at the country fair. The image is Wilbur with Balloon from Stamping Bella. With his heart balloon I thought he would be perfect for sending some Valentine sentiments. Can ya tell I'm trying to squeeze these all in? I have a few more days yet so you might see one or two more. Hehe.

My sketch today is TCPtues195. The banner gave me the idea of a prized pig at the fair...flying high with his heart. So I ran with it. The design paper is My Mind's Eye Love me! Cardstock is a bunch of scraps but most likely Bazzil. I stamped wilbur onto Bella's Bestest paper with Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored him with copics. Nesties helped make the layers of circles. The clouds were cut from a Memory Box die (a first time use for me and I've had them for almost a year already!) A clear Sakura glaze pen was applied to the circles on the hear balloon along with a little white pigment ink from a Signo Uniball pen. The banner was hand cut and then strung using jewelry braiding cord I found on clearance at JoAnn's eons ago. The black circles are plastic Bella Baubles. No stitching today...

We never got the snow they predicted for us today. This is the freakiest winter I have ever experienced in my life! We're halfway through February and we haven't had any snowfall to date. At this rate, we'll be ready for fair weather before you know it.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Cath

Lucille is in the house

Oh my word I love the new Uptown Girls by Stamping Bella! As soon as my package arrived with the new release stamps, I knew I had to put some ink to them. First up is Lucille sends her Love. Isn't she perfect for Valentine's Day or even an engagement card to the girl who found the love of her life! I mean seriously, look at all those hearts. She's the picture of a girl in love isn't she?

Ok, so this week we were given yet another awesome Bellariffic Friday challenge by Sketch-extraordinaire, Ebrubella! I did take some creative liberty on the layout. I was using 6x6 pages from the My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Madison Avenue collection. But the Uptown Girls are tall and there wasn't enough dp paper to go all the way around. Because of that, you'll notice that I stopped the matt of pink dp at the ribbon. But I added a strip of striped DP and a scallop of soft pink polka dotted paper instead. It's just a slight alteration so I didn't think harm was done.

You know that I stamped Lucille onto Bella's Bestest paper using Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored her with Copics. I then added shading using prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. Her dress was accented with red Stickles and look at all that glittery sparkle. I even added some to her shoes and yes, her toe nails got a dot of red glitter too! As if that wasn't enough, I also added lots of glitter around the bouquet of hearts and applied it using a Quickie Glue pen. The sentiment, which comes with the stamp was hand cut. You'll also find a simple grossgrain ribbon bow and machine stitching. Finished card size is 6 1/2 x 5. Here's a closer look.

Now hop on over to the Bella Blog to see what the other sistahs have created. Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance at the weekly $10 drawing for Bella Bucks. Think you'd like to play along with us???? Next week's challenge is ANYTHING GOES...easy color whatever you want. Simply send a photo of your card to Emily@stampingbella.com by Thursday night and she'll include it in the weekly blog lineup. And, there is a weekly random drawing for $20 in Bella Bucks for contibuting. Want to double your chances? Link your card up to Splitcoast Stampers (SCS) using BELLARIFFIC0612 keyword. Now that's case sensitive so don't forget the caps. If you haven't linked your card yet for this week's sketch - don't worry, you still have until Thursday the 16th but use code BELLARIFFIC0512. You see, you get an extra week to play along AND you get a chance for another $20 in Bella Bucks. That's double your chances. Love those odds!

We're finally in for some cold weather this weekend. I plan to hunker down and color! Woo Hoo. How about you?

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for stopping by.
Cath

I Spy...

Girls if you are anything like me, you search blogland in the hopes of finding something new to catch your eye. Maybe it's a layout, a color scheme, or a new embellishment to adorn your cards. I often look for new ways to shade my images or for that matter, images that have stared me in the face but never seemed to call to me until I saw how someone else made them gorgeous. Today's image is one of those. I've colored Cuddly Owlies a Cristy Croll image from Stamping Bella. Last year I spied this card made by Kim Teasdale using this stamp that called to me. Funny but she has started a new blog called iSpy Sketches using this practice...ya know something makes an impression on you and you go from there only it's sketches not images.

I have to tell you that at first sketches scared me to death, but now I love them! They are the starting point to making any card for me. Yeah you choose an image and paper but how you're going to showcase it usually comes first for me. It's like do you always put your pants on one starting with the same foot first and if you switch it up you feel goofy. Ok maybe that's just me but you get the picture.

So using Kim's new sketch and visions of her gorgeous card I set out to make a card. I also used a couple of things that have been collecting dust in my closet like the Cuttlebug heart die, the Love sentiment stamped using a Stampin' Up! alphabet set I bought in 2003 and have never used! Yup you should see some of the stuff I have that I never get to use. So let's get on to some more details.

You know that I started by stamping the Owlies onto Bella's Bestest paper using Memento Tuxedo black ink. I then colored with copics and shaded with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. The shading along the edge is Tim Holtz Tumbled Glass distress ink applied while the image panel was still in the Nestie Petite Oval die. A double matt of teal and then brown cardstock was made using Nestie Scalloped Petite Ovals in Small and Large. I wanted to give a little more depth to the image so I actually colored the larger owl again, cut it out and popped it up on dimensionals. The red hearts were glittered up with a Sakura Jelly roll pen and then topped with clear Glaze pen but I don't think you can see that very well.

The papers are October Afternoon Farmhouse. Finished card size is 5 1/2 square. If you look close you'll find a heart border using a Martha Stewart punch. There's also some teal hemp cording and a button topping the heart die. There's a little bit of a coutry feel from the papers and I guess that would be a likely place to find an owl anyway right?

Enjoy the rest of your day!

See ya back here soon.

Cath

Fishing for a Valentine

Happy Bellariffic Friday folks. This week we are sharing Valentine's Day cards. Last month in Stamping Bella's January release there were quite a few Valentine's images released that I couldn't wait to get my hands on. My first pick is Ramona Fishing which comes with the sentiment.

I decided to use a soft pink color scheme so the hearts colored up with new copic color would pop. I also couldn't resist having the heart dangle off the main image panel. Let's get on with the details. I started with Bella's Bestest paper and inked Ramona up with Memento Tuxedo black ink. She was then colored with copics and shaded with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. The image panel was cut using circle nesties and then I hand trimmed the heart and attached it. A coat of Stampin' Up! Crystal Effects was applied to make it shine. The sentiment was stamped using the Stamp-a-ma-jig to ensure placement. EK Success scallop punches were used for the sentiment panel. The design paper is from My Mind's Eye Lost and Found collection called Madison Avenue.

I was dying to use some glitter on this but instead left the shining heart to draw you in. Gosh dang I love this image! As a special bonus (and because I didn't use a ton of colors) I have taken a picture of the copics used to make this cutie. I don't think I could do it every week but you get lucky today.

Next week we have yet another fantastic sketch from Ebrubella. And isn't this a funny...I mean I just went to grab the image to insert into my post and the sketch is so similar to my card above. All that open space on Ebru's will be perfect for some new Uptown Girls though. Ooohie I hope you can play along with us. Send a photo of your creation to emily@stampingbella.com by Thursday night. If you're a regular on Split Coast Stampers (SCS) you can link your creation using BELLARIFFIC0512. You'll have until the following Thursday to play with us there. Yes, you gain an extra week if you play on SCS AND a chance to win $20 in Bella Bucks as well. Now join me over at the Stamping Bella Blog to see what other Valentine creations the sistahs made.

Have a great weekend.
Cath

I Love you this much...

I told you I'd have more Valentine cards to show you. This is an image by Cristy Croll released in rubber through Stamping Bella called Aptee'tude. I started by stamping her onto Bella's Bestest paper using Memento Tuxedo black ink and coloring was done with copics. My image panel was cut using Nesties Petite Ovals Large die and then I stamped the sentiment, which comes with the image, onto it. I cut my finished image out and placed it onto the oval.

Design papers are from My Mind's Eye Lime Twist collection. Cardstock is Bazzil. I love machine stitching. I think it gives a nice tailored look to cards but I didn't want to "clutter" all my paper up. So I only stitched the back panel and kept the smaller rectangles plain. My only other adornment is some dew drops that I colored with my copic markers so they would match the shades I used on my image.

See nice and easy right? Ok you're turn now. And it'll be perfect timing for our Bellariffic Friday challenge. This week the theme is...you guessed it Valentine's Day. Use a love theme, red/white/pink color scheme or a Valentine image from Stamping Bella on your card and submit it to Emily by Thursday night to be included in the blog lineup. Then check back and see what all the sistahs have made as inspiration for the rest of your Valentines.

See ya on Friday.
Cath