Dragons or Heroes or Saints, oh my!!!!!

Hello everyone: Well, the "Less is More" has a new challenge this week and they are asking for cards with Dragons or Heroes or Saints, to help celebrate St. George's Day and I'm submitting this card made with the only stamp that will be perfect for it, I simply adore this little Dragon, here's my card.

This image is kind of big as you can see, so I really hope there is enough white space, in this case light blue, to qualify as CAS. I've used this image before, HERE is another card I made with it, but this time, I decided to give my little Dragon a pretty shade of blue and purple to make it stand out against the trees. This image was given to me by my dear aunt who found it at a thrift store along with about 20+ more unmounted, red rubber stamps, dirty, stained, abandoned in a cardboard box, with the most beautiful images of Fairies, this was the only Dragon stamp but it's equally beautiful. For a long time I didn't know where they came from, what company made them, there was no information at all, but last year, I found out this images were from a company called "Sweet Pea Rubber Stamps" that sadly is no longer in business.

I stamped the image onto Canson water color paper and colored it with Derwent water color pencils adding some shading with Prismacolor pencils and paper stumps dipped in baby oil. The sky and the green bottom part were sponged with distress inks.

I just love the look of this little Dragon staring off into the distance, the expression on it's face is just beautiful. My sentiment is just one word, DREAM, I hesitated about adding it to the front of this card, I didn't want to clutter it so I just looked for a small word that would go with it.

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

This sentiment is exactly what I wanted for this card, this little Dragon looks like it's doing just that. 

I want to thank you for stopping by today, until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

Here are the stamps I used to create this card. 

This retired set is from Flourishes.

Greetings from out of space.....

Hello everyone: I have a kid birthday card to share with you today, I saw the other day that my stash of birthday cards for children was a bit low, only 3 cards in there so, I decided to make this one which I will submit to the Alphabet Challenge with a new theme "D is for Dots", here is my card.

How about those creatures form out of space, eh? aren't they so darn cute? this sweeties are from a retired SU set called "Make a Monster" from the 2010-2011 catalog, I love this set for kids cards. I only have one other set with Monsters, I made THIS card with the "Monstermaniacs" set, so totally adorable.

I stamped this little monsters onto a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media 90lb. paper because it's a bit thinner than my usual Canson 140lb. water color paper and I was going to fussy cut this guys, this paper is great, it holds the water well and it's a snap to snip.

I added a "Moon" that was embossed with a Paper Studio embossing folder, I glued some confetti stars and added the "Happy Birthday Human" sentiment from another sweet SU set called "Lots of Bots", this are little Robots.

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

All of the sentiments are from a retired Flourishes set called "Pinwheels and Popsicles", I added another little monster using a different set of "accessories", this is the great thing about this set, it has a bunch of really cute eyes, mouths, horns and dots to make a bunch of different monsters.

Here is the banner from The Alphabet Challenge.

"D is for Dots"

Thank you for stopping by today, until next time, happy stamping. Have a great weekend.

Hugs from Maria.

Stamps used for this card.

Lots of Bots, 2009-2010 catalog.

Make a Monster, 2010-2011 catalog.

Flourishes "Pinwheels and Popsicles", I'm not to sure but the last post from the DT dated 2014.

Flourishes was closing it's on line store.

Freshly Made Sketches #233.....

Hello everyone: Have you ever finished a card, looked it over, seems fabulous and then, you grab it to take the photo and.....WHAM!! your darn inky fingers totally ruin it? Don't you want to just scream?
Well, I totally wanted to scream but my mom is still asleep and I didn't want to scare her with my wailing so, I collected myself, took a few deep breaths and, after cussing a little, I just started over. Luckily, the part that got my fingerprints was the panel, not my main image, that would have been even more of a disaster. Anyway, here is my card, I'm linking it to the Freshly Made Sketches sketch challenge by Amy.

This card was made with a combination of two of my all time favorite Stampin Up! sets, sadly retired. The sweet little bird is from "Spring Song", the beautiful cherry blossom branch and the Japanese symbol are from "Eastern Influences". I kept it (or at least tried) as CAS as possible. I confess I wanted to sponge a little blue for the sky and I also wanted to heat emboss the Japanese symbol in gold but, there is no gold in this image and  the sponging probably would have not been very even, since I'm still kind of learning, I even wanted to add like a Rhine Stone to the end of the black strip of card stock but, after debating for a little while, I just left it alone.

Now, here is a picture of the finished inside, the sentiment is from Elizabeth Craft Designs and it's called Winter Spring, I wanted to add some color but I opted for just black.

And here is the sketch that inspired my card.

Here are the stamp sets I use to create my card.

Spring Song. Spring/Summer 2008.

 

Eastern Influences. Fall/Winter 2008.

 

Flourishes Signs of Spring. 2013.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Special Delivery.....

Hello everyone: I have a card to share with you today that I'm not to sure about, specially because I don't think it's CAS enough to submit to the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge #190 which has a photo inspiration theme of MOM, it has a butterfly so I just went with that and the fact that little Monica is being "delivered", I've made a card like this one for a new mom or a Baby Shower for the mom to be, I hope it's ok. I also want to submit this card to The Paper Players Butterflies CAS challenge from Sandy, again.....I'm not to sure it's ok. The other challenge I want to participate in, this card is perfect because it's the April Butterfly challenge over at LiveLoveCards so, I'm taking a leap of faith with my card, her it is.

Many of you know that I adore the House Mouse mice, super sweet and simply adorable. This image is just to cute for words. The stamp is called "Butterflight", I couldn't find it at their store so it might be discontinued. I stamped it onto Canson water color paper with Stazon Jet Black ink and colored with SU markers, the aqua painter and a couple of Prismacolor pencils. I sponged some distress Broken China distress ink and stamped the sentiment from an old Flourishes set with Calypso Coral ink, the ribbon is from my stash.

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

Here are the banners that inspired my card.

LiveLoveCards April challenge, BUTTERFLIES.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Stamp sets used.

Tea For Two and Two For Tea.....

Hello everyone: Don't you love that song? so sweet and romantic, right? That is the theme for my card this morning, combining two great challenges: The Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge and the Cupcake Inspirations Color Challenge, here is my card.

I used the Verve Stamp set called Cup of Life, I love this beautiful and fabulously round tea pots with their matching cups. I stamped them onto Canson water color paper with Versafine Onix Black ink and colored them with SU Regal Rose marker adding some highlights with Prismacolor pencils. The Pattern paper is from Lili of the Valley, the rest of from my stash, the sentiment is from an old Flourishes set, I needed a thin sentiment to put on the banner.

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

The sentiment is from this Verve stamps set, stamped with Melon Mambo ink.

Here are the banners that inspired my card.

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

Hugs from Maria.

A Masculine Card!!!!!

Hello everybody: I don't know about you but for me, masculine cards are really difficult to create. If you've been following my blog, you probably noticed that I love flowers and cute little critters and there is hardly ever a post with cards for men and teen boys.  But today the Stamp, Ink, Paper Challenge has a gorgeous inspiration photo that just gave me the jump start to create this card then, to top my good luck,  I found the perfect sketch for it at the Retro Sketches challenge #211!!

This image is from Impression Obsession and it's called Ocracoke Island Lighthouse, it's just so beautiful. I stamped it onto Canson water color paper with Stazon Jet Black ink and colored with my SU markers and the aqua painter. I did a bit of masking for the sun and the lighthouse, the rest was quick and easy. The sentiment was stamped using the retired SU set called "Curly Cute" in Baked Brown Sugar ink. I die cut it with THIS Spellbinders die set.

I made a Sailor's Knot using THIS TUTORIAL, I just used 2 pieces of Hemp thread instead of one to give it a bit more bulk.  

This is one of the easiest knots and it really gives Nautical cards that really great detail.

The card base was stamped using the fabulous SU stamp set called The Open Sea, this is one of my most favorite sets for Masculine cards.

Here is a picture of the finished inside of my card, I used two of the other stamps in this set.

The sentiment is from another beautiful, retired SU set called "On the Grow".

Here are the banners that inspired my card.

This Lighthouse photo is truly beautiful.

 

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

Hugs from Maria.

Sweet Countryside Bouquet.....

Hello everyone: The Power Poppy You Pick 3 challenge is still going on and it will continue for the entire month of April, if you don't have any Power Poppy stamps, this is your chance to win one of the beautiful sets from Marcella Howley, I hope you give this challenge a chance, I've been having so much fun participating, this is my 5th. card.  All you need to do is pick 3 markers and color your image with them, only 3, that's all, either at random or from the same family, this time I again closed my eyes and I was a bit worried about the combination of colors but I think they look good, I even combined all 3 colors to create another color for some of the flowers in this gorgeous bouquet.

The image is from Power Poppy's Countryside Bouquet Delux and it's stamped onto a new water color paper I'm trying, this is a bit lighter and whiter, from Strathmore and it's the 90lb. pad. I liked it a lot, the image was stamped with Versafine Onix Black ink and it was perfect. At first the colors I chose didn't seem to go together at all, I mean Night of Navy and Tangerine Tango???!! for the flowers but the good thing is that, once you apply the water they change a little and I was able to shade this pretty blooms and give them detail with the fine tip of the marker. 

I didn't want to color those little flowers on the top with the same colors so I combined them to create a new one, here is a picture of them, they really look pretty.

I applied the Night of Navy at the base, mixed a bit of Wild Wasabi and then, just a touch of the Tangerine Tango on the top, when I applied my aqua painter, they blended really nicely.

I finished the card by cutting a couple of slots next to the base of the bouquet and using a tapestry needle, I wrapped a piece of linen thread around, I could have just colored this but I didn't want to do it with neither of this colors so I thought the thread would look better.

The ribbon is from my bottomless stash, the pattern paper is from Lili of the Valley.

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

I inked up the sentiment and the flower with the markers I chose.

Here is the banner that inspired my card.

I hope you give this fun challenge a try, like I said, if you don't have any Power Poppy stamps, this is your chance to win one, believe me, you will fall in love with them, they are gorgeous.

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

Hugs from Maria.