More Miniatures -- Bella Shines!

Stamps: Anniversary edition billybootabella, My Sentiments Exactly 'Little Birdie'. Cardstock: CM purple, CM green dots, Making Memories fuschia, flower DP of unknown source, Papertrey white. Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics. Accessories: orange Prima, Bella dots, tab punch, Martha Stewart woven ombre fern-grasshopper.

My magnifying reading glasses have been getting quite the work-out lately with all these miniature projects! First, the House Mouse inchie and now this miniature billybootabella which I received during Stamping Bella's second anniversary celebration. Isn't she the perfect ATC size?

After coloring 10 of these little gals, my eyes were detail work-complete for the evening! Here's the finished group for Lily (milmil)'s Bella/Ketto ATC swap:

The sketch is this week's Bella sketch challenge #75, done on a miniature scale of course. Next week, I'm sticking to A2 size which will most likely seem gargantuan!

Chocolate Hunny Bunny

Stamps: CC Design's 'Hunny Bunny', Papertrey 'Mailbox Greetings'. Cardstock: Basic Grey 'Porcelain', Papertrey white, Pink Pirouette. Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, copics, Signo white gel pen. Accessories: Martha Stewart 'Pink Sand' Craft Seam binding, Rectangle Nestabilities.

Everyone needs a chocolate bunny for Easter, right? One this cute might not be quite so edible, though. Whenever I see a chocolate Easter bunny, it always reminds me of the Emo Philips' skit -- hilarious, but probably not appropriate for this blog!

Hunny Bunny's egg is paper pieced with Basic Grey's 'Porcelain'; if you don't have any of this beautiful paper yet, be sure to stop by the KL Scrappin' N Stampin' store. Kelly is taking pre-orders and the paper should be shipped mid-April.

The sketch for this card is from Verve Stamps and you can view it here. It also happens to be the sketch for this month's WRAK challenge, so this card is pulling double duty. Thanks, Lena (SCS: tackertwosome) for sending me this wonderful Papertrey white cardstock that makes this card eligible for the challenge!

Happy Easter!

DRS Designs Challege #18: Butterfly Birthdays

The latest challenge on the DRS Designs' blog is to create a birthday card and something fun to accompany it. Since I have quite the collection of butterfly images, I was very excited to see this new birthday sentiment from DRS Designs. I decided to let it be my inspiration for a card and coordinating treat box.

Stamps by DRS Designs: 'K's Butterfly Birthday Saying', Medium Open Silhouette Butterfly, Small Open Silhouette Butterfly, Interlocking Flower Background, Silhouette Branch Background. Cardstock: GP110 white, Certainly Celery, Pale Plum, Elegant Eggplant. Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

Butterflies are even better with a touch of sparkle, don't you think? Glitter is one embellishment that always looks better in real life, but here's a close-up where you see a little more of the sparkle that earns this glitter its Dazzling Diamonds name:

Since mailing a slice of birthday cake is beyond my capabilities, this fun 'Piece of Whatever' box by Kitty Franken would be the next best thing:

Stamps by DRS Designs: Medium Open Silhouette Butterfly, Small Open Silhouette Butterfly, Silhouette Branch Background, sentiment from Birthday Candle Burst, Birthday Ribbon Slide. Cardstock: GP110 white, Certainly Celery, textured Pale Plum, Elegant Eggplant. Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds glitter, circle punch, scallop border punch, white orandy ribbon, Bella Baubles.

The small butterfly on the tip of the cake slice also serves as a pull to open the cake slice and reveal the goodies inside. Chocolate and a stamp should fit perfectly!

Visit the DRS blog to view other birthday creations and be sure to link your own projects for a chance to win blog candy!

Mini Mouse and Other Inchies

Stamps: Stampabilities 'Relaxing Wildflowers', Papertrey 'Mixed Messages'. Cardstock: Purely Pomegranate, GP110 white. Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics, Purely Pomegranate. Accessories: square Nestabilites, yellow glitter.

I've been admiring 'inchies', or 1" x 1" canvases, for quite some time and the Round 9 House Mouse swap, currently hosted by Joanna (Queenbee Jo) on SplitCoastStampers was the perfect incentive to give them another try!

Inchies are easier than my more commonly made ATCs in some respects (less coloring and layers), but also more difficult as well. Staying inside the lines while coloring was quite the challenge! So was correct alignment when using the Nestabilies dies.


Since it was a swap, I was able to practice both of these issues at least nine times, ending up with swaps I'm not embarrassed to share:



My first experience with inchies was through a DRS Designs' blog challenge. The first challenge was to create inchies and the following challenge was to create cards using these inchies. For my first card, I used polyshrink to shrink the polka dot flowers down fit on the one inch background:


Stamps: Polka Dot Flower, Funky Thanks. Paper: Night of Navy, Real Red textured, GP110 white. Ink: Stazon blue and red, versamark. Accessories: White EP, Polyshrink plastic, gems, square punches. Techniques: inchies, polyshrink, embossing.


The second card is my favorite; I really like how each inchie forms a portion of the larger image:

Stamps: DRS Designs 'Butterfly 4 corner Background', 'Wishing Peace and Happiness'. Paper: Almost Amethyst textured, Certainly Celery, Basic Black, GP110 white. Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Almost Amethyst, Certainly Celery. Accessories: Pearl Ex, Square punches, green satin and black dotted organdy ribbon. Techniques: Pearl Ex.

Check out the other DRS inchie creations from the Blog Challenge #1 and be sure to visit our first Blog Hop, too. The drawing for blog candy featuring the brand new releases will be Monday, 4/6 at 8 pm.

If you find yourself in the mood to give inchies a try, check out Joanna's House Mouse swap. There are also spots for other fun sized projects like ATCs and nickelbacks!

DRS Blog Hop Stop #5

Welcome to the DRS Blog Hop, Stop #5! In case you are just joining us, be sure to check out the first blog hop stop on the DRS blog so you don't miss out on any of the fun of previous stops.

I have two cards featuring one of stars of the new images, Leonard the Pig. First we have Leonard dishing the dirt on his favorite part of birthdays:

Stamps by DRS Designs: 'Leonard's Dance of Joy', Cherry Top Cupcake, Sweet Birthday, Lines O'Plenty Background, Easy Swirl Background, Dot Background. Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Papertrey white. Ink: Memento Tuxedo black, Copics. Accessories: Nestabilities rectangles, wide red grosgrain, Crystal Effects.

Another new Leonard makes his appearance on the inside of the card. The sentiment on his sign is masked off from a multiple word background:

Stamps by DRS Designs: 'Leonard the Billboard', Sweet Birthday, New Year's Square.

Leonard is also featured on the second card which also showcases my all-time favorite DRS sentiment. Since he's jumping for joy and I added an extra bit of sparkle to his smile with a glitter pen, I thought he would be a perfect spokesman for a positive attitude:

Stamps by DRS Designs: 'Leonard's Dance of Joy', Positive Attitude Saying, Vicki's Versatile Background, Interlocking Flower Background. Cardstock: Cameo Coral, Ballet Blue, GP110 white, black. Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics. Accessories: dotted black organdy, Stardust glitter pen.

Thanks for stopping by my blog during our first DRS Designs Blog Hop! Next stop is Judy's blog, Joy in a Jar. Good luck on winning those new releases!!

Elegant Easter Greetings

Stamps: Butterfly on Eggs, Easter sentiment. Cardstock: Textured Black, GP110 white, CM yellow. Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Copics. Accessories: Wide green satin ribbon, white EP, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, purple glitter.

From cute critters to elegant Easter images, DRS Designs has it all! Adding a wide satin ribbon adds an extra touch of class, too. I couldn't resist a bit of sparkle, so I accented the purple egg and portions of the butterfly with glitter. For more photos and cards, be sure to visit the DRS Designs blog.

**Don't forget to stop by the DRS blog on Friday, April 3rd for our first ever Blog Hop. All the Design Team Members will be showcasing the latest releases and you will have two chances to win these fun new images for yourself!

Counting Rainbows

Stamps: Tilda with Umbrella, Inkadinkado kid sentiment. Cardstock: Pacific Point, Riding Hood Red, Basic Grey 'Cupcake' DP, Papertrey white. Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics. Accessories: Square punches, Nestabilities Square, eyelets, Riding Hood Red satin ribbon.

Tilda looks like she's ready for Spring Showers! We actually has a storm a few days ago that ended with a magnificent double rainbow, photographed by my 12 year old daughter:

Of course, only a few days later we had enough snow to cover the daffodils that had just started blooming. No photos of that event -- I'm tired of winter!

The sketch for this card is from the Design Team call for Queen Kat Designs. I originally planned to try out because I never can resist a sketch challenge, but life (and illnesses) seemed to get in the way. Maybe that's Someone's way of letting me know I already have enough on my plate?

Be sure to stop by the KL Stampin' N Scrappin' blog for more details on this card.

Here's a Bella card from my archives also using the Inkadinkado sentiment:

Stamps: Billybootabella, Inkadinkado kid sentiment. Paper: Night of Navy, Nearly Navy, Bravo Burgundy, Wild Asparagus DP, white. Ink: Versamark, Night of Navy, black, copic cool gre 01. Accessories: Prismacolor pencils, turpenoid, Nestabilties ovals, white detail EP, celery grosgrain ribbon.

If you are interested in collecting any of these kid sentiments, now is the time -- I noticed they were being clearanced at my local Michael's!

Wishing you sunny days, or at least an umbrella always nearby. And be sure to keep an eye out for those rainbows!