Delivering the Presents

Good morning friends, I have another Christmas in July card to share with you using one of the new stamps from Lili of the Valley. This is called 'Delivering the Presents'. His cute little hat with the geometric patterns on it reminded me of those Nordic sweaters that were popular ages ago, and I had to recreate the look with my own patterned paper. I used the Nordic Winter stamp set from Waltzingmouse Stamps. LOVE that stamp set, it is my most favorite Christmas pattern making set ever made!

I used one of my favorite color combos for this card, Stampin Up's Baja Breeze, Red and Kraft. So pretty!

The little guy is colored with Copics. The snowflakes are glittered with glass glitter, the dies are from My Favorite Things. See those ribbons? They were a great find from my local craft store last year, a set of three different Scandinavian patterns! 


Well, that's all for today, maybe my next card will be a normal, summer card, lol! It still feels a little weird to be making Christmas cards in July!


Thanks for visiting!


Stamps: Lili of the Valley, Waltzingmouse Stamps 
Ink: SU, PTI
Paper: SU, PTI, Hammermill for stamped image
Tools & Accessories: Copics, MFT snowflake dies, German Glass Glitter, Crystal Lacquer, ribbons, jingle bells, Spellbinders Labels dies, Fiskars Stamp press

Bellarific Friday Sketch 15

Happy Bellarific Friday!  We have a fun little sketch for our challenge this week, you can see it here. I like working with sketches, makes cards a breeze to do. That's the part I usually struggle with the most, the layout. 

Anyway, here's Ramona and Teddy in Their Balloon, floating high up in the blue sky. 

I love the Dr. Suess sentiment that comes with this stamp, good for a lot of occasions. 

Next week our theme for BF is Sum-Sum-Summertime! We'd love to have you join in our challenges, stop by the Stamping Bella blog to get all the details on how you can win some Bella Bucks.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Together at Christmas

Happy Sunday friends, I have another card to show you using one of the new stamps to be released on July 25th at Lili of the Valley. This one is called 'Together at Christmas' and will be available for purchase on the aforementioned dated. (I NEVER thought I would have the opportunity to use that word, ROFL!) 

This is probably my most FAVORITE stamp from this release, they are all just absolutely gorgeous, but this one just tugs at my heartstrings. I've colored the darlings with my Copics, and used some colored pencils as well to add darker shading. I used a Viva Pearl Pen to add the berries to the holly above the mantle. 

The papers are from a Kaisercraft paper pad, very traditional and old fashioned, just the way I like them. I used some gold mirror cardstock that I found at Marco's paper a while back to finish off that old fashioned look.

The sentiment is from a Waltzingmouse stamps set, I love her use of traditional and vintage combinations of fonts so it worked perfectly for this style of card. I just embossed it in gold and fussy cut it out. 
A pretty gingham taffeta bow finishes the card off.


Hope you like it, thanks for dropping by. Have a great day!


Stamps: Lili of the Valley 'Together at Christmas' (available 7-25-2012), Waltzingmouse Stamps sentiment
Ink: Versamark
Papers: Kaisercraft, SU, Gold Mirror cardstock, Hammermill for stamped image
Tools & Accessories: Spellbinders Fleur de Lis square die, Martha Stewart edge punch, taffeta ribbon, Copics, colored pencils, OMS, Viva Pearl pen, gold EP, Stickles

Bellarific Friday... Christmas in July

Good morning everyone, it's time for the weekly Bellarific Friday challenge! Our theme this week is Christmas in July and I colored up 'Quinn in her Boots' just for the occasion. 

She's colored with Copics, shaded with some colored pencils and I added some gold buttons to her coat with a gel pen. 

I cut some pretty holly flourishes to decorate the card with my Cameo, using designs from the Silhouette Store. I would use my Cameo on every.single.card if I could, but my computer is in the living room area of our house, and my Cameo is on the table in the other room of our house. I am patiently, patiently waiting for the day when I can set up my computer next to my Cameo and craft area so I can use it more easily any time I want. sigh... unfortunately, the unused computer desk is covered in someone else's stuff. Grrrr... I thought I was a terrible procrastinator! lol


Thanks for dropping by, have a great weekend!


Stamps: Stamping Bella, Catslife Press sentiment seal
Ink: Adirondack, Ancient Page, Distress
Papers: My Mind's Eye, PTI, SU
Tools & Accessories: Silhouette Cameo, Copics, colored pencils, twill ribbon, gold gel pen, Stickles, Martha Stewart pine edge punch, Crystal Lacquer

Walking in a Winter Wonderland? It's July!

Yes, it's July, but you've all heard of Christmas in July right? Well, we fans of Lili of the Valley stamps are getting an early, early start on our holiday card making! If you wait until December to start making your cards, we all know what's going to happen, right? ... nothing! lol

Here's another peek at one of the new stamps coming out sometime at the end of this month. Release date is not certain yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I find out myself!

I'm sure if you're a follower of my blog, you know I have an affinity for lanterns. I LOVE lanterns, especially old fashioned ones. So when I saw this little cutie pie, she was all mine!

She's colored with Copics, and shaded with some colored pencils, and I completely cut her out to set her directly on the little scene I created in the background. 

Some wool felt stitched onto the background paper, some die cut/cream embossed/glass glittered pine trees, a bare branched cream embossed/glass glittered tree and I have a pretty little scene for lantern girl.

I printed the sentiment out with my computer and die cut it into a banner. This holiday card makes me happy!

Hope it makes you happy as well, and thanks for visiting! Have a wonderful day!

Stamps: Lili of the Valley, Hero Arts lattice background
Ink: Versamark, Distress
Paper: SU, PTI, Hammermill, Stardream gold
Tools & Accessories: Pine tree die from Papertrey Ink's 'In the Meadow' die set, Memory Box twiggy tree die, wool felt, sewing machine, twill ribbon, Copics, colored pencils, glass glitter, Stickles, gold EP, PTI banner die, tiny pearls

Sneak peeks... LOTV Christmas stamps

New LOTV Christmas release coming up late July, we'll be starting peeks on the Inspire blog. Take a look at my post today for more details!

Have a great weekend!

Bellarific Friday Sketch 14

Good morning folks, here we are again with another Bellarific Friday for you, we have a sweet sketch to work with this week. If you missed seeing the sketch, take a look at it here on Bloggabella. While you're there, you can read the very, very sad news that the physical location for Stamping Bella is closing it's doors. BUT, the online business is thriving and will continue on full steam ahead! I'm a little disappointed, I really wanted to see the SB store some day soon, but it is what it is.

I chose to color up the adorable Matilda on Her Swing with my Copics for my card. So sweet and innocent is lovely Matilda.

Papers are from My Mind's Eye paper pad. I was so shocked to see my local AC Moore had a ton of these paper pads from MME the last time I was there, they usually never have much that I like! MME is one of my fave paper companies, so I kind of went overboard! It's easier to not get tempted when buying papers online because you can't quite get an idea of their gorgeousness from a computer monitor, but seeing them in person? Uh-uh. I'm in trouble...

I even ran the wood grain patterned paper through my Big Kick with a wood grain impression plate to give it additional texture, and it looks awesome IRL. So hard to capture with a picture :-(


The rose is made from wool felt that I dyed myself a loooooong time ago, before the days of cardmaking. Before the days when wool felt was popular even. I used to make wool crafts all the time, like penny rugs and hand sewn dolls and other primitives. I kind of stopped doing all that years ago, and all my lovely wool felt sat in a pile, unused. I am so glad wool felt has become the 'thing', lol!


So make sure you stop by Blogabella to get all the details on joining in our challenge for a chance to win some Bella Bucks, and to see all the loveliness from the rest of the DT. 


Have a great weekend!

Let the sunshine in...

Good morning folks, I have a very few minutes before I have to get ready for work, so I thought I'd share this card I made using Sunshiny Flynn from Stamping Bella.

I found the perfect background paper for this stamp from someone's online photo album that they so kindly shared for free. See here.

I'll be back tomorrow with Bellarific Friday, have a great day!

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Hello friends! I just got back last night from a long 10 hour drive to NC to pick up my kids from my parents house, where they spent the last week and a half. I am not a big fan of driving, long drives are my life every day when I commute to work, so it's the last thing I want to do! But, it's over with and I have today off to recuperate and maybe get crafty, so it's all good.

I was playing around with some older stamps a couple of weeks ago and came up with this card using Waltzingmouse's 'A Cottage Home' stamp set that I've never even inked up yet. Shame, shame! It's such a beautiful set of stamps, but I really wasn't in the mood to do a whole lot of coloring, so I ended up stamping the cottages on patterned papers. I did go back and add some shading with my Copics, but it didn't take long at all. 

I cut out the windows and attached some acetate behind them to make them look more realistic. I colored the acetate with some alcohol inks first to make them look like there were lights glowing behind the windows. 

Other than that, the rest of the card was made with Memory Box dies, the hillside in the background, the gate and fence, and of course the fancy tag on top from Spellbinders. I printed the sentiment myself from my computer.


It was fun doing something different, I think it shakes up the creative juices in me and prevents me from getting 'stagnant', so to speak. I always worry about that...


Anyway, thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!


Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps
Ink: Memento
Papers: My Minds Eye paper pad, PTI, Core'dinations
Tools & Accessories: Memory Box gate/fence/village dies, Spellbinders Fancy Labels, grosgrain ribbon, Copics, acetate, Adirondack alcohol inks

Happy Birthday America!

Have a safe and happy Independence Day my fellow Americans! To help celebrate, I've made a patriotic card using Sweet Wryn from Tiddly Inks.

She's colored with Copics and Stickles and cut out so I could pop her up right on the background papers. 

The papers are a digital collection from Raspberry Road Designs called 'Stars and Stripes'. 


Have a happy holiday, thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Digital image from Tiddly Inks, sentiment printed from my PC
Paper: Digital papers and image printed on Hammermill color copy, PTI
Tools & Accessories: Scor Pal, Martha Stewart edge punch, Nesties, SU striped ribbon, Prima pearl flourish, Copic sketch and Spica pens, Stickles, Sharpie poster pen, self adhesive rhinestone

Two Balloons

Good morning blog friends! Can you believe tomorrow is already July 4th?! It's officially summer and the temps will prove it, lol! It's been gross around here lately.

Here's a sweet card I made using Angelina by Mo Manning. How cute is this image?! Love her...

She's colored in Copics, and I heaped on a bunch of Crystal Lacquer over the balloons to make them nice and shiny. 

The sweet and pretty papers are from a digital collection from Design House Digitals called 'Gidget'. The sentiment seal is from Lili of the Valley.


It's going to be a long, hot and strenuous day at work so I'm going to keep it short and sweet. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!