Fast Friday

I'm not really sure how it got to be Friday, this week was really a blur...I thought this would be the perfect day to show a fast card, the plan was to post this first thing this am, but...you know what they say about plans...'a plan is just one more thing that can and will go wrong'. So here it is Friday night and I'm finally getting around to blogging. Kelly was kind enough to share her walkabella stamp with me a while back, I discovered this week it's nice to have a stack of pre-stamped images so you're ready to go when the urge to color strikes...I'm not the only one with those urges am I...

It's hard to tell from the photo but the bella's dress, purse and shoes are colored with sparkly spice pen in hot pink to match the fab Bella Blvd paper and her cute pup is flocked.

Stamps: Stamping Bella (walkabella)
Colors: Copics
Patterned Paper: Bella Blvd
Ribbon: JoAnn's
Cardstock: PTI(white) and Prism (black)

Speaking of fabulous cards...tomorrow is the big 'pop-up' frenzy at Scrapbook Destination. Mother Nature and her' storm that never came' got in the way last week; even though it was a bummer it gave us to time to make our projects extra fab.

We're using the new sizzix dies designed by Colorado's own amazingly brilliant Karen Burniston. Yes, those dies you've seen in the magazines and on TV in our store with the originator. Check out my cards...and everyone else's on the store blog and if you're in the area stop by tomorrow and make some.

Now I'm off to spend a wild Friday night prepping all the cards...talk about a labor of love.

How about some cards?

Well, sadly my vacation week is coming to a close, and with only about half of my list complete, c'est la vie, you can't fight mother nature and as it turns out because of the little fit she decided to through on Thursday, I was quite productive in creative areas. Here are a few cards I created during the week.




Stamps: Stampin' Up
Ink: Stampin Up
Cardstock:Bazzil
Patterned Paper, Embellies: Making Memories


How cute are these new Owlies from Stamping Bella?


Stamps: Stamping Bella (Branching Out Owlies), PTI (sentiment)
Ink: Memento
Colors: Prismacolors
Patterned Paper:Bo Bunny
Cardstock: Bazzil
Diecuts: Nestabilities
Punch: Stampin Up
Ribbon: ???



Stamps: StampingBella(Partygirlabella, Billboardabella sentiment)
Ink: Memento
Colors: Copics
Patterned Paper:Making Memories(stripe, orange) Basic Grey(Hot Pink)
Cardstock: Bazzil
Diecuts: Quickutz
Other: Glitter

Hope you have a great week!

Everybody's workin for the weekend...

It's been a while since I've shared some cards with the beautiful bellas, didn't want you to think I'd abandoned them for 'younger models'. A challenge is held on the Bella Blog every Friday, hello intimidation! it will be a while before I share there.

For now, I'll just share here


I felt like playing with pink and green, love these colors together, takes me back to my 80's childhood.

Supplies:
Stamp: Ballonabella
Patterned Paper: Making Memories
Ribbon:Making Memories
Cardstock: Bazzill
Colors:Copics
Extras: Glitter, Scalloped scissors, glossy accents

I made this one with some BG scraps from a layout I'll share at some point. Sorry for blurry pic


Supplies:
Stamp: Goodluckabella
Patterned Paper: Basic Grey Porcelain, I even paper pieced her top with this paper and then went over it with a Spica glitter pen
Cardstock: PTI Vintage Cream
Colors: Copics
Extras: Stickles

Welcome to the weekend

A couple of cards

It's early Saturday morning and I'm on a mission to get several of the crafty projects I finished recently, posted. I don't know why downloading and cropping the photos has seemed like a monumental task the past week, then again everything seemed a little more difficult this week.

This first card I like to call 'Ode to Inky Button'. I worked a class that the fabulous Angela taught last week on two of my favorite things, Bellas and Copics. She was kind enough to stamp a couple of images of girls I don't have so I could play with them at home. I set out to make an Angela-esque card with Cupcakeabella. While mine is not nearly as cute as hers, I think I worked in most of the Inky Button trademarks. Let's see...Bella? Check!, Ticket edges? Check! Bling? Check! Copic layering? Check! Embossing Folder? Check! Black Ribbon? Check although for true IB style it should be wider. Glassy Accents? Check!




Supplies:
Stamp: Cupcakeabella
Cardstock: Hammermill(White) Prism (Green) Bazzil (Pink)
Bling: Kaiser Craft
Other: Cuttlebug Embossing folders, QK scallop circle

This second card has quickly become one of my all time favorites. I designed it for the January Frenzy at the store, but of course forgot to post it here...or did I post, hmm I guess I should have checked before I started this post. C'est la vie.



Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzil
Patterned Paper: 'tres old' Tres Jolie, MME
Ribbon: AC
Other: QK Thank You Goosebumpz, Tim Holtz ruler --- I love, love, love this ruler... so I went to find a picture of this ruler in case you wanted to run out and get one and you needed a picture and found something even better...because I know how much we all love Tim, how about a demo from Tim himself.



Happy Saturday!

A little bella love

So far so good on my resolution to do something creative everyday. I started this card last night and then poor Tanner threw up his dinner in the middle of my craft room. Cleaning up doggy vomit is just about the funnest thing next to cleaning up what comes out the other end. (oops probably an overshare there). The silver lining was it gave me time to reflect on this card and see it in the light of day when I realized I had it on some pink paper that really didn't match this ribbon. I've been trying to work this ribbon into a project since last week when I uncovered it when organizing my ribbon. Super excited that QK finally came out with a label die, I had to use it right away.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink
Paper: Heidi Grace (On dress)
Colors: Copics
Stamps: Stamping Bella(winobella), CHF(Mona Lisa Sentiments: Cheers)
Ribbon: All My Memories (yep, AMM been in the stash a looooong time)
Other: QK label, Fiskars scallop punch, Glassy Accents

Need more bella inspiration, check out the great work on the bella-riffic Friday blog.

Anyway...

Happy New Year!

I hope your year is off to a great start...have you made any resolutions? I made just a few hopefully doable. One of them was to be creative in someway everyday...so far so good.

I finished a layout I started at Viv's on Tuesday, it will most likely be the Sunday sketch on the store blog on Sunday. I thought it was about time I posted something here first. I don't know what possessed me to so the diagonal strips...what a pain, never again...well, maybe...I do like the way they turned out. I just need to come up with a shortcut to get the angles correct, I know I have a protractor around here somewhere.


Then I was once again inspired by Becky and decided to take her challenge to create a page about things that make me happy using the scraps laying around. I had this vision of a page made of scalloped circles...sadly, the vision just didn't come together, truly I tried stapling and stitching and it just didn't work. Plan B...a scalloped circle border...much better although scanning and merging didn't do it justice. I'm not sure about the finished page...I think it's a bit ironic that it's about my scrapbook style, but not really my style. What I do appreciate it that it stretched me creatively to finish and that's what this year is all about (at least I hope it will be)
,

Saturday, Saturday

(I'm not responsible if Elton John's Saturday Night jumps in your head and stays there all day after reading the title, just know I'll probably be in the same pain)


I swear that the weeks leading up to Christmas go faster than any others, and the weekend is sure to fly by too. It's the annual gift frenzy at the store, I am bringing back the bazzil ribbon mini-album. I'm always surprised how many people haven't seen it before, it's one of my favorite mini style. I'll try to post a few pics in the next couple of days, for now you'll just have to trust me that it is super cute or better yet, come to the store today and make one!

I did manage to get a few more cards done last night, these two are in the running for mass production if I decide to go that route or maybe I'll just make tags out of them.

I have always loved this Holly stamp from Magenta, it's one of the few I kept when I moved from Alaska. I think it's one of those that's gorgeous in its simplicity and really lends itself to coloring well.

Stamps: Magenta(Holly) and Papertrey Ink(Merry Christmas)
Ink: Versafine and Papertrey Ink Pure Poppy(hooray my search for the perfect red ink is over)
Color: Prismacolors
Paper: Pure Poppy and Vintage Cream Papertrey Ink (can you tell what arrived at my door this week?)

Surprised it wasn't a bella, have no fear no stamping session would be complete without inking up on of the girls.

I was looking through the galleries of some the other 'bella-rific friday' ladies and say Snowbunny bella done up so cute I had to copy a couple of components. So sorry I forgot to bookmark where to give full credit. I particularly liked the technique of using the white pen for detail, perfect for a wintery card.
Stamps: Snowbunny Bella and Papertrey Ink Merry Christmas
Ink: Memento and Pure Poppy
Colors: Copics
Paper: Bazzil and Papertrey Ink
Accents: Ribbon(Papertrey Ink), Cuttlebug Embossing folder, Heidi Swapp snowflake, bling.

Tomorrow is a big day too...I'm celebrating birthday love at the Broncos Game with Heather. THANKS MK! Can't wait, hopefully the boys will have a good home game lord knows we need it. Bonus it's going to be in the 60s so no super bundling up as I thought we might have to do midweek.

What's on your agenda this weekend?

Monday Blues...

Anyone else have trouble getting back into the weekday grind today? Luckily I didn't have a lot on the agenda so I could ease into the routine slowly.

Did you make time to get crafty this weekend? I did :)

I don't know what it is, but the Bellas have driven me into a stamping craze. I think I've stamped more in the past month than I have in years. I decided that I needed to pace myself and buy one bella on Saturday. They need friends after all...(I wonder if that's what Hef said when he started to add bunnies to the mansion). I think I'm also going to make a rule that I have to ink the most recent bella, before I can buy a new one.

Here are a couple of my recent creations...Stamps:Flowabella
Ink: Versafine
Color Tools: Prismacolor pencils, AC Metallic Pen
Paper: Pink Paislee, Bazzil
Accents: May Arts Ribbon, Nestabilities Rectangles, Bling (note to self, Revolution and Bling are not a good combo)

Stamps: Bookwormabella(isn't she cute) Library Card from October Afternoon
Ink: Versacolor
Colors: Copics and Distress Inks
Paper: Crate Paper, Bazzil
Accents: AC Brads, Making Memories sticker, glossy accents are on her hair, glasses and the worm

This new obsession has had me blopping more and in the process I found this great blog dedicated to my new friends. I made this for this weeks challenge, not sure if I'm confident enough yet to send in...
Stamps: Prezzibella
Ink: Memento(yay! it finally made it's way to the store)
Colors: Copics
Paper: Cosmo Cricket, Bazzil
Accents: Bling and glossy accents on the present

Bella Ball

I took 'tis the season to be jolly bella' home this week and had more fun than I thought inking her and coloring with prismacolors and copics. I was also super excited that the snowflake embossing folder came in, it's so perfect for holiday cards. I might actually finish making Christmas cards before Valentine's Day for the first time in years. :)


For this one I let AC do the snowflake work, too bad that you can't see all of the glitter and shimmer that's on this card. These ladies will make their way to the store and hopefully work a little retail magic like Glideabella cards did.Lattebella and Prezzibella were starting to feeling left out with all the love their winter friends have received in the past couple of weeks, so I had to ink them and do a little something with them. You can't see in the photo, but the background on this one is an embossed paisley pattern and it looks so much better in person.
Prezzibella needed to get ready for Christmas too, she got a little help from the CHF pindot backgrounder.

Time to dig into the stash

and scrap pile. I did a little bit of organizing my scraproom over the week, along the way I found this great Pink Paislee overlay, I forgot I had bought. I decided to really stretch myself and actually stamp a background using my handy CHF ledger scrapblock.I had it mounted on plain red cardstock then on the way to the scanner I saw the packaging from Sonoma and realized the colors were perfect. Sorry the scan is so wonky, the transparency and buttons just did it in.

Can you handle another Bella card...here's the latest. I organized my scraps and came across some sugared paper and chipboard from Basic Grey, it was the perfect for this bella I colored with H2O pencils.
oops looks like a pearl has gone M.I.A.

Crafty Goodness...

One thing is for sure, if the Broncos continue their 'non-winning' ways I'll have lots of extra time to work on my paper crafts.

This weekend was very productive, after demo-ing four different cards(yep four cards) for the frenzy I set to work on some personal projects today.

First up, my sketch for the store blog, I didn't waste any time putting the pics of Sienna in her pumpkin hat on a layout. This one takes me back to my color blocking days. At least I'm not afraid of patterned paper any more. (and really who would be afraid of these happy trees?)


Then it was time to play with my new bellas, I brought Glideabella(how could I resist a skater girl) and Snowbunnybella home with me on Saturday along with some new Copic colors that finally made their way back to the store.

I needed a little inspiration to get going so I started with a lift of a card I found at SCS. You can see the original here. This one had me digging into my scrap stash and finding some BG from Xmas last year and some Wild Asparagus polka dots from long ago. I used the 'Curls' goosebumpz from Quickutz on the top panel. You can't really tell from the scan, her collar, cuffs and skates have glitter on them.

Then I was off and running on my own. I love this aqua snowflake paper from SEI's Glitzmas line so I was determined to color the bella with complimentary colors. I love the way Copics blend and shade. For this one I used flock for a furry collar and cuffs.
But wait there's one more...I finally got my hands on some Versadazzle ink (my fav new product from CHA this summer, YAY!) so I stamped the CHF geometric flower on the red with the champagne versadazzle, it ends up with a subtle gold glitter. Then I stamped 'Snow Bunny' on kraft and on the red AC Damask paper(love this paper!) Then, just like I used to do with my Barbies the Bella got dressed in her smashing coat. Again flock for the hood and cuffs. A little Cosmo Cricket journal spot and the card is done. Hope your week is off to a great start...

A productive day...

I decided to cash in one of the comp days earned over the past couple of months and take a day off.

Well at least a day off from work...much to do on the home front

Cleaned out the fridge --- Yuck!

Tanner got shots and his annual physical...Yay! he's in good shape except for a little tartar buildup

Fall clothes clean and front and center in closet, summer clothes tucked away for another season

Make and Take project ready for Saturday complete

Mini-album class with new Basic Grey paper sample done (photos to come later)

Yummy dinner with Houston and fam

and a few minutes leftover to make another card with my new favorite stamps, I decided to color in the geometric flower stamp from CHF and love the way it turned out...

it dawned on me today that at this point last year I was on pace and doing something creative nearly everyday as opposed to the 'once a week if I'm lucky' pace I'm on now. I'm going to strive to get back to that creative place.

I'm here...

just don't have much to say...work's busy not a lot of time to create, but I did manage to finish a couple of cards.

Have you met the Bellas? These whimsical ladies have taken our store by storm, you can't help falling in love with them. Of course they're also flying off the shelves and I can't get the ones I really want quick enough, so thanks to Kelly and Angela for letting me stamp their girls.


I made the one below for Becky's 'Make It Sparkle' Stamptoberfest Challenge on Two Peas...Unfortunately you can't really tell from the scan, but glitter is all over this card, I'm not sure my scanner will ever recover.