WWYS #53: Watercolor Words

Hi! It's Monday all over again and that means another round of What Will You Stamp?! This week we are featuring Watercolor Words! I will admit that when I first saw this set I wasn't in love... but, once I got to play around with it a little bit I had a huge change of heart! 

I did something a little bit different this week. I decided to create one "sketch" and stick with that same sketch to make a couple of different cards. I've recently decided to join the #imbringingbackbirthdays movement and so I've been finding that I need to make even more cards than normal... but I still want them to fun! Here's what I came up with...

My first card was made using Crumb Cake and Pink Pirouette cardstock. My inks are Black Archival and Smoky Slate. I used an aqua painter to give the heart just a bit of Pink Pirouette to match the embossed background. A few beautiful pearls topped this one off to give it an elegant look!

Here's a close up that makes it easier to see the watercolor writing of this stamp set. You can also see that I've watercolored the heart... What you can't see is that it's also nicely doused in Wink of Stella so that it shimmers.

My second card uses bolder choices as I went for Basic Black and Melon Mambo. I used exactly the same process as with the first card except for that I used a different embellishment. The candy dots went well with this card and I love the bright happy look!

I forgot to mention earlier that I popped my white Happy Birthday layer up on dimensionals.

For my third and final trick... ok, just kidding, my third and final card uses Basic Gray and Pool Party. This is a combo that I absolutely love. You'd never know it from this post but I'm really not very into the color pink-surprise! The "just for you" and star are stamped in Smoky Slate and my embellishment this time around is from the pack of White Perfect Accents. 

I'm really loving this watercolor look and it's so easy to get with this stamp set!

Take a gander at the whole Watercolor Words stamp set...It really is fantastic!

If you have this stamp set I sure hope that you will join us over at What Will You Stamp this week!

Thanks for stopping by blog!

-Maria

WWYS #52: Botanical Blooms

It's Botanical Blooms week over at What Will You Stamp?! When I first saw the Occasions catalog this is the stamp set that I immediately fell in love with! I am so glad that we get to feature it this week because it is so much fun. To make the larger leaves on the front of my card I stamped in Wild Wasabi on Whisper White card stock. Then I used Tempting Turquoise to stamp the "veins" of the leaves. I love this color combo! It really pops! For the shiny leaves you see in the background, I first stamped the "veins" in Bermuda Bay (my card base is Bermuda Bay) and then I heat embossed in clear over the top. I wanted to give the card some subtle background detail and this ended up being really fun. 

The sentiment on my card comes from the Botanicals for You set that you can earn FREE with any $50 USD purchase! Yeah, really, buy anything you want in any of the Stampin' Up! catalogs and for every $50 USD you spend you will receive a free product of your choice from the Sale-a-Bration catalog!

It's a little hard to tell but I also stamped and heat embossed the Daffodil Delight flower in clear before layering it with the sponged layer and the beautiful jeweled embellishment. 

Here's a close up of the leaves in the top corner of my card. See how I stamped first, then clear embossed, then layered with the separately stamped leaf? Fun! Also, super easy since the Botanical Blooms set has a coordinating set of framelits! No fussy cutting these little beauties out! 

Here is the inside of my card... I layered the bottom with Melon Mambo and the pretty vellum strip on top of that is another FREE item you can get when you spend $50 USD! I'm kind of a sucker for vellum so this is one of the first things that I picked up. 

Here's a close up of the flower on the inside of the card. I used the frailest to cut out the flower shapes in Daffodil Delight and Melon Mambo then layered them with the leaves. Very easy!

In case you have not seen this amazing set yet... Check it out! And don't forget it has coordinating framelits! If you buy the stamp set and the framelits as a bundle you will get a 15% discount (just choose the bundle when purchasing). This bundle is $51.75 so purchasing it automatically qualifies you for a FREE item from the Sale-a-Bration catalog! You saw two of the free items that I picked...I'm wondering what you love from the SAB catalog? Please let me know in the comments below. 

Have an amazing day and if you already have this stamp set then please show us what you got! Play along with us over at the What Will You Stamp? challenge blog this week!

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

-Maria

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Please use this code if you will be ordering less than $150 in merchandise. Thank you!

*For a limited time only you can get $155 worth of Stampin' Up! products for only $99! 

Just ask me how-and in case you're wondering, there is no catch!

PRODUCT LIST:

Birthday Ballons!

I've got a stash of birthday cards and goodies going out in the mail on Monday and I needed just one more and I needed to do it quickly. Here's what I came with...

I used the little balloon punch from the Party Punch Pack (140608) to punch the balloons from Red Foil paper (139607). Then I used the Tree Builder Punch to punch a couple of clouds which I sponged with Soft Sky. The background for this card is from the It's My a Party DSP Stack (140552) and the "Hooray" is from Perfect Pairings (141261) in the Sale-a-Bration catalog. 

Thanks for stopping by for a look. Please let me know if you have any questions. If you're interested in checking out any of the products that I used to make this card here's a link: 

http://www.mariawillis.stampinup.net/

Back tomorrow with more Stampin' fun. I hope you'll join me!

-Maria

New Sale-a-Bration Items!!

I'm popping in to let you know that today is an exciting day! Stampin' Up! has added three new items to the SAB menu! We now have two new stamp sets and... Wait for it... Metallic glitter tape!

Here's a look at Party Pants which is now available for free with any $50 USD order!

Be on the look out as I'll be back to share share more with you about the other two brand new items!

Happy stamping!

-Maria

WWYS #51: Barnyard Babies

It's Monday all over again and you know what that means... another fabulous week of What Will You Stamp?! This week we are featuring an adorable set called Barnyard Babies. I chose to use the goat for my card. He kind of has a mischievous little grin on his face...almost as if he likes to get into trouble! So, I just couldn't help myself, I had to stamp him eating the cans from the Beautiful Ride stamp set. Too funny! He just looks so happy chomping away.

Hopefully someone will find good use for (and not be offended by) this birthday card (I say "somebody" because I sell them at my office). I can definitely think of some friends who would get a kick out of it. How did I make that greeting? I used my rotary stamper of course! With the rotary stamper you can create any custom greeting that you choose! It's a little bit hard to tell in my pictures but I added a little Wink of Stella to the goat's horns and beard so that he's a bit magical. I also added some Wink of Stella to the cans to make them look metallic. 

Here's the inside of my card... I used Cottage Greeting for the Sentiment.

Here are all of the adorable little farm images that come with this set!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! It's always nice to have you. If you're interested in seeing what products I used to make this card please check out the product list below. If you have any questions please let me know. 

*For a limited time only you can get $155 worth of Stampin' Up! products for only $99! There's no catch! Just ask me how!

Have an amazing day! 

-Maria

HOST CODE: XA6PN4CF

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Product List:

OSAT Blog Hop: Love is in the Air

Hi and Happy Thursday (well, it's Thursday in California, USA)! Today I'm part of the One Stamp at a Time "Love is in the Air" Blog Hop! We've got 21 talented stampers from all over the world and each of us have both a card and a project for you! If you've already been hopping along with us then you have probably come from the ever so talented Alisa Tilsner's blog-she's incredible, right?!

If you've hopped along with us before then you already know that each of us has got both a card and a project to share with you. For my card I used Stampin' Up!s Bloomin Hearts set and the coordinating die. My color combo is Basic Gray and Bermuda Bay with a touch of black and silver. 

Here's a close up of the heart and some of the layers of my card. I sponged both the gray mat layer and the Bermuda Bay banner to add little something-something to my card. I just love the metallic silver thread so before attaching my layers I wrapped the gray mat in silver thread and I love the simple but pretty effect. I also popped the heart up on dimensionals and used some clear Wink of Stella to give the heart a bit more of a wow factor.  I hope you like it!

So...the theme of this hop is "Love is in the Air" and, oh boy, is it ever in the air at my house! This time around though we are having a bit of Tough Love instead of the sparkly pink, glitter bomb kinda love most people think of at this time of year. My thirteen year old son has recently gotten himself into a spot of trouble here at home. Don't worry it's nothing earth shattering but when I tell my son he can't listen to an audio book while he writes an essay then... he better not secretly download Audible to his computer and listen anyway. He should probably also not be lying in bed in his pajamas listening to books seven minutes before it's time to leave for school (I'm thinking get dressed and eat breakfast). So...I had to hand down a little bit of tough love this week...

My boy got a Tough Love box complete with file cards for daily task lists and chores. Hopefully this will help keep him on the straight and narrow. Don't worry, I count my lucky stars that my son's vice is listening to audio books. There are so many worse things. It is however my job to teach him that he has responsibilities that must be taken care of before he can relax and have fun. 

Here's what his box looks like. My son picked the colors himself and actually thinks that this box cool. Thank gosh!!

This is the first page of his box. Tough Love starts with real love. I love my boy more than anything. More than everything. He knows this. It still never hurts to remind him. If he only learns from one card in this box... may it be this one.

Here's what all of the cards look like. I used a strip of Basic Black across each of the colored pages and then lined those with graph paper that my son gave me to use. 

After week one of Operation Tough Love I will report that my son thinks that we should keep our new homework system in place. Hurray for the win! We both feel like we have gotten to spend a lot more quality time together and the three of us (husband included) have even gotten to sit down and enjoy watching a movie or two together (due to homework getting finished much more quickly we now have free time to spend together!)! 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today! I'm so glad you came. I hope you will continue on with this amazing blog hop. The fabulous Tina Riddle is next up and she never disappoints! I can't wait to see what she comes up with so please hop along with me. If you have a second to let me know what you thought of my projects today I would love it! Let me know if you have Pink, sparkly love or Tough Love going on in your life right now...any other kind of love? Hahaha! Can't wait to hear!

Hoping you all have a wonderful day!

-Maria

BLOG ROLL:

Eva Bussom 
Pam Tetreault 

Kelly Acheson 

Martie Pollard 

Wynne Grob

Elizabeth Jeanne Thatcher

Renee Ondrajka  

Alisa Tilsner 
Maria Willis: You are HERE! 
Tina Riddle 
Megan Thompson 

Melissa Davies 
Sara Levin 

AJ Bodine 
Dena Rekow 
Justin Krieger
Andrea Tracy-Tucker 

Marisa Gunn 
Anna Smith 
Jeanna Bohanon 
Lori Mueller  

FEBRUARY HOST CODE: XA6PN4CF

Please use this code if you will be ordering less than $150 in merchandise. Thank you!

*For a limited time only you can get $155 worth of Stampin' Up! products for only $99! 

Just ask me how-and in case you're wondering, there is no catch!

BLOOMING' LOVE CARD SUPPLIES:

TOUGH LOVE PROJECT SUPPLIES:

Roses are Red...and Metallic!

Hi! Here I am with a late night post but I had a little time to play, so, what the hey?! Why, not?!

I had yet to use these Rose Garden Thinlits and wow! are they ever beautiful! They are also surprisingly easy to work with (this is actually a surprise because they look really complex).

I didn't have much time so I quickly layered a Very Vanilla card base with a mat of Basic Black and Typeset DSP. I used my Big Shot to cut out the large rose twice-once in black and again in red foil (ooooh! So pretty!). I used some scraps of Old Olive to cut out the leaves. I used the "frame" from the Basic Black cutout and filled in the petals with pieces from the red foil and the leaves from the Old Olive. I used Fast Fuse and my Fine Tip Glue Pen to adhere it all down... And there ya have it! 

This card is so simple to make and so beautiful. I hope you'll give it a shot if you've got these supplies. If not, hit up my store and let me know if you need any help. 

Thanks for stopping by!

-Maria

WWYS #50: Cottage Greetings

    Hi! Happy, happy Monday to ya! I'm back with another week of the What Will You Stamp Challenge Bog! This week we are featuring Cottage Greetings! I love Cottage Greetings because it has such a great variety of sentiments. I also love the fonts! One of the fun things about featuring a set that is almost exclusively sentiments is that you get a little bit of creative freedom. I have been itching to use the new In the Meadow stamp set and thought that combining it with this sentiment from Cottage Greetings would work well. 

I used my aqua painter to water color these beautiful deer with Chocolate Chip ink. The grass and trees are done in Wild Wasabi and the background sky is a base of Soft Sky with a little bit of Smoky Slate and Wisteria Wonder for some extra depth. The mountains are painted with Smoky Slate and Wisteria Wonder. 

I stamped my sentiment on a strip of Crumb Cake card stock and wrapped one end with linen thread. I mounted my image on a mat of Chocolate Chip card stock and used dimensionals to adhere it to a Crumb Cake card base. I love the natural, peaceful look of this card and I sure hope you like it too!

Here's the whole Cottage Greetings set:

Thanks for stopping by to check out my blog today! It's always nice to have visitors. If you have a minute to leave a comment please let me know what you think about my card today. If you're interested in checking out the products that I used to make this card please check out the list below. If you have any questions please feel free to ask!

*For a limited time only you can get $155 worth of Stampin' Up! products for only $99! Just ask me how-and in case you're wondering, there is no catch!

Thank you! Hoping you all have a wonderful day!

-Maria

HOST CODE: XA6PN4CF

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Stamp List:

Product List:

WWYS #49: Groovy Love

Welcome back to What Will You Stamp! This week we are featuring the Groovy Love stamp set from Stampin' Up! I spilled the beans last week and told you that hearts aren't really my style when it comes to crafting. I also am not a huge fan of the color pink and traditional color combos (like red and pink for Valentine's Day, red and green for Christmas, orange and black for Halloween)... Don't worry, I'm not complaining! Here's another little secret: I do not own this stamp set (gasp!). I had to have one of my fellow design team members stamp some images for me and pop them in the mail (Thanks Priscilla!)-actually I need help like this often because unfortunately I do not own the entire catalog even though I would like to! I asked Priscilla to please surprise me with whatever she wanted to send me. I find that when I receive images that I would not have requested on my own I get the extra challenge of having to think outside of my own box. This is a good thing!! I received three heart images in Pink Pirouette, Real Red and Basic Black (the black one was the zebra print heart). I also received three of the little "Love" circles in different colors which are so adorable! At first I thought I would use the black heart and then I told myself to knock it off and make something fun with color combos that aren't my norm. Here's what I came up with. I am so happy that I decided to go for it because I came up with two different cards that I am happy with. Thanks for the color challenge Priscilla!

This first card uses the dotted heart and Love circle images stamped in Pink Pirouette. I combined the Pink with Whisper White, Coastal Cabana (Yes, retired, but it was out on my desk from another project and just worked perfectly for this project), and Sahara Sand. 

That beautiful background DSP is from the Sweet Little Things DSP pack and went perfectly with this project! 

I added some shimmer to this softly colored card using Wink of Stella in clear. Then I added some loops of silver thread behind the heart and popped it up on dimensionals. 

For my second card I decided to use the exact same layout but in different colors. I think it's pretty cool that with the same two stamped images (in different colors) you can create two very different looking cards even if you use the same layout. For this card my images were stamped in Real Red. I decided to pair them with Whisper White, Marina Mist and Smoky Slate. 

The DSP for this card is from the Neutrals 12x12 paper stack. I love that the sweet words on the DSP go with the theme of the card. I decided not to use Wink of Stella on this card as I was going for a more bold look. On both of my cards the Whisper White layer is dry embossed using the Softly Falling embossing folder.

Here's what the whole stamp set looks like! It has really great sentiments. I did receive some sentiments but I ended up not using them. Lucky for me I should be able to make another card with the images that I have left over! 

So, I'm really curious to hear what you all think. I've certainly been doing some truth telling over the last two weeks and I'd love to hear from you too. Do you like hearts? Pink? Traditional color combos? Do you own the entire SU catalog? Hahahaha! Which of my two cards do you like better? Do you prefer the first, softer looking card? Or, do you prefer the second card that has bolder color choices? I like them both but....SHOCKER!! I think I like the Pink Pirouette card better! Please let me know what you think and if you have this set and want to school me on how to use hearts please join us over at the What Will You Stamp challenge blog this week! I would really love to see What Will You Stamp with this set!

Thanks for stopping by! Have an amazing day!

-Maria

HOST CODE: XA6PN4CF

Please use this code if you will be ordering less than $150 in merchandise. Thank you!