foiling – Stamped Smiles

Having Some Halloween Fun!🎃

Hey friends! I know it’s well into October and so you may be wondering where in the world have my Halloween posts been? Today was gloomy and foggy out…and it’s getting evening, so it was a good time to post! If you know me, then you know I love all things Halloween, but I’ve actually been in the background lurking with my Halloween projects! Bwhaa!! I just haven’t had time to sit and make a post for them yet. The reason for that is, of course, I’m taking too many classes and doing events that I’m like a “mad scientist” in the background with all of the crafting things, but haven’t been sharing them! So, I’ve decided to set aside some time to create a post with all things Halloween! (Don’t worry, there will be more special ones coming too!)

Now isn’t this one a cutie?! I’ve received this free digital image especially from the Whimsy Stamps World Card Making Day Event on Facebook that they usually hold every year and have some fun games and challenges. This image was created by Crissy Armstrong of course and she even did a cute little tutorial with it, so I had to color it up!

I’ve used Copics for the coloring and even made a shadowy creepy black/gray grass along the bottom of the pumpkin. The hat buckle was colored with a gold gel pen. The sentiment came from an older Whimsy Stamps candy corn set I had in my stash. For the background, I’ve used my favorite Whimsy Stamps Spider Web Frame background stamp to go around kitty. I then used a couple of different Distress inks to sponge around the edges and then spritzed water over it & blotted it up with a paper towel to make it even “creepier” looking. I layered it over an orange layer from my stash and then placed this over an A2 sized top folding card base. I also die cut a bat from an old freebie from Whimsy Stamps years back to glue at the top of the scene and covered it with a glitter brush pen. Super fun!

Now I want to enter this into the annual Whimsy Stamps 31 Nights of Halloween that they do every year! Check out the event with lots of Halloween inspiration & fun if you’re interested! I always love to play along and I think Whimsy Stamps has some of THE best products for crafting Halloween! CHECK THEM OUT HERE!!

And this is another card I made for the Whimsy Stamps WCMD Event challenge using a fun Autumn/Halloween mood board. (The event is over, but it was super fun!) The first thing about the mood board I noticed was all of the orange and fun jack-o-lanterns that popped out at me. Plus, this was another cute freebie digital image given to us during the event.

So I colored up this dragon using mainly orange tone Copics with a “candy corn” effect. I also used it for the die cut sentiment at the top that was cut out from the Whimsy Stamps Boo die set. Hard to tell in the photo, but I covered it with the glitter brush pen too. I popped up the “dragon guy” over a piece of the Whimsy Stamps 6×6 Haunted Paper Pack cut with the Whimsy Stamps Zig Zag Stitched Rectangle Dies. It was all layered over a white A2 top folding card base. I also added some yellow Stickles to the pumpkin’s face.

And since I’ve been doing so many classes, I thought I’d just create another gallery full of Halloween projects that I’ve done. I have actually been working on some books and journals as well as mixed media projects and not sure if I’ll get them finished up before Halloween as I’ve been busy, but it’s always fun to get creative and messy especially for all things creepy and spooky!💀 Hope you enjoy! – (If you’re viewing this on my website, just click on the photos to enlarge them to see)

This was a fun one I made using a sketch for the Inky Stamper’s World Card Making Day Event! I had to pull out the Spider set and stamp up the eyeballs for the background! The spider was die cut out over the circle with an added wobbler on him! So fun!

Whew! Was that a lot of Halloween or what?! Many of these things just give me a big chuckle and I just think they’re so fun especially now that I’ve looked back on them. Although many of these project were created earlier this Summer, I thought it would be a good time to share them with you. #MakeHalloween365 I still have more Halloween up my sleeve soon, so stayed tuned!

If you haven’t entered my give away yet, there’s still a few days left if you want to leave me a comment saying you’re interested! CHECK OUT THE POST HERE I will announce the winner by Oct 11th.

Thanks so much for stopping by this evening and I hope you’ve enjoyed my Halloween projects here! HAPPY CRAFTING

Challenges:

Crafty Animals – Anything Goes with animal
Pearly Sparkles – Autumn and/or Halloween
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring
Critter Crazy – Anything Goes with featured Critter
The Crafter’s Cafe – Anything Goes
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
Two Old Bats – Anything Goes Halloween
Crafty Calendar – Halloween

October 7, 2021October 7, 2021

*Vicki*33 Comments

Amazing Autumn🍂

Hello friends! Happy October! I hope that you’re having a great week so far and looking forward to doing something crafty this weekend for World Card Making Day!!🌍😀 I have decided to post something a bit early as I know there will be tons and tons of special posts planned by many, so I thought it best to post today instead!

IN THE MEANTIME, I DO HAVE A FUN GIVEWAY LOCATED ON MY POST BELOW OR CLICK HERE TO SEE IT!! YOU HAVE UNTIL OCTOBER 10th TO ENTER…JUST LEAVE ME A COMMENT THAT YOU’RE INTERESTED!!

There are SO MANY things going on this time of the year and maybe that’s why I love Autumn so much. (WCD, Halloween, birthday, Cooler temps, warm clothes, Harvest, yummy foods, pretty colors, changing leaves, Halloween…oops already said that…but you know!) I am thankful for all of it! I have a couple of cards from a TE kit I recently got (yes, I know…another one to pile on!), but I fell in love with it so much & I am using it right away!😁

There is some copper EP that comes in the kit, so I heat embossed both the sunflower and wheat images together so that I could color them both at the same time with some watercolor. I then cut them both out with the coordinating dies and set aside to work on my background.

The background was so fun! I’ve used a Bristol Smooth watercolor panel and pulled out some Mica Stains and other sprays from my stash with a spray bottle filled with water and just played. Some of it I splattered to make “dots”. I used the “Burlap” background stamp in the kit and randomly stamped the background as well as heat embossed an element and sentiment from the stamp set. I cut this panel with a die and wrapped some twine around it before attaching to a chocolate truffle card base. I used some foam strips to pop up the flower and added a twine bow to it. Finished it off with some Iridescent Rhinestones.

And this is the second card I’ve made using the wheat image that I previously colored with the sunflower image above. What’s nice about this card is that the background was done using one of the foilable panels from the kit. I found some copper foil and ran it through my laminator. I lined up the cut out wheat image with the background and glued it over top cutting off the bottom portion that stuck out. I also heat embossed a sentiment from the TE clear set in my stash and then punched it out with a circle punch. I used my blender brush to very lightly add some Sea Salt ink at the top of the foiled panel as well as around the sentiment circle.

Lastly, I attached both the image and sentiment panels onto a piece of copper foil cardstock and then mounted it onto a side folding A2 white card base. It was simple, but I like the shine it gives.

I had been discussing with someone recently how I really need to make more sympathy cards to have on hand…so here’s a start to getting a pile going hopefully.

Speaking of needing cards, all of the birthday cards from my last post have been spoken for! Everyone seems to really need birthday cards and like having them on hand. I can totally relate to that! I think I need to get some “sorry I forgot” ones thrown in there too! 😂

I still have some projects that I’ve been working on in the background from some classes I took over the Summer but still haven’t shared yet, so I thought I’d start a little bit at a time and I think these “Autumn themed” cards work with my post today: (If you’re seeing this post on my website, just click on the photos below in the gallery to see them up close.)

These projects were from a class taught by Daniel West for Hero Arts and we received a large woodgrain background stamp for the class. It was fun to make the backgrounds!

I have taken SO MANY classes, so I still have many more projects to share as I go here! Hope that you enjoy seeing what I’ve been up to! It’s just fun to play around and in the process…no matter how little a piece I use…I am using my stash somehow and I’m very happy about that! At least I’m still crafting anyway! LOL

Thanks for dropping in and have a great crafty weekend!

Challenges to enter for the first two cards only:

Sketch Saturday – Sketch #679 (my second card turned)
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Make My Monday – Embossing (heat on both cards)
Penny’s Paper Crafty – Anything Goes using Paper
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
Happy Little Stampers – Watercolor (used on both images)
Creative Knockouts – Fall is in the Air

October 1, 2021September 30, 2021

*Vicki*24 Comments

Some Boos on Friday the 13th!

Hello friends! Thank you for taking the time to stop in, say hello and I apologize if you’re experiencing any problems with anything on my blog. I hope that I can figure out what’s going on, but right now I seem to be able to create posts and I’ll just keep trying that.

I love Halloween and all of the fun that goes with it! I thought this would be a perfect day to share some “BOOs” since it’s Friday the 13th!

I’ve made a couple of cards with some cute Taylored Expressions products. The backgrounds were fun to create and would be totally fine left like that with the “BOO” sentiment, but I also thought it would be great to pull in some images from an older TE stamp set.

Taylor has a couple of classes available and I had fun making these up! I made a Z-fold card on the left and then used a stencil with glitter grab and black glitter on the second card.

Vicki-TE-Boo Bundle class II

This second set of cards was so fun as I did some foiling with my laminator along with the glitter grab paste. I didn’t want to waste the negative from the foiled piece, so I made another card that I’ve attached a black piece of cardstock with an adhesive sheet for the foil to stick to.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my cards today. Do you have any crafty plans? I have a fun virtual Craft Camp going on and I’m looking forward to it!

Thanks for stopping in and have a great weekend!

Challenges:

Two Old Bats Halloween – Anything Goes Halloween
Cute Card Thursday – Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
Crafty Sentiments – Anything Goes
Alphabet – “J” is for Just ONE word

August 13, 2021

*Vicki*25 Comments

It’s Time for Foiling Fun!

Hello friends! Happy Saturday!! I hope you have a fun weekend planned! 🙂

I’d like to share with you a couple of creations that I’ve made with new Deco foil products:

For this card, I used both the Red and Gold Static transfer sheets and foiled it with the Ornamental Toner Sheet. I first foiled it in red (but that sheet wasn’t used for this.) I took the negative of that red piece and placed it over a full Deco Foil Toner Sheet and then the black areas where the ornaments are, I took the gold transfer sheet and foiled the ornaments in that. So it’s sort of a double foiling!

I added this foiled panel over a piece of white cardstock that I wrapped some gold ribbon around and then I heat set the sentiment from the Yuletide Greetings stamp set with Gilded embossing powder. The sentiment was stamped with Embossing Ink from a Yuletide Greetings Cut File. I also had fun making a Halloween card too:

For this card, I pretty much did the same as the card above in where I took the “negative” from the foiled Webbed Toner Sheet using the Gold Transfer Sheet which made the webbing black. I left it like that for the background of my card.

For the “ground” I took a piece of black cardstock and ripped some strips for the “dirt” and sponged the edges of it with a gold ink. I took the images from the Trick or Treat stamp set and colored them up, fussy cut them out and arranged a scene at the bottom. I took a Copic liner to write in my own grave markers. 🙂

I took the silhouette bat from the stamp set and heat embossed it over the foiled background with Raven Sparkle embossing powder. I also used this for the sentiment banner that I made from some Speckled Egg card stock. I also took some of the same cardstock and layered it behind the card front and then mounted this over an A2 sized top folding card base.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my cards that I had so much fun foiling! Thanks for stopping in today and I’ll see you again soon!!

Challenges:

Always Fun – Create a Scene #127 (bottom Halloween card)
Pammies Inky Pinkies – PIP1936 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday – Stamp It
Sweet Stampers – Use a Sentiment
Through the Craft Room Door – Anything Goes
Crafty Creations – Anything Goes

September 13, 2019August 3, 2021

*Vicki*20 Comments

Always Be Grateful

Hello friends! Happy Saturday! Yay! The weekend is finally here! 🙂

I really love all things Fall including the beautiful colors you start seeing from the leaves on the trees. Nothing better than a nice walk in the brisk cool air! This is what has inspired my card today too!

Vicki-BMGrateful-Sept7

I knew I wanted to used this sentiment for a Fall theme. I think it’s awesome just to have a sentiment be the focal of your card sometimes. It was heat set over a piece of white cardstock and then sponged around the edges with the yellow Ink. I wanted a bit more sparkle, so I took my Embossing Ink pad and rubbed it along the edges of the panel and heat embossed some of the Vintage Sparkle EP over it.

And of course I wanted to do some foiling too because it’s just fun especially when you have these cool Vintage Wallpaper-Foilable Washi Sheets to do it on! I used the Deco Foil Spring Grass transfer sheets over it and then used more of that ink to sponge around the edges and also heat set some more of that Vintage Sparkle over the edges too.

For the background, I took a piece of white cardstock measuring 4″ x5.25″ and covered it with the Embossing Ink pad. I used some more of that Golden Gourd EP and heat set this entire piece. Then I took the foiled strips and attached them over top of this panel and layered onto a top folding A2 sized Jurassic card base. I also layered the embossed sentiment panel over a piece of this same cardstock.

I then added the sentiment panel over the card front with some foam tape and then added some die cut leaves that I sponged with ink and then a couple of gold sequins with some gold glitter in the centers for more sparkle to finish it off.

Here’s a closer look at the heat embossed sentiment, background, and the sparkle around the edges where I heat embossed too.

Vicki-BMGrateful-Sept7-flat

And here’s another look at the foiled washi strips too with the card laying flat.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my Fall creation today and were inspired in some way! Thank you for joining me today as well as the entire week! THAT really is something to be grateful for! See you soon!!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

Creative with Stamps – Autumn
Unicorn – #47 Autumn
The Male Room – Autumn
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Stamp It
Aud Sentiments – Fall/Autumn + Sentiment
Daisy Chain – Autumn is Coming

September 6, 2019August 3, 2021

*Vicki*28 Comments

Floral Watercolor Foiled Hello

Hello friends!

Here’s what I made for today:

Vicki-BMhop-Aug28ATG

I’ve been wanting to do some coloring… so I got out several of my Aqua Pigments and Watercolor Brushes and went to town with one of these floral panels! What I love about these card panels is not only are they all gorgeous, but I love that the lines on the images are a bit raised as if embossed which helps with the watercolor process.

Vicki-BMhop-Aug28-panels

As you can see, I’ve only used half of my card panel cut diagonally on my card. So after coloring up the panel, I thought it was a nice way to cut the panel in half and then still have another panel left over to create another card with later! So there’s a tip for extended more life out of your card panels!

Here’s a closer view of my watercolor and the pretty shimmer from the Aqua Pigments! So as you can see, I also did some foiling! I wasn’t sure if these panels would foil correctly or not, but as you can see only a portion of the image foiled. I was fine with that as it still adds a pretty sparkle to my card.

I did take the “hello” die and cut that from cardstock and then added some glue over it with the Deco Foil adhesive pen and then foiled over it in my laminator with some Deco Foil Rose Gold Transfer Sheets. Love the look of the foiling and how it turned out!

Vicki-BMhop-Aug28ATG-flat

For my card, I attached the watercolor cut panel over a piece of black cardstock that I also cut diagonally with the panel and then attached it over a piece of very heavyweight white cardstock. Then I attached my foil die cut sentiment across the card and added some Acrylic Bubbles randomly over the card. I finished it with some Nuvo Dew Drop accents as well.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today! I appreciate you stopping by!

Challenges for my card:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Clean and Simple
Allsorts – Feminine
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP1934 Anything Goes

August 27, 2019August 3, 2021

*Vicki*22 Comments

Whimsy Stamps Partner’s with Make a Wish Canada

Hello friends! It’s my pleasure today to post information about this special image that Whimsy Stamps has just released today in honor of our beloved illustrator Crissy Armstrong’s brother, Ray Gauvreau, who is currently battling cancer.

make a wish resized

As you can see, this special little image designed by Crissy herself (You can see it imposed over the shirt in the photo that Ray is wearing), is available for purchase as a digital stamp called Penguin Ray. I think it is so very sweet and what’s great is that ALL of the proceeds from the sale of this image will be donated directly to the Make a Wish Foundation of Canada!! (This is where Ray is from)

I have made a special card just for him that is being sent out his way:

Vicki-WS-Penguin Ray

I started out by coloring up this image with my Copic markers in the following:

Penguin body, IV wheels/post – C8, C5, C3, C1
penguin feet/beak, tongue, cheeks – YR24, YR21, Y23, R20, R11, R00, R000
Bandage, IV bag – E33, E31, Y11, R00
ground/shadow – C1, E0000

For the background of my card, I took some xyron printed paper and foiled the background which I think looks great for a masculine theme design and that is what I was trying to go for with this card. After foiling it, I took and sponged some yellow distress ink to blend around the edges of it for a bit of color, along with the image panel.

I had an old stamp set from my stash and thought it would be a great fit for this card, so I stamped the vertical “fight” sentiment next to the IV bag and then I took the other sentiment and heat embossed it with white EP and cut it in a strip to attach over the image. Lastly, I’ve added some white enamel dots to each corner of the design.

Here’s a close look at the image and how I’ve colored it in. It’s hard to tell in the photo of course, but I’ve also covered the IV bag with a clear glitter brush pen. I think this image is a really great one to add to a crafter’s collection for “get well” cards and encouragment too like this one. After cutting out the colored image panel and sponging the color around the edges, I’ve also layered this along with the foil panel with some black cardstock before attaching it onto a white top folding A2 sized card base.

Vicki-WS-Penguin Ray-flat

In this photo that I’ve laid flat, you can better see the shine from the foiled background that I’ve done.

Thank you so much for stopping in today and for your kind support too!

I will see you tomorrow for a special blog hop, so I hope you can join me!

Challenges:

Watercooler Wednesday – WWC213 – Anything Masculine Goes
Aud Sentiments – Any sentiment EXCEPT “Happy birthday”
QKR Stampede – #340 Anything Goes

March 25, 2019March 25, 2019

*Vicki*16 Comments

GIVEAWAY WINNER + Happy Halloween – All Treats & No Tricks! :)

Hello friends! I want to thank you thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart for everyone of you that has entered my give away, left such sweet comments full of birthday wishes and lots of kindness that you’ve shared through something we have in common which is creating and sharing smiles! I so enjoyed the stories that you’ve left about how you share your handmade creations with others. (I especially thought that was so thoughtful to share a birthday card -donation- in honor of my birthday as well! That meant so much to me!) PLEASE continue to create doing what you love and share those smiles with as many people as you can! It really makes the world a much better place when we can serve one another in kindness.

*I will be announcing the winner shortly…scroll down below if you can’t stand the wait! LOL!*

I have always loved Halloween as a child and have so many fond memories dressing up each year and thinking about what I would be. I tried to pass that tradition onto my children and I dressed up right along with them! For me, Halloween is full of lots of fun things besides just treats! I wanted to celebrate those memories with a card today:

Vicki-BM-HalloweenBox

I’ve stamped the trick-or-treaters and bat and then colored them up with my Copic markers and fussy cut them all out and put them aside while I worked on the rest of the card.

For the background of the card, that “tree branch” panel came in the kit, so I ran it through my laminator to foil it…it turned out awesome! (See photo below!) I then took my distress inks and blended in a night sky over it. I spritzed it with water and dried it off with a towel to get the water drop look.

I took this awesome border silhouette die from Impression Obsession and attached to the bottom of the scene for the trick-or-treaters to stand on. I sponged the bottom edge with white ink. Speaking of white ink, this is what I used to stamp the sentiment on a piece of black cardstock as well as sponge around the edges with it. I used the glow-in-the-dark embossing powder over top of it. (Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a good photo of it glowing in the dark….but it does and it looks cool!) I made a banner with that strip and attached it to the left side of the card and then popped the bat up over it with foam tape.

Vicki-BM-HalloweenBox-foiled

Here you can capture a better look at the foiled tree branch in the background as well as the heat embossed sentiment. I glued down the mummy girl and then I took foam tape to pop up the frankenstein for dimension and depth. I also added some yellow Stickles to the eyes and mouths on the pumpkins.

This card was so fun to do! Hope you’ve enjoyed it as well!

Wishing you all a very fun Halloween however you choose to spend it! I think I will be watching some scary movies and eating some popcorn which is something I enjoy doing with hubby!

Challenges I’d like to enter:

Creative Moments – Anything Goes with optional twist: Spooktacular
Crafty Gals Corner – Halloween Colors
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Halloween/Spooky
The House That Stamps Built (O2418) – Anything Goes
Moving Along With the Times – Halloween
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes with an Optional Twist: Halloween
Always Fun – Halloween

So now are you ready to see who the winner is of the Giveaway?!!

StampedSmilesGiveawaynames

So this is how I went about how to pick out a name. I wrote down in numercal order all the names that entered the give away with the blue InLinkz froggie…there were a total of 47 entries just for that! I then went through all the comments where each person that commented about how they shared the giveaway and/or where each person mentioned how they share smiles with their crafty creations and I wrote their number and name down again for each item that qualifies for an additional entry. I cut each name out in a strip…lots of writing and cutting! LOL DO YOU SEE YOUR NAME IN THERE?!

StampedSmilesGivewawyfoldednames

Once all the names were cut in strips, I folded up each strip and layed them on my glass mat in a pile after shuffling them around a bit. I walked out of my room and asked my hubby to go in and grab a strip of paper, open it up with the name showing and lay it next to the pile.

Are you excited?! DRUM ROLL PLEASE…………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

StampedSmilesGiveawaynamesWINNER

CONGRATULATIONS to 24. Tammy A!!!!!

I have already sent out an e-mail to the lucky winner! I’m very sorry to those that didn’t win, but this is so fun to do and I’m sure I’ll be doing something again at another time, so stayed tuned in friends! 🙂