WELCOME TO BLOGABELLA

Some of my very favourite Stamping Bella stamps are from the fun range the COOL CHICKS! Love those little guys, and it never ceases to amaze me just how much character they have. They keep popping up with the Tiny Townies too, in fact you never quite know where they’ll appear to inject a little humour. So, this week I thought I’d share some Copic combos for colouring the chicks. The stamp set I used is Heidi Needs a Hug (this stamp was also featured in my Copic Hair Combos post) and this little chick is a separate stamp, so you can use him to create a scene with Heidi or even let him wander off and offer a flower wherever it might be needed!

While you’re playing with yellow combos, add a little extra detail to your chicks using techniques from my Basic Fur with Markers post (texture doesn’t have to be just for fur y’know). If you check out another sweet chick from the Stamping Bella range – Mimi the Chick Misses You – you will see that I textured her using the colourless blender refill technique. Some of the Cool Chicks are a little tiny for this, but others like Slick Chick would be perfect for getting some extra detail happening!

Have a go and let us know how you got on by sharing your work here in the comments section, over in the Stamping Bella Sistahood chat group on Facebook, directly on the Stamping Bella Facebook page or on Instagram by using the tag #markergeekmonday . We love hearing from you and sharing the enthusiasm for Stamping Bella!

MWAH!

~Elaineabella

Hiya sistahs!  Hope you had a great week!

Crazy Tuesday this week has DEFINITELY kept us busy 🙂  Thank you for your support!

I am a bit behind with announcing our winnahs for contributing on da blog.. and so sorry for that!

Here is the winnah for FEB 2016 –

Cindy Major! you win a $25 gift certificate for THIS card using Uptown girls VICTORIA and JULIETTE posted on Feb 25th!  Please email me and I will send you your vouchah!

Here is our winnah for MARCH 2016!

Annette! You win for using Uptown girl BRITTANY the BIRTHDAY GIRL on THIS CARD posted on March 25th!  Please email me for your $25 vouchah!

Just gorgeous!

And now for this week’s theme!  This week we had a gorgeous MOJOBELLA sketch.. I decided to play too  this week!

AliceWERTZabella used our GARDENING CHICKS stamp and “CUT IT OUT” die bundle 🙂

Angelabella used TINY TOWNIE HEIDI needs a HUG

Danabella used THE BUNNY WOBBLE and the PEONY

I used the CHICK and the ladybug

Faye-W-J-abella used Uptown girl CLAUDIA has a candy.  THOSE PLEATS!!!

Lesliebella used PAMPERED

Kerriebella used THE STUFFIE GANG

Sandiebella used OWLIVER loves to CELEBRATE

Shelabella used TINY TOWNIE BIRTHDAY PARTY

Stephabella used Uptown girl TESSIE the TEACHER

Tracy used Bedelia and Betsy go for a walk

TracyMACabella used GIGI the GIRAFFE stuffie

How inspiring are these cards??? YUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMM

and Now for our sistahood!

To see our contributions on INLINKZ, click HERE and scroll to the bottom of the post

And now for the emailed contributions 🙂

Now for next week’s theme?

A BEEYOOTIFUL inspiration photo!

Use the color scheme.. the floral or craft theme… Use this photo to inspire you!

Mwah to da sistahs who love bellarific fridays ALMOST as much as I do 🙂

Em

and you know what that means sistahs?? THAT MEANS… CUH razy prices on special images we have chosen!  This is our way to thank you for your loyalty over the years!  These CUHRAZY prices allow you to shop til you drop without an ounce of guilt… Imagine retail therapy and feeling GREAT about it!  WOOHOOO!!  I love crazy TUESDAYS!  When does it happen?  Every FIRST TUESDAY of EVERY MONTH!

So if you want to start collecting our images, or start a little stash for someone special.. this is the way to go.

This month’s CRAZY TOOSDAY specials are:

and after 24 hours…. POOF our Crazy Tuesday becomes ho hum Wednesday!  So don’t wait sistahs 🙂

MWAH!

This week I thought I’d share some Copic combos for colouring the adorable elephant images in Stamping Bella’s Stuffie stamp range. The image I used is I’ll Always Have Your Back Stuffies (is that little baby not the sweetest thing ever?).

I have used combos from all four of the Copic Grey families, but I just had to thrown in a bonus smooshy pink elephant at the end, I’m sure you will understand. 😉

This seems like a great opportunity to chat about the different grey families, so you can either put the markers you have to use, or so you can make better informed choices when you come to add to your collection!

• The first example shows a combination of Neutral Greys. As the name suggests, these are neutral in tone. I love using the darker Neutral Grey shades for colouring black hair (as seen in my Marker Geek Monday Copic Hair Combos post) as they give a true black look.

• The second example shows a combination of Cool Greys. These have a blue tone and work really well for colouring and shading cool colours and objects.

• The third example shows a combination of Toner Greys. These have a slightly brown tone. I often use the Toner Greys for simple grounding of characters etc.

• The fourth example shows a combination of Warm Greys. These have a really warm brown tone to them and are great for shading warm colours and natural objects/materials.

If you’re just getting started with Copic markers, I’d recommend thinking about the images you’re most likely to be colouring and picking one or two of the grey families to purchase first. I started out with just the Cool and Warm Greys, and was perfectly happy for quite some time. Now, I tend to reach for the Toner and Neutral families more often.

GENERAL TIP: You don’t need every single grey marker in a family (or in any colour family). A great way to build your collection is to leave a gap of one or two shades between the colours. You can achieve plenty of depth and variety by layering the colours together in different amounts.

The little pink elephant that slipped in at the end was coloured using the “smooshy, squiggly” texturing style discussed in my previous Marker Geek Monday Three Ways to Colour a Stuffie Bear post. After all, these little elephants are in the Stuffies range, so why not colour them to look cute and textured like cuddly plushie toys?! You could also use this texturing technique with the grey colours too, to mix the realism with a little fun! A bright or baby blue ellie would be adorable too, pair that or the pink (or a soft yellow version) with an appropriate sentiment and you would have a perfect card for a new baby!

Have a go and let us know how you got on by sharing your work here in the comments section, over in the Stamping Bella Sistahood chat group on Facebook, directly on the Stamping Bella Facebook page or on Instagram by using the tag #markergeekmonday . We love hearing from you and sharing the enthusiasm for Stamping Bella!

MWAH!

~Elaineabella

Hiya sistahs!

Hope you are having a great week and I KNOW you are probably looking forward to the weekend ALMOST as much as I am 😉

Today’s April first.. all of our new banners are up on da website and our stamp of the month is announced 🙂

Today’s also Bellarific friday of course and I CANNOT wait to show you what our BABEROONIS have been up to!  YAY for INSPIRATION! 🙂

not only is it Bellarific Friday but it’s the first Friday of the month where our baberoonis will show you how to work with LOLLY!

Here’s ALICEwertzABELLA’s card

Here’s Angelabella’s card

Danabella’s card

FayeW-Jabella’s card

Kerribella’s card

Shelabella’s card

Lesliebella’s card

Sandiebella’s card

Stephabella’s card

TracyMACabella’s card

Does that not make you wanna create??!??!?  with LOLLY??? LOL.. I want lolly to come create with me 🙂

And now for our amazing sistahood!  our theme for da sistahood was a FREE FOR ALL!  Use any Current Stamping Bella stamp and make a card and POOF you’ve entered our challenge 🙂

For any new sistahs who would like to contribute, check out our instructions HERE

Check out the amazing contributions via INLINKZ  at the bottom of THIS POST

And now for our EMAILED Contributions from da SISTAHOOD

How’s THAT for creative genius!?

Now for next week’s theme?

A MOJOBELLA sketchypoo!  Just use a current image in this sketch and submit and you’re off to da races 🙂  I so hope I have time to play along too 🙂

Mwah to da sistahs who are ready to get inky!

Em

Hiya sistahs 🙂

Just thought I would share a little bit of DIS and a little bit of DAT with you 🙂

I’ve been journaling a LOT lately :).. keeping up in one of my favorite planners called the HOBONICHI.  If you haven’t heard of it, BEWARE.  ENABLER ALERT and I CANNOT be blamed.  N’uh uh… Nope.. not taking responsibility for this one :).  The shocking thing about this Hobo (as I refer to him) is that I actually have been using it almost EVERY SINGLE DAY.  The beauty of the size I bought (A5) is that it has the month at a glance (which I love)… the Week at a glance.. Which I love.. and Daily pages which I enjoy collaging and scribbling in  ( I actually decorate all of my pages :)).  Ive mentioned it here before but I love documenting life.. taking and printing little pictures.. writing about the good, the bad and the UGLY.. and basically leaving a legacy for those around me.. to maybe understand me more.. to create my own “history” by gluing things in that are current but that won’t be so current in 50 years.. LOL.. does that make sense?  I won’t be so current in 50 years.. HAHA. I make me laugh!

Another thing I love about this journal is the paper… ahhhhh… the paperrrrrrr…  It’s called Tomoe River paper and it is GLORIOUS!  It’s super thin and can take a lot of abuse.. it takes fountain pens beautifully without much show through.. you can stamp on it.. you can even watercolour and collage on it too.. It’s OUTSTANDING. Bella’s stamp of approval fo’ sho’.

Here’s my page from yesterday.. where I treated myself to an OMBRE (where your hair is darker at the top and gradually gets a bit lighter towards the bottom)…. my hair was so grey that I couldn’t even look in the mirror any more! not that there is anything wrong with grey… but I no likey on me.  So I decided to do something a little different.. change things up  a bit.

On the TOP RIGHT of the page you will see our JAVA SPILLS stamp… this is my GO TO stamp to make backgrounds, to fill space in my journals.. etc.  it’s AMAZINK.

I was speaking to my friend today and confirmed my journaling portion on this page with her.  It’s not only me who feels HIDEOUS at the hairdresser.  I LOATHE looking in the mirror there.. LOL.. why do I feel so yuck there? My friend also said she feels the same way.. she thinks there’s something in the lighting and that there should be photo filters everywhere as soon as you walk in LOL.

Another great thing about this journal is that you can use all your scraps in there… you can swatch your coloured pencils, inks paints.. It’s about life and what’s important to you.  It’s YOUR place to play.

LOVE.

Another thing I shared on social media today was that our very own FAYEW-Jabella got our Tiny Townie Penelope has a pencil on the right hand side of the COVAH of Making Cards magazine.  WOOHOOOOOO!!!  Take a lookie.

I also didn’t do WONDERFUL WEDNESDAYS WITH PAULA yesterday!  Here’s her STUNNING CARD using Tiny Townie Blossom loves BALLOONS..her colouring?  sigh.

Mwah to da sistahs who “make their own journaling history”

Em