paper possibilities

shoot for the moon...

Hey there! I just finished a few cards tonight and I still have several at different stages of being started...lol. I had a small stamping frenzy on Sunday evening, and got all the latest Stamping Bella's finally onto the 'bestest' paper ever! Lord knows how I squeezed that in with my power cooking that night but I did. That meant that monday and today, dinner was just needing to be warmed up and back into my studio I go.

Honestly, I don't know if any of my Babe sistah's have colored this up yet, but here is my 'Mabel is reaching for the STARS'.
I could not resist this little girl on the swing and I have always loooooooved this sentiment. She looks like she is wearing her comfy little lounge wear {like I always do..} and this blue paper reminds me of soft cotton summer pj's. I dunno, it has always jogged some memory for me when I have flipped through the 6x6 pad. It's from Crate Paper, called 'Paper Heart'. Yeah, ok, there is a teeny tiny sentimental sliver somewhere deep inside me. *wink*

I guess I should tell you that as much as I am loving looking at this card...I wish I had stamped her out on a larger piece {of Bella's BESTEST paper} and could have had her on more of an angle. But, tis what it tis and I still like the feeling of her flying through the air. Then I wanted it square! So, off with a star, chopped and re-stamped and colored and layered and they all have some glossy accents on them. My background is a few assorted blue tones of pigment inks. You know those flower petal sets from long ago... I mashed a few colored together and swirled them on for the sky. Then, no galaxy would be complete without a heavy dose of glitter. {I see you nodding in agreement}

I think this makes an awesome encouragement card for grads or anyone needing a little reassurance. I think I will do this again, framed, for a 2nd cousin's grad card. Have you had enough babbling from me?

...card recipe:

Finished size is 5 1/4" square, kraft cs, Bella's BESTEST paper, Crate Paper pp in 'Paper Heart' 6x6 pad, 'Mabel is reaching for the STARS'  w/ sentiment included from Stamping Bella, Memento ink, colored pencils, Sakura clear glaze pen, Glossy Accents by Ranger, glitter, sewing.

I know there isn't but a couple days left to join us in our BellaRIFFIC friday challenge. We are using a sketch so take a peek and join us! Just email Emily a pic by thursday eve.
Ok, I gotta get out of here and get some more coloring and Judge Judy caught up on. I don't have my friday card finished at all. YIKES...  adios amigos

watercolor koi markers...

Happy 'blooming' BellaRIFFIC friday to ya'll!

Are you ready to see some great flowery ideas? If you need to make a Mother's Day card or two, are you ahead of the game? This should be the perfect week to be inspired by our FLOWER themed challenge. I made two cards, not intentionally, but I wanted them to be alike and they have been sitting on my desk for a week {at least!} Yes...I played around and mixed papers, removed papers, added a frame, doodles...this is what we get folks. A very ~crisp~ white card with a big dose of color. Ahhhh, these make me happy and it's not because I drew them. lol, I LOVE the bright white against the summery scenes.
My 'Summer Days' set of stamps comes with 4 images, but I have only gotten 2 finished here. These are stamped onto 90# watercolor paper and colored with the Koi watercolor markers that Emily is now carrying. {If you stopped by at Scrapfest in Kitchener a couple weeks ago, Emily & Christine...I call her the Dol! were doing gorgeous make-n-take bookmarks. See below pic} How Emily stumbled upon these markers, I have no idea.  When Christine and I played with them, we both fell in love. It's like you can blend them as a pencil with gamsol, yet get that bold look of the Copic. It seemed like a win-win combo for me. 
Plus with a person like myself, who has never been able to 'control' the watercolor medium...I feel I have control here. I don't have to cross my fingers and hope for the best. lol.

As we were cleaning up the table at Scrapfest, I grabbed a few 'samples' and test bookmarks that were maybe going to the trash? I dunno, but I see them on a lined up on a white background and hung up. This was Emily's make-n-take, mixing coloring with the Koi markers {in the Em's Mixed Media Flower} and stamping the ~new~ 'LOVE NOTES Background' by Vicki Boutin, then spritzing the Dy-lusions sprays over Crafters Workshop Stencils. Yeah, da Bella does not cheat on techniques and variety. You could sit there and create a small masterpiece! No joking, I would look over and everyones bookmark was bright and amazing. {& messy!!} My mini masterpiece is on the far right in the above picture and Jayden gave me her bookmark, it's on the far left. When Emilys says her kids are creating with her, she's not kidding. Jayden is one girl who LOVES her momma's art supplies! To finish these off, Emily was backing them with a black tag & some ribbon. In case you are wondering about the Koi markers...here is my set.
That peek I am showing you on the left is a bookmark I am working on with my Koi's & Em's 'Lantern Flower'. Hmmmm, maybe it'll be a long card? We'll have to wait and see!   :)

...card recipe:

Finished card size is 4 1/2" by 6", Bazzill cs, 90# watercolor paper, Archival in by Ranger, Koi watercolor markers, Koi blending pens, Paula's 'Summer Days' set of 4 images by Stamping Bella, MFT scallop die, ribbon and sewing.

Next week we have our Ebrubella sketch and you gotta see what next weeks challenge is.
YIKES! its May already so use this wonderful inspiration and create a masterpiece. see ya soon!!

ps...if you have any questions on the Koi markers, you can email Emily or myself. A couple things to keep in mind are 1. you need watercolor paper. We played with different weights and Christine had found this 90# paper was the least pilling. The more you press down and rub the colors together, the wetter the paper gets and you'll need watercolor paper for this reason. 2. You blend the Koi markers with the clear blending pen that is NOT included in any of the sets, you have to purchase those seperate. {a two pack} It is not water, it's a clear solution to whatever they have inside the markers. You do need these for blending the colors out to soft shades.

going graphic...

I'm back, because I finally did get some cards finished and it put me in a very good frame of mine last night. Nothing makes me happier than when I get productive and I like it! hehe, feel the same? As stamp enthusiasts I hope you are nodding your pretty little heads out there. 

Now, what I am about to share is another non-colored image. Emily has rolled out so many graphic/art journal-y images, I can't resist. BUT, and there is a big BUT behind this...they are intimidating for me to work with. Yes, I struggle with what I want to do with it. I get a vision in my head and it doesn't come out looking anything like that in the end. If you find it odd to click on my blog and see something that's not a colored image, just remember there was lots of pain involved in making it. haha, I'm being a bit dramatic, but I do need to let ideas stare at me for a day or two. {and that's no joke!} 

Because we are all friends, I'm going to drag you along on this journey to be a little more graphic, in a non-naughty way! lol, what were you thinking?

Here is another sampling of Em's FUNKY BARCODE set. 
I stamped, I glittered, I found some cool new papers in my ~new~ Basic Grey pb&j 6x6 pad. As soon as I put this together, I wanted to start over and do another card...that's how unsure I am about this. Like I said, on this journey, we will not listen to Journey, but there will be great music! I want to watch myself progress into making a card like this and it not take two days.

This take me back to my non-coloring days when it was all about the layout & colors. Pack your comfy clothes, nothing dressy required.  :)

...card recipe:

Finished size is 5 1/2" square, kraft cs, Bazzill cs, Basic Grey pb&j 6x6 pad, Em's FUNKY BARCODE {set of 4} from Stamping Bella, Archival ink, Distress inks, black glitter, ribbon and sewing.

This friday us BABES are showering the world in FLOWERS! Do you wanna get showered in flowers? Make a card and join us on Emily's blog HERE. Flowers is such a huge range of Stamping Bella images...I predict LOTS of inspiration for the weekend! 

sunny blooms, tucker, flutter & a toadstool...

Hey friends!

I spent all evening in my room/studio creating. Get anything finished? that I am also happy with...nope. Couple projects in two different stages and both not finished. This doesn't make paula a happy camper. I had a HUGE let down on saturdays creative quest...super pumped and ready to play! My dog on the other hand, he ended up needing to have an emergancy bath. I am the one who washes him, cuts his hair and trims the nails. I keep a couple areas trimmed well...if you get where I am going. Let's just say when I went to let him back in the house saturday morning, I found him sitting on the sidewalk. {not a good sign} He had a mess going on and I had to pull out the baby wipes, papertowels and a very old pair of scissors that were not going back into my crafting supplies. I also didn't want to toss him into my sink, so he went into Jordan's tub and got his bath. {I only have a shower in my batroom} I lost my mojo and after I got Niki clean and dried, I went back to scrub Jordan's bathroom. Her idea of cleaning isn't the same as mine. I think Clorox wipes are great for a quick picker-upper, but I still use cleaning rags and scrubbing bubbles. lol

Mojo took a mini vacation for the weekend and I shopped on Sunday.

So, here we are and until I get my Bella 'groove' back into gear...I still have a couple Purple Onion Designs to show you. Yeah, you look happy to see some stuff! These images are still part of 'The Sweetest Day' set that POD debuted last week, from the artist Stacey Yacula.

First I wanna tell you that these two projects were completed after I took the Tim Holtz online class. I was still spritzing and flicking water {the bookmark} and I really wanted to see if I could layer both my chalk inks and distress inks, for a cool background & you CAN {that is what I used on the mushroom card} Check these out... 
This bookmark was made so quickly out of a Ranger tag, like the ones for Tim's tag projects. I mashed and smeared some distress ink, flicked water and darkened the edges with yet more distress ink. I stamped out the 'Sunny Blooms' image and colored the 'blooms' with my prismacolor pencils.  The white dots that I added are actually black dots underneath. Since I let this left side be my highlighted area...which I almost never do...I thought the white dots might look cool. I had no problemo using my pecils and gamsol over the distress inks, though I didn't go wild and need a ton of coloring done. The 'Oh Happy Day' sentiment seemed to go so well with this bright bookmark, so I sewed it up. The card below is the one where I decided to play around with layering chalk/pigment inks with my distress inks. I kept it soft and pale and I was happy that using my prismacolor pencils and gamsol wasn't a problem around the base of the toadstool. This group of ~new~ images from 'The Sweetest Day' is called Tucker {snail}, Flutter {butterfly} and Toadstool. All the sentiments come in a set and everything can be found HERE on the Purple Onion Designs store.

And, in case you were wondering about this yummy paper that I could not NOT put with my oval scene below, it's from the My Minds Eye 'Miss Caroline' 6x6 pad called 'Howdy Doody'.

enjoy!

bellariffic barcodes...

It's a happy BellaRIFFIC friday today!

...because I don't have to be anywhere except for my favorite place, which is home, and I have a ~new~ Suzi Blu book arriving on my doorstep friday!

All is well in my banking crisis and HOW can not having a debit card a major blip in my mind? I have taken well given advice and it will only be used sparingly. I will be prepared when dining out and carry cash. :)  I took cash to Canada & Scrapfest, I did not call the credit card company to let them know I was out of the country, in case I needed to use the card. {ok, this was mainly to avoid impulse buying! lol} Can you believe I took 150.00 and I had to get 5.00 from Linda to get back across the bridge. I could have stayed hostage at Lindabella's house, LOL, we laughed about that one. Jim may have come to get me just so I was home to take care of my animals.

It was rainy on Sunday and I really didn't want to leave Linda's and drive home. She was playing with her embossing powders and dreaming of making a new sheet of samples...yeah, she has little cards on a chain and each little card has a name and sample of one of her powders. Linda has LOTS, she said Pauline had more...omg, I have 4! So Linda pulls out her 'Em's Funky Barcode' set, a set I was looking forward to getting my hands on. Linda starts playing and I finally take off for home. It takes me a while {nap} to get back into the crafting groove sunday night, and I end up playing with this 'happy birthday' barcode...
I know, it's not colored, can you believe it. Sometimes I need to play around with solid images and see if I can make a card I love. I see lots of them, I just struggle to make one myself. hehe, this set comes with 4 images and sentiments...there are more barcodes a comin'!

...card recipe:

Finished size is 5" x 6 1/2", kraft cs, Memory Box pp, Echo Park 'Times & Seasons' pp, Bazzill cs, 'Em's FUNKY BARCODE' set from Stamping Bella, Ranger Archival ink, Sakura clear glaze pen, twine, button and sewing.

Our next BellaRIFFIC friday challenge is FLOWERS. Next week you can have flowers on the paper, a Stamping Bella image..there are LOTS to choose from. We have so many ~new~ faces in our BellaRIFFIC friday lineup on Emily's blog...if you wanna join us all you gotta do is send da Bella a picture by thursday night.    :)

Peace out!

furry friends, frankie & fiona...

Hola friends!

I hope your week is cruising along as swiftly as mine is. I hope your fridge is full, like mine finally is, lol. I can't believe I had not been to the grocery store since Good Friday and I'm sure the other residents in the house are glad too. I had the BEST pedicure last night and I took my bright toes to the grocery store and showed them off. Not so fortunate for Jordan's Siamese...she sneaked into the bathroom when Jordan exited it yesterday and she got locked in there until I got home at 7:30 p.m. She cried and cried...I though maybe Pebbles had gotten a hold of her and when I went to check, I heard the cries in the bathroom. I never saw that cat move SO fast when I opened the door. lol

Niki, he sleeps on the couch and had no idea what time it was or how late it was...he is just always happy to see me walk in the door. {I was just as happy and after unloading the groceries}

I happen to have Frankie & Fiona image from Stamping Bella, to share with you tonight. It wasn't planned to lead into them with my pedicure/grocery/cat-locked-in-the-bathroom story...but it just worked out that way. **sigh** must've been fate.
I have had this card done for a month or so, loaded onto my Splitcoaststampers gallery...but I thought I had not finished it, so I had not posted it here on my blog. I pull it out to finish and see I had finished it. {how old am I again?}

Here's the inside.

I wanted to find a sentiment that made this a great friendship card. Not that I use a lot of 'punny' sentiments, but I think I could have also used another homemade sentiment that said 'friends 'FUR' ever'. There are so many animal lovers in our lives and this is such a cute furry couple.   :)

...card recipe:

Finished size is 5 1/2" square, Bazzill cs, Bella's BESTEST paper {for image}, October Afternoon '5 & Dime' pp, 'Frankie & Fiona' & sentiment from Stamping Bella, Versa Magic chalk inks {for outer shading}, colored pencils, gamsol/OMS, Sakura black glaze pen, glitter and sewing.

I am outta here to try a ~new~ recipe for a sweet treat that Linda made for me {and herself & Mark & Pauline} when I was there last friday. It was three simple ingredients and was DE-lish!   tah-tah   :)

I have a winner!! and an UPDATE!

....and her name is Pam Carter!   CONGRATS to Pam and now I need to track you down to get some info. If you'd email me at my aol addy...will get ya hooked up with your new rubber.

paulatracy66@aol.com      :)

The Sweetest Day images are now on ~SALE~ and you can see/purchase the entire collection HERE.    :)   have a great one!

monday is the sweetest day...

...even though the weekend is over and paula's @ work!

It's me again, back from the wild stampers and scrappers at Scrapfest in Kitchener, Ont. I had a great time and Lindabella makes a wonderful chauffeur and Paulinabella made a great co-pilot, while I kept the back seat warm...lol. I love seeing my Scrapfest friends {you know who you are *wink*!} and I always love seeing Emily, Helen, "the Dol" and the rest of the Cohen clan.

Since I was asked to join the Purple Onion Designs to help show off an amazing new stamp artist, Stacey Yacula...I have another sweet image to show ya. Have you checked her out? Her ~new~ line called "The Sweetest Day" goes on sale tomorrow.

Here's Poppy...a bunny that makes me smile and hope you do too!
I colored her with my prismacolor pencils in some purples and blues, keeping her soft. The blue surround the edges of my colored bunny are sponged with a Versa-Magic chalk ink called Aspen Mist. Poppy comes holding her lil flag, and I cut this out and layered it on top of the sentiment and stamped kite. I also wrote the 'hello' on the flag, you'd have to add that yourself.   ;)   Yep, I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to get the kite in the proper posititon and then added Poppy over it. Looks just like she's holding that string, huh!

In case you're wondering, the background paper is from Memory Box. If you're a purple lover than you gotta know there isn't a lot of paper choices, I knew I had an older Memory Box line that would match Poppy's fur. lol.

There are a few other girls showing off their creations from "The Sweetest Day" and if you jump over to Michele's blog HERE, she has supplied all the links. Michele is also offering a giveaway on the FULL set today and you have until midnight tonight to be entered. She'll give ya all the winners names on tuesday when the stamps go on sale. Good LUCK! and thanks for stopping by today!!

See ya tomorrow!

a new friend from purple onion design...

It's me again and I bet ya might be surprised. hehe, about as surprised as I was when I got an email a few months ago asking if i'd care to be a guest designer for a company called Purple Onion Designs. {I have to tell you that the name sounded familiar, but I couldn't remember where or when I had heard of them} Oh, it didn't take me long to check out the website and quickly send an email back to Michele and tell her i'd love to join her and her DT for a little coloring time.

As a long post bonus, there is a giveaway if you make it to the bottom and read the rules. *wink*

My new rubber arrived a couple weeks ago and I colored up this little guy first. His name is 'Freckles'...wanna meet him? {how'd I know you'd say yes??}
Is he a cute frog or what? He has personality and I tell ya when you see the rest of his 'family', you'll see what i'm talking about. These images that you'll be seeing here and on the other DT blogs are by a ~NEW~ artist for Purple Onion Designs and her name is Stacey Yacula. {yep, I checked her blog out as soon as I found out her name... LOVE it} You can also peek in on her blog HERE.

Now that I have your attention again, let me tell you that this new set of rubber images called 'The Sweetest Day!' goes on sale on Tuesday, April 17 over at the Purple Onion Deisgn store. Michele has organized an assortment of who's showing off-what-image so if you are ready to see more samples and more guest designers please click HERE. You will see a couple familiar 'Babe' faces...omg Jeanie Witmer & Kim Teasdale!

Let me share a couple card deets on 'Freckles'. First of all, and the most important, the balloon is added to my scene. It's seperate from 'Freckles', but with a handy stamp positioner, it's easy-peasy. {I already had the vision of my card going when I realized I could have so easily cut his head out and 'popped' it up for dimension....grrrrr, why do I need to sleep at night?} There was plenty of sentmints to pick from...but I picked the one that made me smile. Then I knew the balloon had to be yellow! {sometimes the brain does function on all cylinders}

My card is made using my favorite supplies. Bella's BESTEST paper, Bazzill cs, colored pencils/gamsol & my sewing machine.

How'd you like a chance at coloring up your own 'Freckles' & his balloon?? Leave me a little comment and just tell me your favorite thing to color or use as a subject. PEOPLE/FLOWERS/CUTE ANIMALS {like 'Freckles'} I have to tell you...when I see any cute animal...I am a goner!

I will pick my winner Sunday night @ 10 pm est. I hope you enjoy looking at the other designers cards. ps. there are more giveaways on the some of the other designers blogs as well...don't miss out.

bellariffic friday & scrapfest...

ok peeps, it's the weekend and where will paulabella, lindabella, paulinabella, reganbella, ebrubella {i think?}, stamping bella be? ohhhh, us girls and lots of other crafty Canadians will be hanging in Kitchner, ONT for Scrapfest! Is this my 4th year?? I think it is...

It's been a long week for me, in some ways and I started feeling kinda crappy on wednesday. I was keeping my fingers crossed this was just a fluke and related to what happened on Easter morning. If ya aren't new to these parts, you may have known a few years ago someone stole my identity and opened a AT&T account and purchased 5 iphones. Well, Sunday morning I got a hefty poke in my back when Jim was looking at our online banking statement and it was emptied out. Seems someone out there {insert choice wordhere} decided to do some clothes shopping with my debit card. And Jim thought maybe it was me. lol, paula wears Target and Old Navy not Chico's & Chadwicks. Anyways...some of the charges were caught in time so as that we got the funds gently placed back into our checking account...some funds are still in limbo. For 3 days the transactions were in a 'pending' state...when on wednesday the largest sum of transactions was allowed to be 'posted'. That is when I got upset...card cancelled, everyone notified on monday...paula just doesn't understand how this process works. Yeah, there is more to it, but the gist is, we are A-ok. Bills were all paid for the month...it was just a shock to see a ~zero~ balance. AND worst part...I have to wait for my new debit card so I feel like I am broke. lol. Was I being punished for all my Good Friday shopping?   :)

On to sunnier subjects..

it's BellaRIFFIC Friday and I am still dreaming about my T!m Holtz class and collecting Ranger supplies and playing with T!m's ideas... Oh, wait...this is another variation on the last friday technique. I used a different Stamping Bella image because I was lovin' the look of the giant 'carnation head'. Here is 'Flower Garden' with the watercolor/white embossing technique! You know what they say...april showers bring may flowers...
Here is my card that is still showing off the watercolor technique with Distress inks and white embossing. I knew after I had tried this with Stamping Bella's ''carnation head flower', I wanted to try it with 'flower garden' as well. Have you given it a try? Here's the inside, since my sentiment didn't seem to make me happy anywhere on the front of this card.
 

...card recipe:

Finished size is 5 1/2" x 6 1/4", Bazzill cs, kraft cs, 90# watercolor paper, 'flower garden' & sentiment from Stamping Bella, Distress ink pads, white embossing powder, SU edge punch, ribbon and sewing.

Next week we are playing with another fun sketch from Ebru. If you wanna join us and play along, you can submit a card, a scrappy layout..just use some Bella rubber. Check out this inspiration...
Just remember to send a nice clear photo to Emily by next Thursday eve 4/19.