My Favorite Things (MFT) – Page 2

Making Masculine

Hey there friends! I know that Father’s Day is well past us, but I wanted to share some cards I made with a masculine style that don’t necessarily have to be for Father’s Day, but for birthdays, signficant other, thank you, etc.

I have lots of males in my family that I need to have cards on hand for, so these will come in handy when I do need to grab one in the future for sure:

Vicki-MFTToolAround

This is one that I made which can be suited for basically my hubby at some point! LOL! The fun dies, and sentiment including the pattern paper all came from My Favorite Things. I popped up the background over my brown card base, cut out the different tool pieces in wood paper, black paper and silver metallic paper. (I later noticed that one of my metal peg pieces look “off” with the tool…and I’m sure my guy recpient will notice! LOL!)

I silver heat embossed the sentiment over the brown cardstock and cut out my own design with my scissors with it and then went over the edges with some silver ink. I finished this off with some wooden dots I’ve had in my stash for a while.

Vicki-GrillMaster

My next card was for my hubby and it was made for him for Father’s Day which is has already received. He thought the added flames on the grill were pretty cool. LOL!

I actually had another card that was “grill master”theme that I had made for my own dad, but of course forgot to take a photo of it before I gave it. I did use the “left over” letters (the negatives) from his card, however, to place over top of the grill on this card which was cut out using my Cricut machine.

I sponged some clouds in the background of my card panel here and added some grey “smoke” clouds around the grill. The flames were also the “negative” portion from my other card that was used to attach between the grill on this one.

I added details to the grill with a little bit of ink sponging along the edges as well as color portions of it with a glitter gel pen. I die cut a border for the grass and added shadows with Copic markers. I had stamped my original sentiment crooked, so I ended up white heat embossing it over the cardstock, cutting it out and placing it over my boo-boo! I added some hearts around it as well.

Vicki-TE-plaidshirt

For my last card, I was wanting to try out the plaid stencil set that I got from Taylored Expressions and made a “shirt card” with it. Really love that stencil BTW! Very easy to create some fun and unique plaid designs with it! I sponged mine over kraft cardstock.

I wasn’t sure what to do for the pocket because I don’t have any “pocket” type dies, so looking through my dies, I thought that this Labels Stacklets 10 would work for a pocket which was die cut from a plaid piece and then I folded the top portion over and just glued it along the edges so that I could actually use the pocket for something like sticking in some cash.

Lastly, I white heat embossed the sentiment from the Mini Strips-Life Saver and cut it out with the coordinating die to go over the pocket flap. I cut an additional strip from the plaid to go along the edge and added a “collar” at the top. Finished it off with drawing stitch lines and adding buttons.

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These are all so different, but I sure had fun playing with different items in my stash and now have some masculine style cards ready to go as well! I hope you’ve enjoyed them to or has given you some inspiration in some way!

Thanks for dropping in! I have a post coming up with some really fun news so stay tuned in!! I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

Sweet Stampin – Create Your Own Background (card #2 stenciled clouds card #3 stenciled plaid)
Crafty Cardmakers – Create Your Own Background (same as above)
Arty Divas – Anything Goes
Double D – Stitches (faux, real or dies) top 2 card dies, last card faux
A Perfect Time to Craft – Anything Goes
Craft Rocket – For the Men/Boys

July 2, 2020July 2, 2020

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles26 Comments

Guest Design Spot for The Paper Girls With Birthday Fun!

Hello friends! 🙂

I’m very excited to share my post with you today for The Paper Girls Challenge as I’ve been invited to be a guest designer for their current challenge of “BIRHTDAY“! We all need birthday themed projects, so this is a great way to join in the fun and add to your birthday card stash too! Hope you will join us!

I wanted to pull out some stamps that I had bought a while back and never pulled out to use yet, so this was fun! Here’s my card:

Who could resist a couple of cute party animals! LOL! I’ve pulled out this adorable “Sending Sweet Celebration Wishes” stamp set from My Favorite Things and made a fun party scene with it!

For the card front, I’ve die cut some Summer Splash cardstock with the Gift Box Cover-Up Dienamics and then used it to also cut some older MFT pattern papers to fit inside the die cut squares. I layered these pieces over a piece of MFT Daffodil cardstock (looks to be retired) and then mounted it over an A2 sized top folding white card base.

I’ve used the same Summer Splash cardstock to stamp the sentiment from the stamp set and used a banner die to cut it out with and used the Gift Box Cover die to cut the end of it to match with the upper right box area.

For the Gift Box Cover-Up “frame”, I took a sentiment from the MFT Penguins in Paradise and stamped the “cheers” image randomly with VersaMark ink all over it, but then decided that you couldn’t see it very well, so I added the word to the yellow banners with a black pen in my own writing.

I’ve used the coordinating die set for the Sending Sweet Celebration Wishes set to cut out the colored images and attached them to the card front. Some I’ve popped up with foam tape and the others were glued. I also wanted to add a little sparkle, so I’ve attached a few confetti sequins to finish it up.

Here’s a closer look at the coloring I’ve done on these cuties. I’ve used a white gel pen for their cheeks as well as adding some polka dots to the party banner.

You can see where I’ve used a marker to write the words on the banners and I also used it to create stitches along the top of each banner too.

I’ve also added some shimmer with a glitter pen over the cupcake frosting.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my birthday party animals card today and have been inspired in some way! Please be sure to stop on over at The Paper Girls Challenge Blog to see the DT inspiration and play along with us!

Thanks so much for stopping in today and I’ll be seeing you soon!!

Challenges:

MFT Birthday Project– Jan “Cheers”
Crafty Calendar – Use die cuts/punches
Seize the Birthday– Creatures Great & Small or Anything Goes
Creative Knockouts – Birthday Wishes
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal(s)

February 3, 2020February 1, 2020

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles26 Comments

Rainbow Shaker Birthday!

Hello friends! Yay! It’s Friday and I thought I’d share this happy shaker card that I made for my mom’s recent birthday she had. (Yes, I kept this one a secret until I gave it to her!)

Vicki-MFT Birthday Bear Rainbow

I saw over at My Favorite Things “Birthday Project” Challenge was a “rainbow” theme and I thought this would make for a happy and fun birthday card design! So I pulled out the MFT Transparent Triangles Background stamp (now retired) and heat embossed it with white EP over some Bristol Smooth Watercolor paper. I went to work with my rainbow background and sponged several colors of Distress Oxide ink in rainbow form over the heat embossed background for a “resist technique”. I spritzed some water over it and my sprayer went a tad bit “dropy” and I ended up with a weird large droplet pattern, but I decided I wanted to keep it anyway, I liked it.

So to make sure that my shaker balloon was going to line up with my bear, I needed to stamp, color and fussy cut out this bear from the Beary Special Birthday stamp set. I needed to fussy cut it out because the coordinating die cut would also cut out the balloon from the image, and I didn’t want to include it as I was making my own! I’ve also white heat embossed a senitment from the same stamp set and cut it out with the Essential Fishtail Sentiment Strips. I also took the Mini Balloon Shaker Window & Frame Die-namics to cut out all of the pieces that I needed for the balloon. (I used the fussy cut out bear for placement to see where I needed to die cut a hole in the background for the shaker area.) Before attaching the bear down, I also took some green cardstock and cut out a border with the Grassy Fields Die-namics. I sponged the edges with green ink and took a Copic marker to give a shadow around the bear. So after I placed my “balloon hole” where I needed it on the background, I took the rainbow sequins to place inside the Mini Balloon Shaker Pouches and added a piece of black cardstock for the background, which was placed over an A2 sized white top folding card base.

Here’s a closer look at the bear and how I’ve got him colored in. I forgot that in addition to the rainbow sequins I had, I put some tiny star sequins in there as well. At first I thought I had went a bit too dark for coloring the bear, but I like how he blended out and I think he really stands out on the rainbow background and doesn’t get lost with the black accents on the card. I took a white gel pen to his cheeks and added some shimmer to his present with a glitter brush pen. (My mom likes the color red, so I purposely made the present red).

Vicki-MFT Birthday Bear Rainbow-flat

Here with the card laying flat, you can better see the shaker bits on the inside of the balloon and how they really stand out against the black balloon background.

I think I got a smile and it was passed around for the shaking.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and I thank you so much for stopping in! Wishing you a very happy and rainbow filled weekend too! 🙂

challenges:

MFT Birthday Project – Rainbow
Creative with Stamps – Birthday
Crafting By Designs – Anything Goes
Little Red Wagon – “Shake It!”
Always Fun – Birthday

April 5, 2019April 5, 2019

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles28 Comments

Purple Day Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop

Hello friends! I am very honored to be joining my friend Fikreta Posavec to support her efforts in “Purple Day” for Epilepsy Awareness.

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Please take a moment to read:

Purple Day is a global grassroots event formed with the intention to increase worldwide awareness of epilepsy, and to dispel common myths and fears of this neurological disorder. Further intentions of this movement are to reduce the social stigmas commonly endured by many individuals afflicted with the condition; to provide assurance and advocacy to those living with epilepsy that they are not alone in their ongoing endurance; and to initiate individuals living with the condition to take action in their communities to achieve these aims.

The day occurs annually on March 26.

Formation and history

The concept of Purple Day was initiated by a 9-year-old named Cassidy Megan, and was motivated by her own struggle with epilepsy.

The Epilepsy Association of Nova Scotia helped to develop Cassidy’s idea, and the first Purple Day event was held on March 26, 2008, and is now known as the Purple Day for Epilepsy campaign.

In 2009, the New York-based Anita Kaufmann Foundation and Epilepsy Association of Nova Scotia joined to launch Purple Day internationally and increase the involvement of numerous organizations, schools, businesses, politicians and celebrities around the world. On March 26, 2009 over 100,000 students, 95 workplaces and 116 politicians participated in Purple Day. In March 2009, the official USA Purple Day Party launch was organized by the Anita Kaufmann Foundation. Canadian Paul Shaffer of the Late Show with David Letterman attended the official launch at Dylan’s Candy Bar in New York City.

In March 2012, Purple Day received the Royal Assent and became a legal day for epilepsy awareness in Canada.

In December 2015, Electronics retailer Dick Smith had arranged a major corporate partnership with Epilepsy Action Australia to support Purple Day in Australia with a $50,000 cash sponsorship, prizes and exclusive distribution of Purple Day merchandise. A week prior to Purple Day celebrations in 2016, Dick Smith was placed in receivership. Later, the Retail Food Group provided a $50,000 donation to match Dick Smith’s previously promised sponsorship.

My own experience with epilepsy revolved around someone in my childhood school. She was constantly made fun of because of certain behaviors she had due to epilepsy and I wasn’t aware of her condition, but naturally felt sorry for her. Due to me trying to be nice to this person, I quickly became someone who was also made fun of for it. Children can be cruel, but I’m sure that the long term affects of what this person went through were very traumatic and long lasting. I watched her collapse in her yard with a seizure and was so scared. (This is how I learned about what she had.) She was embarrassed about it and didn’t want to talk with anyone about it. I have since lost contact with that person from school years, but think of this time with my heart still going out to that person and wishing her a happy life.

My hope is that there is more education about this in the school system and especially since it can be very dangerous and children need to be aware of it along with what to watch for and/or to tell a teacher what is going on or how to help. If other children are more aware, then maybe stigma can be less severe for children with epilepsy. It would be so hard for a child to speak out about something they are being made “ashamed’ for.

Fikreta has brought us together for a fun blog hop to bring awareness to PURPLE DAY and educate people about this condition that her husband has. Please be sure to find her blog (last person listed in blog hop below) and read about her story.

Here is the special card that I’ve made for this blog hop:

Vicki-PurpleDayBlogHop-MFTWSC429

I had so much fun with this card! I first started out by making a panel with alcohol inks over some Yupo paper. I didn’t have the MFT Triangle dies, so I made myself a stencil and cut out my own from the alcohol background I made. I then white heat embossed the sentiment from the MFT All About You stamp set and cut out the black strip and attached in the center between the triangle layout. I then cut out this panel with the MFT Wonky Stitched Rectangle die and added some splatters with some Brutus Monroe purple “basket grass” Aquapigment and water. (Love the shimmer it created too! See the photo below.)

Next, I cut out the “you” die from some Brutus Monroe Spring collection glitterstock and placed it underneath the black strip sentiment. Lastly, I stamped one of the cute little Yetis from the MFT Beast Friends stamp set and colored him with my Copics. I popped him up over the bottom portion of the design with some foam dots. Lastly, I’ve added some Brutus Monroe Unicorn Bottlecap Sequins and filled the centers with Nuvo White Blizzard Glitter Drops.

Here’s a closer look at this cute little guy and how I’ve colored him up. I’ve used a light purple tone marker to color the outter “fur” portion of his body.

Vicki-PurpleDayBlogHop-MFTWSC429-flat

Here’s the card laying flat and you can see in the light how those splatters shimmer! Those aquapigments are very awesome to play with!! (You will have a chance to try them out yourself if you enter and win my prize below…so check it out!!)

Here is the list and blog hop links for all blogs participating in this event. To win a prize, be sure to leave comments along the way and subscribe to their blogs if you’d like.

(subscribing is not mandetory for the prize draw.)

Sandie

Vicki –You are here!! *PRIZE BELOW!*

Fikreta

Your next stop on the blog hop is the lovely lady herself Fikreta…please go see her now!

challenges I’d like to enter:

My Favorite Things Wednesday Sketch Challenge – MFTWSC429
Creative Moments – Anything Goes
Pammies Inky Pinkies – PIP1912 Anything Goes

March 26, 2019August 3, 2021

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles66 Comments

Anything Goes for Cute Card Thursday!

Hello there friends! Have you been busy with your Christmas festivities? I am doing a “run-run Rudolph” right now and trying to finish up my Christmas cards let alone some baking, preparing for a Christmas dinner and finish wrapping up presents!! It is the fun of the Holiday Season and I enjoy spending time with my family, so I look forward to seeing them all!

It’s a new challenge today over at Cute Card Thursday! Since it’s that time of year and busy, we made this any easy “ANYTHING GOES” challenge for you!! We are looking forward to seeing what you’re making!

Since I am trying to finish up some Christmas cards, I thought I’d try and work on some doing “mass production” of a design. I only do so many of these before I have to switch things up, but I thought these turned out pretty cute:

Vicki-CCT561-Snowman Joy-mass produce

I have used the My Favorite Things “Filled with Joy” card kit (sold out) to make these plus I have pulled out the MFT “Simply Snowflakes” stamp set (retired) to clear heat emboss the background and then rubbed some Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink over it. The panel was cut out with the MFT Die-namics Blueprints 27 and the heat embossed sentiment strip was cut out with the MFT Die-namics Essential Fishtail Sentiment Strips.

Vicki-CCT561-Snowman Joy

Here you can see how I’ve pieced together the snowman. The die in the card kit cuts out everything including the letters. I’ve cut his top hat with some black felt paper that was also included in the kit and then I decided to cut out the snowman head so that I could cut out those tiny eyes and mouth with the felt paper as well! So if you happen to get this card from me, please be sure to rub your finger over the felt pieces in his hat and face!! I very carefully and lovingly placed each tiny felt dot in!! 🙂 I think that the blue snowflake background really makes him stand out even more!

On an even closer look at the card, you can see that I’ve added a sequins snowflake to each snowman’s hat and then added some sequins to the card background. I filled each one of these with some silver Stickles. The snowman head was popped up with a foam circle and the rest is just glued down.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today! Please be sure to check out what the rest of the design team has for inspiration and come add your creation to the gallery over on the Cute Card Thursday blog too!

I’ll be back again soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter:

Daring Cardmakers – Snowflakes Falling
A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes
Always Fun – Snowman
The Creative Crafters – Anything Goes
Double D – Let it Snow!

December 20, 2018December 19, 2018

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles22 Comments

We’re Recycling at Cute Card Thursday!

Hello friends! I’m back to share our new challenge for Cute Card Thursday this week! I have to say that I enjoyed this challenge and I can’t wait to see what you come up with for this one. We would like to see some “Recycling” on your projects this week! There are so many different ways you could go…do you have a box full of “trash treasures” waiting to be used? Now is the time to pull it out! 🙂

Here’s what I’ve come up with for the challenge:

Vicki-CCT558-Recycle-PolarBearSoup

I haven’t made these for a couple of years, but I like to save those Crystal Light plastic containers and decorate them and use them as “gift holders” or like I have here for some “polar bear/snowman soup” containers!

I try and keep the decorating somewhat simple, but I enjoy adding ribbon, glitter, etc just for the fun of it! I’ve used an oldie but a goodie and my fave set from My Favorite Things called “Cool Day“. I’ve used both of the polar bear images and colored them in, fussy cut them out and attached to the containers. I’ve also white heat embossed the sentiments from the set and cut them out with a banner die for them to stand on. I found some matching ribbon that I’ve wrapped around the top of the container and then added the bow. Although I didn’t take a photo of the top of the lid, I’ve also cut out some matching pattern paper to decorate the top of the lid. I’ve used some liquid glue to add some faux snow at the bottom of the containers and then some glitter under the polar bears feet.

Vicki-CCT558-Recycle-PolarBearSoup-back

This is actually the first time that I’ve done polar bears for these. I usually use a snowman with the snowman soup poem, but since these were polar bears, I sort of changed out the wording to make it work with my design. LOL. I’ve just printed it up on the computer and added a coordinating mat behind it and attached it to the back of the containers. It slightly sticks out on each side, but I could always trim it down more if I wanted it to fit, but I was fine with it.

Vicki-CCT558-Recycle-PolarBearSoup-containters

I just wanted to share a photo of the original packaging of these containers. I have my family save these up for me and I will create with them each year. I have about 10 of them saved up for now. As a crafter, we always keep our eyes peeled for something we can save and create with! 🙂

And here’s a closer look at the details of the polar bears. I used my Copics to color them. For the green one, I used the pointillism technique to create the look on the sweater. I also made the elbow pads and the circles on the mug. I covered the mug with some glossy accents. I added some glitter to the top of the hat on the red one.

Be sure to stop by the Cute Card Thursday blog to see the inspiration from the rest of the design team and enter your recycled creation to the gallery! Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Thanks for stopping in today! See you soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter:

Always Fun – Anything Goes
Christmas with the Cuties – Anything but a Card
Use Your Stuff – Mood board (inspired by the sweet treats, mugs and red/white colors!)
Double Trouble – Thing 1: My sweet treat is inside the containers! Thing 2: I used the mood board above from “Use Your Stuff” challenge! Thing 3: I used lots of “sprinkles” with faux snow and glitter!
Crafty Card Makers – Anything but a Card
Artistic Inspiration – Just for Fun Challenge – Anything Goes

November 29, 2018November 29, 2018

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles34 Comments

Seeing Stars at Cute Card Thursday

Hello friends and welcome to Thursday already! It seems like the weeks are quickly going by faster and faster as we close in on the end of the year! It’s the “crazy crafting season” for sure! LOL!

Today brings up another Cute Card Thursday Challenge and for this week’s challenge, we’d like to see “STARS” on your creations! I think this is a good one for whatever it is you’re crafting even if it’s Christmas…or not! I have decided to make mine non-Christmasy this time:

I am pretty much “out-numbered” with males in my family, so most of my birthday cards are for men and I have a couple more birthdays to celebrate next month, so I thought this was a great opportunity to sneak one into my Christmas card-making time!

All the stamps and dies used on my card today come from My Favorite Things. (I have recently purchased some Christmas items and look forward to getting my hands crafty with some of it soon!)

I started my card out with the Blueprints 27 scallop rectangle die. I took some star images from a retired MFT stamp set called “Totally Happy” and randomly stamped them with VersaMark on this card front panel and then heat embossed them with clear embossing powder. I taped off the scalloped edges so that they wouldn’t get inked. I’ve used the Blueprint Sketch, Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass and Twisted Citron Distress Oxide inks and blended them over the stars for an ink resist effect. I also spritzed this panel and dabbed it with a paper towel for the water drop look.

I thought it would be fun to make a shaker card, so I die cut a star from this ink blended panel with the MFT Star Shaker Window and Frame Die-namics set and then cut the frame out from some black card stock.

What makes this such an easy shaker card is that MFT also has these Star Shaker Pouches that coordinate with the die! So I’ve taken this and fit it through the die cut star area on my card front panel and then filled it from the back with some confetti stars, I found some matching colored seed beads and pretty sparkly silver glitter chunks… (crafty goodies from grandma passed to my mom and then she passed onto me! The ladies in my family seem to hoard craft supplies…hmmmm! LOL!) …to fit inside and then covered the back with some white cardstock. Just love the sound when it shakes because you can hear the seed beads! 🙂

I then took a strip of black card stock and white heat embossed the sentiment (same stamp set mentioned above.) to stamp the greeting. I first layered the scallop inked panel over a black piece of cardstock and then attached the sentiment strip and cut off the edges to match that layer. I then mounted this panel over an A2 sized top folding white card base. I finished it off by adding some silver star sequins filled with some Silver Stickles in the centers of each one.

Sometimes you wonder about “adding too much bling” for a guy, but I think this is a fun shaker birthday card that a male would enjoy too! Hope you’ve had some fun on my blog today! I thank you so much for stopping by! I will see you soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

Challenge Up Your Life – Celebrate/Anniversary, etc. (Happy 100th Challenge!)
Use Your Stuff – Stars
Crafty Cardmakers – Lots of Layers
Shopping Our Stash – (SOS 380) Tic Tac Toe (I used the middle row going down: stamps, glitter was handed from my grandma to my mom and then to me..so yeah, older than 5 years probably! LOL & Happy Birthday)
Watercooler Wednesday – WWC196 – “All About Occasions”

November 15, 2018November 14, 2018

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles28 Comments

Birthday Wishes for Hubby

Hello friends! Happy Friday! I wanted to share a few things from my husband’s birthday we celebrated last night along with the card I made for him.

Vicki-MFTDeer-Bday

I was going for a masculine look of course and I know that he likes nature, wildlife, etc. and with his birthday being in November, I thought a Fall scheme would work out nicely. Besides, I had gotten some My Favorite Things products and wanted to have a play with them, so I used the current color challenge when making this one. (See challenges list below)

For my design, I went with a Natural cardstock base, rounded the corners with a corner chomper and ink blended along the edges with some Vintage Photo distress ink. I got a little more carried away with the inking than what I wanted, but then went over it by spritzing some water and dabbing it up with a paper towel for the water marks. (I’ve also cut out some leaves with the Falling Leaves Die-namics die set and then sponged some colors around the edges for them as well. These were added as accents on the over-all design.)

Vicki-MFTDeer-Bday1

I was so excited about using this Delightful Deer Die-namics set. There are some T-I-N-Y bits in there to cut out and attach! LOL! I sponged around the edges and bottom of legs with a brown ink. I die cut some white dots and the piece for tail as well as cut out a couple of brown dots for eye and nose as well as cutting out his antlers. I also added a few extra “dots” with my white gel pen on the deer. It was popped up over the scene with some foam tape. The main deer was cut from Persimmon cardstock which is also what I’ve used to cut out a banner (from the Essential Fishtail Sentiment Strips die-namics) that I white heat embossed the sentiment from the Essential Sentiments stamp set.

Vicki-MFTDeer-Bday2

For my scene, I took some of the MFT Candy Land Paper Pack and use the dotted “Sour Apple” color piece and die cut a panel of it with the Stitched Rounded Rectangle STAX die-namics and placed it over my ink blended natural card front base. I then used the Stitched Valley die-namics and cut some pieces from brown cardstock and lightly sponged some white ink over top of the “hills”. I placed those over top of my natural card front base and also cut out some trees from one of the FREE die-namics dies that I received with an order from some Sour Apple card stock and attached them over the “hills”.

Lastly, I wrapped some twine around the card front base, added my die cut leaves where I wanted them, attached this panel to a top folding A2 sized white card base that I’ve also rouned the corners on with a corner chomper. Lastly, I’ve added some clear crystal drops in random places.

I enjoyed creating this one using mainly die cuts and minimal stamping! I hope you’ve enjoyed my masculine card design as well! 🙂

Here’s the challenges that I’d like to enter this card for:

MFT Color Challenge – Persimmon, Sour Apple, Milk Chocolate, Nautral
Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies –
City Crafter – #437 Woodland Animals
Crafting By Designs – Anything Goes
Creative Moments – Anything Goes

If you happen to follow along with me on FB, then you may have seen where I’ve had the talented lady Dina Kowal create a portrait for me using a past photo from our beloved family member Mocca that passed away this last February. Dina is extremely talented with her pencils! My hubby was amazed and here is a photo of him with it last night after he opened it up for his birthday present:

BertBday-11-08-2018-gift

He said, “Oh wow!” when he opened it and wanted me to tell her that she did an amazing job, it looks just like her! I went through the photos with hubby (he’s not on social media) that Dina had shared of her on-going creative process with the portrait and this was one from the beginning:

Mocca drawing photo 1

And this was the photo that she used for her creative process:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

We are thrilled and honored to have this stunning work of ‘Mocca’ art in our home and look forward to getting it framed and put up! Thank you to Dina for sharing her talents with all of us! 🙂 You should go check out her work!

Thanks for dropping by my friends! See you soon!

November 9, 2018November 9, 2018

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles27 Comments

It’s a Monochromatic Cute Card Thursday

Hello friends! Trying to work hard on projects and gettings things ready for next month. So please excuse me if I seem a bit sporadic in my presence!

Stopping in to share a new challenge with you over at Cute Card Thursday! This week the theme is “monochromatic” or some people say “monochrome” which simply means that your project mainly consists of one color or tone. Stop by the challenge blog and be sure to check out the rest of the inspiration from the design team while you’re there! Here’s my project for the challenge:

Vicki-CCT548-monochrome

I absolutely fell in love with this flower image from the My Favorite Things card kit that they came out with! And I can’t say that I came up with this idea all on my own either, as it is very similar to one of the samples on the project sheet that comes with the kit.

It’s very simple to do, just white heat embossed the floral image and color areas in with a Copic marker and then I used a sentiment from Lawn Fawn to white heat emboss over vellum and the card stock again and then die cut the word out and attach over the vellum strip. I had been requested to make up some wedding cards and so I’m trying to make up a few of them as this is something that I’ve completely missed in my card creating. I need to remember that along with some others that I have been requested to make up that I just don’t think about doing when creating. Taking mental notes for myself!

We look forward to seeing your creations this week! Hope you can play along!

Thanks for stopping by friends! See you soon!

challenges:

QKR Stampede – #313 Anything Goes
The Flower Challenge – Anything Goes + flower(s)
The Creative Crafters – Anything Goes

September 20, 2018September 19, 2018

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles33 Comments

I’ve Been Schooled!

Hello friends! Hope you are doing well and are having a great week!

I took some time over the last few days to try and follow along with all of the videos and classes going on over the My Favorite Things blog as they are doing “Session 2 of their MFT Summer School“. I don’t know about you, but I find that there is always something new to learn and dfferent things to try with crafting and I enjoy learning about it so that I can continue to improve in what I already enjoy doing. Sometimes that self-doubt creeps into the skull to tell you that “you’re not good enough” and “give up”, etc. The way for me to try and stomp out those feelings is to take classes and try something new. I just want to enjoy the process and learning can help bring on more positive feelings.

Since there are SO MANY creations in this post, I won’t go into too many details other than share the links to the MFT Summer School links that I made each card for. I hope you enjoy having a look at them:

Day 1 – Monochromatic (CAS)

Vicki-MFTcamp-monochromatic CAS

I used several colors of MFT purple (of course!) cardstock and stamped a background stamp with VersaMark over it. I think the die I’ve used is from something retired. Here’s the link to Day 1 – Monochromatic Class.

Day 2 – Focal Point

Vicki-MFTcamp-FocalPoint

Really had fun with this sweet little bear! 🙂 I loved the layout so much from class and decided to follow that for my card here. The balloon and die cut sentiment actually have shimmer over them which doesn’t show in the photo very well. Here’s the link for Day 2 – Focal Point Class.

Day 3 – Visual Triangle

Vicki-MFTcamp-VisualTriangle

This one took me quite a bit to put together. I think maybe part of it was all of the coloring, but I was struggling a bit with the concept…I’m hoping this was how she was going with it. 3 long strips at the bottom, 3 images at the bottom and 3 images at the top. The purple in the background was a watercolor wash like she showed in the video, but I didn’t heat emboss any image like she did. Here’s the link for Day 3 – Visual Triangle class.

Day 4 – Rainbow

Vicki-MFTcamp-rainbows

I have done this before and I really like how you can use up your paper scraps in a colorful way. I used the same frame die here in a similar manner as I did the card above this one. I cut the sentiment several times before laying down the top one and then I slightly off centered it to show the white slightly behind it. Here’s the link for Day 4 – Rainbow class.

Day 5 – Ombre

Vicki-MFTcamp-Ombre

And here I go with another purple card! LOL! I actually remembered a fantastic video that I created this card based on a tutorial from Jennifer McGuire. CLICK HERE for her video on ombre techniques. Here’s the link for Day 5 – ombre class.

If you have any questions about these, please feel free to contact me or simply leave a comment below and I will be happy to reply.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I will see you again on Thursday for a new challenge! 🙂