Simply Tulips.....

Hello everyone: I'm here to share a card with you showing some of the flowers that signal the arrival of Spring, although up here, we have SNOW!!! on the ground, sheeesh!! what's up with that, Mother Nature? so my Daffodils and Tulips are probably shivering and all the little critters are wondering what is going on but, I guess all of us who live up North will just have to grin and bare it.
Here is my card.

I used the beautiful Tulips from Power Poppy's Dynamic Duos , stamped them onto Canson water color paper and colored them with only 3 SU markers, Elegant Eggplant, Real Red and Always Artichoke and the aqua painter. The pattern paper is from Lili of the Valley, the butterfly is from SU Papillion Potpourri, the ribbon is from my bottomless stash. 

Here is a close up of this pretty flowers.

And here is the picture of the finished inside.

I'm submitting this card to the following challenges.

The Power Poppy "Pick 3 Challenge" where we are to pick only 3 markers to color our image, I picked Elegant Egg Plant, Always Artichoke and Real Red. 

Seize the Birthday with a FLORAL theme.

The Deep Ocean Challenges with a theme "Spring is in the Air"

CAS on Sunday #80 with a theme of FLOWERS.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Go Wild, Sweet Friend.....

Hello everybody: I have a new card to share with you today for this 3 challenges:
CAS on Sunday  challenge #80 with a theme of Flowers.
TIME OUT CHALLENGES challenge #54, with an inspiration picture.
Tuesday Morning Sketches #346 with a sketch.
Here is my card.

I finally got around constructing a little "studio" to take my pictures, I went to my local craft store and bought some foam board, cut 2 12"x12" pieces and, with the left over, I just cut one more for the "floor", I put some heavy duty duct tape in the back holding the two big pieces so I could just fold it and store it when it's not being used. I think the problem I was having with my pictures was precisely LIGHTING. I don't have a specific lamp, I just used my table lamp and the natural light from the window, even if it's really cloudy and actually snowing, (ughhh!!) it was good enough to take this clear pictures. 

This images are from a Power Poppy set called "Go Wild" , all of them are so beautiful. I stamped them onto Canson water color paper and this time, I stamped them with Versafine Onix Black ink, I heard this ink is perfect when using Photopolymer stamps, it stamps incredibly detailed lines, the stamp DOES NOT stick to the paper and you only need to stamp it once, I was using Stazon Jet Black ink for a long time but this is much better for this clear stamps. I still use the Stazon but only with red rubber stamps.

The only thing with this ink is that it needs to be allowed to dry to water color the image, but I just used the heat gun and it dried in seconds. I colored it with SU markers and the aqua painter, the pattern paper is from Lili of the Valley, the sentiment is from the same set and the ribbon is from my bottomless stash. Here is a picture of the inside of my card.

The sentiment is from Power Poppy's "Best Day Ever" , super fun Summer images.

Here are the banners that inspired my card.

FLOWERS

I used several of the colors in this picture.

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

Hugs from Maria.

What the.....

Hello again, everybody: I have another card to share with you today for this newly discovered challenge called The Alphabet Challenge Blog , this time, the theme is "C" is for CATS, so here is my card.

This image is from the set by Katzelkraft called Less Chats Russes , all of this images are so darn cute and funny, that chubby, mischievous mouse is adorable, I just want to grab him and pet him, don't you? LOL!!  (I know someone who would love to do it, you know who you are!!)

I stamped the images onto Canson water color paper with Stazon Jet Black ink an colored them with SU markers and the aqua painter. The set doesn't come with sentiments or anything else, that bowl for Kitty's food was done my me, I wrote the letters and the "sentiment", the exclamation and question mark and everything else. I had to do some tricky masking because I didn't have the words "What" and "the", LOL!! 

Here is a picture of the finished inside of my card, the little mousy footprints are from a set by Penny Black called "Homemade", so cute.

The sentiment is from a Power Poppy set called Sassy Succulents .

Here is the banner that inspired my card.

"C" IS FOR "CATS"

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

Hugs from Maria.

A Post Just Because.....

Hello my friends: Well,  after fiddling for a while with this card I finally finished it, it's not to enter any challenge, I'm just posting it because I really love this set that arrived yesterday and I wanted to try to make a card like THIS ONE from Jennifer McGuire, I saw this video and I just fell in love with THIS stamp set by Hero Arts. I changed it up a bit to adjust to what I had at hand but, in essence, it's pretty much like hers.

I stamped the fish with SU inks and then, I heat embossed them using only the second stamp, which is the highlights, with Versamark ink and clear embossing powder. In the video Jennifer explains how to achieve the colored embossing without having every single color embossing powder.

The bubbles are from Designs by Ryn and I stamped them with Coastal Cabana ink. 

Here is a picture of the finished inside of my card.

I stamped more bubbles and the sea weed from the set, the small fish and the sentiment are from a retired Flourishes stamp set. 

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

Hugs from Maria.

BLACK AND PURPLE.....

Hello everyone: Learning to create CAS cards has been a work in progress for me, it has taken me a bit of time and effort to get used to leaving all that required "white space" on my cards, this style usually is one layer, little or no embellishments and one or maybe two images including the sentiment. Now, the "Less is More" challenge gals are asking us to leave "white space that is NOT white", simple, right?  Well.....I struggled a little about this challenge request until I came across this stamp set by Altenew called "Persian Motifs" and decided to use it to make this card.

I stamped it onto a black card base with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with white powder, then I colored it with my Prismacolor pencils in some of my favorite shades of purple and green for the leaves. There it is, no fuss, nothing else added except the sentiment, also heat embossed in white.

I thought of adding maybe a few Rhine Stones or sequences, I even thought of stamping some dots with the Gorgeous Grunge SU stamp set but, the more I thought about adding stuff, the more I was convinced that adding anything would totally mess it up so I left it alone.

It was a bit tricky to take this picture, I wanted you to be able to see the different shades I used on the petals, I hope you can see that. 

This is a picture of the finished inside of my card.

Again, just a simple sentiment and a few of the leaves from this pretty stamp set. 

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

Hugs from Maria.

Inlaid vase.....

Hello again, everyone: I'm enjoying this time in my craft room after a week of not creating or posting anything. My hubby and 3 of my grandchildren were on vacation so, it was a busy week for me. But I'm back in this room, playing with my stuff, making my cards and entering challenges.
This card I made for the Addicted to CAS challenge #85 Inlaid Dies , here is my card.

This is a very intricate die of a vase, it's from Elizabeth Craft Designs and it's called Ginger Jar , I can't believe this die is only $2.95 and it's still available. I cut the image first with brown card stock, then I cut it again with blue, light pink, darker pink and green, saving all the little pieces to be able to pick the ones I needed to fill in the spaces. I saved all the other pieces, they are just perfect to make a couple of more cards with this design.  Then, I placed some scotch tape in the back and started putting each little piece where it belonged, it was a bit time consuming but I really like how it turned out. I then, die cut the frame and placed the jar in the center.  A simple sentiment completes it.

Here is a picture of the finished inside of my card.

Here is the CODE WORD that inspired this card.

Thank you for stopping by, until next time, (maybe later, LOL!!), happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

Go West.....

Hello everyone: I've been missing for a few days, with hubby and 3 of my grandkids on vacation, it was hard to get to my craft room but it was fun, the weather was not the best but we still managed to go out a couple of times and the other days, we just stayed home doing some Spring cleaning and yard work. But today, everybody is back to school and work and I have my much needed time in my craft room, I miss this a lot.  I have a card to share that I will link to the The Paper Players "Western" theme, using the sketch over at the IN{K}SPIRE_me challenge. Here is my card.

This image is from Our Daily Bread and it's called You are the Potter , I love this beautiful clay pots, they remind me of our trips with our grandchildren out west, I have a few of this beautiful and artful vases, love the earthy colors and shapes.

I stamped the image onto Canson water color paper with Stazon Jet Black ink and colored it with SU markers and the aqua painter, the pattern paper is from Lili of the Valley, the frame for the image is from Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles die set. The die I wanted to use was a bit longer than I wanted it so I cut half of it, took it out and turn it to the opposite side, fitting it in the groves and finish the cut, that gave me a smaller die cut and I still kept the pretty design. Then I used the next one to cut the middle.

The wood accents are from SU and my bow is from my stash of twine. 

Here is a picture of the finished inside of my card.

Here is the banners that inspired my card.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Ribbon and Lace.....

Hello everyone: I finally finished this card for the Freshly Made Sketches , with a sketch by Jane B., my hubby has been on vacation since last Tuesday the 29th. and, well.....it's been a bit difficult to get to my craft room, we've been going out a couple of times, doing some Spring cleaning, yard work and stuff like that, tomorrow he'll go back to work, 3 of my grandkids go back to school and I will have, once again, my much missed time in my craft room back. I've been working on this card for a while now and I almost didn't post it, I changed the background a couple of times, I've been really distracted but I finished it and I said "what the heck!! I'll share it, hope you like it.  Here is my card.

This is a very old stamp I bought as a package from a lady that was having a rummage sale on her blog, I didn't know what I was getting, it was kind of a "surprise" deal so, I took a leap of faith, since I really liked her cards and bought it, the $5.00 price tag for 8-10 stamps was very tempting, all I new was that they were "Feminine and Flirty". Well, let me tell you, all of them are beautiful and this one is kind of what the other ones look like. I don't know the company where they came from so, if any of you have seen this image, I would love it if you could tell me, thank you in advance.

I stamped the image onto Canson water color paper and lightly colored it with SU markers, the pattern paper is from Lili of the Valley and the sentiment is from Flourishes (retired), I stamped it with Stazon Jet Black ink onto vellum and fussy cut it, I adhere it with two little pieces of double sided tape.

Here is a picture of the finished inside of my card.

This is the sketch that inspired my card.

I know I went a bit longer with the image but that is why I kind of broke it down with the sentiment across the bottom part, I hope this is ok.

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

Hugs from Maria.