A tag for my Sweetie.....

Hello everyone: Well, I made this tag to go along with my little gift for my hubby tomorrow morning, I got him the entire collection of "COSMOS" by Carl Sagan, he just loves, LOVES this series, he's been after it for a while, it's one of the most amazing series on TV. so I know he will love it. Here is my little tag, for the Tag Your'e It! challenge this week.

This image is from Penny Black, it's called "Pinky Joy" and it couldn't be more adorable. I stamped it onto Canson water color paper and colored it with the aqua painter and SU markers in Real Red, Pink Pirouette, Perfect Plumb, Daffodil Delight, Cajun Craze and Old Olive. The sentiment is from a retired Flourishes set called "A Token of my Affection".

Here's a little close up of this cute little piggy.

Just look at those rosy cheeks!! I couldn't help but punching the teeny, tiny heart with my retired SU Pinking Hearts Punch, the bigger heart is also punched with another retired SU heart punch.

I know my hubby will get a kick out of this tag.

Here is the inspiration tag from Jen.

Thank you so much for stopping by, until next time, happy stamping. 

Hugs from Maria.

Here are some pictures of the items I used to make my tag. I wish I could have put them side by side but I just couldn't figure out how.

A Cheery Hello.....

Hello everyone: I have another card to share with you today with some really sweet Spring flower images to help you keep the hope alive that the Season of renewal is just around the corner. For all of us who live up North, there is still snow on the ground, the days are cold and gray and the peeks of the Sun here and there do not help or warm us at all so, I figured.....why not make a card to cheer everyone up a bit, eh?  Here it is!!!

This retired Flourishes set is called "Spring Blossoms", I can't wait to see my Daffodils and Tulips, my Roses and Hydrangeas bloom again, this images are as close as I can get till they do.

I stamped the image onto Canson water color paper and colored it with the aqua painter and SU markers in Regal Rose, Melon Mambo, Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight, More Mustard, Elegant Eggplant and Old Olive.

The sentiment is from the same set and the pretty frame from "Country Charm Labels", also from Flourishes. I stamped it with Strawberry Slush.

Here is a picture of the finished inside.

Ok, I used the sentiment on the Flourishes "Gerbera Daisies" and the little bird is from a retired SU set called "A Scene in a Garden", I thought that, since the sentiment mentions a bird, I would stamp this sweet one next to the word.

I die cut the frame with THIS  Spellbinders Nestabilities dies and sponged the edges with Hello Honey ink. 

I'm linking this card to the following challenges:

The CAS Colours and Sketches #160 

And the Time Out Challenge #49 , I got inspired by the word "FLOWER"

The Addicted to CAS Challenge #81 Code Word "BLOOM"

Here are some pictures of the retired stamps I used to create this card. Perhaps you could find them.

It started to snow again, this is looking outside my back yard. This stamp set is very well loved so I took this picture so you guys can see the images better.

Thank you for stopping by, until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

Hang in There!!!!!

Hello again, dear friends: Well, I'm sneaking a little card I just finished real quick with THIS  stamp I just got yesterday from Katzelkraft, I saw THIS card on Pinterest and I just couldn't resist hunting for this stamp until I found the company through another stamper who used a different image from a totally different stamp set. I asked her in a comment and she graciously gave me the information so I went to the store and.....well, here is my card.

I just stamped this kitty onto a panel of Ninah Solar White card stock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, my pad is a bit dry so the impression is not the best, I'll go and get a new pad today.

I gave this card my own little twist by stamping a panel of light brown card stock with the Hardwood background stamp from SU, to give the appearance of a "wall" behind the "wall paper", LOL!! This stamp has no sentiment so I just wrote one, I couldn't think of anything else to say to this poor kitty.

For the illusion of ripping paper, I just cut a straight line right by the scratch marks and then, distressed the paper with the scissors and curled it, I was laughing when I finally put this card together. Here is the finished inside.

This card will bring a smile to anybody who is sick. 

I'm submitting this card to The Paper Players challenge.

I hope you like this funny card, until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

Audrey's Red Dress.....

Hello everyone: I have a card to share with you that, even if it came out nice in the end, I had the worst time achieving the right shade of RED, I ruined several images until finally achieved one that was ok by me. Let me know what you think, please. I'm submitting this card to Stamplorations February Challenge and The Card Concept challenge #48, I went for the Clean and Simple style and was inspired by the red, heart shaped cookies.  Here is my card.

This image is from Stamping Bella and it's called ""Audrey Loves Makeup" , this image is from the collection "Up Town Girls", I mean, can she be more dashing in that luscious red dress? I love all of this images, although I must confess, they are a bit challenging to color, specially the arms and legs, they are very thin spaces so you must be careful when applying the color.

Now, I always work with the aqua painter and SU markers only this time around, getting a bright, red color was hard to do. I wont bore you with the details of all of my failed attempts at coloring this dress, I'll only tell you that it required several layers of Real Red, with just a very damp aqua painter, allowing the ink to dry completely between applications, the last 3 layers I just help the drying along with the heat gun, being very careful not to warp the paper, water color paper tends to do this with a lot of heat.

Ok, after all the layers were totally dried, I went in with the red Prismacolor pencil, to even out the edges and give the dress a rich, satiny look. The purse and hat were colored with the black Prisma pencil, blending with a paper stump dipped in baby oil, I added very subtle highlights with the white Prisma pencil and a bit of gold gel pen for her necklace, bracelet and the handle and closure of her purse, also a tiny bit to the case of the lipstick.

Here is a close up, hope you can appreciate the adorable lip stick and those teeny, tiny lips, rosy cheeks too.

It was hard to color the black gloves, just look at those fingers!!

But, there she is, ready to have a great Valentine, she will turn heads anywhere she goes.

Here is a picture of the finish inside of this card.

I'm linking this card to the Stamplorations CAS card Challenge 

The Card Concept

I was inspired by the red, delicious cookies on this picture.

Thank you so much for stopping by, I hope you give this fun and fabulous challenges a try.

Until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

Hedgehog Love.....

Hello everyone: I have a card to share with you made with some of the adorable images from Penny Black. Here is my card.

This images are from the set "A Wonderful Day", I stamped them onto Canson water color paper and die cut them with SU retired Labels collection dies. I colored them with SU markers in Chocolate Chip, Basic Gray, Pretty in Pink and Old Olive. The sentiment is from the same set and it's stamped with SU Strawberry Slush. The pattern paper is from Lily of the Valley. 

Here is a picture of the finish inside.

I used one of the retired SU Valentine Defined images with the hearts and a sentiment from my stash.

I'm linking this card to this challenges.

Can You Case It? 

IN{k}SPIRE_me

Penny Black and More  

***Anything Goes with a Stamp and Dies***

Thank you for stopping by, until next time, hugs from Maria.

Life is a bowl of cherries.....

Hello everyone: I have another card to share for you that I started about 3 days ago and today, I finally decided to just go ahead and post it.  Why the delay you might ask? well, it was because the sketch challenge over at Retro Sketches called for several layers of paper and most of you know how hard it is for me to mix and match pattern paper so it took me 3 days to finally decide on a combination that look acceptable to my totally untrained eyes. I'm also entering this card to the Penny Black and More "Anything Goes with a stamp and dies" February challenge, I just love the little critter stamps they have. Anyway, here is my card, I hope I didn't mess up big time with this papers. (Be gentle, sigh!)

This image is from Penny Black and it's called Homemade , I stamped it onto Canson water color paper and colored it with the aqua painter and SU markers in Cherry Cobbler, Certainly Celery, Basic Gray, Chocolate Chip and Garden Green, then I die cut it using Spellbinders CARD CREATOR  dies. The pattern paper is from Lily of the Valley and my card base is SU Stawberry Slush. 

The sentiment is from the same set, I stamped it with Strawberry Slush ink and die cut it with an old Labels die set, the linen thread is from my stash. 

Here is a picture of the inside.

The sentiment here is from another Penny Black set, also stamped with Strawberry Slush, the little mice footprints are from the set and are stamped with SU Crisp Cantaloupe. I just thought having some footprints from this little critters would be fun.

Here are the banners that inspired this card.

*****Anything goes with a stamp and dies*****

Thank you so much for stopping by, until next time, happy stamping.
Hugs from Maria.

Happy Anniversary to "Less is More"!!!!!

Hello everyone: I've mentioned in the past that I've learned a whole lot since I created this blog, I venture into uncharted territories when it comes to making my cards and one of the most interesting and at times, challenging things I've learned is to make CAS cards. At first, leaving a lot of "white" space around a stamped image really made me nervous, I always felt like I needed to add a bit more of something, anything!! but, the Clean and Simple style should remain just that CLEAN AND SIMPLE so, slowly but surely, I got more and more comfortable with it and, taking a huge leap of faith, jumped right into it, with really great results.  Heck!! my CAS cards have been picked a few times by the CAS challenge blogs Designer Teams and I love it. One of this challenge blogs where I've learned this beautiful and elegant style of card making is "Less is More" and, to celebrate their 5th. Anniversary, we were asked to create a white on white card, (shhh!! being a fan of color, this was also hard, my hands were itching to grab my markers or pencils and color this image but, in honor of this fabulous challenge, I resisted, phew!!!) Here is my card.

This image is from a retired SU set called "Blooming Beautiful", I stamped the image onto a panel of Ninah Solar White card stock with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with WOW! Silver Pearl embossing powder, I love the subtle pearl shimmer, just beautiful. I stamped the sentiment, from SU Teeny, Tiny Wishes the same way and added 5 little pearls, one for each year this fabulous Challenge Blog has been challenging the crafting community, I've only leaned of their existence last year.

I embossed a panel of Ninah Solar White card stock with a Cuttle Bug EF for a bit of texture.

Here is a close up.

And here is a picture of the finished inside.

I stamped the silvery fire works and the sentiment images with Silver Glitter embossing powder, I punched the detail on top with a Martha Stewart punch.

Here is the banner that inspired this card.

It's a color challenge, WHITE ON WHITE.

Here are the pictures of the stamp sets I used to create this card.

Thank you for stopping by, until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

Dreaming of something warm.....

Hello everyone: Each year I get a bit more tired of the cold months, they seem to drag on, with the gray, sunless days, chilly winds, snow falls, etc. so when I saw the challenge at Shopping our Stash  with a theme of "Dreaming of Something Warm", I jumped right in, here is my card.

This image is from a retired Flourishes stamp set called "S'more Fun", I stamped it onto Canson water color paper and colored it with the aqua painter and SU markers, I wont list which colors because I used a bunch of them but, like always, I really love how they blend beautifully.

The challenge ask for us to explain a bit about how our card fits the theme and all I can say is that, going camping to a beautiful, warm, sunny National Park is my idea of relaxation, fun and warmth. 

Building a fire and making S'mores, eating outdoors, going fishing, hiking, swimming.....get the idea?

Here is a picture of the finished inside.

Now, I've seen some blogs where they show pictures of the stamp sets they used so I thought that was a great idea, just in case you see this old favorite on Ebay or from another card maker who happens to be selling her stuff. I got 6 sets, including this one from Stacy Morgan , she still has a bunch of this beautiful stamp sets, here is a picture of the S'more Fun set.

Thank you for stopping by, until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.