And if you really try...you'll find there's no need to cry...in this place you'll feel there's no hurt or sorrow...

Hi y'all! Happy Saturday! I realized today that I hadn't shared this card with you yet, even though I uploaded it to my Splitcoast Gallery. Shame on me!

When I first got into coloring stamped images, I bought a set of Prismacolor Pencils and colored everything I could get my hands on using the Gamsol Magic technique. My friend Paula inspires me week after week with her awesome creations using colored pencils, so I got a wild hair to dust off my pencils and odorless mineral spirits and give it a try again. Here's the result:


Not too shabby, huh? I have to say, I was quite impressed with myself! *grin* You should notice a few Paula-inspired details on this card, as a matter of fact.

The first thing I did was ink up Polly Packages from Stamping Bella in Brilliance Graphite Black on Bella's Bestest Paper. I wasn't sure how Memento would react with the OMS (odorless mineral spirits), so I decided to just use Brilliance and heat set it. Then I began to color...wow! Not only did I not forget how to do this, but I think I'm better at it than I was before! Who knew? Not to brag at all, it just shows how practicing with shadows and layering color, even with different mediums, makes such a huge difference! Let's see if I can find a card that I did back in the day...ok. Found one...this one is from 2007...just six months or so after I started stamping.


This was one of my very first Bellas...Flowahbella. I still lovey her soooo much! But look at the difference in the shading! WOW! There are so many ways to grow and learn in this hobby...that's one of the reasons I love it so much.

Anywho, back to my card. I decided that the image was perfect for this week's Sketch Challenge on Splitcoast. So after I got my image colored, I cut and embossed it with my Rectangle Nestabilities. Leaving the die in place, I sponged Versamagic Wheat Chalk ink around the edges of the rectangle, giving Polly kind of a white "glow." Once I cut and embossed a Chocolate Chip scalloped mat and adhered the main image to it, I decided to be brave and see if I could stitch around the edges of the rectangle without losing the embossing. Success! It was so stressful...I sewed soooo slow! And it's still not totally straight, but, well, it's pretty darn good I think. *giggle*

The next thing I did was cut a base layer from the Treasure blue polka dot pattern from Bo Bunny's Tis the Season Collection. I sponged the edges with Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip ink, matted it with Chocolate Chip, and stitched (not-so-straightly again) around the edges. The bottom strip with the snowflake print is actually the back (or is it the front?) side of the Treasure paper, which I sponged with Cocoa and Chocolate inks as well before adhering to the base layer. I then chose the Stripe pattern and cut it with my Nestabilities Labels One die so the stripes were diagonal instead of vertical. I sponged the edges of that one as well, then adhered it for my side panel.

Right before I popped up the main image on dimensionals, I wrapped a piece of coordinating ribbon around the card base layers. After the main image was down, I tied a cute little bow on the left side. I needed a little something on the top right, and three small dark cocoa glitter dots were just perfect. The finishing touches were a little Diamond Glaze on the berries on her hat and some Diamond Stickles on the gift bow. Of course. *wink*

Well, it's late, so I better wrap this up. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!! OH!!! One more thing....I have started sign-ups for a LULU Blog Hop over in the Bella Forum. Here's the link...go check it out! We'd love to have you play with us!