Bellarific Friday

Here's my card for Bellarific Friday this week at Stamping Bella.  This week's theme is "Anything Goes", so I turned to one of my favourite Bella images, this dandelion silhouette and my favourite Bella sentiment stamp "life is too short for beige".  Now I know this card contains no beige whatsoever, but in the name of design, I am using gray instead of beige.  Indeed I recently read the word "greige" in a design magazine.  (Even typing that word makes me cringe!  Ick. Beige meets grey meets terrible mash-up word of even yuckier colour.)    I have been starved for colour lately.  We are knee-deep in February in Ontario, which means the landscape is various shades of grey, sleet, sludge and slush.  the trees are grey, the sky is grey, the roads are grey, everything is grey, bleak and grey.  So grey that I had to put hyacinths on the grocery list, not to eat, but to bring some colour into the house.  My DH, God bless him, brought home gorgeous fuchsia ones.  Lovely!

Ok, so enough about the bleak outsides.  We decided to go shopping for a new duvet cover and check out the new Ikea.  They just built one here that is the biggest in Canada and is approximately the size of  Prince Edward Island.  Before you get to where you can buy anything, you walk through approximately 53 km of showrooms, all done up in Ikea style.  Guess what the Ikea style is.  Yep.  Grey.  Grey with pops of colour.  so there will be a living room with charcoal couch, pencil lead carpet, exhaust fume drapes and a lime throw cushion.  Or a kitchen pewter cupboards, steel appliances, graphite counter top and a chartreuse tea towel.  You get the picture.  Everything was grey.  It seems this year's fashion statement is Bunker Living or Prison Cell Mod.  Even the bed linen store was no better, with 85 duvet covers all in shades of charcoal, graphite and oyster.  Ultimately, we settled on a duvet cover that is white with solid botanical silhouettes in lime green, greeny-beige and grey.  So, we did get some grey (my brush with stylishness) but the overall effect is green and white.  (That and my husband vetoed the hot pink and purple stripes AND the fuchsia paisley.) 

So, being inspired by recent forays into the world of home decor (usually we decorate in contemporary Playmobil and children's art), I translated it into a card for Bellarific Friday.  The stamp is "solid funky dandelion" and as I looked on the website to find that out, I discovered a very similar sample card there, with bright green and black.  Maybe that was deep in my subconscious, I have no idea.  They say there's nothing new under the sun (well, people other than Hamlet say that, and we never do find out what Horatio thinks of that!).    Anywho, that's my card for Bellarific Friday.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:  ink: charcoal and gray whale colorbox fluid chalk, kiwi kiss stampin' up, lettuce colorbox pigment ink.  Zing lime green embossing powder.  Naturals white, kiwi kiss paper and grey paper from Heather's. 

Sending scoops of love

Hello!  Here's my entry for Bellarific Friday at Stamping Bella this week.  The theme is Valentine's or Red and Pink.  I have this cute Valentine stamp, so I used it.  Inside the card it says "sending you scoops of love".  The image is stamped in India Ink and coloured with pencil crayons (mostly Bruynzeel, some Prismacolor).  The scoop is accented with Sakura glitter pen and the hearts are accented with a couple of layers of glossy accents (let dry in between layers).  The "bottom" hearts have one layer and the "top" hearts have two layers.  The background paper is Basic Grey from the Lemonade collection.  I had some heart shaped rhinestones so I coloured those with a Copic and added them.  I didn't have enough to go all the way across, so I used some little rhinestones in there too.  Here I am, with a Valentine's card in time for Valentine's Day.  Whodathunkit?!

Thanks for stopping by.

Bellarific Friday - White Theme

Hello!  Here's my card for Bellarific Friday this week at Stamping Bella and the theme is white.  I used the three ornament stamp, stamped on white linen with gold Delicata ink (fabulous stuff - so gold and great detail - I have used it on everything for the last two weeks).  I re-stamped it on cream linen and cut out the ornaments to pop up.  I accented with a white gel pen and then added some tape around the edge of the white linen panel topped with warm highlight glitter ritz.  I accented some of the ornaments with glitter ritz too, to tie it in.  Also, the polka dot ornament is paper-pieced with white linen.  the panel is mounted on gold metallic and the base card is a slightly textured white metallic with gold iridescence.  I stamped the base card with Stamping Bella solid holly using alabaster chalk ink.  In real life it's totally fabulous but Sauron the Scanner bears me some monstrous grudge and refuses to capture its beauty for you.  Trust me.  Even my DH said it was really beautiful, and he's not one who's normally lavish with praise.  I think I will make more of these as they are quite quick to do (minus the fiddly paper piecing, which could be achieved more quickly with the gel pen in future).  I will use the narrower tape for the glitter frame next time too, but again, live and learn.  I'm not displeased with this, but now that I want the narrow edge, I will fixate on that until I get a chance to try it. 

I'm in full Christmas card mode right now, and finished a small batch (6) of cards from Krista's Copic class this fall (the stained glass nativity scene).  I hope to post that soon, but I make no promises.  I have a lot of things to do.  In fact my friend and I were talking (on the chat feature of Facebook Scrabble) about how we're so very far from being ready for Christmas.  I said I have to battle perfectionist tendencies and so far lowering my standards and eliminating unrealistic (i.e. any) goals has been the secret to my success.  She said she will stop procrastinating.  I said I planned to do that as well, but not just yet.  And for the record, Facebook Scrabble doesn't take that long, I usually play a quick word before my morning shower.  That's hardly encroaching on laundry-shopping-wrapping-cookie baking-gingerbread house building- tree decorating - Advent meditating-Christmas card writing time, now is it?  And also for the record, I put "make Christmas cards" at the top of my To Do list every year.  Stephen Covey says to prioritize, and I find that a very helpful secret to success. 

Thanks for stopping by!  I must go and see if I can play my X and Q!

Summer Card Camp Week 2

Hello! Here's my card for Summer Card Camp, Week 2, featuring this week's colour combination (pale yellow, rusty orange, poppy, lime, grass green). I'm also using this card for this week's Bellarific Friday at Stamping Bella. I placed the three daisy stamps on an acrylic block and stamped them down the length of a 3"x6 1/2" piece of Bella's Bestest paper. I chose Copics in this scheme, or as close as I could get. I don't have a juicy yellow green like that - all mine are a bit greyer. I love that juicy lime colour - you can almost smell the lime zest! Anyway, I coloured it and then had to figure out the layout, which has to include ribbon for this week's Bellarific challenge. You know me and ribbon (love-hate releationship - I love ribbon, it hates me). Anyway, I finished off the card by matting onto some So saffron (SU) and Poppy Parade (SU) in an oblong card. I embellished the flowers with matching stickles (lime green, yellow, copper, Christmas red) so they're quite sparkly in real life.

NSR: Two notable family achievements today: DD2 (age 5) rode her two-wheeler today for the first time, no one holding on, no training wheels, just free-wheeling down the street and pleased as Punch. She must have gone up and down the street a dozen times (Hubby's going to be sore tomorrow - jogged alongside). Second notable achievement, different scale, different continent, different generation. Grandpa is due to reach the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro at sunrise, which is some time in the middle of the night tonight my time (see earlier post on baffling nature of timezones). He was going to try to send a text, but wasn't sure whether it would work. Part of me hopes that at least mountain tops are unsullied by digital traffic. But part of me hopes it works. Apparently he's having a great time and really enjoying himself.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Easter!

Hello! I really shouldn't be blogging as there are still a million things to do before bed, but I've been bustling all day and I'm ready for a break. I thought I'd post another Bellarific Friday challenge card, even though I missed the challenge. It was an anything-goes challenge and I used the circus tent and sentiment (Stamping Bella) with June Bug paper (Basic Grey). The image is coloured with Tombows and has some stickles added too. I was sure I had the new Paprika stickles, but perhaps not. They would have been perfect here.... I used the new dark blue stickles though, and I love them! I sponged a bit of mustard seed and wild honey distress ink onto the sentiment, forgetting I'd stamped with markers so it smudged a bit. Final accent was some buttons. Naked buttons. Deliberately naked buttons. If Blogger doesn't shut me down for the word "naked", the button vigilantes will. But they will have to drag me down, kicking and screaming, because I really felt like those naked buttonholes echoed the polkadots of the two papers and the main image. Tying string or paper through would have insulted the whole endeavour. So, button vigilantes, lynch me with crochet cotton if you will, but I will defend my design choice to my last breath!

In other news, we had a fabulous time today decorating Easter eggs. I'm sure I'm not the first person to try it, but Twinkling H20s make absolutely gorgeous eggs. I bought flowers in green and purple, so I got out shades of green and purple twinks and my daughters and I had a great time painting them. My youngest (almost 5) had to wash her hands a lot ("They're a DISASTER!") because she's very fastidious and can't abide dirty or sticky hands. Three rounds of dishwashing later and my hands are almost presentable for church tomorrow. But the eggs are gorgeous. The lustre of the twinks and the perfect curve of the egg are matchless. I tried stamping and embossing on them first, and early trials showed it would be possible, but it would have drained my reservoir of patience and made a significant dent in the back up tank. I felt it unwise to face the next few days with patience on "E", so I abandoned that particular effort. If you're not facing 2.5 days of chocolate-fuelled youngsters, it would be worth a try.

NSR: Speaking of circuses, excitement is climbing to a fever pitch around here. We have made it through Lent and the girls did really well. They are really looking forward to chocolate tomorrow! We are having Easter dinner here, and I am going to try Nigella's ham in coca-cola. It's in all her cookbooks in one form or another, so I figure that if she's going to urge us that zealously to try the recipe, I should go ahead and try it. I'm also trying her chocolate lime cheesecake. I just took it out of the oven and it is the most gorgeous colour and texture. Can't wait to take a bite of that! Hubby really wanted a turkey, but I'm still turkeyed out from Christmas. That and I roasted a turkey breast the other day for a cold salad to take to a potluck so I am feeling done with roasting fowl this week. I am even going to make Kraft Dinner for a side dish, so the kids will have something they like. I must be going soft in my old age. Actually, both the ham and dessert recipe are from Nigella's "Trashy" chapter in her "Bites" cookbook, so it does seem somewhat fitting to add KD to the mix. It doesn't get much trashier than KD, unless it's KD with ketchup. We are also having green bean casserole from my Harrowsmith cookbook, and homemade coleslaw. Those two don't count as trashy since they don't start with a brand name ingredient and both are made from primarly fresh ingredients. Story, sticking to it, yada yada yada.

If you've made it this far, you are likely related to me, so this little story might make you laugh. As I happened through the dining room just now, I saw two letters left out for the Easter bunny. I don't know when the kiddies wrote them, but clearly my 8-year-old took dictation from the younger one:

To: The Easter Bunny,

Can you please get me a My Little Pony big unicorn that can go with my baby unicorn and if you cannot get me that can you please get me a Barbie like [my sister's] Barbie that has tuquois [printed in turquoise crayon] higheel boots and if you have no turquoise bootes another colere is fine. From [elaborate signature of DD2, age 4]

To: The Easter Bunny,

This year can you please get me the pet of the month webkinz and a photo of you and your little helpers. Thank you. Love, [signature of DD1, age 8]

I have it on good authority that the Easter bunny will not be bringing Webkinz or Barbies this year, turquoise-booted or otherwise. Also, yesterday DD1 asked me if there were any stamps I wanted. I hemmed and hawed, trying, and failing, to narrow it down. I eventually gave a couple of options and she said, "Just ask the Easter Bunny and you could get them for free!" There aren't usually a big number of presents from the Easter Bunny, but clearly it's worth me writing a letter....

To: The Easter Bunny,

I hope you are having a good Easter and not getting too cold and wet delivering eggs. Please enjoy the carrots we left out for you. If it's not too much trouble, I would like a set of Caran d'Ache watercolour crayons. I have seen them used to great effect. If possible, please include a turquoise one since I know some people whose favourite colour is turquoise. Thank you and Happy Easter!

Karen

Bellarific Friday card

I made this card for Bellarific Friday, and since Penelope with Prezzies arrived this week, it seemed like a good time to play with this stamp. I also need a birthday card for my niece who turns 6 in a couple of weeks. This week's Bellarific challenge is on this post, and you can see the inspiration picture below the card.

I went with the colour scheme, and the white pattern. It immediately occurred to me that my freebie Sale-a-bration patterned paper would be great for this.

I stamped Penelope on watercolour paper with stazon, and coloured her with Tombows, sticking to a yellow and green and gray colour scheme. I added some sparkle pen and stickles here and there, and a green crystal in the centre of the flower in her hair. It's a smidge too big, but I don't care. The image is mounted on some nice gray linen textured paper from my LSS. I spotted a saffron button in the chaos, and added it to a custom tinted Pretty flower, and a punched 5-petal flower, with a bit of gold thread to finish it. The background, as I said, is paper from the SAB brochure, in gray and saffron, edged with Memento ink in gray and yellow. I went with a mustard card base, because mustard is the perfect colour for a card for a 6-year-old girl. Well, not really, it's the perfect colour for this card. The poor dear girl will just have to suffer for my art.

As a post script to my tale of spray can woe from the other day, the projects turned out fine. In fact, they were presents for my stamp club ladies, as it was our last stamp club meeting this week. (I will be asking again if people are interested in another round of clubs.) Anyway, they had a laugh when they realized their bookmarks were the project in question. I used the chipboard scalloped squares, and made bookmarks with Pirouette Pink double-stripe ribbon. Very pretty. I also wrapped them in pop-top cans, decorated with Parisian Summer paper from the last catalogue, and Parisian Summer paper bows. I made those at work and forgot to bring my punch and brads for sticking them together. This is an important step! Snail will not hold! You will spend all week sticking un-sproinged bows back together!!!! Those *!&# bows are out of my hair now, and they did look really cute en masse.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Stamps: Penelope - Stamping Bella, sentiment - Stampin' Up; Paper: watercolour, gray linen, Delicate Dots, so saffron & more mustard - SU; Ink: jet black Stazon, Memento in London Fog and Dandelion; Other: 5-petal punch, so saffron button, Pretties kit flower, embroidery floss, stickles (yellow and crystal), swarovski crystal, sakura green glitter pen, Tombow markers.