Bella calendar

I participated in last year's Bella calendar swap hosted by Tangii. I couldn't wait to do this year's calendar. Since my daughter's old bedroom has become my scrap room when she is away at school she saw my Bella calendar hanging in there and wanted one of her own so she decided to join this year's swap too.

After our busy summer we treated ourselves to another retreat weekend at Mountains and Memories where we both worked on our calendar pages among other things.

Here are mine...

This is my April page. I used Lottie and Gussie Gabalot. I love these fairy friends. It is hard to see in the scan but their wings are covered in waterfall stickles. I love the extra sparkle. The pattern papers are from a pack I had in my stash for a while so I don't remember exactly who the vendor isbut I love the color combo of mocha, lime green, turquoise and orange.

This one is my July page. I couldn't resist a Bella in an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini. I love the bright colors of the papers. I used rub on letters from american crafts for the sentiment and a matching ribbon slide.

Last this is my October page. I love Witchybella. For the background I used my cuttlebug embossing folder and then rubbed black ink over the embossed image.

These are so fun to do and I love they way they came out.

Ashleigh's pages will be in the next post.

Been MIA...now I am back.

Wow, my last post was way back in April. Summer is always super busy for me but this year was a whirlwind. My daughter came home for the summer. I put on three weeks of Harry Potter themed summer camp (I'll post pics in a later post), my day job company was acquired and I still taught classes at Archivers on nights and weekends. It's a wonder I had time to breathe. I did do some creating and I'll try to post some of the things I did so there may be a few posts today while I try to catch up a bit. Anyway I am back and am making it my new goal to post weekly but twice a month at the very least.

Mile High Stamp and Scrap

Birthday package from my sistah

It has been a rough week for me. Two days (one of which was my birthday) on pain killers and antiobiotics for a severe sinus infection and it was so bad that it even infected a tooth and caused me to need an emergency root canal...yuck!!!





Anyway, it all my feeling sorry for myself in a Viucodin induced haze i recieved a ray of sunshine in my mailbox from my Bella Siatah Liane. She sent me the bestest birthday present evah!

The box included a darling butterfly album, two fantastic books, an awesome card, the SU ticket punch (yeah), some destination stickers (makes ma want to travel) and a cute little monogramed basket of goodies. I lovey it all and it was definately the highlight of my week.

Feeling much better now, but I think my birthday needs a re-do!

Some Bella Cards

I have not had a lot of time to post lately but I did want to post these Bella cards I have been working on lately.

This first one is using one of my new favorite paper lines... Fancy Pants. The BG paper is so pretty and the dotted paper behind the bella image is on the back side! I also used a transparency with bright colored swirls, flowers and glitter that is from the same line on this card. I am lovin the new transparencies and they come lots of designs in 12 x 12 too for scrapbook pages!

For this one I just love this sentiment with Imeladbella. If any of you were in Katie's color your own bella swap then you may have already seen me use this combo. What girl would not want to be spoiled like this!

Anyway, I used my cuttlebug on the red BG paper and the brown is a scrap of Basic Grey. I colored this one with watercolor pencils and blender pens.

The last one for I did for the Bella Babe Challenge a while back where you were supposed to use pink, yellow and orange. I finished it in time but never got a chance to take a pic and upload it in time for the contest. Oh well, I still like the card. The DP is from the DCWV new Spring Glitter Stack. I used me new cuttlebug paisley embossing folder (yeah I found one!) on the yellow strip and then added some little flowers with rinestone centers. She too is colored with watercolor pencils and blender pens. Finally I finished her off with the SU word window and "enjoy life".

Hybrid Bella / SU baby shower card

I made this card for my boss at Archiver's and I love the way it came out. Going to a baby shower with a bunch of Archivers employees there is a lot of pressure to come uo with something good, I wouldt think of walking in with a store bought card (although admittedly life got in the way and some did...we'll see if they get raises..jk)

I used Teddybella on the outside and paper pieced her clothes. All of the DP is from a Stemma baby boy paper pack on found on clearance for $4 at Target..I love a good bargain! I colored her with my zig markers (bc I am still saving for copics) and flocked the teddy bear with brown flocking. I also added a blie paperclip swirl and just a touch of baby blue dotted swiss ribbon in the corner. I used a chocolate A2 card from the Archiver's Yours truly line. I love these cards, they are pre-scored and come in lots of great colors and have matching envelopes. They make card making so easy (and score extra points with the boss). For the inside I used the SU Baby talk set. I love the cradle with the baseball flying out...tooc cute. I paper pieced the cradle and added a square brad. To finish it off I combined lines from two of the sentiment stamps in the set to create "congratulations on your bundle of boy". I love how this came out and think it is the perfect combo of stamps for a shower card.

Rejuvination

I am home again from a fantastic weekend feeling refreshed and rejuvinated and ready to tackle life again. Last week was a very rough and stressful week at work but I saw the end in sight knowing I had a wonderful weekend planned.

I spent my weekend at a scrapbook retereat in Estes Park called Mountains and Memories (see link on sidebar). This was my second time and I have already planned to go back again in August. From the moment you arrive at M and M you are pampered and spoiled by Sara, Jan and Gary (the owners). They carry your bags inside and set you up in your croppin' space (and you don't have to move anything all weekend)! The crop space has everything you need, the beds are comfy and the food is delicious. They have thought of everything (right down to earplugs and tiny flashlights).

I spent time scrapping many of the old heritage photos I got when we went through my grandmother's things (my cousins got the antiques and knick knacks, I got ALL the photos) after she died in December. It was very theraputic for me to work on these photos, and they brought back lots of memories. She lived a wonderful life (nearly 103 years) but I do miss her still.

I also worked on some Bella cards, some we've moved cards for my parents who just bought a new house and some Hogwarts summer camp pictures. I'll add photos in later posts.

I stayed up until 3:30 am on Friday and Saturday nights laughing with friends and being creative. I got a massage on Saturday afternoon and it all went by much too quickly but it was just what I needed. Too bad I can't do this every weekend.