Bella Carta

Favorite Five Friday (week of Jan 30, 2009)

I'm still a bit frazzled from my trip this week, I could stand to get a good night's sleep and really "re-charge" my batteries (so to speak!).

Here are my fav's for this week

1) Podcasts!  Holy cow, what rock have I been living under?  I just figured out how to get podcasts from i-tunes.  These probably "saved" my sanity on my roadtrip.  Some of my fav's so far - Imprint (a twi based podcast) and This I Believe from NPR (by the same folks who wrote the books I mentioned two weeks ago).  And if I haven't said it before, I {heart} my ipod.  I have like 200 podcasts downloaded, and some great stuff on HBO specials.

2) Feel that Fire - Dierks Bentley.  What is it about country music? Geesh, before you judge me - I never in my life thought I'd like country music, and now well - I can't always get away from it. I'm really not sure what the draw is.

(this is available as a single, the album is due out soon)

3) Have I mentioned Sookie Stackhouse?  I just finished book #1 and moving onto book 2!

4) Generation Kill - both the HBO series and the book by Evan Wright.  Marines and Alexander Skaarsgard!

5) If you're looking for a great non-fiction read, I recommend: Galileo's Daughter:  A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love.  Amazon's review says this:

Everyone knows that Galileo Galilei dropped cannonballs off the leaning tower of Pisa, developed the first reliable telescope, and was convicted by the Inquisition for holding a heretical belief--that the earth revolved around the sun. But did you know he had a daughter? In Galileo's Daughter, Dava Sobel (author of the bestselling Longitude) tells the story of the famous scientist and his illegitimate daughter, Sister Maria Celeste. Sobel bases her book on 124 surviving letters to the scientist from the nun, whom Galileo described as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and tenderly attached to me." Their loving correspondence revealed much about their world: the agonies of the bubonic plague, the hardships of monastic life, even Galileo's occasional forgetfulness.

Enjoy!

A few of my friends ....

A few of my friends have started blogging recently ... please check 'em out and leave them so love!   These are some of my dearest friends .... if you're not familiar with the story we're known as the PSF's.  We became friends through a thread on splitcoast, by supporting a mutual friend through a rough time.  We've stayed friends throughout.  And while the term PSF (pretend stamping friend, a term coined by one of the PSF's daughters) has become frequently used on SCS - we remain the "original PSF's". 

{PS I promise to get my blog roll updated, soon!}

Laura: Daydreams and Dandelions

Sarah:  My Little Somethings

Betty:  Reflections with Coffee

PSF's who have been blogging for a while - but deserve a special shoutout!

Melanie:  Mynee's Musings

Amy:  Confessions of an Air Force wife

Tracey:  Insert Witty Blog Name Here

Dawn:These are a few of my favorite things

Lauren: My Time

****Please tell me I haven't left any PSF's out!  If I did, I humbly beg your forgiveness, I'm so very tired from my marathon trip to our state capitol.  Please let me know, and I'll get you added.

 

Friday favorites coming soon!

on the road again

I had to make a trip to our state capitol, Tallahassee. Here's a few shots of the "old" capitol - this one sits next to the newer building, which is much larger but not nearly as picturesque. The weather was overcast, but you can see the sun trying to peek out.

Click on these to see them full size!

PS the trip takes 6 hours each way!

 

 

Love that new Manhattan Style watch!

The new Manhattan style watch colors/stamps/projects is right up my alley (stylistically speaking!).  Crisp, sharp: blues/greens/greys.

I used my grey dsp from the Urban Garden collection with Baja Blue cardstock (which is cut for a square card at 5.5. x 5.5 in). 

I loved this card so much, I made a second! In Pink Piroutte!  Cause I think anything "pink is perfect!".

Lovin' the baja breeze!

I haven't been in love with SU's style for a while (or at least not the catalog samples) but I have always held to the point that SU offer's something for everyone!  And that's true of their stamps as well as the samples.  I did come across this card in the new Spring/Summer 09 Idea Book and Catalog that I loved!  I made it into a 3 x 6 card (perfect for the long envelopes) and added a bit of piercing to the bottom right edge.

All Supplies from Stampin' Up! Baja Breeze cardstock, Urban Garden dsp, kiwi kiss ribbon and scrap of textured cardstock, Dreams Du Jour stamp set, aquapainter.

Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge #16

eta:  these get to be such long posts!!!!

The challenge this week:  be inspired by the music of Twilight!

Music is an important element in Twilight. Let the music from the book or the movie inspire you!

I choose to do "strictly papercrafting" this week.  I absolutely love the Twi soundtrack!  I have it on my ipod, in the car, at home .....

First up ..... I wanted to try to create the "Super Massisve Black Hole" from Muse.  And here it is!  This song to the whole baseball scene was a just a genius match! 

I used my circle nestabilities set and cut concentric circles, each one slightly smaller than the top layer, there are five layers total, leading up to the black.   I used a tag from Eve (thanks Eve!) and one of the divine flowers she sent with a crystal adhered to the middle.  Isn't that sentiment perfect? The paper on top is this lovely textured cardstock from a company called "Black Market Paper Society" - love that name!

 

Next up ....

Clair de Lune (Moonlight) for some reason, I pictured the moonlight, on the water with a silvery moon up above.  A lone blossom floats on the water, this blossom has the notes on it (its sheet music, cool tie in, right?)  I spotted how to make these here, the other day on the Cosmo Cricket blog.

I used grey textured cardstock from Bazzill, and a the silvery moon is actually punched from the project above.  I used my pearlescent watercolors to color the water.  The sheet music is done using the flower template I've attached here:

Download Flowers

You can reduce these when printing or on a photo copier if you want to make smaller blossoms, right now it will print on a regular sheet of paper and scale automatically to the size I used.  Creative credit for the blossom should go to Natasja, I'm making the flower I created as a PDF for easy use for anyone who would like to try these.   In the first frame, I overexposed the shot to show off the pearlescent water colors.  The second shot, is underxposed so you can see the detail on the distressed flower (but closer to the true colors, I'll have to try one more shot during daylight).

 

 

And last ..... but not least, one inspired by the prom scene.  I've taken a movie still and played with it a bit digitally  - to get a halo effect coming from behind them.  I've paired it with what I've dubbed the "Alice" quote on torn vellum.  

The print didn't re-photograph well, but its full color, I've attached it right here so you can see it.

AND ... don't forget to check out the rest of the Twilight Tuesday design team to see what they're up to! Jen won't be posting her project till Wednesday (she has a special post for Tuesday).

• Beth

• Danielle

• Eve

• Jen

• Julie

• Margie

• Tonya

 

HapBEE birthday to Papertrey Ink!

Papertrey Ink is going to be celebrating two years in February! 

I'm just tickled to have had the time to do the Blog Hop this month (I missed in November and December thanks to the holidays and traveling).

This month's challenge was to create a birthday card (or birthday project) featuring PTI.  The cardstock is Summer Sunrise, the ribbon is Plum Pudding and the stamp set is Honeybees.  The card also features a photo - one of mine - of a bee on a thistle flower.  I thought they were a good match!  I background stamped the cardstock with the honeycomb shaped stamp. The sentiment is stamped with Palette Noir ink on vellum and is attached with a rhinestone brad from Imaginesce.

Enjoy and happy blog-hopping!

 

 

new blog banner

I wanted to deviate a bit from my banner .... so here's a Twilight inspired Valentine banner for the month of February!

Its HHH Friday - Whateva!

Just a few "quickies"

"Bliss" scalloped card, inspired by a friend of mine excited about renewing her vows and having a black/white theme!  The paper has this gorgeous batik like print on it, I cut two of the large scallop die (Sizzix/Big Shot) and scored a line at the top so it flips open.  Its "Bliss" message is embossed and accented with grey half back pearls.

 

And a "whateva" onesie :-) what little baby wouldn't be adorable in this?  Dyed with Adirondack Color washes in Lettuce, Bottle and Stream (these dyes are NOT for the faint of heart!) and a cotton oneise (Gerber brand).  The stamp is in Graphite Brilliance and heat set.  I am thinking of embellishing the front .... but with what?  I wanted to do buttons but I am worried they might come off. 

Any thoughts from Moms out there on what I could embellishments with?  I was thinking felt flowers?  Fabric flowers? buttons?  Or maybe just stitching by hand the flowers - embroidery style.

 

And LOOOK!!!! I organized my UNITY!   On the Unity thread there is a great ongoing discussion about how to organize!  One of my fav suggestions was from Rachel about purchasing acrylic at a home improvement store.  I bought mine at Lowe's it was a 18 x 24 in. sheet that they cut into 6 in squares (so I got 12 of them!) and it was $6.79 plus sales tax! What an awesome deal.  Its in the Windows dept, near the glass and its like plexiglass.  HD had it too, but they wouldn't cut it.  And I've dealt with this stuff before, its not always easy to cut it (glass is much easier). Anyway, I got ALL my kits on it with room on each one for the index sheet.  AND I place these, along with my catridge mounted in these cool fabric thingys I got in the Target Dollar Spot (awhile ago, they were the 2/$5 things).   I think IKEA has similar type storage.  (I left the label on the first piece so you could see exactly what I bought, this was cut to the 6 x 6 size, to keep it from getting scratched in the stores - there is a clear wrapping on both sides that you just peel off).

 

 

 

What every kitten needs!

What every kitten needs while recuperating!  A sheepskin pelt to snuggle on!

Wednesday is having a great recovery,  she's getting lots of extra attention and is starting to have a little pep in her step!   {Which you may not guess from this pic} It was *chilly* here in FL - we had frost last night!  So she was pretty much glued to the sheepskin!