Happy World Card Making Day!!

Woohoo! It is one of the very best days of the year for us crafty folk! October 1st is World Card Making Day and it's already October 1st in many parts of the world so let's get this party started!  If this is your first time visiting my blog, I am Maria Willis, and I live in California, USA. This year I am so lucky to be celebrating with a group of talented Stampin' Up! Demonstrators from all over the world. You'll be visiting sites all across the globe if you follow this hop today. Pretty exciting! For a complete list of the bloggers in this hop scroll down to the bottom of my post. 

Here's the card I've made for you today. I've used the new Tin of Tags Photopolymer set and added layers of beautiful Designer Series Paper, ribbon and thread.

I was so happy to find the perfect sentiment to use that gorgeous little mistletoe embellishment with. I'm also a huge fan of the Green Metallic Thread! It's so delicate and pretty... yet it adds a bit of a fun factor to your cards. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Happy World Card Making Day and I hope you enjoy the rest of the hop. You are currently here at my blog- MARIA WILLIS - so check the list below to see who is next and continue on with the card celebration! If you are interested in seeing the list of products I used on my card today please scroll on down my post. Of course, October 1-5th Stampin' Up! has a great sale for you too! Details below.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to get your craft on today!

Have an amazing day!

Maria Willis

BLOG ROLL:

PRODUCT LIST:

WORLD CARD MAKING DAY SALE! 
If you'd like to take advantage of this sale just click the "Shop Online" link below.

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

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!

WWYS #83: Sweet Home

Oh, my goodness!! The stamp sets that I've used for today's cards are so adorable! I'm not much of a squealer but I'm kind of squealing a bit over here! This week our What Will You Stamp Challenge set is Sweet Home. I decided to use the "Yappy Birthday" sentiment and pair it with a stamp from the Bella & Friends set and I am so happy with how this card came out!

I stamped the sentiment in Basic Black Archival ink on Whisper White Paper and used my Wink of Stella dipped in Tempting Turquoise ink (or was it Bermuda Bay?) to color in the background. I stamped the image from Bella & Friends in Basic Black Archival ink on watercolor paper and used my aqua painters to color it in. Then I used dimensionals to pop the sentiment up over the balloon and it fit just perfectly!

Of course I had to make a matching envelope for this sweet card. The cupcake image and "Enjoy" are both from Bella & Friends and were a simple way to finish off this duo. 

Here's a peek at the Sweet Home stamp set. Those fun little sentiments are easy to overlook if you don't look closely and boy am I glad I didn't miss the one I used today!

If you have a few minutes head on over to the What Will You Stamp challenge blog and see what the rest of the design team has cooked up for you today. If you have this set and want to share your own great idea with us please do! We can't wait to see what will you stamp this week!

Have a great day everybody and I'll be back soon with more fun things to share. Always remember that if you have any questions I am here for you! Please leave me a comment or send me an email at mariawillis@hotmail.com and I'll get back to you ASAP. If you are looking to purchase any of the products I have used today just click the links below. Are you thinking about joining me on this fun Stampin' Up! adventure? Now is the time and I can't wait to hear from you!

Sending big, happy smiles out to all of you today!

-Maria

PRODUCT LIST:

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

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!

Merry Tags

Hello, hello! Today I'm wondering how you all come up with your ideas for designing cards? Usually I come up with my ideas from scratch. That is to say that I generally dive right in without predesigning my cards. I just start stamping based on what stamp set that I'm excited about, or, based on who I am creating a project for...and off I go! However, I know this isn't a process that works for everybody. There are so many ways to get off to a great start that I'm wondering what everybody else likes to do. So please chime in on the comments! I'm really curious to know what your methods are!

Why did I get started on this train of thought? It's because I was recently challenged to make a card by CASEing a card from Pinterest. I usually don't do this but really had a lot of fun with it and since I decided to use a project with a cool layout my own card came together very easily and quickly. Click HERE if you'd like to see the treat bags by Fanny Marcondes de Oliveira that PINspired me today. Here's a picture of her beautiful projects...

And here's how I adapted Fanny's beautiful treat bags into a card. I kept the same basic layout but switched out the DSP, washi tape and framelits. I chose to stamp the background stamping from the top only. I also added extra paper, a big red twine bow, a gold foil doily and cut my tag in gold foil to make it the highlight of my card.

Here's a closeup so that you can see the different layers that are all popped up on dimensionals. I love these Merry Tags Framelits Dies. They are so simple but so beautiful and I look forward to getting a lot of use out of them in the very near future.

I really had fun with this! I think that in the future when I have limited time to craft I will try CASEing another Pinterest project. Of course, the danger with that is getting sucked into the black hole of Pinterest and getting stuck there until my craft time is gone. Anyone else ever do that? Anyhow, that's it for today! I hope you've all had a fantastic week and even better weekend to look forward to.

See you soon!

-Maria

PRODUCT LIST: 

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

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!

Forgotten Birthday Card

Hi! I'm just popping in to share a forgotten birthday card. Back in August I was supposed to send a birthday card out to a lovely lady in another state. Well, I was off to Belize for vacation and thought it might be fun to send her a birthday postcard from the Caribbean! My plans were thwarted when Belize was struck by a devastating hurricane. When we finally made it back home after a series of pretty wild events (the kind you just cannot make up) I needed to make my friend a card on the double because now I would be sending it to her late (aargh!). 

I wanted this card to be royally extra special since it was late and here is what I came up with...

Black, Gold and Elegant Eggplant sure do make for a beautiful color combo and let me tell me that I love that designer acetate! It really helps step up this card!

Anyhow, after I rushed to make this card I snapped a quick pic and got it in the mail and forgot to share it here with you.

That's it for now. Have a lovely day you all!

-Maria

PRODUCT LIST:

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

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!

WWYS #82: Glamper Greetings

Hi everybody! It's Monday and I'm back to share another fun What Will You Stamp Challenge with you. This week we have been challenged to use this adorable set from the holiday catalog...  Glamour Greetings! I really had fun watercoloring the camper and in case you didn't know you can stamp the camper in different ways.  I chose to add the crosshatching to the bottom of the camper and stripes to the top but you can leave it plain if you like. I chose bright colors for my camper and used my favorite sentiment from the set.

Here's a side view so that you can see the distressed and sponged edges of my paper. I also embossed the background to give it a bit more texture. Those little trees are so adorable! The original image has a star on top of the tree but I cut it off so that it was more of a forest tree than a Christmas tree.

"Not all who wander are lost." This is so true and I really love this quote from J.R.R. Tolkien. I had fun mussing up the background behind the camper and I use Gorgeous Grunge for the first time in quite a while. 

If you haven't already seen this set check it out! There are so many fun little images that you can use to decorate the camper and create background scenes. 

Do you have this stamp set? If you do then please play along with us over at the What Will You Stamp challenge blog. Just add your own creation to our page and you could earn the chance to be one of our guest designers! Alright that's all for today. If you are interested in purchasing any of the products that I have shared here today please click the link below to head my store. If you have any questions I would love to help you out so please leave a comment or shoot me an email at mariawillis@hotmail.com  I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

Have an amazing day!

-Maria

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

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!

WWYS #81: Vintage Leaves

Hey Everybody! Happy Monday and welcome back to another fun challenge over at What Will You Stamp?! This week our challenge is to use the Vintage Leaves stamp set from the main catalog... And, let me just tell you that it was a challenge for me! Let's be honest about stamp sets here for just a minute. Sometimes you just don't like a stamp set. Whew! I said it. I try never to say things like this because I think it's really important to always look for the bright side of things. I also think it's really important to be honest and if I'm being honest with myself I really do not like this stamp set. That being said, it's my job as a design team member to make the best card that I can make with every stamp set that we feature. This set is no exception so I looked on the bright side of things and here is what I came up with. I sure hope you like you it. And, I will admit that after making this card I thought that maybe, just maybe, I could see myself using it again. 

I used Vintage Leaves stamped in Island Indigo and Mint Macaron to create a frame and background for this heavily layered card. I liked the way the leaves both blended and contrasted with this piece of DSP from the Serene Scenery paper stack.

I layered many pieces of vellum, foil, thread, watercolored bits and thinlit cut pieces to make a textured and colorful centerpiece for my butterfly. I added some shiny enamel dots and wa-lah! I was done!

After struggling with this card initially, and then finally getting excited and having quite a bit of fun with it, I will say that there was a lesson to be learned here. Try new things! Don't limit yourself by avoiding certain types of stamps, etc... I am so glad that this set was chosen this week for our WWYS Challenge because otherwise I never would have had the chance to make this card. I'm not saying to go out and buy stamps that you don't love. But what about getting together with some friends and sharing stamps with each other that you otherwise wouldn't use. Try it out if you have a chance. I bet you'll have and you'll certainly have a good time with friends. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to visit! Have a lovely Monday!

-Maria

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

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!

Fiesta Like There's No Mañana!!

Ohh, my goodness... How many Birthday Fiesta cards can I make?! Don't ask, the answer could be infinite! If you follow my blog at all you already know that I love this quirky stamp set. It makes me smile every single time that I use it. In my books that's a win! So here you go... I hope it makes you smile too!

I watercolored this llampaca in Sahara Sand on Whisper White cardstock with my aquapapainter. I didn't even use watercolor paper so I was happy that it came out so well and with very little to no warping. One of my favorite things about this card is the blanket. I hand colored the stamp with Real Red and Tempting Turquoise Stampin' Write Markers to get the multicolored design. Fun stuff! Did you notice that peek of Real Red Twine? That's new from the Holiday Catalog and it is so vibrant!

When I made this card I used a stamp from this set that I had never used before. See those lines in the background? I used the long thin stamp (I think it's to string banners on) to create a fun criss-crossed background for my card. I also had some fun with the streamers and a Daffodil Delight flower. They were really easy to layer using glue dots.

That's it for today folks! Thanks for stopping by and have an amazing weekend!

-Maria

OSAT Blog Hop: Birthdays Bash!

Hey Everybody! Welcome to my blog and guess what?! It's One Stamp At a Time blog hop day and this month our theme is Birthday Bash!! That means we've got 18 stampers from all over who have made some amazing birthday cards and projects to share with you today! If you are starting the hop here...Welcome to my blog, it's so nice to have you! If you've hopped here from Melissa Davies' blog then thanks for stopping by! After you check out my projects don't forget to click the next button at the bottom of my page to continue the hop and see everyone's amazing projects!

Now, let's get to it! My card and my project are all one big project this month because I made a set of six cards with custom envelopes and a fun little box to package it all up in. I used one of my favorite sets from Stampin' Ups! annual catalog, Birthday Fiesta. This set is wacky-amazing and makes me grin like nothing else! I hope you'll get a kick out of the fun llamapaca and cactus stamps featured on my card set today... Here's a shot of the gift box I made to package my card set in.

And here's what the set looks like when it's nestled in the box with some festive tissue...

I don't know if these are llamas or alpacas so I call them the "llamapacas!" This "Fiesta like there's no mañana" sentiment is one of my favorites! We should all Fiesta like there's no tomorrow a few times in our lives.

The cactus stamp and flowers from this set are so fun! Here I've paired them with the Thoughtful Banners stamp set and coordinating Punch to make these fun little notecards. When the new catalog first came out I thought I could get along without the Thoughtful Banners set. Boy am I glad I rethought that because since I purchased it I have been using it non-stop!

My little cards are not a standard card size so I made six of these colorful, perfectly sized envelopes to go along with my cards (so easy to do with the Envelope Punch Board). This Festive Birthday DSP is so colorful and happy! The envelope on the left looks exactly like a blanket that I got in Mexico when I was in high school!

Here are a couple close ups of my cards so that you can see the details... I used the streamer framelits with this llamapaca card.

And, on this card I used the confetti from the framelits... or, maybe they are small cactus flowers? I dunno, but on this card I'm calling it birthday confetti!

Here's one of my cactus cards...

And, another cactus card but this time with a different sentiment. Did you notice that the sentiments are curved to follow the curve of the banner? One word: Photopolymer! Photopolymer stamps bend and this allows you to shape them just the way you like which of course gives you endless possibilities!

That's it for today. I hope you liked my card set, envelopes and box today. If you have a minute please leave me a comment below and let me know what you thought. Be sure to click the next button below to continue on to Pam Staples' blog! She's always got something fantastic to share!

Have an amazing day and come back soon!

-Maria

BLOG ROLL:

Megan Thompson

Anna Smith

Alisa Tilsner

Rick Adkins

Sara Levin

Renee Ondrajka

Melissa Davies 

Maria Willis: You are Here!

Pam Staples: NEXT ON THE HOP!

Tina Rackley Riddle

Justin Krieger

Dena Rekow

Andrea Tracy-Tucker

Kelly Acheson

Kim Smith

Lori Mueller

Marisa Gunn

Jeanna Bohanan

SUPPLY LIST:

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

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! 

-Maria

Sending a Smile Your Way-Country Style!

Happy middle of the week to you! I just wanted to send a smile your way and wish you a lovely day today!

I had fun watercoloring this awesome truck and grass but did you notice that the windows are glassy? I used my fine tip glue pen to apply some gloss to the windows and it just looks so neat now that it has dried. Have you ever tried that before?

Happy Wednesday and have a great week! Come back tomorrow if you can please as it's OSAT blog hop day and we've got 18 stampers from around the world with amazing projects to share!

Bye for now!

-Maria

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

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!