LIM54 - Hootin' Birthday

Warning - I'm not lovin' my card today.......but I'm posting it anyway!  The Less Is More Challenge this week is to make a one layer card with stripes.   I knew I'd use my Impress background stamp for my stripes, but then I was left with the "what else to do?" question.

I ended up punching a circle from a post-it note to make a mask for my main image.  With the post-it in place, I stamped the background using Distress inks.

Next I grabbed two Papertrey Ink circle stamps to give some interest to the open area.  And then again.....another pause.......what do do next?  Well.......I grabbed a Hero Arts Owl with a PTI sentiment and decided this would do for a masculine birthday card.  I kept wanting to pop things up but had to remember the one-layer challenge - although, I might get axed from the challenge because is my card really "Less is More?"

Oh well........

The good news is - I really like the next four days of cards I have set to post!!!  Have a great Monday!

Thanks for your visit!

Note Card Gift Set

TGIF!!!!!!!  Wow - I can't believe how fast this week FLEW by!!!!!!!! Oh My!  And yet...I still haven't done ANY Christmas shopping!!!!!!  Yikes!

But, I did MAKE a Christmas gift!  I made this note card set for our cleaning woman.  She's been with us for a while now and is such a nice lady.  She always compliments me on my work and last year even came to the craft fair.  So, I decided to make her a set of cards.

I'll show them all first and then talk about them a bit!

I stamped and embossed these Impress flowers in white on watercolor paper.  Then I used two different colors of Distress Inks to color them in.  For my mat on each flower, I took a piece of cardstock and swiped the darker ink of each color all over the edges, so they'd match.  I did the same thing on the sentiment panel, but swiped the lighter color of each ink and used the darker color for the sentiment.

Here's all of them together:

And here they are bundled in the packaging:

I hope you're way ahead of me in the shopping department!!!!!!!!   Have a wonderful day!!

Thanks for your visit!

Impress Happy Birthday & Happy Birthday Mom!

Today's card is another one that is being sold at Splurge in Greenwich at my friend Sonia's store.  I've seen this layout a bunch of times on SCS and other blogs and I wanted to try my hand at it!  I just LOVE how other's cards have come out and I 'think' I achieved something similar.

I embossed my Impress stamp with white powder and then I took my white pen and ruler and drew the rectangle around the card. Added a PTI sentiment and some bling and then some a layer of pale yellow cardstock.   I will definitely use this method again and although it takes some patience to draw the rectangle, I like the result.

Today is also my mom's birthday! She's a 69 today!  I know she won't get upset at putting her age on the blog because she, like me, feel like age is only a number.  So, here's wishing my mom, Lois, a wonderful & happy birthday! We're having some family members over for dinner and cake tonight to celebrate!!

Thanks for poppin' in today!
Maria

Wedding Congratulations

My hubby and I were invited to a wedding in September that we can't attend. We were two days late with our response (DOH!) - so I had to get this card done pretty quickly.  I thought the invitation was just gorgeous so I wanted to try and recreate it with my card to them!

Here's their invite:

And here's my card!

I used four colors of distress inks. I inked up the stamp, then squirted it with water and then stamped it on the card. I repeated it (obviously) for each color and mixed in two different flower stamps - Memory Box (smaller) and Impress (larger).  Afterwards - I spritz the entire card with water mixed with perfect pearls so it had a pretty sheen.  I used a Hero Arts sentiment and some bling.

I couldn't figure out the best placement for the sentiment since there was a lot of white space up top - so I tried to split the difference. Not sure if I'm thrilled with it - but overall - I like how the card came out!

Well, that's it for now!  Hope you have a happy Wednesday :)
Maria

Happy Birthday!

And, I'm back......here's a Stamping Bella image I colored up on Friday and finally put into a card on Saturday.....and now.....blogging on Monday! Yes...things take time sometimes :)

This is a card for my nephew's birthday next week. I used the out-of-the-box technique with my nesties die. See how his birthday hat comes off of the white square? I colored him up with prisma pencils and gamsol - and can I brag one more time?? FIVE DAYS until we (Cindy, my mom and me) head to Toronto for TWO coloring classes with Paula!! OMG - I'm gettin' excited!!!
I stamped the background with an Impress Rubber Stamps stripe, added EK Success birthday candle border punch (which is my go-to now for birthday cards) and some green ribbon. The sentiment is from PTI.

Well, thanks for poppin' in today! Hope you have a fantastic week! I know I'll be doing my countdown towards better image coloring!! YIPPEEEEEEEE!!!!!


Maria

Hello........

I love this color combo!!! Purple and lime green (or chartreuse - if you ask my brother-in-law). For some reason...this combo just brightens me up!

This was a pretty simple card to put together. First I embossed an Impress Rubber Stamps flower image in white powder. I did the same with a Hero Arts "Hello" stamp and punched it out with a circle punch. I added some sheer ribbon and some buttons I picked up at Michael's $1.00 bin!! That makes me happy!!!
Thanks for visiting today! Hope you have a great day!
Maria

365 Cards #353 - Owl Mail.....

So, I was on Ginny's Blog - My 5 Bratz Creations last week and read her post about a young girl, Delia, who lives in Colorado and has been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. She is undergoing her second round of chemo and her mom was looking for cards to be sent to her daughter to lighten her spirits. She said she LOVES owls, art & photography. Dustin, a digital stamp designer, created a few owl images to use - but since I don't use those, I grabbed my Papertrey Ink owl stamps to make her a card. (click on link to get his free images).

I used the 365 Card's Sketch#353 for this layout. I turn it on its side and grabbed some mulberry paper for my main panel base. I wanted to try this ribbon layering - so I took a bunch of my turquoise and green ribbons and cut them to length and glued them down on the mulberry paper. I'm really happy with the result!!!
I then took my Nesties oval and cut out another piece of mulberry paper, spritzed the edges with water and curled the edges. I stamped my image on the same paper and cut it out, layering it on a scallop oval. I added some google-eyes and some glitter to his belly.

Before adhering it to my card base, I stamped the base with my Impress background line stamp so it had a little more interest than just plain white. I wrote some encouraging words inside to Delia and it went off in the mail to her.

If you'd like to join in and send her a card - here is the address where they are being mailed:

Delia Cadwallader
2048 Sandhurst Dr.
Castle Rock, CO 80104



You can visit Ginny or Dustin's blogs to read more about this little girl.

Thanks for visiting!!!

Maria

Impress "With Sympathy"

Well, not the best card to be posting on Valentine's Day, but it is a card that I had to make for a friend. Sadly, her dad passed away this week. He had a heart attack after shoveling his driveway. It is just so sad and I feel terribly for her and the family.
I actually struggled with this card. It took me about 2 hours to make. I tried a few different things with the Impress flower stamp - not liking any of them. Finally I just embossed the flower and did a little bit of watercolor and direct marker coloring. It's hard to tell from the picture, but a scored a few lines on the bottom part of card. I tied some twine around and I used a Hero Arts sentiment.

Maybe the message for this Valentine's Day is to tell the people in your life how much you love them and what they mean to you because life is precious. So, to my family and friends and especially my hubby....I LOVE YOU and thank you for being a part of my life and making me a better person!

Maria

Watercolor Peony

TGIF!!! Here's last night's quick watercolor technique card. I attempted this last week but with a much smaller flower stamp. I 'stumbled' into my LSS yesterday and found this Impress Rubber Stamps Peony and thought it would be great to try it again with this larger stamp. I've kept the card very simple because I wanted the flower to pop.
I embossed it with white on watercolor paper, then used my Marvy markers and aqua pen. After it dried I cut it out and then stamped the Memory Box background paper with the stamp and added the ribbon. The watercolor peony is popped up.