E.V.O.O.....

Hello everyone: I'm a bit late posting this card, I had to check the filter of my 75 gal. marine tank, since I did a water change yesterday, it was making this weird noise so I got worried and had to disconnect it, open it to see what was the problem. It's fine now, one of the baskets where I put the filter media was not sitting well on the canister and it was vibrating when the water was circulating, thank goodness it wasn't anything more serious than that.
Anyway, I'm sure you guys are familiar with Rachel Ray and her famous way to abbreviate "Extra Virgin Olive Oil" right? well, I love this girl and her cooking show so I made this card with the gorgeous images from the new SU Tuscan Vineyard, the moment I saw it in the catalog, I knew it was going to be mine.  I'm linking this card to the Tuesday Morning Sketches #356.

I just love the old feel of this oil jars, so beautiful and charming. The olive branch is so detailed, I love this two images together. I stamped them onto Canson 140lb. water color paper with Stazon Dove Gray ink, I didn't want harsh lines showing, this ink is really perfect for this purpose. I colored the image with SU markers and the aqua painter and added a bit of shadows with Prismacolor pencils.  The frame is the negative left over from another project, I save this pieces because they really make beautiful frames. I sponged a little Baked Brown Sugar around both pieces and a little Antique Linen to the image panels. 

The pattern paper is from a discontinued line of one sided papers from Lili of the Valley, I'm lucky I grabbed a few pads before they were gone.  The golden corner die cut was made with the Corner Lace Deco Die set  from Cherry Lynn, the sentiment is from a retired Flourishes set called Magnolias.

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

The sentiment is from a retired Flourishes set called Dreaming of Florence  and the frame around it is from another Flourishes set called "Country Charm Labels".

This is the sketch that inspired my card.

Other stamps I used.

MAGNOLIAS

DREAMING OF FLORENCE

COUNTRY CHARM LABELS

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

Hugs from Maria.

Color me Blue.....

Hello everyone: I have a CAS card, (well, I think it is) for you today and I'm linking it to the Happy Little Stampers "June Anything goes with Dies challenge, the Power Poppy "Happy Mail" Challenge and the STAMPlorations "Anything CAS goes" with an optional color twist BLUE, here is my card.

The image is from Power Poppy's Countryside Bouquet Deluxe stamp set and it's stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with Prismacolor Pencils, no paper stumps dipped in baby oil this time, since I stamped the flowers directly onto my card base and I didn't want the oil to sip through. I added some Rhine Stones for a bit of sparkle.  I die cut t he frame with a set of rectangular dies. The sentiment is from another Power Poppy set called Daffodils. 

Here is a close up of this pretty little flowers.

And here is a picture of the finished inside of my card, the sentiment is from a retired Flourishes set called "Picking Wild Flowers".

This are the banners that inspired my card.

Other stamp sets I used.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Monarchs.....

Hello everyone: I just discovered another challenge blog called Butterfly Challenge. Who doesn't love and appreciate Butterflies?  Besides their beauty, I admire their resilience and their strength, specially the Monarch Butterflies, when they migrate back and forth from Southern Canada and North America to the forests of Central Mexico, in an epic yearly migration. You can see a map and a brief report of how this beautiful creatures endure this incredibly long distance trip to a place in Central Mexico which they have NEVER seen HERE.
Ok, after this short introduction, I'm sharing this card I made for the Butterfly Challenge #56, "+O as in OVAL AND OR OLIVE.

I included both the oval and the color for my card. The oval is cut from Olive Green card stock with  the Spellbinders Oval Regalia die set, the image is from Northwoods Rubber Stamps.

I stamped the image onto Canson 140lb. water color paper with Versafine Onix Black ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder then, I colored it with SU markers and the aqua painter, I sponged some Tumbled Glass distress ink for the sky.

Here is a picture of the finished inside.

The sentiment is from Power Poppy's Sassy Succulents, stamped with Tangelo Twist ink.

The butterfly is from a set that has no name or package, I apologize for this, my excuse is that, a long time ago, when I started stamping, I never bother to keep the names or packages of my stuff, back then, having a blog or sharing my cards on the Internet was the farthest thing from my mind.

This is the banner from this really fabulous challenge blog.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Chinese Lanterns.....

Hello everyone: Last Friday Fab Friday shared a great sketch for us to play with and Power Poppy is having a challenge called Happy Mail the entire month of June, if you don't have any Power Poppy by Marcella Howley's stamp sets, you can still participate to have a chance to win one of her amazing sets. Here is my card.

I don't know about you guys but I've never seen a Chinese Lantern plant in person, ever!! I Googled it just to see how they look in real life, they are so beautiful and the image on  Marcella Howley's  Happy Harvest stamp set from Power Poppy is just as beautiful as the real plant.

I stamped this image onto a piece of Strathmore 90lb. water color paper with Versafine Onix Black ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder then, colored it with SU markers and the aqua painter. 

I love how the branch of bittersweet berries intertwine with the lovely husks of the Chinese Lantern. 

The pattern paper is from a discontinued line from Lili of the Valley, the ribbon from my stash, I don't seem to make a dent in it, sheeesh!!

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

The sentiment is from a retired SU set called "Perfectly Penned" and it's stamped with Tangelo Twist ink from SU.

Here is the sketch that inspired my card.

And the Power Poppy banner.

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

Hugs from Maria.

SU "Perfectly Penned" stamp set.

Taking a selfie.....

Hello everyone: This is my second post with my new team mates at Shopping Our Stash and the theme is "Taking a Selfie" and creating a Polaroid Scene. Now a days everybody is taking "selfies" so we all hope you guys give this challenge a try.  Here is my card.

This is a very old little stamp I bought about 3 years ago at my local craft store, I had a neighbor who love piggies and her birthday was coming up so, one day I saw this stamp and I just had to have it, I made her a birthday card and she literally squeal with joy, LOL!!

I stamped this image onto a piece of Strathmore water color paper with Versafine Onix Black ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder, colored with SU markers and the aqua painter. 

The little flowers and grass are stamped with a couple of little stamps from Art Impressions. 

I have this polaroid die that was just perfect for this card. 

The pattern paper is from a discontinued Lili of the Valley line, I was able to grab the last of the pads, this one is really colorful. I couple of enamel dots frames the sentiment from a retired Flourishes set called "Old Fashioned Florals". 

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

The sentiment is from a retired SU set called "Whimsical Words" and the little cake from my stash.

We hope you guys give this challenge a try, create a Polaroid scene and link it up to the challenge.

For inspiration go check out the blogs of my team mates and leave some love in your comments.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Beautiful Tuscan Vineyard.....

Hello everyone: Last week I received my first order from the new Stampin Up! catalog with several sets of amazing stamps, the Tuscan Vineyard was one of them so, I took the sketch from Just Add Ink and made this card with it.

This bunch of grapes is one of the gorgeous images on this set, they are all just beautiful and totally a joy to color and play with. 

I stamped this image onto Canson water color paper with Versafine Onix Black ink and heat emboss it with clear embossing powder then, I colored it with SU markers and the aqua painter.  The pattern papers are from a sadly retired line from Lili of the Valley and the gold vellum paper from SU. 

The Flourish is from Marianne Designs Anja's Large Oval and the sentiment is from Power Poppy's Dynamic Duos.

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

And the sketch that inspired my card.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Aloha Sunshine.....

Hello everyone: This week at CASology the Cue Card is SUNSHINE and over at Addicted to CAS the Code Word is ALOHA so, I'm combining this two challenges and created this card.

Ok, have you ever been looking for something and, in the process, find something else that has nothing to do with what you were looking for in the first place? Well, this happened to me yesterday afternoon, when I was looking for the glue gun and glue sticks and found, at the very bottom of this drawer, under some super old SU Bigz dies (remember those?), the glue gun and the bag of glue sticks, this pretty Lily flower die, also from Sizzix, how did this got there? I will never know but I created this card with it for this two fun challenges.

The die cuts the flower and the stigma, I sponged the flower with Barn Red distress ink and the stigma was placed on top of the Squeeze Lemonade distress ink pad and I push it with the scoring tool to saturate it with the ink and then, placed it on the container of the clear embossing powder and heat embossed it.

I punched a small circle for the sun and used both, the negative and the positive parts to sponge the sun with Daffodil Delight. The sentiment is from Power Poppy's Sunny Harvest stamp set.

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

The sentiment is from the same set, the sprig of flowers on the corner is from a retired SU set called "Nature Walk".

Here are the banners that inspired my card.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Other stamp set I used.