Birthday Balloons

Well, the last of my company left this morning. Of course I was teary eyed because it's always hard to say goodbye to my parents...they live so far away, but I'll see them again in a few short months for Christmas. :)

While my mom was here she went through my four drawers full of cards and took home a big pile...I think she stocked up for every occasion until the end of next year. Hey, wonder if she took one to send back to me for my birthday in June...wouldn't that be funny! Anyway, my MIL's birthday is coming up and my stock of birthday cards is now critically low, so I decided to use this fun Balloon Circle image from Stamping Bella.

The Mojo Monday Sketch #107 was a perfect layout for this image and I chose to use fall colours because I saw this fun Show & Tell Challenge #5 in the Stamping Bella Forum on Splitcoast. Plus the fall colours work with my MIL's birthday because it's in October.

I started by stamping the Balloon Circle with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Bella's Bestest Paper and coloured it with copics. I punched it out using the 2" Marvy circle punch that the circle stamps are designed to fit. It needed dimension though so I stamped the image two more times, cut out the balloons and layered them with dimensionals. I adhered the image to a scallop circle of Really Rust.

The patterned papers are from Chatterbox and they've been in my stash for quite a while. I paired them with Kiwi Kiss and Really Rust then I stitched around the edges. I punched the fun border from a strip of Not Quite Navy and added some mustard grosgrain ribbon. I love this particular sentiment...the mix of fonts is really fun and it's the perfect size to tuck just about anywhere on a card. And, I just realized it's on sale for the low low price of 25 cents!!!! I finished by adding some sage Glitter Dots and Cinnamon Stickles to the dots on the balloons.

Don't forget to play along with this week's Bellarific challenge...it's a theme...ANYTHING BABY!!! You'll find all the deets on this post on Bloggabella. Em will be posting everyone's creations on Saturday this week which means you have until Friday night to email her a pic of your project. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Rock On Baby!

I've been singing U2 songs all day because we were at the U2 concert last night. Woo Hoo!!! What a fabulous show!!!

I thought it only fitting to use my Rockabella image from Stamping Bella on my card today. She looks soooooo cool...I could totally see her on stage with Bono!!! LOL!!!

I used a Sketch Challenge from the Stamping Bella Forum on Splitcoast, BSC81. It's a great place to look for inspiration if you need a little mojo boost. I stamped Rockabella with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Bella's Bestest Paper and coloured her with copics. I gave her rock star shimmer by using my pink Spica glitter pen on her shirt. The image is cut out with rectangle Nestabilities and layered onto a scallop rectangle of razzleberry.

My new Basic Grey Indian Summer paper pack was the inspiration for my colour choices and the patterned strip is from that pack. I ran some melon mambo through my D'vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder before stitching around the edges. I took some liberty with the circle element and instead of using more paper I added a ring of burnt honey Bella Bonbons. I think it's the perfect touch of bling for this rock star!

Don't forget to play along with this week's Bellarific Friday challenge. Click here to find the sketch on Bloggabella.

Have you signed up for the Lulu blog hop yet? It's going to be sooooooo fun! You'll find the details on this thread on Splitcoast. Come join the fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

One Martini Addy-Tude

My new stamps from Stamping Bella arrived on Friday and this is the first one I inked up...I just love how sassy Miss Addy-Tude is!!!

The layout is Jen's Sketch For You To Try. I hopped over to the Bella forum on Splitcoast to see what this week's Bella challenges were and the Show and Tell Challenge #2 is a fun one...to choose one of the Bella images that depicts what you do for a little bliss. Wait a second...I'm definitely not saying I turn to the bottle...LOL! But what I've really come to look forward to is our Friday nights out for dinner to our local American Joe's. It's our way of wrapping up the week and starting the weekend. We always sit in the bar area and usually have the same server, Cindy. We've gotten to know each other and she knows my favourite drink is their Pink Sangria...Mmmmmmm. I stay away from martinis though or it would be "one martini, forget the rest, floor"!

I stamped AddyTude Loves Her 'Tinis with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured her with copics. And look...four of my new light copic colours made it onto this image! I used YG0000for the drinks, W00 on the lenses of her glasses and her shoes, V0000 on her boa so it wouldn't be stark white and BG0000 around the image. I {heart} the new light copic colours!!! To jazz up the image even more I added white flocking to her boa and crystal effects to her glasses and shoes (to make them look like patent leather).

The white card base is 5.25 inches square. I used black for layers and the rest of the papers are from Basic Grey Lemonade. I used an EK slim border punch along the vertical strip for some interest and stitched around the base layers. The black polka dot ribbon is sheer so I layered it onto black cardstock to give it more punch. The image is cut out with deckle rectangle Nestabilities and the sentiment (which is included with the image) is cut out with Labels Three Nestabilities. I layered a couple of Primas then finished the card with Marble Bella Dots in Pickle and Garnet.

So what do you do when you need a little pick-me-up? Come play along with the Show and Tell Challenge #2 in the Bella Forum on Splitcoast...of course there's a prize involved!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen