My first Bella card!

I know it seems as if I get something fabulous in the mail every day and that's because it's practically true! I am a shop-a-holic and today was another great mail day. My Bellas arrived in record time all the way from Canada! I ordered a bunch of them to take advantage of the recent free shipping offer and I love them even more in person!

I really wanted to do some paper piecing and coloring with my Copics, so I chose Cosmobella as my first "victim." What do you think?
I stamped her on Georgia Pacific white cardstock in Brilliance black ink first so the ink could dry. Then I stamped her torso on a scrap of Scenic Route patterned paper and her pants on a scrap of My Mind's Eye (a sheet from the GIANT slab from Costco way back when). After both scraps dried, I cut them out *very* carefully. I set the shirt aside and did some shading with my Copics on her pants. If you check out the close-up shot below, you can see the shading and also the very subtle pattern of the paper on her front leg that I just love.
To finish her off, I colored in all other parts of the image with Copics, added just a little Spica glitter pen to the Cosmo in her hand, and then glued on her clothes.

Lastly, I felt she needed some "grounding" so I followed this tutorial by Amy Rysavy. I didn't have any small oval stamps so I die-cut a piece of craft foam with an old Sizzlet oval die I had and used it to stamp the "ground."

In this last photo, you can see my post-it note mask stuck to the Cosmobella index paper so I can reuse it.

One final note: the "template" for this card is from Michelle Wooderson who has shown a lot of cards done with a 4"x4" piece of patterned paper. I love the look and am finding myself using it on many of my cards. I think it's great that you can get 9 cards out of one piece of 12"x12" PP!

I had SO much fun playing with Cosmobella tonight that you can be sure I'll be sharing more Bella cards soon!

Other materials used: background patterned paper from Heidi Grace; Tempting Turquoise ink and cardstock from Stampin' Up!; turquoise ribbon from Ben Franklin craft store.