Hello Frankie!!!!!

Hello everyone: Even if Spring is only beginning, I'm making some Halloween cards for my stash, I tend to neglect this fun season and then, I'm press for time to make my cards for family and friends. The RETRO RUBBER has the ever so popular "ANYTHING GOES" challenge for you guys to play along with so, here is my card that I hope will inspire you to join us in the gallery.

This totally fun and awesome image is from a 2006 Stampin' Up! set called "Best Friends" (this is the link to the Splitcoaststampers Stampin' Up! gallery for this particular set) and let me tell you, I wish someone would bring back this over the top fabulous stamp set, which came out waaaaay before I started stamping, otherwise I would have bought it on the spot!!!!!

How did I manage to snag this set you might ask?? well, I saw one of the images on Pinterest, I follow the trail and fortunately, the lady who used this set mentioned the name and with this little piece of information, I went on a wild hunt trying to find it and find it I did on Ebay. When I saw it I immediately bought it and the good thing about it is that it was super affordable for being such an old set so, here is Frankie in all it's glory, ready to go Trick or Treating around the neighborhood.

I stamped him on watercolor paper with Stazon black ink and colored it with Sakura Koy watercolors, I love the neon shades that give his "sweet" face that fabulous green glow and, since his t-shirt says "I Love Bats", I stamped this little bat, from Kraftin Kimmie, on Frankie's head.

The pattern papers are from my stash.

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Here is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The spider web, spider and sentiment are from another retired SU set called, what else.....""Bite Me", it came out in September of 2013.

So there you have it, another Halloween card for my stash created at the start of Spring, fun, eh?

So I hope you get inspired to come and play along with my awesome teammates and I in the RETRO RUBBER gallery.  Remember to make sure YOUR STAMPS ARE OVER ONE YEAR OLD and also please, tell us how long you've had them.

I would like to play along with the following challenges.

Crazy 4 Challenges #427 "Cards with Children's Theme" Fun Halloween.

Hiding in my Craft Room "Any Holiday" 

heARTful STamping "Anything Goes + a Stamp"

Crafty Friends Challenge #80 "Anything Goes"

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.

A NO INK CARD.....

Hello everyone: Once again, my teammates and I at SHOPPING OUR STASH, have a new challenge for you to play with this coming week, this time the theme is NO INK, this means, no markers, no ink pads, no re-inkers, etc. you get the picture, right? Pencils, like Prismacolors or any other kind of pencils, are allowed since they don't have any ink on them, so, here is my card that I hope will inspire you to come and join us in our gallery.

I don't usually create cards that do not have some kind of stamped image which I color with markers or watercolors so, this challenge is a bit out of my comfort zone. Then, I saw THIS LOVELY CARD on Pinterest so I decided to CASE it, thank you so much DeAnn Rauzi.

All I used here are dies from the "Pretty Pines" set from Stampin' Up!, (retired), I cut the pine cones with some silver glimmer paper and then, the back of them was die cut in plain white, I added a silver thread bow and unraveled it to give it an airy look.

The "Peace" word was cut with one of the dies on the Penny Black set called Love and Joy with a piece of blue cardstock, the pine branches with the Pretty Pines die set.

I also cut a piece of Vellum and embossed it with the "Pine Bough" embossing folder for a bit of texture, I love how Vellum looks when you dry emboss it. The pattern paper is from my stash.

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Here is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

I cut the word "Love" with the same Penny Black dies in blue and pine branch with the same "Pretty Pines" die set with silver glimmer paper.

I would like to play along with the following challenges.

Christmas Card Throwdown

The Crazy Challenge #271 "Use Glitter"

The Paper Girls Challenge #148 "Embossing"

Dragonfly Dreams "All That Glitters"

Hiding in my Craft Room Challenge #345 "Any Holiday"

I hope my card inspires you to come and play along with us at the SHOPPING OUR STASH gallery, my teammates and I can't wait to see what you create.

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.

Lily of the Valley Fairy.....

Hello everyone: Well, it's been a while since I inked up one of my cherished Fairy rubber stamps. These 20+ images came to me as a gift from my aunt, who found them at a second hand store, in a cardboard box, dirty, stained and abandoned. She purchased the whole lot for about $10.00 and gave them to me and I can't tell you how thrilled I was when I started seeing this gorgeous images come to life with ink and paper. This is just one of them.

I stamped this image on a piece of Strathmore watercolor paper with Stazon black ink and colored with SU markers, (I love the Olive Green ink), I stamped the branch with the flowers a second time on the back of the Fairy, to fill the space, I added gold gel pen to her wings and then, Wink of Stella for some shimmer. Her skin is done with a "Peach" color Crayola marker, left here from when my grandchildren were little, this is a really awesome shade.  I hope you can see the shine on the drops of water, I added a bit of Crystal Effects.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment is one of my favorites for when I create Fairy cards and it's from an old Flourishes set called "Orichids", the little Fairy on the corner is from Studio G.

I would like to play with the following challenges.

Inkspirational

Dragonfly Dreams "All that Glitters"

Fashionable Stamping Challenge #133 "Springtime"

Stamping Sensations March Challenge "Forest Friends"

Cards in Envy "No Pattern Paper"

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.

Humming Along.....

Hello everyone: One of the most amazing birds that come to my back yard feeders are the Hummingbirds. These little winged jewels are, in my view, some of the strongest, most resilient and incredibly beautiful birds in the world and they will arriving up here in North West Indiana in late April so for now, here's a card picturing the Ruby Throated Humming Bird for your viewing pleasure.

This image is from a 2010 Flourishes set called "Humming Along" (discontinued). The images on this set are gorgeous.

I stamped them on a piece of Strathmore watercolor paper with Versafine black ink and clear heat embossed them, then I water colored them with Sakura Koi watercolors and SU markers.

The sentiment is from an Altenew set called "Moments in Time".

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Here is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment is from another retired Flourishes set called "Dahlias", the images from the "Humming Along" set.

I would like to play along with the following challenges.

Addicted to CAS

Just Us Girls

Fashionable Stamping Challenge #133 "Spring Time"

Penny Black and More "Feature a Creature"

Crafter's Castle "Anything Goes"/Favorite Technique. I love to heat emboss my images and then, water color them.

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.