Favorite Season.....

Hello everyone: I've been absent for quite a while, I had some family situations I had to take care of that involved traveling to Mexico with my elderly mother to bring her back after 5 1/2 years of living with us here in the USA. Her health was the major issue for this decision since she is 94 years old.  It was a very difficult time for me for a lot of reasons and that is why I took some time off from blogging. I'm happy to report that she is doing well in her new place and this gives me comfort and peace of mind, she is close to 3 of my brothers, my sister and I will visit as often as we can.

Anyway, we have a new challenge for all of you to play with over at SHOPPING OUR STASH, this time we want you to make a card showing your favorite Season of the year.  

I love all them but my favorite is the Fall, with its gorgeous colors and cooler temperatures and for me, the celebration that jumps start the Holidays is Halloween. So here is my card that I hope inspires you to join my teammates and me in the gallery.

I just love this pair of Pumpkins, I've used this images several times to make cards for my grandkids and also for friends. They are old so I really can't remember if they are from Penny Black or somewhere else, I do not have the packaging so, I apologize for that.
I stamped this images onto water color paper, colored them and fussy cut them, the bats are die cut, the sentiment is from an old Flourishes set called "Witching you a Happy Halloween"
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Here is a picture of the finished inside of my card.

All the images are from my stash of Halloween stamps, I sure wish I knew where they came from.

So there you have it, hope you come and play with us over at SHOPPING OUR STASH, my teammates and I can't wait to see what you can 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.

No Dream is to Big.....

Hello everyone: All of us at the RETRO RUBBER challenge blog have a fun theme for you to play with.  Every student in the USA and the world has gone back to school, some for the very first time ever, whether is Kindergarten, Elementary School, Middle School, High School or College, these young people need some support and encouragement so, to give them just that we want you to create a card for your student or their teachers. 

Here is the card I made to inspire you to play along and join my teammates and me in our gallery.

As I was thinking about making my card, I came to the realization that I have absolutely NO STAMP SETS with a teacher's theme so, as you can imagine, I was in a pickle as to what to do.  

I went to Pinterest to look for some ideas and found several cards that had books made out of card stock so I went in this direction.  

I liked the idea of putting an actual notebook page on my card so I simply pulled one from my notebook and used it as my background layer.  The rest, as you can see, is simple, I had the apple already colored so I just fussy cut it to add to my design, the books were cut from DSP, I used a gold gel pen to add some decorations and the titles for each.  I die cut the word AMAZING to hopefully inspire the recipient to have an amazing school year.

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

The sentiment is from Hero Arts and it fits perfectly with this school theme, dreaming BIG is the key to achieving your goals.

I hope you come and play with us over at the RETRO RUBBER CHALLENGE BLOG, be sure to stop by my teammates' blogs to check out their awesome creations.

We do have a few rules to keep things fair.

This challenge blog requires you to use stamps that are OLDER THAN ONE YEAR, please give us the age or how long you've had it.

You can combine our challenge with a maximum of 10 challenges.

Turn off your WORD VERIFICATION so we can comment on your card.

If you post your card on a private forum such as Splitcoaststampers or a photo sharing site, we might not be able to comment on your creation, thank you for understanding.

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.

New Home.....

Hello everyone: After a while of being absent, I'm happy to say my MOJO is slowly but surely coming back, it feels a bit weird to actually sit here in my craft room and create my cards.

The "Less is More" gals have a fun challenge for us to play with and, to top it all, my dear friend Vivien from Daizy Mae's Crafty Blog is their Guest Stamper so, here I go with this card that I hope you'd like.  By the way, Vivien's card reminded me that I had just gotten this adorable die frame so I kind of CASE'd her card but with a different theme, thanks Viv.

The challenge is asking us to make a card using some real elements so, as soon as I read that I went to my drawer where I keep little embellishments and got a pair of teeny, tiny keys that I bought at an Antique Store some time ago. I actually cleaned out the tray on that booth buying about 35 little keys, I added a bit of cotton for smoke coming out of the chimney.

This little house is from a super old Sizzix stamp and die set I bought at my local Hobby Lobby store at the Clearance section, I think I paid like $5.00 for it.

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

The sentiment and mail box are from a couple of old Flourishes sets.

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.

Background Stamping.....

Hello dear friends: Today I want to share with you a card I created for THE FLOWER CHALLENGE's new challenge which is "BACKGROUND STAMPING", I hope it inspires you to join my teammates and me in our gallery.  Please stop by their blogs and check out their amazing creations.

I must confess creating this card was a bit hard for me.  Those of you who've known me for a while know I'm not a fan of pattern papers, not because they are not beautiful, which they are but, because I just don't ever know how to mix and match or combine them on my cards with the images I stamp and color so, for me to cover a panel with repetitive images was truly a challenge.  

But that is what challenges are for, to urge you to step out of your comfort zone and figure something out. This card is it, hope you like it.

I used 3 different Power Poppy sets on this card, the Springtime Love, the Countryside Bouquet Delux, and the Dynamic Duos: Foxglove and Ranunculus for the sentiment on the inside.

I stamped the images on a piece of lilac cardstock with Stazon black ink and then, I colored all the images with my Prismacolor pencils.

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

This challenge will run until August 25th. so you have plenty of time to get creative and join us in our gallery.  For more inspiration, hop over the challenge and check out my teammates awesome creations, you'll be glad you did.

Please remember to check out our rules, they are few but important and don't forget to add our Challenge Banner to your post when you upload your card to the 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.

Don't Have a Cow!!! Three is Better!!...

Hello dear friends: I have a card to share with you this very, very stormy morning made with on of the cutest sets of critters I own.  It's from My Favorite Things and it's called The Whole Herd.

I mean, can this cows be more adorable?  I stamped them onto a water color paper oval die cut with Stazon black ink and colored them with Prismacolor pencils and Distress Inks in Shabby Shutters for the grass, Broken China for the sky and a bit of Spun Sugar for their cute little snouts.

The pattern papers are from a retired collection from Lili of the Valley, the sentiment from the set.

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

I just glued a scrap strip of the pattern paper and stamped the sentiment and the cow from the set.

I'm linking this card to the following challenges.

Pause,Dream,Enjoy Challenges #182 "Down on the Farm"

Cheerful Sketches Challenge  for July

(I turned it on it's side, hope it's ok)

Happy Little Stampers July challenge "Animals"

The Crafty Addicts Challenge #38 Anything goes/Something Humorous.

(I think this cows are hilarious)

Crafty Animals Anything Goes/must have animals.

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.

RAINBOWS!!!!!

Hello everyone: We at RETRO RUBBER, have a new challenge for you to have some fun with, this time we want to see RAINBOWS!!  Here is this card I made to inspire you to join my teammates and I in our gallery.

This sweet little Hedgehogs are from a Penny Black stamp set called "WONDERFUL" I bought it back in March of 2014.

I stamped this two cuties onto a panel of water color paper with Stazon black ink, sponged the sky and grass with Distress Inks in Shabby Shutters and Tumbled Glass, die cut the balloons and added some embroidery strings using a glue dot to attach them to the hands of the little Hedgehogs. The sprigs of grass and flowers are stamped with a couple of Art Impressions stamps.

Now, I'm going to show you another card I made with Rainbow colors.  I saw THIS VIDEO by Nicole Picadura that encouraged me to give this technique a try.  I always love seeing cards with gorgeous water color washes but, every time I attempt to make one, I end up with a muddy mess. 

This is not all the pretty I would have wanted but at least the colors are not completely messed up.

I kind of like the colors on the left, with the reds and orange tones but, it starts getting bad after the yellow and blue, the purple at the end was saved because I soaked the puddle of water that was mixing the green and blue and overtaking the purple.  I need A LOT more practice, this is kind of ok for my first try.

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

The sentiment is from Hero Arts and I inked it up using my SU markers in Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise and Elegant Eggplant.

So stop by the RETRO RUBBER to see the awesome cards my teammates have there for your inspiration and please join us in the gallery.

Please remember to use at least ONE OF YOUR STAMPS that is older than ONE YEAR and, 

please mention the age of your stamps or how long you've had them.

Only new work, no back linking please.

You can enter up to 10 challenges including ours.

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 Warm Glow.....

Hello everyone: This week over at SHOPPING OUR STASH, we have a new challenge for you to have some fun with. The theme is "You Light Up My Life" which means we want you to use any kind of light source image on your cards.  It could be a lamp, flash light, lantern, etc. you get the picture. Here is the card I made to hopefully inspire you to join my teammates and I in the gallery.

This pretty image is from my old stash of Flourishes sets and it's called "S'more Fun".  I stamped it with Stazon black ink onto a die cut piece of water color paper and colored it with my Prismacolor pencils. I applied a bit of Hello Honey with a sponge dauber for the glow.

The background is done with the retired SU embossing folder called "Woodland", I applied a thin coat of Baked Brown Sugar to the side that is not raised and ran the card stock through the Big Shot.

I sponged a bit of Broken China between the trees for a sky and I stamped and die cut the little Cardinal Birds with a teeny tiny cardinal die from a collection from Paper Tray Ink called "All Through the House".  The sentiment is from the Flourishes set, stamped onto Vellum.

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

The sentiment and corner flowers are from a Power Poppy set called Sunny Harvest, stamped with Hello Honey ink.

I hope you come and play along with us over at SHOPPING OUR STASH, don't forget to visit the blogs of my teammates for even more inspiration.

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.