Beautifully Creepy.

 Hello everyone: I might sound like a broken record but I wish, from the bottom of my heart, that you and your families are healthy and safe in these difficult times we are living. Take care of yourselves and each other.

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Halloween is one of my favorite Holidays, I just love making spooky cards with really spooky critters, LOL!! I still send Halloween cards to my grown-up grandchildren who are 22, 19, 17, 16 and 13.

I don't know about you but I love spiders, I think they are marvelous little critters, very beneficial and quite cute. I want to clarify that I don't go around cuddling with them, petting them or anything like that, but you won't ever see me squashing one.  When I'm doing some chores or if I see one on a corner, I always have a small plastic glass and a piece of card stock handy so I can catch the little critter and throw it outside, I firmly believe there's more food for them to catch in my flower beds than inside my house.

This adorable little spider is from a super old, 2006 to be precise, Stampin' Up! set called "Best Friends" which I found on eBay after seeing a card made with one of the other images from this set on Pinterest.

I stamped the spider on plain white card stock with Memento black ink, I die cut the branch with a Memory Box die called "Grove Branch", the pattern papers and ribbons are from my stash, the stamped spiders are from a SU set called "Dark and Dreary" (2010 Holiday Mini) and the sentiment is from Kraftin' Kimmie, I forget the name of the stamp set, it's also pretty old.

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This is the INSIDE of the card.

 

The sentiment is I think, from Inkadinkado, the spider web is from another old SU set called "Bite Me" (2013)

I want to play with the following challenges.

Animal Friends

October Challenge "Spiders"

Sweet Sketch Wednesday 

Inspire.Create.Challenges. 

Unicorn Challenge #59

Spooky and/or Cute.

My little spider is both😉

Thank you for visiting me today.

Stay healthy, safe and please wear your masks.

XO

Maria.

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SURPRISE!!!!!!!!

Hello everyone: I hope you and your families are doing well, staying indoors as much as possible and handling the confinement the best way you can, I know it's hard but it's for the best.

So, when I was thinking about what to do for the new RETRO RUBBER challenge it occurred to me to maybe shake things a bit and create something totally unexpected, especially at this time of the year but, as our challenge says, it's "Anything Goes" so here's my card to inspire you to play along.

LOL!! I bet you were not expecting a Halloween card now that we're welcoming Spring, but like I said, I just wanted to stir things up a little.

This amazing image is from a 2006 Stampin' Up! stamp set called "Best Friends", the other 4 images plus 2 sentiments are equally fabulous!!

I came across a card on Pinterest created with the Witch from this set, the lady who created that card gave all of the information for it on her blog post so,  needless to say, I went on a hunt and found the stamp set on eBay, in pristine condition so I bought it on the spot, I just love it.

To create this card I sponged some distress inks in black and purple on a piece of yellow card stock leaving the bottom with no ink to create a "sunset" sky for my little bats (background stamp) that were stamped with Versafine black ink and clear heat embossed, the line of houses is cut with the retired Stampin' Up! "Sleigh Ride" dies, my Dracula was stamped on Strathmore Bristol paper with Stazon black ink and colored with Prismacolor pencils.  The sentiment is from the set and I added some googly eyes to his "bouquet" of eyeballs.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

I stamped more bats and a sentiment from Inkadinkado, the owl is from a punch from Martha Stewart, super old.

So, I hope you liked my Halloween surprise on this fine Spring day.

Please be sure to go to the RETRO RUBBER challenge blog to check out my teammates' fabulous cards and while there, don't forget to read our rules, the most important one is to please use stamps that at least ONE YEAR OLD, this challenge blog is dedicated to giving our old and forgotten stamps another chance to shine.

I'm playing along with 

Lost Coast Portal To Creativity

Challenge #97 "Mith and Magic"

Thank you for visiting me today, please stay healthy, safe and keep on crafting.

Hugs.

Maria.

  

Best Friends.....Yikes!!!!!

Hello everyone: Do you still send Halloween cards to friends and family? Well, I do, even to my grown grandkids, (2 of them are adults already, sheeesh!!) they still get a kick out of them although it's getting harder and harder to create any kind of greeting card for my 18 y/o grandson.

Anywho, here's a card I will happily add to my Halloween stash and soon will be on its merry way to someone I love.

This card is created with a 2006 Stampin' Up! set called "Best Friends". 

Back when this set was in circulation, I didn't know anything about card making, rubber stamps, blogs, etc. otherwise, believe me, I would have grabbed immediately. I started stamping maybe back in 2010 so I never knew this set existed until I saw a card on Pinterest made with one of the images, and then, the hunt began.

All I had was the name of the set so I went searching on I started searching for it on the Internet until I finally saw it on eBay and I bought it on the spot, I love it.
I stamped this sweetie pie and her friendly Bat on watercolor paper with Versafine black in and clear heat embossed it then, colored with some Sakura Koy watercolors. I wanted to give her a nice attire so I colored her hat and dress a nice orange instead of black.
The pattern paper is from my stash and so is the ribbon. The sentiment is from the set.
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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment is super old and I don't know where it came from, the spider is from a bag of confetti.

I'm playing along with the following challenges.

The Paper Players
I went with the horizontal line in the middle,
Orange, Die-cut and Halloween.
The dies are both the circle and the scalloped.


Stampin' Up! Only Challenges


Crafting Happiness Challenges
#16


Crafty Cardmakers
#242 Add a Critter.
I added my little Bat.

Krafty Chicks Challenge
Sketch used with Julee Tilman's permission.


Thank you for stopping by, your comments always make my day.
Hugs.
Maria.

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.

Love Potion Recipe.....

Hello everyone: This is another late post but this time it's because we went to the apple orchard with the kiddos, to pick pumpkins and apples and get lost in the darn maze, sheeesh!! It was a perfect day!

We got back a while ago but we started racking some of the leaves on the front yard with them. The kids are back home and now it's again way to quiet, we miss the noise.

 I'm having so much fun making Halloween cards with my 2 "new" fabulous stamp sets I bought just recently on Ebay. This card is made with both of this sets, the 2006 Stampin' Up! Halloween set "Best Friends" and the "Mostly Animals" set with these amazing Witch and Cauldron. This last one I don't know when it was issued, but when I Googled the name of the company, I found out on Splitcoaststampers that they went out of business back in 2004-2005, so thank goodness for Ebay because this stamps are over the top fabulous, just look at this awesome Witch.

I think she is adorable in her own kind of spooky way, love that you can really put just about anything between her very long and perfectly manicured fingernails, I chose the spider from the "Best Friends" set just because I think it fits just right for what she's about to "cook?" 

I had to do a bit of masking for this card right there where her right foot is to put her like she is behind the boiling cauldron. 

I stamped all of this images with Versafine black ink on Strathmore mixed media paper and colored them with some SU markers and also Sakura Koi watercolors.  I tried to make her recipe book look old and very well loved so I went with some markers and Prismacolor pencils giving it a stained appearance. Now, I was not going to put that black cat there but, as sometimes happens, I got a big smudge on my finished panel, I just about passed out so, I needed something to cover it and I remember the cat in the retired SU set called "Bite Me", which happened to be just about the perfect size for this scene, I stamped him on a separate scrap of watercolor paper with Versafine ink, clear heat embossed it and fussy cut it, Voila!! problem solved, phew!!

Oh, I added a couple of small red Rhine Stones to his face just to make him look scary.

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

The spider webs are from my Halloween stash, the spiders are from the "Bite Me" set and the sentiment from another retired SU set called "Jar of Haunts" 

I'm entering this card on this challenges.

As You See It Challenge #161 "Delicious Shivers"

SumMoreFun Victorine Originals Mood Board #13

As You Like It Show Us Your Style "Do you prefer people or animals"

Well, I love both my animal friends and my human friends but, when it comes to color them, I rather color animals.

My Time To Craft Challenge #357 "Halloween or Cats"

I chose both 😉

The Fairy and the Unicorn Challenge #8 "Anything Goes, optional theme "Witching Halloween"

As you can see I chose the Witch.

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.