Spring Thanks

What a week this has been. Sorry for the non-existant posts. I started back to work this week after the 3 month move hiatus and it hit me a little more than I would have thought. So I'll be back to making cards on the weekends to post during the week. Today I got up real early to make this for you!



Pookie Lollipop is a Lori Boyd creation designed for Stamping Bella. I thought she would be perfect for spring. While I've always colored her in pinks, I decided to give a new copic selection a try...shades of purple. With that in mind I also pulled my Basic Grey Green at Heart 6x6 design paper. I stamped her out on Bella's Bestest paper, inked with Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored with copics. I then cut the image out using my new fiskars finger cutter and shaded her with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. The sentiment is also from Stamping Bella.

Card details: finished size 5 1/2 inch square, paper: Basic Grey, Bazzil cardstock, glitter, MFT Scallop die-namic, border punch by Martha Stewart, and deckled edge rectangle die from Spelbinders.

Hope you enjoy your weekend.

Cath

Easter Izzie

This week's Bellariffic Friday challenge was Easter. I've been in Easter mode for weeks now so please hang with me. I have a few more images yet to share. Today I couldn't resist coloring Izzie is a Bunny. I LOVE all the Izzie's with their flowing skirts and curly hair and this was no exception.

I started with some nice new Memory Box 6x6 papers sent to me by Paulabella. So nice to have a sistah that shares. No asking either - I just came home the other night to an unexpected surprise. Woo Hoo. The papers helped me with the color direction - blue and green seemed perfect for spring. Izzie was stamped on Bella's Bestest paper, with Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored with copics. I also added shading with a combindation of prismacolor and caran d'ache pencils blended with gamsol.

A Martha Stewart border punch, hand dyed seam binding tape, a couple swarkovski crystals, glitter and machine stithching also adorn the card. You might notice that I also added shading aound my image panel with VersaMagic Wheat chalk ink while the panel was still in the Nestie.

Mini-Bella McKenzie found time to get creative this week...here's her Bella bunny.

Next week's challenge is this sketch from Danabella. I love sketches, it makes cardmaking twice as easy. So grab your favorite Bella image and some yummy papers and give this sketch a try. Then send a copy of your card to emily@stampingbella.com by Thursday night. One lucky participant wins $20 in Bella bucks and one lucky commentor wins $10. Now head on over to the Bella Blog to see what the other sitahs have to contribute.

I'm also sharing a creation from my cousin's daughter - mini-bella, McKenna. Love how she used design paper and a sentiment to turn her image into the perfect Easter card.


Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your weekend!

Cath

Create...

I have a fun project to share with you today. I told you that I recently visited a scrapbook store and found tons of inspiration. One of the things they had in abundance was banners. Well, I've decided to channel some of that energy into papercrafting projects to decorate my craft space. I love banners so I've taken some of the paper and embellishments that I hoard and incorporated them into something for me. Understanding why we hoard might help here. I KNOW that I hoard because I find things I love and don't want to part with. Why do I torture myself if I don't also use them? So, I've pulled my Webster's Pages papers because I love the colors and the prints but find that the 12x12 papers I have are too big in scale for my cards. They also had coordinating colors to work with on the back and it made this project easy to do.

Kelly Lunceford makes holiday banners and posts them quite frequently. I remembered that she also posted a tuitorial so I headed to her blog and found exactly what I was looking for here. It's a step by step lesson on how she creates her gorgeous banners. It was easy but time consuming to do this project but I am tickled pink with the result. I did make one slight change to her directions and that was to add large eyelets in soft pastel shades to match each flag. I then tied a bow with seam binding tape to join each flag to the next. Kelly uses staples and I was too afraid that it wouldn't stand the test of time.


You'll find glitter, seam binding tape I hand dyed, buttons, a rhinestone dragonfly, a gold leaf, paper flowers, punched butterflies, and lucious Martha Stewart ribbon adorning this inspirational banner. I even pulled my Slice machine out to cut the letters. I didn't have chipboard letters but thought I would try the tool that sits and collects dust to see if it could finally earn it's keep. It did! The font is from the Back to School cartridge cut 4 inches. They were exactly what I was looking for.

I'm very hesitant to hang things on the wall just yet but this is attached with some straight pins so the impact to the wall is minimal. Woo Hoo. I can definately see me making some more of these!

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

Cath

Scribble Garden

Sure wish it was time to get into the ol garden. For now I'll have to rely on my stamps. This is one of the January releases from Stamping Bella. Scribble Garden is another pretty big stamp so I borrowed an idea from fellow babe - Danabella and just captured part of it in the Nestie die.

I used the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge#106 for the layout. If you haven't tried these yet, you should head on over and check it out. Sure makes cardmaking easier. I struggled with a layout until I saw this and had the aaahaaa moment.

Design papers are October Afternoon, Cardstock is Bazzil and some scraps I had around. Coloring was done with Copics on Bella's Bestest paper, stamped with Memento Tuxedo black ink with additional shading done using prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. Some of the little extras are picket fence border by Martha Stewart, brown pearls by Kaiser craft, cork border cut using MFT die-namic, brown velvet ribbon, computer generated sentiment and a handmade seam binding tape rosette. This was way easy - I even hand died to this color. Such fun.

Hope you enjoy your Saturday.

Cath

Butterfly Delight

When I saw the Flutterby stamp released by Stamping Bella for the January CHA convention I was psyched. I love butterflies and this one looked so whimsical and fun. I will tell you that today's card, like the life of a butterfly, did have an evolution though. I actually made three before I was happy with the result.

It started here...
The stamp is rather large so pairing it with design paper on a card, I found to be a challenge. So I decided to make my own. I stamped the image multiple times onto Bella's Bestest paper using Memento Tuxedo black ink but made sure that I only had one full impression. Then I colored with copics and adorned with a vellum sentiment banner. I liked how the flower embellishment on the button matched the flowers around the butterfly.

My second try came after seeing a photo in Country Living. There were two butterfly portraits done in bright blues and greens matted white on white. Simple, classic, beautiful. Here's my attempt but it reminded me too much of Kimabella's card last week to leave as is. Husband put in his two cents and said that it was too simple, no layers of cardstock, no buttons, bows or ribbon like I usually have.

I took his comments to heart, headed back to my craft room and voila...
this is the result. I love the fun quirky stitching, reminds me of the flight pattern a butterfly might take. I love the sentiment although it's not a Bella but it gave a little simple grounding. I loved the colors of the butterfly and the pretty sparkly glitter.

So we have Bella Babes, Mini's and apparently "Bucks"; Our dear guys that love to impart their opinion in our craftdom. Do you get that in your house too? At least I have found how versitile this stamp can be.

Mini-Bella McKenzie joined us again this week. She inked up Mavis has a Daisy. Great job McKenz on your paper selection and I love your coloring too...Mavis looks like she has real fur. Not to mention that your layout looks like you're a pro.

Next week's challenge is Easter. I've had Easter on my mind for weeks now so this should be easy. If you don't have an eggy or bunny Bella stamp, why not use spring colors and pair it with an Easter sentiment? Just be sure to send a photo of your creation to emily@stampingbella.com by Thursday night.

Have a great weekend.

Cath

An Adventure Pays Off

Yesterday I went for a little adventure with Anne, my new card making buddy in Coxsackie. Actually, she's my only buddy in Coxsackie so far but we happen to share a habit of hoarding cardmaking supplies. So with a mapquest direction sheet in hand I set out for Captured Moments, the ONLY brick and mortar Scrapbooking store in the Capital Region (Albany for all my non-NY followers). It wasn't too far, about a 40 minute drive. We were mesmerized by the creative atmosphere of the place - everywhere you looked, paper altered projects were displayed along side Shabby Chic and Antique finds. I wanted to rush to Marshalls or TJ Maxx to pick some things up myself. The store was really focused on the scrapbooker but I still came home with tons of ideas and some new paper. Next up we headed to JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby (only one week old to our area) and AC Moore. We hit them all.


I was inspired to create something totaly new to me. I love Magnolia stamps. Late last year, I actually acquired my first one but it's sadly never seen ink. JoAnn's had 10% off their magazines and they sent me an additional 10% off coupon so I bought a Magnolia Ink magazine. I love the Scandanavian style of coloring with Copics and distress inks. I know there are lots of bloggers out there that do this but I wanted some hands on photo inspiration. I got it. Today I share Tilda with Piglet. Man I had fun coloring this.

I started with Bella's Bestest paper, Memento Tuxedo black ink and copics. I added additional shading with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol and Tim Holtz Distress Inks. I then cut her out with my new Fiskars Fingertip Control Swivel knife. Ok this makes cuting images out so much easier. Love it! Then I layered Spellbinders Classic ovals small, large and Beaded to created the image panel. I added distress inks again for a more rustic look and added Viva Decor Paper Pen in cream for the look of pearls. The sentiment is by Stamping Bella and I made it into a banner. Soft blue velvet ribbon and a scrap of white crochet ribbon help to ground the image and again give a shabby chic feel. Cardstock is Bazzil and design paper is the back side of Daisy Dreams from the Jack n'Jill Collection by Prima Marketing.

Here's a closeup...


So what do ya think? Totaly outside my comfort zone but I like the result.

Have a great day!

Cath

Chatty Cathy

If there ever was a statement made just for me it would be this...Chatty Cathy. The Cathy part for obvious reasons but if you've gotten to know me you would also know that I could talk your ear off. I consider myself shy (ok, no laughing from the peanut gallery) you didn't let me finish...until I get to know you. To know you, I can talk a mile a minute.


Back in my High School days, this image by Stamping Bella had me pegged to a "T". My Dad used to give me a three minute talk limit. Are you serious? Do you know how fast three minutes goes when you are talking about Dave and Todd and Bobby? Not to mention what Debbie, Kristen and Eileen said. So I often got "yelled" at to get off the phone. Today, give me my craft room and I'm good. I hate to sit on the phone. Dad, you should have bought me stamps!

I hit a brick wall for this card though folks. I started this image for the Bellariffic Friday Aquamarine color challenge. But it didn't have exactly what I was looking for. I slept on it...well, not literally, but when I woke up today I had a slight vision and this is how it came together. I like how the design paper by K&Company was just lying across my cardstock. To use a die to cut it out, we would loose alot of it. So, I cut off the edges that hung over and glued it down. Then I used my Stamp-a-majig to align my sentiment (also by Stamping Bella) going down the label 14 Nestie die. I was quite pleased with how easy it was to make this linear stamp vertical. I then added shading with VersaMagic chalk ink and a sponge while the paper was still in the Nestie. It creates a nice white border and I like the contrast.

Paulabella and I went on an adventure in August and bought this lovely pink rosette ribbon. It's taken me this long to use it. However, I've taken it out about a gazillion times and it never seemed quite right. I like that it fits my sentiment as well. And of course, so do the rhinestones I added for just a little bling.

Card Details: Bella's Bestest paper, Bazzil cardstock, K&Company baby girl design pack, Memento Tuxedo black ink, copics, prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol, VersaMagic chalk ink, swarkovski crystals, Spellbinders Labels 14,Long Classic and Scalloped rectangles dies, rosette ribbon from Archivers.

I'm off to finish my Bellariffic Friday Challenge card. Ebru gave us a wonderful color photo for inspiration. Need more, you can also google Aquamarine images. Since Aquamarine is the birthstone for March we thought it fitting to use for our first March challenge. Get your rubbah out and get playing. You still have time to send a photo to emily@stampingbella.com. Check out Stamping Bella on Facebook too and upload a photo for the gallery there as well.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cath