Stamping Bella Birthday Bash Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Bella Birthday Bash Blop Hop sponsored by Stamping Bella! If you arrived from Dana's Blog - Dana's House of Cards, then you are in the right place! If you've just happened upon my blog, you can CLICK HERE to start from the beginning at Bloggabella.
For my card today I wanted to use one of my uninked stamps, so I pulled out my Flamenca Ketto and got to work! Whenever I see this stamp I always think it would look fabulous in a few rich colors, so I pulled out my new Saffron DP from DCWV a started playing with some great colors. I used two different sheets that have very different but complimenting patterns and colored in my Flamenca Ketto to match. I do hope you like my card, it was just so much fun to make!

Here is a bit more about the hop! Guess what?! Three gift certificates for $100 in Bella Bucks will be hidden along the hop, but we’re not telling you where so be sure to leave some love as you hop!!! Make sure you leave comments on every post so you have a chance to win!! The winners will be announced on Monday, December 7 at the Stamping Bella Blog. MWAH!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Now it's time to hop on over to Sara's Blog - Expressions of a Creative Mind! I know the rest of the hop will be amazing, so enjoy the rest of your ride!

Stamps: Flamenca Ketto from Stamping Bella; Paper: Whisper White, Summer Sunrise, DCWV Saffron Stack; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, B39 Prussian Blue, BG09 Blue Green, E00 Skin White, Y17 Golden Yellow; Accessories: Large Scalloped and Regular Circle Nestabilies, Pop Dots, Kaiser Self Adhesive Rhinestones Island Lagoon, Gold Ribbon

Chichiboulie Blog Hop!

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

For my card today for the Hop I decided to use the adorable Cuppycake with a Huggabugg on top, I ordered this stamp when she was first released, but I forgot all about this cutie until I was digging around and deciding which stamp to use! Then I remembered the DP from one of the DCWV Baby Girl pack and thought it would be perfect for this image, isn't this paper just perfect for this image! I had a lot of fun with this card, hope you like it too!

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 $25 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!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Now it's time to hop on over to Meahn! Enjoy the rest of the hop, I know it is going to be fabulous!Stamps: Cuppycake with a Huggabugg on top from Stamping Bella; Paper: Whisper White, DCWN Nana's Nursery Girl DP ; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, E00 Skin White, E50 Egg Shell, E57 Light Walnut, G24 Willow, N1 Neutral Grey No. 1. R37 Carmine, RV21 Light Pink; Accessories: May Arts Ribbon, Kaiser Slef Adhesive Rhinestones, Nestabilities Labels Two

Wish RAK Cards for Troops!

Last weekend in the Wish RAK forum at SCS some wonderful ladies hosted a cards for Troops challenge weekend! I got the chance to be one of the many hostess and I challenged the ladies to create cards following a sketch I created! You know how I love sketches, so when there was still one spot open for hosting the sketch challenge I hopped aboard and got creating! After a little bit of thinking I finally got a simple sketch created that I thought others would enjoy, here is what I came up with:Also as a hostess you needed to create at least two samples showing how to create something for your challenge. Of course since it was challenges based in the Wish RAK forum, you had to use at least one item that came to you from a wish being granted to you. So I shifted through all my wonderful images and picked two that I thought would be a lot of fun!

Isn't this little mouse just the cutest thing! This little guy is from Whiff of Joy, just too cute! I love me some cupcakes, and after receiving some images of this stamp, he is SO on my wish list! I had to try him out in pink, lots and lots of pink! I mean look at that cupcake, super yummy!Of course I also had to use this cutie Stamping Bella stamp, actually shortly after I got some of these images I bought this stamp too....I tend to use the image then decide if the stamp is right for me. Love it! I hope you liked today's cards, I really had a wonderful time hosting the challenge, especially one for such a great cause! Have a beautiful day!
Stamps: Henry Celebrating Mouse from Whiff of Joy; Paper: Whisper white, Pink Passion, Scarlet Jewel; Ink: C1 Cool Grey No 1, YR16 Apricot, B21 Baby blue, R20 Blush; Accessories: Bridal Flowers, Pop Dots, Large Rectangluar Scalloped and Regular Nestabilities

Stamps: DaiseyBella from Stamping Bella; Paper: whisper white, pacific point, spring rain, DP; Ink: E00 Skin white, B14 Light Blue, RV14 Begonia Pink, Y11 Pale Yellow, RV21 Light Pink; Accessories: Bridal Flowers

A Bit of Bella

It has been ages, or at least it seems like ages since I have used any of my Stamping Bella stamps. Then, while at work earlier this week a coworker asked if I could possibly create a graduation card for her to use, the only catch was that the graduation was on Thursday, and she asked me on Tuesday. I agreed to create a card for the graduation gift. Of course I asked what her school colors were and what sort of card she would like, I was told to just create what I thought would work, and so I did. I dug through my binders till I found my Diplomabella and got to work! I colored in Bella with her school colors and used my Nestabilities to create a great focal point for the card. Then I wasn't sure what sort of background paper to use, and I decided to create my own. So after some more digging I found my Tassel Time stamp set from SU!, perfect for some background paper! So I create some fun green and yellow background paper, plus plenty of layers in the matching paper and some bling to just complete it all together. Then at the last minute I thought it needed a little something extra, so I used this great green and golden ribbon. Hope you like my Bella creation, it was so nice to use some of those Bellas again! Hope you have a great weekend!

Stamps: Diplomabella from Stamping Bella, Tassel Time from SU!; Paper: Whisper White, New Leaf, Lemon Tart; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, G07 Nile Green, Y15 Cadmium Yellow; Accessories: Pop Dots, Large Oval Nestabilities Scalloped and Regular; Sheer Green Ribbon, Tiny Twinklets

A Bit of Bella

This past weekend Stamping Bella celebrated their two year anniversary of being in business! How exciting is that?! As part of their celebration they hosted three great challenges and I got the chance to play along with all three. The first challenge was to create a card using their signature colors pink and green, which I used presentabella for, isn't she cute!

The second challenge was 'Seeing Double' where everything should be in twos. So I created a card using Mimi and Max with two crystals and two ribbons as embellishments.
The last card I created was following a sketch challenge and for this card I wanted just some simple colors. I used Wendy Papillon as the main image and colored her in using shades of blues and greens. Then I tied it all together with some fun SU! colors and a little bling, because no bella card is complete without bling! Hope you all have a great day!

Pink and Green - Stamps: Presentabella from Stamping Bella; Paper: Pretty in Pink, Certianly Celery, Whisper White, DCWV DP; Ink: E00 Skin White, G14 Apple Green, RV21 Light Pink, Memento Tuxedo Black; Accessories: Frosted Lace Stickles

Seeing Double - Stamps: Max and Mimi from Stamping Bella; Paper: Certianly Celery, Pretty in Pink, DCWV Christmas Stack, Whisper White; Ink: C1 Cool Grey No. 1, R20 Blush, G14 Apple Green, RV21 Light Pink, Memento Tuxedo Black; Accessories: clear crystals, grosgrain ribbon in pink and green

Wendy - Stamps: wendy papillon from Stamping Bella; Paper: Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Grey, Pacific Point; Ink: B12 Light Blue, BG10 Cool Shadow, BG23 Coral Sea, BG72 Ice Ocean, E00 Skin White, E31 Brick Beige, Memento Tuxedo Black; Accessories: clear crystals

Maisy and Daisy

Isn't this card cute?! I finally dug out my Chiciboulie stamps from Stamping Bella and created a card for Michele's swap on SCS. I have been using this color comination a few times recently and I am loving it, the green paper and the bright pink seems to work well together. I also got a chance to use some of the fun ribbon and dew drops that was sent to me from Heidi, my DSS this round on SCS, thank you Heidi! Enjoy...have a great weekend! I hope to share a few more Verve cards and a Pretties!

Pretties Bella Kit!

As I mentioned yesterday I am ready to share my creations using the March Stamping Bella Kit from Paper Pretties. This box of goodies arrived a while ago but I haven't had a chance to play with these things yet until now! I created the sample card from the March Stamping Bella Kit and my own take on the box supplies. I love the color combination that Christie put together plus all the matching embellishments, love it all! Do you see the coloring technique I used here? I am starting to figure it out but apparently you can use the Colorless Blender marker from Copic to remove color from an image and I gave it a try yesterday, I still need to work on it, but I am learning as I go.For my take on the box contents I went with a simple card using the brown and teal cardstock to layer this great designer paper. I think the paper and the colors really work nicely together, I didn't add any embellishments to this card since I thought the paper and the bright colors seemed to be enough. Hope you enjo them!

I also have some exciting Paper Pretties news the next release will be taking place on Tuesday July 1st at 8pm EST. Please stop by and join in on the fun, Charmaine will once again be hosting three challenges for us and if they are anything like her past challenges we are in for some fun! And there is more!

The Cutie Pie Contest is BACK!!

How would you like to be Paper Pretties Cutie Pie? I thought you would!! All you have to do is make a card using your Paper Pretties stamps and send it to Christie at christie@paperpretties.net and she will chose a winner from the entries. Besides getting to call yourself a Cutie Pie, you will also get all the stamps from this release for free!! You have until June 30th at 8pmCST to get your entries in!! Good luck!!

Plus Christie will soon be announcing the new Guest Designers for Paper Pretties so be sure to stop by the website to see who is joining the team for a few months and sharing their creativity with us all! And if you haven't yet check out the Stamp of the Month Club and get these cute stamps sent to your door step once a month!

Stamps: Savyshopabella from Stamping Bella; Paper: Bazzill Cinnamon CS, Bazzil Bahama CS, Bazzill Lakeshore CS, Bazzill Lizard CS, Ultrasmooth White CS, Daisy D's Sheheazade DP; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, BG05 Holiday Blue, E00 Skin White, E25 Chamois, Y11 Pale Yellow, Y13 Lemon Yellow, Y28 Lionet Gold, YG03 Yellow Green; Accessories: Chatterbox Olive Ribbon, Bazzill Sparkle Brads

Last one....

For now...This card marks the end of the my cards for Manda's Monthly Bella Card Swap,but have no fear I signed up for another Manda swap, but not a monthly. We had a theme of our choice in one of the spots and I had to go with my Savy Shopabella which I love, a simple but fun card. I love these colors, as you can tell I am sure, I use them all the time and I think they work for so many things. Hope you enjoy this card, hopefully I can post my MFT Challenge card, the challenge is to use black cardstock and black embellishments, so I had to take a trip to the store tonight. Hope to see you here again tomorrow!

Soul Sisters

Another Stamping Bella card I created for Manda's Monthly Bella Swap! That means that I only have one more to share with you, woo-hoo! I love using my Bellas, but I only pull them out when I have a reason, so they sit in their little Stamping Bella Bindahs, poor things. I decided to use some of my new PaperTrey supplies for these cards so I pulled out the newest PTI paper colors of Kraft and Lavender Moon to get started and finished the card using some of the decorative paper found in the 12 x 12 Bitty Baby Blessings paper pack. I love the PTI colors and I have been using them on many of my cards recently, in fact I am already looking forward to the next colors that must be coming out, if they are anything like the colors that have already been revealed I can only imagine what will come next! Be sure to stop by tomorrow for Pretties Wednesday, the challenge was most definitely a challenge, but I got just the thing.

Patriotic Bella!

I had wanted to post a card for the last few days but I have been in a bit of a 'funk' about some things so I didn't feel up to sharing with anyone, but today I am feeling so much better. I had the intention of posting a picture of the cute Miss Sophia from Paper Pretties but I forgot my markers at work today so she is almost done, but not yet! Tomorrow I will share with you Sophia and today is all about Bella! This is another card I created for Manda's Monthly Stamping Bella Swap with the theme of 'patriotic'. I made the card a little more chic than I typically do, but I love how it came out. I centered the image, but shifted it to create more of a dynamic card, then I accented the card base with some red and blue baubles. There is something about Cosmobella that I just love, and I think she really pulls this card together. Be sure to stop by tomorrow, I am out of my 'funk' and Sophia (with some buttons) is out coming to play!

Bestest Bella Friends

Ladies! I have been super busy creating cards; I only have one more to create for Manda’s Monthly Stamping Bella swap after all that card making! I had intended to take pictures last night of all the cards I created, but alas that did not happen so I do not have my last sneak peak ready to post for tonight’s release yet, but as soon as I get home that ‘Sweet’ card is going up! In the mean time I thought I would share one of my recently made Bella cards for Manda’s Swap. Can you guess the theme to this one? I would think you could tell, or at least I hope that I made it clear enough, but it is all about ‘Bestest Friends’. I used Huggeybella and the cute ‘Bestest Friends’ sentiment for this card. I also dug out my dusty Copic glitter pens to add a little shine to the girls, I think it works. I love the decorative paper I used on this one, to be honest I don’t know where I got it from but I have a pad of paper from this collection and I love it! Be sure to stop by tonight for my last sneak peak for tonight’s Paper Pretties release, and don’t miss out on the Pajama Party tonight over at the Paper Pretties forum, its sure to be fun!

May Flowers

Woo-hoo! Another one bites the dust! I have now completed all of the image coloring and my second of the six cards, I am just flying though these things now...lol. The theme for this one is supposed to be May Flowers, but something seems off. I have been looking at this card and something seems to not fit, but both my mom and my sister say I am being over critical, oh well I tried. I am working on the friends card now with Huggyabella, I just love this stamp but it has so many little details that were driving me crazy. The little bits in images are pretty hard to color using Copic markers, even though the images are more vibrant, they sometimes take a lot more work due to ink bleeding. Hope you enjoy this Flowahbella card, she was one of my first Bellas and she is just too cute! I should be posting another card tomorrow, so stop by!

Not good...

Recently I have been a horrible swapper. I keep signing up for swaps without finishing the ones I am already in. I have posted several times before about Manda's monthly bella swap on SCS. I started out strong then it went down hill from there, I was late for the last two months and I feel horribly about it. Today I finally finished one of the six cards I need to send out and I think it turned out nicely. The problem I have with Bella cards is that I am too picky when I color in the images, I start out coloring and if I don't like it I trash it. Not the best thing to do with that many cards that need to go out, so now 1 down, 3 different main images are colored and they are all mounted. I need to pick two more Bellas to color in and get started on those...then I have a Gina K. Swap and a Gruffies Swap....talk about in over my head! So you should be seeing cards from all sorts of companies posted here as I complete these swap cards. Stay tuned!

Pajama Party Time!

Ladies! Thank you for all the lovely comments you sent my way both here and on SCS, you are the best! Now are we all ready to party tonight? I think its time to kick back, jump in our jammies and join in all the fun at the Paper Pretties Pajama Party. We have a new website and forum over at Paper Pretties so be sure to register so you can join us, we would love to have you. There will be three challenges hosted by Charmaine, three new Paper Pretties stamp sets released and plenty of stamping fun. In that mode, I thought I would share the February Bella Box card from Paper Pretties featuring Saycheeseabella! Isn't she cute?! Christie does a great job on these boxes, the supplies are top notch and so versatile. I also created a card using the box supplies with my own spin. I love the floral paper from this kit, but I thought the striped paper worked betted with the color scheme. I used my distresser on the edged and some of the same ribbon I used on the monthly card to bring out the rust color backing. The colors in this paper are so calming, I love them! Hope to see you all tonight, its almost time to party!

Bella Time

As promised here are the fun cards I created for Manda Montly Bella Card Swap. I really love my Bellas, I think they come close to being my favorite stamp type, but I have to be in the mood for Bella creations, do you know what I mean? The first card is a fun Cupcakabella card in purple. Purple is a color I never seem to use but I wanted to give it a chance on this card. I used my Copics and my Spica markers to create the colored image, so if you can't see it this card is super shinny. The Prima flower is from a flower rack I ordered when Prima had a special of buy one get one free going on...love these flowers! This second card uses pink, which I have more paper for than I can manage. The decorative paper is from Basic Grey and uses shades of pink and green with a little brown accent. I love my ticket punch from SU! and I use it whenever I can. I also added a 'happy birhtday stampingbella sentiment in the word windoow punch from SU!. Hope you like my cards for this month, they were a lot of fun to create.

Its Snowing!

Its snowing! So much so that my part time job, the local library, decided to close its doors early today. Woo-Hoo! That means I have plenty of time to catch up on my swaps and create cards for fun challenges, in fact two of those hours I will be getting paid for working when I am in fact stamping. How wonderful is that!?! I have a whole list of things to post about for this week including pictures and cards for the January PaperPretties Boxes (Stamping Bella and My Favorite Things), Julee’s Mojo Monday, Manda’s Monthly Bella Card Swap, my Bella Card Kit Swap (almost all swapped out). So much to do and so little time, so hold on to your seats cards will be a flying!

The card above is for Manda's Monthly Bella Card swap...so what do you think? I don't know if its good enough, something about the card bothers me but it needs to go postal tomorrow. Oh well, I tried I guess. Also, you have until tomorrow night to post to be entered for Sister Sweets below!

Quick And Easy

The other night was the Bella Pajama Party so I stopped by and created a simple and quick card following the great sketch challenge that was posted. I wanted to go for a card that fit the sketch but had clean, clear lines...nothing too popping, if you know what I mean. Hope you like it, I plan on creating a few more card following a few sketches I have seen recently, but I need to get back to cleaning. My mom is having many people over this weekend for the superbowl so my room needs a major cleaning. If I go missing I am under the mass of paper, crafting goodies, and clothes!

So....

So even though I didn’t post yesterday/last night does not mean I wasn’t thinking about it. I starting working on the PaperPretties card of the month for my November My Favorite Things box when I got side tracked. It seems that my house will be the hosting spot for about 15-20 families this weekend and with that my room needs a MAJOR cleaning. Since I live at home still I need to fit everything in my bedroom, now my room is about 16’ x 16’, but with just my crafting things the room fills up fast. If it looked more organized I would share a picture, but since it really is a mess….leave it to your imagination for now. I may share some images once I clean things up a bit. I have been trying to get rid of things I don’t use, organize what I have, and pack things away into the attic if I don’t need them, but I think this will take longer than I thought it would.

I do hope to complete the November MFT Box card tonight and possibly even create my own version. Also on the list of things to do is to create a card with polka dots (PaperPretties weekly challenge), bundle up my Wish RAK Exchange package, create something Hanna related, and stop by the Stamping Bella pajama party tonight. Speaking of PaperPretties weekly challenges I won the challenge from two weeks ago and I never post my winning card, so here it is!
The challenge was to take a card you already created and revisit it in a way that would improve the card itself. I created this card as part of one of my own takes on a Bella box from September, so for this challenge I added a few things. The red paper was added as were the heart shaped brads (both items came from other PaperPretties boxes) and although you can’t really make it out I also added my Copic Glitter markers the Bella, giving her and extra sparkle. Now several of you lovely ladies have asked me about PaperPretties and enrolling for one of the wonderful boxes I have shared with you. I spoke with Christie about the boxes last week and the Bella boxes, Rubber Romance boxes, and MFT boxes are all full but there are open memberships for the Nestabilities and the Copic boxes that Christie offers. If the membership for any of the stamping boxes open up I will be sure to let you know, in the mean time you should stop by the store and pick up some of the cute new stamps PaperPretties have released….they’re too cute for words!

Love and Stamps

I know your out there and I know most of you check out different stamp companies so on that note have you seen SCS Companies recently? Big changes ladies! PaperTrey has now left, returning to the PaperTrey forum they created a few months ago and Hanna Stamps, Flourishes, and Craft Ladies have all arrived! I don’t know about you but once I decide to visit your company if I am pleased I will come back, as you may have noticed on my blog. I received my new Gina K. stamps, I ordered six sets and got two for free, I received my My Favorite Things new sets, and I received the new Hanna Stamps set and I need to start using these stamps. I am recognizing a problem that I hope to resolve this year, I don’t stamp. No, honestly, I don’t stamp. What do I do? I horde and I am trying to stop, so on that note….I am not buying new stamps from a company if I have not at least used a few of my currently owned stamps. Last night I did not place an order with PaperTrey, not because I didn’t like the stamps, on the contrary I LOVE the new sentiment stamp set and the new Branch set….too CUTE! I love my PaperTrey sets but I don’t use them as much as I would like. I am going to try and set up some sort of weekly thing where I create several cards using stamps from the same company which will hopefully solve my problem. So, ladies I will be showing you at least two more Bella cards from the swap Manda hosts on SCS, but after that I am going to try to use some of my other wonderful stamps. I think its bad when you have received the newest My Favorite Things stamp sets and you go to your clip it (which I love!) and you see that you never even open last months releases. I feel like I am wasting the stamps I am buying by not using them, does anyone else feel this way? If so I would love to hear how you rectify the problem. I mean I have shared pictures of my new Elzybells and stamped images of them for other people but I have yet to use them myself!
Okay, I think that is enough of a rant, I am sorry it turned into such a long post, but I wanted to be clear. Now on to the next Bella card…LOL….Yes, I know another Bella card. This one is for February which has the theme of love for both of the groups I am in. For this first love card I wanted to use all different shades of pink and my Ballonabella which until I created this card had yet to be inked up. I used some of the yummy paper I received in a past PaperPretties box and the scallop technique I read about on Beate’s blog to create this card. I hope you like it, I think the ribbon and the scallops really complete the overall look….and do you see my scalloped Oval frames? I created them using my Nestabilities and Cuttlebug…yummy!
Copics: E00 - Skin White, RV06 - Cerise, RV11 - Pink, RV21 - Light Pink, Y13 - Lemon Yellow, Spica 02 - Pink
The next card is using SavyShopabella, this card had to use 'In' Colors from SU! and I only had Sky Blue, so I offset it with gray and white. I love the layers and begin able to use my cuttlebug recently has been awesome between the swirls and the silver ribbon I am in love! Oh...and my photos are getting better, I am working with my camera and so far I am liking the results.
Copics: B14 - Light Blue, BG10 - Cool Shadow, E00 - Skin White, Y28 - Lionet Gold, W3 - Warm Gray No. 3

Bella Monthly Card Swap

Ladies, I am becoming horrible at concentrating! I sat down several times to create four cards for a Bella Card Swap on SCS that Manda is hosting and several times I came up empty handed. Here is one of the cards I finally finished for this swap, the scan isn't that clear but the card is embossed and then the Bella image Glidabella is stamped in the center of the embossed area. I used the PaperTrey Snowflake Serenade set for the snowflakes around the perimeter. I also used my new stardust pen that I received in my PaperPretties box to add some sparkle to Ms.Glide, it needed something more so I added the fibers, I think it finishes it off nicely. Don't you.

Now which Copic did I use on this one? Here is the list...E00 - Skin White, B00 - Frost Blue, B14 - Light Blue, Y13 - Lemon Yellow. Honestly only a few markers, but I think she looks nice and toasty in her winter get up.