Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Happy Birthday



I thought that I would post 2 birthday cards tonight as it is Emily's (owner of Stamping Bella's) Birthday. Happy Birthday Em.

The card with Stella was one from the Stella class that I taught last month. I love the attitude and spunk that Stella has. The mark that you see next to the cupcake on the left side is a crease in the card stock. I didn't notice it when I took the picture but saw it when I uploaded it (ooops!!!). I watercoloured with Lyra watercolour crayons , used lots of glittah of course and the BonBon for an embellishment. Whenever I can't find ribbon that matches my card I use a thin piece of co-ordinating card stock and it works like a charm .

I tore the Coordination card stock to reveal the core colour .

The pink and brown card, I made last year and it was published in Take Ten Magazine. I used American Crafts pattern paper and Prima flower. The sentiment is Stamping Bella http://www.stampingbella.com/

This is such a quick card to make. I used the Quickutz Revolution to cut the circle out.

Hope you like these cards

Please leave a comment or email me at nmanel@rogers.com

Thanks

Nicky


Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Another great day at the Bella store



I have been so busy making samples for Emily's gorgeous new stamps and loving every minute of it. Go over to her Blog at http://www.stampingbella.com/
and check out the new stamps and the samples and let me know what you think . The cards always look so much better in real life, you can't always see the glitter and sparkle on the cards.

On the Happy Birthday heart card I started by making myself a template of the heart and then I stamped the Happy Birthday 3 line over and over to make it look like one large stamp. I just love the 3 line stamps and use them all of the time. They are so easy to align and make a wonderful background. I then stamped the Juicy Chubby Heart in red versa magic chalk ink and really liked that it was transparent enough to show the words . I wanted to add some more embellishments and aside from the rhinestone added the clipiolla on the side of the sentiment.

The Ballerina card I used My Minds Eye patterned paper and loved the combination of the orange and blue colours. I coloured the ballerina with mineral spirits and Lyra coloured pencils.

Some of you inquired about the golf bag stamp that I used in the last post , if you want it please contact Emily at http://www.stampingbella.com/ and she will tell you where to find it on her site.

I have also been really busy getting ready for a new class that I am teaching called Cuttlebug your Art out. I sure hope they like it..
Thanks so much for visiting my Blog, please leave a comment so that I know you were here. If you want to email me privately nmanel@rogers.com

All stamps Stamping Bella http://www.stampingbella.com/
Embellishments - stamping bella
Card stock - Prism, patterned paper My Mind's Eye

Hugs
Nicky

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Happy Wedensday








I know that it has been awhile, sorry , but I was away visiting my beautiful daughter in Windsor . We had a great visit even though the weather was soooo hot and sticky, thank goodness for air conditioning . I will try to post every few days. I hope that the pictures I posted come out cause when I previewed them they were huge. I told you that I wasn't that great with this computer thing..






I would love to hear from you, please leave a comment or email me privately nmanel@rogers.com









I thought that I would share a masculine card with you as it is Father's Day this weekend. All stamps from http://www.stampingbella.com/



I made this card awhile back and just love the splooch under the golf bag and the scalloped circles for the background are so much fun and so easy to align.






The second card is the daisy within daisy . I chalked the background and stamped the daisy with black permanent ink (Memories), I really like the soft subtle colours and I am not sure if you can see the glitter, but there is lots of glitter in the center of the daisy and around the sentiment.






As you can tell by now I love square cards. This card is actually Bazzill Dahlia (purple) but I don't know if the colour shows as the true colour or blue . I used mineral spirits and Lyra coloured pencils to colour the vase and flower .






I hope that you all explore all of the fabulous background stamps that are in the Stamping Bella line. I use them all of the time in my classes and everyone loves them.









Card stock - Prism , Bazzill






Hope you enjoy



Hugs



Nicky

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

It's my Birthday





I planned on posting these 3 cards on Monday June 2, as it was my Birthday but ooops had some technical difficulties loading them up. Hopefully this time when I post them they will turn out.
I had such a great day. I was really spoiled with lots of hugs, kisses and lots of prezzies from my wonderful husband, co-workers, friends and students. My kids send me a fabulous chocolate covered strawberry basket that was so yummy and very pretty to look at. Emily and Ryan ordered sushi for lunch double yum (thanks, I love u guys.)
My celebrations really started on Saturday while I was teaching my classes 3 of my students also really good friends ,that I love and adore (Maralyn, Esther and Karen) brought me 2 not 1 but 2 delicious cakes, prezzies and lots of laughs and I had the best time.
Back to the cards . When I first saw this Wedding gown circle by http://www.stampingbella.com/ I knew exactly what I was going to do with it, and hoped it would turn out to look soft, feminin and elegant. I think it did.
I don't know if you can see clearly that I used the cuttlebug embossing folder and then glittered around the flower and stem. I cut the bow and used a pop dot to raise it. I used Lyra coloured pencil and mineral spirits to colour. Of course I had to add some more glittah on the bow and around the white circle.
The second card was inspired by my friend Irene and was done by first punching a square in the center of the pink layer. I then crimped the center only and adhered it with pop dots. I stamped the happy birthday 3 times and stamped the slouchy purse from the Cilla Rose collection from http://www.stampingbella.com/ then cut it out and popped it for dimension onto the pink layer. Then layer that onto the black cs and then to the pink base card, the 3 pink baubles just finish the card.
The 3rd card is Betty Bombshell, don't you just loooove her.. I used the swirl cuttlebug embossing plate cause it reminded me of waves and thought that it made the perfect background. I coloured with Lyra pencils and mineral spirits.
I just love these Bella stamps so much . They really are my favourite stamps, cause they are so versatile, whimsy and sofisticated all at the same time. The sentiments are fabulous and are perfect for the images . I hope that you guys try the other stamps as well and not just the characters , they are great for any occassion.
I promise that I will get better at posting and will not ramble on and on like this. If you have read this far thank you.
Mwah & Hugs
Nicky
All supplies from Stamping Bella
Stamps:
wedding gown circle;
slouchy purse;
happy birthday;
betty bombshell
Ink: memories black
Paper: prism
Ribbon: May Arts
Bella glitter
Baubles pink



Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Thank you







I want to thank everyone that posted a comment and emailed me privately sooooo much, it means so much to me.
I will try to figure out how to link each image used in my cards to Stamping Bella, so that you can find the images easier.

I thought that I would share these 2 cards with you.
All images, ribbon, baubles , crimper, 2" punch and card stock from Stamping Bella. http://www.stampingbella.com/
The purse card I coloured with bella spirits and Lyra coloured pencils.

The second card I used Copic markers.

Thanks
Nicky

Monday, May 26, 2008

I like to see how many different cards I can design with one sheet of patterned paper. In this card I used the scraps for the rain boots, the punched out flower and the umbrella.

All images coloured with Bella spirits and Lyra coloured pencils

all supplies are from Stamping Bella www.stampingbella.com

My very first post

Hi there and Welcome ,

I am so excited to finally have a blog. Thanks so much to Vicky for making it happen.

Let me introduce myself, my name is Nicky and I am a confessed Stampaholic. My first passion is my family, wonderful husband of 35 years, beautiful daughter, daughter in law, son and the love of my life my 3 year old grand-daughter.

I started stamping about 9 years ago and shortly after I started I was invited to teach and have been teaching stamping classes ever since . Teaching has given me the opportunity to meet the most wonderful , amazingly talented people that share my passion of stamping and paper crafts.

I currently have the BEST Job in the world , I work full time as Creative Director and designer for Stamping Bella, where I also
teach stamping classes. Emily the owner and I met when she signed up for my stamping 101 class and the rest is history. We instantly bonded when we found out that we were both from Montreal and new mutual people. Emily reminds me so much of my daughter (which is getting her PHD out of town), that I just had to adopt her as my other daughter. Our adventures have led us to lots of laughter, great endeavors and wonderful stamps and products that we are so passionate about. I hope that through my blog I can share some of these adventures with you.

Please feel free to comment or ask any stamping related questions that you may have.

P.S. As you will soon see I am not very computer savvy, so please bear with me and let me know if I have broken any Blogging etiquette.

hugs
Nicky