anniversary – Stamped Smiles

Vintage Anniversary and Commissioned Ones Too!

Hello friends and happy February! I feel like we just started a new year and it’s already into the second month! I will need to get going on a couple of Valentine cards really soon! Today, I wanted to share a card I had made for my parent’s 57th wedding anniversary along with a few other anniversary cards I was commissioned to make that I had forgotten to share until I made my parent’s card! LOL!

I really like how this one turned out for my parent’s anniversary card! If this looks familiar to you, then you may recognize it from a past Simon Says Stamp card kit. (This one came from a Valentine 2020 kit.) I thought that the papers in the kit looked “Vintage” and I really liked that, so I thought I’d try to go for that style in my card.

I used the heart rose stamp image from the kit and colored it with Copics and fussy cut it out. I also copper heat embossed the leaves from the stamp set included in the kit over some green cardstock and fussy cut those out as well. The sentiment was also from the same set as the leaves and I copper heat embossed that for the bottom right corner of the card. It’s hard to see from the shine, but it says: “Happily ever together” and was fussy cut as well.

I started with the Vintage looking papers and cut a piece down to size and inked up along the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink and layered it over a side folding A2 white card base. I pulled out a piece of shimmer vellum that I ran through a Sizzix 3D heart embossing folder and layered it over top of the background. I also took some of the ephemera from the kit and added those to parts of the background after sponging the edges of that too. (see the “ticket” in the top left.)

Finally, I arranged the heat embossed leaves along with the heart shaped rose over top. I glued the leaves and then popped up the rose with foam tape along with the heat embossed sentiment. I added some shimmer to the leaves with a shimmer brush pen and then took some sequins from the kit to attach over the card and filled with Stickles glitter.

I think this would be a special Valentine card as well for someone!😉

At the end of last year, I was also commissioned to make a 50th wedding anniversary card for someone. I was just given the detail that the wedding photos were shown with the colors black and white…so I based my card using that idea.

I always think that wedding/anniversary style cards look especially elegant with die cuts and embossing, so I dig through my die cut and embossing folder stash. I’m sure you can imagine me sitting on the floor with things everywhere! LOL!! Do you do this too when you’re not sure what you want to do and/or what all you have?

So I found this really pretty Memory Box die cut with the heart in the center that I wanted to use and thought some glitter paper behind it would be so pretty. This is why my card is a square shaped design. Since it was celebrating 50 years, I thought it would be appropriate to add some gold in there too and die cut the numbers for the center of the heart as well at the border pieces on the top and bottom of the heart. (Not sure where that die came from as it’s old. The number dies are really old too!)

I layered this onto the glitter paper and gold foil paper. I stamped a sentiment (Taylored Expressions-The Inside Scoop Anniversary used both inside and out of card.) and die cut it out with a banner die and popped it up under the heart with foam tape. I layered this onto a white 3D embossed background that was layered over a black top folding square card base. I attached a gold ribbon bow over top.

I stamped a sentiment for the inside of the card and you can see that I’ve decorated the inside of the card using the same die cut border with gold foil cardstock. The papers I’ve used for the borders on the inside were also used to create a custom envelope for this card. Sometimes if I don’t have the envelope on hand, I make my own envelope. Sometimes I prefer to do this for special cards anyway.

And this is another card that I had been commissioned to do for someone that wanted a card for an anniversary on Christmas Eve. I was given the detail about them spending time at Disney World and seem to be a fan of Disney along with it being their 25th anniversary…so my card was based on those details.

I have no Disney character type stamps/products at all. My thought was to create something with a “winter/Fairytale” theme which is why I turned to my Cricut machine for help. I was lucky enough to find the carriage and horse image that I cut out using brushed metallic silver and silver glitter cardstock for the different pieces. I also found a castle image that I cut from the brushed metallic silver as well. I used black cardstock for the base and insides of the cut out images. After I cut out the castle, I ran it through a brick embossing folder to give it that brick castle look. I also die cut the numbers from Taylored Expressions Cap It Off Numbers dies. I attached the numbers in the center of the castle and attached a silver ribbon bow over top of the numbers.

Since I had my main cut out images for my card, I was able to create my scene and size based on those. My finished card measures approx. 7″ x 5″ which is not a regular size for me, but I thought it was fitting given the type of card it was along with the cut out images. I started with a piece of blue cardstock and generously sprayed it with some Pearlescent Cosmic Shimmer previously received from a class I took. It gives a really stunning look and the shimmer doesn’t show very well from the photo either. Once dried, I die cut both the snowflakes and snow border at the bottom from some white glitter cardstock. Both dies used for them come from Lawn Fawn. The trees behind the bottom snow border were cut from some pearl white paper with an older Stampin’ Up! die set in my stash.

I attached the sprayed blue background over a piece of silver metallic cardstock after wrapping a silver ribbon around the center. I then attached the trees and added the snow border at the bottom. I added the castle and snowflakes next being careful that everything was showing the way I wanted and then I popped up the carriage with foam tape.

This whole scene was placed over a white 7 x 5 top folding card base. I also took some silver glitter to add to the little flag ends on the castle. I thought with all of the glitter and shimmer it didn’t need any more embellishment! I was happy with how it turned out because I wasn’t quite sure it would!

There was a custom envelope that was also made for this card using some pretty silver pattern paper from my stash.

Everyone seemed to be pretty pleased with how the cards turned out for them and I was very happy to have had the privilege of being apart of someone’s special day too!

Speaking of wedding anniversaries, I’ve been given the honor to create wedding invites for my son’s wedding coming up this Summer and I know I’ll be getting really busy putting those together as well! So that will be coming up really fast and I hope I can keep up with things! LOL

Thanks so much for stopping in today! I hope that you’ve enjoyed my creations or been inspired in some way! See you soon!

Challenges (TOP CARD ONLY)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
Krafty Chicks – All Occasions
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes with optional add flowers
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring (Copics used for heart rose image)
Creatalicious – Anything Goes with optional love
Simon Says Stamp Monday – Use embossing folder (3D heart folder over vellum piece)

February 1, 2022January 31, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles24 Comments

It’s a Spooky Kind of Love

Happy Friday friends! We’re now upon Halloween weekend!🎃 Are you ready?! Lots of candy on hand to give out and some to enjoy for yourself…check. Scary movies at the ready…check. Ready for lots of fun before the weekend ends!

Not really sure exactly where my love for Halloween comes from, but I love it so much that even my wedding anniversary comes real close too! So today is our 22nd year anniversary and I couldn’t have made it in this crazy life without my “Boo”! I’ve made a card to let him know how I feel:

And yes, this is probably something we would certainly be doing under that moon as we’ve done before including watching bats fly around in the sky! We do weird and wonderful things which is just ONE of the gazillion reasons why I love him so! I’ve made a card with a bit of a “love/Halloween” theme. I’m not sure I’ve ever really made a Halloween style card for him before, but I know this will make total sense for him and he’ll get a kick out it.

Started with the background using some Oxide ink blending keeping careful with leaving the “moon” area clean. I sprayed water over top of the purplish/black background for that texture and then took a Taylored Expressions heart stencil over the background and introduced another color of oxide ink. I ink blended the edges and bottom with black. I have a Tim Holtz “Moon Mask” to create the moon with…which makes it super easy! I stamped the fence at the bottom right and the bats with black ink. The couple on the bench (TE “Love Story” die) was die cut from black cardstock and glued in the center of the large heart. Lastly, I white heat embossed the sentiment over another piece of black cardstock and cut it out with a sentiment banner attached to the top left edge.

It’s really a simple card, but I loved creating the background with a “spooky love” feel that I know he’ll like too!

Here’s a collection of just a few snippets of some current moments we’ve had:

Enjoying Fall time picking apples from a local Orchid we love to visit each year. He’s my “Picking apple punk boy”!

And since we’re going “all batty” here, I thought I’d share my creation that I’ve made for this months’ Inky Stamper challenge (over on the FB InkyStamper Inkspiration Group) using a recycled item! I thought this might be a good opportunity to create a fun treat! I took an empty paper towel holder to cut a 2″ tall container with a handle and covered it with some Doodlebug papers. I layered some trim and ribbon around it and added a punched out circle for the bottom.

I’ve used the Inky Stamper Bat stamp set for the bat that I’ve stamped, colored and die cut for the front of my treat holder. I’ve cut out a stamped sentiment banner to tie onto the handle. Really easy and fun to create! You could get about 5 containers per empty roll which I thought was a lot!

I sure hope you’ve enjoyed my “BATTY” makes today and I wish you a very frightfully FUN weekend!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!

Challenges:

Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes
Alphabet – ‘O’ is for Outdoors
Sweet Stampin’ – All Hallows Eve
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Make My Monday – (E)scape it (scene)
Little Red Wagon – Outside (outdoors)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
CCEE Stampers – Create a Scene
Stamping Sensations – Animals, Birds & Bugs

October 29, 2021October 28, 2021

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles27 Comments

An Autumn Anniversary

Hello friends! It’s been so cold over my way and even snowed the other day which is a tad bit early for this time of the year. I’m still trying to hold onto to Fall a bit longer as I know that the Holiday/Winter Season will be approaching us very quickly now! It seems that Autumn never gets it’s due justice and goes by so fast!🍂

I’m popping in today to share a card I’ve made for hubby to help celebrate our special day of 21 years together🥰:

I adore this sweet image by Crissy Armstrong for Whimsy Stamps called “Your Love Lifts Me” as I thought it was a great representation of how I feel about hubby and how I wanted it to reflect on my card for him. He will have already received this card by the time this posts…so it’s OK if he sees this!😉

I’ve stamped the image over a panel of Copic Blending Card off to one side of it and then cut it out with a stitched rectangle die. I took a piece of orange colored cardstock and used the same die to cut it with, but I cut this piece in half, stamped the sentiment over it and sponged around the edges of it with some Vintage Photo Distress ink. I also took the Whimsy Stamps Everyday Mini Sentiments set and white heat embossed it over a piece of brown cardstock that was cut out with the Whimsy Stamps Quick Strips die set and attached underneath the sentiment and cut off at the edge.

The few leaves over the design was stamped from an older Simon Says Stamp set and colored with Copics. I then added some more Vintage Photo sponged around the image panel and attached the orange sentiment panel over top of the colored image panel and wrapped some twine around the center of it. I layered this panel over top of an A2 sized top folding brown card base. I’ve added some sequins filled with gold Stickles in the center along with a few more dots.

Here’s a closer look at the Copic coloring I’ve done over the image. I’ve kept it pretty simple and decided I didn’t want to add white dots to their cheeks like I usually do. I don’t know why there are times I do and times I don’t. This time it just seemed to call for none.

I used a light blue marker to color in the background and then with the same colors that I’ve used to color in the leaves, I took the markers and made my own leaves on the ground surrounding the couple. I even stamped some more of the leaves on the inside of the card as well as the envelope and colored them.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my Autumn Anniversary card today as I sure had fun colored this sweet image.

I’m very lucky to have such a wonderful person to share my life with in the past 21 years and look forward to our times together in the future. Thank you for stopping in today friends! See you soon!

Challenges:

Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
Allsorts – Celebration Time
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2043 Anything Goes
Watercooler Wednesday – WWC295 All About Occasions

5. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

6. The House That Stamps Built – O2820 Anything Goes

October 29, 2020October 28, 2020

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles26 Comments

Showered Love Engagement

Hello friends! I hope that you and your loved ones are healthy. I also hope that you are having some inspirational crafty fun during this time. Crafting is a great way to create and send some smiles to someone as well! Let’s keep those smiles going!!

Today I have another card that I made for the same son that had his birthday from my last post. He was also recently engaged and I’m so happy for them both! Here’s the card that I sent to them:

Vicki-LOTVshowerlove

I had seen this image came out from Lilly of the Valley last month and just fell in love with it! I knew it would be perfect to use for this occasion! It’s called Showered With Love and I’ve printed it out, colored with Copic markers and then cut it out using the Whimsy Stamps Zig Zag Stitched Rectangles Die set and then layered it over some light blue card stock.

I popped up this image panel with craft foam over a piece of white cardstock that was die cut from a Lawn Fawn Fancy Scalloped Rectangle die and then layered over a piece of dark brown card stock. I then attached these layers over another piece of light blue cardstock with the same Whimsy Stamps Zig Zag Stitched Rectangles Die set.

Before attaching the image layer onto the light blue panel, I took a sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Tiny Words and white heat embossed it over a dark brown strip. I also added some ribbon and lace around the light blue card front panel before attaching the popped up image panel. Lastly, I’ve added some Nuvo rhinestone water dropplets.

Here’s a closer look at the coloring I’ve done on this couple. I’ve tried to keep the hair color likeness to the real life individuals. Hard to see in the photo of course, but I’ve covered the hearts with a glitter pen for shimmer and the trim on the umbrella as well as the center of the heart on the umbrella and part of the handle were colored in with a clear glitter pen which also gives a bit more shimmer to it.

Vicki-LOTVshowerlove-flat

For the inside of the card, I’ve added a computer generated sentiment that said “Congratulations! Wishing you a love together that can outlast any type of weather.” and also created a pocket that held a gift card inside.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and have been inspired in some way! Thanks so much for dropping in today! I appeciate you being here with me! See you soon!

Challenges:

QKR Stampede – #389 Anything Goes
A Bit More Time to Craft – #112 Anything Goes
The Creative Crafters – #26 Anything Goes
Createful Heart Design Challenge Blog – #18 Anything Goes
Creatalicious – #183 Anything Goes with optional: Layer it up
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #128 Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2011 Anything Goes
Arty Divas – #17 Anything Goes

March 19, 2020March 18, 2020

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles26 Comments

A Vintage Love

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great week! I must be really wishing for flowers as this seems to be my theme this week!…along with watercolor and heat embossing! LOL!

Today I wanted to share a card I’ve made for my parent’s anniversary:

Vicki-SSSBeMyValentine-Anniversary

As you can see from the card itself, my parents have been married for 55 years. So when I saw this Simon Says Stamp LE Valentine 2020 card kit, I knew that this would be a great way to start using the kit immediately! (This card kit is still available as of this posting, but I think it’s going soon!)

I actually really didn’t know what direction I was going to go with this anniversary card and I just started pulling things out and swatching different items to see what I wanted to do. I sampled the stencil with the metallic paste from the kit and really liked it, but when I pulled out my copper metallic mirror cardstock, I decided to heat emboss over the stencil with the same copper EP that I used on the sentiment for this card.

I’ve also cut out the numbers with the copper metallic mirror cardstock along with the layer behind some of the papers from the card kit. I’ve added another heart strip of the papers from the kit at the top and used one of the butterflies from the kit to go over the piece of lace I’ve added from my stash. The layers were all attached over an A2 sized top folding card base. Lastly, I added some white hearts that were actually from a different card kit. LOL!

I wanted to share a closer look at the flower. The stamp set in that card kit is so stunning! I’ve white heat embossed the flower and leaves over some watercolor paper and then used my Clean Color Real Brush markers to color it with. I’ve used some foam tape to pop up the flower over the stenciled heat embossed piece that was cut out with a circle die and attached to the card front.

You can see the shimmer over the butterfly wings that I’ve covered with a glitter brush pen. I only glued the center of the butterfly so that I could pop out the wings a bit.

Vicki-SSSBeMyValentine-Anniversary-flat

Although this card looks a bit simple, there were a few steps to the stenciling and heat embossing some of the elements.

My parents commented how pretty it was, so I’m glad they liked it!

I hope you like it too! Please be sure to come back to visit my blog this Saturday as there will be a new challenge to share as well as a special blog hop! Hope to see you there! Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednsday – Anything Goes (Instagram: #ssswchallenge)
QKR Stampede – #382 Anything Goes
Allsorts – Take Flight
Creative Fingers – #178 Anything Goes
Watercooler Wednesday – WWC256 All About Occasions
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – #124 Anything Goes

January 30, 2020January 30, 2020

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles19 Comments

Cards From My Heart

Hello friends! With this not cooler, but COLDER weather we’ve been having, it looks like it may be a hard winter ahead and I’m already feeling it in my body unfortunately. So with the heating pad and warm slippers, I’m still crafting on! 🙂

Today I’d like to share some cards that I have made for my hubby using some of the adorable stamps from Lawn Fawn …which I love:

At the end of October hubby and I celebrated our 20 year anniversary and I made this card for him to let him know how I feel about him after all these years. This would be something that we would certainly do where we live! We always enjoy looking at the night sky together.

I started with some watercolor paper and blended some distress inks for the background and spritzed it with water. I then made sure it was completely dry before white heat embossing the stars that I colored in the centers with a gel pen. I then took a white gel pen and added more “dots” in the sky.

I’ve used Upon a Star and the Winter Skies stamp sets for both the images and sentiment. I took the Little Town border die to add over top of the starry sky and layered it onto a navy card base that has some more die cut stars (from Upon a star coordinating dies) at the top sponged with white ink.

For the sentiment, I had to piece together a couple of words from different sets to get it to say what I wanted it to. I cut it out with a long banner die from My Favorite Things.

Here’s a closer view of the sky and the images. For the fox couple, I black heat embossed it and then used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to color them with and then popped them up over the corner of the scene with foam dots.

I actually used a color palette and sketch from a challenge blog, but missed the deadline to post it, but I think it turned out great and hubby enjoyed it. He said, “Yes, this is something we would do!” He also likes the color blue.

Here’s another card I made for hubby as his birthday was this last Friday:

Although this one is a bit simple, it has a really fun interactive element to it! If you’ve known me for a while, then you may know that my husband is an electrician, so this card was very fitting for him!

I have used the Lawn Fawn Turn Me On stamp set and coordinating dies along with the Life is Good stamp set for the sentiment and the Push Here stamp set to make this card. I also have a large stash of Lawn Fawn papers that I’ve used for this which I don’t think are available any longer.

I used vellum for the light bulb that was heat embossed over it and then I colored it yellow on the backside of the vellum to place behind the die cut opening from the blue panel. That was die cut with the coordinating dies. I stamped and colored the light switch as well and also die cut it out over the blue panel. I then white heat embossed the sentiment and cut it out with a sentiment banner die from MFT. It was sponged with white ink and glued over the blue panel.

The best part of this design is that when you push on the light switch, the light bulb turns on! I’ve used the Chibitronics to create this feature.

You can see here what it looks like when you push on the light switch!

You can also check out this quick few seconds video to see it in action below: (CLICK HERE if you want to see it on You Tube.)

Although this looks like a pretty simple card, mechanically it had it’s difficulites with the light up interior portion of it and it was met with some challenges and patience as I had to keep testing it to make sure it worked right! At one point I had to tear it apart because the battery accidentally flipped over! I also had to use like 4 layers of foam tape so that the light wouldn’t continuously be on all the time! LOL!

It was all worth it though as it was for the love of my life and he really did appreciate the efforts that went into making it as he even took it to work with him so that he could show it to his fellow co-workers! LOL! They seemed to be pretty impressed with it and even offered some advice on how much to charge for something like this! LOL

The card was thick due to the amount of foam on it, so it didn’t fit into a regular envelope. Since it went to hubby, I just hand delivered it to him! 🙂

Hope you’ve enjoyed my share of creations today that I made for hubby! I will be seeing you again soon! Thanks for dropping in friends…I will be visiting soon!

Challenges:

Lawn Fawnatics – Cards for Guys
Creatalicious – Anything Goes with optional: For a Man
Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Cardz 4 Guyz – All Wrapped Up (top card with scarves)
Get Creative – Anything Goes
Through the Craft Room Door – Anything Goes
Retro Rubber – Anything Goes + stamps older than 1 year (ALL listed are at least 1 year or older!)

November 10, 2019November 10, 2019

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles30 Comments

Sweet Anniversary Wishes with Whimsy Stamps January Release!

Hello friends! Hope you’re having a great week so far! It is really cold in our area right now as we are experiencing a “Polar vortex” with a high of -11 degrees F and low of -23 degrees F without wind chill for tomorrow. Brr! Many schools in the area as well as city workers are taking the day off due to the severe cold weather. Please stay warm and safe wherever you are!

Not sure if you saw that Whimsy Stamps has started carrying this new adorable line of digital stamps from CC Designs in their store. Check out all of the January digital release by CLICKING HERE. Here’s the card I’ve made today using one of those images:

vicki-pcaimeevalentino-jan29

I’ve used this super cute image called Aimee & Valentino for a special card that I’ve made for my parent’s 54th wedding anniversary.

I decided to print it out twice so that I could cut out the balloons and pop them up over the image. I have used the following Copic markers to color it in:

reds on outfits, boots, hair clip and balloon – R37, R35, R32
Pink on outfit and balloon – R85, R83, R81 (girl stripes on dress – E53, E51, E50)
Boy’s outfit, boots and hair – C8, C5, C3, C1, C0, C00 (stripes on shirt – BG000)
Girl’s hair – E27, E25, E23, E21
Skin tones – E21, E11, E00, E000 (cheeks – R20)
Grass/shadows – G24, G21, G20, E0000 (around image – BG000)
I used metallic gel pens to color in the middle of hair clip, buttons and cheeks

I cut this image out with a stitched square die cut and then used a cloud stencil with Tumbled Glass distress ink and ink foam blending tool to add clouds behind the couple.

As mentioned above, I cut out the heart balloons on the second print out of the image and heat embossed the stamped numbers on them. I used a stylist tool on the back of them to curve them in a bit and popped them up over the image with some foam dimensional dots. I then added some shimmer over top of them with a Wink of Stella clear glitter brush pen.

vicki-pcaimeevalentino-jan29-upclose

Here’s a closer look at the coloring on the image. You can see a bit of the shimmer over the balloons and where I’ve added some metallic color on the heart hair clip. I took this image panel and layered it over a piece of gold mirror cardstock.

vicki-pcaimeevalentino-jan29-flat

I thought that the January released Hearts a Flutter digital papers were the perfect backdrop for this cute couple, so I printed the pink with white hearts one out and cut a piece out using the Whimsy Stamps Hand Stitched Nested Rectangle dies for that. I found some coordinating card stock and gold heat embossed the sentiment from the WS Everyday Mini Sentiments clear stamp set and cut it out with a banner strip die. I also placed it where I wanted it to go and used the Hand Stitched rectangle die again to create the stitch marks over it.

I took some gold ribbon and wrapped it around the heart design paper card front, placed the image panel over top and then layered on the sentiment banner with foam tape. This was mounted over an A2 top folding white card base. Lastly I added a gold bow and some gold sequins filled with some Stickles Tinsel glitter glue.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my card and I hope the recepients enjoy as well! 🙂 Thanks so much for dropping by today! See you soon!

Here’s a photo list with links for the Whimsy Stamps products I used today: (See the underlined list above and click individual links to purchase Copic Markers from Whimsy Stamps.)