more than chocolate...

I love you

more than chocolate

This is a gate fold card-wall hanger (something like 2 in 1) I made for my sweetheart for Valentine´s day. I gave it to him just a few minutes ago after we had a wonderful dinner I made for him: cheese fondue with boiled vegetables, and for dessert: chocolate brownie-like cake with strawberry ice cream.

Back to my card! I´m using here two images from Glitterbabe: Lacy Heart and HugsNKisses. I printed the heart on yellow cardstock (the reverse side of another patterned paper) and shaded it with colored pencils, then I glittered it all over.

The kisses were printed on scraps of chocolate cardstock and I added a tiny red heart sticker. The outside kiss was placed with foam tape on the heart to give the card a bit of dimension.

The front of the card is made with acetate to show the pretty patterned paper I used on the inside, I drawn stitches with white gel pen around the gate fold card and on the outer side of the piece of cardstock (another left over of the file folders) that forms the wall hanger. I added a piece of ribbon from my stash where it can be hung.
I almost forgot! The sentiment on the heart is a freebie I had for ages from Heavens Dreams.
This was very easy and a lot of fun to make! hope you like it and thanks for stopping!

I´m playing with this one at:
The Outlawz at their Saturday´s scrapbooking challenge: add a heart or the word love
Catch the bug: different fold

Digital scrapbooking! again...

I´ve started organizing my craft room... do you know what that means???????? now it looks like a bomb had exploded in my tiny room! but this is something I need to do, for my sanity first of all, second because I need to put back everything again, third because I don´t have the slightest idea of what I have... I did my first step and I´m very pleased with the result: I sorted all my digital stuff (papers, embellishments, templates, etc...) and I´m almost done with all my scraps of paper! the only problem I have now is I can not play as freely as I want, so maybe for a few weeks I won´t do much of crafting (but I hope will do LOT of organizing my place!).

Meanwhile, and just to keep my creativity flowing I made a digital scrapbook page to play at The Outlawz on their Satuday´s scrapbooking challenge group. This time we have to follow a recipe: 1 solid cardstock, 2 photos, 3 patterned papers and 4 (or more) embellishments.

I´m scrapping my favorite recipe: Magdalenas (a Spanish cupcake). Well, actually it´s not the recipe, just the picture of the yummy cupcake, I´m planning to scrap the recipe on a second page (stay tunned!! but if you don´t want to wait I already posted it last year, here).  On this layout I used a lot of digital goodies from wonderful creative people that give their time and amazing work for free: Summer Driggs, Deb from The Stampin Cop and Designs by Angelica.
Thanks for stopping!

What I´ve been up to...

Hi there! for those who are wondering I´m still here!!
These past weeks I´ve been very busy finishing my niece´s Sweet 15 invite cards. I started making them a few months ago but when you have a deadline and you need to give the finishing touches everything get hectic. So here are the 100 invites I´m sending today to my niece, she chose three different designs:
Card 1

I tried to use a simple design inside and outside: an image, a ruffled ribbon and an embellishement. The image is a colored lineart I found at deviantArt and I cut dragonflies with my cricut machine and glittered them after.

Card 2

On this one I used some PS brushes to make every part, then I cut by hand the main sakura flower and the inside sentiment and curled their borders before placing them on the card. I chose a very pretty ribbon that I hot gued to the front as the embellishment.

And finally card 3

For this one I used an already colored medallion from Fred she said as the main image. I cut the center part of it and used foam tape for dimension. Because this one is a very simple card I gave it a few touches: I used pearled white paper as the base and I embellished the main flower with a nice, beautifully sparkling rhinestone. The black border on the front is made with my cricut and the patterned paper is also from Fred she said, the colors match perfectly!

And while I was finishing these cards, just not to loose my mojo I made a couple of digital scrapbook pages to play at The Outlawz Challenges on their Saturday´s scrapbooking challenge group.
For this one we had to use swirls and butterflies:

I´m using here a kit Cosmos from Akizo Designs to scrap a picture of my daughter on our last summer vacations.
And on the second one we had to add stitches and fabric:

this challenge got me thinking a couple of days how to use fabric on my layout but (lucky me!) I found a pretty digital kit with a cute lace envelope (Cold as Ice from Fantasy Moments). I´m not completely confortable how I used the colors, I played with this layout at the color challenge group at The Outlawz too, and the challenge was celadron, lavander and white; if you have any suggestions how to make it look more balanced I will really appreciate it. The sketch is from Lasting Memories Layout challenges but I didn´t finish my layout on time to play at their challenge. The title is a sentiment from TlcCreations.

To finish this long post I just wanted to ask you forgive my spelling today since the "check spelling" feature of blogger is not working today for me... Thanks for stopping! have a great day ☺

I {♥} U

It was ages since I didn´t use a digital image on my cards... I like how this one turned out, very easy to make too!

This weekend I was lacking of inspiration so I decided to make some flowers and embellishments while my mojo was getting back to me. I made this heart to try this yo-yo heart embellishment I saw a while ago here. I printed the letters on cardstock, cut them and glittered them with white chunk glitter.

I cut a strip of embossed vellum paper from my stash and glued it to the bottom part of the card (not sure if you can see it from the picture...), glued a scrap of red net and on top I ruffled a piece of white sheer ribbon from my stash too. Finally I hot glued the letter and heart.
Thanks for stopping!

I´m playing at:
The Outlawz at their Sunday´s Clean and Simple challenge: sketch
Cupcake Inspiration challenge #95
Pile it on challenge #4: love is in the air!
Waltzingmouse challenge #31

Celebrate with a pretty dress...

 I´m loving this image! it´s Put on your party dress from Michelle Perkett. I colored the cute dress with colored pencils (no blending this time), glued some iridescent pink sequins and added tiny dots of pearl paint on the center of the flowers.

It might look a time consuming card but surprisingly it´s not; it took me less than one hour to finish it all, stitches included! So here is how I made it: I took a scrap piece of patterned paper and layered it with pink cardstock, then I added dots of pearl paint around the DP and added a few on it. Because I´m following Michelle Perkett Studio challenge sketch, I faux stitched strips with white gel pen and I real stitched light pink glass sees beads on their centers.

Then I placed the DP with foam tape on the center of the card, and on top of it I placed the image (with foam tape too), and added a sentiment that is an old clear sticker.

It looks better in real life, but I don´t have good light at home to take pictures at night... Thanks for looking!!

I´m playing at:
The Outlawz at their Thursday´s Prismas and other medium group: anything goes
The Outlawz at their Tuesday´s Color challenge group: pink and brown
The Outlawz at their Monday´s Birthday cards: pink brown and green
Michelle Perkett Studio challenge: sketch
Pollycraft challenge #76: pastel colors
Inkspirations color challenge #54

{LAVA} U!

How cute is this image??!! it´s Lava lamp from Glitterbabe (check out Stef´s art shop here!) This card is very simple and here is how I made it: I colored the image with colored pencils and blended them with mineral oil. I wet my fingertip with glue and touched slightly the image, then sprinkled glitter on the lava to add sparkle! Cut the image around and placed it on the card with foam tape.

Then I took a scrap of paper to stamp the sentiment with alphabet rubber stamps (from Image Tree), cut one end and curled it a bit before attaching it to the card.

The flower is made with a piece of an old ribbon I had on my stash that I ruffled by pulling at the white thread on one side, tied it with a knot on the back and glued it to the card, then I attached an iridescent flat bottom pearl on its center. And that´s it!

I´m playing at:
The Outlawz at their Sunday´s Clean and Simple group: Recipe -> color Red and one embellishment
The shabby tea room challenge #45: white and bright
All that scraps: early valentine ideas
Little red wagon challenge #64: one layer wonder
For Fun: everything glitter

Funny frames

I supposedly had to finish these funny frames a week and a half ago... but well... better late than never, right?! And here they are! I made 7! (click to enlarge)

I wanted to make a little something for my sweetheart co-workers for The three wise man´s day (it was the 6th of January), that´s the day where all presents are exchanged instead of Christmas Day, so I thought it could be nice to give them something to make them smile since they are very nice people and the hard work they do is not always acknowledged by most of us (myself included), until you have to do it (or like me, you have someone very near you doing it)... they are operators for an insurance company and I know sometimes it can be a very tough job.

All images are from Bugaboo Stamps, Jodie has an amazing creativity and sense of humor, she does wonderful images for us to enjoy and laugh and has developed several funny characters like Stella I like so much. I colored them with colored pencils and blended some parts with mineral oil. The sentiments are all hand written in Spanish but they are translations of the sentiments that come along with Jodie´s images, not only from the images I´m using here but from others that fit well with the message I wanted them to have.
What I did is a frame to stand at a desk (for example...), I found the pattern at Peet´s blog (another amazing crafter!) and used some file folders I saved from the bin at work some weeks ago... the patterned papers are from a very old stash I have, I finished them with some glittery touches (rhinestones, glitter glue, clear decoupage glue for glass effect) and faux stitches made with white gel pen. Here is the back view

And here a front view of each one, click on them to larger if you want to see them better ☺

And I made a simple envelope to wrap them with thin craft paper, a piece of thin raffia tied with a knot and the recipient´s name written with marker on the front.

My sweetheart gave them to his friends today and my funny frames were a success!!! I´m so glad they liked them because these crafts are unique and personalized (I did some research about the personalities and likings of my hubby co-workers before starting), and I made them just for each of them!
Thanks for looking!!!

I´m playing at:
The Outlawz Challenges at their Thursday´s Prisma & other medium group: Prisma and petals
Pollycraft Monday Challenge #76: pastel colors
Meljen challenge #41: square or round shaped card (they are not actually cards so you are free to remove my entry if it doesn´t fit ☺)

A warm hello!

It´s been weeks since my last post, I hope I still remember how to do it right!
Today I´m sharing with you a card I made to inspire you all at Glitterbabe´s Challenge blog where the theme this week is Winter!

In principle is a simple card but I added some details because I was having so much fun with it! first I chose Clean and Simple sketch #122, the papers are scraps from papers I used previously (the base cardstock here and patterned paper here), added a few ribbons with coordinating colors from my stash, and made a flower stitching a thin ribbon to which I glued a snowflake sequin and embellished with a button. The sentiment is hand written as you can see in my very bad letters... I need to work on that...

The image is Sign Snowman from Glitterbabe (pay a visit to her Art shop here!) and it comes with sentiments! but this time I added the sentiment myself with PS. I colored the snowmen with colored pencils and added black glitter to its hat, clear glitter glue to the banner and buckle, glued some blue glass seed beads on its scarf and finished it with two small buttons. Cut the image around and placed it with foam tape.
I think it turned out very sweet, when I see that smiley face it makes me smile too!
I´m playing at:
Dancing in Pajamas: ribbon
Creative Belli challenge #108: snow
All that scraps: snowmen

a last minute tag

Second post today, woo hoo!! I enjoyed my crafty weekend a lot! you´ll see...

I bought my sweetheart a little Christmas present, here they don´t give presents on Christmas day but the 6th of January: The three Wise men Day, but because we do it on my country I always give him a little something. So I put his present on a lunch paper bag but it was too plain so I made this last minute tag with scraps of everything I found in the folder I have just for scraps...

the image is Whimsical cardinals from Designed to Delight colored with colored pencils following the same color scheme I used for the card I was going to give along with the present (you can see it here). The round calendar is from Sueli that I printed it out on another scrap of the same cardstok I used for the tag base. I placed the image and the calendar with foam tape and tied the tag with a piece of raffia to the bag.

I´m playing at the following places:
Delightful Inspiration challenge: December week 4
Sarah Hurley challenge #23: last minute Christmas cheer
Simple doodles challenge #33: tag it out

Snow one like you...

This is a card I made this weekend, I´m using some digital paper I was not able to remember where I found it, if you know, please let me know and I´ll give credit of it, it´s so beautiful! soft and pretty colors...

The image is Snow Goddess from Michelle Perkett colored with colored pencils and placed it with foam tape. It´s a very simple card: I ruffled a piece of ribbon, added a felt snowflake that I glued a flower on its center and decorated with glass seed beads, the most demanding part was coloring the image but it´s so gorgeous you don´t mind spending some time in it at all!

I´m playing at:
Michelle Perkett Studio Challenge blog: let it snow
Our creative corner: fa-la-la-felt
Fussy and fancy: snow

A tag

Love this pixie, beautiful image! it´s from A day for Daisies and I made this tag to play at their challenge blog. All papers are from my stash as are the embellishments. I started by giving shape to a scrap piece of red cardstock, I used a template I found at Lilly of the Valley place that I modified a bit.

Then I cut a piece of this gorgeous embossed vellum paper and placed it on the tag, and on top of this layer I glued a piece of this gift wrap paper I used as patterned paper. I glued clear sequins around the patterned paper, once it was dry I pierced the holes to stitch light pink seed beads with white embroidery floss.

I colored the image with colored pencils and used mineral oil to blend the wax. Glittered the pixie wings and cut carefully around before placing the image with foam tape on the tag. I finished it with a piece of tinsel that I stapled it to the tag.

I´m playing at:
A day for daisies challenge #8: tinsel and tags
CES challenge #17: anything goes
Allsorts challenge #83: anything goes
Pile it on challenge #48: gift wrapping or tags
Paper sundaes challenge #49: cut it out
Aly´s Sunday challenge #32: anything goes
ColourQ #64
For fun: anything goes

Snowman of ♥Love♥

This card was made in just a few minutes, I´ll try to remember this day next year when I start to make Christmas cards, maybe once in my life I won´t be late!

I opened the image (Snowman Love from Designed to Delight) and sentiment (from Elisa) in PS, open a new file with the dimension of the card and dragged the images in, resizing them to have them in the right position. Took a blank card and printed the file right on the cardstock and voilá! ready to color and embellish!

To color the image I used just colored pencils. Added a bit of decoupage glue on the hearts to give them a nice shiny look, and glittered the snow and the center of the snowflake to add sparkle. This one is for my sweetheart, hope he is not reading this!

I´m playing with this card at:
Delightful Inspiration challenge: December week 3
CES challenge #17: anything goes
Allsorts challenge #83: anything goes
Sweet stampin: celebrations
Fussy and fancy: snow
The corrosive challenge blog #95: non traditional Christmas colors

Wishing peace

Another Christmas card, and I think it´s one of the last I´ll make this year, not because I don´t like them, on the contrary! it´s too late to send them now!!

On to my card again: I used Earth from Michelle Perkett (you can find her beautiful images here) that I colored with colored pencils, some parts are blended with mineral oil. I added dots of white pearl paint on the centers of the flowers and a few green rhinestones.

I pleated a piece of red ribbon to embellish the front of the card and attached the image with foam tape. The base of the card is an opaque acetate sheet (those you find at office supplies to bind sheets) I saved from the bin (again!) at work. I added clear stickers to write the sentiment.

On the inside I glued the patterned paper, it´s a very festive gift wrapping paper, loved the colors! I cut the borders with edge scissors and added the sentiment (from Elisa) with foam tape too and a bit of the same red ribbon. And that´s it! simple but I like it a lot too ☺

I´m playing at the following challenges:
Michelle Perkett Studio challenge blog: have a merry little Christmas
Creative Belli challenge #106: Christmas embellishments/papers
Stamping for the weekend challenge #53: Christmas
CES challenge #17: anything goes
Allsorts challenge #83: anything goes