Prairie Paper & Ink

Bella Birthday Hop!

Welcome to the Birthday Blog Skip, Hop & Dance sponsored by Stamping Bella! If you've just happened upon my blog, you can CLICK HERE to start from the beginning at Bloggabella.

 

I got an e-mail not too long ago from Shannan asking if I'd like to participate in a special surprise as it's Emily's (THE Stamping Bella) birthday today.

I said of course and I was sent this awesome image by Christy Croll to use on my card - this isn't even available as a stamp!

Since it was a digi image I printed it out onto my white cardstock in two sizes - the larger one for the front of the card and the smaller one for the inside (FYI I use Georgia Pacific White for printing my digi images b/c my printer goes NUTS when I try and print on anything that is a heavier weight).

I colored the images with my Copics, then trimmed them out with scissors.

I had to bling up the main image of course so I used some of my Spica glitter pens to add some sparkle then pulled out some rhinestones from my stash to bling up the crown and her earrings!

The patterned paper is from the October Afternoon Ducks in a Row collection that I got from My Little Ribbon Shop.

The ribbon I had bought at Michaels last year.

The sentiments on the outside and inside of the card are from my Birthday Sentiments set.

 

STAMPS: Birthday Stamping Queen Digi Image by Christy Croll, AmyR Stamps Birthday Sentiments.

CS: Georgia Pacific White (WalMart), PTI Summer Sunrise, SU! Black, October Afternoon Ducks in a Row Patterned Papers.

INK: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic Markers.

ACCESSORIES: Spica Glitter Pens, Spellbinders Scalloped Circle Die, Rhinestones, Ribbon, SU! Word Window Punch, Dimensionals.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Now it's time to hop on over to Paper Funtastics . Have a great day!

How about a prize? In addition to the fabulous eye candy, we have decided to hide a prize somewhere along the hop! One pre-selected blogger will draw a random winner from the comments on her post, and the winner will receive a $40 Gift Voucher to Stamping Bella!!! The fun part is...we're not telling you who it is! So as you hop, make sure you leave comments on every post so you have a chance to win!! We will announce the winner on Monday in the Splitcoast forum. MWAH!

Sketch Card

I made a card!! Are y'all falling over in shock?? I know I almost did ROFLOL!!

The weather has FINALLY been really nice here - so I've been spending more time outside in an attempt to clean up our yard.

Anywho I made a card yesterday and got distracted with other things and forgot to post - so here it is now:

 

I have been wanting some Ketto stamps from Stamping Bella ever since they were first released - and during their last free shipping sale I got a few (thanks to some Mother's Day $$ that Tim gave me!! For what he could have spent on flowers locally I was able to place an order and get free shipping at Stamping Bella - he knows what makes me happy!).

The package just arrived on Friday so between yardwork/housework/company/etc etc etc over the weekend I took a few minutes to mount them onto EZmount (I do that with all my Bella stamps - you can also use double-sided tape on an acrylic block but I prefer having all my stamps on thin black EZmount) then pulled out this one to use on this card for my latest Friday Sketch!

I stamped the image onto CCD White Cardstock (I ALWAYS use Memento Tuxedo Black now when coloring with my Copics. It is the BEST ink I've tried so far. And it doesn't need to be embossed or heat set like the Brilliace Black does - which was my fave till the Memento inks were put on the market) and colored it in with my Copics.

The image didn't look "finished" after I had colored it so I went nuts with a bunch of Stickles - Diamond, Fruit Punch, Yellow, and Lime Green - and glammed it up a bit.

 

I used my circle nestabilities to cut the image out and then cut a couple of scalloped circles to mat the image.

The patterned paper is Basic Grey's new Lime Rickey (I always LOVE their papers but lately I barely have a chance to USE them before new lines are released! I JUST got the Lime Rickey and Wisteria 6x6 pads and whatnot and now there's 2 more lines that were just released that ATS should be getting in right away. I guess I just need to get crackin' and create more often!! *wink*), the ribbon is May Arts and the Primas are from my stash (I cut up a big green one to use as leaves).

The sentiments on the outside and inside of the card are from my Friends Sentiments set.

 

STAMPS: agnes KETTO from Stamping Bella, AmyR Stamps Friends Sentiments.

CS: CCD White, Prism Razzleberry, SU Black, Basic Grey Lime Rickey Patterned Paper.

INK: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic Markers.

ACCESSORIES: Circle and Scalloped Circle Nestabilities dies, Prima Flowers, Stickles, Brads, Dimensionals, Ribbon, SU! Scallop Edge Punch, SU! Word Window Punch.

My Friday Sketch Sample

 

Here's my sample for this week's Friday Sketch!

Click on the sketch image to be taken directly to the sketch post.

I pulled out my never-before-seen-ink content-to-be-a-bella image for this card (I'm getting there! I'm too scared to count just how many Bella images I own that haven't been used yet! ACK!) along with a sentiment from my Friend Sentiments set.

I stamped the image onto white cardstock then colored her in with my Copics.

I made the polka dots on her shirt with my Ranger Gel Pen (FYI this is the BESTEST white gel pen I have ever used!! I have the Signo one (the one SU sells) and more than one have clogged on me to the point where they won't work at all. The Ranger one has worked perfect from day one!).

I cut out the image with a circle nestie then left the die in place and sponged ink around the edges (making sure I cleaned off the die with rubbing alcohol first! And it was a good thing I did as it turned out the die had a bunch of purple ink on it. I didn't want a repeat of THIS). 

I used Basic Grey Urban Prairie papers, buttons and brads to dress up the card, along with a bunch of Prima's from my stash.

**TIP - if you don't have primas/flowers in the color you want you can color them with your copics. If you don't have white just use a pale shade of the color you want. I had pale yellow flowers but I wanted them darker to match the colored Bella image - so I colored over the yellow Primas with the YR31 marker to get them the color I wanted.**

For the inside of the card I lined it with more Urban Prairie papers then stamped and colored the "inside out" image that comes with this bella, cut it out with a smaller circle nestie and matted it with a scalloped circle and that was it!

 

STAMPS: content-to-be-a-bella by Stamping Bella, AmyR Stamps Friend Sentiments.

CS: CC Designs White, SU! Basic Black, PTI Aqua Mist, Basic Grey Urban Prairie Patterned Paper.

INK: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic Markers.

ACCESSORIES: Circle and Scalloped Circle Nestabilities Dies, Brads, Primas, Buttons, White Gel Pen, Sponge Daubers.

Grrrrrr

I had this post typed up this morning before lunch and lost the whole thing when my 'net froze up on me. I HATE having to re-type everything up and basically repeat myself! It's so frustrating!

ANYWHO - here is the finished card using the bella image I spritzed with my Copic markers:

 

This bella is underwatergoddess-ABELLA (say that 3 times fast!) from Stamping Bella.

I stamped her onto white CCD cardstock, masked her (and left the nestie oval die in place as well) and spritzed on two different Copic colors (video here). I then removed the mask and colored the image.

I used 4 different Copic Spica glitter pens to glam up the image - again it's SO hard to pick up the shimmer on camera - but SO pretty in real life!

The sentiment comes with this bella image, so I stamped that onto a scrap of CS, cut it out with a circle nestie die, then spritzed it like the main image.

The patterned paper is from Cosmo Cricket's Snorkel Collection.

Ribbon is May Arts satin.

The grape juice baubles are from Stamping Bella - I used teeny dots of Mono Multi to attach them.

**and yeah I'm starting to feel like my mojo is coming back! Yeah baby! (LOL)**

 

STAMPS: underwatergoddess-ABELLA and sentiment from Stamping Bella.

CS: CC Designs Copic Quality White, SU! Barely Banana, Green Galore and Elegant Eggplant, Cosmo Cricket Snorkel Patterned Paper.

INK: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic Markers.

ACCESSORIES: Oval and Circle Nestabilities Dies, Ribbon, Dimensionals, Spica Glitter Pens, Baubles.

{celebrate}

Yeah the mojo is still struggling - it may not "show" when y'all see the finishde project - but trust me it's taking me forever to make anything and I'm just not feeling it!

That said I made this card for my latest Friday sketch. Normally once I've got the layout done the rest of the card can be whipped up in no time - not so for this one! I struggled with the color combo, with the embellishments, and generally just kept fiddling till I was happy with it:

 

I pulled out an "old" Bella stamp (in fact I think this was one of the first ones I purchased back when Stamping Bella first started well over 2 years ago!) - curly surpriseabella.

Once I decided on what colors I wanted to use I stamped the image onto white cardstock then colored her in with my Prismacolors and blended them with Gamsol.

I used my Clear Spica glitter pen to dress up the image - pretty subtle shimmer and SO hard to pick up on camera! I likes it tho *grin*

The ribbon is from My Little Ribbon Shop.

I used a big prima flower and added a bazzill flower (that I tinted with a Copic marker as it was too light) for the sketch and attached them to the card with a big Making Memories brad from my stash.

The {celebrate} sentiment is from my Birthday Sentiments set. The patterned paper is from the My Little Shoebox collection.

On the inside of the card I added more of the striped paper then stamped another sentiment from my Birthday Sentimetns set, I punched it out with SU's Key Tag punch, matted it with some black CS and that's all folks *wink*.

 

STAMPS: Curly Surpriseabella from Stamping Bella, AmyR Stamps Friend Sentiments.

CS: CCD White, SU! Black and Pink Pirouette, My Little Shoebox patterned paper.

INK: Memento Tuxedo Black.

ACCESSORIES: Prismacolor Pencils, Clear Spica Glitter Pen, Prima and Bazzill Flower, MM Brad, Ribbon, Dimensionals, SU! Key Tag punch, Small Corner Rounder Punch.

Hot Stuff!

  

I got another custom order for a card the other day, and it needed to be a birthday card for a guy. We decided on grillafella for the card, so I got to work!

I stamped the fella onto white cardstock then colored him in with my Prismacolors and Gamsol.

I also masked his feet and stamped one of A Muse's clear ovals using green ink (tutorial here) to ground the image.

The BBQ was made shiny with my sakura clear glaze pen.

I ran the red cardstock through my CuttleBug using the Houndstooth embossing folder, added some ribbon from My Little Ribbon Shop, and sniped some green cardstock to make the grass.

I didn't have any sentiments that I wanted (that I know of - there's a good chance I DO have one I just couldn't find it and I was pressed for time!) so I typed this one up in Word then printed it off onto white cardstock. After trimming the CS I snipped the edge to make a flag then attached it to the card with a mini brad.

On the inside of the card I added a layer of Kraft cardstock, then added some more of my faux grass.

The Happy Birthday sentiment was also typed up and printed as I wanted it to match the font on the front!

I love how it turned out (as does the gal who ordered it thank goodness) - I just wish I had made something like this for Tim when his b-day was a couple of weeks ago!!

Seems like I get a total brain block when trying to come up with masculine cards for anyone in my family - but when someone orders one from me I can come up with an idea no problem!! AURGH!!

I'm glad she likes this one tho - and I hope her hubby does too!! :o)

   

STAMPS: grillafella by Stamping Bella, sentiments typed up in Word.

CS: CC Designs white, Kraft, Basic Black, Real Red, Close to Cocoa, Wild Wasabi (all SU!).

INK: Memento Tuxedo Black, Wild Wasabi.

ACCESSORIES: May Arts Ribbon, CuttleBug Houndstooth embossing Folder, SU! Photo Corner Punch, DoodleBug Mini Brads, Sakura Clear Glaze pen, Dimensionals.

Sample for Friday Sketch! #53

OK here's the card I made for the sketch - don't forget that if you participate in this week's sketch you'll be entered in to win a $20 Stamping Bella gift certificate! Details about that in the Friday Sketch! #53 post <------click!

 

I pulled out my daisybella stamp for my sample and stamped it onto CCD white cardstock and colored it in with my prismacolor pencils and gamsol.

After the image was colored I cut it out with one of my circle nesties dies.

I then decided I wanted to use this friends are flowers sentiment from my Friend Sentiments set with this bella.

This sentiment is straight - but since it's a narrower one (and I trimmed it pretty darn close!) and is on thin EZmount it is easy to curve it - so I was able to make it curve to fit the shape of the circle.

Normally doing something like this I would stamp the main image THEN stamp the sentiment (to make sure it all turned out right) then color it - just in case I screwed something up.

Since I had already colored in the bella I was REALLY careful stamping the sentiment so that I didn't mess it up - thankfully it turned out OK :o)

All the patterned paper is from the new Basic Grey Marrakech collection, as are all the brads.

The ribbon is May Arts, the Primas and felt flowers are from my stash.

On the inside of the card I stamped daisybella onto the base with Groovy Guava (retired from SU!) ink that I stamped off once, then I stamped another sentiment from my Friend Sentiments set at her feet.

I cut some more of the patterned papers that I used on the front and that was it!

 

STAMPS: Daisybella by Stamping Bella, Friend Sentiments set by AmyR Stamps.

CS: CCD White, Basic Grey Marrakech patterned paper.

INK: Memento Tuxedo Black, Groovy Guava (Stampin' Up! - retired).

ACCESSORIES: Circle Nestabilities dies, SU! Eyelet Border Punch, Prima Flowers, Ribbon, Brads, Dimensionals, Prismacolor Pencils.

 

Two for One

Well I've got another Bella card to share with y'all today - and it ended up being two cards b/c I couldn't make up my mind with the first attempt so I re-did it!

Here's the first attempt:

I had stamped i-can't-see-a-thing-abella onto white cardstock, masked her feet and stamped one of my A Muse Ovals (tutorial on that here).

I then colored her in with Copics.

I went with orange, green and pink as the main color combo - and decided to follow out the circle theme (from the balloon).

I don't think it's a horrible card per-say - just has WAY too much going on!

I got a little too happy with my Swiss Dots and Spots and Dots embossing folders and circle punches!

I do love the texture of the cardstock (DoodleBug by Bazzill) mixed with the embossed dots but it still just looked WAY too busy to me!

SO.........I pulled the main image off and the ribbon and re-did the card:

 

This time I went much simpler - left the base just white, added the ribbon (May Arts), some DoodleBug mini brads, and switched the sugarcoated brad that held the "sentiment flag" from pink to white.

Personally I am now liking both versions - but the simpler one allows you to focus on the main image rather than all the embossed circles!

I used Fruit Punch Stickles on her shirt and had, and my clear glaze pen on the balloon to make it all shiney.

The sentiment is from A Muse (not sure if it's still available anymore or not) - I stamped it onto the DB cardstock, trimmed it with my paper cutter then cut the flag end with scissors.

I curled it a bit before attaching it then used some red-line tape to hold it the way I wanted (I don't plan on mailing this so I don't need to worry about it getting flattened).

On the inside of the card I just inked up the balloon and stamped it 3 times then colored it in with the Copics. I added a strip of DB cardstock (scalloped with my SU! punch) and more May Arts ribbon and that was it!

 

STAMPS:  i-can't-see-a-thing-abella by Stamping Bella, sentiment by A Muse, Clear Oval Set by A Muse.

CS: White, DoodleBug colored CS.

INK: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic Markers, Palette Green.

ACCESSORIES: Ribbon, Brads, Stickles, Clear Glaze Pen, Dimensionals, Scallop Edge Punch (SU!).

Bella Butterfly

OMG I cannot tell y'all how much I LOVE how this card turned out!!

I have been wanting to make a card based on this Martha Stewart Weddings magazine - I saw it at our local grocery store the other day and loved it.

Is it not GORGEOUS??? I would love to have a cake like this! I would be too scared to cut into it tho - I wouldn't want to ruin it!

After seeing this I had to make a card inspired by it - so this is what I came up with:

 

I originally was going to make the card with JUST butterflies - but then I noticed my butterflyabella sitting next to the goodluckabella I posted yesterday. That's when I knew I had to incorporate this bella into the card - and I love the end result!

I stamped the bella onto white cardstock then colored her in with my Prismacolor pencils and gamsol.

All the butterflies were punched out with a Martha Stewart punch - I just punched them out of different colors of cardstock and adhered them to the card with my Quickie Glue Pen.

On the inside of the card I stamped the "inside out" butterflyabella image that came with the big one.

I colored the inside Bella the same as the one on the front, then added one each of the small butterflies in the different colors. 

This ended up being a pretty quick card to make - it was just lining up the butterflies and adhering them that took the longest - but all in all it took under a half hour to make. I am just stoked with the end result tho! :o)

   

STAMPS: Butterflyabella by Stamping Bella.

CS: White, Blue, Turquoise, Galore, Yellow, Orange, Pink (all SU!)

INK: Memento Tuxedo Black.

ACCESSORIES: Prismacolors Pencils, Martha Stewart Butterfly punch. 

Wishing You....

Oh my goodness I am BEYOND tired right now. I spent over 10 hours today cleaning house, doing laundry, organizing, and moving the rest of the stuff that was in my "old" studio up 3 flights of stairs to the "new" studio (on top of taking loads of dirty laundry down 2 flights then after cleaning and folding up 2 flights). Oh and I baked a big batch of cookies for the girls as well - thought I may as well do that between the loads of laundry!

I feels SO good to accomplish so much in a day, but at the same time I ache all over and just want to crawl in bed. The last 2 loads of laundry are still going behind me (my computer is in my laundry room) and the thought of leaving them and going to bed is driving me nuts - but at this point I need SLEEP! 

I do still have a card to share tho - I finished up the front yesterday so all I needed to do was complete the inside - good thing b/c there's no way I could have created something from scratch - my brain is still on sort/fold/put-away mode.

 

This card was SO much fun to make!!

I used my goodluckabella (one I've had for MONTHS that hasn't seen ink!) - I got her because I saw a certain sentiment that was PERFECT for her. So I bought the sentiment stamp, then bought the bella, then did nothing with them 'till now.

I stamped her onto white cardstock then colored her in with the Copic markers shown. I obviously wanted to do a "green theme" but decided to add some pink to mix it up a little (shocking I know!).

After she was colored I went over all the shamrocks with Lime Ice Stickles - thicker than the regular with chunkier glitter - SO sparkly.

I then went over her shirt and the band on her hat with my Melon Spica glitter pen:

 Much more subtle than the stickles but such a pretty effect!!

The layout is an old one from the SCS Sketch Challenges. I don't remember exactly which one it was - just that it was a long time ago and I remembered it and thought it would be great for this card!

I ran the two green cardstocks through my Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots folder on the darker green and the D'vine Swirl folder on the lighter green.

After they were embossed I cut them into strips and applied them to the white cardstock.

I used my MM Ribbon Slot Punch to make a hole in the main image to run the pink satin ribbon through (bow tying tutorial is here).

I finished off the front with some green Prima flowers attached with buttons from my stash and mini brads.

On the inside of the card I used up the last bit of embossed CS strips that I had, and stamped the sentiment in the corner they made.

The sentiment is fromA Muse - PERFECT for this image eh?? (so many of their sentiments seem to be made for the Bella's - love that)

I also stamped the goodluckabella in light pink ink to finish it off - I don't know how well you can see it in this picture so I'm including a close-up shot:

 

(you can click on all the images to get a pop-up window with a larger view)

 

STAMPS: Goodluckabella by Stamping Bella, Sentiment by A Muse.

CS: White, Pretty in Pink, Glorious Green, Green Galore, Black (all Stampin' Up!)

INK: Memento Tuxedo Black, Pretty in Pink (SU!), Copic Markers.

ACCESSORIES: CuttleBug Folders - Swiss Dots and D'vine Swirl, Ice Stickles, Spica Glitter Pen, Satin Ribbon, Primas, Buttons, Embroidery Thread, Mini Brads. 

I hope this post made sense. I've had tons of typos and my fingers are faster than my brain - spell-check can only fix so many!

I'm headed for bed - it's past 1 am and I am exhausted! Since today is "Family Day" for Canadians and Tim has the day off we might be taking the girls to the city to see a movie - therefore I better get all the sleep I can!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

 

I wanted to use my TiddlyInks (from Stamping Bella) lovey huggabug stamp at least once before Valentine's Day - this isn't really BEFORE but good enough!

I went with yesterday's sketch for the card - I like how this looks totally different from yesterday's card!

I stamped the image onto watercolor paper with Palette Black ink then watercolored it with my Peerless watercolors (more info on those here).

After the image was dry I carefully went over the wings with the white shimmery watercolor from this Yasutomo set - I love that thing. It's dirt cheap and yet you get a ton of shimmery colors in it!

I also went over the hearts with my Christmas Red Stickles (again it must be done carefully - since the image has been watercolored anything liquid can cause it to smear).

The patterned paper with the glittery hearts is by DoodleBug. The pink cardstock was run through my CuttleBug with the Heart Blocks embossing folder.

The sentiment came with the lovey huggabug image - I stamped it slightly off the pink CS layer and pierced the holes.

Ribbon is by May Arts (speaking of ribbon the winner from myBlog Candy still hasn't contacted me - I will wait until Wednesday evening (18th of Feb) and if I still haven't heard anything I will draw another name from all the entries). 

On the inside of the card I layered a piece of white cardstock, then added the embossed strip that was leftover from the front. I cut another bit of the heart patterned paper then pierced along the exposed edge and that was it!

 

STAMPS: Lovey huggabug (inc'l sentiment) by TiddlyInks (Stamping Bella).

CS: White, Red, Pretty in Pink, Watercolor Paper, DoodleBug Heart Sugar Patterned Paper.

INK: Palette Black, Barely Banana (SU!).

ACCESSORIES: Peerless Watercolors, Stickles, Yasutomo Shimmer Watercolors, Ribbon, Primas, Buttons, Heart Blocks Embossing Folder, Dimensionals, Embroidery Thread.

Finally - Friday Sketch! #48

OK here's the Friday Sketch a day late!! I got most of my stuff moved in to my new studio - I'm just waiting on my mom's husband - he's cutting some wood for me so I can put shelves in the closet to store all my cardstock and patterned paper. Once that's done then I can take pics (mebbe even a video - we'll see tho) to show y'all!!

It felt weird stamping in there this morning - it's nice of course but everything is in a different spot from where it used to be and I kept reaching for things that weren't there LOL!

 

I really liked the layout I did on this card I posted last week - I made up the sketch for it and decided to use it for this sketch challenge :o)

This card uses Balloonabella from Stamping Bella (did you see there's a free shipping special going on 'till the 11th?? You can find out more here <----click! I just found out about that now and I'm gonna be in trouble - there's 2 new BELLAs and huggabugs and all kinds of stampy goodness. ACK!).

ANYWHO - I stamped the Bella, masked her feet (tutorial here) then grounded her by stamping one of the clear ovals from A Muse.

I used some Copics to color in the image, leaving the dress as I stamped and paper pieced that using this MME paper from the Quite Smitten Collection.

I decided to glitter up the balloons so I used my Quickie Glue pen and some Martha Stewart glitter to make 'em all sparkly.

I added some May Arts ribbon and a couple of Basic Grey Eva buttons (tied on with embroidery thread - it was a leetle tricky tying the little bows with my nails but I did it! LOVE how that turned out).

I finished off the inside of the card using the same patterned papers and some brown and vanilla cardstock.

I die cut a little heart with my nestabilities die and covered that with the same MS glitter and that was it!

 

STAMPS: Balloonabella by Stamping Bella, A Muse Clear Oval set.

CS: Vanilla, Brown, Prism Light Pink, MME Quite Smitten Patterned Papers.

INK: Memento Tuxedo Black, Palette Haystack, Copic Markers.

ACCESSORIES: Rectangle and Heart Nestabilities Dies, Ribbon, Buttons, Embroidery Thread, MS Glitter.

...........................................................................................................................................

Here's the sketch!

- keyword to use when uploading to public galleries is AMYRS57 (here's why)

- link directly to your creation when posting a link to your card - why you ask? Check out this link for more info.

-you are welcome to save this sketch to your computer (right click then save to your computer) and upload it to your blog post along with a direct link to this post with credit given to me for the sketch :o)

- have your card done and linked before next Thursday at 12pm noon EST in order to have it included with the participants links - other than that there is no time limits - this is all for fun! (note the time change - it's taking me a lot longer now to get these posts up so I'll be starting them earlier in the future!)

- ANYONE can participate - you can use whatever products/stamps/embellies you want - sky's the limit :)

- I WILL remove any links I deem inappropriate and/or not post them with next Friday's sketch (self-promotional, spam, card not following sketch in any way etc etc etc).

Bella Journal

       

OK here's another quick project I made last night. Ever since I had my girls I've wanted to lose weight. I gained a ton when pregnant both times and have had a hard time trying to get back in shape. This year I've decided that there's no sense putting it off and I'm honestly going to give it a real shot!

I was able to get a Wii fit delivered last week (man those things aren't easy to get a hold of! I found mine through Costco.ca - it came with a couple of extra accessories and a snowboarding game as well and it's been pretty fun!) and have been using it every day (and feel like I've been hit by a bus!). I love that it can keep track of my progress and it has a bunch of exercises/yoga positions etc etc that I'm not familiar with. So it's definitely well worth the $$

However my biggest downfall is food - I love snacking way too much! I've had "food journals" in the past and they lasted maybe a couple of days before I got bored. Now with my new determination to get back in shape I'm hoping I can keep this up and so I needed a new little journal to keep track of what I eat!

Weightwatcherbella to the rescue LOL!

I stamped her onto white cardstock, colored her in with some Copics, then cut her out with one of my rectangle nestabilities.

I matted the image with a large scalloped rectangle then used some Crystal Stickles to bling her up before setting aside the image to dry while I covered the journal.

The book itself is roughly 6x5 inches - it came from the dollar store.

I used my new Imaginisce Twitterpated papers to cover the front and back covers. I LOVE these new papers - they just scream spring! They have gloss effects on them too which are really cool - that red polka dotted paper is ALL gloss - just the dots aren't glossy - it's something you have to see in real life!

I just cut the paper to nudge it up against the coil - I didn't bother removing the coil to cover those parts of the covers - that would have been way too much work. I used myTombow Mono multi to adhere the paper - worked like a charm!

I added a bit of Twitterpated ribbon tied to the top coil to use as a bookmark.

I used one of my Studio G wood alpha's (from Michael's in the $1 bins) to stamp the "food journal" then cut that out with a nestabilities label before gluing it to the cover.

To embellish I used some felt flowers (from the Target $1 spot that were given to me eons ago!), some Primas and some DoodleBug brads and that was it!

SO - now the book is done and here's hoping I can stay consistent in using it - and of course hopefully it will help to serve as a reminder to lay off the snacks!

I gotta run now and get some exercising in - I've been doing the boxing and yoga and some of the strength exercises along with the aerobics on the Wii fit - it doesn't take long to really start to feel the burn!

Wedding Day Bella

This was such a simple card to make but I love the result!:

I pulled out my sposabella stamp and my Love Sentiments set and whipped up this card this morning after I dropped Veronica off at school.

I stamped the bella onto white cardstock then colored her in with my Copics. It took only a couple of minutes as there really isn't much coloring needed - I outlined her dress using the BG10 marker to make it appear "white" then colored the rest normally and that was it :o)

I used my oval nestabilities to cut her out, then cut out a scalloped oval from the same cardstock.

I used StarDust stickles on the image, and added some A Muse micro twinkle stickers to the flowers along the bottom of her dress.

The butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch, I punched them out of vellum then attached them to the card (a Quickie Glue pen is perfect for that), then added more twinkle stickers to them to hide the adhesive.

The 'Happy Wedding Day' is from my Love Sentiments set.

I finished off the inside of the card by lining it with red cardstock, then adhering another scalloped oval cut from white. I stamped the sentiment (also from the Love Sentiments set) onto the strip of aqua mist cardstock before adhering it over the oval.

I finished it off with a couple more vellum butterflies and twinkle stickers and that was it!

{SUPPLIES}

STAMPS: Sposabella by Stamping Bella, AmyR Stamps Love Sentiments, PT Polka Dot Basics.

CS: White, Black, Red, Aqua Mist.

INK: Black, Copics.

ACCESSORIES: Oval and Scalloped Oval Nestabilities, Ribbon, Primas, Brads, A Muse Twinkle Stickers, Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch, Dimensionals, Stardust Stickles, Corner Rounder Punch.

Winter Weather Bella

OK I have to admit I had too much fun making this card. I realized the other day that I hadn't used my Snowbunnybella stamp once this season - so I HAD to pull it out and make a card!

While I was debating on which sentiment to use I can across my "Under the Weather?" one by A Muse and thought that would be perfect. It can either be a get well soon card or one to just give to a friend to brighten their day. With the sun setting around 5pm and rising around 9 am along with the super cold temps we've been having lately it can get pretty depressing! So this is like the perfect "cheer you up" card!

I embossed the purple cardstock with my CuttleBug Snow Dots embossing folder (all the holiday folders are 40% off right now - and they won't be re-stocked b/c ProvoCraft isn't making these ones anymore! So get them now while you can).

After stamping the bella I used my long rectangle nestabilities dies to cut her out and to mat her with black cardstock.

I used these Copics to color in the Bella (another reason why I love this particular Bella is that it's super quick and easy to color). FYI the pink Copic I used is NOT neon - EVERY time I use this color it comes out like that in the pictures - when it's really closer in color and brightness to the flower in the lower right.

I also masked over the bella and stippled some yellow dye ink around her - it would have been faster (and easier) to just airbrush the color but I used up all the air in the can for my airbrush! I need to order another one ASAP.

While the bella was still masked I stamped one of the ovals from A Muse clear oval set to "ground" her (info on that here).

I had fun making the snowflakes for this card. I used my Marvy Snowflake punches - the mega, super jumbo and extra jumbo ones.

Once they were punched out I used Glossy Accents and scribbled it over each snowflake and poured on Diamond Dust.

FYI Diamond Dust is not regular glitter - it's actually finely ground glass. It is SO pretty in real life - and quite heavy too. A card like this I probably wouldn't mail (unless in a padded envelope) but rather hand to someone. Anyway - glass glitter like this needs rather strong adhesive and glossy accents is PERFECT. And it dries really quick too!

I used red line glue dots to attach the snowflakes then added Primas using DoodleBug brads to attach them.

I finished off the inside of the card by using my SU! Top Note die to cut some yellow cardstock, adhered it to the inside then added a few punched snowflakes and voila!