paper possibilities

can you believe...

it's back to school time! Where did the summer go...I know I am not the only one asking this, and some of you out west and south have been back to school for weeks. Jordan started college last week, and with work & tech-ing at her old H.S., I am spending a lot of time alone! Just me and the animals!  I had bought a small set of stamps at Archivers, for a back-to-school card. The set is from Stampendous and it says it's an exclusive set to the store. Well, I grabbed it up because I had a percent off coupon and this little mouse is soooo cute!

It's a simple card, and the first one I made is sitting in the trash, lol  That's what I get for trying to be shabby and loose...not me. This card is off to a little girl getting ready to go to kindergarten.

The cardstock on this card is from Bazzill, and the purple polka dotted paper is some I picked up at Lifetime Moments, the light purple is the reverse side. I have no idea who makes that paper but I love it and have gotten it there for a few years now. The ribbon is from Michael's.

I have been busy for two days making cards for My Favorite Things. I have had their images all colored up for a couple weeks and now I get to start showing them off...soon! I have spent a lot of time with these babies and parting with them may not be easy..lol In between making cards I have been cleaning and washing clothes and getting some movies in. For some insane reason I had been wanting to see 'Bring It On, In It To Win It'. No, not a cheerleader here, just like the movies. I also watched '21' with Kevin Spacey...love him! 'College Roadtrip' with Martin Lawrence and next up is 'Penelope' and 'Becoming Jane' {as in Jane Austin}

Hope you are all relaxing this holiday weekend doing whatever makes you happy!

elzybells...

are in the house!!  I could honestly have screamed yesterday when my package was sitting on the table. I probably saved myself a speeding ticket, because when I called Jordan to see if she picked up the mail she just said 'yes'. For one teeny, tiny split second I thought, 'did they come?' would Jordan just not have said anything to surprise me? I drove home from the grocery store like any other day, taking my time, enjoying the nice weather. Now, it would have been a totally different scene if I knew the package was here. I would have flown home and got that speeding ticket. I might have ended up in the psych ward when I told him I had to get home to my stamps, the lovely pile of rubber that was calling my name! lol

I fought hard not to fall asleep, drinking diet coke, and stamped out a few images. It was hard to pick from the huge pile of images I had in front of me. OMG, wait til you finally start seeing these on here. They are just so much bigger than the ones in North America, by A Muse. Awesome for a girl like myself who likes to color...So,  I spent too long on the computer, so I needed more diet coke. Finally around 6:30, I headed outside with my pieces of paper, gamsol and my NEW Lyra pencils. I have not given up my much loved prismacolor pencils, but the is always room in my heart for more options. I like to think of it like families who have more than one pet, or child. You just open your heart and love more...now, isn't that a nice reason to have them? {Nicky, you probably won't be reading this, but a giant *mwah*  awesome recommendation!}

I am getting away from my Elzybells story... Outside was perfect and I chose to color up baby teddy towel. Isn't he just the cutest!!  He is better IRL, and the blending was so easy. I think the Lyra colors are a softer lead, compared to the prismacolors. I am not positive, but there is a difference between the two. I used a piece of 6x6 Basic Grey paper, I seem to be getting a huge pile of 6x6 & 8x8 papers going! I used the Martha Stewert scallop punch, and some SU ribbon. The card base is one of the new SU colors, but you can't see very much of it can you. It's very pretty and I will be ordering a pack of that, for sure!

Well friends, it's been a long day and I want to go create something in my room. I need to fill up that glass with some more diet coke because I am gonna start yawning.  Welcome, to all the new subscribers I have been getting lately, I am happy to know ya'll feel inspired by my work as I am of others!

p.s. I am working on some hauntingly good blog candy...stay tuned this weekend...bye

Stella....

the Red Hatter! Does everyone know who a Red Hatter is? {group of women 50years+} My mom is a Red Hatter, and she goes to places, and they do things like bowl, and hold fashion shows for seniors. I was shocked when my mom said she was going bowling years ago, and I have seen the fashion show footage! lol  It was not quite Project Runway, but it was entertaining!  

Stella here, she knows how to wear her red and purple! I made this for my mom for her birthday which isn't until Dec., and she has seen it. I was pretty happy with my purple cupcake and told my mom she had the choice of giving it to one of her red hatter friends, or getting it herself...she choose getting it herself!

The cardstock is all Bazzill, and that red hatter patterned paper is from, I don't know where...I have had it for a couple years now from previous projects. I used my Spellbinder nestibilities, as usual, and what a bright card we have!

Thanks for dropping by, see ya soon! I promise I am working on something other than just my pretty new Bellas!  :)

what do you do to relax...

Anybody out there into knitting? It is a very popular hobby these days, and something that I have no idea how to do...but pretty colorful balls of yarn always appealed to me! lol I did crochet a little as a kid, but mostly chains and crooked little pieces of nothing. This bella was a bit of a color challenge for me, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the chair. I decided to keep it all kinda neutral, and I LOVE it, it came out perfect!

The patterned paper is from Cosmo Cricket, and since I have had it, I wanted to cut it out like this. I just needed the perfect image to go with it... I added a little piercing, some ribbon and a button.

After the mega posting this morning, I don't want to keep you too long. There is just too much to see out there and get inspired by! See ya soon!

 

hold onto your seat...

because I am gonna

show you my pics from 'the house that Bella built'! Yeah, fridays trip was AWESOME!

 

Here we are watching the copic queen herself...Linda, explain her technique...

 

There is Linda {in yellow} & Pauline {in white}, my two fab sistahs who live across the border, but not too far away!

 

Wanna see what Linda was coloring... Perfect! He is now living with Nicky in Toronto...

 

Here are the GREAT JanTink's hands in motion. She is working on a new image from the catalog...um, I need to get to her basement quick! She can stamp my Bellas and I can stamp her SU goodies!

Can you see all the awe & wonder in everyones faces, as we watch Linda! Laura {all the way from Houston, TX} is on the left, Bella herself..Em, Nicky and Marjorie. {I am hoping I remembered her name correctly and spelled it right too1} The friendliest bunch a sistah could meet!

Are you lovin' it? Had to make this pic just a little bigger to get the full effect...lol

{insert drumroll...} wallabella! Just a note, if you were standing here, there are more to the left and right behind you! This was just a fun shot of the bellas themselves in alphabetical order. Some of them jumped into my basket, wait for that photo...

There was large bellas on the walls...

 

 

Smaller Bellas around the door, with a little 'mwah' as you enter and as you leave. I think bella loves all the sistahs!

 Bella even has some words of advice for us!

In case you aren't sure where to enter the building to find bellas...just look for this sistah!This AWESOME artwork is from the Stella artist Jan Dolby. I votted for this to be artwork on a scotties tissue box, I LOVED it!! 

My pretty new pencils...

Nicky says she uses them and I had to take them home with me! Happy Birthday to me! I kinda reasoned with myself that I will never own the copics. {unless I start growing a money tree! lol}

Here is my personal stash from the Bella store...Got Bella?  uhhhh, yes I do! And I found some Spellbinders too.The new toy, those Peerless watercolors...mmmm, gotta try those puppies out soon!

If you have made it to the end of my photo album, you rock! You gotta get there in Toronto if you love Bellas and take plenty of money! You won't go home empty handed and if yu live in the States and they want to know what you bought, just tell them 'some rubber stamps', they have no idea how much money I have invested in such a small bag. shhh, that's only for us addicts to know! [wink*] Bonus for myself is that the two pink bags above my stash have more Bellas, all different from what I bought. Two work BFF's sent a list for me to pick up their choices...double the fun and the Bellas! Go take a nap, you deserve it after all this blahblah talk!

got bellas?...

The vacation continues...but for some reason I am not sitting around relaxing, doing nothing. I might need yet another week to work on that! lol  Wednesday I hung out with BFF's and was away from home, it was a 'working' get together, because I was helping Mary purge her stampin' supplies and organize. Today I got up and washed the dog @ 8:00 am, then gave him a haircut. By 9:30 we both had had enough and went for a ride to my work. {{ after I showered and got all the fine yorkie hairs off my body! }} A quick trip to Flushmate and then back home for him because I went to visit Jordan at her job...Office Max. I picked up a few things there and back home again, home again...jiggity jig. Have I ever mentioned that driving around isn't my favorite thing to do?  That leaves me with what I have been doing since about 3 today...Oh yes, I been making cards like a crazy person! {{ remember, I get to meet Stamping Bella, Em, herself tomorrow! }} I gotta have some of my bellas to show her!  Now, which one to show you first...I made 5 cards tonight!! I love this girl!  PMSbella is one that I picked up in Canada, @ Paper Pickle. She is colored with my prismas and gamsol...and I colored her while I was sitting by the river last weekend! The patterned paper is from Me & My Big Ideas, I grabbed it at Joann's a long time ago and had yet to use it. It was one of those pieces of paper you run across in your stash and wonder what you were thinking! The tiny black brads are from Queen & co. and the alphabet stamps are the $1.00 sets, I got back this spring. BTW, I have not seen these stamps again, I keep looking, but they are not at the store where I picked them up. Whew, I was lucky to grab up all I did when I did it!

I still need to put some things together for my morning trip to Toronto. My shorts are pressed and a sistah needs her beauty sleep! I have my camera packed and ready to capture all the fun. I may need to take a time out to actually put some of these photos in a scrapbook! lol

Thanks for stopping by, {{ Sorry Mary, wish you were here instead of stuck @ work! }}   paula :)

kelly's house mouse...

Today I am heading off to help a BFF organize, I won't be gone all day, but I thought I would get an early post in today. Yesterday I worked on a special project for a friend at work. Her daughter has the nickname 'mouse' at her job and Phyllis {her mom} asked me to make a card/frame that she could put on her desk. I had this little 'house mouse' guy who is pointing, so I had him point towards Kelly's name.

The 5x7 frame is from IKEAand the patterned paper is from My Minds Eye. 'Kelly' is cut out with an x-acto and my own imagination! lol 'Kelly' and the flower are on the outside of the glass and the other stuff is all under the glass.

I have not told you that I recieved my stamps from My Favorite Things. They sent me a ton and I can wait to show them all off. I got most of them colored up this past weekend...I got a lot of stuff colored up north. If I could sit outside like that every day, down by the river...well, I guess I would be retired! lol  woo-we those years are a long ways away!

Here are a couple pics of Niki and Pebbles, outside a couple weeks ago. I keep forgetting to post these, can you tell my dog doesn't like getting his pic taken? lol  He is sticking out his tongue, and I think he is even giving me a dirty look! My animals almost never look straight at me when I have a camera in my hand.

Well, I'm off to organize...thanks for stopping by today!  :)

karen lockhart's foxgloves...

Wondering where I've been today? After all, it's my first day of vacation and I should have been getting something special together...right? Well, let me tell you...my laptop was in need of some TLC, and I have been putting that job off. Jim bought a disc at Office Max, called 'ctrlcenter' and they fix your computer remotely, through the internet. {{rated number 1, by some computer magazine}} Today was the day I was gonna give her a try...until mr. tech guy asked me to do something with the modum and I handed the phone to Jim! LOL Electronics and me are not a match made in heaven if something goes wrong. So while the tech was fixing my laptop, I was working on this...

I love Lockhart images, and this is their 'foxglove' stamp. The colors look a little funny in this photo, I think maybe the sun shining in washed them out a bit. IRL it looks so much prettier! The cardstocks are from Bazzill and the sentiment is from Close To My Heart.

Here is myself, with Mary and Dana up at Mary's cottage in Grayling, MI. That is the Au Sable river behind us and saturday we sat outside working on our projects, watching canoes and kayaks go by.

Alicia is waving at me from the scrappers table...can you tell how perfect it was outside! Here is a forest friend who didn't come out until sunday morning and my camera battery died after this picture. He is eating the cashews I was throwing, and he did let me get pretty close.  Mary said that the chipmunks come up on her father-in-laws leg and I was hoping for that, but maybe next time. Our fifth chick on the trip was Shelby. She was our gaurdian from the fly fishermen and the canoers!  See ya soon...paula :)

 

going, to the chapel of love...

This week I needed to make a wedding card and I had a red glitter heart that I wanted to use. I think one of my favorite non-stamping cards is the one I made a few months ago for Starr, black, cream and red. So I did it again this week, but with a wedding twist...hey, I think this could be a great Valentines card too! LOL

The patterned paper is from foo-fa-la, and I used a SU sentiment stamp, stamped out with moonlight white Brilliance ink. Nothing complicated, but I think this is an elegant card. I really like a pieces of black/cream papers that I have started collecting here and there!

I used some Making Memories polka dotted ribbon...another fav... and a little bling.

I am off after work today for a stamping/scrapping weekend up north. I am making a BLT pasta dish for saturdays dinner, and let me tell you, hunting down fresh basil was a small chore last night! I am putting on my list of what to plant next summer. Fresh herbs aren't cheap when you need a cup of something, and they come in such small packages. The recipe is awesome, and I have never posted a recipe but I will take a photo and you guys just might like to have it!

See ya all soon, and wish me luck for getting lottsa coloring done!

Toronto coundown...1 week! Bella here we come!  :)

monkey edit....

Late last night I was looking through the SCS sock monkey gallery. I should have looked before I colored my monkey!!  LOL No, I asked my daughter...did she know what was red on the sock monkey? She didn't give me the correct info, and I colored the wrong part of my little guy red...ugghhhh

I fixed him last night and went to bed. This morning I am trying to edit the post...never done this before, after I posted. I have no idea how to getback to that post now? If anyone who can tell me for future use, i'd appreciate it!

 

Thanks!!