colored pencils – Stamped Smiles

What? It’s Christmas Already?!

Hey there friends! Wow, so my last post was Thanksgiving and I pretty much missed the entire month of December it seems like, right?! It has been a very crazy month with lots of different things (including personal) going on so pardon me for going MIA!

I HAVE been working on some projects here and there and I would be happy to share those, but for right now, let’s focus on the Christmas projects that I’ve been working on getting ready for the up-coming Holiday next week!

I have already sent out my Christmas cards, thank goodness, as I wasn’t even sure that was going to happen either! I was very impressed with the new Taylored Expressions Create-in-Quads Mistletoe Layering Stencil and how quickly I was able to knock out 4 card panels at a time, which was a huge time saver to get my Christmas cards finished up! There is actually a set of 4 designs here (like shown below), but I was in the middle of addressing the cards and forgot to photograph some before shoving into envelopes! LOL This set was using the white cardstock with the green and red colors which turned out very pretty. I also used the red glitter paste for the highlights on the berries.

And here is the other set of four cards that I made using the Toffee colored cardstock with green and white inks for the stenciling. I’ve also splattered these with brown and white paint. The sentiments were white heat embossed over some TE Chocolate Truffle cardstock and cut out with some MFT dies. Before attaching to the pre-made white A2 card bases, I also wrapped some twine around some of the panels or added a bow with it. (I love the homespun look of the white mistletoe!)

These all turned out great because they were pretty much flat and fairly easy to mail off. I think I was short just a few which is where I’m glad that I still have a few extra cards that I had made throughout this year and I have previously given out some “extra special” Christmas cards earlier in the year as well. I think you may have already seen them from a previous post…I will have to take a look and see under my “Christmas” section!

If you’re looking for a last minute Christmas gift/tag, these wood slice things are so quick easy and fun to create! I’ve had a huge box of these wood slices for a long time, so I pulled one out to make a project for the Inky Stamper December challenge on FB. (I also believe that Chelsea sells some wood slices in her store!) I had hubby drill out a hole for me at the top before decorating so as I knew where to put everything.

I’ve used the Inky Stamper Christmas Bauble stamp set for the stamping on the wood and colored in with pencils and gamsol. I’ve added details with a glitter brush pen on the ornament and added some snowflakes with Nuvo White Crystal Drops. I had to mask the frog to stamp the Santa hat on him. I’ve used some silver twine for the hanging portion and then I glued a silver bow with some silver ribbon from my stash under the hole.

And lastly, I’ve also been working on some commissioned cards as well! Last year, I had a request from someone to create a special Christmas card for his cleaning lady. I had him pick out an image and asked about the colors…you may remember it as I had posted it last year.

a few months back, someone had asked me to re-create the same design for them with pretty much the exact design with the exception of the sentiment which I changed out for this person. This one went to another country and I was concerned about the shipping costs, but it was not a problem. The package had taken an unexpected journey because of the crazy mailing system going on at this time, but it arrived eventually and was in “perfect condition” as reported to me, so I was so thrilled with that and they seemed very pleased with it.

With the square size of the design (5″ x 5″), I’ve handmade the envelope for this one as well. I found the exact papers used in the designs for these cards, but I don’t think I have any more left after completing this one.

Here’s how I’ve decorated the inside of the card and left blank as requested for their own personal use.

So now, I just want to take this time to say THANKS SO MUCH for hanging in there and stopping in today! I don’t have too much time on my hands right now as I’m getting ready to make some Christmas treats and the Holidays will soon be over. I hope you are all doing well and I wish each and every one of you a very safe, happy and healthy Holiday Season!

See you again in the New Year 2022 friends!!

December 17, 2021

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles16 Comments

{Cupcake Inspirations} New DT!🧁

Hello friends! I’m so excited to announce that I’ve been asked to join the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge design team!!

What could be better than crafting AND cupcakes, right?! So be sure to join me here every Monday for new challenge and reminder inspiration! I do hope you’ll check out the challenges and join us over there to play along! (And maybe enjoy yourself a cupcake treat while you’re at it!😁)…if you’ve followed along with me for a while, you may have remembered about 5 years back that I used to be on this team before! So I’m excited to be joining with them once again!

So here we go with the brand new challenge and a really fun theme to play with:

CIC497

The theme for this challenge is “Flowers with Pearls/Sequins“

The challenges will last for 2 weeks, so you will have that long to play for each challenge! There is a theme challenge and then a color challenge for every other one. There will be a reminder week in between each one as well…so be sure to subscribe and follow the blog so you can see the inspiration and play along with us!

**We are also partnering with the Double Trouble Paper Crafting Challenge Blog with their challenge of a tic-tac-toe board! So be sure to check out all of the up-coming details and play along with them too!**

Here’s my take on the challenge:

Vicki-CIC497

I was really inspired with the flowers and pearl theme and I’ve been wanting to play around with a past card kit I had to color with pencils, which I hardly ever do!

The flower images come from the Simon Says Stamp Stronger Together stamp set and kit. The kit had some colored pencils with it that I used to color the image and then I just used some dies from my stash to add the layers. I took an additional floral image from the set and white ink to stamp the background and swiped the ink pad around the edges.

To fit with the challenge theme, I thought it would be fun to add several sizes of pearls along the edges of the oval panel.

Here’s a closer view of the coloring on the flowers. I’ve also taken a sentiment from the stamp set and inked it up with some eggplant ink using my MISTI tool. I inked it up again with some embossing ink and then added some clear sparkle EP over top of it to heat set. The sparkle shows up so much better in person, of course! I cut it out with my scissors and popped it up over the image with foam tape.

Vicki-CIC497-flat

Really hope that you’ve been inspired with my creation today and that you’ll hop on over to the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge and play along with us! We look forward to seeing what you come up with using this theme!

I will be back next week with more inspiration for this challenge! Thanks so much for dropping by!

Other Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

Crafty Creations – #411 Anything Goes
A Bit More Time to Craft – #119 Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – #77 Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – #401 Anything Goes
Love to Craft – LTCCB48 Anything Goes
Love to Scrap – LTSCB135 Anything Goes
Watercooler Wednesday – WWC278 Anything Goes Feminine

July 5, 2020July 5, 2020

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles31 Comments

Celebrate for a Hoppy New Year!

**I have 2 posts today – This is post 2 of 2 – Scroll down or CLICK HERE to see my 2 Crafty Critter Crazies post!** – Thank you!

Happy New Year friends!! Here’s wishing for a very HAPPY, HEALTHY and CRAFTY 2019 to you all!!

To get your MOJO going in the “crafty” New Year, we’ve started up a brand new challenge over at the Sprakle N Sprinkle Challenge Blog for the month of January as well as a brand new monthly challenge over on our Sparkle N Sprinkle Facebook Challenge Group! We love seeing what you are creating, so we do hope that you will be joining along in the fun with us this month! Be sure to click on the badge above to see the inspiration from the design team!

I’m also VERY excited to report that Sparkle N Sprinkle has asked me to join their permanent creative design team! So I hope you’ll look forward to seeing more projects this year from me using their products!! – I’m already excited about what I’ve been making recently to share with you soon!

So… to be festive and join in on the celebration everywhere, I’ve decided to make a special card just for the occasion! 🙂

Vicki-SNS-challengeblog

I’ve used this really fun digital stamp from Sparkle N Sprinkle called Max [DIGI566] and I have used my Prisma Color pencils to color him in with over some Canson Mi-Teintes Pastel paper. I cut him out with a circle die and then ran some glue around the edges with a Nuvo Medium Tip Glue Pen [203N] and sprinkled some Copper Jewel Glitter [G1059] over it. I mounted another circle behind it that I’ve cut out with some Tonic Burnished Rose Mirror Cardstock [9488E] .

For the background of my card, I’ve used some Sparkle N Sprinkle Super Adhesvie Sheets [SAS02] that I’ve cut out in different sized circles and then added some of the same glitter that I’ve used for around the frog image panel. I cut a few more circles out with the same mirror cardstock as well.

Bfore attaching the circles, I’ve heat embossed the sentiment over the A2 sized top folding black card base with some Sparkle N Sprinkle Bronze Rose embossing powder [EP335],which I thinks matches up beautifully with that mirror cardstock! Right underneath the embossed sentiment, I added some SNS 1/4″ Tear-ific Tape [SAT16] and sprinkled on some more of that pretty glitter that I’ve used all over this card. Then I added all the circles in the background including the frog image panel and cut off the circle part sticking over the edge on the right side.

Taking a closer look at the “party Max frog”, you can see better how he’s colored in and a few other details that I’ve added to him. For the olive shine, I’ve used some Nuvo Morning Dew Crystals Drops [677N] and for the “liquid” glass he’s sitting in, I’ve taken the Nuvo Medium Tip Glue Pen [203N] and sprinkled some Waterscape glitter [G1108] over it. I’ve also used the Nuvo Gold Coast Glitter Drops [770N] to add a bit of sparkle around Max’s head. (I’m assuming that it’s a bit of “campagne pops” from the glass! Tee Hee!)

Vicki-SNS-challengeblog-flat

Just like Max here, I’m just as happy to dive right into the New Year in 2019! I hope you are too and I hope that you will join me in this journey with Sparkle N Sprinkle too! I would love to see you playing in the challenges or joining our Facebook Group!

If you have any questions about the products I’ve used or where to purchase them, I will always have them linked in my posts or you can find my tutorial posts over on the Sparkle N Sprinkle company blog.

**Don’t forget that if you click on any of these links to purchase, you can also use my DT code at checkout to receive a 10% discount!**

Thanks so much for droppin in!! Enjoy your first day in 2019!

January 1, 2019December 31, 2018

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles29 Comments

A Beary Sweet Christmas Tag for 2 Crafty Critter Crazies (2nd Post of 3 today)

Hello friends! I’m back with another new challenge for you today!

It’s the first of the month, so that means it’s time for a new monthly challenge over at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies! As always the challenge will last for 1 whole month and all you need to remember is to add a critter to your creation! We look forward to seeing your critter makes this month!

Our sponsor for the challenge this month is Sparkle N Sprinkle! They were kind enough to supply our team with some darling images to use for our creations! Here’s what I’ve decided to make for my design:

Vicki-2CCC-SnS-tag

I have used this darling digital stamp set called A Peppermint Christmas [DIGI3148M] from Sparkle N Sprinkle. They offer colored versions with this digital set, but I opted to use this cute polar bear and place the frame around him along with adding the sentiment above his head so I could color it. I used a Word doc. to design it before printing it out. Once printed out, I cut it down to size for my black tag and rounded the corners with a corner chomper.

I’ve been trying to develop my skills a bit with colored pencils and invested in a large set of them recently. So this is what I have used to color in the images of my tag. After coloring it all in, I thought…. I couldn’t use a Sparkle N Sprinkle image with no sparkle!! So I took out my Quicky Glue Pen [quicky] and then sprinkled some SnS Waterscape Glitter (Semi-Transparent) [G1108] over the snowflakes and dark gold star bursts. For the stars, I’ve sprinkled the SnS Lemonade Ultrafine Glitter (Semi-Transparent) [G1091] over it for a bit more brighter sparkle! I’ve also covered the peppermint candies with the Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Glitter Gloss Pen [888N] for some shimmer. AND…if that wasn’t enough, I took the Quickly Glue Pen again and went along the edges of the white image panel and added the Waterscape Glitter to the edges.

For the assembly of my tag, I’ve used a pre-made tag from Graphic 45 and sponged around the edges of it with white ink. I took some green colored glitter paper from my stash and added a strip of it across the center of the black tag. I then added some pink silk ribbon strips on each side of the glitter paper. I then used some craft foam to pop up the image panel and placed it on the tag.

I finished it off with a pink silk ribbon bow and added some more of it to the tag hole for a hanging element and tied that together with a piece of white twine. Decided for a finishing touch to add a sparkly snowflake gem in the center of the bow.

I hope that you have enjoyed my critter project and be sure to check out the rest of the inspiration from the design team over at the 2 Crafty Critter Crazies Challenge Blog and come and join in the fun with us!

I have some REALLY exciting news coming up shortly after this post!!! TEE HEE!!

Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Challenges: