A Paper Pumpkin Thing: October 2017 Kit

Hey Everybody! Welcome to this month's A Paper Pumpkin Thing Blog Hop where you'll find tons of fantastic alternative ides for the October 2017 Paper Pumpkin Kit!

The kit has pieces to make ten shaker cards and is so AWESOME! I usually like to use the pieces from the kits to make unique creations but this month's kit is so fantastic that I had a hard time cutting it up to make this card.  

I started with one of the background pieces that was originally intended to be placed inside the shaker and I fussy cut the trees out of the background. I layered the trees over the window of the shaker so that the trees would be the focal point. Check out the cool sequins. There are three kinds in the kit: Pool Party, Gold Stars, and iridescent white.

One of the fun things about this kit are the sentiment banners that layer perfectly over the gold banners. It's such an easy way to get a classy look (and all of the work is done for you). It also came with precut acetate and circles of foam adhesive to make the shaker cards really easy to put together.

Did you know that this kit coordinates with next month's kit? If it's anything like this month's kit you won't want to miss out on it. You can sign up for Paper Pumpkin HERE!

That's it for today. I hope you liked my project. If you're interested in seeing more fantastic alternative Paper Pumpkin ideas then click the Next button below and head on over to see what Monika had made to share.

Thanks for stopping by. I'm always glad to have you.
Have an amazing day!
Maria

Monika Davis

BLOG ROLL:

Sara Levin

Lori Mueller

Kimberley Morris

Jennifer Hill

Kelly Acheson

Cathy Caines

Rachel Tessman

Rick Adkins

Audra Monk

Dena Rekow

Megan Thompson

Maria Willis: You are HERE.

Monika Davis: NEXT

Andrea Tracy-Tucker

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!

Sugarplum Dreams Ballerina and TGIFC129

Hey Everybody! Happy Monday! I hope your week is getting off to a great start. I'm pretty excited because I get to play along with the TGIF Challenges this week for an awesome sketch challenge. I've had some pretty little ballerinas from the Sugarplum Dreams stamp set watercolored and sitting on my desk for a few weeks now. I've been meaning to put them to good use and this challenge gave me just the opportunity. If you know me, you might know that pink isn't really my thing (especially light pinks). I love bold, vibrant pinks but don't often use lighter ones so this was a good chance to push me out of my normal zone. 

First, I stamped the ballerinas in the background using Pink Pirouette ink on Pink Pirouette cardstock.  Then, I colored the tutus and ballet shoes in with Clear Wink of Stella. I wanted the background to be subtle but pretty. Then I layered my watercolored ballerina over some Silver Metallic Thread, ribbon and part of a doily. Then I added a silver embossed sentiment and rhinestones to finish it off. 

The card face and card base are both Pink Pirouette cardstock and the mat is Blushing Bride. 

Here's the sketch  from TGIFC that I followed to make this card...

If you'd like to see some really beautiful cards using this sketch as inspiration then head on over to this week's #tgifc129 and check out the amazing cards the design team has shared. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! It's always my pleasure to have you stop by.

See you back here soon, and as always, please let me know if you have any questions or need help purchasing products to make cards of your own. Just leave me a comment below or shoot me an email at: mariawillis@hotmail.com

Have a great day!

Maria

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!

GDP108: Casing Brian King

Hi! I'm just popping in for a Sunday night post. I did chores for most of the day and finally got a quick chance to hit the craft room (while my cornbread was baking, Mmmm) to play along with this week's Global Desing Project Challenge. For #GDP108 we are caseing the amazing Brian King!

When I think "Brian King," I think of clean, perfect lines with perfectly measured borders. His work always seems to be crisp and precise.  I decided to case Brian's layout and chose colors similar to his. I used a sentiment from the Hearts Come Home stamp set and used the snowman from Seasonal Chums as my focal point. 

I stamped the snowman onto Shimmery White Cardstock and watercolored him with him my aqua painter. On his body I used Soft Sky and Tempting Turquoise. The other colors I've used are Real Red, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie and Smokey Slate. I used a blender pen to lift some color out of the scarf and mittens when I was done coloring them. I used a spritzer to add a bit of color to my background (Island Indigo and water) and embellished with some rhinestones.

Ok, I'm off to go eat my dinner and submit this last minute #GDP108 entry. If you want to see some amazing cards that used Brian's work as inspiration too, just head on over to the Global Design Project. Both the design team and challengers have made some amazing cards to share!

Have an amazing week. I'll be back tomorrow with a card that made me step a little bit outside of my comfort zone.

See you soon!

Maria.

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!

OSAT Blog Hop - Fall/Halloween Theme

Hey Everybody! Hoo boy it is late right now and I am scrambling to write this post before I head off to bed. Today I'm hopping with the OSAT crew for a Fall/Halloween themed blog hop. I've decided to go with Fall colors and a fall theme of being grateful/thankful... which allowed me to do a colorful card using the Ink Smooshing Technique.

Sooo, guess what guys. I just finished writing this whole blog with detailed instructions on how to do this technique and somehow all of the text got deleted. Huge bummer! The problem is that it is really late and I need to get at least five hours of sleep before I head off to work tomorrow. So, I will be she of very few words for now and I will come back to update the post later in the day when I have a little time to do it properly. If my pics are all catty-wompus I apologize because I'm sure I lost my formatting when the text got deleted too. Huge apologies and thanks for understanding. I guess now we will see how good my picture tutorials are... don't judge me too hard! Lol!

Start with watercolor paper, acetate and a spritzer.

Smear Real Red ink onto acetate. Spritz both paper and acetate with water and "smoosh" inky side of acetate onto the paper.

Repeat with Pumpkin Pie...

and Daffodil Delight...

Your background should look something like this...

Now you will need a blank white notecard, strip of Gold Glimmer Paper, embossed sentiment and a punch of gold foil to finish the card.

Layer your pieces to look this...

...and Wa-Lah! Finished card!

For my project I made a set of gift cards with a "Thank You" theme. I will be donating them to a local fundraiser with the goal of raising funds for the local Rec Center which can't open without doing some repairs. Our community could really benefit from having the Rec Center open quickly so I'm trying to do my part to help make that happen. I'll be making another set of cards or two to add to this donation. I'm thinking a box of birthday cards and maybe a box of kid's cards...what do you think? Would another theme be better or will this work? Thanks for any fresh ideas!

Alright y'all! Thanks for bearing with me through this scantily detailed post. I appreciate your patience so much! I'm off to bed now (because I'm actually writing this last night) and I promise to return to update this today ASAP.

UPDATE: I've had quite a bit of feedback about this post and it seems that many people appreciate a short tutorial. I've decided to leave it as it is and instead I will soon supplement with a video tutorial.

Have an amazing day and thanks for stopping by!
Smiles,
Maria.

Click the next button to see more fun projects from the OSAT crew.

BLOG ROLL:

Elizabeth Jeanne 

Jenny Hall 

Kelly Acheson 

Tina Riddle  

Dena Rekow  

Maria Willis: You are HERE. 

Lori Mueller 

Melissa Davies  

Megan Thompson 

Jennifer Hill

Sue Plote 

Pam Staples

Jessie Holton  

Rick Adkins

Marisa Gunn

Sweet Little Quilt

Hello All! I hope you had an amazing weekend! I know you lucky Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday and I was wishing for a huge turkey dinner after seeing some of my friend's photos. 

I made this card quite some time ago and for some reason... never blogged it! What?! I think I had been planning to make a quick video to go with it but that still hasn't happened so... here ya go, card only. I made this quickly one morning before work to share with a client of mine who is an avid quilter. I used the Christmas Quilt Photopolymer Stamp Set and the Quilt Top Textured Impressions Embossing Folder and was happily surprised that this card only took me about five minutes to make. I used a color combo of Lemon Lime Twist and Pool Party inks with the stitching stamped Basic Gray. I wanted to keep the card simple since I was in a hurry and the Pool Party Solid Baker’s Twine was such an easy way to finish this card off and keep a soft look. 

I chose not to add a sentiment to this card but I this one would be great to welcome a baby into the world. 

That's all for today folks! Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you back here soon! 

-Maria

PS: As always, if you have any questions or need help purchasing the supplies I've used today so that you can get crafty on your own, just leave me a comment or shoot me an email at: mariawillis@hotmail.com

Looking forward to hearing from you. 

PPS: If you don't need help or just want to browse my store on your own just click the "Shop Online" button below. 

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!

World Card Making Day Blog Hop 2017

Hey Everybody! Hello and welcome to my blog. I'm so excited to have you here today because today is World Card Making Day! Pretty great day if you're asking me. To celebrate the occasion I am blog hopping with a phenomenally talented group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators. Just wait until you see what everyone has made...

For my card I decided to do some gold heat embossing along with some watercoloring. I've been doing a lot of this lately but it's hard to stop when the results can be so stunning. My flower image is from the Remarkable You Stamp Set and it is perfect for watercoloring because of the big, full leaves.

I used Melon Mambo and Daffodil Delight inks on the petals and Lemon Lime Twist and Emerald Envy on the stem and leaf. These are some of my favorite color combos for watercoloring because they blend into the most spectacular colors. I heat embossed my sentiment in gold on vellum. Then I layered it on top of a piece of Whisper White Cardstock, Gold Foil and a Whisper White background that was dry embossed with the Garden Trellis Embossing Folder. I added Black Metallic Thread and Iridescent Sequins to finish the card off.

The sentiment is from the Rose Wonder Stamp Set (so many great sentiments in that set). My card base is Thick Whisper White with a mat of Basic Black cardstock. 

I've made a video tutorial on how I watercolored this flower. If you haven't tried watercoloring before I hope that the tips I share in the video will help you get off to a good start. Enjoy!

As always, I'm thrilled to have you stop by my blog. I hope you've enjoyed my card and video today. If you're ready to see some incredible creations from the other artists on this blog hop then please click the next button and head on over to my incredibly talented friend over in Canada... The fabulous Carolynn Sander!

Thanks again for stopping by! See you soon!

Maria.

BLOG ROLL:

Anja Luft
Brian King 
Sue Plote  
Maria Willis: You are Here.
Carolynn Sander 
Charlet Mallett 
Natalie Lapakko 
Jay Soriano 
Rochelle Blok  
Cheryll Miller 
Jenny Hall 
Amy Koenders 
Kelly Kent 
Paula Dobson  
Lee Conrey  
Janneke de Jong 
Cathy Caines  
Holly Stene 
Jessie Holton

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

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 (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!

Creating Kindness Blog Hop: Color Inspiration

Hey Everybody! I hope you're having a great day today! I am excited because it's time for another Creating Kindness around the world blog hop. We are a group of Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrators who have teamed up to bring you crafty fun once a month, both via a blog and a video hop. This month our theme is Color Inspiration. Each of us has picked three colors (we are allowed to add neutrals if we'd like to) and had a good play. If you'd like to see the whole team's projects please be sure to click the next button at the bottom of my post.

I decided to use Pacific Point, Berry Burst and Daffodil Delight as my three colors. I picked these colors because I was pretty sure that when watercolored they would blend fantastically into a wider range of beautiful colors. 

I decided to use the largest stamp from the Hello Color stamp set to stamp a background on my watercolor paper. I had to stamp it twice to cover the background. I used Versamark ink and then heat embossed in gold. This stamp really has such a fun design.

After I embossed my watercolor paper I started watercoloring at the bottom with Pacific Point. I used my aqua painter to add water and then color. Soon I began to add Berry Burst and I made sure to blend the colors together where they met to create some purpley-blues that I just love. I carried the Berry Burst into the top half of the card where I finally blended it together with Daffodil Delight. 

I selected some parts of the design to highlight and added extra ink to those areas to make them stand out. I used the Basic Black 3/8" Shimmer Ribbon to cover the middle of the card (where there was a gap between the background stamps). I covered that with a sentiment that is heat embossed in gold on a basic black oval that was cut with my stitched shapes framelits. I finished my card off with Black Rhinestone Jewels. 

In case you're curious, I've made a video tutorial sharing how I created this card. There are some watercoloring tips included just in case you're interested. Enjoy!

That's it for today folks! Thank you so much for stopping by. Please the button below to continue on to my incredibly talented friend from Canada... Carolynn Sander!

See you back here real soon-Come back Saturday! It's World Card Making Day and I've got something fun planned for the occasion.

Maria.

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!

Paper Pumpkin meets Dragonfly

Today's card is another Paper Pumpkin Alternative and this one was so quick and easy. I used a Soft Sky card base and layered it with leaves from the PP kit.

Then I used my Soft Sky Stampin' Write marker to splatter some ink on a die cut oval that I had leftover from another project. I used dimensionals to add the oval over the leaves. I topped that off with a gold foil dragonfly and called it good. 

If you're looking for a quick and easy card this it. It took less than five minutes. Paper Pumpkin is so good for quick projects as all of the pieces are ready at your fingertips and all you have to do is sit down and use them.

Thanks for stopping by today! Please come back on Thursday and Saturday as I have some fun things to share and some fantastic blog hops that I will be participating in. 

See you soon!

Maria.

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!