ALL WIRED UP!!!!!

Hello everyone: Well, I must say that the challenge over at "Less is More" had me scratching my head and pondering all day yesterday, I really, really wanted to participate but I honestly had trouble figuring out how to incorporate WIRE into my card. I look around this room at all of my stamp sets, all I saw were beautiful flowers, cute little critters, fabulous Fairies, balloons, cakes.....but nothing that I could add wire to so I just put it out of my mind for a while and kept cleaning up this room and getting the boxes for my 11 year old granddaughter's Art Club ready to take to the school on Monday, with stuff I don't use anymore, from pattern paper to ribbon, embellishments and other stuff I know this kids would love to have.
But, when I was gathering my SU cling stamps to dust the shelf, what do I see!!! the cutest little monsters ever!! I grabbed this set called "Monstermaniacs" from October 2013 and I knew right then this is what I was going to use to participate in this challenge, I just mask the Monsters' antennae to substitute it with wire. Here is my card.

I stamped the image onto a panel of Canson water color paper with Stazon Jet Black in and colored it with my Derwent water color pencils. I bought a set of 12 the other day on sale, love the colors.
When I finished coloring them, I grabbed some copper colored jewelry wire, cut a piece and wrap it around a tapestry needle several times to create the antennae for my little monsters. I more or less followed the picture on the front of the stamp case, then I pierced a small hole on top of them, inserted the wire and taped it in the back. It was a bit time consuming but I really like the way it turned out. Here is a close up of this cute and adorable Monsters.

This set is just so perfect for kids cards, here is a picture of the finish inside, I used the other little monster in the set here.

And here is the picture of this fun stamp set.

This is the banner from "Less is More", the recipe this week is to

ADD SOME WIRE.

I hope you like my little monsters, thank you for stopping by, until next time, happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

BLOW OUT ALL THE CANDLES!!!!!

Hello everyone: I'm a little late posting this card, I've been doing some SERIOUS rearranging of my craft room, purging some papers, embellishments, stickers, glitter, ribbon, yarn and other goodies to donate them to my granddaughter Anastasia's Art Club in school, the kids are in dyer need of supplies, I'm also going to go get them some glue, tape and coloring pencils and other stuff, for their art projects.
But anywho, here is this card that I'm linking to the Seize the Birthday "Anything Goes" challenge and the Stamp Ink Paper "Card Maker's Choice" challenge (we're suppose to use our favorite stamps and papers but, in my case, all of my stamps are my favorites, I chose this one for the Seize the Birthday challenge), and the LiveLoveCards Masculine Challenge, I figured this card could go either way but the fact that it looks like this chickens are all "boys" made me take a chance and submit it to this challenge.

Ok, just the expression of concern on some of this chicken's faces makes me smile but then, add the gazillion candles, this cake looks like it could be mine, hmm.. I think I can count almost 65 candles, sheeesh!! I kept it pretty simple, (ah...it's not CAS at all, ok? just simple without the clean part), I used colors that kind of match the chicken's crests and.....what are those things under their beaks called? Anyway, just stamped t his Penny Black image called "Best of Luck"  onto a panel of Canson water color paper and colored it with the aqua painter and SU markers, I sponged a bit of Old Olive for the grass and a litle of Broken China distress ink for the sky, added 4 Candy Dots and that was it. Here is a picture of the finish inside.

Here are the banners that inspired this card.

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

Hugs from Maria.

CELEBRATE!!!!!

Hello dear stamping friends: I have a card to share with you today using one of my favorite Penny Black stamp sets called HUGS , here is my card.

I did some masking on this image, the little Hedgehog is holding a bouquet of flowers but I wanted him to hold one of balloons so, with a bit of washi tape, I was able to stamp only this sweet critter and then, I added my balloons.

I stamped this image onto a panel of plain white card stock, (I ran out of Ninnah solar white) with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored it with just 2 Prismacolor pencils, the strings on the balloons were done with SU markers. 

I stamped the CELEBRATE sentiment from an old stamp with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with Tempting Turquoise embossing powder, the colors on this card are from the Color Q challenge #330 , I had to dig deep into my card stock scraps to find this colors to at least die cut my balloons, I wanted to use a panel of Poppy Parade for the layering but I didn't have enough. 

Here is a picture of the finished inside.

I'm also linking this card to the CAS{E} this Sketch! challenge. 

Here are the banners that inspired this card.

Thank you for stopping by, until next time, Happy Stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

The Good Old Days.....

Hello everyone: I have a card to share with you today that features one of those nostalgic and classic phones of yesteryear, I've seen this phones only in movies but I think they are just so beautiful.  I'm linking this card to the Freshly Made Sketches challenge for this week. Here is my card.

The image is from a retired Flourishes stamp set called "Call Me" and all the images are so beautiful. I stamped it onto a panel of Canson water color paper with Sazon Jet Black ink and colored it with my Prismacolor pencils and paper stumps dipped in baby oil.

The beautiful pattern paper is from Lili of the Valley. Both the sentiment in the front and the inside are from the same set.

Here is a picture of the finished inside.

I stamped the cute cup with the flowers again by masking the rest of the image, with Dove Gray Stazon Ink. 

Here is a picture of the stamp set I used, so you can see how it looks like.

Here is the sketch that inspired my card.

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

Hugs from Maria.

DISTRESS!!!!!

Hello everyone: I have a card to share with you for the CASology challenge this week, the CUE WORD is "DISTRESS", and also, I'm going to link it up to the "Less is More" challenge with a with a new theme wich is ADD SOME TEXTURE, this is my second entry to this challenge, you can see my first one HERE if you'd like and, last but most definitely not least, I'm entering this card in the Power Poppy February challenge "SWITCH UP YOUR SHADES" which is just asking to use a coloring medium we don't use to often, I love water coloring and I use it all the time but sometimes I add a bit of texture and shading with pencils, well, this time NO WATER COLORS AT ALL, I just colored this image with only my Prismacolor pencils. Here is today's card.

This beautiful bloom is from Power Poppy's stamp set called SIMPLY CAMELIAS , and it's, well.....simply gorgeous!!!  Following both the CASology and the "Less is More" challenges, I distressed the image, adding some texture to it. I sponged it with a bit of Hello Honey ink to kind of "age" it a little. Now, I chose this sentiment because I think missing someone is really stressful, so I hope both the stressed image and the sentiment are ok. for this challenges requests.

Here is the picture of the finished inside.

The sentiment from the retired Flourishes stamp set called "Pick Wild Flowers" really follows the one in front. Here's a picture of this beautiful retired stamp set.

And here are the banners that inspired my card.

ADD SOME TEXTURE.

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

Hugs from Maria.

So Glad We're Friends.....?????

Hello everyone: I'm here again with another card to share with you today. When I know more or less that my day will not be as busy, I have the chance to come to my craft room and just let the MOJO flow. Besides, I just received a new set of plain rubber images that I bought sometime ago and today, I finally cut them up and use a couple of this images from a fabulously funny Katzelkraft stamp set called Less Chats Russes , I just love all of this images, they come in a sheet of deeply etched red rubber, you have the option of getting them cling mounted if you'd like but I buy them just like that, I just trim around and they stamp beautifully. Here is my card, that I'm linking to the Can You CASE It? sketch challenge.

I don't know about this cat's expression, he is either ignoring the little "friend" or he is pretending to ignore him to pounce on him in a split second, what do you think? I stamped the cat on a piece of Canson water color paper with Stazon Jet Black ink and colored it with the aqua painter and SU markers in More Mustard for the body and a little bit of Certainly Celery for his eyes. The mouse was also stamped with Stazon ink but on a bigger panel of water color paper in which I glued a strip of pattern paper from my stash. First I wanted to stamp the mouse separate and then snip him out but that tail was going to be nearly impossible to cut so I glued the paper first then, using my MISTI  I stamped the mouse right on top of the paper to give the illusion he is standing on it? I hope this is ok with the challenge, the sketch doesn't have another image on that line.

Here is a close up picture of this unlikely pair of friends.

Here is a picture of the finished inside.

The sentiment is from a retired Flourishes set called "Dahlias" and the teeny, tiny mousy is from another classic and adorable retired SU set called "Furry Folk", from the 2011-2012 Idea Book and Catalog. 

Here is the sketch that inspired this card.

Thank you for stopping by, until next time, (maybe a bit later? LOL!!) happy stamping.

Hugs from Maria.

CAS for The Paper Players.....

Hello everyone: This week at The Paper Players Joanne has fun, CAS challenge, "Up, Up and Away" is the theme and it can be anything, from balloons to airplanes and everything in between, I went with balloons and this fabulous stamp from the Unity Stamp Co. kit of the month "Hey Girl", I love this girl with the pretty dress holding all of this balloons. Here is my card.

I stamped it onto a panel of Canson water color paper with Stazon Jet Black ink and colored it with the aqua painter and Prismacolor pencils. I love combining this two coloring mediums, I get the best shading and blending of the colors.

Since the challenge is CAS I didn't add any embellishments, I think this bunch of balloons are beautiful enough, the sentiment is from the SU set Teeny Tiny Wishes, which I love, the font on all of them is beautiful, they are small but they all convey their message.

Here is the picture of the finished inside.

This sentiment is from Hero Arts "Be Happy" stamp set and it's stamped in Wisteria Wonder.

Here is the inspiration photo that inspired my card.

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

Hugs from Maria.