I was doing a little happy dance earlier this week when some cute little Bellas landed in my mail box! Thank you Emily!!! Yes, I'm probably the last person to get some of these cute little stamps, but it certainly made for a cheery mail day.
As a little girl I loved playing with paper dolls. Well the Bellas sort of remind me of those days - playing dress up and designing clothes for my paper dolls was something I really enjoyed. Now it's a whole lot easier with the scrumptious papers that are on the market and the fabulous stamps we have available.
I'm guessing that many of you have seen the Lockhart slippers I did in the past using paper as my base, but if it's been too long ago and the recollection has faded I thought I'd post them once again for you here. These slippers are fairly simple and it is easy to then doodle a design on them as shown at my store, but it is even easier to just stamp on some fabulous paper, cut them out and piece them back together.
So back to the Bellas. My friend LZ - the queen of shabby chic has been dressing her paper bellas and she inspired me to pull out my fabulous new Pheobe Basic Grey 6x6 pads and dress these oh so chicabellas. I've take a few pictures along the way to show my little process.
First I picked several of the different papers from the Pheobe collection. I then stamped the Bella's on a Stamp-a-ma-jig imaging sheet so that I could place my Bella exactly where I wanted on the patterned paper. (Did I mention I'm a little detail oriented? LOL! Or perhaps you might call me a bit anal, but I prefer detail oriented :D) Now in order not to waste any of my precious paper I masked it off using my Eclipse tape. (Hopefully I'll have a link to it in my store before the end of the weekend - I live and breath with this stuff by my side - LOL). Tada - perfect placement :D So I stamped and cut out my little designer fashions.
Next I stamped the Bellas and watercolored them in using my Lyra watercolor crayons, but I left them nekked - teehee. Now to dress these adorable little creatures I found that by coloring in the area to be dressed with my Quickie Glue Pen it made it so easy to get these girls all dolled up.
It may be hard to see, but the second girl from the left has a light blue coating of glue on the dress area. This was applied with the pen. I then added a hint of sparkle with the Clear Stardust Pen. It's in their hair and on their dresses - a girl can never have too much sparkle I'd say.
So here they are - all ready to go out and stamp the town red. The ribbon attachment is a Michelle Wooderson technique that I absolutely adore. A girl can also never have too much ribbon in my opinion. I had taken this pic with the gobs of bolts of ribbon I had pulled to see what went the best and wouldn't you know it - it was the simplicity of that old grosgrain that just captured the right mood. This layout really needed to have the "calming" effect of the solid ribbon with all the busy patterned paper.
So pull out your patterned paper ladies and go dress your stamps :D
Ellen,
see you are not alone with holding out on jumping on the bella train. I have not yet neither.... But now after seeing your card, I rally want to as well. I love your card!!! It's inspired me to buy that exact stamp (group of stamping bella's?). However I am not able to find it on their website... Can you guide me in the right direction, please? Thanks again for the great tutorial!
Posted by: Claudia | March 26, 2007 at 04:48 AM
Wonderful card and tutorial Ellen!
Posted by: Beate | March 20, 2007 at 05:32 AM
You're not the last - I don't have any bellas yet either! Love what you did with them!
Posted by: scoopy | March 19, 2007 at 02:48 PM
It is funny you should mention the paper doll thing...I was doing a stamp camp yesterday and one of the cards was a bella...with designer paper clothes and one of the girls said...this reminds me of paper dolls! Just thought I would share this with you!
Your card is fabulous as always!
Posted by: Dana Jones | March 19, 2007 at 12:47 PM
Your bellas are absolutely adorable, Ellen!! I love the Phoebe paper!
Posted by: Taylor | March 19, 2007 at 11:41 AM
GASP, GASP again, finally, shut my gaping mouth! Ellen, you've taken the Bella's to another level...out of the stratosphere! I fell in LOVE with them the very first moment I saw them and now you've given me a reason for them to bring me even more Joy. Your work is beautiful, TFS, TFS, TFS and inspiring!!
Posted by: Juanita (Toni173) | March 19, 2007 at 08:46 AM
Very charming indeed! Alas, I am one of those still left out there with no Bella's to play with. :o(
Love the idea of using the patterned paper to dress them up. Ida
Posted by: ipkstampshappy | March 19, 2007 at 08:10 AM
Nice to see Bella's done in a different way other than coloured. Nice attention to detail.
Posted by: BonnieW | March 19, 2007 at 08:00 AM
thank you for the step by step on how to dress them, this is what I have been wanting to do for a while, but never seen a step by step on how to do this, this helps me so much! Thanks! they look great and I agree with the ribbon!
Posted by: Lisa C. | March 19, 2007 at 05:34 AM
My Bellas are due to arrive today. I guess I will start dressing them up!!!
Posted by: Susanna | March 19, 2007 at 05:30 AM
WOW! as always you take stamping to a higher level and pass your creative ideas on to others. Thanks, Ellen!
Posted by: Judith Novak | March 19, 2007 at 04:54 AM
No Bellas here yet either, Ellen! These are just too sweet though--I love the patterned paper dresses!
Posted by: Debbie Olson | March 18, 2007 at 09:45 PM
Your Bellas are stylin' chicks!! I love how you've "dressed" them! Thanks for sharing the process with us. ;)
Posted by: Rose Ann | March 18, 2007 at 09:45 PM
your bellas are awesome and you're not the last to get them! my first bellas arrived in the mail yesterday and here's what i did today...
http://confetti.typepad.com
so much fun! i mostly colored and painted them in, but i did do paper patchwork for cakeabella's apron!
:) lexi
Posted by: lexi daly | March 18, 2007 at 07:47 PM
Wow ~~ lots of work but the end result is phenomenal!!! Love it (& no you're not the last to get the Bellas ~~ I have nary a one!!!)
Posted by: Michelle (MilwaukeeMommy) | March 18, 2007 at 07:26 PM
This is sooo cute!!! I must have the stamp(s). Where can I find them? Please tell! I need me some Bellas!
Posted by: Jennifer H | March 18, 2007 at 07:18 PM
Oh for goodness sake. This rocks!! Now all your bellas need are a few "pearls"!!
by the way, you are not the last one to buy these -- I'm a hold out!
Posted by: Joan B | March 18, 2007 at 06:30 PM
Oh my! I love how you dressed your Bellas!! Beautiful job!
Wendy
Posted by: Wendy | March 18, 2007 at 04:00 PM
Tooooooooooo cute, tooooooooo fun & sooooooooo creative!!
Posted by: Linda C | March 18, 2007 at 01:50 PM
Very cute card! I too am addicted to cutting out Bella's clothes - they add so much fun to the card and it makes me feel like a kid again!! :)
Posted by: Julie | March 18, 2007 at 12:49 PM
How creative! They turned out very cute! I'll have to see what patterned paper I have to make a dress out of.
Posted by: Viv (VivLyn) | March 18, 2007 at 12:35 PM
Nope, you're not the last one to get the Bellas. I've been putting it off for too long now apparently. Thanks for the amazing idea!!! Guess I'll have to get some Bellas so I can play dress up too! :)
Posted by: Katie | March 18, 2007 at 10:10 AM
Too much fun you clever girl! :D
Posted by: Lisa Strahl | March 18, 2007 at 09:19 AM
OMGosh, those Bellas are to die for, Ellen -- love their dresses!
Posted by: Sharon Harnist | March 18, 2007 at 08:12 AM
Very cool, thanks for showing the process of dressing the girls, they are too cute!
Posted by: Maus | March 18, 2007 at 06:37 AM