Christmas Memories.....

Hello Everyone: I love baking breads, cakes and cookies, specially during the Holidays, this aromas that fill my kitchen bring back warm and sweet memories of my Maternal Grandma Maria, she was an amazing, sweet, loving woman, hard working and giving, who loved us and, YES!! spoiled us kids to the max!! we had the fortune and were blessed to have her living with us as we were growing up and I, in particular, leaned from her how to bake and cook, knit and crochet and even to sew a little.
I'm a grandma now of 5 amazing kids and I'm loving them and spoil them just like my grandma spoiled me, when they come to my house, there is always cake and or cookies and the first thing they do is to go to the stove and lift the lids of the pots and pans and ask: "What are you cooking, grammy?"
So, here is a card that reminds me of my grandma, of her kitchen, of the aroma of love that always filled our house because she was there.

This is an image from Our Daily Bread called Sweet Christmas Wishes and, as you can see why this table brought back such sweet memories of my childhood.

I stamped the image onto Canson water color paper with Stazon Jet Black ink and colored it with my SU markers and the aqua painter. The little spoon on the top and the gold embossed sentiment are from a retired Flourishes set called "Fresh Baked", here is a close up of the sentiment.

The pattern papers are from Hobby Lobby, I don't think I will ever use all, I've been making cards like for ever and I don't think I've made a significant dent on this stash.

Here is a picture of the inside, I'm so happy I decided to finish the inside of all of my cards before posting them, I'm sure this will save me a ton of time when it's time to mail them.

The sentiment expresses exactly what my grandma was for us.

I'm linking this card to the IN(K)SPIRE_me challenge, which called for a card that evoked nostalgic memories for us, the Merry Monday with a theme of ''BAKING'' and the Curtain Call challenge with a theme of ''MILK AND COOKIES''.

Here are the banners that inspired this card.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Toys for Tots.....and for CASology.....

Hello everyone: This week over at the CASology challenge blog the Cue Card is TOY so, I went looking for a stamp set with toys and I found this one..... the retired Stampin Up! 2009-2010, adorable "Teddy and Train", I think I only own two sets with toys but I chose this set for my card.

I stamped the image onto a panel of Canson water color paper with Stazon Jet Black ink and colored the little train with SU markers, for the teddy bear I used Prismacolor pencils and paper stumps dipped in baby oil. 

I scored the panel on all four sides to add a bit of texture, I like how this frames my images.

The sentiment is from a retired Flourishes set called "Baby Love". 

Here is a picture of the inside.

The sentiment here is from Stampabilities, I used SU Hello Honey ink to stamp it, the little baby rattle is from the same SU set and it's stamped with Wild Wasabi ink. 

Here is the banner that inspired this card.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Holiday Home Tag.....

Hello Everyone: I love, love being able to combine challenges with one single card, it's fun, effective and helps me really reach inside my creative mind to come up with something pretty that adheres to the rules of the challenges. I made this card for the Mojo Monday 428 sketch challenge and the Tag You're It! challenge. Here is my card.

This card was made with the beautiful but retired SU set "Holiday Home". The little house is stamped onto Canson water color paper and colored with the aqua painter and SU Mossy Meadow ink pad and SU markers in Cherry Cobbler and Daffodil Delight. I paper snipped it and placed it on a piece of Ninah Solar White card stock, I stamped the Snowman and Santa's sleigh with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I punched the tag with SU Scalloped Tag Topper. The DSP is retired from SU, the ribbon is from my never ending stash.

I don't know where this punch with the word "hi" is from, it's very, very old and the label is gone, I apologize I don't have the information on it.  I sponged the sky with a bit of Tim Holtz Broken China ink, masking the moon, I should have done it with a darker blue, this is supposed to be a night sky.

Here is a picture of the inside of this card.

Here is the banners that inspired this card.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Christmas Stockings.....

Hello everyone: I'm almost done with my Holiday shopping, how about you guys?  It's getting a little bit to close to crunch time so, for all of us procrastinators, we better get busy.
Anyway, I have a card to share with you today I made for the "Less is More" One Layer Challenge, "What's in my Stocking?",here is my card.

This image is from a retired Flourishes stamp set called "Christmas Classics". I stamped the image on a Ninah Solar White card base with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored it with my Prismacolor pencils. I love the way this pencils blend with paper stumps dipped in baby oil but I've had some trouble with the oil bleeding out of the image on Ninah card stock, since it's not as porous as water color paper so now, instead of dipping the paper stump in the oil, I just use it with the oil it's in it already, no dipping is necessary since it's saturated and it blends without bleeding out. 

I used a little silver gel pen for the hooks and the silver bells on the blue stocking, the sentiment is from a Power Poppy stamp set called Cozy Cupfuls and it's stamped with SU Strawberry Slush ink. 

I made a promise to myself to finish the inside of all of my cards before posting them here, I know come Christmas 2016, I will have a good stash of totally finished cards, saving me a lot of time.

The sentiment is also from the same retired Flourishes set, stamped in Strawberry Slush and the little mug is from Power Poppy's "Merry Littles" stamp set. I colored it also with Prismacolor pencils and paper stumps. 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today, I appreciate your comments more than I can say here.

Until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

A Golden Tree for CASology.....

Hello everyone: I have a second card to share with you today, this one came together in just about 20 min. I'm linking it to the CASology challenge week #176 with a CUE WORD "TREE", here is my card.

This image is one of my first rubber stamps I bought about 8 years ago, it's from Stampabilities and it's called Vintage Pine Tree , I think I bought it at Hobby Lobby, probably with their 40% off coupon. I stamped it on a panel of Canson water color paper with Versamark ink and gold embossed it. I cut a piece of gold foil paper to create a narrow border on the image.

I ran the card base through the Big Shot with my Snow Fall embossing folder for a bit of texture.

Here is a picture of the finished inside.

Here is the banner that inspired this card.

I'm cutting it a bit to close for comfort posting this card to the challenge, I hope I still have time.
Thank you so much for stopping by, until next time, happy stamping.
Hugs from Maria.

Santa's Horses.....

Hello everyone: Well, I stamped this image some time ago, way before the creation of my little blog, I meant to finish it at some point so in it went into the box where I put unfinished projects, stuff that didin't quite come out like I wanted, hoping for a day when I can either fix it or just forget it, which is what happened to this image.  Anyway, over at the As You See It Challenge Blog, the theme is SANTA CLAUS for this week so, for some reason, this forgotten image came to my mind, perhaps my conscience was trying to make me aware of it because it's truly sweet. Anyway,  I wanted to maybe push my blogging luck just a bit and created this card, using this beautiful and forgotten image from Impression Obsession called Santa Horses , I'm fully aware that there is no image of Jolly Old Santa Claus here but, in my defense, this horses are wearing a pair of Santa's Hats. I'am also linking this card to the Retro Rubber Challenge with a theme of "Holiday Spirit", I think the sentiment speaks of it loud and clear. Here is my card.

I stamped the image onto Canson water color paper with Stazon Jet Black ink and colored with Prismacolor pencils and paper stumps dipped in baby oil. I was going to add some white craft ink to the furry part of the hats but I decided to add just Dazzling Diamonds instead, I love the sparkle.
I used the Hardwood background stamp from SU to add a bit of rustic feel, this horses really didn't need any embellishments but those hats. The sentiment is from Power Poppy's Cozy Cupfuls , I think it fits this sweet image perfectly.
Here is a picture of the inside.

And here are the banners that inspired this card.

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I hope you guys give this challenges a try.

Thank you for stopping by, I appreciate your comments so much and I will answer your questions, should you have any.

Until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

Snowman Wishes.....

Hello everyone: I have a simple card to share with you today that I'll link to the One Layer Christmas Card challenge, with the optional twist "Snowman", here is my card.

I stamped this cute Snowman is from Inkadinkado and it's old, I tried to look for it but couldn't find it. I stamped it onto a panel of Ninah Solar White card stock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored it with my Prismacolor pencils. Using one of THIS  Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations dies as a stencil, I sponged the upper right corner with Tim Holtz Broken China distress ink. 

I created a bit of snow using one of the stamps in the retired Stampin Up! photopolymer set called "White Christmas", stamping the snow with Versamark ink and heat embossing it with white embossing powder.

I hope you can see the falling snow better in this picture.  The sentiment is from a Power Poppy set called Cozy Cupfuls and it's heat embossed in silver. 

Here is a view of the finished inside.

The snowflakes are stamped onto a panel of Ninah Solar White card stock with Tuskineko Brilliance Archival ink in Pearlescent Sky Blue, the inside sentiment is from a retired Stamping up set called "Snow Much Fun".

Here is the banner that inspired this card.

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

Hugs from Maria.