living in a happy place...

How I love Mary Mary stamp from Michelle Perkett!

Challenge#18 at Michelle Perkett Studio was to make a side step card and this is my interpretation of the challenge.  I wanted to place Mary Mary in front of a house where she happily lives, a house that I made following a sketch I found here. I colored the image with colored pencils, and printed out several of her flowers that I cut and glued as if they were in a garden.

 For this card I used scraps of paper I have here and there... it was a good way to use them!

I added a scrap of red ribbon under the roof, glittered the cloud and set it with hair spray (thanks for the tip Lynne!!) and paper piercerd the tree top. Embellished the different parts of the card with dots of dimensional black paint, silver glitter glue for the flowers centers and faux stitches around the door and window. For the door knob I used an orange tiny pom pom

And finaly I cut the sentiment and glued every word separately

I never did a side step card before and I had a lot of fun!

Last week we went to visit Madrid, I was feeling kind of down so we decided to get out of the house and walk. We ate a chocolate truffle as we got out of the subway... it was a fresh sunny day so everything together made the trick and lifted my spirits greatly! We ended up visiting an art show given by the Spanish artist Miquel Barceló. Some of his artistic work were on the streets and I wanted to share the pictures I took. In front of the museum there was this amazing upside down elephant

and just across the street there were two sitting people playing music and a huge rusted ship

I love when art is shown on the streets of the city also, it makes art available to everybody and not only restricted to museums.

Wonderland

Michelle Perkett is hosting a Digi Day Challenge at SNR. The challenge is Wonderland. Right away after I read the post I went to see the definition on my dictionary, and this is what I found:

Wonderland (noun):
1. an imaginary place of delicate beauty or magical charm.
2. a places that excites admiration or wonder.

And the first thought on my mind was Dr. Seuss.

Did you know there is not version of Dr Seuss in Spanish? soooooo sad! but undestandable... when I was living on the USA I read him for the first time and I fell completly in love with his books. The stories, the drawings, the deep meaning in every single one of them. Sadly most of them are meaningless when you want to translate them to Spanish. I hope some day someone translates them keeping the same meaning as in English....
So, how I did this? It´s all digital! A few months ago I found a feebie called Oh the places you´ll play! and I was wanting to use it since then. My idea was to do Dr. Seuss little wonderland, a world where you can go there, and here and find funny things everywhere....

I printed all pieces on cardstock, cut it and glued it on an old CD. I paper pierced around the central circle and stitched it with embroidery floss and some seed glass beads. I added a beading wire to hang it and strung some beads also.
I wrote a quote from Dr Seuss with gel pen and I glued a sentence I cut out from a magazine.

Thanks so much Michelle for another wonderful challenge, I enjoyed this one very much!!

Dress a bottle and Celebrate spring!

I made a craft to participate in Challenge #20 at Softpencil on PCP . The challenge was to make Anything but a card

I wanted to use this lovely little cook mouse, this image it´s so cute! so I made an apron to dress a bottle of wine. The sentiment reads For you! in spanish and I chose those colors because I think it could be use either as a male or a female gift. I put some eyelets to tie the ribbons, cut and glued a pocket and added some stitches with embroidery floss. I colored the image with colored pencils, blended the mouse fur with vaseline and attached it on the side of the apron with foam tape.

Coloring the image was hard... I wanted a lighter shade of gray and I could not do it, maybe next time... but I won´t give up! This apron was easy and fun to make, I should do it more often it is so versatile and it can be easily converted into a card. I found the pattern on google images but if you have problems e-mail me and I´ll send it to you.

Everywere I go visiting in this digi world all are wishing for the winter to end... I´m wishing that too since winter started! I like summer time better ... please, remind me I say this when I complain about the 110 F (42 C) next summer! So I´m joining the same spirit towards spring and I made a Celebrate Spring card

Dustin Pike´s Doodle Dragon Studio Challenge blog asked us to create something to show that his Dragons are girly too! I used one of Dustin´s cute dragons freebies. I really love this one! it is so sweet... the lovely patterned paper is from DCWV.

The image is colored with colored pencils. I doodled the border with some kids markers and paper pierced the centers of the loops. I added also some tiny butterflies cut with a paper punch and paper pierced their trails.

And.... I got another award! that was very sweet of you Nancy! thank you so much, you´d never know how flattered I am

and I´m going to pass it to Marilyn, Terri and Pauline! you are such great crafters and I´m so glad to get to know you.

Believe in Mermaids...

There is a new challenge blog I found very interesting: I Love Digi Challenge Blog. I wanted to join in the fun because I manly do hybrid projects, since I discovered the digi world I put something on my cards, crafts, etc...
This week challenge is: Think pink, I love pink and I wanted to make a card for a dear friend and send it to her, it was the perfect match

I used Michelle Perkett Pearl digi stamp that I won on one of her challenges at PCP (my Tutti-Frutti mermaid in a box was the winner!!) and as usual I colored her with my loved colored pencils. I did the inside too

I´m showing it because it´s something I don´t do often... The music sheet is a page from an old music book that I painted with white acrilic paint, the book is old so all the pages look yellowish and I wanted an ivory look instead, therefore I painted the sheet twice with a very diluted paint and that´s the result. The patterned paper is from a very generous lady Rebecca that gave it for free, it is a digi scrapbook paper that I printed out on thin cardstock cut out and layered over the music sheet. I pierced the papers and stitched them adding some pearled glass beads. The wave border is a cut out I did with my Cricut. I used the negative cut to make the inside of the card, it looked so beautiful I didn´t want to waste it... and I wanted to add a bookmark to the card also

I´m sending my friend a book, I thought a bookmark will be a nice touch. I loved and ejoyed making this card so much, hope my friend likes it too!

Now into the delicious Oatmeal Rolls

they look good, right? all I can say is they tasted lot more better!! they were so soft, with a wondeful smell of oats, the right amount of sugar so they go great with savory or sweet toppings.

Even I had them with the Broccoli Cheddar Soup I made before... simply delicious, thanks once more for sharing Marilyn!! they are now part of my favorites breads.

Nurture your dreams

Nurture every dream as if it were a precious flower... (Michelle Perkett)

 Almost two weeks ago I was the winner of a blog candy, Lee so generously was giving two digi stamps from Michelle Perkett etsy store, I chose Just Breathe Mermaid and Rosie. So this is the card I made with Rosie.
It´s a square card, I´m not very use to make them so I´m not completely happy on how I used the space in this card.
I made this card to participate on Challenge #17 at Michelle Perkett Studio Challenge Blog. This week is a color combo... a very challenging color combo for me

The fushia color I had is a bit more on the red side, but I liked the patterned paper so much that I decided to use it anyway. I colored the image with colored pencils and I pierced the stems of the flowers with a needle.

I also pierced the patterned paper and faux stitched it with a black gel pen. I cut a sheet of an old book and paint it with light pink acrilic paints and cut following an old template I have and I faux stitched also but on the outside of the paper.

I cut out the sentiment from the digi stamp and glued the words separately. I used two rhinestones on the corners of the pink paper, and added two flowers I stamped with clear stamps on the pink paper. I cut the flowers, crumpled them and stitched some glass beads on the centers. The border of the card is also pierced.

My friend Marilyn shared with me her mom´s recipe to make Oatmeals Rolls. I´m preparing them right now. My idea is to have them ready to eat for breakfast tomorrow. Lets see how they turn out! I´ll post a picture of them tomorrow. Thanks so much for sharing Marilyn!!!

Happy day spring card

I´ve never done a spring card... shame on me because they are so much fun to make!

I used a Softpencil image that I colored with colored pencils, glittered the heart cut it out and attached it with foam tape. The string of the heart-shaped ballon is beading wire. The patterned paper is from my stash, I had it for so long I don´t remember where I got it... I pierced it and stitched it with some glass beads.

I´m participating with this card on two challenges: Softpencil Challenge #19 at PCP and One stitch at a time challenge blog.

Kitty bookmark and the very first recipe I learnt

I wanted to make a bookmark for my daughter to go along with a book I´m sending to her. She loves to read and that is something we want to encourage in her.

And then I saw Aly´s challenge this week and right away knew what I wanted to do. This week´s challenge is to show all our Kitty cats and my DD loves cats, so it was the perfect challenge.

I found Dawn Moore blog a few days ago and when I saw her Kitty I knew I was going to use it to make something for Maria. Kitty made the perfect complement for Bee Crafty stack of books that I wanted to use for a bookmark someday. I colored the images with colored pencils as usual and applied some body shimmer dust on the pages instead of coloring them. On the back I used clear stickers for the words and the pencil.

The other day I prepared the first recipe my mom taught me: Risotto. It always brings me good memories... I remember a very young me (13 y-o) so nervous because I had to feed the family that day and it was going to be my first solo in the kitchen... but then once it was done it didn´t tasted so bad... so I remember feeling myself very pleased with the result.

And over the years it´s one of my favorites. The recipe is somehow simple and you can add whatever you fancy at the moment or whatever you have at hand. The best rice to make a good Risotto is arborio rice but here is not easy to find, so I subtitute it with a creamy like rice, use a rice that the grains look rounded like this one. The recipe follows like this: start measuring the rice (I usually have a small glass as the size for a serving) and set aside. Prepare some broth, chicken, vegetable or meet, whatever you like, bring it to boil and lower the heat to simmer but be sure to have 3 times at least in volume the amount of rice. Put some olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan to heat. Chop 2 small onions or 1 medium, put it in the pan stirring well so it doesn´t get burnt. Add to the pan 1 clove of garlic finelly chopped and keep cooking them a few more minutes. Now add the rice and fry it slightly until it gets a light brown shade and it´s very hot. At this point you have to be careful because you can burn everything, so don´t leave it alone. Add the simmering broth at least half of it, stir and when it start boiling again lower the heat and let it simmer covered about 15 minutes, or until the rice it´s almost done. You´ll have to add more broth as the rice cooks, be sure it´s always with some extra liquid so it doesn´t dry. Turn off the heat and let it stand 5 minutes. Add a tablespoon of butter and some shredded cheese (whatever cheese you like) before serving. You can be creative with this recipe, so don´t be afraid to try different kind of rices, add vegetables like mushrooms, sweetpeas... or add some meat, chicken... have fun in the kitchen also!

A little something for Delia, a tag and yummy rolls

A few days ago I posted a calling made by Jenn to send a 10y-o girl Delia some cards to cheer her up. So generelously, Dustin Pike gave for free some owls images to use (Delia loves owls), and this is what I made to sent her

is an altered old CD, the image is colored with colored pencils that I turned out into a she owl adding a little flower, I made the sentiments on PS, I tied also a string of glass beads so it can be hung, the papers are from Provo Craft. I hope I can steal a smile from her little face with this little gift.

Yesterday we celebrate the birthday of a dear friend. We take a bottle of wine to give him and I made a tag to go along with it instead of a card

I used a Bugaboo digi stamp on one side, and a Michelle Perkett digi stamp on the other side of the tag, both images were colored with colored pencils and I added some glitter glue on the icing of the cakes.  I cut the tag with my Cricut and puched some little holes with a needle over the border. What a fun time we spent! we went back home at 5 am!!!

And lastly I promised I was going to show my mini rolls

I used a recipe from a famous cook and amazing baker in my country: Marcelo Vallejo. They turned out fine, they tasted really good. Anyway, they are not exactly like I wanted to be so there are two things I´m going to change on this recipe: temperature of the oven first, you can see the almost dark brown shade of the rolls... second I need to improve the flavor, I wanted garlic flavored rolls but they don´t taste much like garlic, so I´ll use more garlic next time. Here are some pictures of the stages you have to go over: 1) make the little balls, 2) let them rise and 3) baking!

 PS: if you want the recipe of the rolls, please e-mail me and I´m gladly send it to you.

Love box and tag

What a crazy week I had!!! without my time to do some crafting this week was the most tiring week of this almost started year....
I made this box, and it comes with a matching tag, to participate on Michelle Perkett weekly challenge. I couldn´t finish my project on time but I did finished it so I´m showing the final result

The image, from Michelle, is colored with colored pencils. I used a box template I found here, cut it on Imagine That textured cardstock paper I bought a few years ago.
The patterned papers are from a Provo Craft gigant slab I use so little whithout knowing why... but I love all the colors combinations it has, so vibrant... that may be why I bougth it! it makes me good because I have to think how to combine such colors together, I always go for the soft and safe combinations but these ones take me out of the box always! I stitched the box and hearts with embrodery floss and I used some old glass beads.

When I got back home today I started making some flavored mini rolls that I´ll show tomorrow once I bake them. It´s my first time trying this recipe, so lets hope I got them right!

Today is my mom´s birthday. Happy birthday MOM!!! I love you so very much, I miss you a lot... how I wish I could give you a hug and have a good talk together over some mates. Have a wonderful day Mamucha!!

PS: click over the images to get a larger view

Party invites cards and an award

My niece Sofía is turning 15 on March next year (2011) and in my country we celebrate that with a lovely party. I ofered to make her the invites, so I made a few cards for her to choose and I wanted to show them here today. The fronts and the insides of the cards:

I already sent them all and I´m waiting for them to get to her and after that she will tell me which one she likes most (or not!), hopefuly she´ll like at least one, lets wait....

I got an award!! whooo hooo!!! it´s my first one, that´s why I´m so happy!! the oversweet Nancy gave it to 10 ladies and one of them it´s me! Thanks so much Nancy!!!!
I have to say 10 things that make me happy and pass the award to other 10 people.

1. to see my dayghter smile
2. the kiss my sweethear gives me every morning to wake me up
3. learn
4. laugh
5. coloring
6. the sunshine
7. crafting
8. surfing the web
9. a cup of coffee shared with friends
10. a sweet dessert

And so many more... but I have to say only 10 and I think these make the top 10. Now I have to give it to other 10 people:

Lynne

Carlie

Aly

Tammy

Gina

Rhonda

Lee

Elizabeth

Pattie

Marilyn

I´m starting to know these ladies, and young ladies, and their amazing amount of talent each of them have. They inspire me so much... thank you all!!