Time to hang the Wreath

Happy Bellariffic Friday everyone!  I felt inspired to make a holiday card with the wonderful photo we had to work with this week.  Here it is..

What I took from this is the splash of Kraft, brilliant colors - using the DP from Crate Paper, and the holiday wreath using Mo Manning's image Hannah with Wreath released in rubber through Stamping Bella.  I also started my Christmas shopping last night and I felt inspired to get in the Holiday Spirit!

Here's my take: 

 

 

I stamped Hannah onto Bella's Bestest white and colored her with copics.  I added glitter with a Quickie Glue pen for the appearance of snow lightly falling.  I used a corner punch to soften the edges and to match the Spellbinder Lattice Rectangle I had chosen to matt with.  The paper bow accent is an MFT die.  The whole thing sits on Bella's Bestest Kraft paper.

 

Next week we have another sketch to work with.  Hope you can find the time to join us!

 

 

 

 

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

Cath

Know Joy!

I'm a little late for the Bellariffic Friday sketch challenge from last week...last week was one heck of a week for me.  Work kept me so busy that all I did was eat, work and sleep...repeat.  I needed the weekend to recharge a little.  Ever have one of those...I mean I didn't want to do a thing!  Anyway, I finished the day today with more done than not done so I decided to come home from work and give the craft room a try as well.

Using last week's sketch, I colored up Uptown Girls The Three Amigas.  I stamped them onto Bella's Bestest paper and colored with copics.  I then added surround shading with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol.  Glitter was added too for some holiday sparkle.  I had to flip the sketch...the twine bow atop the button kept bending to the right so it kept covering the face of Amiga number 1 the other way.  I've learned to not fret so much and just go with the flow so I decided it would work just as well on the other side.  The sentiment is a portion of the sentiment that comes with the stamp.

Design paper is My Mind's Eye 12x12 Holly Jolly.  It's a few years old but I love the bold patterns.  The cardstock is Bazzil and the ribbon is Stampin' Up!  I can't believe the holiday season is upon us but these gals get me in the spirit to live it up!

Next week our challenge is a photo inspiration...lots to get you in the mood with this one.  Hope we get to see your creation in the Friday lineup. 

Don't forget to send a photo of your creation to Emily@stmapingbella.com by Thursday evening.  The stop on by the Blog to see what everyone else has done.  There's always Bella Bucks up for grabs and we'll be hunting for the January Guest designer from the challenge participants.

Have a great week!

Cath

Reindeers are on their way...

As much as I had to admit it, fall is about to fade away and bring with it the next Holiday Season.  And that means snow and Christmas aren't that far behind.  I might not be ready for the white stuff yet, but I'm trying to get a start on my holiday stash of cards.  Again, I tend to color up some favorites every year.  This is one of those...  And you're in luck, Reindeer Circle is on sale in Bella land. 

 

 

I stamped this onto Bella's Bestest paper and colored with copics, added shading with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol and sparkle with glitter.  Spellbinder circle dies were used to cut this out and layer up.  A Tim Holtz die was used to back it.  I stamped the sentiment from Uptown Girl Christmas Tree (which seems to be out of stock) and cut using the MFT Flag stax die-namic.  Dew Drops colored with copics to match and machine stitching finish this off.

 

Design paper is a combination of My Mind's Eye 12x12 and SEI.  Card is 5 1/2 x 5 1/2.

Thanks for stopping by - I'll be back on Friday for our "stitch it up" challenge.

Cath

Christmas in July!!

This is one of my favorite challenges!  Here we are in a heat wave in Upstate NY and the thought of some cooling winter weather sounds somewhat appealing!  I said somewhat - I am still lovin' the sun!  The Babes at Stamping Bella will all be pulling out some holiday inspiration for ya and maybe you can get a head start on this year's stash.  I decided to color Uptown Girls the Three Amigas.  Oooh this was a fun one and I had some inspiration from Suzzane Dean.  I think I found her card while cruising  Pinterest. I was lovin' her green and black color palette and went with it here.

 

 

Don't you just love these girls?  Who wouldn't be having fun with a pretty holiday dress and a fun drink to boot!  Of course I had to add some sparkle too so there is an assortment of glitter as well.

 

Design paper is Making Memories, snowflakes are MFT Let it Snowflake Die-namics, pearls are Kaiser.  Finished card is 6x6.

 

Next week we have another sketch in Bella land. 

 

 

We'd love to see you play along.  Send a photo of your card to Emily by Thursday night to Emily@stampingbella.com and you'll be included in the weekly blog lineup.  No time to create, that's ok too.  But head on over to the blog for some inspiration and leave a comment.  There's Bella Bucks up for grabs every week.

 

Stay cool!

 

Cath

Theme Red

When given a challenge to use red in the month of December I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to color my favorite holiday image - Santa. This is Magnolia Santa and I've had him for a few years now but unbelievably he's never seen ink! I know - as crazy as it sounds, I hardly find time to get all the shopping done yet alone cards to send to family. But I'm on track and taking some time to just relax in the holiday moments. It was wonderful to color this. And better yet ~ it's for a purpose. First, I've been asked to participate on the Oozak Design team. Oozak is a Michigan online company that I've used to buy my copics and my favorite designer papers. Not having a local paper/crafting store has sent me to the internet and Oozak is fast, competitve and convenient. I'll be participating with the monthly challenges through March. Second, I get to send this to a great niece. I'm sure she'll be thrilled to get it.

So, I stamped the image onto my Bella's Bestest paper and colored with copics. I then added surround shading with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. Glitter abounds in the fur and santa's beard - just for some holiday cheer. I stamped two additional snowflakes using a Judith stick stamp. The sentiment is from Stamping Bella. Design paper came from Oozak this summer - it's October Afternoon Holiday Style and I was thrilled to find it in stock. I love October Afternoon papers and Oozak stocks them woohoo. The edges of everything were dipped in Quickie Glue and Charcoal glitter. Love all the sparkle to this card!

Here's the link so you can join in on this month's challenge and link up your card for the chance to win a collection of 6 books from Annie's, and a value of $90.

Thanks for stopping by and hopefully you have a Merry Christmas season.

Cath

Henry has a plea....

So you might have seen that I hacked Hannah on last week's Bellariffic Friday challenge. Yup, so with her twin Henry, I decided we needed to color the whole image. I stamped Henry with Wreath, a Mo Manning image released in rubber through Stamping Bella onto Bella's Bestest paper. I then colored him with copics and cut him out. I mounted him onto Graphic 45 Christmas Past 8x8 design paper. I know - it's an older paper pack but I end up buying every holiday pad I can find and end up with lots of paper to use from season to season. Crazy but I jsut gotta have a ton of paper. I picked this piece for the santa's in the design. This card will be going to my one year old nephew - Henry and his three year old brother John Patrick and they're perfect Santa age.

I used and EK Success bunch to create the border and mounted hand cut flags from scrap paper along with a quirky computer generated sentiment - "I was nice Santa". I could hear my nephews making this plea as they sit on Santa's lap. Hehe! I tied the flags with natural hemp twine and topped it with a black button.

Wanna see a close up? Love, Love, Love the way this turned out. Looks so similar to my own little Henry. Now I'm off to work on my Tag card for this week's Bellariffic Friday challenge. Hmmmm what image shall I use????

See you back here on Friday!

Cath

It's Snowing Outside!!!!

Yipee, I woke up to snowflakes gently falling from the sky! It's so darn pretty and it's our first of the season. Puts me in the perfect mood to make a holiday card. I wanted to go a wee bit more simplistic than I usually do but I saw a few ideas in cyberland that had me thinking.

I pulled out my new Bella Kraft cardstock, red ink pad, white paper scraps (I have a ton of these), some red and white twine a red button and two Bella Stamps - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year sentiment and the Reindeer and the Birdie where I just stamped the small pine trees.

Sometimes ya just need the quick and easy and this foot the bill.

I'm off to try some holiday shopping. Enjoy your weekend folks!

Cath

Peaceful wishes

Hello folks. I promised you my second holiday card from last week's Bellariffic Friday post. I've been eyeing the Peace On Earth sentiment stamp from Stamping Bella for a while now and finally added to the shopping cart with my last purchase. Here it is showcased with Reindeer Circle, another one of my all time favorite holiday images.

I've kept this a soft pallet using the design paper from Stampin' Up! as my inspiration. Pretty easy card - and it would be perfect to duplicate for mass production. I stamped the sentiment with a sage green ink onto cream cardstock and cut with a Sizzix die. The Reindeer was stamped onto Bella's Bestest paper and colored with copics. I added glitter for the appearance of snow and stitched up several circle dies to layer with Bazzil cardstock scraps. A sheer green ribbon bow was added to finish it off.

See, pretty easy right?

I have another one coming using the Merry sentiment so stayed tuned.

Have a great week.
Cath

Cold Weather is coming....

Hope you've had a productive weekend! I spent lots of time in my craft room. First organizing and finally taking things out of boxes. Now that the house is ours, I thought it was time to see what I have and what I've been missing. What I found is that I still have LOTS of stuff that I just don't need anymore. So I filled a box of items to donate to my local Girl Scout Daisy troop. It's perfect for an activity box when they need fill in time.

I also spent time up on the mountaintop today. There were spots of snow hiding in shady areas but it was mostly just COLD. It was the first time I pulled out the hat and gloves of the season. And I rode my bike for the first time in two months. It felt awesome even if it was cold. No worries, I had a down coat on and the fur hood even fit over my helmet so my head stayed warm. The adventure became the inspiration for this afternoon's creativity session in my now organized craft room. I pulled out Stamping Bella's Hat and Mitts. Ya know that I stamped them onto Bella's Bestest paper and colored them with copics. It was pretty easy actually and I only used 5 copics - R39, R37, R35, R32 and YG97. For the fur I did breakout W1 and W3 and then applied Flocking onto Quickie Glue. Also couldn't resist adding some glitter to the mittens. Of course, I then cut them out and popped them up onto Dimensionals. The side embellishment is paper cut using Memory Box Frosty Border die. I topped it with Kaiser half pearls.

Fellow Babe Marybella is probably loving that I made this into a circle card. Pretty easy with Nesties. I used circles and squares to make the base and image panel. The sentiment is from the Uptown Girl Christmas Tree set. I applied it with VersaMark and then added black heat embossing powder. Design paper is Simple Stories Generations 6x6. And here's a quick view of the inside. This was easy too - it was from the paper pack - Woo Hoo.

Now I'm off to work on Friday's Bellariffic Challenge card....add SNOW. Hope you find time to play along!

Ciao for now,
Cath

Charlie's waiting on the Chimney

Here we are once again celebrating Bellariffic Friday. Today's challenge was a sketch and I've stretched some boundaries with this one. First I flipped it. Then, the center had two layered rectangles but I used a circle in a square. Annnnd I cut the image out because I love doing that.

I started by stamping one of Stamping Bella's newest Uptown Girls, Charlie Waits by the Chimney onto Bella's Bestest paper. I colored her with copics, added glitter and then cut her out. She was placed atop an Oval Nestie cut from Red cardstock and then mounted again on a circle. Design papers are by My Minds's Eye. I've tied the center of the card with a red seam binding ribbon bow. Last embellishments are a trio of red half pearls across the top and bottom.

Here's a closeup...

Next week our challenge is Halloween - Image or Colors. One of my most favorite challenges because I LOVE this time of year. Hope you can play along with us.

And now I'e like to share with you the newest Babarooni...Mary Johnson. Mary has been one of my most avid commentors this past year. I've been following her blog and love all her wonderful creations...and boy can she color!!! Imagine my surprise when I received an email welcoming Mary to the Bella Family. You could have heard me screaming WEEEEE all the way to the UK where Mary lives. So Mary, welcome once again. Now head on over to her blog "Where's My Creativity" to check out her work for yourself.

Ciao for now,
Cath

October Release...

Hey Stamping Bella fans, have you seen all the new images Emily released yesterday? I have another card to share with you using a new stamp by designer Rheea. It's called a Little Something for You. I wanted to go a little non-traditional and used teal, burgandy and green as my color palette.

I started by stamping onto Bella's Bestest paper and colored with copics. She was then cut using a Nestie Petite Oval die and then backed with Nestie Floral Ovals. The edges were sponged with first Wheat Versamagic Chalk ink and then Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Weathered Wood. The balloons were given a heaping coat of Stampin' Up! Crystal Effects so they'd shine and I sprinkled glitter in the skyline. The background paper is Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather and matted in Bazzil. A ribbon bow from my stash was meant to wrap this in yumminess and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to add a big rhinestone to anchor the sentiment panel.

If you haven't seen all the new images, head on over to the Bella Blog or the Shop to see. I know that my order will be going in today so you'd better leave some inventory for me ok? And in case you needed a little help paying for it all, Em has a special offer through Monday - get 15% off your entire order. Just add code: October2012.

Ciao for now and have a super fantastic day!
Cath

Christmas in July

Hello folks! This week's Bellariffic Friday challenge was Christmas in July. Now I know that waiting until November to start Holiday cards is not very wise but I have to tell ya I felt a little wierd pulling out my Holiday stamps when I've been sweltering in the 100 degree heat. It's been a very dry, hot summer so far - not that I am complaining since my little neck of the woods was flooded at the end of last summer, but it sure has made it a little challenging to find creative mojo. Especially since my wonderful craft room doesn't have air conditioning grrrr..

Ah well, we must make use of the resources we have so to save time and energy and simply because I loved it, I used the SSSC by Karen Giron once again! It was perfect for Uptown Girl Eve Under the Mistletoe. I even liked the way her skirt was flared out of the image panel! So, I started by stamping Eve onto Bella's Bestest paper using Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored with copics. I did add depth shading on the ruffles of her skirt using Tuscan Red prismacolor pencil with gamsol as well as the surround shading. The belt buckle was given a little shine with a Sakura Black Glaze pen. The fur was given a little leopard look by adding Charcoal Opaque glitter by Sparkle N Sprinkle. The mistletoe berries were popped with a Viva Decor paper pen in cream.

The image panel was cut and matted using Nestie dies. The sentiment came with the image and was hand made into a tab using a corner punch. The design paper is Christmas Home by Teresa Collins. I love snow flakes - all colors - and this simple black and white pattern made me so happy! I knew a splash of red would be the perfect pop and the swirls on the pattern reminded me of a snowy, blowy day. I know I have quite the imagination. I finished it off with a seam binding bow topped with a button I found in the parking lot...ya just never know where you'll find embellishments...and tied with black twine.

Next week we're helping you out with a sketch again. Sure hope you'll give it a try with us. Just send a photo of your creation to Emily@stampingbella.com. There's Bella Bucks up for grabs to one lucky participant. If you don't have time to create, drop in to the Bella Blog to see some inspiration from the sistahs and leave a comment, we have Bella Bucks up for grabs there too!

Enjoy your weekend!
Cath

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to send everyone some holiday greetings. I'll make this short and sweet because I'm sure that you are running around to finish your preparations or you're heading to a holiday party...

This is one of my all time favorite Christmas images from Stamping Bella. It's called Merry Christmas branch with birdies. The scene is so peaceful...with the stark branches and little birdies holding their holiday sentiment. I've added some snow to help add to the serenity of the scene and some red stickles to the berries so they sparkle.

The main image panel was cut using a Labels 14 Nestie. Bella's Bestest paper, Memento Tuxedo black ink, copics and prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol were the main tools. The design paper is from the Echo Park 6x6 Seasonal pack I bought from the Bella online store earlier this year. I've added machine stitching and a light application of Tim Holtz distress ink in Antique Linen to the edges of the image panel along with three clear baubles from my stash. I finished it up with a red seam binding ribbon and bow topped off with a button strung with a red jute bow.

I wish you all a safe and very Merry Christmas and holiday season!

Ciao,
Cath

Over the River...

A very welcome sight this weekend was all the cars heading down the road with fresh evergreen trees on top. One of my favorite memories of Christmas past was the simple joy of heading into the woods, with a fresh coat of snow to pick out the annual Christmas tree. I had fun with that task every year with my daughter as well....until I met the dear Hubby and his kids. They would go to the Nursery at the end of the road, into the greenhouse, to the very back and pick the tallest, fatest tree. Hmpf! Daughter and I miss hunting down our tree to this day.

To keep the joy of that moment alive I have colored up "Car with tree on top" a stamp from Stamping Bella. Is that appropriate or what? I also decided to play along with fellow Babe Danabella and this weeks SSSC over on Karen Giron's blog. I have altered the sketch a little. I've turned it a bit and added the strip in front of the image instead of behind it. I was not happy with the shading of the Tim Holtz distress ink this one is Rusty Hinge...it didn't blend into the shading surrounding the image very well. So I glittered the heck out of the edge and thought it reminded me of a snow storm...perfect for the over the river and through the woods adventure.

I stamped the image onto Bella's Bestest paper of course using Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored with copics. The design paper is called Christmas Home by Teresa Collins - thank you Sissy! It's a 6x6 paper pack and I love the deep patterns. A Memory Box die was used to cut the snowflake adornment. Then I spritzed it with Ranger Perfect Pearls Mist in Heirloom gold. It's really sparkly IRL! The sentiment is also from Bella and I cut it out with Nesties Labels 19. Finished card is 6x5.

Love the fun feel of this stamp...it brings a smile to my face!

Hope you enjoy.

See ya back here again in a little bit. I've got some catching up to do with you all.

Ciao,
Cath

Decorating with White

Hello Folks! So sorry to have dropped out of commission...my computer would not understand that the power cord WAS attached so it drained the battery. I've been struggling for weeks with it...holding the cord ever so delicately so that it recognized the much needed power source but then I'd look and it was draining again. I finally gave in and took it to the shop. This is the first time I've bought a service warranty that I actually got to use. Anyhoo, they beat their repair estimate by two weeks and that made me so happy.

So now that I'm back in commission, I have my all white card to share with you from Stamping Bella's Bellariffic Friday. I've colored Ornament with Holly. The delicate lines of this one appeal to me. So I started with Bella's Bestest paper and Memento Tuxedo black ink. Then I colored with copics but I did need prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol to add shading. Then I glittered it up.

Oh, and I added Stampin' Up! Crystal Effects onto the berries for a little shine and copper Viva Decor Pearl Pen to the "dots" on and around the ornament for just a little more pizzaz. The image was cut and layered using Nestabiites Classic Rectangles in Large and Small and then Large Scallop. I cheated a little bit if you haven't noticed...I added a layer of creamy ivory to help make the ornament pop. I also think it helps pull your eye across the page. The background was dry embossed using my new Sizzix embossing folder from the Sugar and Starry Night set. T


Next week we have a wonderful sketch from Robinabella. Hope you can find time to play along.

Ok that's it for today. But I've got some more creating to do. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and holiday preparations!

Ciao for now,
Cath

Uptown Eve Sends Holiday Cheer

It's Bellariffic Friday again and I'll keep this one short and sweet 'cuz I'll bet you want to head out to get some Black Friday shopping done if you're in the States that is...I know that's where I'm gonna be. Our challenge this week was free form.. and I colored up Uptown Girl Eve Under the Mistletoe. She looks so classy and elegant to me so I decided to color her skirt in shades of darker grays to give the appearance of black. I also wanted to add the look of fur around the edges as if she was going to an Uptown Holiday Ball.

As you have probably guessed, I stamped her onto Bella's Bestest paper using Memento Tuxedo black ink and then colored her with copics. I used cool gray colors to gain the appearance of black. Her belt buckle was done with a Black Glaze pen. The fur was accented with glitter and the mistletoe was defined with Cream Viva Decor paper pen. Shading was added to the folds of her skirt, the ground and around her using prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol.

The sentiment is actually from the Uptown Christmas Tree image. It fit perfectly onto my image panel. Well, the sentiment is a long one so once you determine the placement using the stamp-a-ma-jig tool, you can stamp one word at a time.

The design paper is from My Mind's Eye Lost and Found collection of 12x12 papers. The solid teal is actually the reverse of the glittered polka dot paper. Black carstock was used to matt and cut using the Pine branch border punch from Martha Stewart. The image is tall so the finished card size is 5x7.

Next week's challenge is Christmas/Holiday again to boost your stash. Hope you can find time to play along. Don't forget to head on over to the Bella blog to see what the rest of the Babes and sistahs have to share.

Enjoy your weekend!

Cath

Uptown Girl Christmas Tree

It's 11/11/11 today, how cool is that? Annnnd you still have the day to comment on my Blog giveaway here....I'll be announcing a winner on Saturday so I hope you find time to leave a comment.

Now, we're celebrating the upcoming Holidays in Bellaland today. For me that means time to get another Christmas card done. Woo Hoo - that's three done this week! I could not wait to get my hands on the new Uptown Holiday images. As soon as my last order arrived on my doorstep I dug Uptown Girl Christmas Tree out. Lindabella gave us a fabulous sneak peak of this and it totally inspired me.

Armed with the Sweet Sunday Sketch from this week and My Mind's Eye holiday paper I started to create. I stamped the image using Memento Tuxedo black ink onto Bella's Bestest white paper. I know it looks more like ivory but that's because I added Tim Holtz distress ink in Antique Linen all around the edges. There is also Pale Sage prismacolor pencil blended with gamsol directly surrounding the boughs of the branches but it blends in with all the shading. Most of the coloring was done with copics and then I applied lots of glitter. The string of lights also is highlighted with Sakura Gel pen in red and then topped with lots of glitter. I even sparkled the heck out of the presents under the tree.

The sentiment comes with the image so I decided to stamp it to look like a tag on a present and tucked it neatly under the red seam binding bow. Voila! Must say that I enjoyed making this card. Hope you likey!

Wanna play along with us again next week? Well we're making it easy for you and giving you another great sketch to get you started. Seems that alot of you would prefer to have this part of our challenge decided for you so you're in luck! This is once again from Ebrubella.


Can't wait to see your creations. Now head on over to the Bella blog to see the rest of the inspiration.

Enjoy your weekend. And it's Veterans Day in the US so here's a great big thank you for all they did to make our life better.

Cath

Holiday King!

It's getting to be that time of year again. The store flyers have Christmas sales all over, coupon inserts are full of baking ideas and your online Bella Babes will be showing you holiday card inspiration! I'm a little excited about all of them except maybe the baking...I'm a much better cook than I am a baker.

So what to color???? How about one of my newest images from Stamping Bella designed by the phenomial artist Cristy Croll? I adore her images and King of the Candy Canes had to make its way into my stash. I started by stamping him on Bella's Bestest paper using Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored him with copics. I used the design paper as my color inspiration. It's from a 6x6 SEI pack I bought at the end of the season last year called Kris Kringle. The red background paper is full of sparkles and the stripes caught my eye because I like the addition of the soft blue. A little untraditional but I love the color.

For my copics, I pulled out BG75, BG72 and BG70. I must tell you that I was thrilled when copics came out with BG70 but I find it doesn't blend with BG72 all that well. No problem, I simply grabbed some BG75 with my BG70 tip and it gave me a nice transition from the BG72. Phew! Shading is one of the reasons I love to color with copics. I simply love the depth it gives images.

Once I finished coloring, I cut the image out. I then applied Polar White Flower Soft along his crown and stocking top. I placed him on top of a circle cut using a Nestie and textured using a Darice "snow" embossing folder. The sentiment is also by Stamping Bella and I framed that in a panel cut using the Petite Oval Nestie large. Shading was added using Tim Holtz Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. Machine stitching and a few Swarkovski red crystals are the finishing touches.

I'm linking this to Cristy's challenge #71 for her Anything Goes challenge. November is a free form month and well that only means I have to stew on which image I want to color. Hehe and that CAN be a challenge!

Enjoy your weekend and hope you can find some holiday inspiration for this weeks Bellariffic Friday challenge.

Don't forget to leave a comment on my first blog giveaway...Friday will be here before you know it!

Ciao,
Cath

Have a little Snow?

We did! Last Saturday we only got 4 of the 12 iches predicted for our area. I know that there were many though that got more than they expected and tons lost power. Mother Nature does not seem to be happy with us this year! For this weeks Bellariffic Friday challenge we didn't go quite so extreme, but we did ask for some snow.

For that, I decided to color Mo Manning's Penguin with Gift released in rubber through Stamping Bella. I then added glitter, a sentiment and felt snowflake to tie in the theme. This image is so fun and adorable. Everytime I see him, he makes me smile. Reminds me of Happy Feet. I of course started with Bella's Bestest paper, stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored with copics. The surround shading and ground were done with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. And just as snow glistens, I added glitter to the ground here to add lots of sparkle.

Now I know this might be hard to see in the picture but I actually cut a hole in the Basix Grey Jovial design paper with a Nestie. The opening left me with a place to put the image. But I wanted to showcase it a little more so I made a scallop border with two Nesties and adorned it with more glitter and then put it over the opening. Machine stitching brought it all together. A little red twine, a felt snowflake topped with a pearl button and a Bella sentiment cut with the Stampin' Up! word sentiment punch complete the ensemble.

Next week we're looking for Holiday cards! I for one am thrilled to get some in my stash. So pull out your favorite Bella Holiday stamp and get at it. But don't forget to send a photo of your creation to Emily@stampingbella.com by Thursday to be included in the Friday lineup. Then head on over to the Bella Blog to see all the inspiration.

Lastly, the Bella Babes are look for your help. In your opinion, what challenges do you like to see? What do you like to participate in the most; sketch challenges, themed or perhaps color challenges? Please leave me a comment or go to Emily's blog and leave it there! We are gathering valuable information for the upcoming season and YOU have some say in it!

Have a great weekend!

Thanks for stopping by.
Cath

Irma & Vieno

I am sooooo glad that Mo Manning has brought her fabulous images to Stamping Bella! I simply love to color them. And this pair, Irma and Vieno, part of the latest August release are no exception.

We were given the sketch from Paulinabella so thankfully one decision was down. Next came the paper which was a recent purchase of My Mind's Eye 6x6 pads. This one is from the Lost and Found Christmas collection. I stamped the pair onto Bella's Bestest paper with Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored with copics. I added the look of aging with Tim Holtz Distress Inks and surround shading with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol.

Other extras are velvet ric ribbon, a felt snowflake with a Ruby rhinestone and glitter - lots of it. It's one of the best things about snow scenes...you can make them sparkle like real snow by applying glitter with a Quickie Glue Pen. The sentiment is also from Stamping Bella and was cut using a Spellbinders Nesties pennant die.

Next week your challenge is to add some POP to your creation, ya know like dimensionals to Pop something up. Now that's an easy one. I do that alot on my cards so the image panel draws you in or under a button or flower. Don't forget to head on over to the Bella blog to see what the rest of the sistahs have come up with.

Enjoy your week!

Cath