4U

I´m calling this card 4U but I didn´t actually write the sentiment, it could be uses to send it to a friend, b-day, thinking of you, miss you... The images I´m using are Garland from Stef (Glitterbabe) and Hedgie from Christy (Tiddly Inks), I put them together with PS and printed it on cardstock and I colored them with colored pencils.

I wanted to use both images to make a card(s) but I was not thinking in combining them, today it seems I was inspired and suddenly it all come together... I added some rhinestones to the center of the flowers and around the flower where the sentiment will be placed.

Love the colors of the digi papers I used! these are from Jaime and I printed them on cardstock
I´m submitting this card to participate in the following challenges:
Tiddly Inks Challenge blog: anything goes!
Friday Sketchers: sketch #99
Aly´s Sunday Challenge: all about animals
One Stitch at a Time: flowers
Cupcake Craft Challenges: don´t be square (mine is 4.5x6 in)

It´s your day!

My first easel card!

I did this card on acetate to participate at Michelle Perkett Studio Challenge blog where we were challenged to use this color combo on an easel card

I used Flying birthday girl from Michelle Perkett, I colored it with colored pencils and blended them with gamsol, it gives such a soft look to the coloring.

I printed the image twice and pierced the ballons, her dress and the icing of the cupcake and glued them on medium thick cardboard to give the right amount of 3D effect.
The closed card looks like this

with a sky and a sun behind her. The sun is a PS brush I printed on cardstock, colored with colored pencils, pierced it and glued it to the inside of the card

for the sky I used a digital paper that I´d modified by stamping several times a PS brush with the shape of a cloud. The hills were made with a scrap of paper. The sentiment is word generated and printed on cardstock, then I layered on olive green carstock and light blue to follow the color combo.

I made the back of the card to have a place where to write something, I glued another hill and a cloud I pierced from the paper I used to make the sky.
I had so much fun making this card, next time I´ll make it on regular cardstock, doing it for the first time on acetate was challenging! but I like the result a lot, she really looks like flying!

Earth Day Blog Hop!

Welcome to Michelle Perkett Studio Earth Day Blog Hop!
To celebrate this day we were asked to create something using recycled material. If you came from Mary´s blog you are on the right way, if not, why don´t you join us and start from the beginning at Michelle´s blog?

Now into my project:

I recycled this container to put your house keys, those that are around your place all the time and you can not find them when you have to go out? it also can be used to fill it with candy or chocolates... or as a place where to put your treasures...

I started from a plane octagon styrofoam, originally this piece comes from the packaging of a 2 liters bottle of choloform we got at our lab and I use them all the time to store small thing around my working table.

I papier machéed it by gluing small pieces of tissue paper and let it dry. After that I painted it with acrylic paints in two shades of green

I made a house following a sketch I found here, I´ve used it in Living in a happy place card before. Papers are from Summer Driggs. The pieces of the house I glued them to a piece of thin cardboard that was part of the packaging of bed sheets I bought a while ago and I save it for later use.

I cut it around, glued a flower as a window and drew stitches around with black gel pen. Finally, I made a slit on the top of the container where to slide the house and keep it standing without the need of gluing it.
I used Mary Mary from Michelle Perkett colored with colored pencils. I don´t know why but I´m always picturing Mary in front of a house... I should change her scenery someday but I love how she looks in front of a house!

Can you see the watering can? I used some cellophane paper to simulate the falling water by making a tiny slit where I slided the thin strips of paper (I saved this cellophane shredded paper from the packaging of a jar of cheese in olive oil we got as a gift two Christmas ago).
I took a piece of white ribbon from my stash and I threaded hooks from cans of soft drinks (I have a margarine container full of them!), glued it all around the container and made a knot to secure it

The flowers are cut with my cricut machine in scraps of papers, I crumpled some of them, curled others and layered two stitching them together with a glass bead. I glued them here and there around the container. I added some glitter glue on some edges of the container so it can sparkle a little bit.
Did you like my project? I had so much fun doing it! and I hope I can encourage you to use this packaging parts you usually throw away. If you varnish it, you can use it as a bowl to put some snacks!

Now hop onto your next stop: Therese!

If you get lost along the way, here is a list of participants so you don´t miss any:

Michelle
www.michelleperkett.blogspot.com

Robyn:
http://robynstime.blogspot.com/

Tammy
http://tmaynard.blogspot.com

Rhonda:
http://bluepoohbear753.blogspot.com

Abby:
http://abbyscreations.blogspot.com

Ellen
http://tinktime-tink.blogspot.com

Lee
http://stampingwithgrandmalee.blogspot.com

Betty
http://pinkglitterfae.blogspot.com

Lynne:
www.doodlebuglynne.blogspot.com

Kerri:
http://fotf-constellations.blogspot.com

Jennifer Scull:
http://justcoffeepleasestampsribbonspaper.blogspot.com/

Pattie:
http://pattiescreations.blogspot.com/

Claire:
http://clairescraftycreations.blogspot.com/

Mary:
http://cr8iveme.blogspot.com/

Ileana: ----------------------------------------------------> YOU ARE HERE
http://allthingsthatmakemehappy.blogspot.com/

Therese:
http://theresetravis.net

Helen:
www.h2designs.blogspot.com

Shelley
http://shelleyscreations.blogspot.com/

Pauline:
http://paulineguttrey.blogspot.com

Jean:
http://jeano9.blogspot.com

Marilyn:
http://marilynscardsandmore.blogspot.com

Deanne:
http://a-scrapaddict.blogspot.com/

Sammi:
http://stuffbysammi.blogspot.com/

Tana:
http://kreativekaleidoscope.blogspot.com/

MPS Challenge and Inspiration Blog:
www.michelleperkettstudio.blogspot.com

Remember to leave some love along and let us save our planet!
Have a great day!

Some exciting news!

I´ve been invited to be part of Michelle Perkett Studio DT, and OF COURSE I couldn´t refuse! so, now I´m officially part of this group of so very talented people. Whooo Hooo!!! this is the group I´m now part of:

Pattie

Rhonda

Lynne

Terri

Tammy

Nancy

Jean

This are exciting news for me since I almost new to this world. Fate (or not, who knows...) led me to sign in on SNR web ring first and then out of curiosity I signed in on PCP web ring, somehow I managed myself to join Michelle´s PCP group and from that day on I started a new way into this craft world. I´m very shy person, then I usually don´t participate too much on the chatting, but I was welcomed so warmly into the group that chatting was very easy. This is how I got to know all these wonderful ladies, starting with Michelle, so talented, such a great artist and a beautiful person. Thank you Michelle! you are always so nice to me... if you are not a member of Michelle´s group, please join us! you won´t regret it.
I´m so very proud I was chose to design with Michelle´s gorgeous images... It´s my first appointment as member of a Design Team and I hope I can make a good one!

Tomorrow we are cellebrating Earth Day at Michelle Perkett Studio, please don´t forget to come back for an exciting blog hop!

Happy Spring!

 This is a pop-up twirl card I made to participate at Michelle Perkett Studio Challenge blog. This time we were asked to make a "movement" card, and this was the most challenging card I made so far! In principle and by looking at the tutorial, the card is not difficult to make... maybe it was my lack of experience with this kind of cards but it took me a few hours to make it swirl nicely, but I´m pleased with the final result, I should make another one to see if I improved or not.
I used Lily from Michelle Perkett that I colored with colored pencils and the sentiment is a freebie Michelle gave us at her PCP group.
The papers are from Kim Lund (I used previously here), I just love this color combination! I cut some flowers from the patterned paper with my cricut machine and curled them a bit before gluing some buttons and pearls on the centers.

Today I made a recipe we like a lot: Purple Jasmine Coconut Rice. If you like coconut you should give a try to this recipe, you won´t be disappointed, and if you don´t you should do it anyway just because you may change your mind. The good this about cooking is that you can change things a bit and the results are still good, most of the times I don´t have the same ingredients so I usualy replace them with something similar and in this case I used basmati rice instead of jasmin but the results is still great, we really like it! I forgot to take a picture... but I wanted to encourage you to try this one.

For you!

I made this card just for the fun of it

I used this cute Bird Flower from Dawn Moore, colored it with colored pencils and glued a pom pom on the center of the flower. The papers are digital papers from Jaime (the same I used in this baby card) that I printed out on cardstock. My Grafico Challenge Blog: #43 had a nice layout I wanted to try and I took inspiration for the stitched paper quilt at Mel´s wonderful blog.

Painted stones and Awards

Some time ago I started painting stones, these rounded and so smooth stones I got them from the Mediterranean sea two summers ago when we spent a few days on vacations

the blue ladybug was made by my daughter, she did an excellent job! we paint them with acrylic paints and finish them with glossy varnish. We are planning to go go on vacations to the beach this year again, if we go I´ll bring more with me. They are so beautiful to paint!

I got two awards a few days ago!! The first one I got it from Elizabeth (Softpencil), thank you !!!

and I have to say 10 things about me:
1. I´m very sensible so I cry very easily, sometimes to much easily....
2. I like to laugh, it makes me happy even if my day was very complicated, and I do it very loudly HAHAHAHA you see?
3. I love to eat sweets! desserts are my favorite kind of meal, not good for my weight though....
4. I can not throw things away if I see some hidden potential, that´s a problem because most of the times I don´t have enough time to finish my projects.
5. I´m a messy person but in my kitchen and desk at work everything has to be perfectly organized.
6. I don´t like to iron, I really wish I didn´t have an iron, but I can not wear clothes that are not ironed....
7. I don´t know how to shop for me, it´s a difficult task, I can get very unsure while shopping...
8. I wish I could be a bit more selfconfident.
9. I like books with happy endings.
10. A language I´d love to learn is Japanesse because I love manga (Japanesse comics), it´d be wonderful I could read them in the original language!

Abby gave me the second one, thanks so much sweety!!!

I´m passing these two awards to:
Steff, Helen, Marilyn, Gina, Desiréé, Carlie, Catherine, Nancy, Cat, Kerry.

Tags

Second post today!

Do you remember my Rosie luminary? if not, you can see it here. Well, the windows of the luminary were so beautiful to throw away I thought I could use them to make tags, and that´s exactly what I did!
For all of them I used Elizabeth´s images (Softpencil) that I colored with colored pencils, cut and place them on the tags. Papers are from Jaime.
For the first one I used this gorgeous butterfly

the center was a recycled part also (the cut out of the Lily card frame) that fit perfectly with the size of the tag. I cut a flower with the cricut machine, crumpled it, layered with a larger one and stitched a small button on the center of it. Pierced around all the tag, made a hole, tied a piece of ribon and made a bow with yute. I also made the antlers of the butterfly with two short pieces of yute.
For the second one I used another freebie Elizabeth so genereously gave

cut a piece of patterned paper that I layered with pink and pierced around, then I glued it to the card and place the cute girl as it is sitting on top. I cut four tiny butterflies with a paper puncher, glue them to the tag and made the trails with pearl paint. And also made a hole and finished the tag with ribon and a bow
On the third one I wanted to place this cute happy bear behind a pink grass

I made the grass by cutting very thin strips one next to the other without cutting completely the piece of paper, glued it to the tag and place a piece of ribon on the bottom. I made another crumpled flower but this time I put glass beads on the centers and added some more on the bottom of the tag. I tied the flower to the bear´s hand with a piece of yute. And finaly finished the tag by painting dots with pearl paint.
And on the fourth one I made three flowers with hearts upside down

 stitched the stems with brown embroidery floss, tied a piece of yute around the tag and placed on the bottom the three little chicks I saved from the girl image. I added another tiny butterfly on the top and painted its trail with pearl paint.
Elizabeth challenged us on her PCP group to make something with bows and ribons, and these tags were just the perfect excuse to follow the challenge. Later this week, she made a post on her blog linking us to another challenge: Fab ´n´ Funky Challenges were she is sponsoring this week challenge, the challenge is to use pink, chocolate and vainilla on our project. So I combined both in one project.

Lily

I loved making this card, it´s my first tent card (I found the tutorial here) and I´m very pleased with the result. In general the card is easy to make and so nice to look at, I´m ejoying a lot making these 3-D like cards!
I used Lily from Michelle Perkett that I colored with colored pencils

I tried to match her dress and wings with the colors of the papers (I used Jaime´s papers), the flowers are a darker shade of pink and some of them are purple to change a bit, I applied also some dots of pearl paint here and there and on the centers of the flowers. What a lovely image to color! I really like it...
I made the flowers cutting them in my cricut machine first and ronded the petals from behind

then I glued them together and put a pearl on the center. With my cricut I cut also the oval frame that I later glitered, pasted it to the front of the card, cut the central circle following the frame and arranged the flowers on its right low corner.
I added a piece of lace that I embellish with three hearts (also cut with the cricut machine) and some stitches with gray embroidery floss. I cut the image around the fairy and hung it with a tiny piece of embroidery floss to the back of the front part of the card. Here you can see how the card looks like from the side

I´m entering this card in Michelle Perkett Studio Challenge blog were we have to use our favorite color, lace and pearls. My favorite color is brilliant blue, but..... I´m very shy with that shade of blue so I chose my next favorite color that is pink!
Also I´m posting this one on One Stitch at a Time Challenge Blog were anything goes, and on Meljen´s Design Challenge blog were we have to show girly colors.

Loving birds

This cute image is from Meljen and I colored it with colored pencils. I stitched with gray embroidery floss the string that the birds strung, added some pearl paint to the dots and applied eye shadow to the borders of the image.

The papers I used are from Jaime, I love them! she has such a good sense of color combinations and I like all her work. I also stitched some gray pearls on the centers of the flowers of the green paper.

I made this card for a friend who is getting married this weekend, I hope the newlywed-to-be like it!

PS: I´m entering this card in Meljen´s Designs DT blog: challenge #1 (I though I was late!!!)

Rosie Luminary

I made this luminary to participate in Michelle Perkett Studio Challenge blog where this week we were challenged to make anything but a card. It´s my first time making one and I loved every second spent in it!

I used Rosie from Michelle Perkett as the main image that I colored with colored pencils and blended with gamsol.  The luminary body was cut with my cricut machine, I found the svg file at Penny Duncan blog. I traced, cut and glued patterned tissue paper on the windows.

I also stamped, colored and cut some roses to place here and there over the tussie paper panels along with the ones on Rosie digi stamp. I also added some rhinestones in the center of the 4 diamons. On the back of the luminary I pierced the boders, stitched lilac embroidery floss and made a bow to make the closing.
Here is a top view

as I said, this one was my first luminary and I´m going to make more for sure, I have lots of ideas already!

Today is Easter Sunday, and in my country we usually have a sweet bread called Rosca de Pascua. It´s a brioche kind of bread, like a sweet roll made out of a yeast dough so it takes a day to make it (or several hours of raising), but it so good it´s worth the time spent making it.

Before baking the bread we decorate it with pastry cream (custard). Once it´s done and cooled we decorate it with cherries and glazed orange cut in thin strips, I only had dry cherries and a tiny piece or glazed orange but I was not disouraged! I made it anyway.... I love this bread, so much that I made a whole batch so now I have leftovers of the uncooked dough on the freezer for later sweet moments... If you want to try it, e-mail me and I´ll gladly send you the recipe.

Toledo, a "must" if you visit Spain

Toledo is a gorgeous city where you can let yourself get lost wandering its norrow stone paved streets if you want to really enjoy it. We have been visiting Toledo three times already and I always want to come back again... If you visit Spain someday, you have to stop by Toledo, you won´t be dissapointed.
We travel to the city yesterday (Thursday), it was an hour far trip, very near Madrid. The day was so sunny, so bright... and so full of people! it was a holiday here in Spain, so that´s why everybody was there... even us.

This is the main door, where you enter the city walls, it´s all made of stone and it´s been there before XVI century when it was reconstructed.

Here you can see the moorish heritage in these gorgeous tiles that decorate the tiny balcony and in the windows of the tower.
With the city walls behind us and after 2 hours of walking we looked for a place where to have lunch

we found a tiny restaurante: La Virgen de la Estrella, it´s in the very entry of the city so you can not miss it, and because the weather was so nice we had lunch outside

the tipical dish in this region of Spain (Castilla la Mancha) is called Migas, it´s made out of crumb bread that is sauteed in olive oil with galic, bacon and spanish sausage, and on top is placed a fried egg. Delicious dish! For desert I had Cuajada, it´s like a plain yogurt that is served with a nice dollop of honey on top. Yummy!!

The cathedral is an amazing piece, where you can spend hours looking at all the details, so beautiful... The streets are so narrow, that in some of them cars can not enter, you can almost touch your neighbour from your balcony if you stretch enough your arms

The city was built on the highest point of the area, then on top of the narrow you are going to find steep streets... Can you see the handrail on the right side of the right picture? I imagine it can be hard to walk though some streets during winter.
And last (but not least!) there is a tipical pastry in Toledo called Mazapan, they are marzipan figurines

we bought a fish marzipan (that my sweethart cut before I took the picture....) with a sweet spaghetti squash filling, another delicious sweet!
And after 2 more hours of walking (after lunch) we came back home making plans to visit Toledo again.
Hope you can visit this lovely city with such amazing history behind, if you do so, please, let me know! I´ll go with you.