paper possibilities

summer swim...

It's gonna be a 'stampin' great weekend for me. I have serious stamping out to do and I don't look forward to the clean up... Luckily, I have the time to get it out of the way now and in one huge batch.

Ok, so have you wondered where you saw this sentiment a couple days ago... LOL  Doesn't it work great with this gorjuss girl?? I had to use it again, it was too perfect. {crap, so was that liquid applique *wink*  just gotta do what ya gotta do...} I needed to add that little bead along the bottom of her swimsuit.

I wanted something a little old fashioned and I grabbed a piece of My Minds Eye at a clearance sale a few weeks ago. It was soft and girly so I used it. I added some Tim Holtz 'aged paper' with a sponge, to the edges of my image, to make it softer than the bright white.

Question time... how many of you can tie a pretty knot? In a million years, you will not understand how long it took me to do this. I felt like I was as dense as concrete. I got edgy just thinking about it whenever I needed a knot...and I LOVE them! Then, all the video, and picture tutorials finally came together...angels clapped as I mastered this elusive trick. ...sigh, I love the bow I made at the top of this card. I have found some ribbons tie nicer, but as long as it isn't sheer...I can now tie a pretty bow.  ;)

see ya tomorrow!! {I will let you know if I found anything at the stamp show...}

 

i'm with the band...

The Bella has been busy... have you seen the new stuff yet? Did you do like me and hop onto Chrystal Phegley's Etsy store... and drool. I am a huge fan already!! I can't wait to get my hands on some Lulu's, how about you? Christy Croll is up to some new stuff too, I already have a whole section of my stamps for her!! KETTO has a clothesline that made me flip and then another new artist who I am loving... Jen, from Studio Petite! My head is spinning and how can a girl work her day job with all this stuff out there! LOL  I think it's time to stimulate the economy girls, rubber is small and very hidable!! hehe

Today is about Linda's sketch and who played and what we all did with it. Last week Emily had her post op very early {for her!}and I looked at it a few times. So I had an idea about what image I wanted to use but there were a few of us thinking the same thing...so I picked Stamping Bella's MarchingbandABELLAS.

You can see I stuck pretty true to the sketch, except that in order to do that I had to make this card a whooping 6x6 square.

I had to have this set of girls because I was involved with marching band for 4 years, while Jordan was in high school. Until then...I had NO idea what marching band was!  I could only fit three girls on for this sketch, and I pulled my paper first, then set to coloring this in a nice calming & simple color scheme. {something marchingband uniforms are NOT! lol} The paper is some stuff I have had for a long time, from SU, and I added the liquid applique for a little interest. {plus, I am still addicted} I colored with my prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol... I glittered and glazed. I did not use the sentiment that actually came with the set, I used my 'just a note' stamp that I bought when I was there...perfect!

Ok, I am still slightly 'hung-over' from all the new stuff at Bella, so if you still have not checked it out...I warned ya! lol See ya soon!! Thanks for dropping in.

shore do love you...

It's a very happy thurday here in the williamson house...why, because we are all one day closer to friday! lol {Jim & Jordan have friday off, but I'm ok with working.} Why is that?? ...because saturday is a stamp show and I have never gone to it! I will be hooking up with all my stamping peeps and hopefully will find a peep I ain't never met before...just on the computer & emails...Kim Reid.

Saturday I will be at Scrappin' & Stampin' in the afternoon, demo-ing and trying my hand at make-n-takes...or showing others how to do a make-n-take. {shhh, another thing I have not done yet} Scrappin' & Stampin' is carrying some new stamp lines, and CC Designs is one of them. My friend Dana bought this little girl and I bought the others in the store...along with the beachy sentiments.

I colored this to match the Cosmo Cricket paper and I even made a hint of sandcastles in the background, I wanted a little something for the large open area. I can't wait to color up the rest of the summer girls! 

*** yes, for Kimmie & Silvia, I used copics for the skin and then a touch of burnt ochre pencil.

Tomorrow is BellaRIFIC friday and Emily has some new stuff for you to feast your eyes on... Check out her blog & the store. See ya later alligator!!

fruit tootin' wednesday...

It's time for a mid week fruit break...are ya feelin' fruity?? { MFT style!}  LOL, I hope so because I have two more fruity specials to celebrate summer!!

First up is my pear couple, just what to you think of the liquid applique I put on the girly one. It just came to me at the last minute...I am seriously addicted to the liquid applique! LOL I stamped this out on a lime colored paper, and colored with my prismas like I usually do. I shaded the fruit on the left with my medium warm grey pencil and this is all still paper from a Scenic Route line. {just like my monday post}

Next is my cute little watermelon girl. She got stamped on the same lime colored paper and the same shading on the left. This little sweeting got a sprinkle of glitter on her rind too! That's 4 fruits down and 2 more to go! I am loving these fruit images because they are really pretty quick to color up. I am the type of person who LOVES detail and small little things, but sometimes it's nice to be a tad bit more open and free! With all the variety in this one set, it seems like a perfect choice for someone just starting out. I think I may even do that myself with  my copics...if I have enough colors to give it a go.

Until we meet again friends...I have more coloring to do and need to come up with a make-n-take featuring this fruity set!! See ya soon!

retro gratty 'tude...

Before we get to our regularly scheduled post...has everyone been to the da Bella's blog to see her sneak of the new artist she has found...LuLu? If not, you might as well join the rest of us who have and are waiting {some on pins & needles!} to see MORE!! Click here.

If you can handle any more cuteness, hows about seeing what I did with GRATTY 'tudes hair. Linda did a drop dead stunning version of this girl in copic. I saw the hair and it was outta this world amazing!! Believe me when I say, I almost rolled out of my chair! Wait, I think I was standing, my jaw hit the floor, lol

Last night was one of those nights when the coloring came easy enough, but the card took a while to play with embellishments, yeah, I couldn't decide on anything I had. I just went with a slightly retro aqua/black look. I colored this on the wonderful Bella paper and used my prismapencils and gamsol. I used nesties and chalk inks for shading, added plenty of black and clear glaze pens...and a little stitching. The paper is from Bo-Bunny and it's double-sided. I almost went with more black & white polka dots.

Well, its about that time to show you another sketch for friday. Linda is the mastermind behind this weeks and mine is next week...beware!

I have my idea all set for this and will get her whipped up tonight. {Then BB is on...ok girls I already know who won power of VETO...do you? Do you know who goes up on the block?? I can NOT wait!!}

Get you submissions to this sketch to Emily by thursday...Jpeg format please. And....don't forget to check out the Bella's store...I think thursday is the BIG release!

tutorial news update...

I have been getting emails and comments about the coloring tutorials, I talked about selling, as downloads, through MFT's site. Well, a bunch of things all started happening in my life, creatively speaking and it brought me to the decision that I do not want to sell my information on the internet. It took me a few days of mulling over and thinking of the pro's/con's and I am sorry to say the little voice inside me won out.

I am going to teach my style, for now, and keep it in person. I have been reading blogs for well over two years now and I know there has been heartbreak over miss-used, and unauthorized distributing of templates & photos. In order to protect what is mine, I feel this is my best option. I put so much time into filming just a short 4 minutes, that I would not have been able to deal with all my hard work getting downloaded for free on youtube.

I hope that anyone looking forward to purchasing understands where this is coming from. I am truely sorry for getting any hopes up, I was not anticipating feeling like this myself when I started filming my work. 

it's cherry season...

Stamps are like children...you spend time with one and you need to spend time with the others as well! {ok, I only have one, but I think you would share time with all you children evenly, lol} So for teaching purposes I have begun with one company, and now I am adding MFT to the line up!  What am I starting the girls out with...Feelin' Fruity!! I have been so busy prepping for classes, that keeping up was a small chore some days. So I broke out this *new* set from My Favorite Things and I went to town! 4 cards in two days..woohoo!!

I have been in a layering mood lately, and layering different nesties.

These cherries have the sweetest little faces! {ok, the whole set has sweet little faces...what am I saying!}

I have been in a mood for square cards these days too, isn't it funny how we get like that? I colored this on my MFT Perfect Paper Panels and it is colored with prisma & Lyra colored pencils. I have to say Lyra has some very juicy pinky/reds to make these cherries come alive. I kept my fruit all pretty simple and added a little shadow of warm grey along my left side.  I also am using the same Scenic Route paper throughout all the fruit cards I have done. It is such a bonus that it is double sided and looks like summer! This 5x5 card is already in the store, waiting for the rest of it's fruity family to join them. Here is a second card I made with the oranges...

The oranges are popped up on dimensionals and I added glitter to the paper. Both cards got a nice dose of glossy accents to make the fruit really shiny. This is some of my new stuff I am lovin'!!

I am lucky that Jim works near Scrapin' & Stampin' so that he can drop of samples as I make them! I do need more time in my room coloring than on the road...

Now, I just have to decide what to do with a make-n-take at the store...I am learning all the time, always something new. See ya soon friends!

monstah style sunday...

Ah, the end of the week, or the start...how do you see it? It's the end for me! lol Tomorrow is a fresh week and I get to run the shop floor while Kelly is outta town. Keep thinking positive thoughts and no problems with the parts in stock.

This morning I took a quick look at who is gonna be at our local stamp convention in Novi. I have never gone to one so I am excited to check out supplies geared more to stampers and not scrapbook pages. Then I went to finish up this card for today's post.

Stamping Bella's Monstah Bash is one that I picked to do in my beginners class at Scrappin' & Stampin. So on tuesday night, I finished one up and put a few more shadows on them and made it into a card. I love this trio of little guys and got this image to add to my 'man' stamps...LOL I made this a small 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 size but packed a lot of color onto one small card! I used the Lime Ricky 6x6 pad because the colors were right there in front of me...it was an easy choice. I didn't use anything for inspiration and it just screams BOY!!! I colored this with my prismacolor pencils, blended with gamsol and used my rectangle nesties to cut out the image. I wanted a longer sentiment than the 'happy birthday' ones I have from Bella, so I went with the 'especially for you' one.

I just submitted a sketch to Emily for this weeks challenge but my older sistah Lindabella beat me to it, so mine will be next week! Mine is gonna be super simple so no pulling of the hair or mumbling bad stuff about me, ok.

And I have forgotten all week to add these pics of Jordan and her new truck.   Her grandpa surprised her with it last weekend. She had no idea it was coming!! I never would have thought of her, or myself as driving a full size monster, but it's really nice and brand new! What more could a girl ask for!! 

patricia birthdaycake...

I can bet  am not the only one sitting here thinking the weeks are flying by! Whew...it's BellaRIFFIC friday and this sketch was a challenge for me. Some might say so challenging I really mixed it up! lol  {sorry about that Karen!}

I need to make a birthday card for my aunt, who had just turned 80. I still hadn't done it yet...sad, I know. Well, I had yet to color up Patricia Birthday cake and I think she is very appropriate for my aunt...in her soft colors. I used the Wisteria 6x6 pad from Basic Grey as my inspiration.  I colored her using my prismacolor pencils and gamsol, and cut  her out with my nesties. {I used a piece of vellum for the scalloped nestie behind my main image.} I used some glitter on her dress...ahhhh, glitter, my sparkling friend!

Here she is and now I gotta send her off. I just gotta remember to mail it now! D You gotta remember to check out Emily's blog  later today and see what kinda creations were submitted by everyone else. Oh, and Emily has a terrific Blog CANDY going until monday! Tell her your secrets and it could be worth $50 Bella Bucks...hows that??

 

kayla the grad...

What's going on!  I bet you may be thinking that too, I feel kind of outta sorts with my posting times...writing at night and posting them the same day... ahh, the life in bloggerland.  I was working on one card tonight...took me forever, maybe I was watching too much 'Office' on dvd...lol

Saturday I went to my friends daughter's grad party. Kelly and I have worked together for almost 13 years...so when you see the girls all grown up...omg...do I feel old{er}! haha Now I know I have moaned a little about not having an easy time with grad cards...almost think i'd rather do a 'man' card. LOL But Kelly asked if I would decorate Kayla box to put her gift envelopes in and they went with the school colors of the college Kayla is going off to. {Albion's colors are purple & yellow} It came to me the day before... I wanted to use the bling 'bet from MFT, finally I felt I had a plan. It always goes soooo much smoother with a plan. Here is what I made...  I stamped out the name in a purple chalk ink and did my shadowing along the left side, with a medium grey prisma pencil. Trust me when I say, it may not seem like much, but when you get a couple letters done, it makes a world of difference. It's all about the depth baby!! I used my long nestie rectangle to cut out and use the chalk ink shading, in a rather bright yellow. The patterned paper is left over from a class I did and it has a shimmer to it and went really good. {plus, I am in a polka dotted mood all the time now.} I added a bunck of clear rhinestones and wrote a little something inside. BTW, this card does measure a whopping 5x7.

I can be stuck thinking grad caps and diplomas for cards like these, and I am happy I came up with this idea. man...I only have one more grad card to make....   :)

Since we are showing off some MFT versatility today...hows about I let all the local gals know that Barb @ Scrappin' & Stampin' just placed an order for MFT and I will be at the store on the Saturday Aug 1st. I will be demo-ing the *new* MFT set Feelin' Fruity and you can stop by for a make-n-take with me.I will be in the store from 3-6, after I shop the Rubber Stamp Convention in Novi. Stop in to say 'hi!' and take a rest after walking at the show. Save some money so you can get some MFT stamps too! lol