Hiya sistahs!  Here is another amazing card and post by our KATHY RACAbella using our  FALL BACKDROP (minus the fall tree :)) and our LITTLES APPLE PICKING stamp

and a closeup of the finished card 🙂

It’s Spotlight Tuesday time again! This week we’re going to continue our wander through the Christmas and Winter themed offerings at Stamping Bella. I know, I know, today is Halloween, but since many of us are well into Christmas crafting, it seems a little more useful to share some festive inspiration!

Continue reading Spotlight On: Christmas & Winter at Stamping Bella Part 3

Marker Geek Monday time! I’m in the midst of moving house, so I’m swapping between colouring images and colouring walls at the moment. Fingers crossed, I’ll be all settled in to a new craft room before the end of November. Wish me luck!

Today I thought I would share some details for images I have been colouring and sharing over on Instagram recently.

Firstly, here’s gorgeous little Tiny Townie Hattie loves Halloween.

I stamped Hattie using Ranger Archival Ink in Sepia on Strathmore Toned Tan paper, before colouring her using Faber-Castell Polychromos coloured pencils.

Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils Used:
Skin: Light Flesh, Medium Flesh, Cinnamon, Dark Flesh, Ivory Hair: Venetian Red, Indian Red, Caput Mortuum, Terra Cotta, Caput Mortuum Violet, Ivory Hat/Cloak: Black, Warm Grey II, V, VI Dress/Hat Band:May Green, Earth Green Yellowish, Olive Green Yellowish Buckle/Broom: Burnt Umber, Dark Chrome Yellow, Sepia, Dark Naples Ochre, Cream Broom Handle: Burnt Ocher, Raw Umber, Ivory

Secondly, here’s my pencil version of Uptown Girl Kitty loves Halloween.

I stamped this stylish trick-or-treater using Ranger Archival Ink in Sepia on Strathmore Toned Tan paper, then coloured her using my new Derwent ProColour coloured pencils. I will be posting my thoughts on these pencils in the near future, as soon as I get chance to play a little more!

Derwent ProColour Pencils Used:
Skin:Flesh Pink, Salmon, Pink Madder Lake, Mars Violet Hair: Nutmeg, Autumn Leaf, Sunset Gold Ears, Tail etc: Ivory Black, Gunmetal, Blue Grey Dress: Grape, Imperial Purple, Blue Violet Lake Pumpkin: Yellow Ochre, Spectrum Orange, Autumn Leaf

TIP: Should you try colouring on a kraft/tan paper or any other different shade from the usual white, I highly recommend creating a swatch/colour chart on the same paper first. That way you can see exactly how the colours behave.

If you’d like me to cover a specific topic here, do let me know by leaving a comment, and I will see what I can do! Bear with me for the next few weeks though, as I am in the process of moving house and will be busy for a little while setting up my new craft room!

Over To You!

If you try out the techniques shown in any of the posts with your Stamping Bella stamps, be sure to share! We would love to see the results and hear how you feel about them. Show off your creations in the comments below and even better, share your own favourite tips with us. Let’s talk colour!

If you are posting your images online, we would love to see them on Instagram and all the platforms mentioned above.  To make it easier for us to find you just use #markergeekmonday and/or #stampingbella as a hashtag. Even better tag me @markergeek and @stampingbella . We love it when you connect, so don’t be shy! Make sure you use the #SpotThisStampingBella hashtag on social media if you’re happy for me to feature your work in my Spotted On Sunday posts!

If you’re on Facebook join us in our private chat group Stamping Bella Sistahood to share your creations there and chat all things Stamping Bella related!

Until next time, HAPPY COLOURING!

MWAH

Elaineabella

For this week’s Stamp It Saturday post I thought I would share a few tips to help you get creating fun scenes with the Little Bits and their coordinating dies.

Here are a couple of cards I created for the Holiday 2017 release, featuring some of the new Little Bits stamps and one of the backdrops. On both cards I used the die cut images to assemble cute scenes.

Stamp & Die Sets Used: Little Bits Winter Tree & Deer Ball, Little Bits Set of Elves, Little Bits Santa’s Gifts, Holiday Sentiment Set

Stamp & Die Sets Used: Winter Backdrop, Little Bits Sledding, Little Bits Snowman Set, Holiday Sentiment Set

Tips:

• Since the dies cut the images with a narrow white border all around, I tend to find that I prefer them popped up against lighter backgrounds. This is a personal preference, but I find they look less stark. Another option of course is that you could fussy cut right up to the stamped outline (if you do this, I recommend colouring the cut edges with a black pen so everything looks neat).
• Try it out first! I like to play around with the arrangement for a little while, and see how things look in different positions. This is a lot easier to do with die cut pieces than masking and stamping, so that’s a real plus. A little tweaking to the positioning can make a world of difference to the final result. Once I find a layout I’m happy with, I take a quick photo with my smart phone that I can refer to when doing the final assembly.
• Create dimension! I like to create dimension by having some elements adhered flat to the background, and others that would be further forward in the scene popped up on foam pads, or double layers of foam pads.
• Keep it simple! Don’t go too crazy with the elements – use enough to tell a little story, but not so many that you overwhelm the eye.

This approach is a lot simpler to replicate than masking and stamping, as you could easily stamp a number of each element, colour them in batches, die cut and then assemble in the same way.

Useful Links:

Using Cut it Out Dies – tips for using the coordinating cut it out die sets to get great results.

Over To You!

If you try out the techniques shown in any of the posts with your Stamping Bella stamps, be sure to share! We would love to see the results and hear how you feel about them. Show off your creations in the comments below and even better, share your own favourite tips with us. Let’s talk stamping!

If you are posting your images online, we would love to see them on Instagram and all the platforms mentioned above.  To make it easier for us to find you just use #markergeekmonday and/or #stampingbella as a hashtag. Even better tag me @markergeek and @stampingbella . We love it when you connect, so don’t be shy!

If you’re on Facebook join us in our private chat group Stamping Bella Sistahood to share your creations there and chat all things Stamping Bella related!

Until next time, HAPPY STAMPING!

MWAH

Elaineabella

Hiya sistahs!  I am enjoying a moment’s peace in the corner of our hotel room in Philadelphia today!  We drove 10+ hours (CANNOT DISCUSS) yesterday and we are here for a hockey tournament for the boy child.  What’s kind of nice is that we met an amazing couple on our HONEYMOON twenty years ago have kept in touch on and off and we are meeting them again for dinner tonight!  The only thing is, apparently they’re not married anymore LOL but are still very close.. it’s amazing what time brings.. how life takes its turns and jumps and hops and sprints and nose dives..I am still happy that we get to see them again after all these years!  Second, I am apparently not allowed to breathe, speak, sniffle, shuffle, speak loud, whisper, tell a joke etc.. little boy who’s bigger than me seems a bit embarrassed.  HMPH.. it’s all about him bonding with his team mates.. there used to be a time when I was the CENTER of this BONDATION… now.. I am not needed anymore.  SIGH.. that circle of life I tell ya.  it’s ok, he went to one of the boys’ room last night to talk.. and when he came home he whispered to me.. “ma.. you wanna hear some stories??”.. how happy was I that the boy still wants to tell me things?  SO SO happy.

Ok enough blabla and on to our Bellarific Friday theme which was an inspiration photo

Time for another fab DT Thursday tutorial from Sandiebella!

Continue reading DT Thursday: Create a Double Pocket Card with Sandiebella!