Is it Halloween already??!!!.....

Hello again dear friends: The CASology challenge has a CUE CARD with the word TEAR and asks to make a card based on it, we can interpret this word as we want so, it took me a while to make up my mind about what to do or how to do it but, the other day I was watching some reruns of the Andy Griffith show, some of you.....no MOST OF YOU might not even know or even watch this show that dates from the early 60s, takes place in sleepy North Carolina town of Mayberry, with the super honest and easy going sheriff Andy and his goofy deputy Barny, aunt Bee, Opie.....anyway, as I was saying, I was watching some reruns of this show while loading the dish washer and one of this episodes was about a "haunted" house that was making noises and the sheriff and deputy went to investigate only to find that the "ghosts" were only the town drunk and his pals making moonshine but, in one of the scenes there is a picture hanging on the wall of the wealthy dead resident and the eyes were cut off and someone was peeking from behind..... Well, I will stop now babbling about this show and show you my card, inspired by the "scary peeking eyes" on that picture.

The word TEAR means "ripped" so I stamped this very old stamp of a hole onto white card stock and, using a stylus, made some score lines from the center to the edges and then, carefully tore the paper making an opening. I snipped the opening around and cut some black card stock and put it in the back, I die cut a white circle and punched a black dot, sponged the eyeballs with Hello Honey ink and drew some veins to create this pair of blood shot eyes.  I was, and still am, laughing at this card.

Can you see the torn paper? I sponged a bit of Baked Brown Sugar to give the holes an aged look. 

Now, the sentiment took some doing.....I tried to hand write it with no luck and then, a lighting bolt shook me and I remember this old SU set called "Googly Ghouls" in which I found the word BOOOO but then I needed the PEEKA to complete the word PEEKABOOOO and of course that stumped me for a spell, and then, another lighting bolt.....I remember another stamp set that has not seen ink in quite a while, it's from Avery Elle and it's a Tic Tac Toe set with letters and numbers, well, the letters matched almost perfectly the letters in the BOOOO, don't you think?

Anyway, this is a picture of the finished inside.

And here is the CUE CARD that inspired mine.

This are the stamps I used to create this card.

Thank you for stopping by, until next time, Happy Hauntings.....Ooops!! no, Happy Stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

One Layer Pears.....

Hello everyone: I have a delicious card to share with you today made with a retired set from Flourishes called simply "Pears", this images are truly beautiful and a joy to color. I'm submitting this card to the One Layer Simplicity Challenge "Fruit Smoothie" theme, they are asking us to make a fruity card, here's mine.

I stamped the image with Versafine Onix Black ink onto a card base made of an 11" x 4" piece of Canson water color paper, scored at 5 1/2" and colored it with SU markers, I added some highlights to this delicious bunch of pears with my Prismacolor pencils, I colored the flowers with a white gel pen because this paper is kind of off white and the real flowers are totally white and I wanted them to show better. The sentiment here and images inside are from the same set.

This is the stamp set I used for my card.

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

Hugs from Maria.

The Joy of Music.....

Hello everyone: I had a bit of a hard time photographing this card, it's pretty foggy up here, I can't even see the houses on the other side of the golf course so, I apologize for the bad lighting, I truly need to get me a better lamp. I'm linking this card to the "Less is More" Pastel Color challenge, the Just Us Girls Butterfly challenge and the CAS Mix Up May Challenge with stamping of the musical score in white, die cutting with the butterfly and my choice of sponging the light colors.
Here is my card.

 I sponged the paper with distress inks in Spun Sugar, Shabby Shutters and Shaded Lilac and did the same on a scrap for the butterfly before I die cut it, I then stamped the musical notes and score the panel on all four sides, the sentiment is from a retired Flourishes set called "Country Charm Labels". 

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

Again, I apologize for the poor lighting.

Here are the banners that inspired my card.

 

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

Hugs from Maria.

A White and Craft Merry Monday Challenge.....

Hello everyone: I have a new card to share with your for the Merry Monday "Woodgrain, Craft and White" challenge and the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge where they are asking us to HEAT EMBOSS, STAMP AND OUR CHOICE, I chose WOOD. Here is my card.

I changed my mind a few times with this card, I didn't know if I should heat emboss it in white and then fussy cut it or if I should just stamp it onto craft card stock, heat emboss it and cut the panel and then figure out how to lay it out.  I opted for this choice, when I looked at this image I knew it was going to be difficult not to mess up the embossing with my scissors so I just left it alone, when I was done with this card, I really liked the way it looks.

This image is from Power Poppy's Spice it Up stamp set, I love this images, whether colored or not, they are beautiful. So I stamped it onto a piece of craft card stock with SU white craft ink, this ink pad is OLD!! but still juicy enough to make a great impression, then I sprinkled it with white embossing powder and heat set it.

I stamped the background panel with the Hardwood stamp from SU, I love the details on this image. 

The lace trim is from my stash, it's very white so it fits the colors asked, the sentiment is from the same set, but I only wanted to use the top part, I wanted to mask it but it was messy with the white ink so, I just grab my scissors and cut it!!! and heat emboss it also in white.

The bottom part was used for the inside of my card.

I stamped the pretty frame from an old Flourishes set called "Country Charm Labels" and the other part of the sentiment in Cherry Cobbler ink.

The cute little mitten is from a Power Poppy set called Merry Littles which is my go to set to add something pretty to the inside.

This is the Merry Monday inspiration photo that inspired my card.

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

Hugs from Maria.

The Earth Laughs in Flowers.....

Hello everyone and welcome to another fabulous challenge at Retro Rubber Challenge Blog, we want you to use your older than one year stamp sets, the ones that haven't seen ink for a while now and want a chance to shine again. We bought them for a reason, because we loved them at the time but, sometimes we tend to navigate towards the new stuff and we forget those other equally beautiful images that deserve a bit of attention so, go and rummage through your stash, I'm sure you'll find something fabulous to share with us. This is my card, made with this gorgeous image from Stampin Up! called Corner Garden that made it's debut back in the 2014-2015 catalog.
I'm also linking this card to the Shopping our Stash "April Showers Bring May Flowers" challenge.

This is a big background stamp, I've used it before in parts but this time, I wanted to stamp the whole image to create this flowery Spring scene complete with a couple of lovely butterflies from the SU set Papillon Potpourri.

I stamped this images onto Canson water color paper with Stazon Jet Black ink and colored them with SU markers and the aqua painter, I got my color inspiration from the beautiful photo at our challenge. The butterflies were stamped and colored the same way, I added a bit of Wink of Stella to their wings, hope you can see it. I didn't want to add a sentiment to this panel, I figured it was going to look a bit out of place, I honestly didn't know were to stamp it so I just let the flowers speak by themselves.

Here is a picture of the finish inside.

And here is the Retro Rubber banner that inspired my card. 

Thank you so much for stopping by today, I hope your give this challenge a try and remember, your stamps must be older than a year and, if you can, please give us the approximate age of them. One great place to find the age of your Stampin Up images is Splitcoaststampers, just click on the Stampin Up gallery and there they are, all of the stamp sets, in alphabetical order and the year they were issued. Another good place is Pinterest, if you know the name of your set all you need to do is Google that name for the Pinterest site and there you can find cards made with those sets, click on the images and you will be taken to the blogs were they were posted and there, you can see the date. 

Most of all, have fun, that is what it's all about.

Don't forget to go check the DT blogs to see their beautiful samples.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Gentle Whisper.....

Hello again, my friends: This past weekend I've been playing with a new stamp by Penny Black called Gentle Whisper. Yesterday I took a break in the afternoon to celebrate Mother's Day, I hope all of your moms out there had a wonderful day.
I bought this stamp after watching THIS VIDEO by Virginia Lu which totally enchanted me so, I had to get it and try it. I'm really amazed at how easy it is to achieve this beautiful images using only markers. I don't have the markers she used but I have my SU markers which worked really well, although I must confess, some of them are getting a bit dry. Here is my card.

Over at the Shopping our Stash challenge blog they are celebrating their 250th. challenge post and they decided to pay another tribute to Leslie, who sadly passed away last December 25th.  I've only discovered this challenge blog recently but I've participated a couple of times.  

I think Leslie love/hated the color pink and that is why this challenge asks to use it on our cards.

Here is a picture of the finished inside.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Scent with Love.....

Hello everyone: I have a card to share with you today that put to the test my paper snipping skills, when I stamped and colored this beautiful image from Power Poppy's Spice it Up stamp set I didn't realize it was going to be so hard to fussy cut it but, I liked the way the colors looked on it and I didn't want to trash it and start over so, I braced myself, grabbed my sharp little scissors and went to work. Here is my card.

I used the sketch from CAS{E) this Sketch! which worked real good for my card.  I stamped the image using Versafine Onix Black ink, which is really a great ink for this clear stamps, onto Strathmore mixed media water color paper mainly because I ran out of my regular Canson brand and it was a good thing I didn't have it because I don't think I would have been able to fussy cut this image since the 140lb. paper is heavier, this other one is by far, thinner and easier to snip. 

I colored it with SU markers and the aqua painter adding a bit of detail to the orange and the bow with Prismacolor pencils. Once snipped I placed it on top of a die cut piece of Vellum and then, on top of a die cut piece of pattern paper from Lili of the Valley, finally I made some score lines on the opposite corner for a bit of texture.

To follow the sketch, I stamped one of the images on the SU Gorgeous Grunge and heat embossed in gold the sentiment, finally I added a bit of bling with some Rhine Stones. I hope it's not to busy for the CAS{E} this Sketch challenge, I just felt it needed some sparkle.

Here is a picture of the finished inside.

The sentiment is from the same set, the little cup of coffee is from another fabulous stamp set from Power Poppy called Merry Littles, which is my go to set for adding sweet little images to the inside of my Holiday cards.

Here is the sketch that inspired my card.

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

Hugs from Maria.