Time to Move On…

Hello friends!  It’s a sad/happy good-bye today.

I wasn’t sure weather or not I was going to be typing this up at the beginning of this year or not, but with the way the world has been with covid, it actually has given me a reason to “put this off” for a while.

I had actually planned on making this post last year around the time my husband retired from his job as we had lots of plans and my time would be occupied with other things besides having a blog, being on design teams, etc.  When covid happened, it really haulted most all of our plans and was really disappointing, but hopefully now with vaccines coming shortly we can “get back” to some type of normal soon.  We still plan on continuing with our plans as we get closer to those goals we set ourselves and we look forward to enjoying our lives!

That’s the “happy” part of this post is the looking forward to what’s coming and the enjoyment of life together with my husband… but the sad part is saying good-bye to all of my wonderful and faithful friends that have followed me here and everywhere I’ve been on the Internet for several years.  I thank you SO MUCH for your kind support, friendship and inspiration that you’ve always given and I will miss that most of all for sure.

But in talking with my husband, it’s time for me to say good-bye to my blog and being on design teams along with struggling to try and post something when I probably won’t have the time or material to keep a blog going in the near future.  I’ve had a blog for the most part on different platforms since 2006 and that’s quite a while to be doing this.  I’ve had so many different experiences, made so many different projects and have met and made so many different crafty friends.  It’s been such a rememberable experience in so many different ways and I’m thrilled you have come along and touched my journey in some way.  It was meant to be, but now it’s time for me to move on.  (No, I won’t be coming back this time.)

No, I will not be giving up crafting all together.  As long as I have time to set aside for crafting, I will continue to do it, but it won’t be enough to keep up with a blog and it will be a very random thing.  So I’m not giving up crafting, just having a blog or social media accounts.

I will have this stampedsmiles.com domain until the end of May.  After that point, this blog will revert to stampedsmiles.wordpress.com if you care to see anything after that point. I will not be on Instragram any longer nor have a Facebook Page.  Just my personal account and that’s all.

In the words of a REO Speedwagon song…”I know it hurts to say good-bye, but it’s time for me to fly.”

Happy crafting, stay healthy and happy sweet people!💗💗💗

*Vicki*28 Comments

Adelina Fairy from Digi Doodle Studios Celebrating Peace & Happiness for 2021🎉

Hello friends!  It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m so excited to kick this year to the curb…how about you?!  Whatever your plans are to ring in the New Year, please stay safe and enjoy sharing with those you love for hope of peace and happiness in the New Year for 2021!❤🎉

Today, I have a card that I’ve made for a challenge deadline and needed to have it in by today, so I wanted to be sure to share it with you all:

This was actually a “Digital freebie” from the Kit and Clowder Group Advent Calendar of Events they do every year.  Digi Doodle Studios gave away this darling image called Adelina-Fairy. (If you like the fairy/angel type images, check out these gorgeous images HERE as well!)

I made this card and colored up this sweet image as the Digi Doodle Studios Facebook Group was holding a special “coloring challenge” using this specific image and I wanted to make sure that it met the deadline for getting it in and so I actually posted it in there yesterday, but I’m posting on my blog today along with more photos and details.

The image is beautiful with her poinsettia flowers and so I wanted to be sure to color it up with red and green colors in mind…although I think she would be great for ANY occasion as well as coloring the flowers differently.  I used some die cut circles for cutting her out with and then layering her over a die cut piece of gold mirror cardstock.

I’ve used some poinsettia decorative papers from my stash for the background and layered some red poinsettia embossed strips layered with gold mirror cardstock over the background before adding the layered circle image on top.  The embossed strips also had white ink rubbed over top lightly to emphasize the textures.  I white heat embossed a sentiment and cut it out with a banner die to place on the bottom corner with craft foam which is what I also added behind the image circle panel too.

Before attaching the bottom strip to the card, I also added some gold cord and a bow.  I finished off the card with three poinsettia flowers from my stash.  The entire card measures 5″ square.

Here’s a closer view of the image and how I’ve got her colored up.  I added some really subtle shading with my Copics underneath her legs for shadows.  I did my usual white gel pen for checks and hightlights and then I used a gold gel pen for coloring in the dots on her wings and in her hair.

Really enjoyed coloring this gorgeous image and it’s awesome that I now have another Christmas card ready for next year as well!  Thanks so much for stopping in today!  Hope that you’ve enjoyed my final card and post for the year…

Speaking of which…I thought it would be fun to share this photo with you of my top nine posts on Instagram for 2020

I want to thank each and everyone of you for the wonderful support, kindness and friendship you have given to me this past year.  It really means so much to me and it’s been quite a year of creativity too!  I see that so many of my favorite companies are represented as my top photos which tickles me so much!

Here’s to wishing us ALL a happy, healthy and prosperous life in 2021!!🎉

See you in the New Year friends!

Challenges:

  1. Digi Doodle Studios Facebook Group – coloring challenge using this image
  2. Double D – Poinsettia
  3. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
  4. Creative Moments – #205 Anything Goes
  5. Die Cut Divas – Anything Goes December

*Vicki*22 Comments

Christmas Chaos Finish Line…

Hello friends!!  I sure hope you’ve all had a wonderful Christmas! I am sure looking forward to starting a New Year as well!  Moving on to positive things for sure!😀

**Needed to apologize for anyone who subscribes to my blog via e-mail and couldn’t get the link to work from my last post.  I don’t know what happened, but it got “wonky” when I scheduled it.  CLICK HERE for the link to that post if you didn’t get a chance to view it.**  THANK YOU!

Although I’m finished with sending out my Christmas cards, I still enjoy creating for Christmas and can ALWAYS get a good start on Christmas cards for the next year too, so that’s what this fun “Bugaboo Holiday Chaos” challenge event has alotted me to do and have some fun!  So this post will finish up the last of my projects for that event before the deadline is up! (To see the first 3 challenge projects I made CLICK HERE for that post.)

Here are my projects to finish up the challenges:

This card was made for the Holiday Chaos Bingo Challenge on Day 4.  There was also this really adorable freebie up that day, so I wanted to be sure to grab it while it was available.  This is the Kidz Reindeer image and I enjoyed coloring him up for my card here. For the Bingo, I used the middle row across, but could also have used the first row down or first square diagnol too. (See photo below)

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I happened to have some Christmas Lights pattern paper with some of the green lightbulbs foiled on it.  I thought the green shimmer ribbon would go well with that and break up the “busy-ness” of it!  I took a Christmas Lights die from Lawn Fawn to attach across the the card and image panel and then white heat embossed a sentiment at the bottom.  I’ve used some glitter for the snow around the image and then I’ve covered all the Christmas Lights with glossy accents. 

If you know Bugaboo Stamps, then you gotta love Stella!😂  This was made for Day 5 Holiday Chaos with the theme “Make Us Laugh”.  So of course my mind went to Stella and I thought this Stella Calendar November was a good one for a laugh about now as we were just hit with a winter storm with snow and ice.

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Found some snowflake papers and paired her with some purple colors along with just adding some silver glitter snowflakes to the design.  I added a button in the center of one of them and attached a sliver bow over top.

Stella’s glasses were colored in with a gel pen for the shine. 

This card was created for Day 6 Photo Inspired Challenge. (See photo below)  I thought it was such a darling photo and I noticed that the deer in the photo was so large compared to that little girl and so I was trying to capture that detail about with the photo by making the Bugaboo Ornament Element and this cute moose that was actually part of a tag image that I fussy cut out and attached him to the ornament. (I can’t find the moose I used in the store.)  I die cut a snowflake and the “believe” word to attach over top of the ornament.  I then took the sweet Bugaboo Ava Mistletoe Fairy that I’ve colored and fussy cut out in a smaller size to place on my scene.

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The scene was created with some white Glitterstock that was die cut with a hillside border die with some die cut pines behind it.  I also used an embossing folder for the snowfall in the background.  I colored the snow with a Copic marker under the images before I attached them to the scene.

And this card was made for the final Day 7 color combo challenge.  Plus, there was this really fun and cute freebie during the event that I grabbed up again before it expired, but it’s the Bugaboo AKV Reindeer Skate image.  I colored him up and even created an “ice rink” for him with a pen and then used a Copic marker to make a “skating trail” inside the rink and then I covered the entire area with a glitter pen for shimmer.  I also stamped some snowflakes above him and dotted the centers with a gold gel pen which was also used to color part of his scarf with.

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I added some papers to the opposite side of the image panel and lined the center between with gold foil paper.  I also gold heat embossed a sentiment over a red banner at the bottom and attached three gold accents at the top too.  The base of the card is kraft. Hopefully I have met all the challenges.😉

Thank you SO MUCH for joining me here today friends!  I will be back with just one more project for tomorrow as I need to meet another deadline for a challenge…so I’ll see you again soon!

Challenges:

  1. Catch the Bug – Holiday Chaos Day 4 BINGO!
  2. Catch the Bug – Holiday Chaos Day 5 “Make Us Laugh!”
  3. Catch the Bug – Holiday Chaos Day 6 Photo Inspiration
  4. Catch the Bug – Holiday Chaos Day 7 Color Combo
  5. Papercraft – #65 Snowflakes (second card)
  6. CRAFT – #581 Christmas the Last Stretch
  7. Alphabet Challenge – ‘S’ is for Snow Scene (third card)
  8. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – #148 Anything Goes
  9. Christmas Kickstart – #45 Christmassy

*Vicki*25 Comments

Christmas Cards, Projects and Cookies…ready for Santa!🎅

Hello friends!  We’re here!  We made it to Christmas Eve!😀  My cards have been sent out, my cookies are done and delivered as well as my other little gifts.  This is quite a long post, so grab your hot cocoa or whatever your favorite beverage is and a Christmas cookie or treat and let’s see what I’ve been doing this past week:

So starting with my Christmas cards, I usually make around 40ish cards each year give-or-take and I only like to make a handful of them at a time for not only boredom of the same design, but for product depletion as well.

So back in July, I purchased this really adorable card kit from Taylored Expressions (included was the Frosty Background Cling and Clear Combo set + more.) that came with coordinated colored envelopes as well as the seals.  So I made a set of four different colored designs in two of each one.  The snowmen were popped up with foam squares over the backgrounds and I added some fun Snowflake bits that were included with the kit as well.

Next up is another set of cards I made using some more gorgeous products from Taylored Expressions.  I’ve used the Seasonal Sprig stamp and die combo along with the stencil to color them in with.  Some of these I ink blended the backgrounds, so I just used cardstock with a watermark effect and a white heat embossed sentiment.  I used the die to cut an extra frame behind the stamped one for added stability.  I made 4 of each design shown here for a total of 16.

I then made another set of four using the same products, but for these I gold heat embossed the image and sentiment and then used some watercolor for coloring it in with.  I also got some of these coordinating envelope seals to use on about 10 of the 16 cards.  (No longer available in store.)  I’ve also partially ink blended the background behind the frame on these as well.

Here are some cards that I’ve actually made a total of 8 similar designs using the large wording background dies from My Favorite Things.  I’ve used the “Sending Christmas Joy” and “I Really Miss You” dies for all eight of these, but only after I stamped the backgrounds.  I used the MFT Knitted Sweater BG stamp and the Brutus Monroe Alley Cat BG stamp for a couple of backgrounds before I die cut them.  Then I used the die cut letters to place into the other backgrounds on the cards to get that look.  So it was like creating 2 cards with one cut and filling it all in.  (For the BRM background stamp, I ink blended the background and stamped it as a watermark effect over it and then took the “left over” ink from that to stamp it again to create an additional BG.) I then cut out each of the panels with the MFT Wonky Stitched Rectangle die and placed over a white A2 sized side folding card base.  The penguin image is from the MFT Holiday Penguins set and the bird on the other one is from the MFT “Tweet Holidays” (Not found in store.)

And then of course you don’t want to waste any backgrounds you’ve made, so you make more cards!  I’ve used a couple more images to personalize the design for people too.  I combined the sets Newton’s Nook Whispering Pines and the Lawn Fawn Winter Skies.  I think I took a set from them to create a sentiment to fit my cards as well. (not sure from which set.)

For the other card, I took this cute image from the Whimsy Stamps Gnome for Christmas stamp set, colored him up with my copics and cut him out with the coordinating die to pop him up over my card. (affiliate links for Whimsy Stamps)

And then for these set of 4 cards, I’ve just die cut a snowflake from some glitter paper and glued in the center of the “O” on each design and popped up a sentiment over that with foam tape stamped and die cut from the Taylored Expressions Mini Strips – Holiday and Mini Strips die.

And as you remember in a previous post those “recycled Crystal Light containers” that I make, I made another set of three of them here.  This time, I’ve used the Brutus Monroe Stamp of the Month (SOTM) along with the Stencil of the month for December for my designs here.  I just used my scissors to fussy cut those cute snowmen out as they were pretty simple to do and then I popped them up over an ink blended tag using the stencil over them.  I used coordinating cardstock and silver heat embossed the sentiment strip at the bottom and of course added my “snowman soup” poem on the back of the containers.  I’ve also added a layer of the BRM Sterling Elegant Essentials cardstock behind the tags.

And I made a couple of these darling ornaments from a fairly “new to me” company that I was actually introduced to with product during my time as a {Cupcake Inspirations} sweetie DT when they sponsored a challenge a while back.  P.S.  There are a few more days left to enter their current challenge of “SNOWFLAKES” if you want to pop on over to join us too!!

But I was so taken with this darling image and kit from Inky Stampers from this Snow Much Fun Kit.  You get the snowflake ornament (with string), the stamp set and die, papers, wobbler, along with glitter to complete it too!  Well I wanted to make more than one, so I grabbed another set of Snowflake Ornaments from the store and just added my own papers and glitter from my stash to make it.  

And of course, last, but certainly not least, here’s all of the Christmas treats that I’ve made to give out to family and of course for hubby to eat up as we went along too!😋  I have made from top left on down:  Homemade caramel corn, white chocolate covered pretzels, peanut butter fudge, molasses cookies, chocolate covered caramel pecan clusters, scottish peanut butter cereal cookies, chocolate fudge, snickerdoodles and chocolate crinkles.  Of course each family member has a favorite they like me to make and there are a couple of old recipes passed down from grandparents/parents that I like to add in as well.  They’re all delicious and I enjoyed making them.

Whew!  I’m ready for that “Looong winter’s nap” now!!🥱  I hope you’ve enjoyed my post today and it has brought you some inspiration and/or a smile somehow!  I have received some beautiful Christmas cards and I so appreciate them and have them all displayed by being pinned around my garland in our pass-through in the living room/dining area.  I think after a bit of rest, I need to finish up my projects for the “Bugaboo Christmas Chaos” that I haulted in the middle for to finish up Christmas projects….so I’ll be back soon with that.

In the meantime, I wish a MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!🎅

*Vicki*22 Comments

Snowflakes for {Cupcake Inspirations}

Hello friends!  Happy Monday!  Hope that you’ve had a wonderful weekend and are ready for Christmas to come!  This Friday will be Christmas Day and I’m happy to have everything finished and ready to deliver the cookies and presents to family and enjoy the time with my husband.  Hoping that next year will be looking much different too!  Are you ready for Christmas or just ready for the year to be finished? 😉

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Today is the start of a new challenge over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with the theme of “SNOWFLAKES“!  The only difference for this challenge is that it is only lasting for ONE week instead of the noraml 2 weeks.  Also, this will be my final post as a design team member for them as well.  I have really enjoyed being apart of this team as what’s better with crafting than with a cupcake inspired theme, right?!🧁😋  So I’m sure I’ll be inspired to play along with the challenges in the future as I have been!  Hope you’ve enjoyed my creations for this challenge.  Here is my “snowflake” cupcake inspired project for today:

I thought it would be appropriate to create a New Year’s themed card for this challenge as I don’t really need to make anymore Christmas cards, but sometimes I forget to send out a Christmas card to someone and don’t realize it until later, so that’s when a New Year’s card can come in handy! LOL!

I absolutely LOVE the fabulous slimline dies that Whimsy Stamps has!  Such a huge selection of them and I spotted this gorgeous Elegant Snowflakes and Border die and thought it would make some really incredible slimline style cards no matter what color scheme you have in mind!  I knew that I first wanted to try it out with some metallic mirror cardstock and I was also inspired by these gorgeous Gilded Holiday papers from Whimsy Stamps with the snowflakes in gold and black colors.  It looked elegant like the die, so I pulled out a strip to fit across the top, but because it’s 6 x 6, it didn’t fit, but I decided to piece the strip together anyway and I don’t really think you can tell that much until you look up closely to know that it’s there.

So I then layered the gold metallic die cut piece right underneath the strip that was attached to a 3.5 x 8.5 black cardstock layer.  There are also a couple of extra snowflake dies included with that border die, so I used them layered together (one in gold and another in black cardstock) on the right side of the slimline design.

To create the sentiment on the card, I used the Whimsy Stamps Happy Sayings Clear Stamp Set and gold heat embossed it along the bottom of the black card panel. I also took the Whimsy Stamps Happy Large Word die and die cut it out in black cardstock several times to layer together for thickness.  Before attaching it to the card, I used a gold ink pad and brushed around the edges with it as well as the entire black card front panel before attaching all together.  I then layered it over a white top folding slimline card base. 

Here’s a closer view of the gold metallic die along with the gold heat embossed sentiment as well as the gold inked edges around the design.  I’ve also decided to add some gold Drip Drops from Taylored Expressions in the center of some of the snowflakes as well as a couple of black sequins that I filled the centers with some gold Stickles with.

Of course I think it looks so much more elegant, shinny and sparkly in person as it’s hard to photograph and be able to capture all of the lighting that you see when you’re holding it in your hands!

Hopefully by sharing a few different angled photos, you’re able to see some of these details in this card design.

Please be sure to stop by the {Cupake Inspirations} Challenge blog and come join us with your “snowflake” creations this week and check out the inspiration from the design team whle you’re there!  REMEMBER:  You have only ONE WEEK to enter!  Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Thanks for stopping by today and I’ll be seeing you soon with another post soon!

Challenges:

  1. A Bit More Time to Craft – #130 Anything Goes
  2. QKR Stampede – #410 Anything Goes
  3. Watercooler Wednesday – WWC302 Anything Goes
  4. Cute Card Thursday – Anything Goes
  5. Creative Knockouts – #381 Anything Goes
  6. Crafty Catz – #532 Anything Goes optional:  Anything New (new die!)
  7. Allsorts – Sparkle and Shine

*Vicki*28 Comments

“tis the Season for Holiday Chaos and Update on Christmas Cards for Danny🎅

Hello friends!  This is my second post for today, so please scroll down to see it or CLICK HERE for the {Cupcake Inspirations} Reminder post.

I have several creations to share with you today because while I’m working on trying to get some last minute Christmas projects finished, I thought that I would join in the fun week long “Holiday Chaos” challenges over at the Catch the Bug Blog for Bugaboo Stamps.  I’ve caught up with all of the challenges up to today and then hopefully later this week I’ll be able to post the remainder of them:

This card is for the Day 1 challenge of “Reindeer Games”, so I had this really cute Bugaboo image called Little Penguin Reindeer and colored him up for my card.  I had these fun reindeer papers in my stash to pair with him and then found this fun sentiment strip to add with it as well.😂

I’ve used some gold glitter paper and added some gold glitter enamel dots in the corner.  The bells on the penguin’s waist was covered with a gold glitter pen and then I added some faux snowflakes along the circle image border too.

This next card was created for Day 2 Challenge of a sketch.  I’ve colored up this adorable Bugaboo image called Christmas Teddy 2 Ornaments all in blue colors!  Hard to tell in the photo, but I’ve used glitter gel pens to color in the stripe of the ornament and the silver tops.

I have been itching to pull out my Martha Stewart papers that have been lurking in my stash and I really love the colors in them along with the silver foil!  I white heat embossed the sentiment from the Brutus Monroe “Holiday Essentials” stamp set and cut it out as a banner with my scissors and popped it up over the card with foam tape.  I finished the design with some Drip Drops from Taylored Expressions.

And of course here’s my project for today’s challenge Day 3 ABC/Anything But a Card.  I make these little “snowman soup” containers every year for my family and sometimes sneek in an extra “surprise” or 2 inside!  You may have recalled these on my blog before, but they’re just recyled Crystal Light containers and they fit the hot cocoa, candy cane, marshmallows and a few chocolate kisses all in there perfectly together.  I’ve decorated them in many different ways.  CLICK HERE to see a previous post that shows another way I’ve made them in the past.  This time, I just made tags to attach around the containers.  I have made another set of 3 of these containers (different images) that I will show in a future post too!

I’ve used these adorable snowmen from Bugaboo Stamps called “Snowman Snowflakes” (right) and “Snowman Snowballs” (left).  I colored them up with Copics and added a sentiment that was stamped at the bottom from Whimsy Stamps Holiday Mini Sentiments stamp set.

I’ve had this “snowman soup” poem for years and years and just printed it out on my computer and attached it to the back of the containers.  The top of the lids are also covered with pattern papers.  P.S.  If you haven’t tried the “Hot Cocoa Hershey Kisses”…oh my goodness they’re so good!😋

UPDATE:

I also wanted to share an update on the “Christmas Cards for Danny” post you may remember that I posted about a few weeks back.  I’ve actually seen an update in my own hometown newspaper about all the cards he’s received and as of December 10th, he’s received 2,544 Christmas cards from ALL OVER THE WORLD! How cool is that?!  Please CLICK HERE to read the newspaper article about the overwhelming support and heartfelt Christmas wishes people have sent him!  This really touches my heart and uplifts me about the kindess in the human spirit.  Thank you to those that took the time to send a Christmas card his way!  It’s really what Christmas is all about.

Challenges:

  1. Catch the Bug – Holiday Chaos Day 1: Reindeer Games (card 1)
  2. Catch the Bug – Holiday Chaos Day 2: Sketch (card 2)
  3. Catch the Bug – Holiday Chaos Day 3: ABC Anything But a Card (snowmen soup)
  4. Christmas Crafts All Year ‘Round – December Gifts/Containers (snowmen soup)
  5. 2 Crafty Critter Crazies – #45 Anything Goes + critter (card 2)
  6. Crafty Animals – #45 Anything Goes + animal (card 2)
  7. Daring Cardmakers – Animal Antics at Christmas (card 1)
  8. The Sisterhood of Crafters – Anything Christmas/Winter (snowmen soup)
  9. Crazy 4 Challenges – C4C565 past sketch from 2020 (I used sketch C4C553 for card 1)

*Vicki*33 Comments

Reminder for the Blues at {Cupcake Inspirations}

Hello friends!  Hope that you’ve had a nice weekend as your days are growing closer to Christmas.

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Today I have a reminder for you about the “Shades of Blue” challenge over at the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog and that you still have a few days left to enter your blue shaded projects!  Hope you’ll join us!  Although thoughts of winter, Christmas and snowflakes come to mind with these colors, I’ve decided to take the colors in a different direction for this week:

Blues made me think of a masculine birthday which is something that I needed for a birthday card for my dad this last week, so my thoughts turned to him when making this card.  He’s been having some medical issues recently and I wanted to send him a happy card along with some real balloons to help try and cheer him up a bit.  My heart is heavily with him right now as he deals with many physical issues.

For my card, I first started with a piece of Bristol Smooth watercolor paper and ink blended some blue oxide inks over the panel with Chipped Saphire, Blueprint Sketch and Salty Ocean Oxide Inks.  I die cut the large sentiment die and balloon dies from this piece and then attached the sentiment to a die cut vellum shadow behind it.

I stamped some images with the same blue inks I blended with over a white panel along with doing a very light ink blending in the center of it before attaching the die cut sentiment over top.  I then attached that panel to a blue die cut panel and again over a white die cut panel and finally attaching it to an A2 sized side folding blue card base.  Lastly, I popped up and glued the die cut balloons along with the silver strings also die cut around the sentiment panel keeping in mind the placement of the strings.  I added a few blue sequins to finish it off.

In this close-up photo, you can see the details of the background more clearly along with the shimmer over the balloons which I went over with a glitter brush pen.

So I hope that you’ve enjoyed my birthday card today and were inspired to pull out your blue shaded stash and have a play with them!  Really look forward to seeing what you come up with for the challenge!  Be sure to check out the {Cupcake Inspirations} Blog and see what the Cupcake Sweeties have to inspire you with this week as well!

Thanks so much for joining with me today and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

  1. The Divas That Cut Paper – Dec Anything Goes + die cut machine
  2. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #147 Anything Goes
  3. The Corrosive Challenge – #12 December Anything Goes
  4. AAA Birthday – #20 Twinkle#20
  5. Creative Moments – #204 Anything Goes
  6. Watercooler Wednesday – WWC301 OccasionsWWC301 - Dawn's All About Occasions Challenge
  7. Cute Card Thursday – Anything Goes

*Vicki*28 Comments

Crafty Chefs Gnome Joy & FINALLY Finished Projects from Whimsy Retreat!🎉

Hello my friends!  Are you getting all of your Holiday errands finished up?  I’ve still got some cards to send out and get going on my cookies!  I always feel behind every year…are you this way too?

So while I was “making merry” literally, I thought I’d join in the December Crafty Chefs Group Challenge and see what I could come up with for it.  This cute little gnome has been wanting to jump on my craft table for a while…

Isn’t he adorable?!  He came from the Brutus Monroe Gnome Place Like Home stamp set that I had actually got last year around this time and just never had the time to pull it to play with before Christmas rush finished up.  Note to self…I have TONS of those items this year, so plan EARLIER! LOL!  It seems I always get closer to a deadline and then want to come up with all kinds of things I want to try…is it the pressure or what?!

Anyway, I’ve got him all colored up with Copics and then I used the coordinating dies to cut him out with that I’ve attached with foam tape over my “Joy Fold Card“.  (This was part of the challenge for the Crafty Chefs this months and I followed along with a tutorial to a link *see link above* that was given, but I changed it up slightly by making it an A2 size.)  For the card design, I’ve used these awesome Brutus Monroe Sweater Weather Paper Pad.  I’ve added some shimmer metallic ribbon and also stamped some green snowflakes from the gnome stamp set and cut them out with the coordinating dies as well.  I also found some green colored pearls to add to the centers of each one too!  The ribbon, pearls/gems and color green were a requirement for the Crafty Chefs challenge.

The snowflake on the left side of the gnome is popped up and actually helping to hold the top flap down, so you have to pull it out to open the card.

So when you pull open the flap, open the inside flap, this is what you’ll see inside.  I heat embossed the sentiment along with a couple of snowflakes from the gnome stamp set with BRM Alabaster EP and colored up a gift package, cut it out with the coordinating dies and attached it to the green panel.  I also took the BRM Alabaster Ink Pad and rubbed it along the edges of the green panel before attaching.

Here’s this month’s requirements for the December Crafty Chef Challenge.  I used them all except for the very last one.  It’s been a long time since I’ve made a Joy Fold card, so this was really fun!

I’m also VERY excited to announce that I have FINALLY finished all of those projects from the Whimsy Stamps Virtual Retreat that I took over a weekend back in October!  Yep, I guess I’m pretty slow!  In my defense, I took extra time so that I could enjoy each minute of it all and go back to revisit posts and tutorials!  There were 23 projects total and I made a few extras along the way.  Here are my last ones:

This was for kit 19 and a wonderful coloring tutorial from the one and only Crissy who also illustrated the image of course! The sentiment I added myself is from Lawn Fawn.
This was for kit 20 and I was so thrilled to finally be able to get to these adorable gnomes! Love this fun shaker design! I put my own spin on it with the embossing folder background, stitches, twine and snowflakes.
Last, but certainly not least is this fun mixed media project by Iris for the final project. We even got to make a customized envelope to house the slimline card. She had Christmas greeting on her design, but I wanted to make it a winter birthday card. Love how it turned out!

So that’s all I have to share for now, but I know I’ll be back again on Monday to share a reminder challenge post for you!  I appreciate you taking the time to stop by to see what I’m doing friends!  Hope you are staying healthy and happy!  Enjoy your weekend!

Challenges (ONLY for Joy Fold Gnome Card):

  1. A Perfect Time to Craft – #12 Anything Goes
  2. A Bit More Time to Craft – #129 Anything Goes
  3. Crafts Galore Encore – #82 December Anything Goes
  4. Love to Craft – LTCCB53 December Anything Goes
  5. QKR Stampede – #409 Anything Goes
  6. Arty Divas – #32 Anything Goes
  7. Crafty Creations – #416 December Anything Goes
  8. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring

*Vicki*25 Comments

Shades of Blue at {Cupcake Inspirations}

Hello friends!  Hope that you’ve had a great first weekend of December and are ready to roll on with the spirit of the Season!  I know the world is a bit different, but it’s been great to get out the Holiday decorations and try to keep things as “normal” as we can be.  We went out and drove through our local park filled with Christmas lights while sipping some Starbuks coffee and the baking of cookies always gets me in the spirit.  What do you like to do around the Holidays?

Today, I have a new challenge to share with you over at {Cupcake Inspirations}:

The new challenge for the next two weeks is a color challenge in “Shades of Blue“!  You need to be sure to use at least three different shades of blue when making your project.  So any theme or occasion you can think of just use these colors!  We look forward to seeing what you come up with for this challenge!  Here’s my project:

I think my favorite colors to decorate with for Christmas are blue and silver!  So I knew I wanted to pull out this GORGEOUS stamp set from Whimsy Stamps called Elegant Ornaments and have a play with it!

I started with a Bristol Smooth Watercolor panel and took the Whimsy Stamps Beaded Curtain Stencil and went over the top with some Blueprint Sketch, Salty Ocean and Tumbled Glass Oxide Distress Inks.  I ended with the lightest color and faded it into the white.  I took the lightest color and also went over the top of the panel too.  I then cut the panel out with the Whimsy Stamps Zig-Zag Stitched Rectangle die.

I then took a couple of the ornaments along with the sentiment from the stamp set and heat embossed them where I wanted to place them with Ranger Liquid Platinum EP.  I took my Zig CC Real Brush Markers and colored in the heat embossed ornaments and blended them together with a watercolor brush.  I then stamped the “curved beads” images in navy colored ink and then heat embossed the strings to the ornaments so that it all looked layered.

This image panel was layered over a piece of silver mirror cardstock and then layered over an A2 sized side folding navy cardbase.  Lastly, I added some blue sequins and filled the centers with some Nuvo Dazzling Blue Glitter Drops.

Here’s a closer look at the ornaments and how that pretty embossing powder looks.  I noticed that the navy beads caught some of the EP when I heat embossed the strings to the ornaments, but I don’t mind that as I think it gives a bit of shimmer over them and gives more depth to it.  The card looks very pretty and sparkly and I’m happy with how it turned out.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my “shades of blue” creation today and it has inspired you to pull out your blue colored goodies to play along with us!  Please be sure to check out the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog to have a look at the wonderful inspiration from the rest of the DT to help inspire you more!

Thanks so much for joining me here today and I’ll be seeing you soon!😉

Challenges:

  1. Cute Card Thursday – Anything Goes
  2. Dream Valley – #238 Christmas
  3. Winter Wonderland – Anything Christmas Goes
  4. 52 Christmas Card Throwdown – Pick a Precious 2020 Challenge – February 52CCT6-20 3 shades of blue
  5. Through the Purple Haze – #174 Holiday – Make it Blue
  6. Crazy 4 Challenges – C4C564 Elvis “A Blue Christmas”
  7. Merry Little Christmas – MLCCB29 December Anything Goes Christmas
  8. The Paper Funday – #24 December Anything Goes optional: Christmas/Holiday
  9. Crafty Calendar – December Christmas theme

*Vicki*28 Comments

Guest Design Post for Retro Rubber Challenge Blog

Hello friends!  Really excited to share my post today as a guest designer for the new challenge over at the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog!  One of the cards I had previously entered had been chosen as a top pick and I was also invited as a guest to participate for this challenge.  The new challenge is this beautiful photo which is just perfect for this time of the year:

**Please remember that when you enter your creation for this challenge blog that you MUST include a stamp that is at least one year or older on your creation**

I was so inspired by the warm and cozy feeling of this image with the candle, so my thoughts turned to an older stamp set that I’ve had in my collection for several years:

Both the candle and sentiment came from a rubber stamp set by Whimsy Stamps called “Peace on Earth“.  It is no longer available and I’m thinking it was circa 2010.  There is ONE digital image available that derived from this set called “Peace Angel“.  (If you were familiar with Whimsy Stamps as far back as I was, you may remember the whole set and that this candle image was included with it.)  I obviously still love the set and won’t part with it!😉

I’ve got it stamped and colored with Copics over the white panel along with the sentiment from the same stamp set in red ink.  The ribbon on the candle was paper pieced with some old pattern paper in my stash.  I also used the same paper to die cut a couple of stars for the corner.

The image panel was cut out with the Whimsy Stamps Zig Zag Stitched Rectangle die, layered with red cardstock and then popped up with foam tape over a grey woodgrain embossed panel that was also cut out with the same die set.  I ran some white ink over the grey woodgrain piece to bring out the texture in it a bit more.  I layered these panels over a red top folding A2 sized top folding card base.

I’ve also used the “Stampin’ Up! Pretty Pines Thinlit dies” for the accents along the edges of the image panel.  I die cut the pine cone pieces as well as the pine branches and arranged them over my design.  I took some Gina K Glitter Glitz Gel and added it over those die pieces as well as around the edges of the grey woodgrain panel and the top of the stars.  Lastly, I’ve added a double twine bow in the center of the stacked stars.

Here’s a closer look at that candle image and how I’ve got it colored up and paper pieced on my design.  I’ve also taken some Ranger Stickles icicle and added some in the center of the flame in the candle.

You can also see the “snowy glitter” effect from the Gina K Glitter Glitz Gel.  It dries hard and doesn’t come off!  I like how it has sort of an icy look about it.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my creation today and have been inspired in some way!  Please be sure to stop on over at the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog to take a peek at the inspiration from the design team and how they were inspired by the beautiful photo as well!  Hope you will be able to join along in the fun too!

Thanks for stopping in friends and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Crafty Catz – #529 Anything Goes optional “Baby it’s cold outside”
  2. Cut It Up – #214 Christmas + die cut
  3. Allsorts – #600 Christmas flowers, Wreaths and Trees (hope my pines count)
  4. Sunday Stamps – SSC245 Winter Warmth color challenge 

*Vicki*34 Comments