Take Your #Selfie to the Beach.....

Hello everyone: We are well in April here but there is no signs of Spring, let alone Summer around, it's cold and snowing up  here in Crown Point, IN. I just hope my Tulips and Daffodils are not going to freeze, their green leaves are above ground, poor things, but they are resilient, that's for sure.

Anywho, I have a card to share with you today for the SHOPPING OUR STASH challenge this week, we all want you guys to go to the Beach, even if it's only in your mind.

This image is from a Power Poppy set called Best Day Ever and, as you can see, just looking at it makes you feel warm and dreaming.

I stamped the images on watercolor paper with Versafine black ink and clear heat emboss it, then colored it with SU markers, the hook, keys and camera were fussy cut. The sentiment is from the set.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment is also from the set, the shells are from a retired Flourishes set called "Seaside Life"

So I hope you feel inspired to come and play along with us at SHOPPING OUR STASH, don't forget to go take a peek at my teammates' blogs and see their fabulous creations.

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.

No Squares, No Rectangles, ok?.....

Hello everyone: My teammates and I have a new challenge for you to play with over at THE FLOWER CHALLENGEgallery, this time the theme is "SHAPED CARDS", this means for you to use any other shape except RECTANGLES OR SQUARES.  Make it an oval, circle, triangle, heart, hexagon, etc. you get the picture. So here is my card to inspire you to come and play along.

This image is from a Flourishes set called "Tulips for Friends" it's retired, but now, Power Poppy has a new version of this same image in a Photopolymer stamp set called Loving Tulips.

I stamped this image on a die cut piece of Strathmore 140lb. watercolor paper with Versafine black ink and clear heat emboss it then, colored it with SU markers and an aqua painter.

The black lacy oval was cut with the Spellbinders die set called Oval Regalia, I cut two pieces with black card stock and glue the top part for a hinge, it worked better than I thought. 

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment and the flowers in the bottle are from the Power Poppy set called Go Wild.

So I hope you feel inspired to join us at THE FLOWER CHALLENGE gallery, and for more inspiration please check out the amazing projects of my teammates, go to their blogs to see how they created them and leave them some comment love.

A2Z Scrapbooking linky party April challenge "Flower Power"

Always Happy Birthday Challenge "Anything Goes/option Balloons"

Card Mania Challenge #103 "Spring"

Delicious Doodles Challenges "April, Anything but a Square"

Just For Fun Challenges "Spring Flowers"

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.

The Tiniest Things.....

Hello everyone: Once again there is a new challenge over at SHOPPING OUR STASH for your crafting enjoyment and this time, we are asking you to create a card using BLACK AND WHITE + ONE MORE COLOR. Here is my card and I hope it inspires you to join us in the gallery.

This was a simple and quick card, the flowers were die cut with the fabulous "Botanical Blooms" from Stampin' Up! (retired😕) The Butterfly is from another sadly retired SU set called "Papillon Potpourri", colored with a So Saffron marker, the sentiment is from a retired Flourishes set called "Hummingbirds".

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment is from the "Hummingbirds" set and the flowers from an Altenew set called Moments in Time.

So I hope you get inspired to come and join us in the SHOPPING OUR STASH gallery. Don't forget to stop by my teamies' blogs to get more fabulous inspiration from them.

I would like to play with the following challenges.

Get Creative Challenges "No Pattern Paper"

Whoopsi Daisy Challenge "Anything Goes with option of Flowers"

Crafty Catz Challenge #410 "Anything Goes/Use your old stash"

These dies are 2 years old.

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.

Enchanted Nap.....

Hello again everyone: I have another card done with my amazing collection of Fairy rubber stamps.

I made THIS CARD on March 26th. with another image from this awesome and beautiful Fairies.
I'm slipping under the radar here to link this card to the Double D Challenge  so I hope that I can make the dead line with this card.

I was given this amazing collection of plain rubber stamps by my dear aunt, she found them at a thrift store and got the whole lot of 25 for $10.00.

I stamped this image on water color paper with Stazon black ink and colored it with some SU markers and Sakura Koi watercolors.

As I was putting some shade on the mushroom cap, I smeared black ink on the Fairy's dress, I was just staring at this black stain and I knew right there it was not going anywhere so, in an effort to save the rest of my panel, I went to my drawer of pattern papers and found a piece of one with some really pretty shades of blue and golden yellow so, I stamped the Fairy's image on this paper and fussy cut the dress and the small piece by her face, it was either this or trash the card, I think it looks ok, right?

In this picture I hope you can see the shimmer of the Wink of Stella I added to the Fairy's dress, wings, a bit on her hair and her arm, after all, Fairies are totally covered in Fairy Dust, you know this! I also added some Crystal Effects to the drops of water hanging on the spider web and, of course, on the one that will drop any second now to wake this sweet Fairy from her nap.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment is my favorite to add to my Fairy cards, the flower image from my stash of unknowns.

I would like to enter the following challenges.

Double D Challenge

Crafting With Friends Challenge #64 "Anything Goes"

Kitty Bee Designs Challenge #115 "Spring"

SumMore Fun

Polkadoodles Crafting Challenge Week #13 "Anything Goes"

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.

Hello Frankie!!!!!

Hello everyone: Even if Spring is only beginning, I'm making some Halloween cards for my stash, I tend to neglect this fun season and then, I'm press for time to make my cards for family and friends. The RETRO RUBBER has the ever so popular "ANYTHING GOES" challenge for you guys to play along with so, here is my card that I hope will inspire you to join us in the gallery.

This totally fun and awesome image is from a 2006 Stampin' Up! set called "Best Friends" (this is the link to the Splitcoaststampers Stampin' Up! gallery for this particular set) and let me tell you, I wish someone would bring back this over the top fabulous stamp set, which came out waaaaay before I started stamping, otherwise I would have bought it on the spot!!!!!

How did I manage to snag this set you might ask?? well, I saw one of the images on Pinterest, I follow the trail and fortunately, the lady who used this set mentioned the name and with this little piece of information, I went on a wild hunt trying to find it and find it I did on Ebay. When I saw it I immediately bought it and the good thing about it is that it was super affordable for being such an old set so, here is Frankie in all it's glory, ready to go Trick or Treating around the neighborhood.

I stamped him on watercolor paper with Stazon black ink and colored it with Sakura Koy watercolors, I love the neon shades that give his "sweet" face that fabulous green glow and, since his t-shirt says "I Love Bats", I stamped this little bat, from Kraftin Kimmie, on Frankie's head.

The pattern papers are from my stash.

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Here is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The spider web, spider and sentiment are from another retired SU set called, what else.....""Bite Me", it came out in September of 2013.

So there you have it, another Halloween card for my stash created at the start of Spring, fun, eh?

So I hope you get inspired to come and play along with my awesome teammates and I in the RETRO RUBBER gallery.  Remember to make sure YOUR STAMPS ARE OVER ONE YEAR OLD and also please, tell us how long you've had them.

I would like to play along with the following challenges.

Crazy 4 Challenges #427 "Cards with Children's Theme" Fun Halloween.

Hiding in my Craft Room "Any Holiday" 

heARTful STamping "Anything Goes + a Stamp"

Crafty Friends Challenge #80 "Anything Goes"

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 NO INK CARD.....

Hello everyone: Once again, my teammates and I at SHOPPING OUR STASH, have a new challenge for you to play with this coming week, this time the theme is NO INK, this means, no markers, no ink pads, no re-inkers, etc. you get the picture, right? Pencils, like Prismacolors or any other kind of pencils, are allowed since they don't have any ink on them, so, here is my card that I hope will inspire you to come and join us in our gallery.

I don't usually create cards that do not have some kind of stamped image which I color with markers or watercolors so, this challenge is a bit out of my comfort zone. Then, I saw THIS LOVELY CARD on Pinterest so I decided to CASE it, thank you so much DeAnn Rauzi.

All I used here are dies from the "Pretty Pines" set from Stampin' Up!, (retired), I cut the pine cones with some silver glimmer paper and then, the back of them was die cut in plain white, I added a silver thread bow and unraveled it to give it an airy look.

The "Peace" word was cut with one of the dies on the Penny Black set called Love and Joy with a piece of blue cardstock, the pine branches with the Pretty Pines die set.

I also cut a piece of Vellum and embossed it with the "Pine Bough" embossing folder for a bit of texture, I love how Vellum looks when you dry emboss it. The pattern paper is from my stash.

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Here is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

I cut the word "Love" with the same Penny Black dies in blue and pine branch with the same "Pretty Pines" die set with silver glimmer paper.

I would like to play along with the following challenges.

Christmas Card Throwdown

The Crazy Challenge #271 "Use Glitter"

The Paper Girls Challenge #148 "Embossing"

Dragonfly Dreams "All That Glitters"

Hiding in my Craft Room Challenge #345 "Any Holiday"

I hope my card inspires you to come and play along with us at the SHOPPING OUR STASH gallery, my teammates and I 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.

Lily of the Valley Fairy.....

Hello everyone: Well, it's been a while since I inked up one of my cherished Fairy rubber stamps. These 20+ images came to me as a gift from my aunt, who found them at a second hand store, in a cardboard box, dirty, stained and abandoned. She purchased the whole lot for about $10.00 and gave them to me and I can't tell you how thrilled I was when I started seeing this gorgeous images come to life with ink and paper. This is just one of them.

I stamped this image on a piece of Strathmore watercolor paper with Stazon black ink and colored with SU markers, (I love the Olive Green ink), I stamped the branch with the flowers a second time on the back of the Fairy, to fill the space, I added gold gel pen to her wings and then, Wink of Stella for some shimmer. Her skin is done with a "Peach" color Crayola marker, left here from when my grandchildren were little, this is a really awesome shade.  I hope you can see the shine on the drops of water, I added a bit of Crystal Effects.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment is one of my favorites for when I create Fairy cards and it's from an old Flourishes set called "Orichids", the little Fairy on the corner is from Studio G.

I would like to play with the following challenges.

Inkspirational

Dragonfly Dreams "All that Glitters"

Fashionable Stamping Challenge #133 "Springtime"

Stamping Sensations March Challenge "Forest Friends"

Cards in Envy "No Pattern Paper"

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.