A Little Reminder.....

Hello everyone: My teammates and I at THE FLOWER CHALLENGE, want to thank everyone who participated in our First Anniversary Challenge.  The gallery was full of gorgeous cards, featuring all kinds of styles and techniques, we had such a great time looking at them, visiting your blogs and leaving you some comment love.  We enlisted the help of Mr. Random Number Generator to pick the winners of the prizes we had for you and I hope you will enjoy your goodies when they arrive if they haven't arrived already.  Thank you, thank you for making this challenge blog a success in our first year, we couldn't have done it without you.

So, here we go with our challenge for the month of November.  This time we want to see CAS cards.

Here is mine and I hope it inspires you to come and play along with us.

I must confess I'm still not very comfortable with the CAS style, I always hesitate about submitting my cards because I feel there is something missing.  In a CAS card there has to be a lot of "empty" space, no embellishments and a main image that leaves enough area around, I hope my sentiment didn't clutter the panel.

This image is from an old Flourishes set called Magnolias, love this amazingly fragrant flowers.

I decided to try to "color" this flowers with just my Black and White Prismacolor pencils after I watched THIS VIDEO, I thought it was a beautiful technique so I decided to give it a try. I don't have the paper she used so I just stamped my image with Stazon black ink onto a piece of light gray card stock. I sharpened my two pencils and went to work, using my white pencil on the areas that had no shading, then using the black pencil to add a bit of detail and contour. 

I thought of coloring the leaves a light green but decided to just do the whole image in white.

I also thought of adding some Rhine Stones or Nuvo Drops but I stopped myself, after all, this needs to stay as CAS as possible.

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I always finish the inside of my cards, this saves me a lot of time when I mail them.

 

I made the inside also CAS, but this time I stamped all of the images in light green.

I hope you come and join us at THE FLOWER CHALLENGE CAS challenge, give this style of card making a try, after all, this is a challenge, right?
Don't forget to stop by the blog and check out my teammates' creations and leave them some sweet comment love.
Please don't forget to add our banner to your post and link back to us, read our rules, they are simple but important and most of all, have fun.
Thank you for stopping by, I always read every single comment you so kindly leave on my posts, I want you to know I appreciate them more than words can express.
Until next time, happy stamping.
Hugs from Maria.

On the Road Again.....

Hello stamping friends: This week at SHOPPING OUR STASH, my teammates and I have a new fun challenge for you to play with. The theme is TRANSPORTATION and we would love for you to join us in our gallery.  I made this card that I hope will inspire you to play along.

I love Shopping My Stash of old and beloved sets and this one is one my favorites.

This images are from a retired Stampin' Up! set called "Loads of Love", it made it's debut back in 2004  but I didn't buy it until much later, I love the little truck and all the fun accessories you can load on it.  One of my Triathlon friends is finally moving to her new home, after living in a small apartment with her husband, 2 little boys and two small doggies.  I know there are 3 doggies on this card but I told her that maybe now that she has a nice back yard, they could get a third, LOL!! 

I stamped all of this images on Strathmore watercolor paper and colored them with some SU markers, I stamped the truck two more times and cut the back portion of it to accommodate the furniture, boxes and gifts, which are some of the cute images on this set.

The background is done with SU "Lovely as a Tree", the birds are from SU "Up, Up and Away", the fence is a Martha Stewart punch.

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I've been finishing the inside of all the cards I make since January of this year and believe me, it saves a lot of time when I mail them, besides, the cards look nicely finished.

The sentiment here is from an old Flourishes set called "Magnolias", the trees from SU "Lovely as a Tree"

So I hope you come and join my teammates and me in the SHOPPING OUR STASH gallery, there you can check out what the rest of the team created for your inspiration.  Stop by their blogs and leave them some comment love.

Thank you for stopping by, I always read every single comment you so kindly leave on my posts, I want you to know I appreciate them more than words can express.

Until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

White on White Christmas.....

Hello everyone: I have one more Christmas card to add to my stash, which is quite LARGE😉

I participate in Christmas challenges all year round so, by the time the Holidays are here, I'm ready with a lot of (excuse me for tutting my own horn) really pretty cards to send to family and friends.

Here is this one I just finished, I had a bit of trouble taking the picture since it's all in white except for the sentiment, which I heat embossed in silver.

There are a lot of different dies on this card. The large one I think is from Marianne Designs and it's old, I apologize for not knowing it's name.  The Snowflake Ornament and the Bow (Precious Hearts) are from Memory Box, the sentiment is from a Power Poppy set called Cozy Cupfuls.  I added a few Rhine Stones and also, someTwinklets Diamond Dust, this stuff is AWESOME !!!!! I saw it on THIS CARD by Therese Calvrid from Lost in Paper and I just fell in love with it. It's not glitter, it's actual glass flakes so it shimmers beautifully, I hope you can see it on the card.

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I always finish the inside of my cards, this saves me time when I need to mail them. 

The sentiment is from an old Flourishes set called "Christmas Candles", the little heart from a Penny Black set called A Bright Tomorrow.

I'm playing along with the following challenges.

The Paper Players A color challenge from Nance

Crafty Friends Challenge #70 "Christmas"

Addicted to CAS

Christmas Cards Challenges #25 "Christmas"

Thank you for stopping by, I always read every single comment you so kindly leave on my posts, I want you to know I appreciate them more than words can express.

Until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

Sweet Embroidery with the PB Mice.....

Hello everyone: I love little critter stamps, especially when they are this adorable. 

This is an image from a Penny Black stamp called Stitch in Time and, as you can see, this little mice are as cute as can be.

I stamped the image on Strathmore watercolor paper with gray Stazon ink, I wanted softer lines to be able to color using SU markers and my Prismacolor pencils and have an image that looked like I did the "no line coloring" technique, I don't know if I achieved this but I still like the way it turned out.

The sentiment is from an old, retired Flourishes set called "Smore Fun", I punched the three corners with a Martha Stewart punch.

The bow is made with a piece of twine from my stash.

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I've been finishing the inside of my cards since January of this year, it saves me a lot of time when I mail my cards and they look nicely finished.

The sentiment is from a retired Flourishes set called "Dahlias", the little critter is from Penny Black.

I would like to play with the following challenges.

Tic Tac Toe Board created by featured designer Amy Ottmers.

I chose the first horizontal row: "Sentiment/Fall Colors/Twine.

Hanna and Friends challenge #286 "Animals"

Kitty Bee Designs challenge #107 "Use at least 2 colors"

Allsorts Challenge #441 "Colors of Autumn"

Crafty Calendar Challenge November Challenge "Autumn Colors"

Thank you for stopping by, I always read every single comment you so kindly leave on my posts, I want you to know I appreciate them more than words can express.

Until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.