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