The Long Journey.....

Hello dear friends: I have a deep admiration for all of those wild creatures who take on the awesome and most times, dangerous JOURNEY of migration.  From the little Monarch Butterflies to the big Geese and Ducks, from the tiny Hummingbirds to the big African Elephants, this animals migrate in search for food, mates, warmer climates, sometimes guided only by their instinct and amazing sense of direction.  To me, the Journey some of this animals undertake is nothing short of epic and humbling.
Over at CASology the CODE WORD for this week is JOURNEY so I made this card with one of my most favorite SU sets called "The Wilderness Awaits", I'm also linking this card to the Corrosive Challenge #7 "Nature/Animals" and the Addicted to Stamps and More "CAS challenge #204, here is my card.

The image is stamped onto Canson water color paper with Versafine Onix Black ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder then, colored with SU markers and the aqua painter. 

I wanted to add a sentiment that had the word JOURNEY and, after looking through my Flourishes stash of stamp sets I found this perfect one, from another fantastic masculine set. 

I like to combine sets every chance I get, I did this to make the inside of my card.

I will list the sets I used to make this card at the bottom of this post.

Here are the banners that inspired my card.

Nature/Animals

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

Hugs from Maria.

Stamps I used.

Welcome Sweetie Pie.....

Hello dear friends: It's time for another fun CAS challenge over at Addicted to CAS challenge #93 with a theme of WELCOME, and to the Addicted to Stamps and More CAS challenge #204, so I made this card to WELCOME a brand new baby for the niece of one of  my dearest Triathlon friends who's having a baby girl next month, this card will be on it's way to him later today.

This image is from a retired Flourishes set called "Hello Baby", I stamped it onto a panel of Canson water color paper with Stazon Jet Black ink and colored it with SU markers, I sponged the sky and grass with distress inks.

The sentiment is from the set and the pattern paper from a sadly discontinued line of gorgeous papers from Lili of the Valley.

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

This are the banners that inspired my card.

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

Stamps I used.

A Belly Full of Chocolate.....

Hello everyone: Most of you who know me for a while know that I adore the House Mouse siblings, I just can't get enough of this 5 sweeties, who do all kind of mischief and find themselves in super adorable situations that just makes me wish they live with me.  A couple of my card swapping friends really don't like real mice and I suspect most people don't either but, I've seen this little critters outside my house, by the bushes or running across our drive way from the trees in the back yard to the ones by side of the garage, super cute.
Anywho, I discovered by pure accident, a House Mouse Challenge Blog  and I was so thrilled that I jump into action and made this card, which I'll also link to the The Corrosive Challenge "Nature and Animals" challenge and the Great Impressions challenge "Anything Goes".

I just love this little cutie, with it's belly so full it shines, LOL!! I stamped it onto Canson water color paper with Stazon Jet Black ink and colored it with SU markers and the aqua painter. I stamped the part of the icing onto a separate piece of water color paper, colored it with markers and Prismacolor pencils to achieve this rich chocolate color then, I fussy cut it to give it some dimension.

The pattern paper is from a retired line from Lili of the Valley, the sentiment is from my stash.

I've made a resolution about finishing all of my cards to save time when the time comes to mail them.

This sentiment and the cake are from a retired Flourishes set.

This challenge asks for the use of Chocolate and Cream colors. 

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

Hugs from Maria.

A Stitch in Time.....

Hello everyone: Before I started making cards about 10 years ago, I had other hobbies like knitting, crocheting, swimming, biking, running and one of them was cross stitching. As a young girl,  I learned to knit and crochet from my maternal grandma, who also taught me to cook.  The cross stitching came much later, and this was something I truly enjoyed for many years.  For the past 10 I've concentrated most on card making but today, thanks to the Shopping Our Stash challenge, I created a little cross stitch project for this week's challenge called "Stitch in Time", in which we want you to create a card using some kind of stitching, whether is using your sewing machine, a needle and thread or even faux stitching, we would love to see it. Here is my card.

I have this cross stitch book to make Clip Book Marks and I made this one with it, easy to follow directions, this projects really can be done fast, although it took me a good part of last week to finish it due to having my grandkids spending time with us, and with this super hot weather, we literally have been living at the club house pool. 3 of them went home Thursday but they came back Saturday and they are still here, camping out in our living room. But we love it, hubby and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

So back to this card.....the pattern paper is from Lili of the Valley and the sentiment and stamped needle and thread are from this stamp set I've had for years and years but don't know where it came from, I so wish I would have saved the box and label when I got it but, back then, I didn't think I would ever need that information, so sorry.

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

The sentiment is from a retired Flourishes set called "Hummingbirds".

I hope you like this card, I really enjoyed sitting down and cross stitching this little project, I think I will make some more of this cute little book marks, I think they will make great gifts.

I hope you give this challenge a try and for more inspiration, hop over to the rest of the DT blogs and leave them some inky love.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Stamping on fabric.....a first for me!!!!!

Hello everyone and a happy Sunday to all: I have a card I made just this morning, it was fairly easy to make except for the fact that the fabric I used was unraveling something awful. My original plan was to "frame" it using dies but, by the time I finished coloring the image, the edges were to far gone to fit on my frame so, I braced myself and started fraying it even more on all 4 sides. When I was happy with it, I stopped, trim the edges and finished it,  I will submit it to the "Less is More" two week recipe challenge for challenges #286 and #287. The challenge is to create a card with something TACTILE, something interesting to the touch, so here is my card.

Rummaging on my box of fabrics from my "quilting" days, I found a piece of what it appears to be some kind of linen, in person it looks like the fabric used for cross stitch. I cut a piece and stamped my image from the Power Poppy by Marcella Hawley set called Everything's Even Rosier, I stamped the single rose this time using Versafine Onix Black ink and colored it with Prismacolors and highlighted it with SU markers.

I wanted to put some brads in the corners but they were to small so I just punched this circles with a hand held punch to make them look like very fancy nails, Ha!!!

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

The sentiment is from the set as well as the rose in the corner, which is part of the largest stamp on the set, ( I made THIS CARD with it) I just put my panel on the MISTI, placed this big stamp and colored it with SU markers right on the stamp, it came out really nicely.

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

Hugs from Maria.