Wedding Card for Erica!

Yesterday was an exciting day! My niece, Erica, got married! A little birdie told me that her bridesmaids would all be wearing cow"boy" boots with their teal dresses-so cute! I wanted her wedding card to be fun and match her beautiful country wedding so I knew I had to come up with something special.

I used the retired Bootiful Occasions stamp set, The HardwoodBackground Stamp, and, the Star Confetti punch to put together this card. I sure hope she loves it!

I upped the fancy factor by adding gold glimmer stars and some twirls of gold thread. I also love the extra bit of texture that the corrugated paper gives this card.

I did sponging on every layer of this card, popped everything up with dimensionals and made a matching envelope.

I hope Erica will love her card, but, more importantly, I wish her and her new husband a life full of happiness and joy together!

Have a wonderful weekend everybody! I will be back tomorrow with the team from What Will You Stamp. Keep an eye out for lots of fun posts this week. I'm getting ready to hop a plane to San Diego on Friday to join some awesome people for the first ever Stampin' Up! On Stage event! I can't wait! Are any of you going?

If so, I hope I will get to meet some of you! Back to the craft room with me! By for now.

-Maria

 

Jacksonville Starz Blog Hop: Sketch Challenge

Happy Weekend everybody and thanks for joining us for another Jacksonville Starz Blog Hop! This month we have a fun sketch challenge. Here's what we've got to work with...

And, here's my card... I used the bear from Thankful Forest Friends and cut him out a new set of arms so that he could hold up the sign on my sister's birthday card. It's hard to tell in this picture but that sign is both sponged and stamped in Soft Sky with the Hardwood Background stamp. 

Here's the inside of my card. It's simple but cute and I added a flower for the bear to pick from the Cottage Greetings stamp set which is also where the sentiment comes from. 

That's it for today folks but I hope you'll keep hopping along with us to see what the rest of my talented stamping friends have made for you today. Next up on the hop is the talented...

Rose Ann Marr!

Here's our whole lineup for today in case you'd like to hop around:

Amanda Sevall

Beka Laing

Cari Verscheuren

Maria Willis: YOU ARE HERE

Rose Ann Marr

WWYS #36: For All Things

Happy Monday everybody! This week What Will You Stamp has a For All Things challenge for you. This is a lovely set that is perfect for making your fall projects. Here's my card...

I've used Soft Suede, Bermuda Bay, Mint Macaron and So Saffron to put this card together. I love that it both pops with color and still somehow looks soft. 

The corrugated paper is terrific for adding texture to projects. I just love it! That little wooden heart you see next to the sentiment is left over from the Water Color Wishes card kit. It's a fantastic kit and Stampin' Up! is generous enough to include extra embellishments in the kit. The little leaves that I stamped in the background are from one of the current hostess sets called Floral Wings.

Here's what the whole For All Things stamp set looks like. I love that watercolor background stamp and the little watercolor banner too!

I hope you'll head on over to What Will You Stamp to check out what the rest of the amazing Design Team has made this week. If you've got this set, I hope you'll join us for this week's challenge! I can't wait to see What Will You Stamp?!

Happy Halloween & Día de Los Muertos!

Happy Holiday weekend! In the US we celebrate Halloween today (October 31) and tomorrow is the beginning of Día de Los Muertos. I made this card a few weeks ago and I've been saving it for today! This is a Congratulations/Wedding card that one of my friends asked me to make for her. I had so much fun piecing it together and I sure hope you like it!

I used the skulls from the Boo to You stamp set and the matching framelits to cut out the cute little skulls. I had fun layering bright colors with glimmer paper and gold foil to get a funky, fun and classy card (c'mon, it's totally classy, right?). 

I used some of the new gold cording to add some extra detail and a bow for the bride. The hat on the groom is cut using the witches hat from the Boo to You Framelits Dies. I cut it out and lopped the top off to create this fun fedora-ish looking hat. I had so much fun making the eyes for both the bride and groom. I used lots of itty-bitty punches and topped the pieces off with rhinestones. What a fun look!

I thought that the font from the Timeless Love stamp set went perfectly with this card. I embossed it in gold and called it a day!

If you are celebrating Halloween this weekend I wish you so much fun! Stay safe and don't make yourselves sick on candy!

To all of those celebrating Dia de Los Muertos this weekend, I wish you a weekend of wonderful, loving memories as you pray for, respect and remember your loved ones.

Enjoy your weekend everybody!
-Maria

WWYS #35: Acorny Thank You

Welcome back to another fantastic week of What Will You Stamp! This week we have an Acorny Thank You challenge and here's my card. I used Crumb Cake, Bermuda Bay and the Neutrals Paper Stack in gold to put this card together. I added a little Gorgeous Grunge detail to make it look like the acorn is falling and to emboss some gold splatter. Then I tied some of the beautiful gold cording from the holiday catalog to finish my card off. Hope you like it!

Here's what the whole Acorny Thank You stamp set looks like. It also has a coordinating punch to make cutting out all those acorns and their little caps much easier.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you liked my project for today!

Happy stamping and enjoy your day!

-Maria

Stamp Sale!! 15% off!

Wowza everybody!! What a fantastic deal! October 19th-23rd Stampin' Up! is offering 15% off of all stamp sets except for rotary stamps and hostess sets! This is your chance to get that set you've really been wanting! I can't wait to see what you all will get! Enjoy the sale and happy stamping!

-Maria

SHOP NOW!

WWYS #34: Among the Branches

Hello! It's Monday again and that means it is time for the What Will You Stamp Challenge! This week's challenge is Among the Branches. I chose to use the most "Christmas-y" sentiment. I like it because it really doesn't have to be used for Christmas, it can be used to make a beautiful holiday card. This is great when you need to send a card to someone who doesn't celebrate the holidays, or, celebrates a different holiday than you do. I did choose traditional Christmas colors for this card mostly because I was dying to use that fancy foil vellum you see on the background of my card. My card this week is pretty simple and just incorporates lots of layering and the use of some beautiful Stampin' Up! products. 

Here's a close-up so you can see my layers more easily. I've got the foil vellum with the trees, then a circle of Red Foil (this foil is thick and sturdy!) that was paper pierced around the edges for some detail. Then I wrapped the new Silver Cording Trim around the card face five times and topped that off with Silver Glimmer paper, Silver Metallic Thread and my sentiment stamped in Real Red on Whisper White. I popped almost every layer out with dimensionals...keeping things fancy, ya know!

And that is it for today! A simple card that is stepped up with fancy paper and lots of dimensionals-I hope you liked it! Here's what the whole stamp set looks like. The rest of the stamps are for fall or Halloween and are great for building woods scenes.

Don't forget to head on over to the What Will You Stamp Challenge Blog to check out what the rest of the WWYS Design Team has made this week! They're all such a talented crew that I can't wait to go check out their projects myself. If you have this stamp set we would love to have you play along with us this week! Simply submit your card or project to the WWYS Blog and earn your shot at being our guest designer in a future challenge!

Thanks for stopping by and checkin out my project this week!

Happy stamping!

-Maria

Stampin Friends Halloween Blog Hop

Hi Everybody and welcome to the October Stampin' Friends Blog Hop! This month our theme is Halloween. You may have already been hopping along with us in which case you have arrived here from the extra talented Kirsteen Gill's blog! If this is your first stop then welcome to it! This month we have 13 talented paper crafters who each made a card and a project to inspire creativity in others. I hope you'll hop along with us and enjoy the talent and creativity that this group has to offer.

This month we have two amazing guest hoppers that we hope you will check out... SURPRISE! I'm one of them-wink! Please make sure you also check out Cindy for some awesome projects!

Cindy Slack Waldroff

Maria Willis: You are HERE.

Here's my Halloween themed card...  I used a doily, some ribbon, paper, burlap ribbon and linen thread to make something of a wreath on the front of my card. I did a lot of sponging and even sponged the linen thread.

Here you can see that there might be a little more to this card than meets the eye... Mwuahaha!

Yup! It's a 3D box card! I saw a beautifully decorated leaf card on Dawn Griffith's website and knew I wanted to do something like hers for the inside of my card. So I designed a completely different card front and based my inside design off of hers (but with some changes).

Here you can see the 3D factor in action. I love cards with dimension and this type of box card is my new favorite as it is so easy to put together.

One last close up for you...

And, just in case you would like to make your own, here is a how-to video on these 3D box cards. Enjoy!

For my project I made a series of treat bags using Stampin' Ups! Howl-o-Ween Treat and some Halloween DSP that I dug up out of my stash. I cut strips of DSP to 12" x 4" and scored at 2" and 4". I creased the DSP and nestled it into the bottom of the bag so that it would have a strong base and give some shape to the bag. With a two inch strip of DSP showing in the front, and the pattern from the opposite side showing in the back, you get a pretty fun look! I cut strips of basic black in 4" x 4" lengths, scored them in the middle, and decorated them to finish off these cute treat bags. Inside is a pretty good stash of caramel apple taffy-YUM!

I hope you've enjoyed my projects today and that you will keep hopping along with us to see all of the amazing projects the rest of my Stampin Friends have made to share with us. Next up on our hop is the fabulous Elizabeth Thatcher!

WAIT! I'm not done yet! Want a chance to win a $25 gift card? Here's what you've got to do. Follow this hop all the way through until you get back to the wherever you started and make sure to leave a comment on everyone's blog. At the end of each of our posts we will tell you what our current favorite stamp set is. Write down every hopper's name and favorite stamp set and mail your list to Elizabeth Thatcher at happystamper508@gmail.com before midnight on Sunday, October 18th, 2015. You will be entered in a raffle to win a $25 Stampin' Up! gift card.

My current favorite stamp set is Lighthearted Leaves.

Blog Roll:

Kathie Rotti

Mandy Reedyk 

Raquelle Clifton 

Deana Benson 

Cheryl Piotrowski 

Kirsteen Gill 

Maria Willis: You are HERE.

Elizabeth Jeanne 

Tina Riddle 

Lisa Altman 

Cindy Waldroff

Siara Acdal 

Andrea Pancrazio 

Product List for my Halloween 3D Box Card:

Product List for my Halloween Treat Bags:

WWYS #33: Sweet Hauntings & CYCI#90

Hi everybody and welcome back to another fun week of What Will You Stamp! This week we've got a Sweet Hauntings challenge for you and I sure hope you will play along! This week I've also entered my card in the Can You Case It #90 Halloween Edition challenge so be sure to head over there and check out all of those fabulous Halloween cards as well!

Here's my Sweet Hauntings card for the week.

I used Bermuda Bay, Tangering Tango and Cucumber Crush to make the poison bottles pop with color. Then I layered some of the In Color Envelope Paper and the Everyday Chic DSP behind my sentiment. I also stamped some fizzy bubbles above the poison bottles.

It's hard to tell in the pictures above that my poison bottles are all shiny. I wanted them to look like glass bottles so I covered them in Crystal Effects to give them shine and a little added dimension.

I like to finish the insides of my cards and I loved this poison bottle with skull for the inside. 

I hope you liked my card this week! Thanks for stopping by and don't forgot to go check out all of the amazing cards over at Can You Case It for CYCI#90!

See you all soon!
-Maria

3D Secret Box Notecard!

Hey everybody!

I've got some fun cards to share with you today and I even wrangled the time to do a video tutorial on how to make these box cards. These cards fold flat for mailing and appear to be your average everyday card. But, when you open them, WOWZA! They're 3D! Very fun and easy to do. Here's what they look like.

And here's a quick video tutorial. Enjoy!

If you still have questions or just want more info please feel free to ask! Shoot me an email or comment below.

Thanks for visiting and happy Wednesday!!

-Maria

If you're interested in recreating this project you can check out the products below to see exactly what I've used.