Chinese Lanterns.....

Hello everyone: Last Friday Fab Friday shared a great sketch for us to play with and Power Poppy is having a challenge called Happy Mail the entire month of June, if you don't have any Power Poppy by Marcella Howley's stamp sets, you can still participate to have a chance to win one of her amazing sets. Here is my card.

I don't know about you guys but I've never seen a Chinese Lantern plant in person, ever!! I Googled it just to see how they look in real life, they are so beautiful and the image on  Marcella Howley's  Happy Harvest stamp set from Power Poppy is just as beautiful as the real plant.

I stamped this image onto a piece of Strathmore 90lb. water color paper with Versafine Onix Black ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder then, colored it with SU markers and the aqua painter. 

I love how the branch of bittersweet berries intertwine with the lovely husks of the Chinese Lantern. 

The pattern paper is from a discontinued line from Lili of the Valley, the ribbon from my stash, I don't seem to make a dent in it, sheeesh!!

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

The sentiment is from a retired SU set called "Perfectly Penned" and it's stamped with Tangelo Twist ink from SU.

Here is the sketch that inspired my card.

And the Power Poppy banner.

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

Hugs from Maria.

SU "Perfectly Penned" stamp set.

Taking a selfie.....

Hello everyone: This is my second post with my new team mates at Shopping Our Stash and the theme is "Taking a Selfie" and creating a Polaroid Scene. Now a days everybody is taking "selfies" so we all hope you guys give this challenge a try.  Here is my card.

This is a very old little stamp I bought about 3 years ago at my local craft store, I had a neighbor who love piggies and her birthday was coming up so, one day I saw this stamp and I just had to have it, I made her a birthday card and she literally squeal with joy, LOL!!

I stamped this image onto a piece of Strathmore water color paper with Versafine Onix Black ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder, colored with SU markers and the aqua painter. 

The little flowers and grass are stamped with a couple of little stamps from Art Impressions. 

I have this polaroid die that was just perfect for this card. 

The pattern paper is from a discontinued Lili of the Valley line, I was able to grab the last of the pads, this one is really colorful. I couple of enamel dots frames the sentiment from a retired Flourishes set called "Old Fashioned Florals". 

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

The sentiment is from a retired SU set called "Whimsical Words" and the little cake from my stash.

We hope you guys give this challenge a try, create a Polaroid scene and link it up to the challenge.

For inspiration go check out the blogs of my team mates and leave some love in your comments.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Beautiful Tuscan Vineyard.....

Hello everyone: Last week I received my first order from the new Stampin Up! catalog with several sets of amazing stamps, the Tuscan Vineyard was one of them so, I took the sketch from Just Add Ink and made this card with it.

This bunch of grapes is one of the gorgeous images on this set, they are all just beautiful and totally a joy to color and play with. 

I stamped this image onto Canson water color paper with Versafine Onix Black ink and heat emboss it with clear embossing powder then, I colored it with SU markers and the aqua painter.  The pattern papers are from a sadly retired line from Lili of the Valley and the gold vellum paper from SU. 

The Flourish is from Marianne Designs Anja's Large Oval and the sentiment is from Power Poppy's Dynamic Duos.

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

And the sketch that inspired my card.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Aloha Sunshine.....

Hello everyone: This week at CASology the Cue Card is SUNSHINE and over at Addicted to CAS the Code Word is ALOHA so, I'm combining this two challenges and created this card.

Ok, have you ever been looking for something and, in the process, find something else that has nothing to do with what you were looking for in the first place? Well, this happened to me yesterday afternoon, when I was looking for the glue gun and glue sticks and found, at the very bottom of this drawer, under some super old SU Bigz dies (remember those?), the glue gun and the bag of glue sticks, this pretty Lily flower die, also from Sizzix, how did this got there? I will never know but I created this card with it for this two fun challenges.

The die cuts the flower and the stigma, I sponged the flower with Barn Red distress ink and the stigma was placed on top of the Squeeze Lemonade distress ink pad and I push it with the scoring tool to saturate it with the ink and then, placed it on the container of the clear embossing powder and heat embossed it.

I punched a small circle for the sun and used both, the negative and the positive parts to sponge the sun with Daffodil Delight. The sentiment is from Power Poppy's Sunny Harvest stamp set.

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

The sentiment is from the same set, the sprig of flowers on the corner is from a retired SU set called "Nature Walk".

Here are the banners that inspired my card.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Other stamp set I used.

We're All in this Together.....

Hello everyone: This image is NOT from a stamp, I sketched it a while ago from one of my grandkids school books, I just fell in love with this pair of baby Emperor Penguins. I took it home and stuck it right there by my work table wondering what I was going to do with it until I saw the Muse Christmas Visions challenge and then, I knew this little image was just waiting for it.  Here is my card.

Ok, I took a piece of Vellum and copied the image I drew with pencil then, when I was happy with it I went over it with a Zig Millenium .01 black pen being careful and making sure the lines were nice and even all around the images. Once I had this done then came the question, how to color this little guys so, I went to Google and looked for baby Emperor Penguins pictures and I saw they are kind of grayish but their heads are black. So I grabbed my black Prismacolor pencil and went to work, drawing soft lines and blending them with a paper stump that has very little baby oil.  For their faces, I went in the back of the Vellum with the white pencil, I did the same for the ice and snow under their little bodies.  I sponged a bit of blue for the sky and that was it. 

The sentiment is from my Power Poppy set called Sassy Succulents and it's stamped with Versafine Onix Black ink. 

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

The sentiment is from the same set, the little bird on the corner is from a retired SU set called "Snow Much Fun".

Here is the Muse picture that inspired my card.

I'm linking this card also to the Crafting from the Heart "Anything Goes"

and

Crafty Sentiment Designs "Anything Goes".

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

Hugs from Maria.

Stamps that I used.

Fairy Celebration for the Pals.....

Hello everyone: I'm a little late posting my card, I had some running around this morning and this stuff took a bit longer than expected, then my daughter called me to see if I could go pick up my granddaughters after Summer Orchestra practice and, since I was fairly close, I did.
But anyway, last Monday, I received my SU order with one of my most favorite sets in the new catalog, the Fairy Celebration, which I know you'll agree, it's just beautiful.
So, using the fabulous sketch from The Pals Paper Arts, by Lisa Ann Bernard, I made this card.

This little Faeries just stole my heart the second I laid eyes on them when I opened my catty, I immediately marked the page because I wanted to order this set as soon as the catalog went live. 

The wait was horrible!!!!! so, in the mean time,  I browsed the pages of the catty that morning, savoring a cup of coffee and cake and kept marking more sets that I knew I was going to get. 

On June 1st. I placed my order, I think it was like 6am. and then, just patiently waited.

I stamped this sweetie onto a panel of Canson water color paper with Stazon Jet Black ink and colored with SU markers and the aqua painter. I added a bit of Wink of Stella to her wings and colored the dots on them with gold gel pen.  

The sentiment comes with the set and I just love it!!! so true for a lot of situations in life. I stamped it on Vellum with Versafine Onix Black ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder, because I didn't want to cover any part of the Fairy or the pattern paper from Lili of the Valley, I added 4 Rhine Stones in soft Purple to attach the Vellum to the panel.

The flower on the bottom corner was cut with the new Botanical Builder framelits, this is another fantastic addition to my craft room.

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

The sentiment is from a retired Flourishes set called "Pears" and the little flowers on the corner are from the retired "Flowering Fields", such pretty little flowers.

Here is the sketch that inspired my card.

I'm also linking this card to the AAA Cards Game #66 Watercolours 

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

Hugs from Maria.

Daisy Wishes.....

Hello everyone:  I love Daisies, they are such beautiful and simple little white or yellow flowers yet that are very unassuming, when they grow wild on my flower beds, I leave them alone, they add such a charming look next to the Hydrangeas and I often pick them for my mom.
The Addicted to CAS  challenge's CODE WORD "PETALS" made me reach for this image from a retired SU set called "Every Moment" to create my card, I'm also linking this card to the STAMPlorations June CAS challenge "Anything CAS goes with an optional twist of blue", (I didn't add the blue) and the CASual Fridays #149 with a theme of FLORALS,  here is my card.

Super simple and, I think, clean card to make, I used Antique Linen distress ink to stamp the daisy onto a panel of craft paper and I colored it with Prismacolor pencils, then I stamped the flower again onto a scrap piece and, after I colored some of the petals, I fussy cut them to place them near the flower to appear like they are blowing away from it, I stamped the sentiment, from a retired Flourishes set called "Pinwheels and Popsicles" with SU white craft ink and heat emboss it with clear embossing powder.

Here is a picture of the inside of my card.

The sentiment is from a retired SU set called "Whimsical Words".

Here are the banners that inspired my card.

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

Hugs from Maria.

Stamp sets I used.