A Little bit of Everything.....

Hello everyone: Well, I got a bit side tracked this morning, you know how it is some days, you have your plan, you are ready to put it in motion then, LIFE happens, I wont go into the details but things are more or less back to "normal" in the Rodriguez household so, I'm finally posting this card that I will enter in the CAS Mix Up Challenge , a brand, spanking new blog challenge headed by Bonnie Klass (you might know her from the Merry Monday challenge blog, in which she is a Designer Team member and her blog, Stamping with Klass ) and her friend Loll Thompson, her blog is Stamp with Loll. This challenge is asking for a mix of techniques, some stamping, some water coloring and our choice, there is a list of choices on the blog.  I'm also linking this card to the Can You CASE It? color challenge, we can play with 3 colors of our choice, I'm using Pistachio Pudding, Calypso Coral and Daffodil Delight.  Here is my card, in which I combined a little water coloring, a little stamping plus some sponging and die cutting.

For this card, I used the beautiful and sadly retired SU set called "Fabulous Florets", I stamped the leaves several times directly onto my card base with SU Pistachio Pudding, to get the ink to distribute evenly, (I don't have any Whisper White card stock, grr!!) then I stamped the small flower from the set onto a piece of Canson water color paper, colored it with Calypso Coral ink and the aqua painter and added a bit of highlights with the same color marker. 

The die is from Elizabeth Craft Designs and it's called Ginger Jar , I bought this beautiful die for only $2.95, can you believe it??!!! I bought other stuff from their clearance page.

I die cut the base from water color paper and the design from card stock, the possibilities are endless with the colors. Here is a close up of this pretty flower.

The teeny, tiny sentiment is from a retired Flourishes stamp set called "Old Fashioned Florals", it's die cut wih the smallest die from a label set from Spellbinders.

I added a couple of score lines to the side of the card, no reason in particular, I just love how they look.

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

The sentiment is from Flourishes "Lots of Thoughts", I also stamped again the small flower from the set plus the leaf.

Here are the banners that inspired my card.

And here are some pictures of the retired stamp sets I used for my card.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Black and White, Silver and Gray and.....

Hello dear friends: As soon as I saw the Merry Monday Challenge I really loved the inspiration picture, it's so peaceful but, what caught my eye was that line of beautiful lamp posts and also, I will enter this card to the Christmas Cards Challenge #15 "Anything Goes" and the Landscaping Challenge #125 "Color Splash".  I have a very old lamp post stamp that I think it's from Flower Soft, not so sure but, in any case, I wanted to use it to make this card.

The challenge at Merry Monday is to use the colors Black, White, Gray and Silver, which worked real good for this image but, I saw that some of the Designer Team cards had a bit of color so I took a chance and added just a little ''glow'' to the candle.

Here is a close up of it and also, of the silver Holly leaves and the silver thread bow that looks so pretty adorning this lamp post, it was a real pickle to tie this bow, sheeesh!! 

The falling snow is stamped with one of the stamps on the SU set "Gorgeous Grunge" I used it also to stamp the inside of my card, just to finish it, the sentiment is from my stash. The one in the front of the card is from Power Poppy Merry Littles , I also used the little candle stick in this set to stamp the candle inside the lamp, I just masked the bottom part.

I colored this lamp post with my black Prismacolor pencil and blended the color a little with a paper stump dipped in baby oil.

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

I thought you might like to see the super old punch I used to punch the Holly leaves, it's from a company called McGill.

Here is the banners that inspired my card.

ANYTHING GOES.

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

Hugs from Maria.

KISS ME, I'M IRISH.....

Well not really, I'm not Irish at all, but tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day and I wanted to share a card with you I really had fun making. Here is my card.

This card just makes me smile, it's a CASE from THIS CARD I saw on Pinterest a very long time ago, I just fell in love with this sweet little guy made with punches. I don't do punch art at all and I admire people who have the ability to see the endless possibilities for creating awesome cards with punches that have nothing to do with the original intent.

The eyebrows, mustache and nose of this Irish Gnome are made with the Bird Builder Punch, the eyes are two black candy dots, the 4 leaf clover on the hat is made with a little heart punch, I applied some stickers for a bit of shine. 

It's smile is done with a black marker, I made the bow with some ribbon from my never ending stash.

That's it, super quick and cute, don't you think?

Here is a picture of the finish inside of my card, I made a point to do this to save time when it's time to mail my cards.

I'm sorry to say I have no St. Patrick's Day sentiments except for the one in the Teeny, Tiny Wishes from SU so, I looked for some other that would look good for this card and I found this one that is so old I don't remember where I got it. 

I'm submitting this card to the SHOPPING OUR STASH challenge, they are asking to make a card with St. Patrick's Day theme or just use a charm or the color green predominately.

The Get Creative Challenge #34 with a theme of St. Patrick's Day.

And the Incy Wincy Design Challenge Shades of Green.

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

Hugs from Maria.

The Budding Artist.....

Hello again, everyone: I made this card this morning because I discovered a new challenge blog called Cardz 4 Galz and their theme is "Woman or Women". Also, the IN{K}SPIRE_me has a sketch challenge that was just perfect for this image. Both challenges close in a few hours so, here is my card.

This image is from Penny Black and it's called The Artist  and I think it's just so endearing. This is how I see my almost 18 year old granddaughter Vanessa, she is so talented with her water coloring and acrylics, she has a board on Pinterest where she keeps all of the paintings she has done.  I'm going to be a total GRANDMA here and share with you her amazing art, you can check it out HERE  if you'd like. I'm so very proud of all of my 5 amazing grandchildren, each one is unique, loving, smart, funny and talented.

Ok, I'm done bragging.....

Anyway, this image was stamped with Stazon Jet Black ink onto Canson water color paper and colored with SU markers and the aqua painter, I did a bit of shadowing and highlights with my Prismacolor pencils. 

The little piece of pattern paper is from Lili of the Valley, the ribbon from my stash. I have a few Candy Dots left so I put 3 in the corner matching some of the colors on this image.

The little charm says "believe", I wish there was a better picture but I just couldn't get close enough and take it, it kept getting blurry.

The sentiment is from a retired Flourishes set called "Old Fashioned Florals", I just stamped it and fussy cut it.

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

The sentiment inside is from the set called "Orchids", the little Humming Bird is from the set called "Humming Along" and the little Hydrangea cluster is from the set called "Hydrangea", all 3 are from Flourishes and are sadly retired.

Here is a picture of the sketch that inspired my card.

And the logo from Cardz 4 Galz.

Here are the pictures of the retired sets I used to create my card. I want you to see how they look like.

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

Hopping down the Bunny Trail.....

Hello everyone: I have a card to share with you today to get you inspired to give the Retro Rubber Easter Theme for this week a try. Think of Easter Eggs and Bunnies, Egg Hunts and Easter Baskets, just remember that the stamps you use must be at least one year old, we all have those special stamp sets that we love and have had for years so, go dust them off and ink them up and join us, we love to see what you create, for more inspiration, go check out the fabulous cards of the rest of the Designer Team.  Here is my card.

All of this images are from Purple Onion Designs, Stacey Yacula Studio Collection, this adorable little critters just melt your heart, I've had this stamps for more than 2 years so I know they meet our requirements. 

I stamped this images onto Canson water color paper and colored them with SU markers and the aqua painter, I did a little masking for the bunnies and those Easter Eggs are made, believe it or not, with THIS Bumble Bee die that I won participating in a blog hop, I just rounded up the top of it to make it look more like an egg. 

The clouds are from Spellbinders and the sentiment is from SU "Teeny Tiny Wishes" from the 2009-2010 Idea Book and Catalog. 

Here is a close up of this cuties sharing their Easter goodies.

I "decorated" the "eggs" with markers and I gave the little sweetie bunny girl a flower for her hair, punched out with a hand held punch. I sponged some Tim Holtz "Broken China" for the sky, (my favorite shade for that) and some "Peel Paint" for the grass. 

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

This sweet bunny with his flag is from the retired SU set called "Picnic Parade" from the SU 2010 Occasions Mini, super cute images, perfect for any occasion children's cards. By the way, if any of you are not sure where your older than one year Stampin Up! sets first came out, go to Splitcoaststampers and click on the SU gallery, ALL of their stamp sets are listed there in alphabetical order, with the year of their release, this is a big help, I always go there for this information.

Here's the picture of this SU retired set.

And here is the banner that inspired this card.

I would like to enter my card in the following challenges.

AAA Cards:Game#60:EASTER 

Penny Black and More March Challenge-Feature a Creature 

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

Hugs from Maria.

A Whole lot o' Shaking Going On!!!!!

Hello everyone: I have a fun card (well, I had fun making it) to share with you today, this is my very first of this kind, a bit time consuming, due to my total lack of experience in this field but non the less, I finished it, I hope you like it. I'm linking it to the "Just Us Girls" Trend Week Challenge, the theme this time is Shaker Cards.

I was looking for some tutorials on Utube to get an idea of how to go about making a shaker card, all are good but THIS ONE by Jennifer McGuire, I liked a lot.  I changed the card by stamping my background with the Penny Black "Wonderful" stamp set, I love this cute little Hedgehogs, I used Stazon Jet Black ink on Canson water color paper, colored it with the aqua painter and SU markers.

Then, the fun began.....I gathered all the material Jennifer suggested and, with the video playing, I followed her directions, pausing the video to give me time to stamp, cut, glue, etc. It was fairy easy except for the gluing of the cut out panels, I didn't have that roll of strong adhesive she uses on her video so I used a strong double sided tape, 1/8" wide around the circle windows, it was time consuming but I needed to make sure non of my sequences and stars were going to get out.

I stamped the background with an old stamp with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with Calypso Coral powder, the sentiment is from the retired SU set called "Curly Cute", the banner is from Spellbinders.

Here is a picture of the finished inside. 

The sentiment is from an old Flourishes set.

Here is the banner than inspired my card.

This is the flourises set I used for the inside.

And the SU Curly Cute set.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Cherry Blossoms and Fans.....

Hello everyone: Spring is definitely on it's way, warmer temperatures and sunny, cool days will aid my little Daffodils and Tulips start showing their lovely blossoms, I know our trees will start getting that sweet green color when their leafs are ready to pop.  Today is cloudy and raining but it's not so bad, I much rather have rain than snow! This is the card I made to enter the Match the Sketch challenge.

This images' origins are unknown to me, I apologize for this but I had this stamp set forever, from back in the day when blogging was never contemplated, so I discarded the package and never bother to write down the name of the set, where is it from or who made it, if some of you out there have seen this images and know their manufacturer, I surely appreciate if you tell me.

I'm still not all there with my picture taking skills, sometimes the pictures are to dark and this time, I think it's to bright, sheeesh!! but I hope you can still see this beautiful images.

I stamped them onto Canson water color paper with Stazon Dove Gray ink, I wanted softer edges, specially for the Cherry Blossom branch. I colored them with SU markers and the aqua painter.

Following the sketch, I cut a piece of Vellum and stamped the Japanese symbol for Spring with Versamark ink and heat embossed it in gold. I needed that strip across the layout and I didn't want to cover the other two images with card stock.

On the other corners I stamped a couple of more images with Pistachio Pudding ink, those spaces looked to bare. To attach the Vellum I used a glue dot behind the symbol and two little pieces for the other side, I put a bit of gold gel pen to hide them.

Here is a picture of the finish inside.

The sentiment is from a retired Flourishes set called "Botanical Book Plates".

Here is the sketch that inspired this card.

And here are the pictures of the sets I used.

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

Hugs from Maria.