Spotlight Stamping for THE FLOWER CHALLENGE.....

Hello everyone: Before I continue, I want to thank all of you sweet ladies and gentlemen, who visited my blog and left such sweet comments this past 2017, I appreciate you taking the time to stop by and I hope you continue to do so on 2018.  I want to wish all of you a year full of Health, Joy, Peace, Love and Prosperity. Big hugs from my family to  yours.

My teammates and I at THE FLOWER CHALLENGE want to launch this brand new year with a fun challenge for all of you to play with, we hope you get some of your beautiful flower stamps and join us in our gallery.

Spotlight Stamping is a fun technique in which you stamp your image and then, color only some parts of it. You can do it directly on your panel or, stamp the image again and select what part or parts you want to  highlight and then, die cut them.  This is what I did on my card so I hope it inspires you to give this technique a try. 

I stamped this old Flourishes image from the set called "Picking Wild Flowers", on a piece of white card stock with Stazon black ink and then, I stamped the parts I wanted to color on some scrap watercolor paper, just so I can use my Sakura Koy watercolor on them, easy peasy. 

Then, I die cut both parts and attached them to the panel with foam adhesive squares.

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I always finish the inside of all my cards, this saves me time when I mail them.

The sentiment is from another Flourishes set called "Gerbera Daisies" and it's one of my most favorite friendship sentiments, the words are so true.

The little flowers are from the first set.

So, I hope you come and play along with us at THE FLOWER CHALLENGE, on this our very first challenge of 2018.  For more inspiration go to the blog and check out my teammates amazing projects, visit their blogs and leave them some comment love.

Please READ OUR RULES, they are easy but important, and also, please include our banner on your blog post when you upload your card to our gallery.

Thank  you for stopping by, I always read every single comment you so kindly leave on my posts, I want you to know I appreciate them more than words can express.

Until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

Dreaming of.....

Hello everyone: I know for a fact that, most of us up here in the Northern States are in the grip of Old Man Winter, who is blasting us with frigid temperatures, fierce winds and lots of snow.

It's inevitable to think about it, no matter how hard you try not to so, in an effort to maybe help you guys forget a bit about this very cold season, I have a card for you that will warm your heart in a few ways, heck!! I started dreaming of sun kissed beaches, warm sand, cold drinks and a tan, using a good amount of sun screen, of course😉

Ok, are you warm yet?  Most of you know I adore the House Mouse Siblings, they are always doing something cute and/or outrageous, LOL!!  I don't think many of you would like to find a little mousy taking a bath in your cold lemonade, would you? 

I stamped this little guy with Stazon black ink onto a piece of smooth drawing paper from a big block my granddaughter gave me last week. I love how fabulous this paper is to color with Prismacolor pencils and paper stumps dipped in Gamsol.

The patter paper is from a discontinued line from Lili of the Valley, I love the bright and cheerful colors on this paper.

The sentiments are from a couple of Power Poppy sets, the top ones from Go Wild and the bottom one from Dynamic Duos:Peonies & Tulips 

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This is a picture of the finished inside of my card, I've been doing this every time I make a card, it saves me a lot of time when I mail them.

The sentiment is from another Power Poppy set called Short Stacks, the cute little kitty is from a Penny Black set called Critter Party, I colored it with Prismacolor pencils.

I would like to play along with the following challenges.

House Mouse Monday Challenge

Catch the Bug

heARTful stamping "Anything Goes+a stamp"

2 Crafty Critter Crazies challenge #10 "Anything Goes with a Critter"

Craftyhazelnut's Pattern Paper Challenge

Thank you for stopping by, I always read every single comment you so kindly leave on my posts, I want you to know I appreciate them more than words can express.

Until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

Fabulous Florets for SOS #335.....

Hello everyone: I hope your Holidays were amazing, spent in the company of dear family and friends. I wish for all of you Health and Joy, Peace and Prosperity for this 2018.

Well, we at SHOPPING OUR STASH have a brand new challenge for you to kick in the New Year of card making fun, we want you to use WATER COLORS in your cards.  This challenge is one that is close to my heart since I love water coloring, it's my most favorite medium to add color to all of my cards.

This card is made with an old favorite set from Stampin Up! called "Fabulous Florets", this little blooms are so beautiful and fun to color.

I wanted to give the NO LINE COLORING technique a good try this year, so I stamped the images with Tim Holtz "Tumbled Glass" Distress Ink and used my aqua painter and a few SU markers.

I added a few Rhine Stones and the sentiment from the set.

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I always finish the inside of my cards to save time when I mail them.

The sentiment is from Elizabeth Craft Designs and it just sends a message of hope for all of us who are enduring this deep freeze, there is still a lot of Winter still to come so, lets be patient and wait for those first signs of Spring very soon.

I hope you find a bit of time to make a card and share it with us at the SHOPPING OUR STASH gallery, we can't wait to see what you create.

Stop by the challenge blog page to see what my teammates have made for your inspiration.

Thank you for stopping by, I always read every single comment you so kindly leave on my post, I want you to know I appreciate them more than words can express,

Until next time, happy stamping,

Hugs from Maria.

We Wish You a Very Pink Christmas.....

Hello everyone: I have a super cute Christmas card done in pretty much non traditional colors to inspire you to join my SHOPPING OUR STASH teammates in our gallery.

The theme is to use mostly the color PINK in your creations, we can't wait to see what you come up with. This challenge will run for 2 weeks instead of the normal 1 week, we know how busy this time of the year can be, with all the preparations for family visits and friends dropping by so, one extra week will be just fabulous for all of us.

This card was made with mostly stuff from my stash of ribbons, left over die cut paper (the frame was cut last month I think, for a card but I changed my mind), I knew I had some die cut greetings in my little box where I keep them and there it was, the "Merry" word, all I did was to die cut it again on some fun foam for dimension, I also found there the three little Christmas Lights there, also left over from another project. The background paper is from my stash of pattern papers.

The sweet little Elf is from a My Favorite Things set called "Santa's Elves", I purchased a while back on Ebay but never used so, I combined a bit of old and new on my card.  I stamped this little sweetie with Versafine black ink and colored it with SU markers and the aqua painter, I added a bit of gold gel pen to the jingle bell on her hat.

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I always finish the inside of all my cards, this saves me time when I need to mail them.

I stamped all of this images with Tim Holts distress ink in Picked Raspberry.

So I hope you have a few minutes that you can squeeze in between shopping and cleaning to play along with us. For more inspiration, please go to the SHOPPING OUR STASH BLOG and check out the beautiful cards my teammates have there for you.

Thank you for stopping by, I always read every single comment you so kindly leave on my posts, I want you to know I appreciate them more than words can express. 

Until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

A Little Reminder.....

Hello everyone: We have come to the half way point at THE FLOWER CHALLENGE "Anything but a Card" challenge so, here I am with a fun, and easy project for you that can be useful at the same time. Hope it gets you inspired to join my teammates and me in our gallery.

This is a Handmade Card and Tag holder that can later be used as a pretty organizer for your work desk. You can put pencils, pens, note pads, etc. 

You can see the VIDEO HERE, Angelina has the measurements for this project and easy to follow directions on her video.  

She also provides the link to the tags on her project so CLICK HERE to see how she made her tags, of course you can decorate this project in any way you want to and fit it to any occasion or season.

The flower on the front panel of this greeting card and tag holder is an Amaryllis, which is a flower you also see during the Holidays.

I hope you come and join us and play along, this projects are fun and easy to create and make super gifts for teachers, although I think anyone would be thrilled to receive one.

Thank you for stopping by, I always read every single comment you so kindly leave on my posts, I want you to know I appreciate them more than words can express.

Until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

Holiday Tags for SOS.....

Hello everyone: I've been absent for a while taking care of some family issues but now, I'm very happy to be back doing this that I love so much.

The SHOPPING OUR STASH challenge blog has a new theme for you to play with that I'm sure will help you a lot as the Holidays approach fast.

The theme is TAGS, which we all need to put them on our gifts under the Christmas Tree.

Here are a couple I made to inspire you to join my teammates and I in our gallery.

This tags are made with a favorite and sadly retired Stampin' Up! set called "Winter Memories".

I just made the tags with the SU "Scalloped Tag Punch", decorated each panel with an embossing folder, stamped my images and colored them with Prismacolor pencils.

The ribbon and gold thread are from my stash.  I plan to make more tags with other pretty images, the recipients of the gifts will surely love them.

On the inside there is enough room to write the name of the recipient and who is the gift from.

I hope you decide to come and play with us at the SHOPPING OUR STASH CHALLENGE, this tags can be easily mass produced with the MISTI and colored with any medium you'd like. 

Thank you for stopping by, I always read every single comment you so kindly leave on my posts, I want you to know I appreciate them more than words can express.

Until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

Ceramic Tile Coasters.....

Hello everyone: The new challenge at THE FLOWER CHALLENGE  is to make "ANYTHING BUT A CARD".  Now, that means you can make any project as long as FLOWERS are the main focus.
Some time ago while browsing Pinterest, I saw THIS VIDEO  by Tami White and Vanessa Brown about how to make beautiful coasters with ceramic tiles and stamped images, I thought it was simply amazing, beautiful and easy to do so I decided to give it a try.  I went to my local Home Depot (or any store of this type) to look for the tiles and I found them with no trouble and here are the tiles I made with them.

I followed the directions Tami gave on the video, I cleaned the dust from the tiles and stamped the images with Stazon black ink, I was amazed at how clearly the images were on the tile.

Then I colored with a set of chalks I had and never really used until now.

The images are from a set from Flourishes that has the flowers of each month, I really love how they look all colored, so very pretty. I stamped all 12 months and put little rubber feet on the other side, they really are waterproof after a couple of coats of the clear acrylic sealant.

I truly love the way they came out, it's simple and easy and fast, each tile took me like 10 minutes to color, the drying time of the two coats of sealant took longer. I do recommend you take your tiles outside to spray, or if it's cold or raining, take them to the garage for proper ventilation.

There is a second video that you can watch HERE with more samples.

So I hope this inspires you to do this project or, for more inspiration go check out what my teammates created at THE FLOWER CHALLENGE blog and leave them some comment love.

When you upload your project, please include the logo for this challenge, you can copy and paste it from the one at the top of my post.

Please read our rules, they are simple but important, and come and play along with us in our gallery, we can't wait to see what you create.

Thank you for stopping by, I always read every single comment you so kindly leave on my posts, I want you to know I appreciate them more than words can express.

Until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.