August 17, 2016
4 Comments
Hello Sistahs and Happy Wednesday! For this week’s card, I decided to use a couple of fun techniques but I kept the design clean and simple so the adorable Uptown Girl Monique Loves Macarons was the focus. The first technique I used was no-line Copic coloring. I stamped the image in a Copic friendly light brown ink. I then carefully colored it in with my markers. I’m always a bit skeptical of how it will turn out at the beginning but by the end the results are so satisfying. It makes the image look more like a sketch. A little time consuming, but so worth it!
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I searched for some patterned paper to compliment the image and just couldn’t find the right one so I grabbed my watercolors and made my own. I used a small square brush and carefully brushed lines across the paper. I didn’t mind if they weren’t entirely straight because it added to the whimsy of the image. I’m a big fan of this technique because it makes it a one of a kind piece of art. Here’s a close up of some of the details:
Lastly, I love the sentiment that comes with this set but I just couldn’t figure out a way to make it work on the front. I had some cute little teal doilies in my stash and thought they would be the perfect mat for the sentiment. So I stamped it up and adhered it to the inside of the card. I try to make the inside of my cards just as special as the outside. It’s like a bonus for the recipient!
Hope you all have a great week and I’ll see you next Wednesday Sistahs!!
Jenny
August 16, 2016 2 Comments
Hey all! Elaineabella here today to shine that spotlight on some of the wonderful stamps in the Stamping Bella collection. There are some many fantastic images we don’t want you to miss any, and they all deserve another turn in the spotlight. We love sharing all the new releases, but the oldies definitely deserve some love too!
Today I’d like to shine the spotlight on one of our awesome artists – Christine Grove. Christine has illustrated some wonderful and warmly humorous stamps for Stamping Bella, each with their own special charm. Let’s take a look at some of them.
One of my very favourites is the amazing Nacho.
This little dog is just…well, words fail me. That expressive face. He’s a popular little guy, and I’m not surprised. One of those stamps that just never fails to make me smile.
If you love our little Nacho, there’s also a festive option! Nachodeer, because well, obviously!
Isn’t he ridiculous? Look at him trying to work out what on earth he has come as. 😉 Nachodeer also has a coordinating CUT IT OUT die available to make creating those Christmas cards easy, and let’s face it we all need all the help we can get with the festive workload right?
While we’re talking festive images, here are a couple more holiday favourites of mine:
This pair of Christmas elves could not be cuter. This image has a warm, quirky yet cosy style that just makes me feel Christmassy. It’s hard to explain, but they do! Also, look at those reindeer slippers and their pigeon toed stance. I simply cannot. Can you? 😉
For goodness sake! You cannot leave anything unattended without some little weirdo shoving it in their mouth. Candy cane? Christmas mouse has no idea what you’re talking about. Nope.
Love the humour in Christine’s images, and this is a perfect example. Ideal for creating cards for friends and family that prefer humour to sentimentality. I think I need to colour this little fellow again soon – I’ve got the perfect recipient in mind.
Moving away from the festive stamps, although you really should take a closer look at the whole range if you haven’t already… On to some more of my everyday favourites.
I love this little guy with the heart shaped balloon. He’s just so happy and chubby, and the little heart shape at the end of his tail? Just too much. Definitely a fun image to colour, with some opportunity for really emphasising those creases in his outfit with your shading. That sentiment is perfect too, and goes well with many other stamps across the Stamping Bella range.
Here’s a gorgeous card from our beloved Paulabella, showing that Milton looks equally wonderful in softer tones and that you can play with the sentiment by chopping it up to create your own (love doing this).
Another ridiculous little creature! Absolutely in love with him. Cutest chubby little owl ever. Who does he think he is with those glasses? Elton John?
Doesn’t he look perfect on Aliceabella’s beautiful card? Love her layered yet still clean and simple style.
Finally, let’s take a peek at the Seniorita line by Christine Grove. Personally, I rather enjoy the warmth and humour in this range of stamps.
Seniorita Magda is beyond fabulous.
No one is stopping that diva from strutting her stuff. Not you, not me, not Old Father Time. She’s amazing, she knows it and everyone else is going to know it. Getting old? Whatever. She’s not putting that boa away for anyone.
Hopefully I’ve inspired you to add some of the Christine Grove stamps to your own stamp collection, or to stamp up any that you already have!
Share your personal favourite Christine Grove creations with us. We LOVE to see what you’ve been creating with Stamping Bella stamps. Share a link to your latest Stamping Bella card in the comments below, or an old favourite you made a while ago. Tell us what your favourite Christine Grove stamps are. Are there any additions you would like to see to the Christine Grove collection? Let us know!
Another way to connect is by joining us in the Stamping Bella Sistahood Facebook Group and share your pictures.
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!
Until next time, HAPPY STAMPING!
MWAH
Elaineabella
August 15, 2016 7 Comments
Hey folks! Elaineabella here with another Marker Geek Monday post to kick off a week of colouring fun.
If you missed last week’s post, make sure you check it out: Marker Geek Monday Copic Colouring Easy Curly Hair feat. Edna. Perfect if you’re looking for some tips in tackling the curly hair on our Edna stamps and others like some of the Uptown Girls, Tiny Townies and Bellas!
In today’s post I’d like to revisit a technique I shared last year on my Marker Geek blog – colouring a night sky or galaxy background with Copic markers. This technique would also work with other brands of alcohol based marker, just substitute the colours for similar ones!
Here’s the step by step colouring guide for my night sky or galaxy background technique. Further on you will find a video (with audio commentary), so you can really get to grips with how I approach this technique!
TOP TIP: When colouring a background for a stamped image, colour the background first. If you colour the image first you may spoil your work when flicking the colourless blender.
Watch the video below or in HD over on Youtube.
Here’s a list of the colours I used to create the background as shown in the video and step by step guide above. However these are not the only colours you could use! Search for some reference images online and get inspiration for colourful galaxies to emulate using this technique.
This technique creates beautiful backgrounds that can be used to enhance your images and give a real *wow* factor.
TOP TIP: Use vibrant colour on your image to make it really stand out against the coloured background.
On this card I popped our wonderful NACHO in front of a circle I die cut from my previously coloured galaxy background. I thought his expression and the die cut sentiment I had chosen went perfectly with the WOW background. He honestly cannot believe what he’s seeing. 😉 I think this might just be one of my favourite cards, ever, because I love how the background turned out but mostly because I LOVE that ridiculous little dog.
On my next card I took our lovely little Tiny Townie Hayley the Hero, and coloured the background around her. I took a little extra time with the colourless blender around the sentiment to help it stand out against the dark background.
I created a more subtle version of this background for my Superbella V2.0 card recently, to show her hovering outside the window ready to save the day!
Let’s take a look at some other stamps in the Stamping Bella collection that I think would be perfect for setting against this background.
One that immediately springs to mind is little Tiny Townie Amanda is Awesome. How beautiful and sentimental would this image be with Amanda looking out at a beautiful starry night sky?
A couple of obvious choices are our other superhero stamps:
Parker the Pig from our Christine Grove line. Love that little guy.
Another heroic Christine Grove stamp – Seniorita Gladys the SuperHero.
Wouldn’t Edna the Diva look FABULOUS set against this background, as if she’s fluttering off for a night on the town?
You could make this technique work for so many images, to give them an extra twist. It would work beautifully with many of our festive HOLIDAYS stamp releases (hint, hint there may be some more appearing soon 😉 ). How beautiful would a snowman like FROSTIER look set against a night sky? The contrast would make for a card with super visual impact!
TOP TIP: Many of the newer Stamping Bella releases now come with matching CUT IT OUT DIES. It really couldn’t be any easier to cut out a character to pop in front of a fun background.
If you try out the techniques shown in this post with your Stamping Bella stamps, be sure to share! Take a look through your collection, or add some more from the website and see what you can come with! 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!
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
August 12, 2016 4 Comments
Hope you all had a great week and enjoyed our daily posts!
We have some catching up to do! I just realized I haven’t announced any $25 Contributin’ winnahs since MARCH.. OMG So without further HUMILIATING ado.. let’s discuss some winnahs.
April Winnah-Georgia used CHERRY CHICKS on her card. Georgia, please email me (emily@stampingbella.com) so that I can send you your vouchah!
May Winnah-Nancee used HONEYBEAR STUFFIES on her card. Nancee, please email me so that I can send you your vouchah!
June Winnah- NG cards used UPTOWN GIRL MELANIE the MODERN BRIDE for her card in June. please email me so I can send you your vouchah!
July Winnah – ASHLEE used UPTOWN GIRLS SAMANTHA and SIERRA take a SELFIE on her card in July .. Ashlee please email me so I can send you your vouchah!
Congrats to da Winnahs!
For this week’s Bellarific Friday we had a MOJOBELLA SKETCH
lets see what our baberoonis came up with shall we?
Danabella used TINY TOWNIE MELISSA loves MOVIES stamp and cut it out die
and the inside
FAYE-WJ-abella used HARRY loves HAPPY MAIL stuffie
Kerribella used SENIOR-ita Beverly
Sandiebella used PENGUIdeer
Shelabella used YOGABELLA
Stephabella used EDNA loves ICE CREAM
Tracybella used COSMOBELLA
I love these cards!! TODAY I WILL CREATE. that’s gonna be my mantra today..you in with me?
and now for da sistahood!
take a look at the BOTTOM OF THIS POST for our INLINKZ contributahs!
and for our EMAIL CONTRIBUTAH:
now for next week’s theme?
an inspiration photo! Use this as a creative starting point to make your creation for next week! Use the flower theme, composition color.. whatever strikes your fancy! Can’t wait to see what you come up with! If this is your first time contributing, take a look HERE on how to enter!
August 11, 2016 10 Comments
We hope you’ve enjoyed checking out Sandiebella’s tutorial and are feeling inspired to try it out yourselves. If you do, make sure you drop by and share with us! You can get in touch in all the following ways:
Happy Stamping!
August 10, 2016 4 Comments
Hello Sistahs! I hope you are all having a wonderful week! This week I wanted to highlight one of my favorite times of the year, American football season! Pre-season games start this week and with that in mind, I knew I needed to use one of the new Bella 2.0 stamps, POMPOMABELLA.
I started by modifying her cheerleading outfit a bit with a Copic multiliner to better match my favorite team’s uniforms. I colored her up with Copics and then decided to make some fun 3-D pom-poms for her. If you’d like to know how to make them yourself, I’ll have a quick and easy tutorial up on my blog along with all of the supplies I used to create the card. You can hop on over here: www.owlbecrafty.blogspot.com
Looking forward to three more lovely weeks with the Sistahs! Have a great day and I’ll see you next Wednesday!
Jenny
