Father’s Day – Stamped Smiles

Cowboy Courage and Dad Jokes

Hello friends! Hope you’ve had a great Fourth of July weekend and staying cool through this really hot week too! I had planned on scheduling a post or two while I was gone last month, but time just didn’t let me get there and I’m a bit behind, but I wanted to share a couple of masculine cards I made for some men in my life for Father’s Day:

Up first is this card I made for my own dad. He’s a huge John Wayne fan and so I thought it would be fun to print out one of his famous quotes for a card. After printing it out, I stamped the large rope lasso image around it from the Whimsy Stamps Cowpoke clear stamp set. I printed the quote over a piece of kraft cardstock and stamped with chocolate colored ink with the rope frame and colored it with Copics. I also cut the other images from the same stamp set over White Copic Blending Card and colored it with Copics. I just fussy cut them out with scissors and placed them over my card front with some foam squares. I cut a section of the horseshoe out so that it “appears” as if it’s hanging around the lasso and glued it over each side of the lasso.

I thought it would be fun to add some more details to mimic the boots by die cutting the loopy stitched borders from the Whimsy Stamps Straight Edger Die Set and then I ink blended around the edges with chocolate ink. I also did this with the envelope you see behind the card too.

He really liked this one! I remember as a child sitting with him sometimes and watching those really old “cowboy movies”. LOL

The next card I made was for my husband…

This card was PERFECT for him! Most of the time, the kids would always tell him that his jokes were NOT funny, but the fact that HE thought they were so funny is what made them laugh!😂 And then he would claim that they were laughing or smiling, so he knew they liked them!😄

So when I saw this Dad Jokes stamp set from Lawn Fawn, I knew it would be a good one to have on hand for cards with him. I kept this card a simple one with a grassy stitched border and then I used one of those woodgrain papers from Lawn Fawn and also die cut the LF Father’s Day Border using the same woodgrain paper for it.

I positioned the little chicks to the side with the *crickets* sentiment above them and then the other one laughing while the little chick with the tie is telling the “dad joke”. I popped up the speech bubbles with foam squares. You will also see that I’ve stamped another “dad joke” on the envelope with some ha ha ha next to it as well.

**Side note: My husband’s favorite “dad joke” from the stamp set was…”What’s brown and sticky?….A stick!“** He had to tell that one to the (adult)kids of course!🙄

Hope you’ve enjoyed my masculine cards today or had a smile! Thanks for dropping in and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

The Male Room – Monochrome (Top card only with brown tones)
Alphabet – ‘G’ is for Giggle/humorous card (Second card only)
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Corrosive – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using Paper

July 7, 2022July 6, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles23 Comments

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

Caffeinated Changito☕

Hello there friends! Really hope that you have enjoyed your long Memorial weekend! The weather finally turned warm and once it turned warm, it REALLY turned warm and humid over my way! So we were able to plant some flowers in our garden pots outside and enjoy some cookout time too!

I noticed that the “Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop” had started up this weekend and I thought it would be a great opportunity to pull out some old stamps and have some fun with it while making a maculine card for the up-coming Father’s Day holiday too:

Does anyone remember these cute little “Changito” stamps back in the day?! I have used the Changito Coffee stamp (only found this one online) and the sentiment to go with it too! I actually bought these wood mounted rubber stamps years ago at a convention I had went to and have kept them hoarded like my other old stamps. LOL!

I stamped the image on Copic blending card and then again on some blue gingham background paper for paper piecing his PJs in! For the sentiment, I heat embossed it over my background with some appropriately named “Coffee” EP which has a metallic copper with some brown speckling in it…very cool. the store is no longer active that it came from.

For the background of this card, I had some fun playing with my Oxide Distress Inks in Vintage Photo, Broken China, Scattered Straw and touches of Espresso. I sprayed and dried layers as I went. I even took the bottom of a jar I had laying on my table to ink up some Espresso ink to make the “ring” marks over the background. I also took some more of that “Coffee” EP and sprinkled some over the background for even more distressing.

I wrapped some twine around it and attached it to an A2 sized white card base that I sponged around the edges with some Vintage Photo ink.

Here you can see a better look at the image and how I’ve got him colored up with Copic markers. You can barely see the gingham pattern in his paper pieced PJs, but I thought it was cute! I also took a black Copic liner and drew lettering on the coffee cups. I added just a hint of sparkle over the coffee inside the cups with a Spectrum Noir glitter brush pen. I also took a black gel pen to dot his eyeballs, the buttons on his PJs as well as dot the bunny slipper eyes. I think that little detail really makes his pop more with a bit of character.

The image was cut out with a stitched circle die and then I also cut out an additional circle to mat behind him, which I took a VersaMark ink pad and then used the “Coffee” EP to heat set along the edges of it so it has the same look and texture as the background and sentiment. This was attached over the background with twine.

Lastly, I’ve taken some brown colored sequins from my stash and attached them to the background and filled the centers with some Nuvo Honey Gold Glitter Drops.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my masculine and quirky card for today! Thanks so much for dropping in and I’ll be seeing you again soon!!😉

Challenges:

Spring/Summer 2020 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop – Coffee/Tea/Cocoa Related Project

2. Addicted to Stamps and More – #391 Anything Goes

3. Cute Card Thursday – #635 Critters

4. Creative Knockouts – #351 Embossing Delight (wet or dry)

5. QKR Stampede – #399 Anything Goes

6. Simon Says Stamp Monday – “Going Around in Circles”

7. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2021 Anything Goes

8. Die Cut Divas – Make it a Beverage + die cut/embossing folder

May 27, 2020May 26, 2020

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles30 Comments

I’m back! It’s Been a Rough Patch!

Hello friends! 🙂 Are you still with me out there? (This is a bit of a long post to catch you up with what’s happened.)

Wow! It sure has been a while since I’ve been able to even TRY to get back into things. This was a really abrupt and rude unplanned disappearance from me and I was getting worried for a while about how I would even begin to start up again! I actually feel pretty “rusty” and unpracticed from my absence and I have a few things to share with you too!

Firstly, I want to thank you ALL from the very bottom of my heart for your wonderful comments, personal e-mail, cards and social media contact that I’ve heard from many of you. There were days that I just went to tears hearing from my fellow crafty friends as it came on a few days that I REALLY needed it the most! I thank you SO MUCH for that and it really helped to get me though some difficult pain days.

So what happened was a worsening of something that I believed to be a minor back issue that I thought would resolve on it’s own, but the issue grew worse and more painful to the point that I couldn’t sit, stand, walk or even getting out of bed was painful enough that I had a procedure to try and control the nerve pain. With this done, along with physical therapy and adjustments to my life style, I am feeling better now. It’s not COMPLETELY pain free, but it’s tolerable enough to do normal tasks for a period of time until I need to move around again. It’s just a life style adjustment that I can live with and hopefully fit in with what I love to do which is crafting! It really bothered me to just “walk away”, but sometimes when your health is in trouble, you just have to do what you have to do and heal. I have just learned that SEVERAL small breaks a day are better than none at all and I will pay for it later if I don’t! 🙂 Thanks for sticking it out with me!

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And so with that, I would like to share a couple of things that actually took way longer to complete than what I would normally take the time to complete and it was actually the very last little bit that I had accomplished before I had to completely step out of my room for a while. My husband wouldn’t let me go back in there until he was sure that I could tolerate my pain ok. Still working through the exercises until my follow up Dr. appointment, but I think I’ll be fine from here…I sure hope so as I’m ready to ROCK N ROLL!!! LOL

I had made a couple of Father’s Day cards that I hand delivered:

Vicki-Brutus Monroe-Rock ON

This one I made for my brother. He has always loved his rock-n-roll and we share similar tastes with each other, so I thought this was really appropriate for him.

Although I don’t have a black light, my brother does and I told him to hold up the card to a black light and the watercolor background that I made will glow! It’s a pretty cool affect!

I took one of the foilable image panels from the kit and took several of the Neon Aqua Pigments and smooshed them over the background until I was happy. I tried to foil over it, but it didn’t completely get all of it. I added the strip of holographic paper at the bottom and the stamped elements along with the stars over it. For the sentiment, I heat embossed it with the EP that came in the kit and popped it up with foam tape. My bro seemed to like it and I think those neon watercolors turned out pretty cool! 🙂

Vicki-NN-FathersDay

And this is the card that I made for my dear ole dad! This is probably one of my all time faves from Newton’s Nook called Winston’s BBQ. I think they have had this set for a while, but It’s a great one for masculine themed designs!

I’ve used a kraft cardstock background and stamped several of the images from the set all over the background with the same color of ink. For the main panel, I stamped Winston, the grill and sentiment together and colored with my Copic markers. I also sponged some blue ink around the edges of it for a “sky” looking appearance.

I’ve taken a strip of silver foil cardstock and ran an embossing folder through it to place across the center of the card. I used some foam tape to pop up the image panel over top. All of these layers were placed over an A2 sized white top folding card base.

I was happy to give dad a smile that day! He likes to cook on the grill.

Of course, last but not least, I wanted to share a card I had completed for a guest design card meant for June and that was completed at the end of May, but I was unable to share it before I had to leave for a while. This is the card I gave to my husband for Father’s Day and he really does feel like my super hero! 🙂

Vicki-PNDSuperBoyDog-June15

Isn’t this just the cutest?! I made this card using the adorable Paper Nest Dolls Superboy Owen and his sweet companion Superpuppy too! I had so much fun blending the background in the different colors! I added some blue stars stamped in the background. the city scape behind him was made with a city scape die cut layered a couple of times. I used some yellow cardstock behind the building for a lighted building affect. The wall was made using some gray colored cardstock and then a brick stencil with some red ink colored embossing paste to over it with. Then I just added the sentiment by white heat embossing it over a black strip that I die cut out.

Here’s a closer view of the coloring I’ve done on the images. I’ve used a silver gel pen to color in the buckle on his outfit. I fussy cut the images out after coloring.

Here you can also see the splattering that I’ve done with some white shimmer paint in the background with the blue stars.

If you haven’t yet, PLEASE hop on over and check out the Paper Nest Dolls store, (Digital store) blog and join in the group over on Facebook for inspiration too! Can’t wait to share more with you soon!! Their badge and store link are also available on the left side of this blog as well!

————————————————————————– Other news

I actually got a bit of really cool news while I was down and thanks to a lovely craft friend, she tagged me and let me know about this, but my set of Whimsy Stamps “Bee cards” were shown in the Making Cards & Papercraft Magazine for August 2019! Chosen as a “top spot” editor’s pick right inside the front cover! I was very surprised and to see what was said about it along with my blog address was pretty cool! So go get your copy of this magazine! It’s my first time having a peek at it and they’ve got some pretty neat inspiration in there!

Although I have been in a great deal of pain and mainly dealing with what came with it, of course my husband was great at trying to “distract” me from it and trying to get me to smile as much as possible. He knew first hand how I was feeling each day and like I mentioned above, he’s my super hero! So there were a few fun or smiling moments here and there while I was being patient with myself as much as I could anyway.

Vicki-backyard fireworks

I wasn’t able to do much to celebrate 4th of July, but going out in my backyard, my neighborhood seemed to have a pretty cool display! You can see the half moon at the bottom underneath the left side of the firework. Needed bug spray, but it was a nice night!

Vicki-Styx Concert

Back in April, hubby and I had gotten some Styx concert tickets and I was worried about going due to the problems I was having. Of course hubby said not to worry about it as our seats were great with no one behind us so I could sit, stand or whatever I needed to do! It was loud enough with the music and it took my mind off things plus I could always clap and sing the songs! 🙂 We took a good break in the middle of it so I could move around away from the seat too. It was a great concert!

Vicki-Black Eyed Susans

In my backyard, I have different flowers and I really enjoy going out in nature to see the flowers, birds, bees, etc. The flowers this Summer really helped me relax, smile and just enjoy the beauty that is around.

Some days were absolutely horrible, but there are also these days too…

Vicki-Purple Cone Flowers

Vicki-Iris

Vicki-red Iris

Vicki-Iris

Vicki-orange Iris

Vicki-Yellow Iris

Vicki-Hydrengas

I’m soooo happy to finally be able to write up a post and now that I’m able to start getting back into my stamp room, I’m very excited to be able to come back to my design teams (who were ALL so absolutely wonderful with letting me have the time to heal and recover! It meant so much!) and I will be along again soon to share new creations now! Yay! Hope everyone is doing well and I’ve missed you!

Crafty hugs

July 29, 2019February 17, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles63 Comments

It’s Masculine at Cute Card Thursday!

Hello friends! Hope you are all having a wonderful week so far! I’m ready for this rain to end over my way and would love to send it along to those that need it! June is a hop-jump and a skip away, so I’m hoping that Summer will dry things up.

Speaking of June, Father’s Day will be coming up shortly for us here in the U.S. so the new challenge at Cute Card Thursday is a very timely one to have! We’d like to see your “Masculine” creations this week! Here’s what I’ve come up with:

LOL!! Our sponsor this week is Bugaboo Stamps! I have used this hilarious image called Gus Tidbits Unconsciousness. He’s a really good one to use for not only masculine, but humorous creations too!

For the card, I’ve printed out both the image and sentiment together and then cut out the panel with a stitched rectangle die and then layered a piece of Stampin’ Up! Soft Suede behind it. Before attaching these pieces together, I’ve sponged some ink around the edges of it.

The checkered paper that I’ve used on my design came from a My Favorite Things paper pad collection. I die cut a piece to layer over a top folding A2 sized white card base with another stitched rectangle die and then placed the image panel over top it on the card.

I also cut out a banner with the same papers and added it to the upper right image panel and then added on a chipboard clock button from my stash with some twine ribbon tied around it and placed it over the banner with some foam tape. I’ve added a wooden button in the center of the bow.

Here’s a better look at the coloring on Gus. You can see on his eye glasses where I’ve added some glossy accents. It was a really fun and simple card to create!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my masculine creation today! Please be sure to hop on over to the Cute Card Thursday blog to find inspiration from the rest of the team and play along with us this week! Look forward to seeing what you come up with!

*P.S. Here is another update on the bird nest…we have a baby!!

If you remember, there were 3 blue eggs in the nest. We can’t tell for sure, but it looks like just one baby bird in there. As you can see, there is one egg in there. We see what looks like a crack on it, but it hasn’t hatched and we’re not sure it will. We have no idea where the other egg/bird went to! There is nothing on the ground. With all of these severe thunderstorms and rain, I can imagine they’re having a hard time out there. It shouldn’t be too much longer that this little guy will be taking flight! So we’ll see if we can keep track of what’s going on from here! 🙂

Challenges I’d like to enter my card for:

TGIF – #TGIFC213 All About That Gingham
Papercraft – For Men & Boys
Watercooler Wednesday – WWC223 Anything Goes
Simons Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

May 30, 2019May 29, 2019

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles23 Comments

Father’s Day Makes

Hello friends!

Hope that you had a good weekend! Since the celebration is over and there are no “peekers” to worry about anymore, I can post the cards that I’ve made!

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First, I have the card that I’ve made for my dad. He used to own an old Model-T and tinker with it and take us “down the road” in it once in a while. So when I see an old truck like this one, it always makes me think of him. This truck image is part of my purchase from the Stamp Convention that I went to from the Rubber Cottage booth. As a matter of fact, I purchased this kit from them which is where the embossing folder and silver metallic paper comes from on my card.

I just colored the truck with Copics, cut it out with the die and popped it up over the “tree scene” with foam squares to make it look like the truck is driving into the scene. The papers in the background along with the tree image and rest of the card comes from some old Stampin’ Up! products in my stash…too numerous to count all the old! LOL!

This next card was made especially for my husband:

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This one took me a bit out of my comfort zone as I basically watercolored the entire scene. The only set of watercolors that I own are the Kuretake Gansi Tambi ones. I really do like using them, but the pans are starting to empty out on a few colors now. So I’ve been looking into different kinds to see if I will try some new ones. Do any of you have watercolors that you like using?

I did have a bit of help with the trees from the Newton’s Nook Whispering Pines stamp set. I took the images, scribbled some watercolor crayons (very old SU! ones!) over them, misted them with water and stamped them where I wanted them to be. I used my paint brush to move around the colors a bit so they blended with the scene a bit more.

I stamped the silhouette images from the Newton’s Nook Serene Silhouettes and the greeting from the Winton’s BBQ set with black ink using my MISTI tool several times as it was watercolor paper which is always hard to get a complete impression on. I also used a Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen to go over the blue for the water area. Layered onto a piece of black and then onto a white side folding A2 sized card.

Sometimes it can be a challenge making masculine cards appropriate for each male you need a card for, but I think I did fine keeping in mind the people they went to and they were really fun to make! Hope you’ve enjoyed them too!

If you want to take a look at the top of my blog, you will see a new page that I’ve created that sort of explains why I started this blog. CLICK HERE if you care to read my mumblings. More and more creations are sure to follow and I look forward to sharing them here! 🙂

I would like to enter these challenges:

Try it On Tuesday – For the boys
Crafty Creations – Anything Goes
Creative Moments – Anything Goes
Watercooler Wednesday (WWC174) – All About Occasions – Father’s Day
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes
Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

June 18, 2018June 16, 2018

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles29 Comments

King For a Day and ICAD 2018-week 2 results

Hello friends! The weekend is upon us and I’m told it’s going to be a hot one here, so I think I will be hosting the Father’s Day celebration inside where it’s cooler! Always fun spending time with family no matter what we do though! Speaking of Father’s Day this Sunday, this is a card that I have made with my brother in mind. (Probably won’t share this on FB as he will see it, but don’t think he visits my blog! The other Father’s Day cards I made will have to wait until afterwards as people that I don’t want to see it, will!)

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Thought it would be fun to take the Lawn Fawn Wild For You stamp set and use the lion with the crown image for a Father’s Day card. I colored the image and crown and cut it out with the coordinating dies. I stenciled some clouds on the stitched circle background and stamped the sentiment from the same set by curving it to fit the circle along the edge and then die cut a couple strips of grass and cut that with the same stitched circle die. I nestled the lion in between. Layered that onto a mirrored gold circle die cut from the Lawn Fawn Zig Zag Circle dies. I’ve also used the cloud stencil to cover the background of the card along with my envelope for the card. I used the rectangle stitched dies to cut out the front panel of my card and attached a banner cut from some LF papers. The sentiment comes from the LF Happy, Happy Happy stamp set and dies.

I think he may get a kick out it! LOL!

Also, wanted to share the second week now of the ICAD 2018 Challenge that I’m doing! Yes, I even took things with me to the Stamp Convention last weekend and worked on the days that I needed to so I stayed with it. Never stamped in a motel room before, but luckily there was a nice sized desk to spread stuff out on! 🙂 – check out the details if you want to join in the fun too! Nope, it’s never too late!

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It looks pretty random, but that’s what this challenge is for…pure randomness in creating and I think that’s what I love about it, not to mention that I don’t feel as pressured because it’s just playing on a little index card! The coffee one was made with a coffee cup I had sitting on my desk…it smells lovely! This is how my mind works…randomly in thoughts and so different from day to day. Hope you like seeing the results each week!

Thanks for stopping in as I always enjoy seeing what you have to say! Not sure if any of you are receiving my replies, but I truly appreciate each one and your support in my love of creating. If you would like for me to visit your blog, please don’t be shy…leave me a comment and let me know you are here! Have a wonderful weekend!

I would like to enter the Father’s Day “lion” card in these challenges: