paper possibilities

easter 2.0...

Well, this is a real surprise for me, actually having a card finished and ready to post early on tuesday! I know, I would not be the only person in line if they were handing out clones, right? haha {just as long as they didn't go haywire and take over the 'real' me's job so well and I had no way to prove which one was the 'real' me and then someone wanted to destroy all clones and... was this a movie already?}

Are you ready for Easter 2.0, cause I am ready to share with ya another image I colored up.  

This here is Eva Bloom and she is a little chichi fairy from Stamping Bella. Isn't she cute with her curly red hair?

I colored this with that pretty Kioshi pad by Basic Grey for my inspiration...believe it or not. Some of you might have seen *cough* Lindabella's card a couple weeks ago and think that was my inspiration! I swear...it was all the purple in this paper. I did color this at Linda's dining room table, and after she sat her card in front of me to let me know it was getting close to her colors...I, well, I almost died! Good thing the layouts aren't the same...LOL

So let's get down to brass tacks and let me tell you that this is colored with my prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol. You knew that was coming...right? You probably also know that I only use Bella's bestest paper and versafine ink... I love this ink for pencil use. So crisp, so black, so perfect. I couldn't stop with the glitter, yes, I used Glamour Dust, and the whole card sparkles! {shouldn't all cards do that?}

Like I said in the previous post...ovals and me, we ain't the bestest of friends. I kept it simple and very symmetrical, then I don't go into "omg" mode and wonder how to balance the thing out. I have seen some bows at the top, like I have done here, and I always like it, so I went with that too. ta-da...Happy Easter chichi style!

If you have been having fun and joining in on or BellaRIFFIC challenges, every friday, @ Stamping Bella's blog, then ya probably know this. This week us Babe's are "gettin' hitched", and you can celebrate this occasion in a few different ways. If you want to make something for a bridal shower, wedding or anniversary card...it's up to you. It's not me, but someone on the Babe's team has thought outside the box with her image...you will flip! {hehe, yes, I already did!!} Just don't forget to send your creation to Emily by thursday night...get crackin' it's tuesday already!

easter card 1.0...

Easter, and springtime and flowers...it's all in the air. Does Paula have any Easter cards made? That would be a huge Easter egg NO! LOL But, that all started to change yesterday, as I sat at Lindabella's house.

The wonderful, and I mean wonderful, aroma of cooking food and the background chatter of ladies talking about everything, didn't keep my hands from gettin' some coloring done. See what I mean...

Cracked Up HUGGABUGG, by Stamping Bella, was just the ticket to break my non Easter card streak! {hehe, and the gorjuss new Basic Grey paper Kioshi wasn't bad inspiration either}

My image is stamped on Bella's bestest paper with black versafine ink, and colored with  my prismacolor pencils. I only added small amounts of glitter to the wings and tiny flowers. Now what do ya think about that peachy colored felt ric-rack? I do believe it comes from American Crafts, but I was too excited to pay attention while I was grabbin' a little bit of every color. I am pretty happy with myself that I even used it, seeing as I have only had it a little over a week.

I also colored up another Easter image and now I need to put that together tonight. Oh, wait...I need to get another wedding/bridal/anniversary card made for this weeks BellaRIFFIC challenge. I hope you are gonna join me and my Babe friends! See ya soon, my friendly peeps!  :)

pia puddingtop...

Hope this day greets you with a smile! If that sounds 'cheesy', just know I mean it! I generally have very nice days/weeks, some just busier than most. I had the pleasure of meeting a *new* friend yesterday, we emailed all week and I just wanna say that when we met, it was like we knew each other already! haha Isn't it nice when that happens? {Maggie, I hope you don't mind me saying this...} But, she is newer to Michigan and very new to the area we live in. So, what did Paula do? I took her to a few of the spots I frequent for paper, a.k.a. shopping! We grabbed a bite to eat and I headed home to crash! Hope you had a nice time to Maggie and I didn't scare you off from coloring with me!

Now, onto my late BellaRIFFIC friday post!!  Peeps, I went Christmas on this one.

I love, LOVE Pia Puddingtop. I thought I had her in my stash of Bella stamps, last Christmas...and I didn't! {personally I was mortified...how could I have over looked her?} I am positive Linda had used her to make some stunning card...like she alwaysdoes and that just made a little more crazy! haha

A few weeks ago when I was up north, visiting my parents, I took Pia with me and colored her up. Naturally, with the holly leaves, you are gonna color her in greens and I just went very traditional. **Did you notice the texture I gave the top of her pudding hat?** Pia is stamped out with my black versafine ink, on Bella's bestest paper. Except for her tiny face being in Copic, she is colored in Prismacolor pencil and blended with my gamsol. When I came to picking some holiday paper, I went with one that was my FAV this past Christmas...Bo Bunny! The aqua shades, olive green and RED, be still my heart!!

Now, I have a difficult time, for some odd reason, with ovals...I feel best with straight lines around me... all boxed in. Well, this sketch had me so excited, it was all thought out and so easy to follow. It also let me get more than two patterns in there, which can be stressful figuring out. {not with this amazing Bo Bunny!}

I have my first card for my Christmas stash and I am thinking of which Christmas image I can do next!  How about you? 

The business of our BellaRIFFIC challenge's continue... it's the weekend and with Passover & Easter here... let's "Get Hitched" ! I already showed ya one stunningly simple wedding card this week... now it's your turn. If a friend or yourself, needed a bridal shower/wedding day or anniversary card pronto... what Bella stamp would fill the need? Emily {Stamping Bella!} has so many that I think could be used...from couples, like the one I did all the way to flowers! I am excited to see what ya'll come up with as far as versatility, cause isn't that what we all want with our investment?? woo hoo!!

The clock is ticking and Emily is looking for those lovely creations by thursday night..... go!

class date for the newbie & the novice...

Yes, it is a BellaRIFFIC friday, but this sister had spent her thursday night making a couple of distribution lists.  Really... I was in a panic I was not going to figure it out! I did, and I sent out my first official email and I set a date for some coloring.

Saturday May 1st.

11-1 for any newbies, a beginners class

2-4 for the gal who wants to expand her horizons!

I have 5 spots for the 11-1 class & 4 spots for the 2-4 class.Email me at paulatracy66@aol.com for a spot.

hitchedafellabella, for kristin g...

Here I sit playing with white balance on my camera, trying to get a nice picture! LOL  It is driving me crazy and it looks like I just need to pull out my camera manuals to make sure I am doing things right. So, how's you day been going?

This image hitchedafellabella is from Stamping Bella and it is dedicated to Kristen Gerber!! {did you think I forgot! haha} Kristin was not sure how to approach coloring a white dress, and wedding season is just around the corner...cards to make! Yeah, who wouldn't be happy with one like this?

For the most part, these greys are warm., but I used a combination of warm greys, on the fella and a french grey 30% on bella's dress & veil. {I did keep a light touch and added some more french grey after blending out with my gamsol} Glitter was added, of course, to give it a sparkly touch, and the shoes I colored with my silver pencil. I added a soft pink around my newlyweds because there is that thin pink stripe running in the paper. If my papers had cool tones, like something in blues or greens, then I would have colored this in cool greys. {I did just pick up some cool paper in light turquoise for more wedding cards, stay tuned.}

This paper was my inspiration and it's from SEI, called Juliette, from the My Romeo collection. Funny but since I do make few wedding cards, male cards, when I see any paper that strikes my fancy...I buy it. Then Ms. Kristin had emailed me and saw me and class and I was like "Yes! I have just bought the perfect wedding paper" I just needed to get it done, story of our lives, right?

Don't forget that this weeks challenge is a sketch, very cool, very ME! I did it right away this past weekend and emailed it to Emily...  You have until thursday to use the sketch and dazzle us with your Bella creations. Email your jpeg photo to Emily at emily@stampingbella.com, put the date in the title and meet me on friday to check out the cards. See ya soon  :) 

4 images for local classes...

Happy, the work day is over for me, MONDAY!!! 

So I have let all the local girls know that Scrappin' & Stampin' will be closing their doors, and classes will not be held at another store. I have been getting so many emails for interest in coloring with me and I wanted to share what the next four images will be. These 4 images were used in Toronto, so the class color list is prepared. Here is  Stamping Bella's

king of the WILD THINGS, possibly inspired by my ALL time favorite book as a kid! Next up is Izzie has a daisy, just like my new favorite little girl, looks as innocent as me...LOL {I just don't wear dresses!}   

Scarlett in her little teacup, love the pom-pom hair! Sorry, this picture is not the best by far, but it was getting late last night. ...and last but not least, Babycakes...I LOVE this image. 

Well, there is the line-up. Believe it or not, I am already thinking of what I want to color for my next trip to Bellaland and I am going to start coloring those up very soon. {even if the next trip isn't until the last weekend in May!} 

I have no idea if there is anyone local who is still interested in just learning the basics, there are 4 easier images I have choosen for that.  Drop me an email and let me know, at paulatracy66@aol.com.

til we meet again...

livin' a charmed life...

I hope that your weekend was as productive as mine was. I spent a good part of the day away from home on saturday, but I got those couple things done that I wanted to do on monday, but was to sick to leave the house.

Saturday night I retired to "my room" and worked on this card, Stamping Bella's Charm Bracelet. It had been a work in progress during the week, and I didn't like the way the progress was taking me...LOL {the first colored twinchie went into the trash} I had this vision in my head of   how I had wanted to do this. I was aiming for something modern and artsy. I wanted to reallllly use that piece of yellow Crate Paper and I came up with a color scheme that is a bit different from what I have been doing. {yes, I have been in a rut with those aqua shades! lol} I never make my own patterned paper and I thought pieces of the charm bracelet might be cool. All in all I think I have been staring at this for too long now and need to look at it in a few days. {I don't normally work on something for several days in a row} 

Like I said, the Bracelet is stamped on one of Bella's Twinchies. I think they just make something artsy because it's a different, heavy piece of mat board, something you wanna showcase! I used my versafine ink and then stamped the bracelet itself all over some pale pink Bazzill cs. {on the backside, it's smoother} Then I matched up my bracelet pattern on the twinchie, to the pattern on the cs and cut a on inch border around the twinchie. I picked the heart charm and the 'I love you' sentiment & added glitter to the heart. WOW, that is a nice bow I made too, don't ya think?? {I know what you're thinking...she looks like she's in a brown mood now! haha}

Today {sunday} I worked on my BellaRIFFIC card for friday...it's a sketch! Did ya check it out? So simple and pretty! I just loved it when I saw it and my card is emailed to da Bella! Play along and get an Easter card or something stunning made and maybe you could win some Bella Bucks. {I myself made mine into a Christmas card...yup, it's almost April...time to get cracking!!} See ya kids soon!
  

where to get a coloring fix...

Hey Michigan area pencil fans!!

It's kinda sad for me to finally make this post about Scrappin' & Stampin' closing its doors. I have been putting it off all week. I walking in to see Barb last year because that truly was the one crafty place where I felt I would be a good fit and try my hand at teaching. Barb's store was where I first started buying my scrapping supplies from, way back in 2000! Yeah, I was an avid scrapper for a while... It was always a "destination place" for me to go to because it wasn't the closest store to my house, I would drive out to Livonia just for her. I have had so much fun meeting the local ladies who shopped and took classes there and if you took a class from me and are still interested in furthering your coloring, then you will need to email me at paulatracy66@aol.com. I will not switch to another store, I will either open my doors to a small group of 5 women...in my kitchen, or maybe borrow our clubhouse. I don't want to get into specifics here, I would like to get a list of names and send out an email. I have been contacted by a few girls already and I am working on some dates. Thanks for your interest, love paula  :)

monochromatic bellariffic friday...

Where has this week gone?? I had monday off {vacation day, but sick!} tuesday I was starting to feel better, but I was milking it and came home to 'rest' after work. Wednesday I ran to a few stores and then grocery shopped and got home at 8 pm {I do not like to spend my afterwork time on the road...LOL} Today was a dental appt. and Jim's cousin is our hygenist, so we do talk and the appt. runs way over...make dinner, answer emails, clean dishes and now blog...whew, I am ready for bed, haha  But, back up...remember that day I went to the 'stores'? Well, I came home with a little bit of paper. *NEW* paper lines and it all followed me home, I promise.

Today is monochromatic BellaRIFFIC friday!!! Did ya pick a color and play along with us? I went so simple with grey to black, it almost was silly.  

I brought back Francine Flapper when I was In Toronto, at Stamping Bella, a few weeks ago. I had wanted her for a long time, and she was waiting to be colored. Pleading with her pretty little eyes, in a dress that I knew I was gonna cover in glitter, she was my image for this challenge. {let's face it, this was gonna be kinda easy to do for this week.. haha}

Francine is stamped with Versafine ink on Bella's bestest paper. I colored her with my prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol. The glitter is Glamour Dust from Bella's store, has anyone ever seen this in the States?? I used a couple pieces of black/white paper and then my moroccan scallop punch from EK Success. I though this had a very art deco feel when I was assembling it together. Now, note those horrible corners that I took, still, a little to fast. What the heck is going on? ...slow down paula.

We have our challenge ready for next week, are you ready for another sketch?? Joanne did an awesome job coming up with a layout, can't wait to to do this this weekend!    I was doing something {?} wrong last night when writing my post up, but Lindabella to the rescue...I think she hides a cape under her little clothes! As Emily would say...MWAH, to the sistahs who need a little extra help!   :)

 

green is good...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! {a wee bit early depending on where in the world you are! lol}

Did ya get to drop some green at Stamping Bella, and pick up any of the new images. I guess I was a little piggy and got just about all of them. How could I not? The sad thing is that when they arrive, there won't be a home for them...my binders are FULL! I think I need to re-organize again...

I wanted to get into the mood, cause I don't know if I have any green to wear tomorrow. There could be some pinching in my future. No shortage of green here though, I went wild with shades of green.  I colored this up at my parents place and knew that it would match the Basic Grey "Origins" paper, so I was pretty safe sticking to a green/yellow palette.

I stamped my goodluckabella on Bella's bestest paper and colored her with my prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I used a couple pieces of the Origins paper and when I was looking through my ribbon {which ain't easy these days folks!!} I found this ribbon that was given to me from a friend. It worked really well with my papers.

Well my friends, I am outta here. I been feeling kinda yucky, and I think I need to retire to the couch for the night. I have been watching the first season of Son's of Anarchy, reading the third Sookie Stackhouse book. I been a busy gal! See ya all real soon!! Thanks for dropping in.