A Little Reminder.....

Hello everyone: Well, we are halfway through September already, the Holidays are around the corner and I'm happy to say I have a good stash of cards ready to be mailed soon to friends and family.

But today I have another card created with the other flowers from the beautiful
"Painted Petals" set from My Favorite Things.
We have 2 fabulous prizes of $25.00 to give away this month generously provided by our amazing sponsor MY FAVORITE THINGS.
All of us at THE FLOWER CHALLENGE, including our fantastic Guest Designer Michele Ferguson from "I Card Everyone" are using their products on our cards.

I stamped the flowers and leaves (on green card stock) with Versamark ink and heat embossed them with white embossing powder, I sponged some pink and blue on the flowers and then, fussy cut all of them.

I embossed a piece of vellum with the "Quilted Top" embossing folder, (SU retired).  The die-cut sentiment is from my stash of dies that have no name, sheeeesh!! I apologize.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The border is from SU "Delicate Details" (retired), the sentiment is from SU "Whimsical Words) (retired too). 

I hope you come and check out THE FLOWER CHALLENGE for more inspiration from my awesome teammates and then, come and play along with us in our gallery.

Remember to make FLOWERS the main focus of your cards, you can enter 6 other challenges, including ours and please upload our banner to your post when you enter our challenge.

Thank you for stopping by, your comments always make my day.

Hugs.

Maria.

Autumn Colors for RR #119.....

Hello everyone: I'm back after taking some time off to deal with a difficult family situation which took all of us by surprise, leaving in its wake, confusion and pain.  We are dealing with it in the best way we can, taking it day by day and trying to support each other as we go through this rough time.

I want to thank all of you who have sent cards and emails with words of comfort and prayers, I'm incredibly grateful for your kindness and support.

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So I'm back with a card for the RETRO RUBBER CHALLENGE with a theme of Fall Colors, which are absolutely my favorite. 

Here's my card and I hope it inspires you to come and play along in our gallery.

The image is from a Power Poppy set called Feeling Fall, (Fall of 2016) colored with Sakura Koi watercolors, the background was stamped with a retired SU stamp called "Hardwood" (2014 Mini), pattern paper from my stash.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment is from a Power Poppy set called "Everything's Even Rosier".

I hope you come and play along with my teammates and me at the RETRO RUBBER gallery.  

Please remember to use at least one stamp that is older than a year, if you have the date of its release or when you bought it, we would love for you to share.

I would like to play with the following challenges.

Dream Valley Challenge

Autumn Colors.

The Paper Girls Challenge

Falling in Love.

Creative With Stamps Challenge

Autumn.

Daisy Chain Challenge

#44 Autumn is Coming.

It's Been Rough!!!!!

Hello everyone: I've been absent for a while taking care of a difficult family situation, things are ok for now, we're taking this day by day doing the best we can to cope until things get resolved. 

I want to thank all of you sweet friends who have sent cards and written to me, I'm so happy to have friends like you.

I'm back here in my craft room, doing some of the things I love so much and now

 I have another card to share with you, this time is for SHOPPING OUR STASH challenge and the theme is "The Dog Days of Summer".

We want to see some doggies on your cards, big dogs, little dogs and everything in between.

Here's my card and I hope it inspires you to come and play along.

All images and sentiment are from an Art Impressions stamp set called Doggie Kisses, except the bone, which is from Kaztelkraft's.

I colored the images with Prismacolor pencils.

The brick background is embossed with a Tim Holts EF.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment is from Art Impressions, the bone from Kaztelkraft.

Hope you stop by the SHOPPING OUR STASH challenge blog and join us in our gallery, while you're there, be sure to check out my teammates' blogs for more awesome inspiration.

I would like to play with the following challenges.

Always Fun Challenges
"Create a Scene"


International Art and Soul
Layer it Up.

Anything Goes for THE FLOWER CHALLENGE.....

Hello again, everyone: I've been off for a while, dealing with a difficult family situation, things are just ok, this is a day by day thing, hard to deal with emotionally but we're doing our best.

I had a hard time concentrating, I sat at my desk many times trying to create something, anything but couldn't so I just got up and left, sometimes just going for a swim to get my mind out of the gutter.

But I missed coloring and making my cards so I'm here now sharing this one for THE FLOWER CHALLENGE "Anything Goes" September Challenge, I hope it gets you inspired to come and join my teammates and me in our gallery.

This time we have two fabulous gifts to give away given by our generous sponsor for this month, MY FAVORITE THINGS, we can't wait to see what you come up with.

My card was created using the PAINTED PETALS stamp set. I heat embossed the flowers with white embossing powder and stamped the leaves with SU "Lost Lagune" ink.  The birthday greeting is cut with a die from Die Cuts and More.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment is from a Power Poppy set called POTTED PRIMROSES.

I hope you get inspired to come and play along at THE FLOWER CHALLENGE

remember to make FLOWERS the main focus on your card, you can play along with 6 challenges, including ours, please show our banner on your post and also, take a look at my teammates' awesome blogs, for more inspiration.

Thank you for stopping by, your comments always make my day.

Hugs.

Maria.

There's More Fish in the Sea.....

Hello everyone: The SHOPPING OUR STASH challenge has a fun, "fishy" one for you, this time we want you to "Go Fishing" and show us some fishies on your cards, big fish, little fish and everything in between.
 Here's the card I created to inspire you to come and join my teammates and me in our gallery.

This card was made using a beautiful Stampin' Up! set called "All the Good Things" that came out one year ago last June. I love this beautiful Koi fish and the other images plus, the sentiments are amazing. The Lily Pads and flowers are from a 2009 Flourishes set called "Peace Within" and the bubbles are from a set by Designs by Ryn called "Water Effects".
I placed a piece of vellum on top of the fish to give the appearance of water and to have the Water Lillies look like they are floating on top.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment is from the SU set and the little fish in the corner from the Flourishes set.

Thank you for stopping by, your comments always make my day.

Hugs.

Maria.

Two Fun Frames for RR #117.....

Hi there everyone: My teammates and I over at RETRO RUBBER have a new challenge for you to play with, this one is another very popular challenge, the always popular ANYTHING GOES so, go get your older than a year stamps and come and join us in our gallery.

I decided not to create a card this time so I created these two frames following the directions of the fantabulous Julie DiMatteo, she has the most awesome videos and projects over at her blog THE PAPER PIXIE, so go check out this particular video on how to create these super cute shadow boxes.

I followed her directions and then, I just decorated these boxes with totally different themes just to show you that, the sky is the limit when you make this super fun frames.

On the first frame, I created a little Christmas scene, with Santa and one of his Reindeer sharing some apples using a set from Power Poppy called UnderGlass Christmas Traditions (2017), I used a piece of pattern paper with Christmas Ornaments for the background, I die cut the Christmas Lights, colored the "bulbs" and added some Crystal Effects for a bit of shine, the sentiment is from this set.

On the second frame, I went with a Summer scene, with these little Hedgehogs from a Penny Black stamp set called "Hugs" purchased back in 2015, greeting each other surrounded by flowers, so sweet!! 

The fence was punched with an old Martha Stewart punch, the wooden sun and sign are from SU.

So I hope you give this fun and popular challenge a chance and come to our RETRO RUBBER challenge blog and join us in our gallery.

Don't forget to use at least one stamp set that is OLDER THAN ONE YEAR and, if you can, please let us know how long you've had it.

Thank you for stopping by, your comments always make my day.

Hugs.

Maria.

Hello Sunshine.....

Hi, there everyone: I hope you all are enjoying Summer, we certainly are.

So it's August, sheeesh!! half of 2019 is gone and now it's time for the new challenge over at THE FLOWER CHALLENGE, our theme is "Use Your Favorite Flower".
This month we have a fabulous Prize from Michelle from Clearly Besotted who is generously sponsoring us, and it's a £20.00 E-card for one lucky winner.
There are some beautiful stamp sets, stencils and dies at the store so make sure you go and check that out.  And for more great news, the amazing Therese Calvrid is our Guest Designer for the month of August, she is one incredibly talented lady so go check out her blog Lost in Paper, to see what I'm talking about, her videos are simply fabulous.

Here's my DT card for this challenge, hope it inspires you to come and play with all of us in our gallery.

One of my favorite flowers is the Sunflower so I'm lucky I have this gorgeous image from the Power Poppy set called In Praise of Sunflowers.

Sunflowers are beautiful, with their big, smiley faces and bright, sunny colors, their centers that hold the seeds that are so yummy to eat and that also, attract birds, from the humble House Sparrow to Finches, Cardinals, Woodpeckers, Blue Jays and more.

I stamped this image on watercolor paper with Versafine black ink and clear heat embossed it then, colored it with Sakura Koy watercolors.

The pattern paper on the top is from Lili of the Valley (retired) and the "brick" on the bottom is from, believe it or not, some decorative backsplash, self-adhesive tiles that I found at Home Depot on sale, I thought they were so pretty and, since they are made out of vinyl, I thought they would look really awesome on cards.

What do you think?

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

Both the sentiment and the corner image are from the same Power Poppy set.

I hope you come and check out my teammates' creations at THE FLOWER CHALLENGE blog and then, join us in our gallery.

Thank you for stopping by, your comments always make my day.

Hugs.

Maria.