OSAT Blog Hop - Throwback Thursday

Hey Everybody! It's the second Thursday of the month here in California, USA and if you follow my blog then you know what that means... OSAT blog hop time! This month we have such a fun theme to work with- Throwback Thursday! We're all digging back into our old cards and projects and recreating some of them with new products. You may also see some Throwbacks to retired product and to some really old school hair styles! Be sure to click the next button at the bottom of my post to continue on with the hop. 

Here's the Throwback card I made for today...

And, here are the old, "throwback" projects that I used for inspiration. I couldn't decided if I wanted to case the Dragonfly notebook on the left, or, if I wanted to use the layout from the two cards on the right. So, I ended up doing both. I used the same products, colors and techniques as I did on the notebook and combined all of that with the layout from the cards.

Side note: The Bee card is actually an example of me CASE-ing myself earlier this year so why not add one more project with this fun layout? 

The top layer of the card is a dragonfly in Basic Black. I curled its' wings up a bit to give it dimension so that it looked ready to fly off of the card. Under that is a stitched circle in Tempting Turquoise and splattered with a Basic Black marker. Beneath that are layers of Black Metallic Thread, a sentiment on Lemon Lime Twist, washi tape, and vellum. The water color layer was painted with Old Olive, Bermuda Bay and Tempting Turquoise and then flecked with Clear Wink of Stella.

The water color layer was matted on Basic Black and if you look closely you will see a bit of gold peeking out from the edge. That's a strip of the Gold Metallic Edge ribbon and I thought it was a fun way to add both texture and a metallic look to this card. The background is Crumbcake stamped with Basic Black (Archival) dragonflies. I added some gold enamel shapes and Faceted gold Gems on top to tie this whole thing together (Thanks for the idea Sara!). 

My project today isn't actually a throwback to another project... It's a throwback to that one time when I was making this project and then left it sitting in a pile of pieces for two months... I'm serious. I do that all the time. I'll start making something, get distracted by some other fun thing or idea and  I never come back to what I was working on. Well, this time I decided to come back and finish this pretty little tea box. I'm glad I did because it will make a fun gift for someone. 

Before putting the box together I dry embossed part of the Bermuda Bay box with the Sparkle embossing folder so that the bottom of the front panel would have texture. The front flap that folds down and is held in place by the belly band is smooth as I did not emboss that part.

I was excited to use these little "Coffee Cups" dies for tea cups because if you give me the choice between tea or coffee... I'm a tea drinker hands down. I used the dies to cut out two cups and the tea tag in Shimmery white paper. I cut one more cup in Sahara Sand. I cut the lid off of one of the shimmery cups and adhered it to the top of the cup with my fine tip glue pen. Then I cut the "wrapper" out of the center of the Sahara Sand cup and added that to my shimmery cup as well. I like the layered look of the cup as it seems a bit more realistic than leaving it one dimensional. 

I used linen thread (I had to unravel it and use just one thread bc it was too thick) and a glue dot to connect my tea tag to my tea cup. I decided to leave the tag unstamped and keep my project clean and simple. Then I layered the cup and tag onto a Dapper Denim banner from the Bunch of Banners dies and put that on a Berry Burst Stitched Circle. All of that adhered to an Old Olive belly band backed with a retired doily.

The tea box fits 2-3 bags of tea depending on what kind of tea you use. The belly band slips on and off easily. If you want directions for this box please let me know. I wrote the measurements down somewhere when I started this project two months ago. I'm sure I could find them and make a quick video if you all are interested. 

Ok, that is it for today folks! Thank you so much for stopping by- it always makes my day to have you here! 

If you have any questions about my projects or need help purchasing the products to make your own please let me know by commenting below or shooting me an email at: mariawillis@hotmail.com You can also click the "Shop Online" button below. 

Have an amazing day today!

Maria.

For more epic Throwback Thursday inspiration head on over to Melissa Davies. Enjoy!

BLOG ROLL:

Elizabeth Jeanne 

Jenny Hall 

Kelly Acheson 

Anna Smith 

Rose Grunewald 

Maria Willis: YOU ARE HERE. 

Melissa Davies:NEXT UP ON THE HOP!

Jennifer Hill 

Jessie Holton 

Rick Adkins

Dena Rekow 

Renee Ondrajka 

Tina Rackley Riddle 

Lori Mueller 

Pam Staples

Jeanna Bohanon 

Marisa Gunn 

Justin Krieger 

Andrea Tracy-Tucker 

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Email: mariawillis@hotmail.com

Want a great discount on Stampin' Up! Products and to have a fun new stamping family? Join me on this fun adventure! I can't wait to be your super excited Stampin' Up! side kick and support lady! In case you didn't know, you can join Stampin' Up! just for the discount and never sell a single product. If you want to know the details just let me know. If you're looking for a discount on your favorite hobby (stamping and paper crafting with Stampin' Up! products) and want to earn money doing it... let me know! I'd love to talk with you whatever your interest might be! If you want to see a little more info go ahead and click the button below. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Creating Kindness Blog Hop: Art Inspiration

Hello, hello, hello everybody! In case you can't already tell I am so excited to share today's post and blog hop with you. Today I am hopping with the Creating Kindness Design Team and, as always, we have both a blog and a video hop for you today. Our theme is Art Inspiration and it is seriously one of the best and most inspiring challenges that I have ever participated in. All of us have selected one piece of art and created our work based off of that piece. After you check out my card and video today I hope you'll click the next button and continue the hop to see all of the amazing art pieces my team mates have dreamed up. 

Here's the watercolor piece that I had so much fun creating after I finally settled on just one inspiration piece. That was seriously the hardest part of this challenge. I found so many inspiring pieces that it took me quite a while to pick just one. 

Originally, I had planned to use street art as my inspiration. There is so much amazing street art out there and it's a realm that many aren't familiar with. So, I wanted to share street art since I really do love it. And then... I stumbled across this gorgeous piece by Maud Durland. She is not an artist that I had been familiar with but WOWZA!! Check her out if you have time because she is amazing! Here's a link to her site: Maud Durland's Website  Needless to say, when I saw these tulips they took my breath away and I knew that this would be my inspiration piece.

I decided to use one of the flowers from the Remarkable You stamp set and I heat embossed the image multiple times in gold. Yes, before you ask, this required some serious masking. I stamped multiple flowers onto post-it notes and fussy cut them out. I stamped and embossed my flower images starting at the bottom of my card to make it look like the flowers were right in front of me. Every time a flower got embossed, it got masked off with a post-it note flower so that I could stamp another flower "behind" it without overlapping my images. Let me know if you have any questions about this process. You can see the result in this close-up below as some of the flowers appear to be "in the front."

I absolutely love watercoloring flowers. I think that my favorite color combination is Daffodil Delight and Melon Mambo. These two colors blend together to make the most fabulous, vibrant colors. Every single flower on this card, no matter how different they all look, was painted with only these two colors. If you're interested in seeing how I blend the colors I hope you'll watch the video tutorial that I've made. You'll find it at the end of my post.

In Maud's painting she has some greens towards the bottom but no sky. This is where I decided to deviate a bit. This flower image is large and I was worried that if I crowded the flowers together the beautiful details of each flower could get lost in the next. That meant leaving some space between the flowers which of course needed to be painted as well. The lower part of the card including the stems of the flowers was painted in a combination of Tempting Turquoise, Lemon Lime Twist and Emerald Envy. Lemon Lime Twist and Emerald Envy are my favorite greens to mix when watercoloring and the addition of Tempting Turquoise added some depth and tied the greenery into the blue sky.

If you've never watercolored before it may seem a bit daunting but it can really be easy if you just know a couple of things before you start. I've made this Watercoloring Tips & Tutorial video in hopes that it might help someone who is hoping to start watercoloring and just needed a little nudge.

If you have any questions please feel free to leave me a comment below! If you watercolor something gorgeous I would love to see it! Shoot me an email at mariawillis@hotmail. com 

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today. It's always a pleasure to have you. I hope you will continue on this hop by clicking the next button below. If you do you'll be heading over to my talented friend Jenny Hall!

Have an awesome day! See you all soon.

Maria.

BLOG ROLL:

Need more stamps now? Never fear! I've got you covered!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Want a great discount on Stampin' Up! Products and to have a fun new stamping family? Join me on this fun adventure! I can't wait to be your super excited (possibly way too enthusiastic... No! That's not possible!) Stampin' Up! side kick and support lady! In case you didn't know, you can join Stampin' Up! just for the discount and never sell a single product. If you want to know the details just let me know. If you're looking for a discount on your favorite hobby (stamping and paper crafting with Stampin' Up! products) and want to earn money doing it... let me know! I'd love to talk with you whatever your interest might be! If you want to see a little more info go ahead and click the button below. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Bee

Hey everybody and happy Wednesday. Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Today I'm sharing a card that I made forever ago...February I think. Anyways, I made it for my On Stage Display board and still haven't gotten around to sharing it. Believe it or not there are still a few more after this one. The cool thing is that almost everything on this card is current. I was going for texture when I made this and ended up incorporating quite a few techniques in the process.

When I started this card I knew I wanted to use this bee. The rest of the card sort of unfolded from there. In this pic you can see how many different layers of interest there are. The card base has splatters, stamping, DSP, gold foil stickers and black pearls. 

The card face is glossy cardstock that has been treated with an embossed wax paper resist technique, sponged, dry embossed with the 3D Hexagon embossing folder, heat embossed with a stamped image from Gorgeous Grunge (retired but easily replaced by other stamp sets), smeared with versa mark and embossed for a faux metal look in silver, gold and copper. 

Then the card face was layered on a mat of Basic Black and wrapped with Venetian Crochet Trim and Linen Thread. 

The bee was placed to look as if it were ready to take flight from it's textured hive.

There's a lot going on here but I think (hope!) it all goes together for a fun look. 

Oh, I forgot to mention that I sponged the the sentiment banner as well. Do you see the yellow "honey comb" at the base of the card face? That's the embossed wax paper resist. To get that look you dry emboss a piece of wax paper in an embossing folder. I used the Hexagon folder. Then you iron the wax paper onto your glossy paper (make sure to put a piece of paper between the wax paper and your iron). After the wax pattern is transferred you sponge over it with ink to reveal the pattern. On this card I sponged over the wax with Daffodil Delight.

This card was really fun to make. It was a bit time consuming but for me it's worth it when you can see all of these different layers of technique and paper and ribbon and twine and texture come to together to make something interesting. 

I think I'll try to make another card like this soon. It's fun to just modge podge a bunch of ideas together to see how it will turn out.

If you like texture then please come back tomorrow. Tomorrow the Creating Kindness Blog and Video Hop goes live and I cannot wait to see what the rest of the team has created.

Thanks for stopping by. See you soon!
Maria.

PS: Please feel free to ask if you have any questions or need help with anything.

Need more stamps now? Never fear! I've got you covered!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Want a great discount on Stampin' Up! Products and to have a fun new stamping family? Join me on this fun adventure! I can't wait to be your super excited (possibly way too enthusiastic... No! That's not possible!) Stampin' Up! side kick and support lady! In case you didn't know, you can join Stampin' Up! just for the discount and never sell a single product. If you want to know the details just let me know. If you're looking for a discount on your favorite hobby (stamping and paper crafting with Stampin' Up! products) and want to earn money doing it... let me know! I'd love to talk with you whatever your interest might be! If you want to see a little more info go ahead and click the button below. Looking forward to hearing from you!

TGIFC117- Summertime Blues

Hey everybody! I'm back today to play along with the #TGIFC117 and this week they've got a Summertime Blues challenge. Summertime Blues? Well, for me it's summertime blue skies and sunshine! Summertime for me is about enjoying the beautiful weather, soaking up some sunshine and maybe even picking some flowers. That being said, this adorable pig stamp was just perfect for this theme. 

I stamped my image from the This Little Piggy stamp set in Basic Black Archival ink so that I could watercolor without worrying about my image smearing. The Archival inks are my favorite permanent inks for just about everything. Remember that when you are watercoloring it is critical to use either watercolor paper (that's what I've used on this card), or, Shimmery White Yardstick so that your colors will blend and your paper won't warp or pill. I used Lemon Lime Twist and Emerald Envy on the grass, Berry Burst on the pig, Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie on the flower and Tempting Turquoise for my "Summertime Blues" sky. The new Iridescent Sequins are so awesome. I love that they come in many different colors and sizes. If you look closely at the center of the flower you might be able to see that I've adhered the center of an orange sequin to the flower. In real life it sparkles just a bit. 

I wanted to keep my card simple to highlight the fun image and the watercoloring but when I added the image to my white card base it seemed like something was missing. I added a tab to the side using my Bermuda Bay Chevron ribbon so that there would be just a pop of color peeking out. I also used the polka dot stamp from Timeless Textures to create a fun background in Daffodil Delight (stamped off once). I was hoping that it would add to the sunshiny, summer look of the card. 

If you'd like to see some more Summertime Blues themed cards then head on over to TGIF Challenge Blog to see what the design team and challenge participants have created. There are some really amazing projects so I recommend checking them out.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! It's always so nice to have you visit.

Maria.

PRODUCT SUPPLY LIST: 

Need more stamps now? Never fear! I've got you covered!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Want a great discount on Stampin' Up! Products and to have a fun new stamping family? Join me on this fun adventure! I can't wait to be your super excited (possibly way too enthusiastic... No! That's not possible!) Stampin' Up! side kick and support lady! In case you didn't know, you can join Stampin' Up! just for the discount and never sell a single product. If you want to know the details just let me know. If you're looking for a discount on your favorite hobby (stamping and paper crafting with Stampin' Up! products) and want to earn money doing it... let me know! I'd love to talk with you whatever your interest might be! If you want to see a little more info go ahead and click the button below. Looking forward to hearing from you!

If you'd 

Tree

Hello, hello! I'm just stopping by really quickly today to say, Hello! I hope you all are doing well. If you live in the US I hope you are enjoying summer break. I had a few minutes to work with this awesome set called Always & Forever. I love it because it's a fun alternative to most of the frilly, floral, feminine anniversary and love stamp sets that I see out there. It was also really fun to create this simple card with such a lovely set. 

I heat embossed the tree image in Early Espresso and watercolored it with Early Espresso using my aqua painter. The grass was done with Emerald Envy and I love how vibrant it is. I went for a little bit of a rustic look with this card and added linen thread and a sentiment embossed in copper. 

I just love the little loops of metallic thread pinned up with the Bermuda Bay heart. Adorable. 

That's it for today folks! I'm off to go spend a little time with son.
Take care!

Maria.

SUPPLY LIST:

Need more stamps now? Never fear! I've got you covered!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Want a great discount on Stampin' Up! Products and to have a fun new stamping family? Join me on this fun adventure! I can't wait to be your super excited (possibly way too enthusiastic... No! That's not possible!) Stampin' Up! side kick and support lady! In case you didn't know, you can join Stampin' Up! just for the discount and never sell a single product. If you want to know the details just let me know. If you're looking for a discount on your favorite hobby (stamping and paper crafting with Stampin' Up! products) and want to earn money doing it... let me know! I'd love to talk with you whatever your interest might be! If you want to see a little more info go ahead and click the button below. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Birthday Boys!

Hey you all! Thanks for stopping by today. I've got two fun but simple Birthday Boy cards for you today. Every once in a while my Dad calls me and asks me to make cards for his friends... sometimes at the last minute. Well, I can't say no to my dad so sometimes I need to bust out cards that he will love in a pretty big hurry. Here's what I came up with over the last two weeks when he called me for cards. This is actually the second of the two cards he ordered but I'm sharing it first because I just love that little turtle! My dad asked me to put Omani's name on his card. Omani is a young guy who makes amazing jewelry/art using twisted wires and gorgeous rocks. I can't help but think of beautiful metal and jewel tones when I think of him. This So Eclectic DSP was perfect  for his card and really allowed for the gold lettering to pop off of the card. After I stamped the birthday sentiment the card still looked like it needed something. My husband thought it needed a birthday cake but I found this little turtle (DSP) and cut it out instead. I love this cute little guy!

My second card is for my Dad's buddy Joseph. My Dad met both Joseph and Omani through an amazing program called CASA. It's a program that sets kids who are in the foster system up with a responsible and caring adult who is able to remain constant in their life. My Dad is one of the mentors or "Casas" in this program. Joseph was my Dad's first Casa kid and their story is really inspiring. Joseph is now a succesful young adult and he and my Dad have remained friends even after Joseph aged out of the program. They have such a strong bond that they have become the "poster children" for the program. I'll post a video of them after Joseph's card. So, I didn't have much notice for this card and I ended up making it in the middle of the night so that I could give it to my Dad in the morning. For such a last minute card I was happy with how it came out. Thank goodness Stampin' Up! has such amazing products that I was able to do something fun at the last second.

Here's the video about CASA featuring Joseph and my Dad. If you've got a program like this in your area (it is a national program so you might!) and you are looking for a way to make a difference I highly recommend it. It's a great way to make a difference in someone's life.

That's all for today. Thank you for stopping by, you know I'm always so glad that you do.

Have an amazing day!

-Maria.

Need more stamps now? Never fear! I've got you covered!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Want a great discount on Stampin' Up! Products and to have a fun new stamping family? Join me on this fun adventure! I can't wait to be your super excited (possibly way too enthusiastic... No! That's not possible!) Stampin' Up! side kick and support lady! In case you didn't know, you can join Stampin' Up! just for the discount and never sell a single product. If you want to know the details just let me know. If you're looking for a discount on your favorite hobby (stamping and paper crafting with Stampin' Up! products) and want to earn money doing it... let me know! I'd love to talk with you whatever your interest might be! If you want to see a little more info go ahead and click the button below. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Basic Mermaid

Hey everybody! Happy Tuesday to ya! Yesterday I shared a Magical Mermaid card that was possibly one of my favorite cards ever. Today I've got what I'm calling the Basic Mermaid... because after yesterday's mermaid this one just seems... basic. But let's be real! Sometimes you don't have hours to make a card and you need a quick and easy card that is still pretty. 

I watercolored this mermaid after heat embossing in clear onto watercolor paper. Her tail is Lemon Lime Twist and Emerald Envy with some sparkly Clear Wink of Stella on top. Her skin is Powder Pink and her hair is Real Red. The new Naturally Eclectic DSP made my job super easy as it provided me with an easy "water" background. 

I heat embossed my sentiment in white onto vellum and layered the mermaid on top. Adding some of the new and fabulous Iridescent Sequins in different sizes and colors helped to finish the card off easily.

I really am loving this mermaid set! I do have some ideas on how to experiment with it but haven't had time to do it yet. Soon, I hope! Please let me know if you have any questions at all. If you are interested in purchasing any of the supplies to make this set yourself please let me know. You can also click the "Shop Now" button below, or, click on any of the products in the carousel below and it will take you to my online store.

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope your day is terrific!

Maria.

PRODUCT LIST:

Need more stamps now? Never fear! I've got you covered!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Want a great discount on Stampin' Up! Products and to have a fun new stamping family? Join me on this fun adventure! I can't wait to be your super excited (possibly way too enthusiastic... No! That's not possible!) Stampin' Up! side kick and support lady! In case you didn't know, you can join Stampin' Up! just for the discount and never sell a single product. If you want to know the details just let me know. If you're looking for a discount on your favorite hobby (stamping and paper crafting with Stampin' Up! products) and want to earn money doing it... let me know! I'd love to talk with you whatever your interest might be! If you want to see a little more info go ahead and click the button below. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Magical Mermaid

Hey Everybody! Happy Monday! I hope you've all had a great weekend and a terrific Father's Day if you were celebrating it. I made my husband a pile of french toast and sausage and then we went to see The Mummy. It's gotta be over 100 degrees Fahrenheit today (yesterday hit 117) and we are roasting. I really need to get some yard work done but i'm thinking hitting the craft room and sweating less is probably a better idea. Anyhow, not so long ago I shared a technique for Glossy Paper called Alcohol Ink Blending. In my tutorial video I shared some samples and I thought it would be fun to show you what I made with them. So, this is the first of those cards and I love how well the background pairs with the Magical Mermaid stamp set...

I had so much fun with every single detail of this card. Luckily that background was already made and once I got a good look at it I knew I'd be pairing it with this gorgeous mermaid!

The mermaid was the first thing I did. I heat embossed her in clear on watercolor paper and then watercolored her using an aqua painter. Her tail is a combination of Lemon Lime Twist, Emerald Envy and a healthy coating of Clear Wink of Stella. Her skin is Powder Pink and her hair is a combo of Perfect Plum and Elegant Eggplant. If you look closely you can see that I colored outside of the lines. I did that on purpose so that when I cut my mermaid out she wouldn't have a white outline that would contrast with the background of the card. Also, because I heat embossed her in clear (which appears white), if I had a white border I think she would've looked weird-as if the details of her body didn't have an edge or were not grounded. I'm not sure I'm explaining that well so I hope it makes sense. 

One of my favorite details of this card is this fun little tag! I cut it out by hand, punched a hole in the top and heat embossed the sea star in white. Adding the gold ribbon and the gold thread added a nice contrast and helped tie it in to the rest of the card.

I heat embossed the seaweed (the seaweed!! isn't it beautiful!! I love that stamp.) in gold multiple times across the bottom of the card. Then I added some of these new iridescent sequins... so, take a second and check out these sequins. They are amazing! The colors are so rad and I love that they come in different sizes! I used my fine tip glue pen to stick those down. 

To finish my card off I heat embossed my sentiment in black onto vellum (stamp in versa mark, then in black archival, stamp image on vellum, then use clear embossing powder) and added a strip of Basic Black to ground it a little better onto the card. I love the way the curve of the mermaid seems to fit so perfectly with that stitched oval. 

I've seen a lot of people requesting to see the insides of cards lately. I always finish the insides of my cards but I rarely share them. I'll try to work on that since it seems that there really is interest. I heat embossed the seaweed in gold onto whisper white cardstock (it's really whisper white, not shimmer paper). Then I used a combination of my aqua painter and my clear wink of stella to paint this in (Emerald Envy, Lemon Lime Twist and Tempting Turquoise). The Wink of Stella works amazingly for "watercoloring" on regular cardstock. The solution helps move the color around without saturating the paper and causing pilling or warping. Pretty awesome!

Alright, here's a last look at this Magical Mermaid. I sure hope you think she's magical too!

In case you missed my post on how to create Alcohol Ink Blended backgrounds, like the one I featured today, here's a link to my video tutorial:

Alright folks, that's it for today. Thank you so much for stopping by and checking out my card today. As always, if you are interested in purchasing any of the products that I showcased today, you can shop in my online store by clicking on the link below or by clicking on any of the products in the carousel below. If you have any questions or comments please ask! I'm here to help and I love hearing back from you.

Have an amazing day you all!

Maria.

PRODUCT LIST:

Need more stamps now? Never fear! I've got you covered!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Want a great discount on Stampin' Up! Products and to have a fun new stamping family? Join me on this fun adventure! I can't wait to be your super excited (possibly way too enthusiastic... No! That's not possible!) Stampin' Up! side kick and support lady! In case you didn't know, you can join Stampin' Up! just for the discount and never sell a single product. If you want to know the details just let me know. If you're looking for a discount on your favorite hobby (stamping and paper crafting with Stampin' Up! products) and want to earn money doing it... let me know! I'd love to talk with you whatever your interest might be! If you want to see a little more info go ahead and click the button below. Looking forward to hearing from you!