Just Add Leaves.........

Hi there everyone: THE FLOWER CHALLENGE for the month of February is to add LEAVES to your flower card, simple, eh?
All flowers have leaves so this can't be easier.

My card is very simple, created with a super old stamp set from SU called "Fast and Fabulous", (sounds like the title for a fast car movie, LOL!!"

I just stamped the flowers on Strathmore Bristol paper and colored with Prismacolors.  This set has no leaves so I used a leaf stamp from an Altenew set called "Peony Bouquet".

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The border is from a SU set called "Delicate Details", the sentiment is from a Power Poppy set called "Tea in the Garden" and the flower from the same set as in the front.

So I hope you hop over to THE FLOWER CHALLENGE to get even more inspiration from my amazing teammates and our fabulous Guest Designer, Galina Filippenko, please take a moment to check out her blog, she has some truly gorgeous cards.

Thank you so much for stopping by today.

Hugs.

Maria.

Love is in the Air........

Hello everyone: February is here so the DT over at SHOPPING OUR STASH has a LOVE challenge for you to play with, this is the card I made to inspire you to come and play along.

This cutie pie of an Owl and the balloons are from Purple Onion Designs.

I stamped them on Strathmore Bristol Vellum paper and colored it with Prismacolors and a red SU marker.  The die is from eBay.

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This is the INSIDE of my card.

The sentiment is from a Power Poppy set called "Farmer's Market", the balloon from Purple Onion.

So I hope you go and shop your stash and come join my teammates and me at the SHOPPING OUR STASH gallery.

I want to play with the following challenges.

AAA Birthday


Bitten by the Bug2
Valentine's/Anything Goes


Crafting Happiness Challenges
Anything Goes/twist HEARTS

Dream Valley Challenges
#218 "Love"

Make My Monday
#115 "I Heart You"

Thank you for stopping by today.

Hugs.

Maria.

Knit, Knit,and Knit some more...........

Hello everyone: When I was about 9 years old, my maternal grandma taught me how to Knit and Crochet, besides teaching me how to bake with yeast, make cakes and cookies and a lot of Mexican dishes over the years up until I left home at 21 as a brand new bride.

When I saw this beautiful set from Flourishes back in November of 2012 I bought it on the spot, it reminded me of my sweet grandma, her room with her sewing machine, her drawers full of fabric, yarn, and crochet threads and the warmth of her hands as she was guiding mine through the movements of needles and hook, sweet, amazing memories!!
I stamped the image on watercolor paper with Versafine black ink and clear heat embossed it then, colored it with SU markers.
I embossed the back panel with the beautiful SU embossing folder called "Tufted 3D", I love the quilted look it gives your card stock, the pattern paper is from an old and retired like from Lili of the Valley.
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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

I embossed the top with that beautiful EF, the sentiment is from the same Flourishes set.

I would like to play with the following challenges.

The Card Concept
I was inspired by the colors.
Clean and Layered.


Stinkin' Inkers Challenge
"Warm Up"


Thank you for stopping by, your comments always make my day.
Hugs.
Maria.

Sunflower Thank you......

Hello everyone: The new challenge over at RETRO RUBBER is a favorite of mine, Tic, Tac, Toe is fun to play with because you have lots of combinations to choose from so, my teammates and I hope you come along and join us in our gallery.
This is the card I made using the vertical line on the right, "Pattern Paper, Thanks, and Nature".  I encourage you to come and check out my teammates' beautiful creations for more fabulous inspiration.

The image is from a Power Poppy set called In Praise of Sunflowers, (released and bought back in 2016) and it's a beautiful one.

I stamped the Sunflower on a panel of Bristol Smooth mixed media paper with Versafine black ink and clear heat embossed it, then colored it with Sakura Koi watercolors and fussy cut it. I have a tip for you about fussy cutting an intricate image......I always put some painter's tape behind the parts of the image that might rip when cutting them, in this instance, I applied the tape behind the stems of the leaves and the little bud, that way you make the paper a bit stronger and easier to cut. 

The pattern papers are from my stash, the sentiment is from the set.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment is from another Power Poppy set called Sassy Succulents, the small Sunflower is from the sunflower set.

I hope you come and play along with us at RETRO RUBBER, please don't forget to use at least one stamp that is one year old or older and, if you can, let us know the age of it, we are all about using our old and sometimes forgotten stamp sets.

Thank you for visiting me today.

Hugs.

Falling Petals........

Hello everyone:  I'm slowly but surely getting back into my MOJO so I'm sharing this card today done with one of my favorite Altenew stamp sets.

This is the "Persian Motifs" and these beautiful images give you the option of coloring them any color you want to suit the occasion.

I stamped them on a panel of watercolor paper with Versafine black ink, clear heat embossed them and colored them with SU ink refills. The sentiment is from a Power Poppy set called Simply Camelias, I also added a few enamel dots from Gina Marie Designs.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment is from another Power Poppy set called Short Stacks and the flower in the corner from the Altenew set.

I would like to play with the following challenges.

I just used the left side for my card,

I hope it's ok.

Crafty Katz #490

"Anything Goes/optional twist "Flowers"

Thank you for visiting me today.

Hugs.

Maria.

Blue Jay for SOS.........

Hello everyone: I've been away for a while taking care of some very sad and difficult situations with our family.  I want to thank my amazing teammates at SHOPPING OUR STASH for their comforting words, support and understanding and for the beautiful cards I received from them, this means the world to me and I feel blessed and forever thankful to be a part of such a wonderful group of women who always, no matter what, will have your back.

But I'm back and I'm happy to be in my craft room again, doing one of the things I love the most, coloring and creating cards for your inspiration so, I hope you come and join us in our gallery, the theme this time is to create a Winter card using predominantly the color BLUE.

This image is from a Power Poppy set called Serene Scenes I had in my stash of un-inked stamp sets and that's a shame because it's so beautiful.

So I stamped it on a die-cut panel of watercolor paper with Versafine ink and colored with SU markers and a bit of shimmery silver paint.

The sentiment is from another Power Poppy set called Cozy Cupfuls.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like. 

The sentiment and the little branch are from a retired SU set called "Beauty of the Season" (2014 Holiday Mini).

I hope you can come and play with us at the SHOPPING OUR STASH gallery, stop by to check my teammates' beautiful creations.

Thank you for visiting me today and for your sweet comments.

Hugs.

Maria.

My first Twofer of 2020......

Hello everybody: It was very hard to wait for the first Twofer Challenge theme for 2020 and, as usual, the talented DT came up with a fabulous prompt.
I'm happy to submit these cards for one of my favorite challenges.

And this is my first card.

I used two hearts punches plus the Postage Stamp (SU-retired) Punch to create this card.  The bigger heart is punched with a retired SU hearts punch, the smaller heart, with the Owl Builder Punch (SU-retired)

The sentiment is from an old Valentine's Day set from Flourishes called "Tokens of Affection"

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This is how the INSIDE of this card looks like.

The sentiment and banner are from a Flourishes called "From the Heart" (2015) 

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My second card is created with a super fun die set from SU called "Apron Builder", LOVE IT!!! that fortunately is still available and ON SALE!!

The pattern papers are from my stash and I used the same heart punches to decorate the apron and banner, the sentiment is stamped with a super old alphabet set from "Your Next Stamp".
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This is how the INSIDE of this card looks like.

The sentiment is from a 2017 Power Poppy set called Tweet Tidings.

I would like to play along with the following challenges.

Twofer Card Challenge #23

Send a Smile for Kids "Valentine or Anything Goes"

Gem of a Challenge "Anything Goes"

Thank you for stopping by today.

Hugs.

Maria.