Let's Smoosh, Shall We?....

Hello dear blogging friends: Well, I must confess, I've never used the SMOOSHING TECHNIQUE BEFORE, but there is a first time for everything and the SHOPPING OUR STASH has giving me and all of you, the chance to try this fun and easy way to do a color wash background.

You can use your panel in which ever way you want, I chose to make a couple of pretty Christmas Ornaments and a Christmas card to add to my nice stash of Holiday cards.

Here is my card, I hope it inspires you to come and play along with us in our gallery.

I used THIS VIDEO TUTORIAL by Loll and CASE'd THIS GORGEOUS CARD she made, I'm in love with this fabulous technique.

I grabbed a panel of Watercolor paper that is nice and kind of thick to be able to absorb the pigment and keep it. I used distress inks in Mermaid Lagoon and Seedless Grapes and followed her directions, I was really pleasantly surprised at how easy and how beautiful it came out.

Then, I grabbed a couple of Snowflakes from a box of left over die cuts and glue them to the ornaments and then, applied a nice, thick layer of Glossy Accents all over the surface.  

Here are a couple of pictures of how beautifully shiny they look.

I then added some silver thread and placed them on the panel with dimensional foam.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The border is from a retired SU set called "Delicate Borders", the sentiment is from a Power Poppy set called POINSETTIA and the little snow flake from a Penny Black set called "A Bright Tomorrow"

So I hope you go and Shop Your Stash and come and join my teammates and I at the SHOPPING OUR STASH gallery, there you can check out their awesome creations.

I'm playing along with the following challenges.

Allsorts Challenge Week #486 "Water or the color Blue"

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge  #404 "Anything Goes Christmas"

Hiding in my Craftroom Challenge #371 "Any Holiday"

Sweet Stamping "Dies or Punches"

Crafty Catz Challenge, "Anything Goes/Optional Theme "Let's do Christmas"

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.

An Apple a Day.....

Hello dear crafting friends: There is a super fabulous sketch over at the RETRO RUBBER CHALLENGE created by the also fabulous Claire Grantham for you to play with so, grab your OLDER THAN ONE YEAR stamps, get busy an come and join my teammates and me in our gallery.

Here is my card and I hope you get inspired to play along.

The image is from a super old Stampin' Up! set called "Feathered Hope", the wood blocks have a date on the decal that says 1998!!!!!  WOW!! that was waaaaay before I even entertain the idea of stamping, heck.....it's the year my granddaughter Vanessa was born so, I was totally and completely absorbed in caring for her while her mother went to work.

So, through the wonder of Ebay and while browsing one morning, I saw this set, in pristine condition and very reasonably priced so I pounced on it without a second thought, I'm now the joyful owner of this gorgeous set, it makes me happy to stamp the images and color them, I love it.

The pattern paper behind the image is from a retired line from Lili of the Valley, the wood plank paper is from a collection called WOOD EFFECT from a company called MODA SCRAP.

The designs on this paper are gorgeous and, to my absolute delight, they are ONE SIDED!!!!!

WOO HOO!! I just couldn't possibly pick a side to put under, I just couldn't.

The sentiment is from a Power Poppy set called Simply Camelias, the little brad from my stash of super old Stampin' Up! embellishments, I don't remember from what year they are.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment is from another Power Poppy set called ***** and the little birds are from the SU set.

I know that almost all of you guys have stamp sets that are OLDER THAN ONE YEAR and the RETRO RUBBER CHALLENGE is the perfect place to give those beloved and maybe a bit forgotten sets a chance to get inked up again and shine, WE LOVE OLD STAMPS.

So I hope you go dig out your older sets and come and play along with me and my awesome teammates in our gallery.

Please read OUR RULES, they are few and simple, the most important one is that at least one of the stamps you use on your cards MUST BE OLDER THAN A YEAR.

I will play along with the following challenges.

SUO Challenges #208 "Nature/Fall"

Cards in Envy "Feels Like Fall" Challenge.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #218 "Autumn Colors"

The Cutie Pie Challenge Challenge #127 "Shades of Autumn"

Make My Monday Challenge #80 "Autumn/Fall Colors"

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.

Without the Glass.....

Hello dear blogging friends: The fabulous Power Poppy Blog has a fun challenge for us to play with in the month of September, it's called HITTING THE BOOKS and it's very appropriate for this month since every kid, young and old, went back to school.

I made this card using the Power Poppy set called UNDER GLASS, I just didn't use the beautiful glass bell this time.

This set has 9 fabulously beautiful images to stamp on their own or put under a glass dome, either way, they are awesome.  I stamped my image on a piece of Blick Drawing Paper with Stazon Black ink and colored it with Prismacolor pencils, the die cut is from the Spellbinders die set called "Majestic Oval 25", I die cut a piece of lavender card stock with the Wonky Stitched die set, I love the combination of any purple color and green.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment is from a Power Poppy set called Dynamic Duos: Foxglove and Ranunculus and the little succulent from another Power Poppy set called Sassy Succulents.

I'm playing along with the following challenges.

Power and Spark September challenge 

A Vintage Journey September Challenge "Back to Nature"

Moving Along With The Times "Use Ribbons"

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.

TWOFER CHALLENGE #9.....LEAVES.....

Hello dear blogging friends: Ever since the awesome DARNELL started this fun and fabulously challenging challenge blog, I made up my mind of participating in every single one of them, I love the way she and the rest of the DT make all of us come up with two different cards, for two different occasions using the same stamp or die.
So here are my Twofer cards for this challenge.

Here are the cards individually, I'll list the "ingredients" under each one.

The leaves are from a Our Daily Bread die and stamp set called Autumn Blessings, the sentiment is from a Power Poppy set called Feeling Fall, the ribbon from my stash.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment is from a retired/discontinued Flourishes set called "Magnolias", the little leaf is from the Power Poppy "Feeling Fall" set. The lacy border is from a retired SU set called "Delicate Details".

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My Twofer card.

This adorable little Fairy and her friend are from the Emerald Faeries Garden, the name on the rubber stamp I have says "Ally and Beeble". I stamped it on a panel of Blick Drawing Paper with Stazon Black ink and colored her with Prismacolor pencils. The leaves were stamped on the same paper and die cut then sponged with SU Hello Honey and Pumpkin Pie inks.  The sky was sponged with Spun Sugar distress ink. I purposely sponge the ink randomly leaving white spaces to resemble clouds.

The sentiment was on my stash of cut ahead pieces, but it's from the My Favorite Things Magical Dragons.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The border is from SU "Delicate Borders", the sentiment is from a Power Poppy set called "Farmer's Market and the little flower in the corner is from a retired SU set called "Fast and Fabulous", which was a Hostess set from the 2010-2011 Catalog.

I'm linking this cards to the following Challenge.

Twofer Card Challenge #9

Aud Sentiments Challenge #212 "Fall + a Sentiment"

Moving Along With The Times Challenge #80 "Use Ribbons"

Brown Sugar Challenge #282 "All Creatures Great and Small"

Pattie's Creations Design Challenge #150 "Fairy Tale/Fantasy"

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.

Swim, Bike, Run.....

Hello everyone: Most of you dear friends, who've known me for a while know I'm a passionate Triathlete and a 3 time IronMan.  I've been a swimmer since I was like 15 y/o and I haven't stopped yet, don't intend to, I love it to much. But I came into the Triathlon Sport when a friend told me of some local races and, boy oh boy, I GOT TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY HOOKED ON IT.

I started doing these races back in 2003, having a blast, meeting some truly awesome people along the way and enjoying having my entire family cheering me on, the voices of my little grandchildren yelling "go grammy, go!!!" was all I needed to keep going.

My last Iron Man Triathlon was in October 2011 at the age of 60 😉

So here is this card that I will link to a few challenges at the end of this post.

I don't have a rubber stamp with these images (and I should, I'm going to look into that ASAP) so I did them free hand with a black marker. The water, pavement and grass where done with some leftover die cut outs, the images are painted on a small square of white card stock matting them with black card stock.  The word REPEAT was cut with my Cricut Machine.

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

The sentiment is from a Power Poppy set called "Orchids", the little stars from a Fiskars Graduation set.

I'm playing along with the following challenges.

The Paper Players

Bitten by the Bug

Score Pal Challenge #52 "Clean and Simple"

I placed the 3 score lines between the images and the sentiment.

A2Z Scrapbooking September Challenge "Clean and Simple"

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.

MOO'S ROSA.....

Hello everyone: Last September 15th. was Mexico's Independence Day so I decided to celebrate by creating this card using this sweet, little girl dressed in the typical outfit of a Mexican Dancer.  If you've never seen these dancers in action or heard this music, I hope you enjoy this little clip in which you can see this beautiful, amazing dresses and hear the happy, energetic dances of the State of Guadalajara, so I invite you to click HERE for a glimpse of some of the traditional folklore dancing of the Country of my birth.

The SHOPPING OUR STASH challenge for this week is "WELCOME HOME" and that means your projects can be about the place where you live or where you came from, in my case I came from Mexico as a young bride back in 1973.

This super sweet little girl's name is ROSA which means Rose, from Moo's Digital Pencil, I love the beautiful, flowing dress that can be colored in just about any color of the rainbow.

The lamps are from an old Flourishes set called "Pinwheels and Popsicles"

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This is how the INSIDE of my card looks like.

I just punched some scraps of green and red foil paper, stamped the sentiment from Power Poppy called "Marcella's Mixed Tape 1" and a couple of fireworks from Altenew's set called "Pyrotechnics"

I would like to enter the following challenges.

My Besties Spanish Challenge

Coloring in Scrapland Anything Goes or Easel Card.

Aurora Wings Challenge "Inspired by Music"

I got my inspiration from the Fabulous Music of Mexico.

I hope you come and play along with us over at SHOPPING OUR STASH, 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.

Recycled Wood Stamping Blocks.....

Hello dear stamping friends: With all the fabulous stamping positioners we all have and enjoy today, woodblock rubber stamps are not used as much anymore, even if they are still available.

So, when I bought my MISTI I decided to convert all of my wood block stamps to plain rubber to be able to use the MISTI to stamp my images, I don't even put the foam on them, I use them just like that, plain red rubber and it works great.   But, I couldn't just throw away these beautiful woodblocks, they are so smooth, with awesome natural woodgrain designs on them and I knew there must be something useful I can use them for.  So I kept them on a box in my craft room closet while figuring out what to do.  They got forgotten for a while until the SHOPPING OUR STASH challenge came out with this theme, "RECYCLE/REPURPOSE" and then I knew I had finally found a way to convert this beautiful wood blocks into something really cool and pretty and decorative.

I found on Pinterest a lot of great ideas so I CASEd a couple of them and here is the result. I hope that, if you are keeping your woodblocks from old rubber stamps, you get inspired to give them new life and help you decorate your home for any Season and/or occasion.

Or, look around your house, put your creative juices to work and find something that might not look like much right now and turn it into something totally awesome. 

Here is what I came up with, hope you like this project.

Super easy to do, you can either paint them or, cover them with scraps of pretty pattern paper like I did for my Family blocks so it's a double benefit here to use all of those scraps of DSP we just can't throw away. The letters were cut with my Cricut machine, I don't use it as often as I should and this time around, it came in really handy.  The flowers on each block were from my little stash of leftovers from the "Botanical Blooms" die set.
I apologize for the darkness of this image, I couldn't get the flash to work, grrrr!!

Please visit the SHOPPING OUR STASH challenge blog and check out what my teammates created for your inspiration and come and join us in our gallery, I'm sure you have a few things somewhere in your craft room or around your house that can be converted into something beautiful as well as useful.

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.