Maria Isabel's Magical Emporium

Ive moved!

2010-01-15T17:06:00.000-08:00

New and way better blog:
check it out!

In love with vinegar

2009-04-08T14:55:00.000-07:00

In my odyssey of living more effectively and let's admit it , more cheaply I came to a very surprising conclusion: I love vinegar. Not only can I make a mean vinaigrette for my salad, but i can clean my hole house with half a bottle of vinegar. now I'm using vinegar in my garden too! I'm saving a lot of money from laundry detergent, floor cleaner, dish washing liquid soap and pesticides by simply switching to using vinegar and baking soda. I found a lot of tips from Vinegar Tips - 1001 uses for white distilled vinegar.
I'm calculating this weeks I saved more than $10 on cleaning supplies that were affecting my health and our earth! make the switch today, its easier than what you might think!

Chunky House Swap Round 2

2009-04-02T22:12:00.001-07:00

Most of my partners for this swap have received and kindly taken pictures of the houses they received. Only one house is missing, I will post a picture when it gets to its destination.

The house on the right was sent to Avasthiel. I colored with chalk pastels and a black sharpie over a book page of the german vertion of The count of Monte Cristo. It was a gift from my friend Tero who used to live in Germany. I love that book so much! It gives my craft sucha good vibe.
The yellow side is actually the back I painted with acrylics and stamped a bit. I also incorporated pearls (freshwater pearls) and some ribbon.

The House on the left is more chunky. I experimented using two layers of cardboard, making a hole in one and placing an image of a bird throug it. Its my favourite of the houses so far.

And last but not least is teh Queen's house I sent to my friend Krista. We had been partnered on the 1st round so I know her pretty well. She has a baby about the same age as my dear Sophie.The Queen is a card from Germany, also sent by Tero. The background is a series of drawings in chalk and Sharpie over another page of The Count of Monte Cristo.

Tomorow I hope to go thrifting so keep on the lookout for some new projects!

PS The Papercrafts Board Challenge is due the 8th so I have to get to work if I plan on finishing on time!

Xox0!
maria isabel

Pattern : Curiouser & curiouser!

2009-03-31T06:21:00.000-07:00

A free pattern for anyone who wants to make a pinup Alice of their own. Enjoy!
XOXO,
Maria Isabel

Embroidery challenge!

2009-03-31T05:50:00.000-07:00

I decided to swap less and enter some challenges I had been eyeing a bit. The fist one due was the embroidery challenge. Now I know what you can be thinking: you don't know how to embroider. So I took all my House watching time and employed it into learning this wonderfully fun and easy art: embroidery. The Internet is really a great tool if used properly, I found amazing video tutorials on many stitches and a great blog about tinting fabric with crayons.
Needle-n- thread is a great site that has free videos on many stitches. I learned the back stitch, satin stitch, seed stitch and the french knot for my project. They have a great video library and great reviews on products and techniques.
For the crayon tinting I followed this tutorial on a blog called The Floss Box. She is a Craftster member too!
I tried first to tint my fabric (before starting on the embroidery) using oil pastels, but the color just leaked everywhere making a huge mess. Then I tried using chalk pastels but in the pre-wash it washed away leaving an ugly stain on the fabric. On the third try I used Crayola crayons and it looks fantastic! I went crazy with color and colored inside the patterns and the outside too (the green). Next time I will go more easy on it ;)
I'm loving embroidery so keep on the lookout for some more embroidery goodness!
XOXO
Maria Isabel

Valentine's Day Charity Project

2009-01-28T14:55:00.000-08:00

I love making things for others, specially those that need a little love, even if it is frmo a stranger. This valentine's day im making cards to be delived to elderly people in New York. This great deed is made year after year by Citymeals-on-wheels . My goal is to make at least 10 cards. You can find out more through Etsy who teamed up with Citymeals-on- wheels to bring some loving to these homebound folks. Please try to cooperate, even just one card can make someone feel loved and apreciated!

Chunky Houses

2009-01-28T07:07:00.001-08:00

There are rumors of another round of Chunky Houses Swap over at Craftster's so I thought I would share the ones I received for the 1st round. I am looking forward to make more houses since I did not take pictures of the ones I sent out.
Happy crafting,
pizzacravings

Rony the Scarecrow

2009-01-26T00:56:00.000-08:00

It swooshed with the wind,
His hat flew off
and landed on the field
Rony was sad
Oh so so sad!
The wind swooshed and ooched,
and ruffled his shirt,
It was a playfull wind,
without a care,
but that silly wind,
meant no harm,
just wanted to play.

Thoughts....

2009-01-19T11:22:00.000-08:00

As the new year closes its first month, start of the year resolutions pop into consiusness. How realistic are these resolutions? It bad enough ending a year knowing you are getting older and more irrelevant , living in a society were age is not seen as something that brings wisdom but rather something that is ugly, forbiden, even gross. To those end-of - year thoughts, add the self dissapointment of realizing you did not keep that year's resolutions.
To prevent this anual trajedy I will NOT make any resolutions, but rather make goals. My goals for this year are quite simple: craft more, write more and exercise more. The first I have done, the second im working on it and the third is in the works (I need proper shoes!).

I made 3 beautiful postcards today from recycled materials. It may not seem like much, but for me its the begining of a new life, a new year, a new adventure.

"Time is not in our hands, people. It is merely a stae of mind. Either we have it or we dont, we want it or we dont, we use it or we waste it."

"Things we want in life are placed in a platter before us, its only our task to know how and when to reach for it."

"To take time to feel the beeze and to have some tea is to live."

So go ahead, make something, laugh, live!
XOXO
Maria Isabel