All Clean & Simple

Hello blogland friends! I made a few cards with a C&S look and I wanted to share them with you (and play at some challenges too!). Here are two of them:

this first one is very simple indeed! I bought a set of clear stamps a while ago and it´s my first card using them (actually one of them). I stamped the image several times with purple ink and a sentiment with black ink, then I stitched clear glass seed beads to frame the stamped area. I made this one because a friend (Paloma) asked me to make a card for a girlfriend of hers, and I thought it could be a nice present not only the card but a card with a pin she could wear. The pin is made out of scraps of fabric, dollar store flowers, pop tabs and glass piece from a chadelier that I brought at the flea market. It looked so pretty!

With this one I´m playing at:
The Outlawz CAS challenge: use something new
My time to craft challenge #171
Creative Belli blog challenge #136: Frames
Cute card Thursday challenge #201: you are a gem!

The second one is a digital card I made for my dear boyfriend Luis, I sent it to him by e-mail and he placed it as wallpaper on his computer ☺ it looks like he liked it! the images are from The Graphics Fairy, I "stamped" a tiny heart and the sentiment, it reads in Spanish PS: I love you.
I´m playing at:
The Outlawz Paper A La Mode challenge: clean and simple Valentine
Cupcake Craft challenge #176: all you need is love
Aud Sentiments challenge #46

Thank you for stopping, have a nice day!

Live your dreams

I made this bookmark for a friend of a friend who had been nice to me as a thank you gift. It´s my first time making on of these corner bookmarks, and eventhough it´s not perfect (not very easy to slip on the corner of the page...) I like how it turned out. I hope I can make it better next time!

I enjoyed making this one so much! I started with a corner of an envelope that I used as a base of the bookmark. The image is Brat Bug-Snail from Bugaboo, so cute! I replaced the snail shell with a coffee cups (from the expresso coffee machines) that I crushed to flatten it, then I embellished with a button and a piece of rafia. As usual I colored the image with colored pencils.
The base is a scrap of white pearled paper and I started decorating by making a border with a piece of fabric that I glued to a piece of paper first and then cut in wide scallops, I finished it with a piece of thin ribbon (from my stash).

On the back I keep it simple, too much maybe... so I punch out circles from a scrap of cardstock, glued them in place and I hand wrote the sentiment with black gel pen, it reads: Live the life you´d always dreamed.

Thank you once more for stopping!

I´m playing at:
Bugaboo Wacky Wednesday #5 at CDAC and PCP groups
Colour create #72
Cupcake inspirations #114

A bookmark

Today I made this quick bookmark using the color inspiration from colourQ challenge #83, challenging colors by the way.

I started making the background by recoloring Spring cupcake from Designed to Delight digitally matching the inspirational picture colors. Printed them on each side and finished it by printing a sentiment on the back.

Then I singled out the orange cupcake to use it as the main image; printed it, cut it around and embellished it with glitter glue and a rhinestone.

I finished the bookmark by ruffling a piece of ribbon, placing the image with foam tape, a dollar store flower and a button. And here you have it! thank you for stopping!

I´m playing at:
Cupcake crafts challenge: something beginning with C
Pollycrafts Monday challenge #91: anything goes

It´s your day!

I love this image and it was waiting to be colored some time now... This card took me no time at all to put it together!

I took scraps of paper and punched their borders, layer them and completed them with (also) a scrap of ribbon. Then I colored the image (Cupcake Roses from Designed to Delight) with colored pencil and added glitter glue on the flame and dimensional paint on the roses, cut it around and placed it with foam tape.

On the inside I used one of those great sentiments from TLcCreations and finished it with another tiny cupcake colored with colored pencils too. My first time coloring an entire image using just one pencil! but I like the result so far ☺ I might try to do the same again to the main image...

With this one I´m playing at:
Cupcake Craft challenge blog: something biginning with C (cupcake)
Pollycraft Monday challenge #91: anything goes
Paper cutz challenge #89: anything goes
Totally Paper crafts challenge #64: glitter
Catch the bug: bring those may flowers and pastel colors
Sweet stampin: try something new
Cupcake inspirations challenge #109: photo inspiration

Be thankful...

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of the year, where you can sit with a cup of nice tea or fragrant coffee, have a quiet time and think about the things you are thankful...
At Glitterbabe´s Challenge we are challenging you this week to make a Thanksgiving creation and this one is my inspirational card for you.

I´m using Indian princess Pattieboop from Patti´s creations. I colored the image with colored pencils, cut around carefully and glittered some parts of her clothes, it looks so very cute in real life!
I´m a strong believer your inner feelings and thoughts reflect in your creations, and while making this card I thought of the things I´m thankful that show in my creation. I´m very thankful for my sweet little lady, she is an amazing person caring, intelligent, funny, sweet... and so girly! and... a little tomboy at the same time... don´t you see a bit of both on Pattieboop? I´m thankful to my mom who taught me to craft and stitching was my favorite technique while I was a child and still lived with her. I´m thankful to my sweetheart who is always supporting me and takes my hand on my ups and downs so I don´t get lost... and who was thinking of me when he saved the cardstock from the trash and come back home one day with the trunk of our car full of paper! I´m thankful for the generosity of people who gives they work for free so I could complete my card with Elisa´s image. And (last but not least) I´m thankful because I have a job who pays for the rest of the supplies I used! ☺ (even though I have to work 10 hs a day...)

My creation fits the following challenges:
Cupcake inspirations challenge #83
Cupcake crafts challenge #115: Thank you with autumn colors
My grafico Challenge #73: autumn colors

Tea time

Fairies in a jar having tea. They are so cute! love their faces...
I had lot of fun making this one and I wanted to show them to you. The jar I´m using here is a orange marmalade jar I saved for this purpose: to make another fairies in a jar.

I used an image I found on a free vintage images web site (don´t remember where...) that I printed it out on cardstock and embellished with rhinestones, glitter, metallic fabric paint and colored some parts with colored pencils. I added butterfly wings to turn the little girls into fairies.

On the inside you see how I standed the fairies and the bottle cup I turned into a clock. It´s also a free image found somewhere... I colored it with colored pencils, glued it to the inside of the cup, glittered its border and poured nail polish (the one with glitter in it) to give protection and glossy-glittery finish.

The lid is painted first with white acrylic paint, once it dried I painted again with pink acrylic paint not covering completely the white base. I cut some words from a magazine, glued them to the lid, added another clock image and glittered the border too.

I decorated with metallic paint the back of the jar, to hide the back of the paper (it´s a piece of patterned paper I painted with white paint very diluted). To finish the whole craft I added some fibers on the inside around the fairies.

I´s been a while since I shared a recipe, so here I´m sharing a wonderful dessert: Ricotta cheese cake

Ingredients:  3 eggs, 4 tbsp white sugar, 500 gr ricotta cheese (1 pound), 100 cc milk (1/2cup), 100 cc heavy cream (1/2cup), 1 tbsp baking powder, 2 tbsp corn starch, peel of 1 lemon.
Preparation: preheat the oven at 180°C (350F), butter and flour a cake pan of about 9in diameter. Beat the eggs with the sugar until is completely foamy and reserve. In another bowl mix all the ingredients and incorporate with slow motions the eggs mixture. Pour the batter into the pan and cook it 30-40 min until is golden brown on the top. Take out of the oven and let it cool before serving. I sprinkled it with powdered sugar and served it with chocolate syrup just because I didn´t have any berry syrup. You can have it with whipped cream too. Hope you try this one, you´ll love it!

With my fairies I´m playing at:
Cupcake Crafts Challenge #111: happy hour
Digital Tuesdays Challenge #79: ribbon, button or bling
Flutter By Wednesday Challenge #125: anything goes

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday...

happy birthday...

happy birthday to me!!!

Yep! it´s my birthday today, and NOPE I´m not telling how old I´m now!
It´s very easy for me to think of presents for everybody but I had always a hard time to find something for me, so I made myself this envelope where I put some money as a self-gift and I told to myself to spend it without regrets!

This cute image is Ratiny in a cupcake from Softpencil, Elizabeth has such beautiful images at her shop, you should go and see for yourself, they are completely cute! I started by decorating the envelope using some old patterned papers from my stash that I faux stitched around them with fine markers. Took a brown ribbon and I tied it with a bow, a scrap of the same ribbon and a button are the decoration of the closing.

I printed the image twice, I colored one of them with colored pencils, from the other I cut the frosting of the cupcake that I glittered with my new white crystal glitter (I´m loving this stuff!!!) and placed it with foam tape for dimension on the colored one, do you see the frosty effect? it´s so beautiful in real life! I wish I could take better pictures... Here is another angle picture so you can see Ratiny hidding behind

I decorated the cupcake with a flower and a button (from my stash also) and some heart stickers. I placed the image with foam tape on the envelope, hand wrote the sentiment with fine markers and voilá! very easy and finished in no time.

I´m playing with this envelope at the following challenges:
Lollipop Crafts Challenge #9: glitter, sparkle, gems
Aly´s Sunday Challenge #26: recipe (2 design paper + 2 buttons)
Little Red Wagon Challenge #47: glitter
Cupcake Crafts Chalennge #10: pink and brown
One stitch at a time Challenge#32: anything goes... as you like it!
Stamp, Scraps and Doodle: stitching
Sentimental Sundays Challenge #22: let´s see some dimension

Cupcakes!!

These gorgeous cupcakes are from 2 Cute Rubber Stamps, a freebie Heidi so generously gave to participate at her challenge blog.

I used as inspiration the colors and positioning of the cutties the Cupcake inspiration challenge #74 (sadly I didn´t make it on time...). I tried also to keep it simple and only used a white gel pen to faux stitch the squares and write the sentiment

I colored the images with colored pencils, added glitter glue on the frosting for some sparkling effect, and I placed them with foam tape on the card.

I printed five cupcakes just in case and I had one left, so I decided to use it to make a small card (those you can put along with your present in a paper bag) with scraps of paper I had around.

I colored the image again with colored pencils but this time I blended them with mineral oil. And instead of glittering the frosting I glittered the paper, I added a couple of brads too. The sentiment is from TLC creations.

I´m playing at:
2 Cute Rubber Stamps: challenge and freebie
Cupcake craft Challenges #106: let´s get digital
Party time Tuesdays #14: brads
The Creative Cottage challenge #22: celebrations
Glitterbabe´s challenge #10: free up a freebie
Paper Play challenge #35: in stitches

{back to school} mood...

it´s a great feeling to be inspired, lots of ideas popping into my brain... but why do I have to wait until the last day???!!! well... that´s me!
I made another pencil holder with these adorable cups (first pencil holder here). This time I used Mary Margaret, teacher´s pet from Michelle Perkett (her Etsy shop here!)

this is my first paper piecing work and I LOVED the technique! I don´t know why I didn´t use it before... I printed the image twice: one on white paper and another on a digitalized dictionary text made by Mel (if you can visit her awesome blog, you won´t regret it!). I took the white image and colored it with colored pencils leaving out the dress. I cut around her arms to make room so I could slip under the dress. Then I colored MM´s dress with colored pencils, cut it and glued it to the base image, and I slipped a piece of cardstock under her dress and the apple to give a little bit of dimension.

To decorate the cup I started with a strip of craft paper and distressed it with chalks. I made two borders to layer the craft paper: the first one I cut it with a hand drawn scalloped shape and the second one with edge scissors, and distressed them both before attaching them to the craft paper. The apples: I started with a scrap of polka dot paper and printed on the wrong side apples, cut them around and distressed them also. Took some green felt and cut three circles that I decorated their borders with decorative stitches, my first try! that´s why they are not even at all... I found how in a very old fabric dolls book that belonged to my grandma. And I finished the apples with buttons my MIL saved for me with a couple of stitches to hold everything together before gluing them to the pencil holder.

The pencils on the first picture seemed to plain, so I made tags for them. My first inchies!! (I´m full of firsts today!) I cut four 1.5 in diameter circles of craft cardstock and decorating them with scraps of everything.
Side 1

Side 2

Part of the images are from Shirley´s 2 girls and I colored them also with colored pencils. I distressed the edges with chalks, added some stickers (hearts and stars), used edge scissors, doodled with white gel pen, used scraps of felt, made a hole with a paper punch and tied them to the pencils with raffia.

Hope you like my project and maybe inspired you to make a set like this one too!

I´m joining:
Cupcake Craft Challenge #106: let´g get digital
Digital Tuesday Challenge #74: make a gift set
One Stitch at a Time Challenge # 28: girly
Bee Crafty Challenge #37: anything goes

Write a story...

and share it with your friends!

I altered this notebook for my daughter, she likes to write and I thought this would be a nice gift for her now that a new school year is approaching.

the image is Stella the summer story teller by Michelle Perkett (you can find it here). Coloring this too-cute image made me spend a wonderful time, I used almost all my coloring mediums: colored pencils, crayons, oil pastels, chalks and eye shadow; some parts are blended with gamsol, some with mineral oil and others without blending. I matted the image with patterned papers and doodled a line around them like a frame, I was not careful at all while drawing them and I think they go good with the image.

the sentiment is hand written on the patterned paper with gel pen. The papers are from Summer Driggs, you can see her wonderful work here. I hand cut a scalloped border on the orange paper and I traced it with gel pen also. The faux stitching is a rub on I had for ages. And I finished the notebook with a flower made out of the DP (a left over flower from this project!). It´s a simple decoration but I didn´t want to add anything too bulky or something that could be easily broken, I want my daughter to use it and share her stories.
Hope you like it!
I´m playing at:
Pollycraft Monday Challenge #59: add a little nature
Cupcake Craft Challenge #106: let´s get digital
Digital Tuesday Challenge #74: make a gift set
Flutter by Wednesday Challenge #119: anything goes with a butterfly, fairy or angel

Dancing...

What a beautiful image from Isabella´s Sketchbook! This is Elizabeth Ballerina colored with colored pencils and blended with gamsol.
I used all scraps to make this tiny card (it´s 2x4 in!), even the embroidery floss I used to stitch the glass beads is a scrap. The green border I took it from an old card, it was completely off there, I think it looks much more better here... Recycle, reduce, reuse!!
I´m joining the following challenges:
Isabella´s Sketchbook challenge blog: scraps!
Digital Tuesday challenge: butterflies and/or lace
Cupcake Craft challenge blog: lace
Creative Inspirations challenge blog: recycle

What a lot of fun I´m having these days... thanks everybody for the wonderful challenges!!

Happy day!

Isn´t this image gorgeous?!? It´s Camile from Michelle Perkett (her Etsy shop here)

It deserves a front view too!
I was cleaning up my craft room this morning and I found (again) some old papers that I still like and I wanted to used them today... and hopefully tomorrow! so you´ll be seen them very ofter from now. I still think they are pretty papers, very out of fashion but pretty. Ribbon and lace are from my stash.

I colored the image with colored pencils and blended them with mineral oil, cut it and added dots of pearled paint before placing it to the card with foam tape.

The sentiment is a very old clear dollar stamp I stamped twice (straight and upside down) on a scrap of paper, cut around it and matted it with a scrap of the cardstock used for the card base. I painted two dots of pearl paint before attaching it to the front of the card with foam tape.
I´m entering this card in the following challenges:
Aly´s Sunday Challenge: under or by the sea
Truly Scumptious: old stamp in my case
Sentimental Sunday´s: anything goes
Cupcake Craft: lace
Digital Tuesday: butterflies or lace
Party Time: anything goes

Celebrate!

I was in a happy mood yesterday so I made a birthday card! I had this patterned paper for a very long time, and even though I like its bright and party colors, I´ve never put myself to use it, but not anymore!

I used this cute cupcake, with Ratiny peeking from behind, Elizabeth so generously gave as a freebie in her blog(Softpencil).

I colored it with colored pencils, added some glitter on the little hearts and rubbed with my finger some body shimmer dust on the icing to make it shine, and place the image with foam tape. Because it was so long since I participated at Aly´s Sunday challenge blog I added some faux stitching to enter this card on the contest.

As an embellishment I put on a piece of foam tape a sticker I also had for a long time (don´t ask me why I didn´t use it yet... shame on me...) the previously put it on a scrap of cardstock and cut around. Added also a white cord that I tried to make it looks naturally curled, I´m not sure if it looks like I wanted but I´m pleased with the final result.
I´m entering this at Cupcake Craft challenge blog also where we have to use something sparkly on our project.
I think the card looks better that in my pictures, it was a rainy day today so not much daylight available, if I can make a better picture when we have sunshine I´ll update it.