HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Hi Everyone,

I want to thank you so much for being so patient with me while the renovations are going on at my house and all of my stamping stuff is still packed away, and I haven't been able to design any cards to put on my blog. Hopefully, one more week, and I sure hope it will all be over.

I would like to wish all of you a very safe, healthy and wonderful Holiday Season and hope that you spend lots of time with your family and friends.

I would like to share with you this card that I taught in my Christmas card class. You can't really see all of the glitter on the dots on the tree which make it so pretty and sparkly. I decided to make this one monochromatic and was lucky enough to find the ribbon, card stock and ink that matched perfectly. I know that most people need to make lots of cards so I wanted this card to be quick and easy to replicate. Hope you like it.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoy the weekend. Let me know what kind of gifts you got.

Hugs,

Nicky

Happy Monday

Hi Everyone,

My renovations are still ongoing and should be over by the end of this week. So many of you emailed me to ask why I wasn't posting cards on my blog, and the reason is that all of my stamping stuff is packed in boxes 'till my renos are done. I am so looking forward to unpacking and organizing everything again.

I took a few days and went to Montreal to visit my family and friends and help Sherrie Seimens with the Copic class she was teaching after her Certification class. My BFF Tema and I really enjoyed spending time with Sherrie and getting to know her better. She is an amazing teacher, so talented and creative and so down to earth. We had a blast.

We took some pictures at these classes. The first picture is of Sherrie, Tema (sitting) Natalie (the store owner) and me. The second is with some of the ladies that took one of the classes.

I am hoping to be back in a few days with some cards for you.

Have a great week,

Nicky

Magnolia

Hi Everyone,

I know it has been awhile since I have posted, but have been really sick with a horrible virus that the Doctor thinks was the H1N1 virus. It came suddenly and hit me really hard in my chest, ears, & sinuses. It is almost 4 weeks and I am still not feeling great, but am starting to feel a bit better. During this time my hubby had surgery and thank goodness is recovering very well, and, if that wasn't enough, the renovations on my house started last week.

I must have my whole main floor of my house totally packed by Monday 'cause they are going to start installing my hardwood floors. That means all of my stamps and stuff will have to be packed and put in the basement. What a job! But I am sure it will all be worth it in the end. I can hardly wait to see the results.

I made the card I am posting awhile ago, and thought that I would share it with you. I stamped the image with Memento black ink and used mineral spirits and Lyra and Prisma colour pencils to colour. I stamped the bow on her head twice and cut one out and popped it up. I also used the Stampin Up slot punch and the oval Nestabillities and the Cuttlebug circle embossing folder. I glittered the Lilacs and used the blue baubles for the embellishment.

Thanks so much for visiting my Blog.

I would love to hear from you.

Hugs,

Nicky

Let's Celebrate

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all had a great week. I told you I would try to post more often, and here I am. I made a few cards, and I wanted to share one of them with you.

Most of you know how much I enjoy collecting stamps of polka dots, circles, & cupcakes. I really liked the cupcake image from this set from Gina K designs called Sweetest Blessings, which is a perfect set for celebrations. The stamps are so deeply etched and very easy to colour.

I coloured the cupcake with Prisma coloured pencils and odorless mineral spirits and used glitter and Glossy Accents on the cherry. I don't know if you will be able to see it on the screen. I also used the circle embossing folder and the Fiskars border punch. The sentiment is from

My Stamp Box.

I am making this post short and sweet as I still have to design a few more cards for my upcoming class then have to cut and package them, it's a lot of work but I love it. I will post another card in a few days so stop by.

Thanks so much for coming to visit

Hugs

Nicky

Friend

Hi Everyone,

It has been such a crazy busy month with lots of babysitting my adorable grand-daughters, visitors from out of town, getting ready for my classes and teaching, and shopping, shopping, shopping, that it left me very little time to post. I apologize for that. I just don't know how you all find the time to post everyday. I am going to try harder to post at least a couple of times a week.

I received my Gina K stamps and I knew that I would love stamping with them. The stamps are so deeply etched and they give a beautiful imprint . I chose this orchid stamp from Asela Hopkins "Botanical Dreams". It is a gorgeous set, I love it. Gina's stamps are open lined and are perfect for colouring.

For this card I used a border punch for the brown layer and Prisma and Lyra pencils with odorless mineral spirits to colour the image. I chalked around the flower and used some glitter. I don't know if the glitter will show on the screen. Hope you like it.

I am sorry I have been MIA and promise to post more often.

Keep in touch , I would love to hear from you.

Hugs

Nicky

Happy Wednesday

Hi Guys,

I can't believe how much time has passed since I last posted, sorry... I hope you are all enjoying the summer weather, relaxing, stamping and having fun.

My daughter the Dr., has moved back to Toronto from Windsor and is living with us (love it) for a few months 'till she can find a place to live. I hope she takes her time and stays with us this year and saves her money, so she can buy a condo or town house. I love having her home again, she is so much fun to be with, and she is a great stamper to boot.

I did my first Demo at Pointers Scrapbooking store and want to thank everyone for coming out and supporting me. It was great to see all of you.

I am so excited that my new Copic Markers came last week and my Flourishes stamps came the same day. I really haven't shopped on line much, as I am a feelie touchie kind of person, but Man oh Man is it ever easy and fun to shop on line with just a push of a button. I am hooked (where have I been).

All of my other purchases should be arriving in the next couple of weeks and then there will be no excuses for not posting a few cards a week. I am slowly getting my mojo back, I think.

I redesigned an old card of mine with a Penny Black flower stamp in black Versafine ink, and Chalked around the flower with a cotton ball using blue chalk. I then edged the card stock with a black marker. I used Stampin'Up patterned paper in Baja Breez, and embossed the white card stock with Sizzix dot embossing folder. I also used EK success scallop border punch on the bottom of the black layer. The sentiment is Stampin'Up.

I am off to Montreal for a few days and will be back on Sunday, and hopefully I will have another card for you on Monday.

Have a great weekend.

Thanks for stopping by, I would love to hear from you.

Nicky

Happy Thursday

Hi Everyone,

I am so sorry that I have not posted lately, but I have been under the weather and I am feeling better now. Thanks so much to all of you that cared and worried about me, you will never know how much it meant to me.

I wanted to share a tip with you that I share with my 101 students. When you cut your card stock and patterned paper, don't just cut for one card, since you have everything out, you might as well cut enough to make a few cards. Then when you need a card, all you have to do is piece it together and change the image and sentiment to suit your occasion. It is so much faster to make the card rather then taking everything out and starting all over. I keep these layers and my original sample in a baggie, and keep the baggie in a plastic shoe box.

Here, I made my first card using the MarchingABellas by Stamping Bella. Since I really liked my layout I cut extra layers. I needed a Birthday card for a friend, and all I had to do was find an image that suited the person, (in this case I used Stella Looves Ribbons from Stamping Bella and the sentiment is from Stampin Up), colour it up and piece the card together, easy peezy. Since the cards go to different people they will never know that you used the same layout.

I used clear glaze pen on Stellas scissors, crown, wand and the spine of the books. (I don't know if this is going to show up ). This gives the image dimension and sparkle. I coloured the images with mineral spirits and Lyra coloured pencils. I also used the Sizzix dot embossing folder on the pink panel.

Thanks for stopping by

Hugs

Nicky

TGIF

Can you believe it's Friday!!!! I just can't believe how fast this week flew by. Well, Friday means it's Bellarific Challenge at Stamping Bella. Once again everyone made amazing cards. Linda Heavens came up with this great sketch, and it is unbelievable to see how everyone interprets it.

I decided to use Stella Digs It, and this image comes with a mini as well. I bought new colouring pencils by Brunzel and I love them. They come sharpened already in such a cute box with 4 drawers. I find them more pigmented, and when used with mineral spirits, they don't spread as much as the Lyra's and Prismacolour pencils. You end up getting rich, more opaque colour. I don't know if you can see it but when Paula came to visit us at the store, she introduced us to the clear glaze pen, and man, do I love it. It gives a glossy clear look just like diamond glaze, but is so easy to use in a pen style. Paula also showed me how to add the grass, I am not that good at it, but I will keep on trying. The Paper is from My Minds Eye .

Well, that's it short and sweet.

Thanks for visiting. I would love to hear from you.

Have a great weekend

Hugs,

Nicky

Happy Monday

What an exciting and a whirlwind of a weekend we had at Stamping Bella store. Paula Tracy, Linda Heavens, Pauline, Mary, and friends came to visit us and we had a blast. Paula and Linda were kind enough to demo some of their techniques, and, they actually let me keep their samples. They are all so talented and creative, and, sooooo nice to boot. We also had my good friends Toni S., Marjorea, Carolyn, Christine and Tanya spend the day with us. It was a great day!

The image on this card is called Atty'tude Cupcake Diva and is a part of the new release at

http://www.stampingbella.com/ . I just love her and loved to colour her. I used odorless mineral spirits, Lyra coloured pencils, Bella card stock and C1 Copic marker for the shadow. I cut the cupcakes from the patterned paper, and used them as embellishments. I also used chalk around the image to soften the white card stock, and then glittered around the white layer to frame it.

Since I didn't have enough ribbon I cheated and put a strip of blue card stock to match the ribbon and then tied the faux bow on top of it.

Thanks so much for stopping by, I would love to hear from you.

Have a great week.

Hugs,

Nicky

Happy Birthday Emily

Emily , hope you have the best Birthday ever!!!!

In honour of Emily's Birthday, Shannan organized a Blog Hop that starts with Emily's Blog. Please join in the fun and hop on over to Shannan's Blog, and check out her amazing card.

For my card, I stamped Amplee'tude and coloured her with Lyra pencils and mineral spirits. I used Bella paper which I think is the best card stock for both mineral spirits and copic markers. I used chalk around the image to give her some depth, and, white pen on the ice cream and shoes to give it some highlight. I drew a black line to ground her. I also embossed the circle and used a border scallop punch on the pink card stock.

This is the first time I didn't use any glitter at all, shocking. LOL

I love pink, green and brown colour combo and hope that you do also.

I would love to hear from you, so please leave a comment. Don't forget to hop on over to Shannan's blog. Enjoy.

Hugs

Nicky

Happy Friday

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all had a good week and found some time to stamp. It is Friday already and you know what that means.... Bellarific Friday. The submissions are gorgeous and I hope you go on over to Stamping Bella's Blog and check them out.

This is going to be a short post. I want to thank Jen Delmuro for the great sketch she designed for us. It was a lot of fun and very easy to follow.

To make the card I first started with the Sizzix Embossing folder and embossed the first layer. I then used my oval nestabillities in oval and then stamped Queen Anne Bittybloom. I coloured her with Lyra pencils and odorless mineral spirits. I also used the Fiskars border punch and some of the Button's Galore buttons. I glittered the center of each flower.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you like the card.

Have a great weekend.

Hugs,

Nicky

It's my Birthday

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all had a great week. I know that I had a fabulous week celebrating my birthday which was on Tuesday. One of my best friends; hi Tema, came from Montreal to spend a week with me (not long enough), and we had such a great time. Although we thought that we would have lots of time to stamp, it never happened. On Tuesday, Tema and Emily (owner of Stamping Bella) took me to Buffalo on a shopping spree. We shopped 'till we dropped, and had a fantabulous time.

On Thursday Emily and Ryan ordered Sushi for lunch, and my good friends and lunch bunch group brought me a deeeelicious cake and we spend the afternoon stamping, eating and laughing. This weekend I am going to spend time with my 2 gorgeous grand-daughters and my kids. I was really spoiled with gifts, cards and an yummy Edible basket from my family. These are chocolate covered fruit in a beautiful basket. Like I said, what a fabulous week.

It is also time for the Bellarific Challenge, did you check it out? If not, then go on over and see all the great cards everyone made. If you didn't have the chance to join, make sure to check out the challenge on Monday, and all you have to do is submit it to Emily by Thursday at 5. You might be the lucky winner of Bella Bucks. Try it, you won't regret it.

With all the excitement I totally forgot to make the card for the challenge, soooooo at midnight on Thursday, I sat down, and thanks to Karen Motz, a Bellarific Babe's sketch, I quickly made this card and submitted it. Karen's sketch was very clean and easy to follow, and I did it in exactly 10 minutes. It isn't my best card but I do like the colours I chose. Purple and black make me very happy.

Everything I used on the card is from http://www.stampingbella.com/

I used Quickutz embossing folder to emboss the purple layer for texture and LuLu Ketto for the image. I coloured her with Lyra pencils and odorless mineral spirits. I also used glitter on the wings ( don't know if it shows on the screen). The embellishment in the center of the flower is a frosted Bon Bon.

I hope you all enjoy a great weekend.

Thanks for stopping by.

I would love to hear from you so leave a message.

Hugs,

Nicky

Blog hop

Well, it's Friday again, and it's Bellarific Friday at Stamping Bella. If you haven't checked out the submissions, you are really missing some fabulous cards. It was so much fun to see my sketch interpreted in so many wonderful ways . Thanks again to Shannan Teubner for doing that for us.

I am participating in the Ketto Blog Hop today, so please hop on over to Shannan's blog to see her Beeutiful card. Don't forget to start the hop with Emily at Stamping Bella. Her card is fabulous. Then hop on over to all of the other designers blogs to see their creations.

For my card I used Lyra pencils and odorless mineral spirits. I Cuttlebugged the green strip and layered a thin strip of gray . I then mounted the buttons on as an embellishment. I also used chalk to warm up the white area around Suzette (name of Ketto image).

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a great weekend,

Hugs

Nicky

Flutterby Huggabugg

Hi Guys,

Hope you all had a great week! Mine flew by again, and I can hardly believe that it is already Friday.

I was so flattered to be asked to sketch for the Bellarific Friday Challenge, and those of you that know me, know how computer challenged I am. So, my friend and Bellarific Babe, Shannan Teubner came to my rescue and computer generated a sketch from a card that I made. Thanks ever so much Shannan.

I used Basic Gray Wisteria patterned paper (love this paper), Prism and Bazzill card stock. I stamped Flutterby Huggabugg and paper pieced the little polka dot suit. I coloured the image with Lyra coloured pencils and odorless mineral spirits.

I also embossed with the new Quickutz embossing folder, and I loved the results. These embossing folders are so easy to use. I added glitter to the wings to finish it up.

I hope you like the card. Have a great weekend.


Hugs

Nicky

Happy Friday

Hey everyone,

Do you believe it is Friday already. Time just seems to be flying by so quickly. Well you know that Friday, my favourite day of the week, is Bellarific challenge at Stamping Bella, and, this time the challenge was to use gold and lots of bling or glitter.

I decided to use the mini Happy Flowers stamp and the Circle Shadow stamp. I coloured the flowers with Lyra coloured pencils and mineral spirits. On the shadow stamps I used Memento ink in 3 different colours . I punched the 2 fancy squares with McGill punches and the polka dot card stock with the Label die from QuicKutz. I also embossed the purple card stock with QuicKutz embossing folder circles (I think that is the name). I edged the purple card stock with a gold Pilot marker, and heat embossed the sentiment with the new Zing embossing powder. I just love this embossing powder. It is so detailed, and I find it so easy to emboss. The gold BonBonz and purple ribbon finish off the card.

I find myself using dies and punches more and more often. I find that they make card making so much easier and add so much to the finished look of the card.

Don't forget to check out the great cards that everyone made at http://www.stampingbella.com/

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Have a great weekend.

Hugs,

Nicky

Bellarific Birthday Challenge

I hope you are all enjoying a great weekend. The submissions for the Bellarific Friday Birthday Challenge were so much fun and everyone submitted fabulous cards. Thanks so much Bellarific Babe Dana for the topic . We all need Birthday cards, so go and check out everyone's cards at Stamping Bella's Blog for inspiration. They are all great.

I decided to use BFF-ABUGG 'cause they looked like they were celebrating at a birthday party. I coloured the images with Lyra coloured pencils and odorless mineral spirits, and then layered with Bo Bunny polka dot paper and Prism card stock. I added ribbon, Bon Bonz and glitter to finish the card.

I am making this post short and sweet. Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs,

Nicky

Happy Wednesday

Hi Guys,

I know that it has been awhile since I have posted, but things have been so busy at the Stamping Bella store with both the free shipping and the launch of the amazing new stamps, that this is the first chance I have had to post.

I hope that you go and check out the new challenge for this week at http://stampingbella.com/blog/. The challenge is Happy Birthday and it was picked by our very own Bellarific Babe Dana. Who knows, but that you might win some Bella Bucks, if you either leave a comment or participate in the challenge.

I decided to re-do one of my cards, which originally was a square card in yellow, pink and blue, to a rectangular card in turquoise, black and kraft card stock. I used Rollanda Ketto and paper pieced both Rollanda's dress and roller blades . I used Lyra pencils and odorless mineral spirits to colour the rest of the image. The glitter, ribbon and bonbonz finish off the card. I just love this colour combo. What do you think ?

Thanks so much for stopping by.

I would love to hear from you, so leave a comment.

Hugs,

Nicky

Pink & Brown Challenge

Hi Everyone,

Can you believe it's already Friday !!!! This week just flew by and it is Bellarific Friday Challenge time again. So go and check out the gorgeous cards made by the Bellarific Babes and other Bellarific lovers. You will find these cards at http://stampingbella.com/blog/. It is amazing how many talented and creative stampers there are out there.

This week the challenge was pink and brown, and I just love these colours together. I used Little Emmy, a sneak peak of what is to come next week, for the Bella release . I just love this little girl especially that she looks exactly like my adorable granddaughter.

I used Lyra pencils and odorless mineral spirits to colour Little Emmy, and put little dots on her skirt with a micro black pen. I layered with Bo Bunny brown polka dot card stock and pink prism card stock. I used a Fiskars scallop punch and a Marvy flower punch along with Bon Bons as the embelishment. Of course all supplies are from http://www.stampingbella.com/.

Can you believe it no glitter!!!!! I felt that she was so cute that it didn't really need any glitter at all.

I can hardly wait to see what the next challenge will be and I hope you will all participate. You might be the lucky winner of $20 in Bella Bucks if you do .

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a fantabulous weekend.

Hugs,

Nicky

Bellarific Friday Challenge

It's Friday already, can you believe it !!!!! The colour challenge at http://www.stampingbella.com/ was so bright and happy and I just loved the colours. I chose the purple and lime green as my main colours.

To make the card I used the EK success border punch called a wave (I think), these border punches are just great and add so much to any card. Emily got them all in and I just had to buy all of the border punches of course. I then stamped the medium shadow circle with VersaMark so that you get a darker shade of the card stock. I used the oval Nestabilities to punch and emboss the white layer and also for the green scalloped oval.

I then stamped and coloured the flowers with Copic Markers

R32, 43, YR12, 14 YG 21, 23, and BVoo, o2.

I actually cut out the whole bunch of flowers and adhered it to the oval layer, and then stamped and coloured the flowers a second time, and cut out 3 of the flowers and popped them onto the bouquet. I used a C2 Copic marker to shade the whole outside of the bouquet, stamped the sentiment, and that's it.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks for stopping by and make sure to leave a comment on http://www.stampingbella.com/ go to Blogabella and you might be the lucky winner of $20.

Hugs

Nicky

pretty in pink

Hope you all had a happy Passover and Easter with family and friends. I had a fabulous weekend with my kids and grandkids and enjoyed every second.

I wanted to share this card with you which I made a while ago. The stamps are from Stamping Bella, and they are called Big Fat Present (with Mini). You get a Mini Present stamp with it, so you can stamp the inside of the card or the envelope.

I started by punching a square in the center of my layer, then I crimped the center with a crimper. I don't know how well you will be able to see it on the screen, but it really is crimped. If you don't have a crimper, you can use your Score Pal. I then popped up the crimped layer, and stamped the present in the center. I coloured it with Lyra pencils and odorless mineral spirits, and, of course used a lot of glitter to finish it off. This card was inspired by my friend Irene.

Hope you like this card

Hugs

Nicky

Colour challenge

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all having a fantabulous weekend and have lots of stamping time. For a change, I am doing all the cutting and other prep work for my up coming Ketto 2 class next week. I still have at least 2 more days of work, and then onto the next class. I do take a few minutes here and there to design new cards, and yes , I still do LOVE it.

Here is the Bellarific Friday challenge card that I did for this week. The colours were so yummy and happy that I knew exactly what I was going to do. I felt that flowers would be perfect to colour in, and that patterned paper would finish the card off. Emily, at Stamping Bella, got in these fabulous pouches of different, incredibly, coloured buttons, and they are flat-backed, so thay are very easy to adhere to card stock (which I bought every one of them), so I used the orange button as an embellishment.

I used Lyra pencils and odorless mineral spirits, glitter in the center of the flowers, and Collage Press patterned paper for the background.

Thanks so much for stopping by, please leave me a comment and let me know that you were here.

Hugs

Nickabella

Bellarific Friday

It's Bellarific Friday and Emily posted some beautiful cards on her blog.

www.stampingbella.com/ go and check them out , they are amazing .

For my submission I used Charlotte Ketto (just can't get enough of these Ketto cuties). The patterned paper is from Dream Street and the card stock is Prism. I used Quick Kutz Label 1 to cut out the shape of the layer. I used orange rhinestones , ribbon and lots of glitter to finish and pop the card. I also used Fiskars scalloped punch for the bottom of the paper.

These are colours I would not normally pick to use on a card and that is why I love to participate in the Bellarific Friday challenges. It forces me to try new colour combos and now I really like orange and plan to use it more often.

Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting, please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Hugs

Nicky

Sketchy Wildflowers

Hope you all had a great weekend!!!!!! The weather was beautiful, the snow was gone and I am finally caught up with class designs, cutting and packaging them. Now I have to start doing it all over again for April's schedule . It's a good thing I absolutely love and adore what I do.

Here is the card I made for last week's challenge at http://www.stampingbella.com/. I decided to use a new release called Sketchy Wildflower (you get the large flower stamp and includes a mini version of the stamp). I really love stamps of flowers, as they are so versatile and can be used for any occasion. I used mineral spirits and Lyra coloured pencils to colour. The patterned paper is by Jillibean and Prism card stock. I stamped the image twice and cut out the flowers and popped them up. The third flower I glued to the button for extra interest.

Thanks for stopping by and please leave me a comment.

Hugs

Nicky

New Banner

I am so excited about the new look of my Blog, what do you guys think ? Isn't it Fabulous!!!!!!! I want to thank Monique our Bellarific Babe, amazing stamper and good friend for designing it for me. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you sooooooo much. I would also like to thank Stephanie , stamper extraordinaire for assisting and keeping us company. Thanks so much Stephanie for all of your help today.

By now you must all know how very untechie (don't know if that is even a word) I am. Monique and Stephanie took pity on me and helped me improve the look of my blog and they did an incredible job.

I made this card with Mazie (one of my favourite Ketto images) and Fancy Pants Garden patterned paper, love this paper. I pulled the colours from the patterned paper and used Lyra coloured pencils and odorless mineral spirits. I glittered the wings, crown and flower. I punched out 2 flowers and glued them together. In center of the flower I used a blue Bella BonBon (love these things), and attached 2 peices of ribbon under the punched out flower. The brown scalloped layer is the back of the Fancy Pants paper. I also used a Fiskars corner rounder on the layers.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of both my new Blog and my card. Thanks so much for stopping by and hope you have a great day.

Hugs

Nicky

Bellarific Friday Challenge

Hiya Sistah's,

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend and had lots of time to stamp. Me , not so much as I taught a stamping class at Bella store on Saturday all day and then saw my gorgeous adorable grand-daughters later on. Today, I am trying to come up with cards for my next class, but I am having blank moments.

Did you check out Stamping Bella there are over 20 new releases . They really are yummy and fabulous. I loooooove them and would have such a hard time just picking one of them. So guess what, I own them all :o).

Don't forget to also check out the Bellarific Friday Challenge on http://www.stampingbella.com/. The deal is that you have to submit your entry to Emily before 5 EST on Thursday, and she will post all entries on Friday. One winner is picked and will win some Bella Bucks.

Here is one of the cards I submitted for last weeks challenge and will post the other one tomorrow. This is one of the new releases and this is Kenya Ketto . Kenya and Mazie are 2 of my favourites, although I really do love them all. I decided not to use any layers and make a pretty and crisp card focusing on Kenya cause she is so adorable . The colours for the challenge were Sage, Turquoise and Yellow. I left the yellow out and focused on the turquoise and sage colours, as they are colours I use all of the time, and I really like the combo. The wave shadow stamp ( I LOVE SHADOW STAMPS) was inked with VersaMagic Sage ink and then I glittered all around it to give it a finished look. I really love the font of this sentiment and thought it would be a perfect stamp to colour and to fill in some of the white space. I used sheer sage ribbon and turquoise ribbon to finish the card. I am very happy with how it turned out. Let me know what you think okay!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I would love to hear from you

Have a great week

Hugs

Nicky

Happy Thursday

Can you believe it's Thursday already ? This week just flew by. I have been so busy designing, cutting and packaging my new classes for March which I am teaching at Stamping Bella Boutique. So much work! So little time! LOL

I made this card a while ago and I just love Elmer. He is so preppy and cute. I didn't have many embellishments at the time, so I used my circle punch and button as an accent to finish off the card. I love how the green and blue colours are so vibrant. It's just perfect for my Son's Birthday card.

All supplies from http://www.stampingbella.com/

I would love to hear from you so please leave a comment.

Hope you have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Hugs

Nicky

Bellarific Challenge

Here is the card that I made for the Bellarific challenge. Every week there will be a different challenge and you should all give it a try, it is so much fun to participate. You could win Bella Bucks. Check it out at http://www.stampingbella.com/.

This time the colours were yellow, green and taupe. I used a white card, and then kraft coloured card stock as the base. I used nestabilities for the yellow layer, and my Big Shot with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dot folder. I also used glitter and a small green rhinestone in the center of the flower. I coloured the image with Lyra pencils and mineral spirits.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I would love to hear from you, so please leave me a comment.

Hugs

Nicky

Celebrate

Hey guys,

I hope you guys have checked out http://www.stampingbella.com/ for the colour challenge. You still have time to participate till 5 P.M. tonight, and have a chance to win some Bella Bucks.

I wanted to post this card 'cause I thought it would make a great masculine card. This card was published in Scrapbooks and Cards magazine . I designed 20 different cards using this one stamp . I love using the faux tearing technique and I LOVE Stamping Bella Celebtate 3 liner words stamp . This happens to be the Celebrate which could be used for any occassion.

I used low tack masking tape that I tore on one side, and put it down on the card to form a rectangle. I then used a stipple brush and Marvy ink pads . I stamped the 3 liner stamp two times with brown ink. I wanted to anchor the Prima flower so I chose a brown circle to mount it on, and a bronze brad to put in the center of the flower. I also edged the cream card stock with a Krylon gold marker.

Thanks so much for coming by and please leave a comment, I would love to hear from you.

Hugs

Nicky

Dare to be different

Hope you all had a fab Valentines Day !!! I spend mine with my family and had a great time.

I fell in love with these "Branching Out Owlies", and I LOVE this particular "Collage Press" patterned paper, and I thought it would be perfect for this image. Blue, black and cream are some of my favourite colours, and I don't use them often enough. I paper pieced the upside down owl, and I coloured the rest of the owls with black Lyra pencils and mineral spirits. The branch is glittered to make it pop.

I am so excited that Bellarific Fridays are back !!!!! Check it out at http://www.stampingbella.com/. Click on Bloggabella to see the first colour challenge. All you have to do is scan a picture of your card to Emily by Thursday 5 p.m. EST and your card will be shown on her blog, AND, you have a chance to win a gift certificate. How cool is that? I gave her my card today and I hope you guys will go and check it out.

Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment so that I know you visited.

Hugs

Nicky

Late Bella

Hi Everyone,

It has been such a busy time at Bellaland with all of the CHA arrivals and the launching of the new stamps. I thought that all these gorgeous papers were fab when we saw them at the convention BUT they are more stunning in the store. Go and check them out at http://www.stampingbella.com/ .

I have also been sooooo busy making boards for the stores that buy from us and designing my new classes and for the store. So please forgive me for not posting for a few days. I do have a few cards lined up to post for the next few days, so stay tuned.

The card that I am posting was published in Scrapbook and Cards magazine this past summer and I thought that I would share it with you. I paper pieced the pants and coloured the rest with Lyra coloured pencils and mineral spirits. I used green flock on the seat of the stool. I also used glitter here and there to pop the image. The blue Bon Bonz and the ribbon are also from Stamping Bella and the scallop punch was from Stampin Up.

Please leave a comment and let me know you were here.

Hugs

Nicky

A card and more CHA pics.

I just love this image of these adorable "Rumor has it Girl" from http://www.stampingbella.com/, and the image comes with the sentiment as well. When you go to Stamping Bella's site, don't forget to leave a comment on her blog for a chance to win a gift certificate. A winner will be picked on Friday, so check back to see if you won.

I coloured the image with Copic markers, and used Label 1 Nestabilities for the layers. I don't know if it will show on the screen, but I chalked the background behind the girls with baby blue chalk, and used lots of glitter to highlite the girls. I had a few scraps of paper left, so I punched the flowers out, and adhered them to the card. I put a sticky backed rhinestone in the center of the flower. The patterned paper came from a paperpack, and I apologize, I just don't remember which one it was.

Now here are some more pictures from CHA, enjoy.

1st pic. - Kerri Serrika , Cindy Lawrence and Jen Balcer and me. These ladies are soooo nice and talented.

2nd pic. - Shannan, Alma (owner of the Cat's Pajamas), me and Emily

3rd pic. - Me , Linda (owner of Amuse ) and Shannan

4th pic. - Kim Hughes, me and Julie Ebersol

All of these ladies are so special, talented and so down to earth , I loved spending time with all of them.

Hugs

Nicky

Back from CHA

Hi there, I am back from CHA and had a fantabulous time. It was a lot of work, a lot of laughs, and a lot of shopping. Emily and I started laughing, from the time we got to the airport, to the time we returned home. Although we had to change our flight three times going there, and twice coming home. I was so worried that our luggage would end up in Hawaii or somewhere exotic, rather then L.A., but the luggage was there waiting for us (phew).

Emily (stampingbella) bought the most beautiful things, which hopefully will start coming into the store in the next couple of weeks. The pattern papers were so gorgeous, it was hard not to order all of them, but we did leave a few behind. I don't want to spoil the surprise, so I will wait till Emily launches all of the new product line on her Blog http://www.stampingbella.com/.

It was also so nice to meet up with old friends that I love and adore. I also got to meet a few new people. Here are a few pictures that I took, hope you enjoy.

You all know how bad I am with names so if I misspelled or put the wrong name I am so soweeeee!!!!

First picture: Emily (owner of Stampingbella store ), Shannan Teubner (Steuby), and me.

Second picture: The Designer for Webster Pages (such a nice person and so much fun),Shannan, Emily and I.

Third picture: me, Caroline King (Cammie), Deb Anton . I just love these two.

Fourth picture: Lisa Johnson ( what a talent ), Emily and I at the Marvy booth.

Fifth picture: taken in front of My Favorite Things Booth, me, Michelle Giraud, Laura Canaly, and Kim owner of the MFT booth. Besides being so talented these ladies Rock.

I will have more pictures tomorrow , my blog only allows me to post 5 pictures at a time.

Have a great evening.

Hugs

Nicky

CHA bound

I am so excited that I am leaving for CHA tomorrow and wanted to post this card before I leave. Hope you like it. I will be taking lots of pictures with my new camera, and will post when I get back.

I coloured the image ( Stamping Bella ) with Copic markers, but noticed that it looks streaked on the screen. It's really very smooth and I don't know why that happened.

Polka dot paper is BoBunny

pearls - Stamping Bella

Have a great week

Nicky

No Fair Girl

"No Fair Girl" is the name of this image from Stamping Bella http://www.stampingbella.com/

I fell in love with this little girl. She reminds me of my 3 year old Grand-daughter when she doesn't get her way. Is she the cutest or what? I used mineral spirits and Lyra coloured pencils to colour her. This card is pink and green, my fave colours . I chalked around the image with green chalk to warm up the white card stock. I don't know if it will show up on screen. The polka dot paper is from BoBunny and the card stock is Prism. The green pearls are from Stamping bella (love these pearls) and of course, if you know me, there is lots of glitter. The image comes with the sentiment "I can't believe" and, inside the card I stamped "I missed your birthday".

Hope you all had a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs,

Nicky

Twinkle Toes

Hi guys,

I can't seem to get enough of these Huggabuggs. I love all of them but particularly fell in love with this Twinkle Toes Huggabugg, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with her.

Before I go on to explain how I made this card, I want to let you know that I am trying to figure out my new camera and it will take a while before I get sharp and clear pictures. I find that the pictures on line don't exactly look as vibrant as they do in real life. Hopefully this weekend I will have time to read the instructions that came with the camera. What happened to the cameras that you just aim and shoot (goof proof), without a million different features. LOL

I love the shape of the Nesties that I used on the card and only embossed the white layer. I stamped and coloured the image with Lyra coloured pencils and Odorless Mineral spirits. I looked everywhere for buttons that I could use as embellishments, but couldn't find the right shade of pink, so I decided to use my QuicKutz 2" die, and cut them with my Big Shot. The oval layers are also Nesties. Of course I used glitter to give Twinkle Toes some sparkle. Isn't that the best sentiment for this card?

Thanks so much for visiting.

Please come back on the weekend and see some more cards.

Have a great weekend,

Nicky

Love Bug

Hi Everyone,

I finally bought a new camera, and I now hope that the cards I post will be much clearer and better than those taken with my old one. It is the cutest little camera and I hope it works well. It is the Canon Power Shot 880 Digital Elph. My close friend Tema told me about it, and, as her husband and son are camera buffs, I listened to them, and so far so good. Thanks guys.

Today's card is the Love Huggabugg, and I thought that the 7 gypsies patterned paper was perfect for the background. Are these Huggabuggs not the cutest bugs ever?

I will be posting more cards on Thursday so please come back and check them out.

Stamps by Stamping Bella http://www.stampingbella.com/

Card Stock - Prism

Lyra coloured pencils and mineral spirits

Ribbon - May Arts

Thanks for stopping by,

Nicky

The winner is ....

I actually have 2 winners:

Toni Whitnell was my 10,000 post. Thanks Toni, I think you deserve a prezzie .

Deanna (Tuneman) you won my blog candy. My husband picked your name so please email me your address as soon as possible to nmanel@rogers.com

As I am listening to freezing rain falling outside I thought I would post a nice and sunny card that I actually taught on the cruise. I hardly use yellow and I really like how it turned out. What do you think ?

All stamps by http://www.stampingbella.com/,
embellishments : dots,
coloured with Lyra pencils and mineral spirits,
extra giga circle punch.

Keep warm
Hugs
Nicky