Happy Birthday

So October is the beginning of a crazy birthday month. So here is one of many birthday cards to come.

To help jump start some creative juices, I turned to this week's Sweet Stop Sketch.  Here the week's challenge:

Since this is a card for my little "sister" Elena (a friend's daughter), I decided my Stamping Bella's Kettos would be perfect to ink up. The funny thing is, Em decided this week's Bellarific Friday's theme is "Ketto." Funny coincidence or what? I say this is a calling!


Stamps: Sake Ketto (Stamping Bella); Half-pint Heroes (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
Paper: Paper Basics Card Stock - White (Papertrey Ink); Penelope's Potpourri (Taylored Expressions); Scrap Pack - Black (Recollections)
Ink: Pigment Ink - Black (Colorbox)
Embellishments: Rub-ons - Penelope (SEI); Softcore Color Pencils (Prismacolor); Nestabilities - Classic Scallop Circles Small, Standards Circle Small (Spellbinders)

Here a close up up, close and personal look on Frosty's sparkling hat and snowy base.



Isn't she just delightful? Just like my lil sister Elena :)

Birthday Wishes - It's For all the Marbles (or Bellas)

Stamping Bella were one of my first-bought stamps (not at a paper crafting event) - and I was super excited when looking through all of them at Stamp Fanci in Pittsburgh. I remember Belinda saying non-chalantly "They also carry Stamping Bellas" and all I remembered doing was dropping the gems I was ogling into my basket to move on to better and bigger things. It was really hard not to walk home with all of them, but I left with cakeabella, presentahbella, beerafella, jammybella, kittycattabella, and mwahbella with words. The rest is history. Did I mention it was Belinda (my dear Bleu Bella) that first introduced me to them?

So Em's Bellarific Babes are on the lookout to add to their babe count. And I have been diligently inking up my first obsessions. My Bellas definitely needed an excuse to party more. This week's Bellarific Friday theme: anything, just give them your bestest shot at a card.


Stamps: cakeabella (Stamping Bella); Fancy Phrases, Very Vintage Labels No. 4 (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
Paper: Paper Basics Card Stock - Dark Chocolate, Kraft (Papertrey Ink)

Ink: Earth Elements - Chocolate Chip (Stamping Up!); Pigment - Black (Colorbox)
Embellishments: Jewel (Memory Box); Creative Candy - Pretty Pearls: pink (Amuse); Nestabilities - Small Labels (Spellbinders); Softcore Colored Pencils - PC942 Yellow Ochre, PC946 Dark Brown, PC929 Pink, PC935 Black (Prismacolor); Double-ended Art Markers - Goldenrod

I'm not sure if this is the bestest, but I wanted to do a birthday card and had someone in mind for this. And it came out the bestest composed card for this very dear person.

I have been itching to make a window card again. So a circle was cut out using my trusty Nestabilities to allow cakebella to peek through. The rest of the card is scored in a diamond pattern, and each intersecting line has a little pearl.

Since the candle was hiding I had to add a little bling to bring that out. I also wanted to play with flock again for the cake, and I believe it came out a lot nicer. The key is loads of glue surface. Just when you think you have enough glue, add more for some good measure. And then dump half the flock and squish, squish, squish it together. The more compact, the fluffier, the better!



This reminds me of the scene in "Despicable Me" where Agnes says "It's so fluffy, I'm going to die!" If you're giving me blank look, check this youTube clip out. Now do you remember? Wait -- you haven't watched "Despicable Me"? Then why are you still reading this blog post? Go, hurry, run and find the next movie theater and drag your kids - and yes, a must in 3D! You'll be rolling in laughter 'til your sides will ache with stitches.

Anyways - back to the card. Now that I think of it - it's a very girly card. Bling, Pearls and Pink.

So, here is wondering if my entries are worthy of a shot at being the next Bella Baberooni. I certainly had fun pushing myself to try something new. And if not this time, maybe next time!

Happy Birthday, Little Brother

Happy Birthday, Lil' Bro! My brother isn't really that little anymore. He has graduated college, and is a working man! Part of the big, real world - the kind with bills, a job with benefits, and other fun, new responsibilities. My first response after he broke the great news to everyone at home of his new job was "Have you set up your 401K account?" Poor boy.

Anyways - regardless how grown-up he is, he will always be my little brother. The only difference is that I can gift him a card that isn't PG-13 anymore ;) His true loves? Good food, good beer, anything electronic and gadgety.

So the most appropriate stamp to pull out? Beerafella. In addition, the next Bellarific Friday theme has the following sketch

Birthday cards must be fun and colorful. And while looking through my pattern paper stash, I remember my trusty Cosmos Cricket pad. So, here is what Beerafella & I came up with:


Stamps: Beerafella (Stamping Bella), Wonderfully Whimsical (Papertrey Ink)
Paper: Paper Basics Card Stock - White (Papertrey Ink); Boyfriend (Cosmo Cricket); Basic Card Stock - Cream (Recollections)
Ink: Earth Elements - Creamy Caramel, Not Quite Navy (Stamping Up!); Tea Dye Duo - Chamomile (Papertrey Ink), Momento - Summery Sky (Tsukineko)
Embellishments: General Purpose Thread - Grey (Coats & Clark); Flock - White (Stampendous!); Nestabilities - Small Labels (Spellbinders); Softcore Colored Pencils - PC924 Crimson Red, PC911 Olive Green, PC939 Peach, PC1027 Peon Peacock, PC946 Dark Brown (Prismacolor)

My fun element was to flock the outline of the clouds with my newly acquired flock.


Improvements can definitely be made, since the flock looks a little whimpy for the manly card this was suppose to be. More adhesive and loads more compacting down the clouds. But this might quickly become a fun favorite texture embellishment.

Have you played with flock? What are your favorite uses?

Presenting Presentahbella

Ever heard of the Bellarific Baberoonis? It's the talented pool of bellarific bellas that help Em showcase her fun & whimsy stamps. My favs are her Bellas and Fellas, but there are plenty of other adorable lines. Just go see for yourself!

They have Bellarific Fridays and is just another fun place to play along. The theme for last Friday was Paper Piecing, and I thought it'd be fun for my Bellas to play along! So out came Presentahbella...


Stamps: Presentahbella (Stamping Bella), Asian Gardens Additions (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
Paper: Paper Basics Card Stock - Black (Papertrey Ink), Paperie Poolside & Greenhouse (Making Memories), Basic Card Stock - White (Recollections)
Ink: Pigment Ink - Black (Colorbox), Earth Elements - Creamy Caramel (Stamping Up!), Perfect Match Pigment Ink - Terracotta (Papertrey Ink)
Embellishments: Kingfisher - Blue (Paperchase), Nestabilities - Labels Ten (Spellbinders), A2 Embossing Folder - Spots & Dots (Provocraft), Softcore Colored Pencils - PC935 Black, PC921 Pale Vermillon, PC927 Light Peach, PC1015 Deco Blue (Prismacolor), Point 88 - Art No. 88/46, Art No. 88/54 (Stabilo), Spool 'o Ribbon - 1/8" Orange (Offray), GellyRoll - Glaze Clear (Sakura)

I thought the circles in the stamp design would be fun to highlight. So I chose a pattern paper with circles. The blue in the pattern paper is subtle enough that it didn't fight with the circles of the stamp. After stamping the present and coloring in the circles, the next neat idea was to make Presentahbella's dress the opposite. A play on positives and negatives, and before you knew it, she was pieced together. Surgery on Presentahbella went well - no accidental amputations - and she quickly regained her color ;) Lastly, the base card stock is embossed with Spots & Dots to keep the circle theme going, which is a little hard to tell in these pictures...


The other fun part was using my newly-acquired-at-CHA Labels Ten! Overall a fun color combination - playful but still chic. Do you have Bellas? If so, which one is your favorite?