My eyes are green cause I eat a lot of vegetables...it don't have nothing to do with your new friend...

Happy Sunday, sistahs! I had this post scheduled for Wednesday but something happened and it didn't post. Yikes! I used an for You to Try for this card...here ya go:



And here's my card, using an old fave, Goodluckabella...



I also used the large Dark Cocoa Glitter Dots...love adding these to cards because there are no lumpy backs to worry about. Here's a closer look:



Short and sweet for me today...Have a fabulous day!

Don't stop believin'...Hold on to the feelin'...Streetlights, people...

Hey, friends, long time no "see!" I'm really sorry I've been absent for so long...I didn't mean to be! I thought I would feel more like crafting, and I'm starting to. But for right now, these cards are all I have done. These were created for my Copic classes at Crop Paper Scissors in Waco this past Saturday.

The first three were for the Copic 1 Class, where we learned basic blending techniques, shading, and some fun ways to create texture. We used stamps by Penny Johnson for Stampavie for these cards.

This cute little guy is Butterfly Bear. He needed to be brown, because he was brown in my head...and I love the pop of yellow in the butterfly.

Next up is Fishing Bear...I thought he would be soooo cute for a Father's Day card or a little boy's birthday. And I really enjoy using the orange & aqua combination.

The last cutie pie is Bird and Bear. I tried to make her a little softer by using more muted and pastel colors. Love her!

The next three cards were for the Copic 2 Class...and boy, we worked hard in this class! We worked on advanced blending techniques, airbrushing, and highlighting. The stamps we used are from Tina Wenke's new collection from Stampavie.

This one is Easter Parade, and just picking colors for this one was tough! It's just such a fun image...I couldn't resist using it. I love the little duck with the hat!

Next we did Rabbit in Watering Can, mixing both bold flowers and light ones into our bouquet. I love the little tiny purple ones.

The final card is my favorite of the whole group...Mouse in Hammock. Is he not the CUTEST thing you've ever seen? We really practiced dramatic shading here, learning that less is more. And had a blast!

I hope you enjoyed the class if you were there, and if not, don't worry, I'll be back! *wink* Have a fabulous day!

YAY! Another Copic Class!!

Happy Wednesday, y'all! How's your week going? Mine is good! I'm taking a quick trip up to Joplin, MO to deliver a pooch (more details on that tomorrow) to a sweet boy, then back home tomorrow. I do have some cards to show you, though!

These are the samples for my upcoming Copic Class at The Crafty Scrapper.
Class will be Thursday - Feb 18, 2010 @ 6:30 pm, and the cost is $35.00.

If you have taken my Copic Class before, you might still want to join us for this one, because I will be showing you some new things!! *wink* Plus, we will be using these adorable images from Whipper Snapper, illustrated by my favorite chickin' lovin' girl - Anna Wight. Check them out:

I kept the feel of the cards simple and a little distressed (like me!), and used Double Dot paper from Bo Bunny. We will be using Flower Soft and Nestabilities as well, so lots of fun stuff in this class!

So, call the store to sign up (Phone: 972-923-3151), and hopefully I will see you there! I can't wait!

If he came back tomorrow there's something I'd like to know...Would Jesus wear a rolex on His television show...

Hey y'all! Happy weekend! It's late Friday night (or early Saturday morning...) as I'm writing this, but I wanted to get some more of my cards posted for the January Verve Release. These stamps were soooo much fun to create with! Check it out:


The first card I created uses the Heart's Desire set. I decided to go with a pink & brown, but then decided at the last minute to switch to PTI's Berry Sorbet instead, which is more of a coral color. I started by stamping the large scribbly heart in Chocolate Chip ink in a repeated pattern that just kind of happened. I love it! Then I sponged the edges with Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip, distressed the edges with my scissors, and then added some faux stitching with my quilty thingy. Anyone know what those things are called?? AHA! After further investigation, I have found that the quilty thingy is called a tracing wheel. But I like quilty thingy better, don't you? Anyway, now I've forgotten what I was talking about.

Ok, so I adore the "Love" sentiment in this set, so I decided to repeat it across a Vintage Cream strip on the bottom part of the card. I stamped one in Chocolate Chip, and the rest were stamped in Berry Sorbet ink. I sponged the edges of that with Close to Cocoa as well, then layered it onto a Chocolate Chip scalloped strip. The finishing touch was some Berry Sorbet ribbon tied into a "buttony bow." I think it took me longer to write all this than it actually took to make this card. *giggle*

So while I'm chatting, here's one more card...with probably my favorite set from this release, Love's Flower.


I pulled out my bag of tricks on this one, can you tell? We've got coloring, airbrushing, dry embossing, sponging, a scalloped edge, and sewing...oh, and of course, Diamond Stickles! *grin* This one took a LONG time to make, but I kept having to get up and come back to it, so I'm sure that was part of the problem. It certainly was a labor of love...it took all day...but I love it. I hope you do, too.

Ok, friends, I am headed to bed...hope you enjoyed my cards! I will have more coming, so stay tuned!

P.S. I have a new daily feature besides the song lyrics...something just for fun. Ready?

Let's start with the funniest one I have found so far, from the great state of Alabama.

Stupid Law of the Day:

It is illegal to wear a fake mustache that causes laughter in church.

Ok, I can't decide. Here's one more:

Putting salt on a railroad track may be punishable by death.

Have a fabulous day!

Joy is a flag flown high from the castle of my heart...

Hey, y'all...Happy Bellariffic Friday! I have another post for you today...this time with a peek from the Stamping Bella Release! I have the privilege of showing you Eloise is in Love...how cute is she??

You all know how I love my Chichiboulie Fairies, and this one is no exception. How adorable are those ruffled socks?? Here's a close-up of her:

I just loveyyy her! She was stamped on Bella's Bestest Paper and colored with Copics. I airbrushed the ground (pretend she is on a little hill...it's a bit crooked...) with W3 and then the rest of the background with a nice soft yellow (Y21). Then I cut and embossed the image with my Labels 8 Nestabilities and added a black mat (cut by hand). I gave the image a little OOMPH with some Glossy Accents on her shoes and flagpole, and some Diamond Stickles on her wings and a few details on the flag. The paper underneath her is from the Bella Blvd Flirty Collection, and I used my Martha Stewart Doily Lace Edger punch on the side layers. The final touch was a ribbon/bow combo with a GORGEOMALICIOUS Prima flower, sprayed with Oyster Glimmer Mist. Love that stuff!

So...are you ready to shop? Emily is still loading images, but they should all be up shortly! You can see the new January stamps HERE. Don't forget to check out Em's blog for all the entries and samples for Bellariffic Friday...lots of new stuff from the Babes in there! Have a great morning...see ya in a bit with some Verve stuff! MWAH!

Friends to know...and ways to grow...a Reading Rainbow...

Happy Friday, Sistahs!! Remember that show?? I loved it when I was a kid! Anywho, now that I am back, you know what that means, right??? BELLARIFFIC FRIDAY!! YAY!! This week's theme was Back to School, so I dug through my stamps and found Bookwormabella...I love her! So here's my card:




I used Mojo Monday Sketch #119 as my starting point and got to work. My Early Bird paper from Cosmo Cricket had been calling me, so I pulled out a couple of pieces and chose some Copics to coordinate with the colors. I stamped Bookwormabella in Memento Black on Bella's Bestest Cream paper, then colored her up with Copics. I cut and embossed the image and mat with my Oval Nestabilities, then airbrushed the ground with W3 and around the top of the oval with BG0000.

Once I finished my main image, I realized it was too big to fit on a regular A2 card, *oops* so I cut my piece of patterned paper to 5" square. After the edges were sponged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, I matted it with Dark Chocolate cardstock, and added some faux stitching with my quilting doo-dad. Then I strayed from the sketch (surprise...) and cut a strip of the polka dot pattern to go all the way across the card. After sponging the edges, I matted it with Dark Chocolate cardstock punched with my Fiskars Upper Crest border punch, and faux stitched again. To add some texture, I wrapped some twine around the polka dot strip, then added a few brads in the upper left corner to balance the card a little. Finally, I mounted the whole shebang onto a 5 3/8" square Kraft card base.

So I hope you likey my return to Bellariffic Friday...I have soooo missed it! Don't forget to check out Emily's Blog for fabulous samples from the rest of the Babes and eye candy from da sistahood. Oh! Speaking of Babes...I am soooo excited that Jodi Collins is joining us! I am such a huge fan of her work, and she is just a sweetheart. So go say hi, k?

Ok, I really have to go...thanks for coming by to visit, and have a wonderful Friday!! MWAH!

There's nothin' like love to pull you up...when you're lyin' down on the floor, babe...

Hey, y'all, what's up? Happy Thursday (almost Friday)! We had a crazy day today...a "snow" day, with no snow. It rained a little overnight, then the temps dropped to the 20's and the whole metroplex freaked out. A whole slew of districts canceled school, and when I got to work I encountered more ice in my cup than I saw on the roads. *giggle* Anywho, I have a card to share that I whipped up this afternoon using one of the images I colored over my break. You know I couldn't go that long without colorin'!

Imeldabella was one of my very first Bella stamps. I love her! She was stamped in Memento Black ink on Bella's Bestest Paper and colored with Copics. Then I cut and embossed the image with my Nestabilities Labels 8 die, then airbrushed around the edges with B0000 and B000 before removing the die. It leaves a cool white border around the image that I just love.

I layered a piece of Kraft paper onto PTI Dark Chocolate cardstock for my card front, then added a layer of Basic Grey paper from the Eskimo Kisses 6x6 pad, rounding the corners first. Then I added a strip of Dark Chocolate cardstock onto the left side, punched with the Scalloped Edge punch. To finish off the card, I wrapped some of Emily's fun Ivory ribbon garter (looks like it's out of stock at the moment), airbrushed with RV34. What a mess, but so fun!

Well, that's about it for me...it's late and I need to get some shut-eye. But never fear...next up is Bellariffic Friday, with a Back to School theme. So stay tuned...I'll post my card later this afternoon. Have a great day/night!

You can't always get what you want...and if you try sometime you find...you get what you need...

Hey peeps, what's up? Thanks for all the sweet comments today...I'm so glad to be back! I have missed my creative time sooo much. And y'all too! Anyway, I snuck off to my craft room today while the boys were playing outside and decided to play along with this week's Mojo Monday challenge. I have had November's Verve release since, well, November and thought it was about time they got some love. It turned out that the circle from Thankful Accents was just perfect for the sketch, which was created by my fabulous fellow diva, Teresa Kline. I had so much fun with it!


Fun, huh? I started by stamping the gorgeous circle image in Versamagic Jumbo Java ink on PTI's Vintage Cream cardstock. Then I pulled out my birthday present...my very own Copic Airbrush Compressor!! I was soooo excited about it, especially after Sally Lynn taught me how to use it at the San Antonio Copic Certification last month. I still need some practice (ok, well a lot), but I thought I did pretty good. Here are the markers I used on the circle:


Before I cut the circle out, I airbrushed with BG72 from the outside of the circle, working my way in. After doing 3 "practice" circles, I ended up with this one, which was acceptable. Then I added some BG18 around the edges for some depth. I cut out the circle, then matted it with a PTI Dark Chocolate scalloped circle punched with my Marvy Giga punch.

The base layer is this fabulous paper I have been after since I saw these cards on Melissa Phillips' blog. She was sweet enough to email me back and tell me that it is the Ruche line from Worldwin Papers...is it not gorgeous? Anyway, I found it at Stamp Antonio while shopping with Laura on a lunch break from Certification. I think I may have to order more!! So I (painfully) cut a piece and sponged the edges with Close to Cocoa ink, and matted it onto my Dark Chocolate card base. Then I added some Basic Grey patterned paper (from the Figgy Pudding line, maybe?) and a strip of Dark Chocolate punched with the Martha Stewart Doily Lace edger punch.

My finishing touch was the ribbon...yummy crinkled stuff I've had forever, I think it's May Arts. I was inspired by the ribbon on Heather's card today, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Fun, I think!

Anywho, that's about it...I'm off to bed, but I'll catch you guys soon!