It's a Wildcard Bellarific Friday!

Happy Bellarific Friday!!! I can't believe how late I am with this post. I thought I'd typed it up and scheduled it for this morning, but apparently I only wrote it in my head because when I looked at my blog a few minutes ago it wasn't there! Oooopsy!! :)

This week Em gave us complete creative discretion with a WILDCARD theme!!! Anything goes today for Bellarific Friday. I decided to use Ellie-phant (my animal stamps have been a little neglected lately with all the new cuteness that Stamping Bella has released!) and I paired her with the balloon from I Can't See A Thing-abella.

I started by stamping Ellie-phant and the balloon with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Bella's Bestest Paper and coloured them with copics. then I cut them out and added some details like clear Glaze pen on Ellie's toes and on the balloon, and a little shimmer on the flower with my yellow Spica glitter pen. The layout is this week's Mojo Monday sketch, Mojo112.

I ran some Prism Spring Willow Medium through my swiss dots Cuttlebug folder before stitching it to the Island Mist Light layer. The patterned strips are from my Cosmo Cricket Early Bird 6x6 mini deck and they're layered onto Island Mist Dark. I added three poppy Glitter Dots to help highlight the sentiment (which reads: I would never forget your birthday! and is included with Ellie-phant). It's difficult to see in the photo but shows up much better IRL. Ellie and the balloon are popped for dimension and I added some black hemp as the balloon string.

Have you taken a look at all the gorgeous samples on Bloggabella yet? They're fabulous, so be sure to pop over for a peek, and leave some love while you're there for a chance to win some Bella Bucks!!! Also, next week's theme has already been announced...create something using the original line of Bella Characters. Now, you have all weekend and next week to play along so no excuses, k? :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Oh Baby Baby!!!

Last summer I made this set of baby cards as a gift for my neighbour. I think new moms can always use a set of cards for thank yous, or birth announcements. Well, my neighbour must have liked the idea too because she commissioned me to make a set of baby cards to give away to a friend.

I was told her friend was having a boy but she left the rest of the design up to me. I reached for my adorable Bella Baby Bubble Bath image from Stamping Bella.

I wanted to keep the layout simple and make sure the card didn't look girlie so I went with straight lines and no bows or scallops. I also wanted to make sure the new mom would be able to send the cards with regular postage so I avoided too much dimension and bulky embellishments.

I stamped Baby Bella with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Bella's Bestest Paper and coloured it with copics. To jazz up the image I coated the bathtub with clear Glaze pen and added some Moonlight Smooch to the bubbles. The image is cut out with square Nestabilities and stitched to a layer of bashful blue.

I found the patterned paper in my stash, just hanging loose between some packs of SU paper so I have no clue what the name of it is, but I know it's SU. I layered it with a large white panel that I ran through my Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder then covered the seam with some blue gingham ribbon. Two blue brads in the top right corner finish the card nicely.

I made a set of twelve of this card and packaged them up nicely with envelopes. I love being able to create cards for people...it makes me happy and I know it makes them happy too! Isn't it funny how we can get so excited about layers of paper!!!! LOL!!!

Today is the deadline to submit your creation for this week's Bellarific Friday challenge and the theme is WILDCARD!!!! You can use any Stamping Bella image to create whatever you want! FUN!!! There's still time to play along and you'll find all the details here. Who knows...you could be this week's Bella Bucks winner!!! I'll be looking for your creation tomorrow on Bloggabella! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Hope Your Birthday is Stylin'!

I have an adorable Cuppie card for you today. I just couldn't resist using the stylin' cuppie from Sweet Indulgence, available at Taylored Expressions. I totally have hair on my brain (bwah ha ha...) because I was at the stylist yesterday and she uses a pink blow dryer just like the cute pink brad I used on this card! Plus, I was at the American Girl store yesterday picking up an outfit for a Christmas gift for my niece...man on man...that place is crazy!!! They even have a hair salon for dolls!!! Can you tell it was the first time I'd set foot in the store? Needless to say I quickly picked up an outfit and made a bee-line for the door before getting sucked into all that cuteness!!!!

Oh wait...I'm supposed to be talking about my card. Well, if people and dolls can go to the hair dresser, why shouldn't Cuppie? LOL!!!

I used today's Splitcoast sketch challenge for the layout, SC254 and I paired it with my fun Spa Key Ingredients. I can honestly say that with the Key Ingredients, I whipped up this card in just 30 minutes because everything is already coordinated for me! LOVE that!!!

Cuppie is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Snow White and coloured with copics. I stamped the sentiment below the image then cut it out with rectangle Nestabilities. I added two coats with my clear Glaze pen to the hair dryer and a line of Turquoise Stickles. The cape is paper pieced and I added a pink Multicolour Twinkle to the closure. The rest of the card is super simple. I used my D'vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder for the base then wrapped some ribbon and secured it with the sweet brad.

I'm off to run some errands now...all the things I didn't get to yesterday because I was indulging in a little hair stylin' myself!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Thankful For You

I can't stop using the fabulous Celebrate Life set from Taylored Expressions!!! With US Thanksgiving quickly approaching (I still can't get used to Thanksgiving in November...I'm so used to it being in October in Canada) I thought it would be appropriate to create a 'Thankful For You' card.

Maybe I should mass produce this one and send it out to everyone I'm thankful for! Wait a sec...that would be a LOT of cards!!! :)

I started by stamping the pumpkin with Memento Rich Cocoa onto Choice Buttercream then I cut it out with circle Nestabilities. I coloured the pumpkin with copics and added some shimmer with my orange Spica glitter pen...it's subtle, but you can see it if you look near the brown lines. I stamped the leaf with old olive, cut it out and popped it for dimension.

The colour inspiration came from the fabulous fall papers in my Basic Grey Indian Summer 6x6 paper pack. My card base is Choice Buttercream then I layered some Prism Birchtone Dark and Prism Herbal Garden Medium. I used one of my many EK border punches on a strip of Prism Sunflowers Medium before tucking it under the patterned paper. I finished the card with some gold/brown Zva Crystals, a strip of ribbon from my stash and two vanilla brads.

Who are you thankful for?

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Karen

Sweet Sunday Birds

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch, SSSC43. You'll find the sketch on Karen's blog, The Sweetest Thing.

I'm not really one for panels that are askew, but as soon as I saw this sketch I knew I had the perfect Stamping Bella image for the main panel. I rifled through my bag of Bella images that aren't even in Bindahs yet (because I'm an Addictabella and I have too many stamps to fit in my five very full Bindahs...sigh. Oh well, I'll just order another Bindah!) and I pulled out Merry Christmas Branch with Birdies.

I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Bella's Bestest Paper and coloured it with copics. To get the look of bark on the branch I simply drew in lines with the two darker browns and then just left it...no blending. The image is cut out with long rectangle Nestabilities and layered onto chocolate chip. I added some Waterfall Stickles to the dots and gave the sentiment boxes a shiny coating with my clear Glaze pen.

The patterned paper is SU Ski Slope. It's funny, I didn't even realize I was using the same colour scheme as Friday's card until I was writing up this post! Guess I really like these colours together!!!

My MS Drippy Goo border punch arrived this week in my Bella order (of course I wasn't on the ball enough to order it before Halloween) so I put it to work as icicles. I know...icicles are pointy at the bottom, but don't these look just as good? I debated coating them with Waterfall Stickles but I decided to just add a zig zag stitch instead. I ran the blue patterned background paper through my Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder then lightly sanded the dots to reveal the white core of the paper for a subtle snow effect. Two poppy Glitter Dots finish the card nicely. This Merry Christmas Branch with Birdies is fabulous for mass production because it's an image and a sentiment all in one! Easy Peasy!!!

Let's go see what the rest of the Sweet Sunday Stampers came up with for this sketch.

Jen Tapler

Lynn Put

Nancy Riley

Sarah Jane-Kale'

Vicki Burdick

and Karen Giron

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Time to get the Tree

Happy Bellarific Friday!!! This week's theme was Christmas/Winter. I dug into my Bella Bindahs and pulled out this adorable Car with a Tree on Top image from Stamping Bella.

This totally brings back childhood memories of trudging out to the forest to cut our Christmas tree. Growing up in Northern Ontario, there weren't specific tree farms, we just headed to the bush (which there's plenty of!). And in the middle of December there was usually a foot or two of snow to get through before finding the perfect tree. My brothers and I would head off with my dad and we'd be gone for hours, but Mom always had hot chocolate and cookies waiting for us when we got home. Mmmmm...

For my card today I used Jen's Sketch For You To Try for the layout. I started by stamping the image with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Bella's Bestest Paper then coloured it with copics. It's cut out with circle Nestabilities and layered onto a scallop circle of Prism Blush Red Dark. I added some sparkle to the image by colouring the star and ornaments with yellow and red Spica glitter pens. Then I used my clear Glaze pen on the windows and the ornaments. I love the bit of sparkle that shows through the clear Glaze pen on the ornaments!

For the card base I stitched some Baja Blue to the Blush Red Dark panel and layered it onto the white card base. The patterned paper is Imaginisce Polar Expressions and it has such a pretty sparkly line running through it! Of course I just had to use my favourite ghost snowflake and I added some platinum Glitter dots for more sparkle.

I always look forward to the fabulous Bellarific Friday creations that Em posts on Bloggabella. Did you play this week? I hope so...I'll be looking for your creation in Em's post!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Taylored Expressions Release Day-Celebrate Life

It's release day at Taylored Expressions so that means you can go shopping and fill your cart with all the fabulous items the Baker's Dozen have been showcasing the past couple of days. But before you head over to the TE Store we have one more stamp set to share, Celebrate Life. This beautiful set has soooo much potential. The images and sentiments are appropriate for so many occasions and events throughout the year.

For my card today I paired Celebrate Life with the September 20th Key Ingredients and used Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge, MTSC46, for the layout. This card came together quite quickly because I chose to work with some of the bold image stamps in this set. I started by stamping the swirly stem with Memento Rich Cocoa onto Choice Buttercream then stamped the flower with really rust. The image is cut out with oval Nestabilities and layered onto a scallop oval of Prism Suede Brown Dark. I added some Multicolour Twinkles to the flower for a little sparkle.

The Buttercream card base is 5.25 inches square. I layered the light blue patterned paper (it's the reverse side of the strip of patterned paper) with Prism Desert Coral Dark and stitched it to a square of Suede Brown Dark. See those little dot circles around the buttons? Well that's another stamp from the set...the buttons are hiding the middle of the stamp but I really like how it creates a frame around the buttons. I added a bit of sparkle to the sentiment too by dotting the "i" with a Multicolour Twinkle. I really love the simplicity of this card.

Taylor is offering a fabulous Super Size It Bundle with super size savings for those who want it all!

I'm excited to see what the rest of the Baker's Dozen have created with Celebrate Life.

Charmaine Ikach

Dawn Easton

Denise Marzec

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Laura Fredrickson

Laurie Schmidlin

Sankari Wegman

Sharon Harnist

Taylor VanBruggen

and Jami Sibley is playing along today.

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peek Day 2-Sweet Indulgence

Today the Baker's Dozen is sharing projects created with Sweet Indulgence, the adorable new Cuppie set that will be available at Taylored Expressions on Thursday, November 5th from 8am PST. Think of girly things you like to indulge in and that's what Cuppie's up to this month! I used the new Spa Key Ingredients on my project...love these cheery colours and patterns!

As soon as I saw this set and the sentiment 'time for the bubbly' I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Of course I paired the sentiment with Cuppie in the tub but then I took my bubbles in a completely different direction! I'm calling this a "Mom's Time Out" kit. I'm pretty sure that all moms would love a relaxing, candlelight bubble bath while sipping champagne and nibbling on chocolate at the end of a long day. :)

I started by decorating a mini champagne bottle with cardstock and ribbon from the Spa Key Ingredients. Next I wrapped some delish Ghirardelli chocolates with patterned paper and added three flowers from the Spa Key Ingredients. I added a Zva crystal to the center of each flower for a little bling.

Then I paired two images from Sweet Indulgence for the decoration on the bottle neck. The images are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black then coloured with copics. I added a little clear Glaze pen to the compact to look like a mirror.

For the card, I started with this week's Mojo sketch, MOJO111.

The image is coloured with copics and I added Stardust Stickles to the bubbles. I inked just the words from the sentiment and created a banner. Do you see that fun lipstick brad? Isn't it adorable??? It's included in the Spa Key Ingredients along with some hair dryers.

I'm ready to see what fabulous creations the rest of the Baker's Dozen came up with using Sweet Indulgence. Come hop with me!

Charmaine Ikach

Dawn Easton

Denise Marzec

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Laura Fredrickson

Laurie Schmidlin

Sankari Wegman

Sharon Harnist

and Taylor VanBruggen

I'll have another new set to show you tomorrow, on release day, so be sure to pop back then.

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peek-Day 1-Luxurious Labels

Today the Baker's Dozen is sharing sneak peek samples using the wonderful new set Luxurious Labels, which will be available for purchase at Taylored Expressions on Thursday, November 5th from 8am PST.

For my project I created a card and filled a spa bottle (these are the same as the potion bottles from Halloween) with relaxing bath salts.

For my card I used Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge, TESC89, for the layout. All the papers, ribbon and flower are from the Spa Key Ingredients. The vanilla brad is SU. I stamped the flowers with versamark onto one of the patterned papers at embossed it with vanilla powder. It's cut out with rectangle Nestabilities and layered onto two scallop rectangles. I added some Crystal Stickles to the flowers for a little sparkle.

Next I'd like to show you the Spa Bottle. I'm so happy with how it turned out!!! I stamped the bubble oval onto Choice Buttercream (from the Spa Key Ingredients) then placed the bath tub and words inside the oval. I stamped the tub again so I could cut it out and pop it for dimension. Everything is coloured with copics then I added a layer of clear Glaze pen to all the bubbles. Once that dried I added touches of Crystal Stickles to the bubbles for a little sparkle. Luxurious Labels also includes images sized perfectly to fit on the corks.

I know my mom is going to just love these bath salts. I think I'll add them to her stocking at Christmas.

Taylor is offering a fabulous Sweet Spa Bundle packed with wonderful items at a great price. It'll be in the TE Store on Thursday, November 5th from 8am PST.

Let's see what the rest of the Baker's Dozen has created with Luxurious Labels.

Charmaine Ikach

Denise Marzec

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Laura Fredrickson

Laurie Schmidlin

Sankari Wegman

Sharon Harnist

and Taylor VanBruggen

I'll be back tomorrow with a sneak peek of the new Cuppie set! See you then!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Pretty Purple Tatiana

Happy Monday!!! I'm posting later than usual today because life got in the way this morning. We were away this weekend and Shadow (our mini schnauzer) was staying at his usual place...well he came home a little under the weather so we spent the morning at the vet. Turns out he picked up kennel cough at the groomers last week (not where he stayed on the weekend) but now I feel awful that he was staying at my friend's house with her seven dogs. Yikes!!! I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed that they don't all get sick because of my little guy!!

But you came here for a card, right? I stamped this one this morning while waiting to go to our vet appointment. I decided to use the Weekend Sketch Challenge, WSC104, for the layout and as I was reading Beate's post I realized the Ways To Use It challenge on Splitcoast, WT242, is to use purple, so I combined the sketch and the purple challenge.

I think I'm one of the few people who likes using purple. I can't say it's my favourite colour, but I really like how the purple copics blend and I love how vibrant they can be. So for my card I pulled out my favourite paper with purple in it, My Mind's Eye Penny Lane. I stamped Tatiana Ketto from Stamping Bella with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Bella's Bestest Paper and coloured her with copics. Nothing fancy here, but I did add a lemonade Bauble to the center of the flower. The image is cut out with circle Nestabilities and layered onto a scallop circle of Eggplant.

I started with a standard size white card base then I layered some Prism Frosted Kiwi and some Prism Intense Teal, which I ran through my D'vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder. The rest is just three strips of paper and I tucked a scalloped strip of Eggplant near the right edge. There's a little sparkle from two medium lilac Glitter Dots.

Don't forget about this week's Bellarific Challenge...it's a Christmas/Winter theme. Email your entries to Em by Thursday, November 5th to be included in her Bellarific Friday post on November 6th and you might just win a $20 gift certificate to Stamping Bella! Click here for all the details.

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen