Ho-Ho-Ho! Merry Christmas...Release!

And the Blop Hop Continues....now through Sunday, November 1st! Read on!

Welcome to the start of the Belles 'n Whistles Christmas Release Blog Hop! I'm so glad that you've come by! There are some brand new holiday yummies that will be available in the Belles 'n Whistles store tomorrow, October 31st. This Christmas Release Blog Hop will show you just what is coming, so join us!

Starting here, you'll visit each of the Design Team Members blogs for a yummy revealing! We'll guide you through. Leave a comment on each blog you visit. At the end of the hop, you should find yourself back here for the final step...I'll let you know what that is at the bottom of this post so, read on! And if, by chance, you encounter any glitches along your journey, please return in an hour or two--they're sure to be worked out by then!

Let's begin! =)

Here I sit, listening to Christmas music, as I write this Christmassy post. And I can't help but think that gosh--Santa will be coming to town before we know it! And when he does, we'll need to be ready....with the milk and cookies of course! In order to help prepare, I asked the very talented members of the Belles 'n Whistles design team to help me out with a few sweet recipes for Santa! Let's see what they've come up with! ;D First though, a Christmassy Belle contribution...by me!

My blog-hop project is a holiday desk-top scene. I chose to use the very sweet stamp Belle Sitting with Teddy. She's a wonderfully versatile little Belle! Here, I decided to have her sitting in front of the Christmas tree, waiting for Santa! Either she's waiting for him or she's looking at the tree, wondering why I didn't do more decorating on it for her, LOL! Okay--no, she's waiting for Santa. And we're getting an outsider's view of her and her favorite teddy through her decorated Christmas window! The tiny part of the tree you see is actually one of the new Belles 'n Whistles Christmas stamps, called simply The Christmas Tree. And once again, the wonderful Elisabeth Bell has designed some real lovelies to go along with The Christmas Tree--you'll see them soon, continue on!

The wall of the house (DP) is from the Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses paper pad, the window frame and portion of a front door was stamped using an Alota Rubber Stamp called Screen Door. The window is a piece of acetate, the curtain--a portion of a paper napkin. The half-wreath on the door and the lighted bough above the window are Canadian pine stems from the local craft store. And the lights are battery-operated minis which I've carefully made to look as though they are part of the bough.

And yes! Belle's lights actually do light! (She was surprised to see this herself, even on the balls of her tree, LOL!)

A side view...

The only thing missing is a holiday greeting...I haven't yet decided whether to add that now or wait and turn this into a little count-down-to-Christmas calendar, with some calendar numbers in the upper corner.

Now the cookies Belle decided she wanted to leave for Santa are called Chocolate Krinkles. We baked a bunch up, just to be sure they were delicious enough....they were! So we'll be sure to bake another batch on Christmas Eve again since we've eaten all of these, LOL!

Chocolate Krinkles
2-3/4 C all purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
2-3/4 tsp baking powder
1-1/8 C shortening or butter
2-3/4 C sugar
1 C Cocoa powder
6 eggs
1 Tb pure vanilla extract
1 C powdered sugar

Sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside. In another bowl, cream together shortening, sugar and cocoa. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well with each addition. Add vanilla and beat until well blended. Gradually add flour mix and mix until combined. Chill dough at least 2 hours in the refridgerator. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drop dough by tablespoons into the powdered sugar and roll to coat well. Bake on greased cookie sheets for 10-12 minutes. Let stand on cookies sheet for a minute before loosening them to cool on wire racks.

Yields about 4 dozen.

Well, it's time to send you off on your blog-hopping adventure! Remeber these few important things:

• Visit each of the DT's blogs, in the order in which you are sent

• Leave a comment at each blog


• Finish here on this post again and when you do, be sure to leave a comment! TWO lucky winners will be drawn to receive a complete set of this newly released Christmas Collection! These winners will be announced here--one on November 4th, the other on the 5th so you'll have to check back! *** For your comment here on this blog, I've a question for you: What kind of cookies are left out for Santa at your house? And would that be with whole milk, 2% or skim? LOL!! I'm kidding on the milk part, but do share what Santa snacks on when he breaks at your residence! Now if you DON'T put out milk and cookies for the jolly old guy, share with us what you do on Christmas Eve!***

Okie doke! Off you go to start the hop! You'll be visiting the wonderfully talented Rosette's blog first. The list of the blog order is posted here, in case you get lost along the way:

1 - Rosette
2 - Lynda
3 - Kathrin
4 - Susan <--trouble with post. See store or my blog for one more CUTE new stamp! ;D
5 - Jacque
6 - Iris
7 - Anki
8 - Jodi
9 - Lilian

Dont forget to comment here when you're done! ;D

Summer =)

***We've encountered some problems with dear Susan's post and regret that she was unable to join us for this blog hop. You'll have to check the store for the very cute image she was to reveal....two samples are there, by Iris and myself!=)***

Lil Miss Poppy Gift Card Holder

I have a quick and easy project to share with you today and Lil Miss Poppy from Belles N' Whistles is here to help me! I love these gift card holders and you can see the tutorial here. I thought that with the upcoming holidays right around the corner, these would make great, quick containers for you.



She's colored with copics and I used some Diamond Glaze on her ribbon and a tiny bit of stickles on her blouse and skirt. I added a bit of decoration by using my flourish punch from EK Success.

Here's a copy of the inside.



And Lil Miss Poppy has the sweetest looking face. I love showing her off!



I'd love to see some of your examples! Show em off, girls!

And don't forget to join in on our blog hop tomorrow! We just can't wait to show off our new release from Belles N' Whistles! Get ready!

Card Ingredients:

Lil Miss Poppy from Belles N' Whistles, Indian Summer Paper from BasicGrey, Flourish punch from EK Success, ribbon, BasicGrey Bling, ribbon

Warm and Hearty Wednesday

I've inked and colored this cute image called Hearty Thanksgiving with Copics. I've used a simple layout and added some wooden flower buttons for accents. I love faux stitching and the colors of Fall!

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget our 2nd blog hop is this Friday, 9am!!!

Have a wonderful day!

Tasteful Tuesday

Hello everyone!!!


Are you feeling the rising fever???

No not mine this time.. it's the Belles 'nd Whistles fever, rising again!! Have you heard yet that this Friday it will be a New Release Blog Hop day? And if you visit the DT blogs, you'll find some teasing sneak peeks already!! Hehe it's so fun to play!



Summer always gives us the cutest images, and I know you are loving them, and they started already to grow on most of you! As you know, Summer announced our very own Belles 'nd Whistles Gallery: which you can find here. This is the place where you can all upload the cutest cards in the whole world!!



And today I want to show you a line up of cuteness I found there. There are lots I can tell you, but for today I chose these three:



Look at this lovely witch, made by Vanja. Isn't she beautiful?! I love how Vanja coloured our cutie witchie poo :) And lok at that matching charm!! Wonderful





Vanja



This lovely Belle card is designed by Elaine. Her elegant touch and gorgeous colouring struck me from the first time I saw this photo.






Elaine



last, but not least.. look at this one.. and pick up your jaw!! Mina has really brought this babe to life!! Mmm.. I can look at her all day!






Mina



Have a lovely day my friends! You can find the links to these lovely BnW talented fans. Go and visit them, and leave them some love. We're like a big BnW family.

smiles!!

Making Memories Monday

Made a card using the sweet Sisters image from the July 2009 Collection. Reminds me of my sister and I when we were kids and then a few years later my 2 nieces who always went together. The younger one tagging along the elder cousin. Now that I think about it, this image would be great for scrapbooks too.

Coloring was done with Copic markers. I used Basic Grey papers and added wooden flowers with pearl centers. Sky was sponged.

Thanks for stopping by and for any comments you may leave!

Have a wonderful day!

Winner of Belles 'n Whistles Sweet Stuff!!

Happy Sunday everyone and thank you all so much for becoming a Follower of the fabulous Belles 'n Whistles Blog and for leaving us such wonderful comments. We also appreciate your sharing the word about our Blog Sweet Stuff on your personal blogs. We hope you will come back many times to visit us and will enjoy using these darling Elizabeth Bell stamps from Summer's Belles 'n Whistles shop. We are very pleased to announce that the winner of Jacque's Scarecrow and Little Wizard set, selected at random using the Random.Org generator, is:

charlene aka scrappygma who left a comment, became a new follower of our blog, AND showed our Sweet Stuff on her personal blog! Congratulations, Charlene!! Please email your address to Jacque at jacque3125@aol.com so that we can get your sweet stuff out to you right away.

Frightening Friday

Happy Friday to all of you! Thanks for popping by. And don´t worry - I don´t really want to fright you! LOL
Halloween is only one week away. We´ve shown you so many beautiful Halloween cards and gifts and treats. For today I also want to show you how to use this cute Little Witch With Broom stamp for a quick but beautiful Hallween decoration. You can use it as a center piece on your table, put it in front of your door next to Jack-o-lantern or fill it with some yummy candies and give it to someone special.
Many of you might have seen those brooms before. They are usually made using some lunch bags from brown paper. As some of you might know do I live in Germany. Our lunch bags are made from white paper and are flat so they weren´t good to use for this project. I thought about an alternative - and came up with the "box in a bag". A step-by-step tutorial on how to make these can be found here. The only thing I changed was the size. I made my paper for the box 4 3/4" big and then scored it at 1". My paper for the bag was 12" x 6" big. This gave my broom a nice size. I then cut the 12" x 6" piece in vertical strips of 1/4" ONLY cutting until 1" before end of paper. So it still will be one piece of paper. Then I glued it around the box.
I filled the bag with some paper tissues - you also can use candies here - and placed a wooden stick in the middle. Then I closed the bag with a nice ribbon.

As I mentioned did I use Little Witch With Broom here. But the only thing I colored in was the face and her hand. For the rest I did some paper piecing. Even the hair is paper pieced. I used some nice paper with a spiderweb design for her dress and some solid colors for the other pieces:



Afterwards I´ve decorated the stick with some halloween-ish sayings, a large flower and also some spiderwebs.



Before I am going to wish you all a wonderful weekend I want to remind you that you have until sudnay evening to enter Jacque´s wonderful candy! Hurry up and good luck to all!

Wishing all of you a great weekend and happy crafting!

Too Cute Thursday

I made a Halloween card using this adorable image called Scarecrow & Little Wizard. He is really cute handing out a candy to the scarecrow. The image was colored with Copic Markers. I used autumn colors for the grass. Sponged the sky with blue and grass with green SU inks.

I did some faux stitching on black. Applied glitter on the Happy Halloween sentiment. Trick or Treat sentiment was stamped on shimmery card stock and punched with a Marvy scalloped oval punch (yellow).

Thanks for stopping by and for any comments you may leave!

Have a great day everyone!

Waste Not Wednesday at Belles N' Whistles

Today is my turn at our Belles N' Whistles Design Team Blog to share my take on Wednesday with you. I've decided to call it Waste Not Wednesday and this is what I created with scraps sitting on my craft table:



Lately I've been making a lot of 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" cards and that leaves me with a 3" strip that is just big enough to put together a card using my scraps! I colored Tania Baking by Belles N' Whistles with copics and then cut her out with my nestabilities. I added a bit of distressed inks around the edges of the image and put a few pearls on the side. I added some stickles and some charms along the side. The paper is all scraps from my Indian Summer paper from BasicGrey that was left over from some other cards. I used some string instead of ribbon so it wouldn't overpower the card. Some pearls in the corner and a Prima flower and a hatpin finish it off. And these were all things that I had just laying around that were too big to throw away but not big enough to use on a full size card. Well, this 3" x 5 1/2" is a perfect way to use them up. And it didn't take hardly any time to put together. Wouldn't these make a cute set?



I keep saying this, but I just love her cutie little face! She looks so intense in her concentration of baking. I wish pies were my speciality! You can do so much with these images! I thought she looked so fallish and I can just imagine her baking up an apple pie from scratch. Yummy!



Don't forget to sign up for Jacque's sweet blog candy in the post below mine! Give her a warm welcome to our BnW family!

I hope you enjoy using up some of those scraps you have laying around. Remember, Waste not, want not! I'd love to see your 3" card! Show 'em to me!

Card Ingredients:

Tania Baking by Belles N' Whistles, Indian Summer Paper by BasicGrey, Distressed Inks, Stickles, Diamond Glaze, Pearls, Prima Flowers, Spacers, Hemp cord, hatpin, copics, nestabilities

Scarecrow and Little Wizard Bring You Some Sweet Stuff, Too!!!

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope that you are having a magnificent week. I can assure you that FALL is in the air around here so my posting for you today is quite appropriate.

This is also my debut posting for Belles 'n Whistles so I am very excited to not only be contributing here but to offer you a little sweet stuff so that you can celebrate my first posting on the Belles 'n Whistles Blog. My sincere thanks to Summer for inviting me to be a part of this exceptionally talented and friendly group! I am so thrilled and humbled.

For my card and extras today I used the absolutely darling Scarecrow and Little Wizard which made me smile as soon as it was in my hands. All of the papers and most of the embellies were a gift from the lovely and extremely talented Suzan...so thank you so much, Suzan, for always thinking of me in such delightful ways!! My card and extras would not have been possible today without your gift!!! They are from Recollection's AUTUMN Collection.

These little cuties were stamped twice and colored with Copics (shown below) and of course propped up on dimensional tape. Nothing says FALL to me more than shocks of corn out in a field so I made one out of raffia, trimmed it with falling leaves charms and several sunflowers. I also used several pumpkin buttons which I glistened with a touch of Shimmerz.

The inside of the card this time is quite simple with a couple of buttons , more raffia, and a touch of the ribbon from the same collection which I also used on the extras below.

The giftbag contains Pumpkin Spice cookie mix and the file accordion contains hot apple cider mix.

In addition to these Copics I also used red, yellow, blue Copics multiliners, Diamond Stickles, yellow Souffle, and white opaque.


To complement the set, Summer from Belles 'n Whistles has added one of these darling Scarecrow and Little Wizard stamps and I have added a cute little scarecrow soap dispenser and pumpkin spice hand soap and candle.

In order to be eligible to win this collection I am asking that you leave a comment below, become a follower of this site, and mention/show this sweet stuff on your blog. If you would like an extra chance to win you can also leave a comment on my personal blog. The winner will be selected at random at 12 Noon EST on Sunday, October 25.

Thank you so much for dropping by to see what's happening here...Have a delightful week and we hope to see you again real soon...Big hugs!!!

The Gallery Winners....

Last week I posted about the new Belles 'n Whistles gallery that had been added to the site, telling everyone to visit and upload your creations for a chance at winning a free Belles 'n Whistles stamp, remember? Those of you who uploaded cards remember, yes?! LOL! I'm sorry I'm late with this announcement, the randomly selected winners of a free stamp! Here are the lucky winners:

Angeldrummer

Country Mouse

Quixotic Cards

3pageprincesses

Vanja

Micheleroos

Lia

SarahK

Simone P

Wisorsm

Vickip

Kimlayu

Inknrubba

Well hey! That would be ALL of you who took the time to uplaod a card or two (or three or four, LOL!) into the gallery! Thank you for your wonderful contributions and congratulations to you all! Would each of you contact me with your selection of one Belles 'n Whistles stamp you would like me to send you! Elaine...I know you own them ALL, so I will send you a free stamp from the next set of Christmas images instead! ;D

Gotta run now to make way for the next exciting post, due here in the next 2 hours or so...be sure to scroll down for more beautiful card postings you may have missed as well!

Summer =)

Merry Monday

You can use this yummy image Warm Apple Pie for your Christmas cards or Christmas tags too. She was colored with Copic markers and then cut out. I colored her sash white and added some red berries on it because the leaves looked like holly leaves to me.

The holly berries on the corners are from brads - I just removed the prongs. The white labels 4 die was mounted on 3d foam. The upper corner was cut off and distressed a bit.

Super easy card ... sorry for the blah blah..

Thanks for stopping by and for any comments you may leave!

Have a wonderful day!

Simply Thankful Sunday

Greetings All!!!

I hope you are having a wonderful Sunday!

I'm sure you are wondering WHY I am saying

"Simply Thankful" in the Title of this post.

Well, I'll tell you!

With Thanksgiving coming soon

(at least here in the U.S. it is)

I decided to create something special for that special holiday.

I remember as a child my family would always take turns

naming something that they were thankful for.

We did this every year when I was younger, but this tradition has

seemed to fade away as we got older.

I decided to take the "Hearty Thanksgiving" stamp and

incorporate it into a special Thanksgiving Keepsake.

This is a "Thanksgiving" journal.

 

I only wish we had one of these when I was younger.

It sure would be fun to look back and read about all the things that

we were thankful for over the years.

The idea is to write down in the journal what each
person says and date it.  In later years, you will always have those
memories to go back and read.

I used a basic spiral bound 3 subject notebook,

covered both the front and the back, and then decorated
it the same way you would if you were creating a card.

The sentiment on the book was computer generated in order to

get a larger text area.  The ribbon is tied and knotted on the
spiral binding, so it's sure not to come untied. 
I placed a couple of tabs inside the book

so the book could be divided by peoples names,

so that they could have their own section of the book. 

Or you can use the other sections for quotes, comments

or just a funny or unique memory that may have

happened during the day.

I am absolutely positive that a book like this,

will become a cherished book for sure.

Not to mention you would be creating a wonderful
new family tradition!

Have you created something using one of our
Belles 'n Whistles stamps?

We'd love to see what you've made.

Upload your images to our new gallery

Just a reminder,
The Belles 'n Whistles Guest Design Team call is still open

If you are interested, make sure you go over to the

Roses on Paper & Belles 'n Whistles Combined Challenge Blog

to find out more.

I hope you have enjoyed this post, and come back again tomorrow

for a special post by Lilian.  =)

So Sweet Saturday

Hello beautiful Best in the World Belles 'n Whistles fans!!!


How is everyone? I hope that no one spent the last week wrestling with fever, like I did. It doesn't want to leave me!!! My goodness!! My lovely .. and "very" kind DT fellow members suggested me to drink Lysol.. hang garlic around my neck and some more lovely idas!! Yeah .. those girls!! Can you believe.. behind those gorgeous creations they make???!!! I'm tellin on ya now!! Sob sob!! LOL
They were fabulous, cheering me up and cracking me.. even though a bit cruel!

That's why I'm posting today.. not very usual on a Saturday.. but I couldn't focus much during the week! I HOPE you happened to come by today as well, cause I have something to show you. During the week I stole some minutes from when the fever used to let me fee for some time to make this set with the gorgeous Mmmm.. Yes Please!!

I have chosen to show you how these stamps can be fun and versatile. This is the reason why we're posting different projects here, after all. I made this project with Mother's Day in mind. All mums love tender images like these, especially on their Special Day, when they so remember when we were young! Mum just starts crying on this day when she sees me, and starts telling everyone how small I was born and how much I used to cry in the night!! hehe

So I'm sure she'll love this set, even though it has a boy in it (oh yes, I have a brother and sister as well)






I wanted also to show you that even though Elisabeth's images are all so detailed, they can be also paper-pieced. In fact I did that with the table-cloth and the checked dish-cloth on her hand. It really helped for that raised effect, don't you think?







I also chose to give this card a two tone look.. natural browns (even on skin) and different shades of blue. I loved doing it.







This other piece of the set is called a Metric Slanted Corner Box. I followed a tutorial I found here, and it came easily together. The sweets won't remain there till Mother's day,(can you bet?) but I'm sure my mum will really love this set with some small choccies in it :)

The sentiments are computer generated,for more photos, and if you want the list of things I used and Copic numbers, have a look on my blog.







Have a lovely weekend my friends, and do let me know that you've been here today please. I need some lifting up after all that Lysol!!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving - A Shadow Box Card

Hello Everyone and Happy TGIF!!! Well Jodi mentioned in her post yesterday that this cute stamp "Scarecrow and Little Wizard" could easily be used as a Thanksgiving stamp. I totally agree with her and to show you how easy it is I made this shadow box card to show to you today! I only stamped the Scarecrow and there you have a fabulous fall image you can use. This makes it a very versatile image!

Have you ever made a shadow box card? I always wanted to make one but somehow never did. When I was thinking how I could present the Scarecrow image to you I came across the shadow box idea again and knew now I would finally make one! And tataaaaa there it is. :-) It is very easy to make and still something different. And the good thing about it is that it folds flat for shipping and taken out of the envelope you can just pop it up again! To add your message there would be plenty of room on the back of the card.

Have you already created a card or project with one of the Belles 'n Whistles stamps and want to show off your card? Just click here to go to the Belles 'n Whistles gallery and upload your creation! We would love to see what you've created! And by uploading your card/project to the gallery there is also the chance to be featured by the DT on the blog here. So it is definitely worth it. Show us your work!

Thanks for stopping by today and have a great weekend!!!

Thinking of You

The holidays are fast approaching and so I wanted to be sure I create a card using this adorable stamp before Halloween. This stamp is called Scarecrow & Little Wizard. Most of you may find that this stamp can only be used for Halloween but, it can surely be used for Thanksgiving too.
You can easily just stamp the scarecrow only and use him alone.
The leaves don't change here in Hawaii so I accented my card with some artificial ones from a local craft store. I'd like to wish all of you who live in Canada a very Happy belated Thanksgiving! Hope you had a good one!
If you'd like to win this adorable stamp, stop by my blog for details.

get well wednesday

Happy wednesday everyone! I hope you are all feeling wonderful. But I know of so many people that are or have been sick at that time of year - also in our team - that I thought I would send out some get well wishes to all of you. And also want to show you an easy way to show someone that you care about him and are wishing him a speedy recovery. So I have created a little set with a few things everyone who´s not doing well will enjoy for sure. It includes a tea bag holder with some yummy tea, a sleeve filled with a package of instanst soup (for sure not as good as the real chicken soup from granma but it will be appreciated as well) and at least a cute looking cover for a box of tissues.

This is, how it looks opened or pulled out:



This is a close up showing the sleeve for the soup.
I used Tania Baking on this one because you don´t know what she´s really stirring in. Might be a good soup as well.



Here you can see the tissue holder. When you looked at the first picture - did you realize that there seems to be something different with the stamps? You are right!LOL!
For this one I used a part of the Teddy Bear Picnic stamp. This is a huge stamp but exactly because of this it is wonderful for only using parts of it. When inking up the stamp I removed the ink from a part of her head and also from the cookie she is originally holding in her hand. After stamping I hand drew the spoon and the thing with the red cross on (really don´t know the english word for that!LOL). So now she´s looking like a little nurse giving out some medicine.



And last but not least a close up of the tea bag holder. Even here I changed the stamp a bit. I used Lemonade Anyone? here and removed the ink from the glasses of lemonade she is normally going to serve. On their place I stamped this cup of hot tea. Can you see it steaming? Instructions for the tea bag holder can be found here.



I hope you enjoyed my get well set and am sure there is a friend of you out there that isn´t feeling good who will enjoy to get one of those.
Hope you all stay sane or get well soon!

Hugs,
Kathrin aka Kruemel