RI SOTW - Footbridge

We have a new Stamp of the Week over at Repeat Impressions - this week's special is on Footbridge (2917-K) and it's available at half price this week only!  It's a great scenic stamp that fits in really well with many of the other Scenic stamps at Repeat Impressions. 

For my card, I have paired it up with Shade of the Elm (2908-I), Calm Water (4522-G) and Grass (3413-C).  All of the images were stamped directly on the Webster's Pages patterned paper and colored using Copic markers.  I added some Spring Flower Soft to the elm tree for its foliage (you can click on the picture to see it larger).  The Live for...(3103-F) sentiment, which seemed like a perfect match for my peaceful little scene, was stamped on a cloud die cut using Old Olive ink.  My card fits this week's Our Creative Corner challenge, which is to stamp directly on patterned paper.

Please be sure to head over to The House That Stamps Built to get the details for picking up this great Footbridge image for 50% off.  While you're there, make sure you take a look at the cards the rest of the team made using the Footbridge image!

Thanks for stopping by!

OCC Guest Designer - Happy Easter!

Good Morning! I'm thrilled to be this week's Guest Designer over at Our Creative Corner! Thank you so much for inviting me, Silke!! The challenge this week is a sketch challenge, which is my favorite kind of challenge, and I liked Silke's sketch so much, I ended up making two cards with it!

This first card was made using the Tulip Bouquet stamp from Repeat Impressions. Wendy, the owner of Repeat Impressions, is very generously offering a $25 gift certificate to the winner of this week's OCC challenge, so be sure to submit a project on the OCC blog no later than Friday, April 2nd by 10:00 PM EST in order to qualify.

I colored the tulip image using Copic markers and then I airbrushed it while it was still in the die.  I hand cut the two mat layers under it. My patterned papers are from BasicGrey's new Green at Heart 6x6 paper pad.  I used the same papers on the inside, and also used the leftover 'trash' from punching the scalloped layer on the card front to make a border.

I flipped the sketch horizontally for my second card so it would accommodate this beautiful deco dragonfly, also from Repeat Impressions.  The image was stamped using Memento Bamboo Leaves and colored with Copic markers.  After I colored it, I cut it out and painted it with some Iced Lavender Shimmerz paint.

Here is a close up of the dragonfly showing how shiny the Shimmerz paint is.  The music background on my two Nestabilites Curved Rectangle panels is also from Repeat Impressions.  The dragonfly paper is from Kaisercraft.  The ribbon is white silk from May Arts that I colored using a Copic marker.

Thanks for stopping by today and please be sure to head over to the OCC blog for this week's sketch and to check out what the OCC Design Team has created using it!  Thanks again for having me as your guest designer this week, Silke!

Finally, Repeat Impressions is looking for some new Design Team members.  I can tell you firsthand that Wendy is a dream to work with, so if you're interested in being on a team with very reasonable requirements and a very generous supply of rubber, be sure to apply!  Please visit the Design Team Call page on the Repeat Impressions website for details soon. Call ends March 31st, 2010.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend!

CC260 & OCC - Love You Muchly

Happy Wednesday! I decided to play along on last week's Color Challenge (CC260) over at Splitcoast Stampers (Always Artichoke, Crushed Curry, Basic Gray) and with Silke's sketch challenge this week over at Our Creative Corner, although my card is A2 (4.25" x 5.5") rather than square like the sketch.

I just picked up a couple of these Pure Innocence stamps from My Favorite Things. They are not my normal 'thing', but they are fun to paper piece like I've done on this card, plus I think the images are adorable and the sentiments that go with them are perfect. I used Cosmo Cricket Early Bird papers (Apron Strings and Sunrise). I added lots of bling (too much maybe...) to my image where it had hearts and a flower. For the Basic Gray component, I stamped my image and sentiment using Memento London Fog and I used some pewter self-adhesive nail heads in the top right corner.

Here's a peek at the inside. I just used my scraps from the front. I punched the borders using a Martha Stewart border punch.

Hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by and for your sweet comments - they really mean a LOT!

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Snowy Birthday Wishes

I made this card using Mercy's sketch from last week, and it also fits for this week's Our Creative Corner challenge, which is to use snow or snowflakes on your card. Um, I think I've got that covered - on the card AND the envelope!

The papers are from a Christmas paper stack and all the stamps are from Stampin' UP!. The gold snowflake is a clear Heidi Swapp snowflake that I colored with a gold paint pen. The blue one in the upper right corner was also clear and I colored it with a Copic marker. I added a couple of pale green Kaiser Pearls to the centers of the two larger snowflakes. That's about it.

Are you all ready for Christmas?? I'm STILL working on Christmas cards and have one more gift to wrap up and mail (obviously it's going to be late....). Enjoy your week and be sure to check back on Wednesday for another Belli Challenge!

Happy Birthday....

This card makes me laugh....mostly because of the story behind it. A couple of weeks ago, I had the honor of being the guest designer over on Our Creative Corner, thanks to my friend Jenny (thank you, Jenny!!). When she originally asked me to to be the guest designer, we had talked about the themes she was going to have for her month-long stint as the challenge hostess. One of the challenges she was planning was to make an animal themed card, which is the one I chose to be the guest designer for, thinking specifically of using this tiger stamp and this paper.

Eventually, though, the challenge changed a little and became Pet Parade, but since I had my heart set on using this stamp for it, I tried to make a card that could still work for the 'pet' theme....hence the sentiment! In the end, I decided to make this card, using a more traditional pet cat theme... ;-)

The stamp is from The Angel Company and the paper is from GCD Studios' Debonair Collection. The image was colored with Copic markers and I added some dots around the border of my image to mimic those around the circles on the patterned paper. The sentiment stamp is from The Stamping Studio.

Thanks for looking! Enjoy your weekend!

OCC Challenge - Pet Parade

This month my good friend, Jenny Gropp, is hosting the weekly challenges over at Our Creative Corner, and she graciously asked me to be the guest designer for this week's challenge! What a great week I'm having! The theme for the challenge this week is Pet Parade - use a cat or dog image, but if you don't have one, then you may substitute another animal image.

For my card, I started with this week's sketch from Splitcoast Stampers (SC236). Next, I pulled out my stash of cat-themed papers and stamps and decided that the paper I used at the top would be perfect - it's a 12"x12" piece that has a cat collar across the top with the tags hanging down. I selected the section with these three tags because they went perfectly (or is it purrfectly...) with my stamp and to describe my own three cats (not that we have real mice in the house, only cat nip filled ones)! The collar paper is from Carol Wilson Fine Arts and the paw print paper is from Rhonna Farrer.

The stamp of the three cats is from Class Act Stamps and the sentiment is from Whipper Snapper Designs. The twill ribbon is from Creative Impressions and was colored with Copic markers and then stapled to the sentiment layer using the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher Stapler. Finally, I added some rhinestones to the collar and to the crown.

Please check out the other sample cards from the OCC designers on the OCC blog and remember, there is no time limit on the OCC challenges - feel free to participate whenever you are able. To play along, upload your creation to your blog or gallery, then leave us a comment linking to your project so we can check it out. If you upload to SCS, remember to use keyword: OCCC.

That's about it! Thanks for looking! Have a great weekend!