September AJ Page-Embrace Change

Are you a winner from my TE Background Stamp Give Away?  Check post below or CLICK HERE!

Hello friends!  As of Thursday, Fall has begun!  It actually really does feel like Fall with the cooler temps settling in on exactly that same day too!  I’m looking forward to all of the wonderful changes it brings with it!  I enjoy going out in nature and seeing the trees change into their colors.

It’s also that time for a monthly Art Journal page and collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper), so please check out her blog for more inspiration too!🥰  We’re trying to get creative by using up our never-ending stash piles!  So here’s my Art Journal inspiration with the “SMASH OUR STASH” September prompt of “ANY kind(s) of scrap papers!” :

Like many crafters out there, I’m sure we all have those never ending piles of papers! I especially have a very extensive collection of pattern papers and MANY within those piles of little left over pieces that never seem to get used and just thrown back into the package!  I not only have packages, but I also have several card kits that ALSO have packages of papers in them too…so I pulled out a past kit and was happy that I’ve used pretty much all of the left over scraps from it!  One down and a trillion to go!!😅

For the Background:  The page is a 6″ x 9″ Canson 140# cold-pressed paper with the holes prepared at the top for later book binding.  I’ve used Distress Oxide Sprays and used the left over spray on my glass mat with water until I soaked up all the ink.  I’ve also splattered some Gold and Ivory acrylic paints over top once dry.  I stamped a couple of the tiny leaves with green ink for a bit of depth in the background.

Vicki-SYS-SeptAJ-paper scraps-close

For the Image Elements:  I used the Simon Says Stamp “Woodland Whimsy” stamp set to paper piece all of the image elements with the tall trees on the right, the leaves, the bear, the bear’s belly and ears, also with the berry and leaf branches next to him.  The trees were fussy cut with scissors and the other images were cut with coordinating dies.  I’ve used Copic markers to add a bit of depth and dimension to some of it. Some were glued down while some were popped up with foam squares.  I’ve also taken the Lawn Fawn Small Stitched Leaves dies to cut out a few extra and sponged around them to add to the scene.  I’ve also used the same papers I’ve used to cut those leaves out and added it as a layer behind the two sentiment quote squares.  The quote was printed out from my computer and the “Autumn” sentiment was cut out from pattern papers using the Lawn Fawn henry’s ABCs dies along with more papers to make an “off-set” shadow behind them.

The “ground” was just fussy cut with scissors and ink sponged around the edges.  Lastly, I’ve taken some gold Stickles to create “berries” on the leaf branches and randomly over the page.

I really enjoyed creating this page as it has inspired me to go out in nature for a walk!  I sure hope you’ve enjoyed it as well!  Thanks for stopping in today!

Challenges:

  1. Art Journal Journey – Fur or Feathers (I went with fur, but love both!)
  2. Country View – Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness
  3. Creative Artiste – Anything Goes Mixed Media
  4. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  5. Love to Craft – Anything Goes
  6. Snippets Playground – Anything Goes using snippets (Happy to use up “snippets” of my pattern papers for the paper pieced images!) YES PLEASE!

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles25 Comments

WINNERS of the TE Background stamps!

Hello friends!  It has been while since my last posting, but was having some back issues and hobbling around a bit which is never a fun thing to deal with, but I’m getting a bit better day by day.  Hoping to get back to doing some crafting soon!  I’m going to be working on an AJ page for tomorrow’s post…so stay tuned!

I realized that my giveaway had ended and I needed to pull some winners of the Taylored Expressions background stamps for 4 people!😀  So the way I drew out the names, I did sort of “old school” by printing out the names of everyone according to which stamp or stamps that were indicated via comments from the GIVEAWAY POST.  So if you were only interested in one of the stamps, your name only went in the draw for just that particular stamp.  If you indicated that you were interested in all of them, then your name went in for each one.  I cut the names in strips, wadded them up and had my husband hand-pick out a name strip for each stamp.  If there was a duplicated name, I would’ve had him draw another, but there was not any duplicates.  Here are the winners for each stamp……..

stampedsmiles.com giveaway Daisies For Days Winner 1stampedsmiles.com giveaway Daisies For Days Winner 2stampedsmiles.com giveaway Goodhearted Winnerstampedsmiles.com giveaway Winter Village Winner  

WOOO-HOOO!!🥳🎈  CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF THE FOUR WINNERS!!!

If you are one of the winners above, please be sure to CONTACT ME via the form and share your snail mail address with me so that I can promptly mail out your stamp package to you! (I will also try contacting you myself to let you know you were a winner as well.)  I would appreciate you contacting me as soon as you can so I can get your stamp to you.  If I don’t hear from you within 2-3 weeks, then I will try to draw another winner to claim it.

I’m very sorry if you were not a winner THIS time, (blame my husband!😁) but you never know when I’ll have “extra duplicates” in my craft room that I’d like to share with a fellow friend!  Thank you for your kind support!  Happy crafting!🤗

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles14 Comments

Magnificent Scene, Birthday Crap and Craft Storage

**IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN MY GIVE AWAY OR LOOKING FOR IT, CHECK OUT MY POST BELOW OR CLICK HERE.  ENDS SEPT 22nd**

Hello friends!  Welcome to September!  Really hope that you’ve had a wonderful Labor Day weekend and have had a great start to the month so far!  I’m still trying to get my MOJO in gear as I really love this time of the year with all of the wonderful Autumn things happening both outside AND in the crafty world too!  Really love when it starts up, but as it gets closer to the end of the year…I’m ready to skip right over it! LOL!

Today I have a fun post to share with some projects I made with several Inky Stamper products!  They have a FB challenge to participate in every month and so I thought I’d share what I came up with.  (Check it out and play along if you have any Inky Stamper stamps!) *Check out the store as well because there is a brand new release that just came out!

This was a fun little scene to create on a mini slimline card!  So the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group challenge THIS month (Sept) is to use more than just one Inky Stamper stamp set on one design. I really liked this challenge because it got me thinking of what to use and pull out several different images and actually use them!  Looking forward to see what other people come up with too!  So for my scene, I’ve actually pulled out EIGHT different stamp sets!!!😮

To start with the background, I pulled out the *Housefly set with the squares image to clear heat emboss the background and then ink blend over top for an “emboss resist” technique. I took the *Rainy Day set and stamped the rainbow/cloud image and fussy cut the clouds to add on the background sky.  For the “flying birds” and the “pattern” at the bottom over the green strip, I’ve used the *Pelican set.  Of course the main characters are different sets from *Rosie Solo and *Ralph Solo.  For Rosie’s “hair”, I stamped the butterfly from the *Bug Catcher set to color and fussy cut it out which was then popped up over the flower she originally has. I also used this same set to white heat emboss the sentiment.  For Ralph, I pulled out the *Snail set to stamp and color a heart which he is holding.  I just made a slit around Ralph’s “hand” to help him hold the heart.  And lastly, I pulled out the *Bee set to stamp, color and fussy cut the flower image.  I cut off the stem and just attached the flowers with one of them popped up with foam tape. Lastly, I’ve added some sparkle to the butterfly on Rosie and the heart with Ralph using my glitter brush pen.  I then added some sequins from the Fall Flowers sequins mix and filled the centers with some Stickles.

So did I do it?  Did you count out the eight different sets?  I think this mouse couple is too cute…and no…they aren’t the “real” mice, these are the good ones to have!😁

Ralph is showing up again!  I needed to make a humorous birthday card for my son and I’m sure he’ll get a kick out it!😂  This is actually the first card I made for this month’s Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group challenge, but I didn’t use eight different sets like I did on the one above, I only used four different sets.  However; I used REAL TP!

The background was created using some of the Doodlebug Gingham/Linen paper which the “bricks” image was stamped over with grey ink from the *Goat set.  I also used this same set to stamp the “grass” border towards the bottom with another strip of green from the same Doodlebug paper pack.  I just fussy cut the top of the grass strip to attach over the grey brick background.  Of course the Ralph inside the TP roll came from the *TP set along with the “pile of poo”💩 and the “Oh Crap!!!” sentiment that was white heat embossed over a black banner and popped up with foam tape.  The balloon image came from the *Bunny set.  I decided to attach a piece of the white Doodlebug twine and pop up the balloon with foam tape.  I attached the other end to Ralph’s “hand”.  Lastly, the forth set I used was the sentiment at the bottom from the *Iguana set.  (For that sentiment, I only used a portion of it from the stamp.)  So that makes FOUR sets used!

The images on this card were colored using my CC Real Brush markers, I stamped the Ralph image again over the TP…yep, stamped directly onto the TP and fussy cut it out to paper piece over the image.  Gives it the REAL look and feel of TP!😉 I have die cut a black scallop frame to go around the scene and lastly I’ve added some sparkle to the balloon and the tiny flies around the “poo” with a glitter brush pen.  I didn’t want to add too much as this is a masculine style birthday card.

And then I have one last project to share that I actually made for last month’s challenge that I “squeaked” in just in time too!  (See what I did there?!😂) Ralph is just so popular today!  I had a plastic bag sitting around on my table that I kept moving out of my way and it was frustrating me, so I made this “container” to hold some crafty things to sit on my table!  It’s actually a REALLY old tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers using chipboard coasters!  I have SO MANY of those coasters and I was happy to use some up.  CHECK OUT THE TUTORIAL HERE (P.S. The tutorial is actually done up by Taylor from Taylored Expressions, before her store years!  That’s how old it is!)

The challenge last month was to use primary colors on your project which are the red, blue and yellow colors.  Not realizing what the challenge would be for THIS month, it would actually fit in with that too!  I used THREE different sets for this project. Again, I’ve used the *Ralph Solo set that was colored up and fussy cut out as this was done before the new die came out for him! (see top card)  I took out several of the different Doodlebug papers to cover my chipboard coaster panels being mindful of the Primary Color challenge.  Rather than leave the papers as is, I decided to pull out the *Inky Greetings set to stamp the splatter image in the coordinating colors with the papers.  I also decided Ralph needed to be holding a pencil, so I pulled out the *Owl set and stamped, colored and fussy cut the pencil image which was added to Ralph’s “hand” by making a small slit for him to hold it.

I was happy to pull out some of my old punches to create the backdrop for “pencil holding Ralph” as well as using up those old coasters and some more papers and ribbon from my stash! (I’m really hoping to be doing more of this often!)

I know this was a long worded post, but hope you enjoyed the projects and got some smiles too!  Thanks for catching up with me today!  See you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
  2. QKR Stampede – Anything Goes
  3. Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
  4. Happy Little Stampers Birthday – Anything Goes Birthday (2nd card)
  5. Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers – ‘B’ is for Birthday
  6. We Love Stamping – Anything Goes with stamping (all are stamped!)
  7. Crafting Happiness – NOT A CARD: Anything Goes (3rd project)
  8. The Corrosive – Anything Goes
  9. Try It On Tuesdays – Animals -real or imagined

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles30 Comments

August AJ Page-Childhood Imagination

**IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN MY GIVE AWAY OR LOOKING FOR IT, CHECK OUT MY POST BELOW OR CLICK HERE.  ENDS SEPT 22nd**

Happy Saturday friends!  I hope you’re enjoying your weekend and maybe doing something crafty too!  I actually can’t believe that next weekend we’ll be into September already!  Fall is coming which means hubby and I can enjoy some football game time!

Hard to believe that it’s time for a monthly Art Journal page and collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper), so please check out her blog for more inspiration too!🥰  We’re trying to get creative by using up our never-ending stash piles!  So here’s my Art Journal inspiration with the “SMASH OUR STASH” August prompt of “liquid drops/enamel dots/brads/eyelets” :

Yes, it’s the never-ending supply of those enamel things, brads and eyelets!  I didn’t even use any eyelets on my page today, but at least I pulled out a few brads, enamel dots and even some liquid enamel drops too!

So I could take you down that “rabbit hole”😁 of how this page came about from seeing a couple of mushrooms out in our backyard that just weirdly keeps popping out randomly the last few months, but needless to say, I ended up with this page.  As a child I have always loved Alice in Wonderland and imagined myself secretly finding these amazing new worlds and having conversations with odd characters.  I do enjoy getting lost in a good book!

The background page was printed out with adding the Cheshire Cat image over top. (The wording was also printed out with the cat.)  I stamped some other wording over the printed background, splattered some paint and took an empty plastic roll dipped in gold paint and randomly stamped that all over it too.  I used my finger to also add some gold paint along the edges.  The mushroom image is from Power Poppy which I’ve printed, colored with Copics and fussy cut them out with the one in the front popped up with foam tape. I die cut a grass border at the bottom and tucked one of the cut out mushrooms behind the grass blades and then cut off all the excess.  I’ve attached this entire page to a heavy weight 140# cardstock that was ink blended with chocolate ink around the edges.  I took a strip of Graphics 45 Alice in Wonderland decorative paper and attached it to the right side of the page.  I was then able to punch out the holes at the top for my AJ book.

So when you look at the bottom of the page, you can see the mushrooms and how I’ve added some white Nuvo Liquid Drops to the red tops.  I think this really makes them pop and give dimension!  With the same Graphic 45 decorative papers, I’ve cut out the “tea set playing card” image, blended around the edges and added a blue brad in each corner of it.  I also added a bit of sparkle to the flying horse.  This cut out playing card was attached below sentiment over the background mushroom and grassy border.

You will also notice the “Eat Me bottle” at the top of the mushroom which was printed out separately from the background page, Copic colored and fussy cut out.  I attached it over top of the large mushroom and added a ribbon enamel at the top of it.  I also took my glitter brush pen and added something rising from the bottle…mysterious?!

Here’s a closer view of the enamel bow at the top of the bottle along with the mysterious glitter coming from it.  I’ve also added some of the glitter brush pen to the Cheshire Cat’s eyes too.  I thought I had room to add another three sparkly gold enamel dots to the top right and call this one done.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my AJ page today or have been inspired in some way!  Thanks so much for dropping in and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Art Journal Journey – When we were Young
  2. Creative Artiste – Anything Mixed Media
  3. Mixed Media Lovers – Anything Mixed Media
  4. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring (mushrooms)
  5. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
  6. Simon Says Stamp Mondays – Mixed Media

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles27 Comments

Gettin’ My Halloween On + GIVE AWAY!

Hello friends!  It’s been a minute or two since my last posting as I had been sick and then totally lost my “MOJO” during that point! So I was trying to get it going again with a few Halloween projects!  I have been playing with some new Taylored Expressions goodies and I thought it would be fun to give away some TE stuff as well!😀  Stay tuned to the end of this post!

  • click on the photos below to enlarge them if you’re on my website:

Now how cute are all of these critters, ghouls and creeps?!  As you may remember from my last post, I had been having so much fun creating with the Taylored Expressions Create-in-Quads stencils, so I had my play with the Halloween Create-in-Quads with the makes above!  I stenciled some black, candy corn, plum punch and lime zest colors, plus I went over the lime zest with some glow-in-the-dark glitter paste.  The stencil quads make two A2 sized backgrounds as well as the cat and witch cauldron too!  There is also coordinating dies to cut out the cat and witch that I used to cut out for the second set of cards.  For all of the cards, I’ve used the TE Frame in Frame 3 dies (free from an order a while back) that was cut with some black cardstock. I’ve also used the TE Simple Strips-Halloween stamped and heat embossed with some black glitter EP and cut out with the TE Asymmetrical Simple Strips Die for each card.

The set of cards on the left were created with the stenciled backgrounds and then with the black frames, I’ve added a character from a “free with purchase” Gus & Gertie Halloween stamp set.  The bird saying “boo” is in a bat costume.😅  I popped up the sentiment strip, bird and dog with foam tape.  I die cut the “boo” sentiment with a speech bubble die from my stash.  The ghoul card was made with the awesome TE Monster Squad die set.  I placed a piece of vellum behind the black frame so the ghoul stood out a bit more, die cut my pieces as I wanted and attached it right above the sentiment strip.  I added a green googly eye as well as a few die cut stars from silver metallic cardstock.

The set of cards on the right was put together with a couple of different unique backgrounds. On the black cat card, I used the TE Superstar Rotating Stencil and stenciled once with candy corn and only rotated once using the glow-in-the-dark glitter paste again.  I finished it by splattering black and white paint over it.  Topped it off with the black frame, the kitty and sentiment strip.  I also used some Cosmic Drip Drops for kitty’s eyes. (These were also used on the bows of the witch’s shoes too!)  For the witch background, I silver foiled one of the TE Foil It-Spiderweb panels and then ink blended some grey ink over a couple of the webs.  I then added the black frame, the witch and the sentiment strip. Lastly, I added a couple of spiders cut out with the TE Little Bits-Spiders die set.

These ghosts make me smile every time I see them with those faces!👻  For these set of cards, I pulled out the TE G-G-G-Ghost Stamp & Stencil Combo.  I didn’t used any TE inks, but pulled out my oxide inks for an ombre looking color to make these different backgrounds. The stencil was used for the faces by heat embossing some black glitter EP over VersaMark ink through the stencil. The purple is A2 sized and the set of cards on the right as mini slim cards.  I continued using my sentiment strips that were previously used on the card sets above, but with these I’ve added a black layer that I just cut from cardstock.  I’ve also used TE Ghost Gang Die & Clear Combo set to cut out the ghosts popped up around the sentiments and stamped their faces. 

For the purple ghost card, I used the silver foil negative from the “witch spiderweb background” card and foiled a cut out TE On the Block-Boo Shadow die which was popped up with several layers of die cut black ones.  I popped up the die cut ghost over the foiled “boo” as well as the sentiment strips.

For the set of mini slim cards, I did pretty much the same style as the purple, but for the “boo” sentiment I used the TE Boo Script + Backer and die cut 2 of the sentiments with black cardstock and then heat embossed it with the black glitter EP.  I placed it over the vellum die cut backer and attached to the card front.  I popped up the ghosts and the sentiment strips with foam tape.

**GIVE AWAY!!!**

So, because I’ve placed some TE orders, I have gotten multiple sets (duplicates) of goodies!!  If you or someone you know would like to get one of these stamp sets, please let me know in the comments below! (Which one(s) you want!)  I have FOUR large rubber stamps to give away!!  Check it out….

  • Click on each photo below to enlarge if you’re on my website!
I have TWO of these sets to give away!!

These are all background A2 sized rubber stamps. The last stamp photographed is “Winter Village Background”  which measures approx. 6.25″ x 2.5″ in size. I have TWO of the “Daises for Days” to give out.  (See the photo where it shows the clear stamp set included for stamping the flower centers.)  The “Good Hearted Background” stamp is perfect for almost any occasion just by adding a quick sentiment with it!  I also have a little “extra” to go along with each one of these to accompany the package too! 

  • If you click on the names in orange above, you can see some examples using them on the TE website for ideas!

Just leave me a comment below if you’re interested in my give away and tell me which one(s) you’re interested in by September 22nd, 2022 which is the first day of Fall for us here in the U.S.  This will give everyone time to see the post and tell a friend that might be interested too!

Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your support and inspiration with me as it helps keep me going!😉

Challenges:

  1.  This is Halloween – Anything Goes Halloween/Gothic
  2. Two Old Bats – Anything Goes Halloween
  3. Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
  4. Show Us Your Pussycats – Anything with kitty
  5. 613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes
  6. Through the Craftroom Door – Anything Goes
  7. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
  8. The Corrosive – Anything Goes
  9. Arty Divas – Anything Goes

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles39 Comments

Some Summer Session Sets

Happy August friends!  This Summer has really flown right by me this year, how about you?  Before you know it we’ll be getting ready for all things Fall…which is my favorite time of the year!🍂  I haven’t been feeling well for the last several days and haven’t done much crafting, but I do have some sets of cards that I’ve made sometime during these Summer months, but haven’t posted, so I’d like to share them with you today.

Taylored Expression had released an adorable collection of fish themed products this Summer that I thought would be so fun for several different occasions, and not just for those that like to fish, but for anyone for any occasion too!

The first white background card on the left was created with the TE Hook, Line & Sinker Stamp & Stencil Combo.  The stencil is really nice to create different effects in an easy way without lots of coloring. I like that the TE Hook, Line & Sinker Dies cut out some of the mass produced stenciled fish background too!  (I saved one for the other card as well and still had a few more left over for another project.)  After I created a couple of the stenciled fish backgrounds, I cut out a panel with a wonky stitched rectangle die and placed it over a Kraft A2 card base.  I added some TE Drip Drops for the “bubbles” on the extra fish and you can see that I’ve covered the body of this fish with a glitter brush pen.

The second card on the right was created with the TE Just Keep Swimming Stencil with Toffee Ink color for a watermark look.  I splattered some white and black paint over the background.  The fishing pool as well as the sentiments for both cards came from the TE Reely Great Stamp & Die Combo.  (It includes the fishing pool die cut with it.)  You will also noticed the tiny little sparkly fish on both of the cards which were cut from the TE Little Bits-Fish die with some blue and turquoise glitter cardstock.  The ‘frame’ around the sentiment on the first card as well as the green frame for the second card were extra pieces in my stash previously cut out with the TE A2 Thin Frame Cutting Plate. (I save the extras to use for other projects.)  

Of course I didn’t “invent the wheel” on these as it was simple by following along with the TE “Hugs & Fishes Craft-a-Long Class” which I got for free with my stamp/combo purchase when it came out. I tweaked it slightly, but sometimes it’s nice to just create and follow along without having to think about what to do with it.😁 

This next set of cards was actually pretty fun and easy to put together:

Continuing on with more Taylored Expressions products, I’ve used the TE Create-in-Quads Hexagon Layering Stencil Set.  Taylor had recently come with this series sometime last year I believe and they seem to go over pretty well.  (I think I had previously made Christmas cards and some Mother’s Day type of cards earlier this Spring with other “Create-in-Quads” sets.)  It seems like a lot, but when you see how easy it is to knock out four cards at once…which I did with Christmas last year…it’s such a time saver with wonderful results!

All of these cards were finished off with the TE Oh No You Didn’t stamp set & dies (love this set)! A couple of the cards use the TE Simple Strips-Snarky stamp set that were white heat embossed and cut out.  The other cards have sentiments that were foiled from the TE Simple Strips In Reverse-Everyday Occasions and die cut.  And of course I didn’t want to waste too much of the foiled panels, so I again took my TE A2 Thin Frame Cutting Plate to cut a couple of the frames with it.  I also stamped out a couple of extra stars here and there from another TE stamp set, but I can’t remember which one I used. (I think it was from a previous card kit I have that’s no longer available…but any star will do!)

And again, no need to reinvent the wheel as I believe this was another class I received for free from a purchase.  You can check out the Create-in-Quads Hexagon Craft-a-Long Class if you’re interested in it.  I think I changed up the colors and details a bit for mine, but very similar in style.

**👀  Be on the look-out for another TE project set from me using another Create-in-Quads I recently got and can’t wait to use!  I’m also going to have some things to give away too!  STAY TUNED!!!

I had also attended a class from Riley and Company sometime this Summer as well:

I have loved that little Riley moose character for years, but Tanya (owner) does several of these on-line class events and she comes out with some really cute class kits.  This kit had everything you need to make the projects and this one also included the sentiment die as well as a full 6×6 packet of papers in the coordinating theme.

I looked in the store, but I don’t see any of these kits available currently, but if you’re interested in seeing what kits she offers, check out – “Cool Kits”

For my projects, the giraffe was the only pre-cut image to color.  All of the other bee images came from the papers that were included with the kit that you were to fussy cut from.  Since the sentiment die was also included, I die cut all of those pieces for my card too.  I decided to step-up my cards with some glitter cardstock along the edge of the giraffe card and then I die cut the “gold glitter honey drip” on that card from the Riley and Company Corner Goo Die.  I also added little details like the “flying trail” of the bee with a marker and using a glitter brush pen on the bee wings.  If you’re interested in the sentiment die that came with this kit, check it out HERE.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my Summer Session Sets today and have been inspired or brought a smile!  Thank you so kindly for your time to stop in and have a look!  I really appreciate it!

Challenges:

  1. Pearly Sparkles – Anything Goes
  2. Moving Along With the Times – Anything Goes
  3. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  4. Addicted to Stamps & More – Die Cuts and/or Stencils (I’ve used both!)ATSM die cut stencils
  5. Happy Little Stampers – Anything Goes With Dies challengeimage
  6. Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
  7. Creative Inspirations – Anything Goes

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles27 Comments

July AJ Page-Leave The Trail

Happy weekend!  Where in the world did July go?!  I can’t believe we are at the end of the month already.  It’s really been a busy Summer this year and I know that Autumn is a favorite season of mine which will be busy as well, but that’s all a good thing.

It’s now that time for a monthly Art Journal page and collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper), so please check out her blog for more inspiration too!  We’re trying to get creative by using up our never-ending stash piles!  So here’s my Art Journal inspiration with the “SMASH OUR STASH” July prompt of: “decorative papers/collections/kits, etc” :

OK, I don’t really know how much of a “challenge” it is to use decorative papers on anything…but I have such a HUGE stash of papers and I’m always trying to find different ways of using it up instead of always hoarding it!  The papers I’ve used on this page are exactly that…I hoarded it!  It’s just too awesome NOT to use!  I purchased this pack of Stamperia Sir Vagabond 8×8 papers when they came out and haven’t even touched it!  Now is the time!

I used my traditional 6×9 size with the holes pre-punched at the top to fit with the book I’m making.  I ran out of my usual 140# watercolor paper, so I’ve switched to another pad from my stash which is Strathmore Acrylic paper…very thick and made to use with paints. (I like the canvas texture it has.)

For the background:  I started with some old paint from my stash and brush blended the different colors.  I didn’t want them to be too bright which I thought would take away from the paper images.  After it dried, I covered the entire page with some Tim Holtz Postage Tissue Wrap.  I thought it ‘stood out’ too much, so I painted over it again using the same paint colors.

For the Journal Prompt with the papers: I cut out pieces with scissors that had interesting images I wanted to use like the circle map, the “Vintage Travel” strip, the hot air balloon with train, the “mountains” at the bottom, the circled compass, the sentiment and then I ‘ripped; a piece for the top of the page and then re-punched the holes.  The compass circle, hot air balloon/train and ripped newspaper edge was sponged around the edges with Toffee ink.

Before placing the cut paper images, I decided to add a fun textural window image.  I stamped the window with chocolate colored pigment ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.

Collage Medium was used to attach all of the different paper images except the balloon/train, compass and sentiment.  I used Pitt Big Brush Markers to go around these collaged images for some shadowing.  I then used some white and chocolate paints to create splatters over the page being careful to cover up the window area.

Before attaching the sentiment strip and the compass, I used some Aged Brass Metallic Wax to go around the edges.  I also used this around my entire page and over the shutters on the window.  I attached the sentiment strip and the metal cogs with 3D Matte Gel and then used foam squares to pop up the compass and balloon/train.

 – Really fun AJ page to create and I hope that you’ve enjoyed it too!  Thanks so much for stopping in today!

Challenges:

  1. Country View – Travel
  2. Creative Artiste – Anything Goes Mixed Media
  3. Mixed Media Lovers – Anything Goes Mixed Media
  4. Arty Divas – Anything Goes
  5. NBUS – Anything Goes + Never-Before-Used-Schtuff (papers!!)
  6. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles26 Comments

A Beautiful June Wedding!

Hello friends!  I hope you’re having a great week!  We got a tiny break from the hot weather, so I had to spend the last few days enjoying it and was happy to get away from being indoors!  Now as the temps climb back up, it’s time to get busy and craft some more!😃

As promised, I’m catching up with my postings to share the wedding invites, thank you cards and special wedding card I made from my son’s June wedding.  I made them a few months back, obviously, but I thought it would be nice to condense it altogether here in one posting.

The couple had asked for me to make their invites for them and of course it was a great honor to be able to do that for them.  I was given a photo of an image and was educated about the “Tree of Life” to incorporate that into a design as well as a sample of some color shades.  Making a total of 50, here’s what I came up with:

I was able to find some similar Stampin’ Up! colors that closely resembled the samples given and come up with Bermuda Bay and Mint Macaron for the design.  I wanted both the ink and cardstock colors and worked it out from there.

For the base of the design, I’ve used the darker Bermuda Bay and on the front panel, I used a piece of Mint Macaron with a stenciled “tree of life” over top of it with Bermuda Bay ink.  I actually found a fairly inexpensive stencil on Amazon and thought it looked very similar to the image I was given and thought it would be perfect for the front with a partial side off the edge.  I never inked up 50 panels before, but this stencil certainly got a work out!  I was thinking it needed a bit more to it than just the stenciling, but I didn’t want to do too much with having 50 to make!  I took the Taylored Expressions Diagonal Stitched Rectangle die to impress a design around the edge, wrapped silver ribbon around the front with the knot and layered it over the front of the invite.

So being happy with that, the hardest task was to figure out the inside details….

I wanted to make the inside a portfolio style with a pocket containing the wedding details as well as the RSVP/envelope inside and then the actual “announcement” on the other side.  As I was piecing it together, I thought a decorative flap with some vellum would be pretty over the announcement too.

I’ve used the Stampin’ Up! Basic Borders die set to die cut the pocket front as well as the vellum flap on the left side.  I had to adhere two Bermuda Bay card panels together and cut out the areas I didn’t need.  (I ended up using the left over pieces to punch out a circle layer.  To add a bit more of a decorative detail, I cut strips of silver cardstock as well as silver heat emboss the “tree of life” circle stamp.  (I was happy to also find this really inexpensive rubber stamp image for a couple of dollars to use for this too!)  For the image on the pocket area, it was stamped with Bermuda Bay over the Mint Macaron cardstock, layered with that left over Bermuda Bay circle punched pieces and popped up with foam squares over the silver strip.  I was happy with how the portfolio design was working.

And now once you open up the vellum flap on the left side, you will see the announcement portion.  The silver strips were strategically placed to cover up where all of the layers are glued/attached together, but still looks like it “belongs” there.  The image that was given to me via digital photo was used at the “back drop” behind the wording.  It was a very bright image that I altered on my computer and muted it down so that it was faded in the background, but yet still clearly visible on the design.  I thought it worked out nicely and still coordinated with the stenciled area on the front.

Because this invite was so thick in nature, I didn’t want to add more layers of cardstock, so I used a thinner parchment style copy paper as everything was printed out from the computer anyway.  The parchment made it feel a bit more professional I thought.  I die cut ALL of the printed parchment pieces with a Lawn Fawn RETIRED Small Dotted Rectangle dies. (I thought the “small dots” went with the SU! edges I used on the flaps.) I placed the announcement over a piece of Mint Macaron and then layered it inside the card.  I layered the RSVP card over a piece of Mint Macaron and the “wedding details” card was left on it’s own.

Finally, you can see that on the silver envelope flaps, I silver heat embossed the image. This was also done for the larger silver envelopes for the whole invite to fit in as well.  I even used the “Tree of Life” computer generated image to create some address sticker labels for them and give them extras ones to use.

Of course after the wedding, you need to send out the thank you cards, so I also made 50 of those….

I really didn’t want to event a new wheel with it, so I had plenty of cardstock colors and just repeated the same design on the front as I did with the invites except for this one, I used the Taylored Expressions On Occasion stamps.  I stamped them out with the Bermuda Bay over the Mint Macaron cardstock, cut it out with the coordinating dies and popped it up with foam tape over the silver ribbon.  Stenciling another 50 panels with this same stencil gave it another work out yet! 

So for the actual day of their wedding, this is the card I made FOR the couple.  I was able to get a little more “intense” with this one as it was only ONE card!

I was so excited when I saw this stunning card kit come out from Taylored Expressions called “Modern Eucalyptus” (no longer available) and I thought it was the perfect colors to create something with for their wedding.  The white panel was silver foiled and then I stenciled the colors of the wreath pieces, stenciled some silver paste, die cut them out and popped them up over the foiled wreath.  I stamped the sentiment in the center, added some TE Tiny Diamonds to some areas and cut a strip of silver glitter cardstock to go across the bottom.

Around the edge of the panel, I used a free gift that I got with purchasing items and tried it out and on my panel without realizing that it cut the center.  I went ahead and attached it down anyway as I liked the decorative look to it.  I had a matching envelope and off we went to the wedding!!!!!

The couple was married in Hocking Hills (Ohio State Park area) and it was absolutely beautiful over there!  The venue they used only had a certain capacity limit and so this is why there were only 50 invitations that went out.  It was a very nice private wedding with everything done and organized for them.  I do not have any professional photos of the wedding as of yet, but I had to rely on my husband for taking a few photos on his phone and then handing the phone to someone for photos as well…my dress didn’t allow me for handy phone carrying.  LOL  But here a just a few photos (not professional) of the wedding

As being a first time “mom of the groom”, it is quite an experience and very emotional especially when my son picks out a song for our dance with a song I used to sing to him as a baby in my belly!  We both had tears!! LOL  It was such a joyous occasion and I’m thrilled to welcome our new family into our lives for years to come!  May they always feel the joy and love together for ever after!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my wedding post today and have been inspired in some way to brighten your day.  I thank you so much for taking the time to stop in and say hello!  It means so much to me!  See you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Crafty Friends – Embossing Wet/Dry (heat embossed on invites)
  2. Crafty Calendar – Add a ribbon (on invites and thank you)
  3. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  4. Fab ‘N’ Funky – Anything Goes
  5. Penny’s Paper Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
  6. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles23 Comments

Lawn Fawn Thanks+Painting Divas Class Projects!

Happy weekend!  It’s very hot here today as we are under a heat advisory!  So thought it was best to stay indoors and keep working on my “catch-up” posts!  This one is a bit different than my usual papercrafting posts, but it’s my finished projects from the crafting retreat I had with friends right before the wedding and why I was so busy!  But first, I’d like to share a fun “thank you” card I made for my friend that hosted it all:

And as you know from my last post, I was on a Lawn Fawn fever mode, so this was also made for my friend that hosted the fun “Painting Divas” retreat for us!  This ADORABLE set called Just Add Glitter was a perfect set to use to create a card for the theme as well as those products to accompany it with the Art Supplies dies, Canvas and Easel as well as the Paint Splatter Background Stencil too!

For the background, I created a scene with a brick stencil from my stash that I’ve had for years which was blended on with some grey ink.  The bottom solid grey portion of the scene I used that paint splatter stencil and some Distress Oxide colors and blended in over it.  By using the oxide inks, the colors showed up better over the grey.

I used these same colors of Oxide inks to sponge over the die cut pieces from the Art Supplies dies as well as the “master piece” splatter on the “canvas” and the brick wall splatters.  I’ve used some LF Woodgrain paper to cut out portions of the “wooden” pieces and the rest of the pieces were cut from white cardstock and then just colored with Copic markers. I arranged the scene to make it fit the way I wanted and then attached it down with some of the pieces being popped up with foam tape.  (The sentiment on the rainbow canvas blob was from a freebie stamp the company is famous for adding to your order.)  I had fun making this one and I chuckle at the “I arted” sentiment!😅

Painting Diva Vicki 2022

For the “Painting Divas” Retreat, we had projects with different teachers and of course you probably recall the Mixed Media birdhouse I did from my past blog post.  CLICK HERE TO VIEW POST  The theme was on that cute little sign as we arrived…”Gnomes & Fairies & Unicorns & Glitter”…how fun is that?!!  We were to created a decorated gift bag to bring with us using the theme and enter for a contest…but totally forgot to bring mine back home for a photo to show! LOL  (I am hoping that we get together to share some photos as I wish I had taken more than what I did!)

I took a quick photo with birdhouses everyone finished for my class and it was so fun to see everyone’s interpretation of how they made their own.  I enjoyed seeing what everyone did! (I think two of these are missing in this photo.) 

Now, I am not an avid decorative painter and don’t spend a whole lot of time doing it, but my mom along with a couple of girls at this retreat are, and have been doing it for many years! (even longer than I have been a paper crafter…which is a LONG time! LOL)  So I have had the privilege of learning a bit about it, through them and mainly my mom.  I’m glad to have this time to share something together and doing when we can.  I appreciate it more than I think it is realized and the memories that are made.🥰

Below is my gallery of projects that I did for each class.  I did this in order of when each class was taught.  If you’re directly on my website, just click on each photo to enlarge it and also see the description of what the dimensions and types of surfaces that were used.  All were hand painted by me using acrylic paints.

Taught by my mom over a canvas board measuring 8″ x 10″ with addition of 3 stars, buttons and knob for nose. You could make a face or paint a gnome, so of course I painted a gnome for mine. I went on my own and added twine to the star…not sure I like it.
Taught by Linda over a 6″ x 14″ thin wood board. I love Halloween so this was a fun one. It came prepped base coated with the blue background. Stars were stenciled with dry brushing. I added some glitter paint on some of the candies after I sealed it.
I zoomed in for a closer look at the pumpkin and some of the candy as it’s hard to see from a distance.
Taught by the host of the event painted over a stretch canvas in 10″ x10″ size pre base coated with black paint. The snowflakes were stenciled with dry brushing and glitter paint was added over the green and red areas. Gold Drip Drops were added to elf and Rhinestones to a few of the larger snowflakes. There was also some splattering done over entire piece.
Taught by Kathy was this cute “photo holder tag” from an 8″ x 5″ thin wood board. I painted over white and then washed with some black for a shiplap look. Wrapped around burlap ribbon plus other ribbons/twine. I added my own decoration at the bottom and popped in a photo.

I have one last project to share which is something I recently finished up before this painting retreat, but it had been sitting around the last few years as an un-finished box not being used.

A few years back, I had gone to a paint convention with my mom and purchased this brush box that was hand-made by an older gentleman and vendor at this place.  My mom also purchased one as well.  I started it quite a while back and had been left at my mom’s place.  I brought it home and finished up the top portion of the box doing some ombre painting and added the wooden lettering on the front.  I added some glitter paint to the lettering after it was sealed.

And here’s what the inside of the box looks like with all of my brushes stored in it.  (Well most of them anyway! LOL)  What I like is that there are separate compartments so that I can organize the different types/styles of brushes in each.  The brushes are protected and dust-free.  The dimensions of this brush box are 11″ x 7″ x 4″ deep all made with wood.  The hardware was removed and then replaced after painting and sealing.

Like I mentioned, I don’t always do decorative painting like this, but since it’s already part of my life and I have accumulated things related to it, I will probably do some things here and there.  It’s like a mixed media thing for me as I don’t always do that, but sometimes I enjoy getting things out for something different.  I like many different crafts which makes this all so fun for me.  It’s nice to have a variety of interests to keep enthusiasm going!

How about you?  Do you have interests in other things besides paper crafts?

Stay COOL and safe out there today friends…how do you like to keep cool?  

Thanks so much for joining me today and I hope you were inspired in some way on your visit!

Challenges:

  1. Crafty Animals – Anything with an animal (card)
  2. Dragonfly Dreams – Indoor Hobbies (card)
  3. Happy Little Stampers – Anything Goes with Dies (card)
  4. Happy Little Stampers – Anything Goes with Stencils (card)
  5. Addicted to Stamps & More – Any Occasion (card)
  6. Cardz 4 Galz – Get Inky (card)
  7. Creative Moments – Anything Goes optional: CUTE (card)
  8. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes (card)

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles21 Comments

Lawn Fawn Fever!

Hello friends!  I have LOTS to catch up on with all of the blogging of projects that I’ve been working on over the last few months, so I will probably share several projects within one post until I can get caught up!

I know that Christmas in July is going on everywhere right now, so I thought I’d share that along with a few other projects I had going on during my “Lawn Fawn Fever” episode!  I have loved their cute little critters for so long and hope you enjoy what I’ve made:

It’s been a while since I even played along with a Lawn Fawnatics challenge, so I decided to join this one which is asking to see your Lawn Fawn “Fun with Food” challenge projects.  What could be more fun than sharing Christmas cookies?!  I’m not sure I’d share any with mice…but these guys are too cute and add some more fun to the scene.  They’re a bit older and I know I’ve had the set for several years as it was one of the STAMPtember sets called “Merry Christmouse“.

I used some older Lawn Fawn papers from my stash to create the table and backdrop setting and then cut it out with the Lawn Fawn Outside In Rectangle dies.  I used the following sets which include the one mentioned above for my scene: How You Bean?, How You Bean? Christmas Cookie Add On, and Thanks a latte.  I Copic colored them and even added a few stamped images over the cookies including some Chunky Glitter. 

For the mouse hanging over the hot cocoa cup, I cut around his arms to fit over the cup.  I popped up the candy cane as well at the mouse next to the jar for depth on the scene.  I added some touches of glitter and then on the mouse Santa hat, I took some liquid applique and heated it up until it was puffy.  The sentiment was white heat embossed over the dark chocolate cardstock and then I just used my scissors to cut it out and attach at the top.  Really fun scene to create!

I also took part on Friday with the “Hive Five Kit” class they did using the adorable new Hive Five card kit they came out with recently.  I think everything is sold out now, but they mentioned that they might come out with some of the items in the future.  You can check out the video HERE if you’re interested in seeing what we did.  I changed mine up a bit, but pretty similar to what was shown for us.

The first card, I made my sentiment too high so I had to “arrange it” how it worked for me and I wanted it to be a birthday card instead.  The other project was just the hexagon tag.  I changed mine into a shaker and then added to a card.  I also added the speech bubble on this one.

The products included with the card kit were really fun and I’m glad I got it!

The majority of this card came from a fun little kit that my sweet blog friend Shirley gifted me included with a SWAP that I was in with her. (Details of that are below.)  Really love that she included the backdrop for the sky which worked out perfectly!  I actually already purchased this awesome Lawn Fawn Platform Pop-Up die along with the Platform Pop-Up Add-on and the Upon a Star stamp set and dies, but she was so very kind to have all of these pieces already stamped and cut out for me!  I just colored in the critters and the stars, added a few more here and there along with some glitter, white heat embossed the sentiment over the navy cardstock and put it together.

I hadn’t even broken out my Platform die at the time, so this was my first time putting one together!  It looks a little more intimidating than what it really is, so I had lots of fun with it!  Thanks so much for sharing the fun with me my friend!  I can’t wait to attempt another one soon! (Thanks for helping me with my addiction!😁)

 

And as I had mentioned above, I was asked if I’d be interested in joining this “Summer Sampler SWAP” with my wonderful blog friends Patti, Shirley and Donna along with a few other ladies to take part with!  When it was described to me, I quickly realized that I had seen these 12″ x 12″ sized papercraft stamped samplers all over Pinterest.  Of course, I had thought to myself that would be fun to create and never did.

Each square is 3-1/4″ and we each were to use the same color for the back layer so it was all similar for the finished project to coordinate well.  So 9 of us created 9 squares, kept one for ourselves and then mailed out the others to each person in the swap.  Really fun to see everyone’s idea here with the theme of “SUMMER” too!  I love them all and thought how fun that each one is so different from the others!

This is my finished 12″ x 12″ shadow box framed piece with everyone’s squares that I’ve attached to a wood panel background paper.  I have it hanging on the wall.  I think this would be so fun for each season or even gifts!  Hope we can do another one!😉

And here’s the square that I did for the swap.  I zoomed in to take the photo and it’s behind the glass, so it’s not a real great look at it, but as you see, I’ve used Lawn Fawn again! LOL

I had some fun 4th of July papers and thought it would be neat to make somewhat of a shaker element with confetti stars.  I’ve used the Lawn Fawn Dandy Day Flip Flop set along with a mouse from the Bubbles of Joy set for the front of my square.  I was trying to give the impression that the mouse had a sparkler and the sparks were flying while the other mouse was enjoying the show. I used glitter and die cut a star from silver glitter cardstock for the center of the dandelion.  I added a red bow at the top.  I thought with using a shadow box frame that the dimension wouldn’t be an issue and it wasn’t.  

There’s always something fun to keep me hopping, so I know you’ll see more soon including the wedding & painting class projects!  I promise I’ll get there!  Thanks for dropping by!!

 

Challenges:

  1. Lawn Fawnatics – Fun with Food (first card)
  2. Crafty Gals Corner – Christmas in July (first card)
  3. Krafty Chicks – Christmas (first card)
  4. CRAFT – Christmas (first card)
  5. Jingle Belles – BLING on the Holidays! (first card)
  6. Double Trouble – Christmas in July Thing 1, Thing 2 & Thing 3 (I’ve used old stamp sets, papers and added some fun bling on my cookies -plus added to the partner challenge in first card!)
  7. Alphabet – ‘H’ is for Holidays (first card)
  8. My Time to Craft – Christmas in July (first card)
  9. Papercraft – Christmas in July

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles28 Comments