Bella Carta

a book is like a garden {EIC125}

 
This week the Etsy Inspired Challenge features a fun and shop to check out --Daisy Petal Designs. OH MY--these hair accessories and jewelry pieces would definitely add something pretty to anyone's day !! Daisy Petal Designs has two stores! You can check out all the fabulous pieces HERE and HERE! I couldn't help it--I'm sharing some below! WOW--these pieces are beautiful! 

I love to read, so when I saw this digital stamp from Squigglefly - I knew I had to have it!  If you haven't checked out Squigglefly - you really should! .  And can you believe - this digital image cost less than $1?  Yep, this digital image (and all the others at Squigglefly) are inexpensive and you can use them over and over again. 

So I'm showcasing TWO cards with this set.  The first is printed on white cardstock and cut with a circle nestability (above)

The second card is printed on white vellum, but layered BEHIND a vellum panel (both of these are from Webster's Pages) for a very soft look pictured below:

 

Details:
Paper: Webster's Pages vellum
Image:  Squigglefly "A Book is like a garden" printed on white CS
Accessories:  copper brads ribbon and paper flowers

I bought the paper in a 6 x 6 stack of Webster's Pages from 7 Kids College Fund - one of my favorite online stores. 

Furry Friends

Made for a sweet friend who's cat Cooper recently passed away. 

The card features lots of Tim Holtz stuff .... I used Tim Holtz acetate masks and distressed inks in mustard seed and spiced marmalade.  The card also features the Tim Holtz "on the edge" file folder die.

 
Stamps:  With Sympathy, Loss of a Pet (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock:  Kraft  (PTI)
Paper:  Prima and K and Co.
Inks:  Distress Inks (Mustard Seed and Spiced marmalade), Dark Chocolate (PTI) and PTI Vintage Touch inks in chai and chamomille.
Accessories:  TH On the Edge File Tab die, brad from Imaginesce

 

Still lots of time to "make someone's day"!

I recently blogged about 7 Kids College Fund  magazine giveway to benefit the card drive for kids who are hospitalized receiving treatment for cancer, the deadline has been extended till the end of this month!  You can read my post here and see the cards I made earlier this month. 

My mojo seems to be on a bit of vacation, but I did want to make a few more cards for the project.   Especially after being inspired by seeing a post on Samara's blog featuring her son's card for a friend who had lost a parent <-------you can click to go view the card/post.

These are ready to go into the mail to Tab, I used Unity Stamp Co.'s Spunky Princess.  Did you know that 7 Kids is now carrying Unity Stamps?  You can buy Spunky Princess, Cuter than Most, and lots of other great Unity stamps.   And $5.00 from each and every set of Spunky Princess is donated to Taylor's family to help defray medical expenses.

 
I thought this would be a fun card for a child, its pink and girly!  Special thanks for Tab for blogging about this :-) wonderful project!   I made two of these, one goes to  Alexa (who's got a pneumonia relapse) and one for Tab's card drive.  I'm headed to go mail my cards to Tab! 

PS 7 Kids is giving away a year's subscription to Paper Crafts to one lucky participant in the card drive.

Want to make someone's day???

I recently read about7 Kids College Fund  magazine giveway to benefit the card drive for children for cancer.   I thought this would be a fun card for a child, I have another one in pinks that I did a few months ago (below).  The stamp set is "Cuter than Most" from Unity Stamp Co (which can be purchased at 7 Kids) <----click to go check it out.    I'm headed to go mail my cards to Tab!  Special thanks for Tab for blogging about this :-) wonderful project!

Here's all the deets :-) on how to Win a FREE subscription to Paper Crafts magazine and how YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR A CHILD WITH CANCER!!!

7 Kids College Fund store is giving away a one-year subscription to Paper Crafts magazine to one lucky customer. This magazine is full of amazing ideas using the most popular products. And, it's not just cards, there are tons of paper crafting projects.

How can you win this one-year subscription? It's easy, and you will be doing something amazing for children with cancer!!! Last week one of the 7 Kids store customers told me about how she is currently making cards for the children at the Yale New Haven Hospital suffering from cancer. She herself has cancer and it has been a great blessing to her, even though she is ill, to make cards for these children. Lisa recommends that you write something like "Sending hugs and hoping you get well soon!" as well as signing your name. It really means a lot to the kids.

So, if you want to make a child hospitalized with cancer smile and you would like a chance to win a year-long subscription to a great magazine, please contact Tab at 7kidscollegefund@cox.net for her mailing address. She will accept entry cards through Oct. 12

7 Kids College Fund store is giving away a one-year subscription to Paper Crafts magazine to one lucky customer. This magazine is full of amazing ideas using the most popular products. And, it's not just cards, there are tons of paper crafting projects.

How can you win this one-year subscription? It's easy, and you will be doing something amazing for children with cancer!!! Last week one of the 7 Kids store customers told me about how she is currently making cards for the children at the Yale New Haven Hospital suffering from cancer. She herself has cancer and it has been a great blessing to her, even though she is ill, to make cards for these children. Lisa recommends that you write something like "Sending hugs and hoping you get well soon!" as well as signing your name. It really means a lot to the kids.

So, if you want to make a child hospitalized with cancer smile and you would like a chance to win a year-long subscription to a great magazine, please contact Tab at 7kidscollegefund@cox.net for her mailing address. She will accept entry cards through Oct. 12

random thoughts from CHA SUMMER!

I had a wonderful time at the CHA SUMMER trade show!   I'll try to condense it all down and share bits and pieces with you!  PS I haven't edited my pic .... I wanted to try to get these on here :-)

A BIG THANKS to Tab from 7 Kids College Fund  who hooked me up with my pass into the vendor only trade show.  7 Kids has a great selection of new CHA items as well as Tim Holtz/Ranger, Spellbinders, Core d'nations cardstock and more!    I am also attending the two day consumer show and can't wait to do more great make n' takes, meet up with my pals and SHOP!

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I think I walked 20 miles :-) sure wish I had worn my pedometer!  For those of you not familiar with the convention center, parking is on the back side.... then you walk and walk and walk just to get into the convention center/exhibit area - where you walk and walk and walk some more!

and OMW! I met soooo many SCSers :-) Jeanne Streiff {inky paws}, Kittie747,  SherryLC05, AJ Otto, Maren Benedict, Jimmi Mayo, and all the Unity girls (with their stinkin cute shirts!),  Bad Sherry, and Texas Grammy.  I didn't get a chance to meet up {yet} with Jenn Balcer and Dawn McVey, but will later this week.  

Here's Jeanne demonstrating Copics!

 
I was bummed that the conv. center blocks wireless, so my blackberry photo taking/typepad/twitter/facebook updates were all blocked! 
 
Carol Duval was chit chatting in the lobby when I walked in and Tim Holtz was incredible! Here's Tim:

 
Here were some of my absolute favs:
 
Make and Takes:  Claudine Hellmuth for Ranger (we made these amazing pendants, I promise to take a pic and share with you!  Claudine is on the right there in the pic) and Harmonie (a french canadian scrapbook company).  

 I thought I took pics at Harmonie -   <---you can click to see their website! but I only took one picture (I must have gotten distracted!)

 
Fav Give Aways:  new Jack O'Lantern from Tattered Angels, buttons from Blumenthal, wool roving from Clover (for felting). 

Here are some of the gorgeous samples at the Tattered Angels booth:

 
New Products:  Rock Candy from Tim Holtz/Ranger (like crackle accents, but thinner .... great for paper!),  new Halloween stuff from Crafty Secrets, Cosmo Cricket!  Watch for a new bingo card stamp from Unity and beautiful papers from Robin's Nest. 

 

  

Check out some of the cosmo cricket eye-candy!

 
My predictions:  You'll be seeing Bingo themed stuff everywhere, Halloween this year will be better than ever (although I'm prejudiced ~ halloween is my birthday!) and colors for fall will be: bronze, purples and buttons will be BIG! 

(Halloween fun from Crafty Secrets!)

(Button pendants - these were make and takes from Blumenthal!)

Hip hop ... its Friday! What makes you happy?

This week's Unity challenge was to make a card/item with Unity stamps that would someone smile. 

Check out this stamp - Burst Forth Flower ... amazing, isn't it?  I stamped it with white ink onto Basic Grey Urban Prairie (Meadow) paper and then cut out.  Its on a piece of Chocolate Box Color Core CS - have you seen this?  If you're looking for a source for the Color core (core'dinations) cardstock just click the link to be whisked to 7 Kids College Fund, they have Chocolate, the original Black and the new "Whitewashed" packs.  

Its amazing cardstock .... colored on the inside (in all kinds of tertiary hues) and deep brown on the outside, the color is revealed when you distress it.  In this case I debossed (I used a CB embossing folder, but made the impression go into the paper, instead of popped up) and then took a sanding block and sanded all over - and against the edges (to sorta give it a bezeled look).  I then took a scrap and stamped again and cut it out for the second flower layer. 

I thought this card would be perfect with this scarf.  This is Habotai silk, measuring 8 in x 54 in. Its been dyed using Adirondack inks from Ranger in Stream, Bottle and Lettuce.  I then stamped in black ink (Archival) the flower.

 

 

Bittersweet

I should be making cards, but lately I've been doing ALOT of jewelry and really having fun with button bracelets.

It started with this one ....... (Bella's Isle Esme bracelet)

And now I've done this one! This is made from Basic Grey's Bittersweet buttons - buttons ostensibly designed to match the Bittersweet line of paper, but I used some of the buttons for this bracelet. 

The buttons are linked together with galvanized silver seed beads and the buttons vary in size, with the little ones stacked on the big ones.

 

 

  Enjoy!

 

It came! It came! It came!

It came! It came! It came!

My box from 7 Kids College Fund with my NEW nestabilities in it!  Yay!!!!

This week its Christmas in July!

Its hot and humid in FL and I'm workin' on Christmas cards!  This is probably my first card using the Swiss Dots embossing folder and it won't be my last!  Everything else is from Stampin' Up!  The stamp set is "Big on Christmas" the colors are Glorious Green, Green Galore, YoYo Yellow and Real Red.

This card was part of the batch I made over the Fourth of July challenge, all the cards are left blank - to be sent to the deployed men and women serving in the US Military. These are cards for them to use and send back home to their families.

You can learn more about donating cards here:

http://www.cardsforheroes.org/

They welcome all types:  Birthday, Get Well, Anniversary, Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc.  There are no vendor restrictions, you can use Stampin' Up or whatever floats your boat!  Please consider them and whenever you are making a card, make a second (or third or fourth) for them!

{Anyone seen the movie Evan Almighty?  Perhaps my favorite line is when God (played by an incredible Morgan Freeman) says we can change the world with one random act at a time!}

Sunday sweets: A Dutch Dare!

Ummmmmmm....  Cherry Pie {said in my best Homer Simpsons voice}.  Need I say more? 

This card features the slice of heaven from Sweet Treats/Pink Cat Studios and lots of other goodies available at the 7 Kids store .... cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder, Basic Grey Perhaps paper, Spellbinders Nestabilities from the large scallop rectangle set, and fun FLOCK! Check them out, they've got fabulous customer service and phenomenal pricing! 

Flock is used to create the "a la mode" ice cream, and I used crystal effects (or diamond glaze) for the cherries to give them a shiny effect.

Check out the other challenge submissions here:

http://dutchdare-cardchallenges.blogspot.com/2008/07/challenge-6_16.html