Spencer the Bookworm

I couldn't resist Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge again this week. And to mix things up a bit, I have a non-holiday image colored up. I've read through your comments and have determined that a few more boys cards are in order...it's so easy to do girl cards and I have way more uses for them but I guess a little attention to the boys wouldn't be so bad!

So here's a Green Bean Baby image called Spencer the Bookworm. I love to read! The layout was nice and easy and paper from the My Mind's Eye Lime twist line called Fly A Kite was my color inspiration. I stamped Spencer onto Bella's Bestest paper using Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored him with copics. The ground and surround shading was done with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. Believe it or not, I didn't use one Nestie on this card! Now that's quite a feat since I love those dies. But alas, the only adornment is the border cut using an EK Success punch. Oh and I did add some Stampin' Up! Crystal Effects on Spencer's glasses to make them look a little more real.

That's it. Pretty easy!


Now we're almost mid week and I hope you have time to play along with our Bellariffic Friday challenge. This week we have a sketch from Ebru. I must tell you that I found it very easy to incorporate into a card. Yup, I colored like a banshee over the weekend and I have my card done. Now don't forget to send a photo of your creation to Emily@stampingbella.com and you might win some Bucks!

Ciao for now!
Cath

We have a Winner!

So sorry for the late post on this...I have all my kids coming into town next week since they are scattered all over the East Coast now, out on their own and not everyone could take time to head "home" to Rochester for the Thanksgiving holiday. We will be having our own pre-holiday bash exploring the mountains, heading to Breaking Dawn and telling tales to new "friends" the kids are bringing home. I'm super psyched and had a bit of grocery shopping we had to get done today. I was up bright and early coloring but I didn't have time to post.

So without further ado...the winner of my blog candy is ..... well, Anonymous. Yup, someone left an anonymous post and her lucky number came in.


Someone said, "Cathabella,Thanks so much for giving back!! I don't comment on your post & I should, as all I would ever say is how beautiful & what an inspiration you are to me... I have your blog on my tool bar!!! We have an old 1800's victorian that we have restored. It's our vacation home in the old mining town of the beautiful Mt's of Georgetown CO. We allow our friends,family & do auctions for donations, for free,as we feel so bery blessed to have it. We are not wealthy! God has just blessed us with this home & we want to,"Give Back" as well. Thank you for your inspiration!!!

So, I don't know how to identify you other than we share a love of small mountain towns but it looks like God has found a way to give back to you too! Please contact me by email by next Thursday at craftycath@gmail.com and I'll send your goodies out ASAP. If for some reason this isn't claimed, I'll pick again and announce it on Friday.

Thank you everyone for all your wonderful comments, for following me,and for encouraging me. The past year as a Bellababe has been fantabulous and I've learned so much from everyone!

Ok, now I do have a card for you today too!

Ebrubella gave me a wonderful idea this week with her Bellariffic Friday card. She colored up Snowman with Cardinal designed by Mo Manning but released in rubber through Stamping Bella. Her sketch was of a scallop matted circle with snowflakes. I had an aha moment. What if I made it to look like a snowglobe and added the snowflakes as if it was just shaken? So I googled snow globes and hand sketched a base. I cut it out onto a peice of faux wood Cosmo Cricket Wanted 6x6 paper and then added Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink so it looked like a stained piece of wood. I stamped the image onto Bella's Bestest paper using Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored with copics. I also added lots of glitter cuz this snowman is in a fresh snowstorm. The background paper looked perfect to me with the birdies all over. It came from the Mistletoe Memory Box 6x6 pack.

Liquid pearls topped with glitter was used for the snow on the ground. The snowflake was stamped using a Judith stick stamp using Memento London Fog ink.

Ok - I've got some more stamping to do before the day is done so enjoy and I'll see ya back here soon.

Ciao, 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

You Perk Me Up!

All the posts about snow and the holidays had me thinking about a nice cup of joe or maybe it's hot chocolate. Who doesn't love to come in from the cold to enjoy a nice cup of something hot? And the holidays also have me thinking about early morning shopping trips and a quick stop for some Starbucks! I'm starting to get a little excited. Thanksgiving is quickly approaching and so is the annual family Black Friday shopping trip and lunch! Woo Hoo and lots of us will actually be home this year to participate. I'm going to digress for a minute here but I thought I would share a funny...we sold our house in our hometown so now our visits back require us to stay with my Mom. Well Mom has my sister and her growing family coming in and my brother with his three boys so there's not much room in the inn so to speak. Hubby and I will be staying at a hotel. And since we will only have one car I'll need a little help getting places. I asked him for his thoughts about transportation for Friday and he told me he would bring me anywhere I wanted/needed to be...but does it have to be at 4 am he said. OMG he had me cracking up! Of course he does!

Sooo let's get back to my card.

I used this weeks Sweet Sunday Sketch and immediately flipped it too! Danabella has a tendancy to do that and I just loved the way it looked so I followed her. My image is Perk Me Up Peeps and it comes with the sentiment! I stamped it onto Bella's Bestest paper using Memento Tuxedo black ink. I then paper pieced the cup and colored the Peeps with copics. I added lots of shading on the paper and under the cup using prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. I couldn't resist adding a winter theme since I had the Basic Grey Jovial design paper on my desk.

I had some crap on my fingers when I was working with the image panel and it made a smudge. I ended up covering it up with some clear baubles in the upper right hand corner. The snowflake border punch is from EK Success and I finished it off with machine stitching.

Check out Karen's blog to see the rest of this weeks creations.

How's your holiday card coming for this weeks Bellariffic Friday challenge? You still have time to join us. Send a photo of your creation to emily@stampingbella.com by Thursday night and you may win some Bella bucks!

Thanks for stopping by.

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

11/1/11 and a prize is up for grabs

Hello folks. I have a few of my favorite Stamping Bella treasures up for grabs. But I need your help. You see, it's been a year since I joined the Bella Babes and I've been ever so grateful for all the sistahs who stop in to see my creations. So I have some of the items I use on just about every card I make to giveaway...Bella's Bestest paper, Black Glaze pens, Memento Tuxedo black ink pad and refill, Quickie glue pen and Bella glitter, Tim Holtz distress ink and sponge applicator, Bella Baubles, and of course Bella stamps! One of which is from the new Uptown Girls line.

I think the month of November puts me in a thankful mood. I often recall how I started with this craft and the people I've met along my journey that have influenced me. I start with my Mom who asked me to join her in a Stampin' Up! class, Lizzy from my LSS who showed me so many new card styles and techniques, Jen del Muro whose own blog giveaway got me to start my blog and then Lizzy who showed me how. Brenda encouraged me to bring copic classes to Mary Maxim but Paula showed me how to color. Sure I had my Copic certification, but Paula showed me how to add depth to images so they came to life. Through her I found Emily and I can't explain the thrill I felt when she called me Cathabella. With that I've gotten to meet more Babes (Dana, Ebru, Linda, Pauline, Robin and Regan) at Bellaland and Scrapfest and Leslie too and they've given me friendships I adore. Then there's you, one of the many faces that visit me each week and leave me comments and encouragement! You're my blog friends and an integral part of my day...I Love Ya!

So, as I start this next year, I'd love to hear from you. Tell me what you've liked about my cards or images or posts this past year. Was there something I did that stands out more than all the others or perhaps there's something you'd like to see? Leave me a comment and we'll see what I can do. Here's some rules...

1) Feel free to leave me a new comment on this post each day from now through 11/11/11 (how cool is this date?). I will announce a winner on Saturday, November 12th.

2) You will have one chance in the pot for each comment you make.

3) Since it's my followers that keep me going, feel free to leave two comments a day if you follow my blog. Not a follower yet, no problem you can start now. And for those of you not signed up with Blogger, I allow annonymous comments. Just leave me an email address so I can get in touch with you.

That's it...no hoops and no need to have a blog or post anything on it.

Thank you for keeping me going each and every week!

Good Luck friends!
Cath