Sometimes someone just needs a little smile

With this busy time of year we can often forget that there may be people in our lives who just need a lift, or a smile, and something to just take their mind away from the craziness going on around them.  I have someone like that in my circle of friends right now and today she talked about her story. You may know her, she is a fellow babe and one of  the sweetest gals I have ever met. Her name is Cath and she talks about her journey here. 

Since she IS a babe, how could I not use a Stamping Bella stamp and I chose Ramona and her wagon because how could you possibly hold in a smile with something so adorable in front of you. I'm thinking some other current and past babes may also be thinking of Cath so you may want to head on over to see what Emily has cooking.

Later, Linda.

DIY Christmas stuff

I was in the mood this year to spruce up some of my Christmas decorations and Paula must have channeling my thoughts when she told me about this blog she follows, eighteen25. So I go check it out and boy did I get the inspirational kick in the pants that I needed!

This is my 'mantel'...well I don't have a mantel in my living room but I do have the top of the entertainment unit and this is how it looks today.

The subway art was downloaded from eighteen25 and they have an entire collection that you can download here! SOOO COOL! Then there are the dollar store finds...

• the frames (which I likely will replace with something a bit more sturdy when I find a good deal, but these do the trick for now)
• the white tree, i do plan on painting the pot white but just haven't done it yet...maybe today
• the plastic 'crystal' reindeer
• and the silver tea light candle

Then I have this ....which I shamelessly admit I totally CASE'd off of Nichole Heady's blog! Now I did follow the rules to change 3 things. She did a one layer card, I layered and sewed. She used copics, I used pencils. I also added LOTS of snow flakes falling over those trees and glittered like crazy. And of course, she made a card...I framed.

 

The last piece of DIY up there is this fabric circle tree. I get emails from Cloth Paper Scissors and I almost thought of stopping because they do send a LOT of them but I can't stop for fear I'll miss out on something good...and something good did come! Something that I could easily make! Lord knows there is no shortage of fabric scraps in this house.

 

 



Now lets move to the dining room. My little tree, another shameless total CASE-job from eighteen25, you can see their tree here. It was part of Michaels Dream Tree Challenge.

Lastly, I was driving home from work one day and one of the stores had all these ginormus snowflakes hanging in their window. I'm thinking "I've seen those somewhere! I need them". YES, it was the dollar store! Oh how working in the mall has its benefits!

 

That's it for today!

Off to run a couple errands and move on to the big tree in the family room.

 

Mom's 2012 Christmas Card

If you have been following me for a while you know that I make my Mom's XMAS cards. It is probably the most fun I have all year. I LOVE making Christmas cards more than anything else and I know that all my Mom's friends and realatives look forward to getting one every year.

I make about 25 for her so I have to keep the design simple enough to mass produce yet stunning enough to keep them wondering 'how'd she do that'. This year I was bound and determinded to use this Stamp Shack image that I have had for years and after a few duds, this is what I came up with.

I stamped the image with versamark on some smooth watercolour paper (available at Pickle) and applied three different embossing powders. Verdigras at the top, some PSX topiary in the middle (now retired) and sprinkle and sparkle's midnight black at the bottom.

After heat setting I spread over the entire image with Tumbled Glass distress stain and then sponged some iced spruce and bundled sage distress inks. When it was all good and dry I added the blue shading with prismacolor pencils and blended it out with gamsol.

Sentiment is papertrey, Sprigs and holly leaves are Martha Stewart punches. Background paper is Basic Grey (I think!) which I also sponged the edges,

So there you have it! Mom's Christmas cards, all done and delivered to her on the American Thanksgiving day weekend! The earliest I've ever had them completed!

 

IF you are reading this AND on Mom's list, I hope I haven't spoiled your surprise!

 

{hugs} Linda.

Laurel

Meet Laurel the Reindeer...another just squish it up adorable image by Stacey Yakula available in rubber over at Purple Onion. I will admit, I was a bit of a slacker because I was chatting it up with Paula yesterday and she said she was going to post her Laurel...and I said OMG...I was going to do that too!

So she posted hers, told you all to hop on over to see mine and it wasn't there. I got caught up in my newly acquired Netflix and the post slipped by me. Did I watch anything...NO....did I waste an entire day just cruising through what I could watch...YES! I think I have said it before....sometimes I just have to waste my day away doing nothing productive to gain some productive energy back. So, if you want to see Paula's cutie version...go check it out here! BUT FIRST ...check out mine.

She is all vintage paired up with cosmo cricket paper and to my shock...NO PENCILS were used here! Just copics. A LOT of them! So there you have it...my unproductive weekend. I did make up for it tonight by stringing three bags of red, white and silver glittered Styrofoam balls to make a garland for my little living room xmas tree and cooked up a batch of chicken noodle soup for this week's lunch's to keep me away from the fast food joints in 'the mall'.

that's it for now...till next time....
Linda

Free Hand

So what was the deal here in Chatham this morning? I woke up to SNOW on the ground....{insert that Charlie Brown scream here}...AAUGH!

Now that I have THAT out of my system I can move on. Last year (or maybe even the year before) Emily (da Bella) and I were at DeSerres Art Supply store and I picked up a greeting card that I thought was just adorable so earlier this year I decided to recreate it and sketched the image in my journal. Then I used a combination of Caran d'ache neocolor crayons and pencils to colour it up.

 

 

Christmas card update....since I have not been regularily colouring I've had to rely on mass production to get cards done. While I don't mind mass producing I don't like making 50 of the same thing so I usually work on 4 or 5 different card designs so I only have to make 8-10 of each. Speaking of that, I'd better get moving on them!

 

Later, Linda.

the stockings were hung on the chimney with care...

...In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there

I think I could recite that entire poem in my head and I don't even like poetry....WAY WAY too complicated for this simple mind.

How 'bout another Purple Onion Designs image by Stacey Yakula Studios...this one is simply called Stockings.

 

I can't help but be smitten with those little pointed toes! The colour inspiration came from the piece of Basic Grey paper and I coloured them up with copic markers and used some prismacolor pencil for shading. And of course....LOTS of glitter....no Christmas card is complete until you add the glitter.

 

Don't miss out, because Michele has all stamps 25% off and some incredible deals on her specials page so check out this post for all the details...but these deals will only last until Sunday!

 

 

Black Friday Deals

Are all my American friends coming out of their turkey coma and working it off shopping the Black Friday deals? Let me tell ya, my hubby says he would NEVER want anything that bad but I think if I lived over there I would most definitely get caught up in the hype.

We have our own way of enjoying the American Thanksgiving which includes pre-day festivities of steak dinner at the Keg, a late night at the casino followed by an early wake up call to head over to the Detroiter Bar for their Detrioter special ...burger, fries and a beer for $8.95. Now that we are all full we waddle over to Ford Field for the Detroit Lion's Thanksgiving Day football game. NOW...let me get something totally clear...I AM NOT a football fan but it was a pretty exciting game, I even stood up and cheered a few times. Colleen and I even managed to stay awake and not nod off until halfway into the 4th quarter. I opened my eyes just as it was finished and looked at the clock...4th quarter, 00:00 remaining...YES...then in my horror I looked at the score...31-31. I woke Colleen and said "OMG, they are going into overtime!".  So it was a long day, a long game, the Lions lost and I thankfully have the day off work to just chill and get some more Christmas Cards made.

Now if you are chilling out at home like me with no intentions of leaving you can still partake in some  holiday deals because Michelle over at Purple Onion Designs is having a Holiday Sale and Black Friday Specials with 25% off!!!!!!!!!! If you need some inspiration I just happen to have some for you. Paula got me hooked on these Stacey Yakula images and when these new ones came out she sends me a frantic text....DID YOU SEE THEM? I love Stacey's style, it is so soft and I tried to capture her simple style here.

First up, Snowy Trees. I used copic markers, pencils liquied applique, LOTS of glitter and sponged the edges with chalk ink.

 

Next up, Filbert. LIKE how cute is he!!!!! And being quick to colour I'll be doing a few more I think. Again I used copic markers, pencils and one of Stacey's sentiments. Then I cut him out and paired him up with a memory box tree. Gotta luv those dies too. That is liquid applique under his feet that was imbedded with clear flower soft while it was still wet. You can't see them very well, but to create the crystal snowflakes I punched them out of double sided tape. Pressed them down then removed the paper exposing the other sticky side and added glitter.

 

 

That's about it for now. I still have another one of Stacey's images to show you tomorrow and a couple more to colour up. It's gonna be a busy next couple weeks for me.

 

Later, Linda.

 

 

 

Are you feeling Christmasy yet?

I wasn't until today when I went to our local Canadian Tire (home/auto/tool etc store) and all the Christmas stuff was out. And OMG....there it was, a 4 foot tall Santa with a little Westie poo baby girl doggie jumping up on his leg! I'm thinking....I NEED IT! But with a $200 price tag I don't know that I REALLY need it. But I am definitely going to watch for that thing to go on sale.

This past weekend I was a busy bee making Christmas cards. 25 for my mom all done except for the little sprigs of embelishments that need to get added. I also made 8 very Tim Holtz like cards and CASE'd one of Nichole's from her Papertrey Blog. Gotta love simple cards sometimes. I also took a class last week over at Pickle with Nathalie from Magenta. If you don't know, Magenta is a Canadian stamp company and their beautiful samples caught my eye many years ago and I fell in love.

Speaking of Pickle, Kim is getting used to her new digs and just announced she will be open two extra days through the week! SO happy about that! Check out her blog for store hours and some pics she took at the Magenta classes.

Now how 'bout a little Christmas inspiration! This was a card I made for last years stash but somehow never got posted. It is one of those cards that just makes me happy and I think I may make a few more for this year.

 

Trees are Tim Holtz

Peace die and sentiment are Papertrey

 

That's it for today, more Christmas cards coming soon!

Peace out, Linda.

It has been a while

But I AM alive and well and enjoying my free time. I started on the bedroom reno during a week vacation and got some much needed painting of trim done in the hallway. Do you know HOW MUCH I dislike painting trim. I've got the grasscloth all ready to hang on the focal bedroom wall but then I got sick with a HORRIBLE sinus infection, then came down with a wicked cold that progressed into a mild case of bronchitis. I blame this all on the new found germs that I come in contact with since our office relocated to the mall downtown.

Anyhooo....that along with a major patch job under the bedroom window has put my wallpaper hanging on hold for a bit.

In the meantime hubby and I took a trip to California in September, YES, to follow our guy Dave Matthews and his band. We flew into LA, drove to San Diego and spent a couple nights there to take in the sights of Coronado Island and tour an aircraft carrier. That was WAY COOL! I thought ya, ya...it's a military ship...but so not JUST a military ship....more like a floating city....WAY COOL! We saw Dave in San Diego and the next day we drove back to LA for concert #2. Enroute to our hotel we detoured so I could plant my feet on Rodeo Dr. in Beverly Hills and make a pitt stop at Tiffany's. Then we drove through Hollywood, ate a coney at Pink's and drove down the walk of fame. Concert #2 behind us, the next day we flew to San Francisco for #3. With the concerts done we settled down to spend a few days in San Francisco. It was a busy three days taking in a couple wine tours in Napa, a tour to Muir woods, Sausalito, and Alcatraz and a 5 hour bike tour of some of the city sights. Josh, our bike tour guide only had us bike up two hills so it was doable!

The last two days of our trip was spent in a rented convertible Mustang driving the Pacific Coast Hwy 1 back to LA and our flight home. I was a little freaked at first thinking we would be driving south with cliffs out of my passenger window but I survived and the view was spectacular. I think I could definitely be a west coast girl!!!!!!

When we got home, I spent the next 3 weekends SMASH booking some of my fav photo's and spots we visited....I thought I'd share some with you here....

Graffiti in Clarion Alley....I was in awe of the artwork here!

Rutherford Hill and Mondavi wineries...can you see my happy face there!
Just look at all those barrels of wine!

Our 2012 tour calendar and some pics from the summer.
YES, we stood on the grassy knoll and had our pic taken on the field
of the Dallas Cowboys stadium.

Rodeo Drive and Hollywood



Dave has taken us to some pretty amazing places.

Finally I'll leave you with a some of my fav pics of the coast and our trip.

Muir Woods redwood forest

Alcatraz

That's me, walking the halls of the prison.

Before I go, you might be wondering if I've been colouring...well, I haven't, until this past week when I decided to get my gears going for Christmas so stay around and I'll have something to show you soon!

 

'till next time, Linda!

I am the queen of putzing

The last couple weeks I have been very busy taking on a bedroom makeover and painting hallway trims and baseboards that were in a very sorry state. Nothing is coming together YET...but progress is being made.

The bedroom is going to be ZEN BABY! Cool mushroom coloured walls, matching grass cloth behind the bed (yes, the real deal grass cloth!) and a new window covering. This is what I have picked out. The walls are done, some patching needs to get finished before I put up the grass cloth and I'm going to wait till the wallpaper is up before calling my blind guy to bring in some samples.

The swatch on the right is the grasscloth and the one on the left is a first pick at a window covering. I just want a very sleek simple roller shade...no fuss, no frills....ZEN! and that is my paint sample thrown in there. I am a paint sample junkie....I actually own and buy paint sample swatch books. I don't like to make a kazillion trips to the paint store, I want every option at my fingertips. And my current paint of choice is Aura by Benjamin Moore....LOVE that paint. This may sound totally crazy to some, but I actually enjoy painting. Once all the prep work is done I sort of find it relaxing and love watching the transformation happen.

When I haven't been painting I've been putzing. (defn: to behave in an idle manner; putter) It is one of my absolute fav ways to wind down and relax. I'll just look at something and decide to reorganize it. Or maybe open up a kitchen cupboard and decide to empty it, wash it and reorganize it. Are you sensing that I LOVE to reorganize! However there is no organized madness to my putzing. It is totally random and spontaneous. And during my randomness today I popped in on Emily's blog to see what was going on and her theme for this weeks AJ Tuesday was time. While I was in the midst of doing nothing really productive, but somehow managing to keep busy, I thought I'd play along.

I did a quick search on the internet for quotes using the word time and when I found this one it just came together for me and I knew I had drop whatever it was I was doing to sit down and capture it.

Linda.







Time to pass the torch

If you read on Emily's blog today that I am taking a hiatus, you read it right. After 3+ years of devoting my weekends to the 'craft' I've decided to devote some time to other things that need doing around here. I've got some redecorating fairies dancing around in my head and some unfinished projects that are screaming to be done.

I'm sure many of you must know that balancing a full time job and family against an abundance of creative energy is a difficult task and eventually we hit the wall where something has got to give. As much as I would like to retire from the full time job that is not the thing that can give yet so I have decided to step down from Emily's Stamping Bella design team.

Am I going to give up the craft entirely? NO WAY...I still love it. Remember Christmas is just around the corner and making Christmas cards for me and my mom is still something I am looking forward to doing. So I'll be around, but maybe just not as often.

I'll leave you with my last 'official' bellarific Friday card....another self portrait...me sitting at the window trying to decide what project to tackle next!

'till next time, Linda

Polly Packages Returns

Last weeks theme of Christmas in July (which I entirely forgot to post) made me think of all those Christmas cards I want to make so I decided to keep the theme going. A theme and a sketch! It doesn't get much easier than that.

Polly Packages is one of my all time fav little Holiday images, those little boots, the tights, her cute little hat, plus it is pretty easy and quick to colour!

Of course I coloured her with copics and finished her up with pencils, some glitter, lace from our local fabric store and trim. The sentiment also comes from Stamping Bella.

And since I didn't post my card last week, I think I'll do it now, while I'm here. I used Lulu's ornaments on this one but only a portion of the stamp so I could fit it on an A2 card. It might look like ribbon at the top, but it is a spellbinders border which I distressed. A little bit of colour on the ornaments and a good heavy coating of Ranger glossy accents make these ornaments pop.

 

Next week we are back to a theme with our challenge....

SUM SUM SUMMERTIME

With the heat we have had here it is not all that hard to remember it is Summertime....but I'm NOT at all complaining. ANYTHING is better than snow!

Finally, I'd like to give a BIG WARM welcome to our newest Babe....Carla Murphy....she has been a long time bella fan and even made a trip from her home in Ottawa to take one of my classes in Toronto. Go check her out and send some love!

Self Portrait

Lots to cram in here today and we will start with my self portrait, compliments of Stamping Bella's Uptown Girl Pippa loves to Plant.



I coloured her up for this weeks sketch challenge over at Bloggabella and to be honest, the only self portrait thing about this is the gardening gloves and potted plants! I'm sort of lacking the long lean legs! LOL!

Quickly moving on to other news, you probably know that I am headed to Toronto this weekend for a day of classes with Paula at the Bella HQ. I meant to do this earlier in the week, but no excuses, I just didn't get around to it.

Paula will be doing her usual 4 cards in pencil and I will be doing three in a copic/pencil combo. And this time 'round we are devoting the classes to the ever popular Uptown Girls. How cool is that! You may have read on Paula's blog that we do have one overlapping image, and if you happen to be in both classes this will give you a good taste of both sides of the fence.

I won't keep you in suspense any longer, here we go....



Ava loves to celebrate

Claudia has a candy

Lolly and her Brolly

That's it!
Hope to see you tomorrow.

Swiss dots

Our theme this week was to emboss. I had all these grandiose ideas but ended up just sitting down to colour up Stamping Bella's Talk to the Bear and the swiss dot embossing folder was speaking to me.

If you are wondering where I have been lately, I'm taking a bit of a break for the next couple months. We've got some family things and a wedding coming up over the next several weeks and as much as I would like, I can't do it all. Not to mention with this heat wave I have a chair floating in the pool that is calling my name. But you'll still see me here for Bellarific Friday and I might even see some of you next weekend at the Bella Headquarters in Toronto when Paula and I breeze in for a day of classes. It has been a while since Paula, Emily and I have had an evening to chat so I'm really looking forward to it.

We are back to a sketch next week, and I know how much we love a sketch so show Em the love, pull out a stamping Bella stamp and play along with us.

Happy Friday

And it is a wonderful Friday because I have the day off and I have Neil Diamond songs filling my head after seeing him in London, ON last night. Ya, he's old...and he walked through a couple songs but never the less seeing him live has been on my bucket list since he starred in the Jazz Singer and I'm glad I saw him.

My plans today were to wash the bedroom windows, however with the heat index sitting at around 100 I don't think I want to open those windows today. No worries, I have a huge laundry list of things that need to get done around here so I'll save that chore for Monday which is also a holiday here in Canada so I have a nice long 4 day weekend.

Before I go get out the dyson and my enjo cleaning mitts I'll get to my real reason for being here, Bellarific Friday. I decided to do something a little different with this weeks sketch and used Stamping Bella's Grandma's Gramophone by Rheea. Pauline made a BEAUTIFUL card with it last week and she ommitted the little lady and her pup and I kinda wish I had done that as well because it would make the card more versatile. None the less, I like the way it turned out.

I started with a piece of hot press watercolor paper and stamped the image with black Archival ink. Then I used my ranger distress markers and blended the colour out with a wet brush. I sponged on some distress ink around the edges and stamped just a tiny bit of Eclectic mini musical notes because I thought it was fitting.

Next week our challenge is all about EMBOSSING....and the it leaves the door wide open for possibilities. Instead of the 'go to' embossing folders, maybe try heat embossing, or maybe a brass stencil and a stylus. Have I gotten your creative juices flowing yet? I know mine are.

Till next time, Linda.

It's all about the girls...

This week our challenge was all about the girls...and there is nothing more girly than one of Stamping Bella's Uptown Girls.. This is Isabella, and she is a little over indulging on that ice scream I think.

I even have one of those cute inkadinkado kid quote stamps to put in there that says 'tomorrow we can eat broccoli, but today is for ice cream!'....how wicked cute it that!

If you are wondering why I am late with this...well I have age-activated attention deficit disorder. You know, you start something, get distracted, start something else and it seems to go on endlessly until you forgot what you started to do. It's crazy!

Anyhow...I'm gonna be short and sweet and leave it at that. Then get back to colouring, which is what I sat down here to do in the first place!
But before I go, one last distraction...and that is our Bellarific Friday for this week....a sketch gals!!!! Hope you like it.

up UP and AWAY!

Last night I decided to put my girl through the ropes...we BOTH need the exercise...and the ropes for us is a long walk. If you don't know who my girl is, that would be my beloved West Highland Terrier Bessie and her pic is on my side bar. Isn't she just like the cutest girl EVER!

This is one of our first long endurance walks since her second knee surgery back in February. We have done many short walks and lots of sprints (she LOVES to sprint and fetch...that is how she messed up her knees) but no marathons. But last night we were gonna start our marathon training and for us a marathon used to be an hour. With her short (15-20min) walks and sprint 'training' I thought I'd put her to the 1/2 hour test. She was all guns and roses for the first 20 mins and then slowed right down. When we got home after 30 mins she was pretty much 'spent' (as my kids would say). And I have to remember she IS getting older and turned 9 this spring but I'm determined to get her back in tip top shape because she is a happy healthy dog with a lot of years left in her (not to mention TWO new knees!). We are gonna take it slow and steady and hopefully by September we will be back to our hour long walks 2-3 times a week again. So up UP and AWAY we go!

I kinda think that Bessie and I are like Stamping Bella's Ramona and her Teddy taking off on an adventure to exciting new places. New neighborhoods to scout out while keeping tabs on the old familiar ones to see what has changed.

As always I started out on bella's BESTEST paper but I coloured this one primarily with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. However, I did start with a base of some very light shades of copics because I am partial to the rich base of colour I get with them.

After taking the picture I thought ...shoot! ....I forgot the glitter, so just try to imagine this one with glittered clouds okay...because that is where the glitter will go. The one thing that made this card come together so nicely was the fab sketches I had to choose from and that was all the sketch challenges that Stamping Bella has sponsored since the beginning of the year.

Next week our challenge is INK UP THE GIRLS....come on! How freaking easy is that...I can pretty much predict that an Uptown Girl will be in my future!

'till next time...later....Linda

Lantern Flowers revisited

Last week I got a few new Memory Box dies that I was 'dying' to use! Corney...I know...but I couldn't help it!

Mom needed a card, I needed to use my new die so I pulled out Stamping Bella's Lantern Flowers for another go 'round. I didn't think I could top the first one, but I think I like this one even better with those pretty lacy flowers.

This is a large card, 5x7 to be exact. I started with bella's BESTEST paper and except for some highlights with a white pencil I used only the following copic markers:

Y11, E50, 51, 53, R30, 32, 35, 59

E07, G40, 43, 46, 94, 85, 99

My original intent was to glitter the flowers, but when I was gluing down the flower die I got some glue on the background of my image. When I wiped it off, it left a shiny mark which I tried to remove but took off some of the sponged ink I had applied around the edge. Well, I had to rethink the placement of the glitter and it did a great job of camouflaging my booboo!

In other news, I have a sore throat today, I'm hoping it is just dryness and Paula didn't send any of her germs through the phone lines when I was talking to her the other night. She doesn't like calling me at work anymore because after being relocated to the 'mall' I have a new phone number and a 7-digit extension. Paula doesn't like that! And if she does get up the energy to pound in those 7 digits I am rarely at my desk because lately I have spent more than half my day in meetings. What happened to those days when I sat at my desk for 8 hours with my face buried in a computer and not interacting with anybody outside of my pod! I kinda miss that sometimes.

One last random thought...I'm sitting at my kitchen table looking out at my deck with all the flower filled pots. Only one pot has a geranium in it and I'm thinking next year it is going to be a geranium filled deck and all my pots will overflow with them. I'll have to make a note of that because I'm sure next year I will have completely forgotten how much I love those geraniums.  

That's it...lantern flowers and random thoughts.

Guy Cards

That was our challenge this week and I know it can be a challenge for most of us, me included! When it comes to guy cards I usually trend towards nature...leaves, trees, etc...but this time I thought I would stretch my stamps and look to use something that might not otherwise be considered a 'guy' image. Bring on Paula's porch swing by Stamping Bella.

I stamped it on bella's BESTEST paper and coloured it with copic markers pairing it up with Bo Bunny's Weekend Market Collection paper. Kind of a perfect match for a weekend lazing on a porch swing!

Now there was a method to my madness here because my brother turns 50 this summer and he is an electrical engineer by trade but a woodworker by night and made a beautiful swing that hangs from the porch of his century home so I thought this will make a perfect card for his birthday. I am also lucky enough to own one of his swings but sadly I don't have the deep porch to hang it from so for a while it hung on my back deck but now I'm looking for a stand so I can perch it in a shady part of my yard. I might have to commission him to make me one because I know exactly where I want it.

Next week is a sketch roundup, pic your fav from the sketches below and get crafty!

 Happy Stamping everyone!