Let's Get Hopping Blog Hop: Very Vanilla

Hello Everybody and welcome back to another blog hop! If you haven't visited my blog before... my name is Maria Willis and I am an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator from a small mountain town in California, USA called Boulder Creek. I love making cards and other crafty things and I'm so happy that you've decided to join me for the fun today!

Today I'm hopping with the Let's Get Hopping crew and the theme for this month is Very Vanilla Cardstock. I decided to combine the theme with my March 2018 Paper Pumpkin kit for a card that reminds me that spring is near... Well, technically it's already spring here in California but it doesn't feel like it yet.

For my card I used one of the envelopes that came in the Paper Pumpkin kit. I cut it open, turned it inside out and instead of using the vintage themed side, I opted to use this bright green prettiness instead. The stripes on the DSP are Very Vanilla so the paper matches my Very Vanilla card base perfectly.

I wanted to add a contrasting color and thought the circle of Soft Sky went well with the green and still looked soft and natural. I layered my sentiment piece (stamp and die are both from the PP kit) and the circle on top of a strip of Very Vanilla cardstock that has been splattered with a Stampin' Blends marker. I embellished my card using the twine and wooden embellishments from the Paper Pumpkin kit. The card needed a little something extra so I added pearls to finish my card off.

Now I'm finding myself curious to know if you all find yourself using Very Vanilla or other creamy, off-white colored cardstocks very often? I realize that I've been using it more often lately and I'm not sure why... although I suppose I've been doing more vintage and shabby chic cards recently. Both of those styles usually work really well with Very Vanilla. Anyhow, let me know if you use it or not. If not, what color card base tends to be your go-to color? 

If you're looking for more Very Vanilla inspired creations head on over to Tracy Bish's blog by clicking on the next button below. As always, if you have any questions please let me know. You can leave me a comment below or shoot me an email and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. 

Have an amazing day! Thank you for stopping by and I'll catch you back here soon.

Bye!

Maria 

E-mail: mariawillis@hotmail.com

PRODUCT SUPPLY LIST:

Want to shop with me? No problem, just click the button below. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

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!

World Autism Awareness Day Blog Hop

Hello everybody and welcome to my blog. If this is your first time visiting me- Hi! My name is Maria Willis and I am a Stampin' Up! demonstrator from California, USA. Today I am participating in a very special blog hop and I will be "Lighting It Up Blue" for Autism...

All around the world April 2nd is Autism Awareness Day. I am so happy to be collaborating with this amazing group of people to help spread awareness and to raise money for autism. 

One of the ways that people show their support for both individuals on the Autism spectrum, and, families of those on the spectrum is to wear the color blue. A number of years ago I read an article explaining that on April 2nd many people put blue light bulbs in their outside lights and turn them on. The idea is that even if you personally are not affected by Autism that someone may see your blue light and know that they are not alone. This idea that we can let people know that they are not alone through such a simple and beautiful gesture has stuck with me. This idea of "lighting it up blue"is the inspiration for my card today...

I drew the lightbulb by hand and watercolored my background attempting to make it look like the lightbulb was shining down on all of the houses flooding them with blue light. In my mind shining the light over all of the houses is symbolic of unity, support and understanding.

The little houses are all sponged with ink (multiple colors) and are popped up on foam strips to give them dimension. I like that when you look through the house you can see blue inside... as if that light has shown through and has filled each home with care and understanding. In the top left corner I've cut a tiny ribbon and written "light it up" on it.

Today's blog hop is more than just an artistic interpretation of the "light it up" movement though. I thought I might share some Autism facts or statistics with you now but luckily I am able to do something more personal. I have multiple friends with children on the Autism Spectrum. I asked one of them if she had a platform to share just one thing about Autism that she wished everybody knew, what would that one thing be? She thought for only just a second before she said, "If you've met one kid with autism... You've met ONE kid with autism." I love this reminder that every individual on the spectrum is an individual with their own unique interests, personalities and needs. 

I have a goal today to help fundraise for the Organization for Autism Research. My goal is to raise $1500 by the end of the month. It'll be tough I'm sure but every dollar counts and if you have a few bucks to spare (or a lot of bucks-lol!) I would greatly appreciate your donation. Your donation will go directly to the Organization for Autism Research and is tax deductible (tax ID info is available on their website through the link provided). If you are interested in making a donation please click the donation button below and Thank You!

Organization for Autism Research

That's it for today but I hope you will continue on this World Autism Awareness Day Blog Hop. Just click on the next button below to head to the next blog.

Thank you so much for stopping by today and I hope you have an amazing day!

Maria Willis

E-mail: mariawillis@hotmail.com

BLOG ROLL:

Want to shop with me? No problem, just click the button below. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

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!

#TGIFC153 - March Madness - Anything Goes!

Hey! It's Thursday night/Friday morning at midnight and that means we've got another amazing challenge for you over at TGIF Challenges! This is a really good one too so you might want to play along with us. The theme is March Madness and anything goes this week (yes, that's right, make anything you want to)! I took this opportunity to mix and match some of the random things I had sitting on my desk to make a card. I watercolored this unicorn months ago and smooched that background weeks ago. Unfortunately, this is the nature of my desk... I have half-finished crafty things all over the place and I've been thinking lately that I should really make an effort to get all these fun pieces onto cards.

The unicorn was watercolored with Pacific Point and Melon Mambo inks with Daffodil Delight for the horn. I cannot remember what colors I used on the background although it appears to be Melon Mambo, Pacific Point... and maybe something else thrown int there. I'm sorry that I can't remember exactly what I did but on that day I went on a background making rampage and ended up with a bunch of different backgrounds of unknown color combos. The sentiment is from Fairy Celebrations and is just perfect with this unicorn.

That's all I've got for today folks but if you've got a second then head on over to the TGIF Challenge Blog to see what the rest of the design team has made to share with you today. With an anything goes theme the projects are sure to be amazing! Another cool thing for this week is that if you decide to play along you can case any design team member that you want! Have fun!

Have an amazing day you all! See you back here soon!

Maria 

mariawillis@hotmail.com

Want to shop with me? No problem, just click the button below. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

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!

A Paper Pumpkin Thing: March 2018 Kit

Hey, hey! It's the last Thursday of the month in my neck of the woods and you know what that means, right? It means it's time to pull out your March 2018 Paper Pumpkin and have some fun creating alternate projects with this kit!

Today I am hopping with the A Paper Pumpkin Thing Blog Hop crew and I cannot wait to see what fun and creative projects the team will have to share with us.

This month's kit is a special one because this kit marks Paper Pumpkin's Fifth Anniversary!  This month the kit is vintage themed with lots of roses and a free gift of wooden embellishments. I decided to make a gift card set with my kit. I made the "box" out of Very Vanilla Thick cardstock that I splattered with Fresh Fig ink. Then I cut one of the envelopes apart and lined the left side with Gold Foil. I used the Fresh Fig ribbon from the kit as a closure for the box.

Inside of the set I've include some notecard sized envelopes on the left. On the right is a set of four cards that I put together using the supplies from the Paper Pumpkin kit. I could've decorated the inside of this set a bit more but decided to keep it simple this time.

Here's a peek at the cards I made for this set. There are two each of two designs for a total of four cards.

This card is my favorite. The rose background adds so much detail but still allows the gold glimmer paper, sentiment piece and gorgeous pearls to really stand out.

With supplies that were left in the kit I created this simple card to finish off my set. 

The only thing that I added to it (not included in the PP kit) was the stitched circle in crumb cake cardstock. The "Thank You" sentiment comes from the All Things Thanks stamp set. 

Here's a last look at the final product. I plan on giving it to my Mother-in-Law for Easter and I really hope she will like it. 

That is it for today but if you are looking for more Paper Pumpkin inspiration please click on the next button and keep on hopping along with us.

UPDATE: Here's a link to the tutorial I've created upon request. Enjoy!

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! If you have any questions please don't hesitate to leave me a comment or shoot me an email. If you'd like to see what products I've used today please check out the product carousel below the Blog Roll.

Bye for now!

Maria Willis

E-mail: mariawillis@hotmail.com

BLOG ROLL:

PRODUCT SUPPLY LIST:

Want to shop with me? No problem, just click the button below. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

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!

March 2018 Paper Pumpkin Kit: May Good Things Grow

Hi Everybody! Thanks for stopping by for a visit. Today I've got a card that I've made as an alternate to the March 2018 Paper Pumpkin Kit called "May Good Things Grow." I've been having fun making alternate projects with kit and you'll see more of what I made over the next week.

I used a Very Vanilla card base with a mat that I embossed with the Garden Trellis Embossing Folder.  I used the gorgeous wood embellishments that came as a free gift in the Paper Pumpkin kit this month embellish my card. These wooden embellishments have a beautiful, natural wood finish but I glammed them up a bit by heat embossing them in gold. To do this I pressed the wooden embellishments into my Versamark ink pad. Then I poured gold embossing powder over them. I used tweezers to hang on to them when I used my heat tool so that I wouldn't burn my fingers. Both the flowers and golden leaves hanging out in the background were from the free gift pack. I used a stamp from the kit, a fun die cut from the kit (I sponged the die cut), the twine and gorgeous pearl embellishments from the kit to make the centerpiece for this card.

The vintage rose background paper, Fresh Fig ribbon and cool, brass brad are also from the Paper Pumpkin kit! I added a circle of watercolor paper that I cut out with my stitched circle framelits and added some color to it with Fresh Fig ink and my aqua painter. I also splattered some ink onto the Very Vanilla background so that it wasn't quite so vanilla.

Have you tried embossing wood embellishments before? Have you tried any other interesting techniques with them? If so, I'd love to hear about it! Let me know what you've tried in the comments below.

If you have any question about this card, or, you would like help purchasing products to make your own cards please let me know. Remember that Sale-a-Bration is almost over. You've got until March 31st to take advantage of getting a free gift for every $50 USD (before tax and shipping) that you spend in my store. It's also a great time to join my team as there are some pretty amazing perks for signing up right now. Let me know if you've got questions!

Ok, I'm outta here but I will be back tomorrow with more Paper Pumpkin alternatives. I'm excited about what I've got to share tomorrow so I really hope you'll come back to check it out.

Have an amazing day!

Maria

E-mail: mariawillis@hotmail.com

SUPPLY LIST: Please click through to easily purchase products. Thank you!

Want to shop with me? No problem, just click the button below. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

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!

#TGIFC151 - Inspiration Challenge

Hello, hello! I hope you're having a terrific day today! I'm glad to have you join me today as TGIF Challenges has a really fun theme this week. It's Inspiration week over at the challenge blog and TGIFC has shared a gorgeous picture to get everyone inspired to create along with them. Here's what I've created for the challenge (scroll down to see the inspiration picture). 

I heat embossed the roses from the Petal Palette stamp set multiple times on a piece of watercolor paper. Then I used just five colors to watercolor the whole thing: Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Lemon Lime Twist, Emerald Envy and Bermuda Bay. I love the way these colors blend to make such vibrant and gorgeous shades of the colors. 

I heat embossed my sentiment on vellum and added some wooden embellishments to frame it out. I also added Gold Metallic Thread, Gold Ribbon and some Gold Enamel Embellishments. I offset the watercolored background on a base of Night of Navy cardstock and that was it for this card.

Here is the Inspiration picture from #TGIFC151. I tried to stay true to both the theme of flowers and to the color scheme as well. If you'd like to see some more amazing projects using this inspiration piece then head on over to the TGIF Challenge Blog and check out what the rest of the design team has made. If you've got a great idea of your own then we'd love to have you play along with us too!

That's all for today but I am so glad that you stopped by. If you have any questions please let me know. You can reach me by leaving a comment below or by shooting me an email. All of the products that I have used today are available for purchase in my store (link below).

Have an awesome day!

Maria

mariawillis@hotmail.com

Want to shop with me? No problem, just click the button below. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

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!

#GDP129 Color Challenge

Hey Everybody! Thanks for joining me today. I'm pretty excited today because I finally had the time to play along with the Global Design Project Challenge Blog. This week they've got a color challenge that was a bit tough for me. The colors are Soft Suede, Pear Pizazz and Calypso Coral. When I saw the colors I realized that I haven't used any of the three in quite some time... so I guess it's about time, right? Here's what I came up with... 

I used the We Must Celebrate stamp set and masked off all of the critters except for this adorable bear. I stamped him in Archival Black ink along with the mushrooms and plants. I watercolored everything on this card and added some background splatters using my Stampin' Write markers.

I used my Fine Tip Glue Pen to add some gloss to the mushrooms and then I added some Clear & Glitter Epoxy shapes to the background to add some subtle dimension.

That's all she wrote folks! I hope you've liked my card today. If you're interested in seeing more cards made with this color combo head on over to the Global Design Project Challenge Blog to see what their amazing design team has come up with this week!

Have an amazing week you guys and I'll see you back here soon!

Maria

mariawillis@hotmail.com

Want to shop with me? No problem, just click the button below. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

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!