Belli Memories

This week we are all celebrating Thanksgiving, so we are not issuing a Belli Challenge. Instead, we have decided to revisit some of the Belli Challenges gone by. Do you remember Belli #8?? Hee hee! That was the week we did Flowers. I decided to share this card with Prima flowers on it in honor of our Belli Memories week.



These flowers were originally a pale orange-y color. I colored them with Rustic Red Shimmerz paint, and they turned into a beautiful sparkly pink-ish/mauve-ish color. It works really well with this Basic Grey paper, the Sugared collection.

The little girl image is colored with Copic markers, and I added dew drops to the centers of the flowers. This was a sketch challenge in the Stampavie group over at Paper Craft Planet.

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving holiday.

Stamps: Fanny's Cuddle by Stampavie
Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black
CS: Burgundy, White, Basic Grey Sugared
Other: copic markers, nestabilities, small and large oval punch, prima flowers, dew drops, Rustic Red Shimmerz paint

Cherish long card

Here is another version of the long card I showed you yesterday. This one is much simpler and quicker. I came across my old Two Scoops (Basic Grey) paper collection, and there are some stickers in this package. I wanted to use the "cherish" sticker, and I knew it would be perfect on a long card.

So what images do you associate with "cherish?" I wasn't really sure what images would work, so I pulled out some butterfly stamps and went to work. All the stamps on here are from Cornish Heritage Farms. I started by stamping the dark blue swirls, then I added the leaves. The butterflies are stamped with Baja Breeze and Pink Pirouette inks, and then I sponged the edges with Blue Bayou (retired SU inkpad).

It didn't seem quite "finished" so I looked at the stickers again. There are some little tiny flower stickers, and I pulled those off and stuck them on the leaves. I think that really finishes the card nicely.

Stamps: Beautiful (swirls), Nature Silhouettes (leaves), Vintage Butterflies (all from Cornish Heritage Farms)
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze, Celery, Blue Bayou
CS: Baja Breeze, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Basic Grey Two Scoops collection
Other: white taffeta ribbon, scallop edge punch, tiny pearls, sponge

Teddy Holly Days

Isn't that teddy bear just adorable??? I love this image. It's in the Rachelle Ann Miller Collection by Stampavie. This image works great when you want to make a card that fits in a standard #10 envelope. The card size when finished is 9.25" x 4", so you actually have to cut your cardstock to 9.25" x 8", and fold in half.

I stamped the image on watercolor paper, and used my aquapainter and reinkers to color it in. I really enjoyed spending some time watercoloring this afternoon. It's such a relaxing and colorful experience to watch your image come alive with each application of color.

It's hard to see, but I went over the sentiment with a Black Spica glitter pen. It is just a hint of sparkle on there, because I didn't want to take the focus away from the teddy bear image.

I want to encourage you to watercolor this week. Just stamp something and pull out your supplies and color. Do something fun and relaxing, which has NOTHING to do with the big Turkey Day. Take your mind off that for a little bit and just have fun coloring. :-)

Stamps: Stampavie Teddy Bear, Stampabilities (sentiment)
Ink: Stone Gray stazon, Baja Breeze, Cocoa, Caramel, Pretty in Pink, Almost Amethyst, Going Gray, Basic Black, Celery
CS: Basic Grey, Pretty in Pink, watercolor paper, Ski Slope dsp
Other: Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon, felt snowflakes (SU), aquapainter, tiny pearls, Pretties Kit (from SU - the clear rhinestone brad), black Spica glitter pen, scallop edge punch

Thanksgiving Wall Hanging

Can you believe next week will be Thanksgiving?? Time is just flying by now. I created this wall hanging to display in my house next week while I have the whole family over for Turkey Day. Yup, I'm cooking for the whole gang this year (with some help from Mom, Ma, and my SIL's, whew).

I used my Leaves #2 die from Stampin Up and ran it through my Big Shot with three different colors of cardstock. Then I ran my bone folder across each leaf to mark the veins. After I sponged the edges with Chocolate Chip ink, I crinkled up each leaf along the "veins."

The Thanksgiving sentiment is from Paper Inspirations, and the small wooden cutting board is something I've had in my crafting cabinet for several years. It came with the hole in the top - perfect for hanging on the wall.

Stamps: Paper Inspirations
Ink: Chocolate Chip
CS: Chocolate Chip, Naturals Ivory, Mustard dsp, Rust, Burgundy, Artichoke
Other: sponge, bone folder, Leaves #2 die, Big Shot, nestabilities, pop up glue dots, dimensionals, Chocolate Chip wide grosgrain ribbon, wooden cutting board

Belli Challenge #43

This week's Belli Challenge is to use cord on your card or project. Can you see the cord on the right side of this card? There are three strands of gold cord pulled together, with a bow on top. It sort of looks like a wrapped Christmas present, doesn't it? I wanted this to sort of coordinate with the wrapped presents in the Stampavie image.

I have fallen in love with the Sarah Kay images made by Stampavie. They are just darling! They remind me so much of my childhood, growing up with Holly Hobbie images everywhere.

Play along with us and make a card with some cord on it. Here's some inspiration for you:

Rochelle Wick
Debby McGivillary
Shelly Koskinen
Jennifer Greco
Chris Dickinson
Christi Thorsen
Ceal Pritchett
Lorie Ames
Courtney Fowler
Danita Hollander
Joan Ervin
Sarah Anderson


Stamps: Christmas Magic by Stampavie
Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black
CS: Artichoke, Basic Black, Whisper White, Basic Grey Wassail dsp
Other: copic markers, gold cord (retired SU), green metallic ribbon (Michaels)

Silent Blue Night

I was inspired by Debbie Olson's latest post where she painted the edge of her nesty-cut image with a metallic pen. In order to let the blue image remain a focal point, I kept the background very pale.


Can you see the Aged Sheet Music scrapblock on the pale pink card? I had stamped it with white craft ink, but it wasn't very visible, so I dumped Irridescent Ice embossing powder on it and heated it up. Then I smooshed my white craft ink around the eges of the pink card. The snowflake is covered with Star Dust stickles, and then I put a pale blue dew drop in the center.


Stamps: Christmas Expressions, Silent Night (Kinkade image), Aged Sheet Music scrapblock (all from Cornish Heritage Farms)
Ink: white craft, Broken China distress ink
CS: Pink Pirouette, White
Other: Irridescent Ice embossing powder, silver ribbon, snowflake punch (Martha Stewart), dew drop, Star Dust stickles, silver paint pen

OCCC Silhouette Challenge

I read the challenge that the OCCC blog has issued this week, and I wanted to play along. The challenge is to use silhouettes. I love my silhouette stamps! I pulled out a set that I haven't inked up yet - Inkadinkadoo's Fall Season.

I found that if I ink up with regular Stampin Up classic (dye) inks, the images come out looking rather splotchy and ugh. If you look at the tree closely, you can see the splotchiness. When I inked up with Versamark and stamped on the Rust cardstock (the lower part of the card), it looked much better. I probably need to sand down the images (these are clear stamps) so they will accept the dye inks better, but I didn't want to waste time on that today. My mojo was flowing and I wanted to stamp, not sand! LOL

I stamped the large leaf image with Versamark on Rust cardstock, and cut it out to go inside the card. See below:



I'm working on a special card for the upcoming Belli Challenge this Wednesday. Come back here and check it out on Wednesday. :-)

Stamps: Harvest Home (Stampin Up), Fall Season (Inkadinkadoo)
Ink: Artichoke, Rust, Chocolate Chip, Versamark
CS: Chocolate Chip, Rust, White, Artichoke dsp
Other: Vintage Copper brads (retired SU), piercing tool

Country Christmas Angel

I'm in a country Christmas mood this week, probably due to the Wassail paper I've been playing with. I did a variation of Beate's weekend sketch on this card. I basically turned it around, because the angel image was too large for the original sketch.

I thought about distressing the edges, but I stopped myself. Instead, I ran the edges of all the cardstock pieces across my craft white ink pad. It's a soft wintery look, sort of like the snow you see around the edges of your windows. (And no, we don't have any snow here......... send some my way if you can!!)

Stamps: angel image from Lockhart Stamp Co. (Ellen Hutson's online store)
Ink: Espresso Adirondack, white craft
CS: Kraft, Artichoke, White, Burgundy
Paper: Basic Grey Wassail
Other: Wassail buttons, linen thread, copic markers, clear Spica glitter pen (on the wings)

SNS Cookie Challenge

I created this card for a Sweet N Sassy Christmas Cookie challenge. We each picked 5 ingredients that were listed for making Christmas Cookies, and then a few days later, we were told what each ingredient was equal to as far as card-making. I picked:

Chocolate Chips -- brads
Vanilla -- scallop edge punch
Nutmeg -- corner punch
Butter -- watercoloring
Flour -- chipboard

Yikes! How was I gonna make a card with all that on it??? Two punches?? But I persevered and came out with this card. You can clearly see the brads, the scallop edge punch, the ticket corner punch (where the brads are) and the big star chipboard. The watercoloring is on the little holly leaves and berries below the sentiment. I had finished my card, only to find that I had NO watercoloring on it! Ack! So I searched around for something that I could add to the card AND that I could watercolor. This little image of leaves and berries fit the bill.

For good measure, I also had ribbon, thread, a button, designer paper, and distressing on this card as well. Don't fall down, Mom!!! :-)

Stamps: Christmas Peace (Paper Inspirations), Sleigh Bells Ring (Stampin Up!)
Ink: Artichoke, Riding Hood Red
CS: Artichoke, Kraft, Wassail dsp (Basic Grey)
Other: scallop edge punch, ticket corner punch, aged copper brads, distressing tool, star chipboard, red button (Basic Grey Wassail collection), linen thread, organdy ribbon (stole from Mom's stash - hee hee), aquapainter, sanding block, 1/16" hole punch, dimensionals, mini glue dots, glue dots

Belli #42 - Gift Tags

This week's Belli Challenge is to create your own gift tags. I thought I would show you two different styles. The first one is the easy peasy, lemon squeezy version. Hee hee!



As you can see, I simply rolled my Soft Holly wheel (Stampin Up) into my Kiwi Kiss inkpad, and rolled it across some white cardstock. I cut the cardstock up into four smaller rectangles, and stamped the "To" and "From" (Cornish Heritage Farms) on the left sides of each tag. All I have to do now is fill out the names and tape it onto a gift. Is that easy or what?

This next picture shows you a more involved kind of tag. I recently received my Just Rite Christmas Stamp Ensemble that I won from Lisa Somerville (thanks so much, Lisa!!), and I had to get busy inking it up. As I looked at the round shape, I thought, wouldn't it be cute to make these like Christmas ornaments, and stamp the "to" and "from" in the centers?



So that's what I made, Christmas ornaments. I borrowed my Mom's Just Rite Brayton Font stamps to make the "to" and "from" words in the centers of each ornament. Thanks, Mom!! You may not be getting this set back from me.... hehehehe. To make the ornament hanger at the top, I used my Rounded Tab Punch (Stampin Up) on gold and silver cardstock, and folded it over each circle.

Why don't you join us in this Belli Challenge and create your own gift tags? Check out what the rest of the Belli Team has created - you have GOT to see what Debby made. So CUTE and adorable!!!

Rochelle Wick
Debby McGivillary
Shelly Koskinen
Jennifer Greco
Chris Dickinson
Christi Thorsen
Ceal Pritchett
Lorie Ames
Courtney Fowler
Danita Hollander
Joan Ervin
Sarah Anderson


Soft Holly Tags
Stamps: Soft Holly wheel (Stampin Up), Primitive Christmas (Cornish Heritage Farms)
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Basic Black
CS: white

Ornament Tags
Stamps: Christmas Stamp Ensemble & Brayton Font (Just Rite Stampers)
Ink: Real Red, Pacific Point, Adirondack Pitch Black
CS: White, Real Red, Pacific Point, gold, silver
Other: Rounded Tab punch, Copic markers, 1/8" hole punch, nestabilities

Paper Pieced Christmas cards

Paper piecing is a fun and different way to add a little "oomph" to a card. I stamped the ornament and trees images onto some designer paper and cut them out. For the trees, I stamped the image on white cardstock, let it dry, colored in the trunks with a brown marker, and then laid my designer paper pieces into the appropriate sized tree. I added some stickles to the hearts and let them dry.

I didn't actually paper piece the ornaments. I glued the pieces down and used a Silver Spica glitter pen to draw in the metal loop hanger at the top of each ornament. I just wanted a little more control over where I put the balls instead of stamping them on there first.

If you try some paper piecing, I'd love to see what you have created. :-) Have a great weekend!


Stamps: Heart Warmers & Polka Dots backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms)
Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Tattered Rose distress ink
CS: White, Pink Pirouette, Bashful Blue, assorted dsp
Other: Cotton Candy and Crystal stickles, black gingham ribbon, nestabilities, brown copic marker

Teddy Notebook

I created this notebook holder over the weekend for one of the Sweet N Sassy Stamps release party challenges. This challenge said to use hardware, so I used a little square blue rhinestone brad in the center of the green present, and three snowflake brads on the rest of the project. I blinged up the snowflakes with some Tiara Glitz stickles - so sparkly!!

I painted the chipboard flourish (Maya Road) with white acrylic paint, and then dabbed more of the Tiara Glitz stickles on top of that. I love the cold wintery feel that emanates from the accessories on here, in contrast to the warm brown teddy bear.

The teddy bear image is from Sweet N Sassy Stamps. It is part of the Rachelle Anne Miller winter collection. It's just so adorable, I absolutely had to buy this when I saw it. I colored this image with Copic markers.

The sentiment comes from Cornish Heritage Farms. You can find it in the Joyeux Noel set. I love this sentiment.

Inside this holder is a 5x8 notepad from Staples. You can find the tutorial by Dawn Lusk in the CHF forums here. Why don't you make your own notebook holder? I'd love to see what you've created!

Stamps: Stampavie Teddy Bear, CHF Joyeux Noel
Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black
CS: Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Ski Slope dsp - all from SU
Other: copic markers, Tiara Glitz stickles, snowflake brads, white acrylic paint, chipboard flourish (Maya Road), pink dotted organdy ribbon, Ice square rhinestone brad (SU), 5x8 notepad

Christmas Stockings

I'm making stocking cards for my nieces and nephews for Christmas this year. I'm keeping them simple, but still fun, as you can see with all the glitter. I used a lot of Christmas Red stickles on this card - love it! :-)

The wreath is colored with copic markers, and then I added the red stickles for the berries and on the bow. I traced out the "CJ" with a pencil and went over it with the stickles, and I spread the stickles glitter glue into the heel and toe of the stocking. It is quick and simple, but still a fun little project.

Stamps: Christmas Cheer (Cornish Heritage Farms)
Ink: Pitch Black adirondack
CS: Real Red, White
Other: Christmas Red stickles, copic markers, stocking template from Angelnorth