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Bella Nella Altered Art & Paper Crafts Blog

Giveaway Winners for the Blog Hop Summer Celebration 2010

Not many participated, but all will win!

  I enjoyed visiting and getting to know you and your art.  It's always a treat to see each individual's interpretation on a theme.  Since it was only 4 of you, I'm going to send all of you prizes. 
Prize #1 will go to whoever of you 4 ladies has their birthday closest to mine, August 17 and will win a choice of anything in my Etsy shop.  

For the remaining 3 ladies, one of my new collage bags, a bag chuckfull of art supplies to make your own collages.  I'll be adding more of these in my Etsy shop soon too.




Congratulations to Courtney, Ann, Rebecca and DeeDee.  Get in touch with me with your date of birth so I can determine who gets what.  Thanks for participating.
I will try another blog hop in the future and hope it'll be a bit more successful.

 
Ciao,




Summer Celebration 2010 -- Challenge Link is UP
I'll spare you the details, but the last couple of days have been straight out of hell for me, but here's the link part, finally!! 

The boats adrift in the harbor
As thoughts in a calm mind
A liquid sun beaming today and forever
We hoard happiness a smile at a time
Welcome friends.  If you made a piece for the Summer Celebration 2010.  Please link up below.  Thanks for playing along.  


Summer Celebration 2010 Challenge
Here's my submission.  Thanks all for participating!!






Summer Celebration 2010 -- Challenge Still Open

I hope you are enjoying the beautiful sounds of the ocean on my blog.  Try clicking on the down arrow by "video" to see the beautiful beach also.
  Are you ready for the Summer Celebration?

 

 There's still time to join the Summer Celebration link party if you haven't.  The linking post will go up this Friday, August 13, but you may enter your link anytime after that until the following Friday, August 17.  I know I said August 17, but I'll probably extend it a bit to give me more time.  I hate deadlines for funness (I'm making up a word :), don't you?  So, you have time to create your piece and write up your post to link it up.


Hope to see many of you link up. I can't wait to see all your pieces. 
 
Don't forget about my giveaway for all that join in the link party.  
And speaking of giveaways, here's one for you at:
 Carol has the sweetest paper dolls.



Need more inspiration?  Here are more beautiful vintage photos.
 
 




Images from The Graphics Fairy and Marie's Freebies


Enjoy,
 

 
 




Keep the Summer Going -- Summer Celebration 2010


 summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. ~Henry James
 

I've mentioned this before; I absolutely LOVE summer!  So, to keep celebrating my favorite time of the year, I'm hosting a challenge and a link party.  Would you join me?



The challenge:  
  • Create an art piece with Summer as your theme.  Feel free to use the images on this post or one of your own.  Anything goes - collage, altered piece, jewelry, scrapbooking, mixed media, art journal, illustration, fabric art piece, etc.
  • Link up on my blog with the Linky tool I'll have on my post by August 17, (my birthday!! What awesome gifts to get to see your creations!!)
  • If you would like, pass the word by taking the summer celebration button on the side bar to post on your blog.  Please insert this link with it http:\\nellybeepaperprojects.blogspot.com   
 

How's this for inspiration?  Beautiful creation from Carolyn Saxby
.

source The Graphics Fairy

As a thank you for your participation, I'll put your names in a giveaway to win one of my creations and mixed media goodies.  And the images on this post are yours to download, even if you don't use them for this challenge. Thank God for those kind people that share these truly beautiful images with us.


Here's a way to keep the summer celebration going as well and have music while creating your challenge piece.  A lovely gift thanks to two wonderful blogs, Kind Over Matter and Dear Jesse.


Hope you'll join me in this challenge, and if its summer for you too, I hope you are enjoying it so far.

Here are more images you may choose to use in this challenge as well as the others on this post or use one you have.  

source unknown
source unknown
via Clearly Vintage
via Clearly Vintage

via Martha's Freebies


via The Graphics Fairy


I'm looking forward to getting to know you a little better and find new friends in this celebration, so I hope you'll join me in playing along.  So, go find a shady spot, be energized by the sun and create!  Can't wait to see them all.





Altered Vintage Glass Bottles - Shells

Current completed work.  I love altering these tiny bottles.
 Upcycled vintage bottles from a yard sale, antiques shop and/or thrift shop.

Shells from the beach, lace, vintage images, glitter



Broken jewelry pieces (a pin), vintage book pages, So Sweet!!

Do you have a favorite art book you use for inspiration?  I'm always in search of mixed media, collage, altered art books that might be new to me.  

Do you have 1 or more that you love, used, or found very inspirational and want to recommend on one of your blog posts?  I'm planning a link party soon.  Let me know if you're interested.


 Until next time, have a wonderful day!

 


Miss Mary Challenge -- Natural Beauty

As part of being a preferred blogger for CSN Stores, I am doing a product review in the next few weeks.  I'll be reviewing an office chair which I'm looking forward to trying out.  CSN has become quite known in blogland, so its no surprise that they has over 200 website stores offering just about everything you need.  But did you know they even have headboards as part of their arsenal of products?  

Well, stay tuned for my review and see how their office chairs are, perhaps you need one too.  


Mary Green of Green Paper is hosting the Miss Mary Challenge for which she provided 3 delightful images to be used in the creations.  So, I decided to join in and I'm offering this as my entry.


 Tin bucket which I painted pink first and collaged all around. Front side.


Back side.  I added a rub on border at top and a piece of lace upcycled from a wedding gown.



Here's one of the other images given for the challenge with a rub on I used with a memories quote, memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, and the things you never want to lose.



Another rub on with C'est La Vie and a paper rose



Glitter for the dress and metal bling for the waist.  The metal butterfly is decorating the stamp which I cut in 2, another of the images given by Mary.  Both metal beads are from an upcycled bracelet.




Pink rhinestones, more upcycled bracelet beads for the handle applied with thin wire



Lots of pics, thanks for indulging me.  Now, go to Mary's blog, Green Paper and check all of the entries so far.  I've seen some exceptional pieces.  There's a prize.   Wish me luck!


Have a wonderful day,





A Crown and A Plethora of Tutorials and Videos
Welcome to all my new followers and all who have left me such sweet comments recently! 
I have been visiting the blogs of my sorority sisters and busy creating a little.  

Recent altered work I completed using a yard stick?  I'm still not sure its completed.  Sometimes things take a while to get finished.  I leave them sit for a while and come to it later and might then see what else I can do to it to improve.  Do you do that too?

Once again due to the generosity of many magnificent artists and crafters, those of us always on the search to learn more arting are so fortunate.  Here are some awesome resources that I've found recently:

From the awesome Milliande

Many techniques, projects and resources from Kim MacNutt.  Although some links are not working :(, there's still some that are that might be of help to you.

I also have been fortunate in Freecyling and have amazing old books that I'll share with you soon.  Also, got several vintage piano rolls that I will offer for sale.  It's the most unique paper to use in projects.

Celebrating summer is very important to me because summer is my favorite time of year.  I was already on vacation at the beach this summer, but I'm always thinking of it, always!!
So, here are some images for you to celebrate summer too.



Enjoy your weekend,



 





Sisterhood Project and, An Item Review from CSN Coming Soon!
I'm so late with this.  But I am participating in Karen's Blogerette Sorority challenge.  Here's my creation using her wonderful "sisterhood" vintage photo.  I can't wait to visit all my sisters' blogs now.  Please do the same for some awesome eye candy and inspiration. 
I used the vintage photo on an altered tile used to clip a note, a small photo, etc. 

Another requirement is to show your creation with yourself in the picture.  Yikes!

Go here to see the other great creations.



CSN.com contacted me again to be one of their Preferred Bloggers.  So look for a product review soon. I don't yet have the item since its taking me a while to select one.  So more coming on this.






Freebies, Inspiration, New Collages
Some new collages on matboards recycled from Freecycle
 
Love these vintage photos!  I can't seem to collect enough of them.  Especially the little girls with those cute dresses and hair bows.

 
 
 
 
As always, I find a treasure trove of awesome things while surfing the net.

Cool fabric stickers that are just gorgeous and unique.

Free backgrounds and calendars from the creators of these fabric stickers

Need a paperdoll template?

Or Journaling Tags?  Try these.



FREE Art Calendars for Charities or Events!
Do you work with a charity, event or non-profit that would love to share some inspiration?

Now is your best chance to own some of our stunning 2010 Art Calendars before they’re gone for good! Featuring some of the most popular art from past issues of Somerset Studio, Somerset Life, and Art Journaling, these five limited edition calendars are sure to keep creative minds inspired all year long. We’d love to send your non-profit group or club a box of 24 assorted calendars – simply pay the $10 shipping! Perfect for a crafting get-together, large events, classroom art projects and more.Click here to see the details of all our beautiful art calendars!


Have a great week!


Books for Trade, Altered Notebook and Giveaways
Interested in trading for books you might have that you no longer want?  Here are a few that I have to offer up for trade. I've linked available titles to Amazon so you can take a look.
Books for trade
  1. Making Scrapbooks: Complete Guide to Preserving Your Treasured Memories - Vanessa-Ann
  2. Scrapbooking with Memory Makers - Gerbrandt and Arquette (mine is a hardback)
  3. Treasured Memories: Over 35 Inspirational Ideas for Creating Heirloom-quality Memory Books - Mary Maguire
  4. A Year of Scrapbooking - Debbie Janasak & Anna Swinney
  5. Type Cast: Creative Page Design Using Words, Type and Letters - From The Editors of Memory Makers Books
  6. Scrapbooking Projects - Bay Books
  7. Out of Bounds: Scrapbooking without boundaries - Jodi Amieci and Torrey Scott 
  8. Making Memories: Scrapbook Ideas for your Treasured Photographs and Keepsakes - Penny Boylan
I'd be interested in Mixed Media, Collage, Altered Art books. Also for Somerset Magazines: Life, Studio, Home, Apprentice or possibly others from Somerset.  Make me an offer and I might be interested in what you want to part with.


I found this notebook at the Dollar Tree.  I liked the cover as it was, so I just added the chipboard label holder thingie after glittering with this awesome blue color, a piece of vintage doily and the Spanish word for pages, paginas.  I thought it turned out pretty adorable.

Here are some beautiful giveaways from those generous bloggers we all love.  Let's celebrate with them!

Celebrating 300th Post
 Celebrating a Blog Anniversary


Another Blog Anniversary


Have a fun rest of the week and good luck on those giveaways.  I was lucky to win 2 awesome giveaways recently. I'll show you the goodies on a future post once I receive them.







Pink, Flowers, Weddings, New Work & Free Images



There's just something about beautiful pink flowers!
  
The cards below are for a wedding save the date card.  I'm working on my niece's wedding stationery and this was a one of the samples. Isn't that image adorable?  I got it from Altered Pages.  Jackie has an awesome selection of beautiful images and many altered art supplies at her shop, Altered Pages.  I'm using some of her images to feature here on my blog in the next few months.  So stay tuned.

 
Here's another version with the same image



 
If you're in the mood for pink, flowers and weddings, or not, check this awesome, and so easy tutorial from


I finally made one of these cool pedestal dishes.  I saw some beautiful ones on blogs that got me inspired.  

So these 3 bowls and candle holders from Goodwill and a little E-6000 glue and DONE!  So easy and wonderful use of things we love and can be practical too.



I'll leave you with some free images. Remember you can click to enlarge.








I wish you a happy and creative weekend!



More from the Web
Online classes ( haven't taken any of these, so I'm not endorsing any in particular, just sharing the information.)  Would love to hear others you might know about or have taken as well as art tutorials.  Leave me a message with the link.




Giveaways
Is celebrating the opening of her BlogShop





Mother's Voice
Marilyn Tullys

In my heart are messages
which often I replay,
Treasured guidance wisely stored
to guide me on life's way.
Words which parted wrong from right
stay with me from my youth,
Words which taught a preference
for kindness and for truth,

Counsel and encouragement
for purpose that's fulfilled,
Soft echoes of phrases meant
to undergird and build.

In my heart are messages
which urge for Godly choice.
Within the caring lines inside,
I hear my mother's voice. 
 


Happy Mother's Day to all moms of the world.
Here are images as my gift to you, via Crafty Secrets.




Generosity in Blogand Abounds!
No, I didn't just win a giveaway, or did I?  Here are some of the great loot of vintage jewelry I got at my friend's yard sale a couple of weeks ago.  She was so generous in giving me these without paying her.  Aren't they wonderful!  I can't wait to put them in some of my creations and really show them off. 
There's a ton of pins with bling, necklaces, watches.  See those cool lockets?  And all the religious medals.



Wonderful giveaways for you not to be missed:
 You have to see it to believe!!







Truly Chic!




 Did you find this blog yet?  Great french images:

I'm always just amazed at the generosity of the bloggerworld, aren't you?  Enjoy the images and good luck on those giveaways. Don't forget to check out my other findings on awesome blogs by clicking into the "Bella Nella's Shared Items" on my side bar (right hand side).  This is where I regularly share tons of other blog posts from the many I subscribe to which are just amazing resources.


A great big welcome to my new followers.  Have a great weekend, everyone.  I'm off to thoroughly enjoy this weekend which it promises to be quite a gorgeous one.



Chuckfull of Stuff and Giveaway Winner Announced
Oh, no.  Another weekend gone away.  I hope you enjoyed it to the fullest.  We went to a friend's yard sale  and I came away with a ton of neat vintage jewelry, another makeup compact and a beautiful footed silver tray.  I'll have photos up soon. Today I met with my niece and my sister, her mom, to decide on a design for her engagement party invitations.  I'll be doing almost all or all of her paper needs, including her wedding planner.  So, I'll be busy this year with wedding creations.  Please share your ideas and resources.  I'd love to hear from you.  

Don't you wish you were here; I do.  I can't wait to be at the beach.  Here's an image you can use.  I'll have others throughout this post as well.


And in that spirit, here are some things I gathered from the wonderful world of the web:


And, of course, my giveaway has ended and we have a winner so:


And here are some other opportunities to win a giveaway.  Click the title on top of each image:


 Just ADORABLE!


Wonderful stash of supplies, yippeee!  Hurry on this one, it ends April 22


 I'd love to have that drawer to create something.  Its so neat with the carvings.

 For those that wanted to have the Somerset Apprentice Magazine Vol 1, you can now purchase a download able version which I did.  I liked the lower price and even though its not on paper, you could save it to a flash drive so you should always have your copy in a safe place.  Go here if interested. 
 


Other images for you.  How adorable is this little girl (and the others) shared by Magic Moonlight


I'd love to get one of those baby bottles for my collection of glass bottles, don't you?

Have a great week, everybody!



Pretty Window and Giveaway Extended

So I finally put my wedding veil collection and organ music rolls to use.  I decorated my craft room window with them.  I love looking at the beauty of the tulle fabric, don't you?  I am in love with tulle!


This huge puff is a wedding crinoline I got from Freecycle (you know how much I love Freecyling).  See where I put it.  On my TV in my craft room.  Its been squashed in my closet for weeks and I finally liberate it.






Wanted to give all my followers a chance to win so, I'm extending the Allmodern.com giveaway 1 more week.  I will choose a name on April 18. 
Good luck, everyone!






Happy Spring......Almost Summer!!
High 80 degree weather we've been having in PA.  Woohooo!!!  Quite contrast to this past late winter's snowstorms.
I hope you're all enjoying some sort of pleasant weather.  I'm just giddy, myself.  I so love Spring and Summer.




 I'm such a fan of Google.  I use their Gmail, IGoogle, Google Alerts and Google Shared items, did you see my shared items in the upper right on my blog? Well, now I'm loving the scanned books at Google?
Awesome source for vintage books and images and reading, of course.  I couldn't believe the wonderful things there.  There are public domain books where you can download and also magazines.  You can go here if you want to check it out.



Don't forget to enter my giveaway here.  There's still time.






Free images for you to use.  Enjoy!




Thanks to all my new followers and your thoughtful and sweet comments.  Don't pass up the giveaway.  Have a beautiful day, everyone!




New Work and a Spring Giveaway
Here are some mini composition books where I altered the covers.  Below those is a another notebook and altered compact discs wall hangings.




This altered CD has a bottle cap which I had never used before.  The background has a glue crackle technique as shown here. I'm happy with how it turned out.

Close up of top CD

This altered CD started with a fabric pattern glued down in a haphazard way, therefore the crunched look.  Love the look.




CSN Stores has lots of options for shopping from toys to kids bedding, to items for the chef, to home decor.  Here are some awesome and unique items I'm looking at:
CSN Stores contacted me to sponsor a giveaway from one of their stores right here on my blog with a $60 shopping spree at AllModern.com.  
  An awesome way to celebrate Spring (thank God it finally got here in PA:) with something new for your home or for perhaps a gift.  So:
  • Go here and pick something you'd like.
  • Leave a comment on this post to be entered by April 11. 

Comment on this post = 1 entry
Comment + Follower = 2 entries
Comment + Follower + Post on your blog = 3 entries 

Have fun shopping and good luck!


Happy Spring!!


Baby Bibs and Giveaways

Hi friends. I purchased these two tiny baby bibs from my favorite antique store a while ago and I finally did something with them.  Hope you like them.


Got those blue flower bows at my favorite thrift store.


I love that I can work with fabric and paper.


Ready for some giveaways.  I'm amazed at how many there are out in blogland all the time.  Here are just three of them.  They have the sweetest gifts up for grabs. Click the images to get to them.
 



Thanks for visiting and good luck on those giveaways!

 






New cards and the Motherload of Paper Artists
Here are some new things I worked on in the last few weeks.  More of my version of an ATC, a rolodex card.  I'm starting to alter the actual Rolodex file and will store the cards there soon; therefore the notches are cut out as you can see. Remember you can click on the images for a larger view.
 
  

This last one is a large tag.
 

 
 
I'm always searching for web resources on paper art and crafts and recently found 2 sites that I must share; they are just phenomenal.   Jupi T. Das is someone in my own state of PA.  (I'm also always searching paper artists in my area.)  She was invited to the white house for her art, and she's one of those amazing scherenschnitte artists. The tiny, precise, paper cutting art. She prefers that I didn't use her images, but you'll see them in her site.


Image credit:  Richard Sweeney
The other source is a source in itself. You have to see Upon a Fold.  The site has many other paper artists listed within that are awesome to check out.

Enjoy your journey,






More Wins!
More of OWOH giveaway winnings came in the last few days!  Barbara of  Vintage Bunty sent me her exceptional ATCs and beautiful ephemera and ATC supplies:

 
  
Isn't her work exquisite!!!  I love all her 3D elements and lace.

 

And this prize from yet another extremely talented artist, Heather from BluhmStudios:

  She created this beautiful fabric cuff just for me.  The colors, the trims, the fabric all my favorites!!!!!! Truly, exquisitely unique.  And do you see that sweet card.  Her's also.
How beautiful is this!

Thank you both, Ladies.  What an honor to receive your beautiful creations!  What a bright moment, in some dark days for me, it was to receive your art.  You're so kind and generous! 



Giveaway, Crackle and Bracelets
(I apologize if you've gotten 2 almost identical posts.  Something has taken over either my blogger or my computer and its just not acting right.  I hadn't finished my original and I couldn't revise it so I had to start over and its still acting weird, so I'm sorry if it turns out to be gobly gook!)
 
Tristan at Enchanted Rivalry is having a giveaway in honor of his 500th follower (wow!).  His art pieces are exceptional, and his posts are beautiful, funny, inspirational, creative and extremely enteraining, so you'll want to follow him too.  Go there now and enter his giveaway too.  His offering is truly beautiful.
Here's my prize from Theresa at Faire Moon Creations. Aren't they fabulous!! Her packaging is so sweet, she's included a piece of candy too. She's not only fabulously talented, but extremely generous as she had 3 gifts and they were all doubles. In the spirit of the OWOH event, she made it possible to give one of her creations to a friend as well as the winner. You got to check her blog for more beautiful pieces. Thanks again, Theresa!!
 

Here is a sample of glue crackle I just tried after viewing the video below from an artist I follow, Monique of Artist Nouveau.  Very easy and quick and I got bigger cracks than when using other mediums.



 


I'm a Winner and Easy Peasy Coloring
image credit: lisaswifka
Thanks to Lisa for permission to use her beautiful art piece image above
 
As I said in an earlier post, I visited a ton of blogs via the Whimsical Bohemian's One Heart One World event and I entered many of the giveaways.  I was extremely lucky in winning beautiful prizes from 3 separate blogs:
   I will post photos of the treasures when I get them, in the meantime, visit these wonderful blogs.  Even though the giveaways are now done, you can still visit the blogs.  I've become a follower to many of the blogs in the OWOH event, and if you also are looking to visit the world, expand your horizons, learn and get inspiration, visit OWOH for an amazing trip around the blog world.  I love to see the creations from artist bloggers outside the US, so Lisa's Whimsical Bohemian's OWOH Blog is a great way to find international artists.  She even has them organized now in alpha order and lists the country they are from.
  And along the international line................................................

Just found an awesome video with a terrific way to color your stamped images very easily.  I'm all for no fuss creating, so this impressed me.  The author, Blanche, who is owner of a craft company that recently appeared with Tim Holtz on QVC Germany, is from Germany so for those of us that don't understand German, can't understand what she "tells", but can sure understand what she "shows".  So, enjoy! 



Giveaway Galore!
I have to admit I've been commenting my heart out on a bunch of blogs at the 3rd annual  One World One Heart Event.  Go there and start visiting all the amazing and inspiring blogs to enter the giveaways.  And you better hurry, because there's only 1 week left and over 1000 blogs by now.  Boy, I thought I was following a lot of blogs before!!

Here's one that I just found out about through another blog.  Go here to enter this giveaway of exquisite vintage jewelry.

Good luck everyone!  I'm hoping to win something to help me forget all about the snow we've been getting.





Collage and Clipboards
I haven't been much in the mood or had the energy to create, so finally I forced myself and thought, I at least need to work on a small scale and just paste stuff like mad and try different things and practice, practice, practice.  I think this will increase my confidence in arting overall.  Anyhow, here are some collages I'm doing on rolodex cards.  

This one has a flower I made out of a sewing pattern, colored in with stamp ink and glittered.  
I sprayed a mix of stamp ink and water onto this one and glued a game piece.
 
  

 This mini clipboard I altered with a collage of music pages, old photos, tissue paper, a touch of white gesso and embellished with lace and paper flowers at top.  This is available for purchase, $15.  If you're interested, let me know.  Will soon post on Etsy.
 
This is the back
 
Hope you enjoy the bit of art.