*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles

It’s 2023! Commissioned Calendars and More Calendars to Start the Year!

We’ve made it to 2023!🎉 Congratulations and a huge welcome! I’m so thrilled to have you with me for another crafty year and honored to be apart of your creative journey in some way.

Towards the end of last year…which was a few months ago…I was asked to create a set of those calendar cards that I had made last January which you can view in my previous post HERE. If you look at the calendars at the bottom of the post, it explains the details. In sharing those, someone asked me to create a set with a particular theme in mind for giving as Christmas gifts.

I was given instructions to use a sheep image for their card/game group that call themselves “Sheeples”.😄 The first one that came to my mind was this adorable little die cut set from Taylored Expressions called Spring Squad Die & Clear Stamp Combo. I love the added stamp set to create the details of the characters! And of course I’ve also used the TE Mini Tear-Off Calendars.

For the background, I wanted to incorporate some game theme items with this cutie, so I pulled out the fun stamp set from Inky Stamper called Game Night, of course! I ink blended the background panel with some reds and black/gray Oxide Ink colors and spritzed it with water for some texture. Once dried, I added the different “suit” images in the corresponding colors of the suits. I also stamped a sentiment from this same stamp set and die cut a banner with it to pop up under the sheep. Lastly, I’ve added a few Playing Card Shaker Elements and rhinestones.

In total, I needed to create 8 of these calendars and I think they turned out really cute and fun! I didn’t know if there were any masculine members of the group, so I wanted to keep it for use either way and I’m glad I did as it was needed. So these are each A2 size that can fold flat and fit inside A2 envelopes for mailing if you needed. Then the recipient can stand them up to remind them of their next game night fun throughout the year! She seemed pretty pleased with them, so that was great too! And of course she received them in plenty of time for Christmas giving, but I’m just now getting them posted.

I enjoy creating a new calendar for my craft room every year and there is a fun 2023 Calendar Kit from Inky Stamper that I completed.

Every year Inky Stamper comes out with these calendars that comes with all of the calendar month cards plus pre-stamped and cut images along with a sentiment strip and papers for each month. It also includes some sort of stand to display them on. (I like to use the previous year calendar to make cards with too!)

I was able to get them all colored and assembled for this year and have it displayed on a shelf next to my computer so that I can flip through each month and enjoy. I enjoy taking the time to sit and color especially with it being cold and snowy again over my way.

And since this post is all about calendars, I thought I’d take the time to complete TWO Perpetual Occasions Calendars from Taylored Expressions that I had gotten sometime last year for gifts and never got around to finishing them up.

I’ve just turned it to January to show, but you can see the other pages of the calendar on the bottom corner that were all stenciled up similarly. The link above takes you to the class kit which includes the TE Perpetual Occasions Calendar, the TE Calendar Coil plus the video class instructions from Taylor on how to put everything together. You can also get the TE Floral Vines Layering Stencils that work with this calendar which I’ve used with these that I made.

And of course you can also use these same stencils to make a pretty card too! I’ve taken the same stencils that I’ve used on my calendar and made a birthday card. I took the instruction from Taylor’s class and applied it similar to my own card using the TE Diagonal Stitch Rectangle die to partially cut one side of the stenciled panel. I also pulled out the TE On Occasion stamps & dies to white heat emboss over black and cut out over the front of the card.

And then after creating two sets of the perpetual calendars and birthday cards to match, I’ve added a rainbow pen that I had previously purchased from Taylored Expressions (no longer in the store) and placed them all inside these TE 5×8 Clear Calendar Boxes. I pulled out some ribbon in my stash and wrapped it around the boxes. I now have two completed birthday gifts with cards this year! Yay! I feel like I’ve accomplished something ahead of time for a change!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my New Year calendar post today and have been inspired to start getting crafty! Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

Creatalicious – Anything Goes optional something new (new calendar kit for 2023)
Love to Craft – Anything Goes
Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal (top and middle projects)
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes with paper
Paper a la Mode – Let’s Get Started (no cards)

January 6, 2023January 12, 2023

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles21 Comments

End of the Year-Dec AJ Page-SNOW+Book

It is here! The end of 2022 has arrived weather you are ready for it or not! I know as I’ve gotten older the time seems to pass more and more quickly. Each year I usually go through all of the things that I didn’t have time to do. This year I’m going to look at all of things that I DID do instead! I look forward to a wonderful year ahead and I hope you are as well!

For this entire year, I’ve had such a wonderful time creating my AJ pages at the end of each month with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)! Thanks SO MUCH to her for the wonderful inspiration and joining in the venture with me! I know she’ll have something wonderful, so please check out her blog for an AJ page too! We’ve gotten creative by using up our never-ending stash piles! (I look forward to doing this for another year each month in 2023 and I’ll hope you’ll be here too!) Here’s my final Art Journal inspiration for 2022 with the “SMASH OUR STASH” December prompt of “Oldest Stash” :

It’s a bit challenging for me to FIND my “oldest stash” as I’ve been a bit of a collector over the years. So I’ve pulled out a very old, but favorite stamp set of mine from Stampin’ Up! called “Lovely as a Tree” from 2001. The container broke when I opened it up to take a stamp out! LOL I’ve also pulled out my Pearl Ex powders and some gilding flakes from my older media stash. It’s a good thing that powders don’t go bad otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to use them!🙄

For the Background – I’ve used some mix of paints and splattered some white paint over it for the snow. The trees at the bottom were stamped over vellum and then I cut it out and attached that to the bottom of the page so that they were a nice vibrant black as I didn’t think they would stamp over the paint very well. I did take a snowflake stamp (not too old) and stamped a few randomly over the background in teal ink. (water-proof)

For the Pearl Ex Powders – I mixed some Misty Lavender Pearl Ex with embossing paste and used a snowflake stencil to randomly add this to the background.

For the Gilding Flakes – I die cut some snowflakes with double sided adhesive sheets will make the front sticky. This made it so I could rub in the gilding flakes over them. They did turn out very pretty!

The “SNOW” letters were die cut and I found a neat winter clipping from my sentiment stash to add below it after I sponged some teal ink around it. I also die cut another tiny snowflake in the center of the ‘O’ with glitter cardstock and attached a tiny teal rhinestone in the center of it. I rubbed some silver wax around the letters and around the edges of the page. Lastly, I’ve added some star sequins and filled the centers of those and the gilded snowflakes with some silver Stickles. I covered the bottom of the page under the trees with glue and covered it with sparkly glitter.

So I thought that since I’ve done an AJ page every month this year that not only did I need to close up the year, but I also needed to close the book to all the AJ pages I made from 2022 by finally finishing up a book to put them all in!

I made the covers with some chipboard along with some “old” chipboard pieces from my stash and did some painting with a bit of mixed media gold wax and stenciling. I wanted to be sure to add the year to the front and a little quote from my sticker book that says: “happy in her heart where only the imagination can go”

I fit all of the AJ pages completed this year along with a few extras that were created from before with unknown dates, added the front and back covers and used my Zutter Bind-it-All machine to add the spiral wire for a book. (This was the reason all of my pages had the pre-punched holes in them when I posted each month.)

That finishes up the 2022 year on my blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed my posts weather it’s for inspiration or just a smile. Either way, I’m so thankful that you have joined me this past year and your friendships. I look forward to a productive and crafty year ahead in 2023!

Have a safe, happy and healthy New Year!🎊

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Snowy Winter
Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes

December 31, 2022December 30, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles19 Comments

Merry Christmas!🎄

Just wanted to share some Christmas cards I made this year and wish each and everyone a peaceful, loving and joyful season!

Made with the Taylored Expressions Woodland Reindeer Silhouettes stamps & dies and the Woodland Reindeer Deco Foil Transfer Sheets. The sentiments were foiled from the TE Simple Strips in Reverse Christmas Panels. The shaded oval panel was blended on by using the TE Oval Masking Stencils and I splattered the background with white paint.

This card was made using a TE freebie (not available for purchase) and created in the same way with the card on top except this one has the sentiment in the center rather than the reindeer. I also foiled a couple of the snowflake/stars randomly over it and rounded the corners.

Thanks so much for your continued support my friends!!!

Challenges:

Fab ‘N’ Funky – Last minute Christmas
The Sisterhood of Crafters – Traditional Christmas Colors
Crafty Gals Corner – ‘Tis the Season
Creative Moments – Christmas/Winter Celebrations
Creative Knockouts – ‘Tis the Season
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Pammies Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

December 22, 2022December 19, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles23 Comments

It’s Time For Tags!

Hello friends! I thought I’d take some time for making up some tags which is something that I really enjoy doing, but don’t do it very often. They’re so nice to have a batch made up ahead of time so that you can pull one out as you need it instead of trying to hurry through making something. It’s always better to have fun instead of rushing!

This trio of tags was a bit time consuming, but it was nice to finally pull out some things that I’ve been wanting to play with and use without being in a hurry. The characters are from the Taylored Expressions Holiday Squad die set. The tags themselves were cut from the TE Pierced Stacklets dies, the TE Tag Stacklets 2 dies and the TE Tag Reinforcements dies. The background for the tags was made with the TE Foil It-Plaid Layering Panels that I foiled in gold along with the stenciling from the TE Plaid Layering Stencil set. The sentiments were white heat embossed from the TE Just Saying-Christmas stamps. I’ve used various colors of Taylored Expressions papers and inks and then finished the embellishments for the “holly berries” using the red from TE Tiny Diamonds-Bold set and then I also used the TE Gold Drip Drops in the background. The ribbon and twine from my stash at the top.

My next trio of tags here was really fun with these adorable penguins from Taylored Expressions Dancing Through the Snow stamp set and dies. I placed them over top of the transparency that was used to create a shaker tag behind the penguins. I used the TE Tag Stacklets 3 dies and also used some pink polka dotted papers from a free paper pad I received with an order. The bright shinny purple paper came from my stash I’ve had for quite a while and thought it would be a fun non-traditional color to use with these. I filled the shaker tags with the TE Bits & Pieces-Snowflakes and the TE Bits & Pieces-Sparkly Stars.

And these tags were a little hard to photograph with all of that cording in the way! (pardon my photograph skills! LOL) They’re smaller than the tags above, but they work great for different packaging sizes! These were easy and fun as I’ve done mostly foiling with these using the Taylored Expressions Foil It-Simple Tags Holidays panels and the stencil to go with it. I cut them all out at the same time with the coordinating dies. The tags with the black cording are the negatives from foiling the toffee colored tags and are mostly completely foiled. I just used different colored Stickles glitter to create the Christmas lights on those. (Really been having fun with the foiling this year!)

And lastly I wanted to share a set of tags that I’ve made using various Inky Stamper sets! I decided to go through all of the different Christmas sets that I have from them and pull out the ones that I either haven’t used or barely used to play with them. The tag at the top was made with the Inky Stamper Fox set that I really enjoyed coloring. The presents at the bottom and the Santa hat were colored and fussy cut from the same stamp set. I made the background of that one with the Falling Snowflake Stencil with white ink and heat embossing over it with sparkly white embossing powder.

The tag on the bottom left is another fun shaker tag! I pulled out the Inky Stamper Nutcracker set to color him up and cut out with the coordinating die. He was placed over the acetate on the shaker tag. I used a scallop circle tag die with gold foil cardstock that I cut out the center with a circle die, added some papers for the background from the Doodlebug Buffalo Check/Woodgrain paper pack. The shaker bits inside are the Shaker Garnish which is really lightweight and still make a great shaker sound too!

The bottom right tag was cut from an Infinity Tree die set. I sponged the edges with some white ink and punched a hole at the top to make it a tag. That cute little truck is from the Inky Stamper Vintage Truck set that I colored and cut out with the coordinating dies. I used a fun Lawn Fawn road die to place him over and then stamped the sentiment from the stamp set with white ink. I also added some snowflake sequins above him with the Icicles sequins mix. And both blue and red Doodlebug Twine was used for two of the tags. The other ribbons/cord from my stash.

Thanks so much for stopping in today! Hope you’ve been inspired and enjoying the Season!

Challenges:

Country View – Christmas
Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
Cupcake Inspirations – Happy Holidays
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Mon – Tag It
Tag Tuesday – Winter Holidays
Crafter’s Café – Anything Goes

December 17, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles26 Comments

Christmas Fun with Kits and Classes

Hello friends! We’re headed into the home stretch now for Christmas and the end of the year! Are you ready yet? Well I thought that I would try and get some Christmas cards made up and have some fun with it rather than trying to rush things too much.

Tee hee! This one makes me giggle! While I was making up some squares for my sampler swap group, I thought I’d use this same MFT Stuffed Santa kit (that I had gotten last year) and made a card along with making the squares too! The squares I made turned out cute too and I’ll share those later on. I added some glitter to the snow on the image and on his gold belt buckle too. The background was white heat embossed with the MFT Christmas Greetings Background and then ink blended with blue inks. Finished off with snowflake sequins and Stickles glitter in the centers of each.

And here’s another set of cards that I made from a previously purchased kit by Riley & Co using the cute Riley as the Grinch stamp. The stamp was included along with the kit and so I just thought it would be nice and easy by just coloring him up, adding my own sentiment and putting it together. So now I want to watch the movie!😄

And lastly are some cards that I put together during an OOAK event with the classes that I selected to get the kits for and just enjoyed the process of putting them together. **If you are on my website, you can click on the photos below to see them up close and larger**

So although I’ve shared several projects here today, I have more craft-making going on so I’m going to shorten up my post and hope that you enjoy the inspiration! I appreciate you stopping by today! See you soon!

Challenges:

Christmas Crafts All Year ‘Round – Waiting on Santa (top card! LOL)
Christmas Kickstart – Christmassy
Crafty Friends – Traditional Christmas Colors (2nd card)
Jingle Belles – Wrapping Up Christmas 2022
Winter Wonderland – Anything Goes Christmas
Sweet Stampin’ – Christmas Creations
Moving Along With the Times – Christmas

December 7, 2022December 6, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles20 Comments

Inky Stamper Craft Room Shake Up

Hello friends! It’s the very last day of November and also the last day as a Guest Designer for Inky Stamper too. Really enjoyed creating with their fun products and hope that you’ve gotten some inspiration as well! If you are ever looking for their store in the future, I will have the badge with link on the sidebar of my blog so you can find it or look for all of my posts under the “Inky Stamper” category also found on the side of this blog.

Today I’m sharing a fun way to make a full front/infinity shaker card using their products:

Rosie is having some fun cutting up paper!✂ She is from the Inky Stamper Craft Room set that I’ve colored up along with the little bottle and cut out. This was so fun to put together and reminds me of the fun that I enjoyed during the Inky Escape event! (I will share the projects I made in a future post) The heat embossed sentiment as well as the envelope and ink splatters in the background, came from the Inky Stamper Inky Greetings stamp set.

At a previous Inky event I went to, I learned how to put together a full front shaker in a very easy way and wanted to use this same idea for my card here. So I started with the Inky Stamper Shaker Sealable Pouches and added a piece of 3.75″ x 5″ Doodlebug “Cute & Crafty” paper (released temporarily from Inky Stamper in the past) that I stamped the ink splatters with orange and pink inks over. Before sealing up the pouch, I added some Iridescent Clear Shaker Garnish and some Picket Fence Crafty Friends sequence mix. I used some Red Line Tape to attach the shaker pouch to the scallop orange piece that was layered over an A2 top folding bright pink card base. I like this because there is no wondering if the foam tape will hold all of the bits where they’re supposed to be…so very easy!

I’ve also used the same Doodlebug “Cute & Crafty” papers to heat emboss my sentiment at the bottom and I’ve also used a pink gem from the Picket Fence Reflections. For the “floor” of the craft room, I’ve used the Doodlebug Buffalo Check/Woodgrain paper pad and die cut a piece for the bottom that was popped up with foam squares over the shaker pouch panel.

I wanted to share a closer look at the shaker details with the pouch and the shaker goodies inside. The sequins mix is so fun with those tiny scissors in there, can you see them?!

For the picture frame, I’ve taken one of the squares from the Doodlebug “Cute & Crafty” paper pad for the main focal of it and added some dashes along the edge. I also sponged around it with light blue ink and cut out the little brush from the “Craft Room” stamp set after coloring it up and then glued it to the panel. I also cut out more of the woodgrain paper for a frame look and then added a tiny piece of the Doodlebug Gray Twine behind it. I pulled at the top and added a round foam dot to it so that it was held in place over the shaker pouch. I then used the Metallic Transfer Foil Sheets to press over top of the foam dot so that it looked more like something hanging up the picture.

So I hope you’ve enjoyed my full front shaker card today and have been inspired to make time to make stuff too! If you have any questions about anything here, let me know! Thanks for stopping in today!

Challenges:

Creative Inspirations – Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle
Shopping Our Stash – Bling it Up and/or lighting
Penny’s Paper-crafty – Anything Goes using paper
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring
Daring Cardmakers – Shine
Tic Tac Toe – used bottom row across (patterned paper, stamped image & sparkle/shiny)

November 30, 2022November 29, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles29 Comments

November AJ Page-Peace Love and Hope

Hello friends! Hope that you’re having a wonderful weekend and I can’t believe we’re looking at the end of November already as well as almost the end of the year too! Since I’ve been doing most of my post this month with guesting for Inky Stamper, it’s time to change it up a bit.

At the end of the month, I do an Art Journal page and collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper), so please check out her blog for her AJ page 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” November prompt of “washi tape/stickers/border stickers, etc” :

So with the Smash our stash theme, I went through and pulled out so many stickers in my collection…and then realized that I’ve had some of these things for such a long time! I couldn’t use them all, but I made something work with a fun Christmas theme in mind.

For the background: I started out with my pre-punched holes at the top of my 140# cold press paper sized 6″x9″ and covered the bottom portion of the page with some Tim Holtz Christmas themed washi tape. I thought it was a bit too bright and went over it with some white paint and a brayer. I also took a collage paper of Christmas music sheet paper and stamped a couple of different images over it to further the collaged background. I also covered this area with a thin layer of mixed media silver paint.

I die cut a pine tree and sponged some inks around the edges and turned that as well as the die cut sparkle snowflakes into stickers using my Xron machine. I stamped the two deer in black ink and heat embossed over it a clear EP. I then took a Tim Holtz stencil and used some sparkle texture paste over it for snow. (Before I attached the larger snowflake stickers.) I also splattered the page with some white paint too…lots of snowfall going on!

For the wording: I had some black thickers (as they call them, which are thick foam letter stickers) for the “PEACE” and then the other words are stickers from my stash. The heart is from the thicker sheet too. I took some silver rubbing paste with my finger and went along the edges of the page as well as the thicker letters to add some interest. Lastly: I made a “snow ground” for the deer by applying some glue and covering it with some glitter crystals. I also added some black gem stickers to the center of each snowflake sticker.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page today and have been inspired in some way. Thanks for much for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Collage Fodder and/or Food and Drink (collage fodder here)
Mixed Media Lovers – Letters/text/quote
Creative Artiste – Anything Mixed Media
Creative Moments – Winter
Arty Divas – Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – NOT a card

November 26, 2022November 25, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles25 Comments

Black Friday Frog at Inky Stamper!

Hello friends! Hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with grateful hearts and full tummies! Today is another tradition after Thanksgiving which is the “Black Friday” deals! So I wanted to share something fun with you today and I strongly encourage you to head on over to the Inky Stamper Store to see all of the wonderful Black Friday deals that are going on!

So click on the badge above to be taken to the store to shop and don’t forget these special codes at checkout for free shipping and the “FREEFREDDY” when you spend $30 or more! And if you like the coordinating die to cut out Freddy, then you can purchase the die for only $5! In honor of Black Friday, I have some inspiration using this NEW Freddy Solo:

And of course what’s better than a good “Black Friday” deal than a black frog to go with it?!! It was proposed to have Freddy Solo the Frog colored up in black, so I took on the challenge and made a fun monochromatic card with him. I think he turned out cute!

I found a sketch (linked in challenges below post) and used that for inspiration in creating my card with him. I’ve used several different patterns for my papers from the Doodlebug Buffalo Check/Woodgrain and Gingham/Linen paper pads which are also sold in the store as well. I’ve used some for the card front panel that was layered onto an A2 black top folding card base. I’ve layered some silver foil papers with the pattern papers for the image panel that was lightly sponged with black ink. I wrapped some silver cord around the image panel, white heat embossed the sentiment with Freddy over a piece of the pattern paper, popped up Freddy with foam squares and finished off the design with some Picket Fence Day and Night Gems. (click on the links to be taken to these products in the Inky Stamper store.)

Here’s a closer look at the Black Friday Freddy and how I’ve colored him up using Copic markers in the cool grey tones. I’ve also added a highlight on his eyeballs with a white gel pen and then I emphasized the “dots” on him with a black gel pen. You can see it looks a tad bit shinny and raised on the dots.

Really hope you’ve enjoyed my Black Friday card today and are able to take advantage of the fun deals this weekend! So hop hop hop on over there and shop! Have a great weekend and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

Through the Purple Haze – Monochromatic
Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
Crafter’s Cafe – Dies and/or punches
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Try Stampin’ On Tuesday – Paper Piecing and/or sketch
Double Trouble – Scrapper’s GORP teaming with TSOT above

November 25, 2022November 24, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles22 Comments

It’s Never Too Latte For a Friend

Hello friends! Hope that your week has been going great so far and you’re getting ready for Thanksgiving Day for my friends in the U.S. that celebrate. So since Christmas is coming up quickly, I thought it would be fun to share a couple of little gifts for a friend you might like to share coffee/cocoa with:

Aren’t these little mini coffee cups with the gift card holder so fun?! I had fun making and gifting them! Of course I love coffee, but if your friend would rather do a cocoa, that will work for this too! I’ve used this adorable Inky Stamper Latte stamp set to create my project here with that adorable “Rosie” character popping out of the cup. I colored and cut her out with the coordinating die. For the “candy cane” image on the front of Rosie’s cup, as well as the “coffee ring stain” image on the coffee cup sleeve, I used the Inky Stamper Warm Beverages stamp set to accompany my design. (There are some great cocoa images in there to trade off for the coffee too!)

These little mini coffee to go cups were found on Amazon (4 oz cups pack of 50 with lids) and there are tons of videos on You Tube on how to construct the holder for these. (Check out several from search here) I sort of tweaked mine from a die set that I’ve had for years, but there’s no reason to buy a die if you can create without an additional purchase. I’ve added an additional backing with a pocket and thumb opening to hold a Starbucks gift card in.

And then when you open the coffee cup, there is a great place to add some extra treats inside! I chose to add some Bailey’s chocolate truffle candy inside of these cups. You can also see how I decorated the cups with papers that has peppermint candies on them as well as the top of the lid, the cup sleeves with stamping and the red twine wrapped around the lid as well. The little peppermints that I’ve added on the top of the lid as well as on Rosie’s head came from the Inky Stamper Christmas Candy Mix…love that container! The Doodlebug red Gingham/Linen papers come from the Inky Stamper store as well.

And since the lid on the cup was not as secure as I would’ve liked it to be, I decided to wrap the entire thing inside of a gusseted cello bag and tie it up with some more of the red twine, which also made it look like a gift wrapped present too!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my project(s) today and have been inspired to create a fun gift for Christmas too! Thanks so much for stopping in and have yourself a very grateful Thanksgiving Day!🦃

Challenges:

Double D – Hot Beverages
Sparkles Monthly – Dies and/or Punches (both used!)
Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes optional Christmas
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes

November 23, 2022November 22, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles20 Comments

Stretching Out Inky Stamper Products

Hello friends! I hope that you’re having a wonderful week so far! We have experienced our very first snow accumulation this year and it was very pretty on the inside where it’s warm! LOL It wasn’t necessary to shovel as it melted when it hit the pavement/streets, which makes it nice too! I’m excited to be sharing some more Inky Stamper products with you today as I continue on with my Guest DT for this month. This time it’s all about stretching out those products you purchase to get even more out of them which I’m sure we all need during this time of the year!

Isn’t this little mouse gnome the cutest?! I don’t think I’ve seen a mouse gnome before, but this is another brand new stamp set from Inky Stamper called Gnome, of course! (Click on the link(s) to see everything in the store)

I’m not only using this same stamp set for both of my projects today, but I wanted to point out that this one above is not a card, but it’s a gift card envelope that I’ve created using the Inky Stamper Mini Envie Die. I love this die for quickly creating the perfect sized envelope to fit your gift card inside, but Chelsea also comes up with fun mini cards in alot of her kits that work great for tucking inside this envelope too! (There’s a brand new kit in the store that has just came out using one of the brand new stamp sets making a mini card in her class.) I also wanted to point out that this die can be cut from one of the 6×6 Doodlebug paper packs sold in the store too!

For the front of my envelope here: I thought it would be fun to create a little scene for my mouse gnome to hang up his stockings! I took a strip from the Doodlebug Buffalo Check/Wood Grain paper pack to place along the bottom and stenciled some bricks for the background. I stamped, colored and cut out the gnome with the coordinating die and I punched a small hole on each side of him where his hands are for the string. I then took some of the “stockings” from the Picket Fence Fireplace Stockings sequins and attached them to the string that wraps around the back of the scene panel. I added a sentiment from the same stamp set, popped up the gnome and attached to a piece of green glitter cardstock and then attached it to the envelope front.

Here you can see the other side of the envelope that I’ve white heat embossed the deer from this gnome stamp set and sponged some white ink around the edges. Now to keep the envelope flap closed, you could wrap some twine or ribbon around it, but I love using the Inky Stamper Papercrafting Velcro because it’s the perfect size for this closure and it’s such a great price! You can see how easily a gift card can fit right inside too!

And here’s another scene I’ve created using this adorable Gnome stamp set, but on a regular A2 sized card this time.

So as I was using the Inky Stamper Mini Envie Die for my gift card envelope above, I was looking at the other die pieces that come with this set and thought that the stitched triangle die would make for some great pine trees for my little mouse gnome scene. I pulled out some Doodlebug Gingham/Linen as well as the Doodlebug Swiss Dot paper packs to cut out the triangles and design my scene with the “ground” and “snowy sky” too. I placed the “sky” paper down first, added a curved “ground” and tucked in my formed triangle pines. I also tucked in the wooden sign from the stamp set and stamped the greeting over it. This gnome stamp set also has a tiny pipe that you can die cut out which is just the right size for the gnome. You can see that I’ve tucked that in behind the gnome’s hand on the right and I added some “smoke” with a marker on the background too.

I thought that the Picket Fence Woodlands sequins would be perfect with our gnome, so I’ve attached a few over the “ground” area. I also added some Picket Fence Icicles sequins to the “sky” area for the appearance of snowfall in the background. I also added another white “snowflake” to the center of my gold cord bow at the top. This is a great way to stretch your sequins by making it apart of your main scene.

For the glittery “snow”, I’ve covered the pines, sign, the gnome, the mushrooms and “ground” with some white Nuvo Crystal Drops and then covered those areas with some loose glitter while it was still wet. The reason for that is because if you just use glitter, it will dry clear and I wanted some white to show.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my mouse gnome projects today and have been inspired to see something different with the products that you have in your stash too! Thanks so much for dropping in! Be sure to check out the Inky Stamper Store as well as LIKE the Facebook page to see a live video on Tuesday nights. There is also a fun InkyStamper Inkspiration Facebook Group to join for more inspiration and fun challenges each month too!

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