happy – Stamped Smiles

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 11

Today is a new day! We are on day 11 of celebrating over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with another feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! YEEOWZA!

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Today, we are highlighting Rachel Vass Designs – Please check out the challenge blog for more details about this sponsor.

The DT was provided with digital image sets to use for our creations:

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I have the gorgeous Sunshine Daisies digital set for my design here by printing the image along with the sentiment that came with the set on a piece of Bristol watercolor paper. I remember hubby brightening up my day a while back with some very pretty colorful rainbow of daisy flowers he brought home, so I based my colors that way.

I’ve used my watercolor markers and waterbrush to color the image with and then I took some yellow sparkle AquaPigment along with some Cream Grey Aquapigment from Brutus Monroe to splatter over top of the design before I cut it out with a Wonky Stitch rectangle die from MFT.

I layered this panel over an A2 top folding Soft Suede card base and finifhed it off with some clear sparkle sequins that I added some yellow Stickles to the centers.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my watercolor rainbow daisies today! Thank you for stopping in to check my post today! See you tomorrow!

Challenges:

The Divas that Cut…Paper – Flowers + die cut
My Time to Craft – Clean and Simple
Simon Says Stamp Monday – Beautiful Botanicals
Little Red Wagon – #564 Digi Do

August 26, 2020August 26, 2020

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles20 Comments

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 6

Hey there friends! We are on day 6 of celebrating over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with another feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! FUN FUN!

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Today, we are highlighting Bugaboo Stamps & Lawn Fawn – Please check out the challenge blog for more details about these sponsors.

So on our first day, I had used some fabulous products from our sponsor Lawn Fawn and you can check that post out HERE. But for today’s post, I wanted to highlight our other sponsor Bugaboo Stamps…

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Now how stinkin’ CUTE is this little guy with his ginormous cupcake coming at you?!

I printed out this Picnic Ant-Cupcake2 from Bugaboo Stamps and colored him up with Copic markers. I sponged some clouds behind him and colored some grass with my markers too. I used my oval dies to cut the image out with along with the scallop oval layer behind it.

Found some fun papers from my stash along with the rectangle die, sentiment die, ribbon, twine and button to complete the card.

I “dressed up” the cupcake with some liquid applique that was heated up to make it “puffy” and then added some glossy accents over the cherry on top.

Really had fun with this cutie and I hope he brought you a little smile today friends! Thanks for joining me! See you again tomorrow!

Challenges:

Catch the Bug Challenge – End of Summer (what could be better than celebrating a picnic?!)
Little Red Wagon – Use a Stencil (cloud background)
Creative Knockouts – #364 Something to Say
Aud Sentiments – #258 Anything Goes + Sentiment
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + Coloring

August 21, 2020August 21, 2020

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles24 Comments

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 2

Hello friends! The celebration continues over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with our feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! Woot!!

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Today, we are highlighting STAMPlorations & Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios – check out the challenge blog for more details about these sponsors.

The DT was provided with an image from STAMPlorations to use:

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What could be more fun and happy for a celebration than rainbow colors?!

I was provided with this lovely Framed Tea Cups stamp to use for my card which I’ve colored up with Copic markers using the traditional ROYGBV rainbow colors for the cups.

I also decided to mask off the image and using the ARTplorations Weaving Stencil, I inked over with some Pumice Stone Distress Ink and then cut out the panel with the CUTplorations Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle die that was barely trimmed along the edges so that I could layer it over a black A2 sized top folding card base. I also took one of the images from the Scribbly Splattery Grunge stamp set and randomly stamped it a few times with black ink before attaching the panel to the card base.

Lastly, I used the CUTplorations Celebrate Word die to cut out the sentiment with silver foil cardstock and attached it to the bottom of the card and then I added some silver sequins to the design.

A huge thank you to these sponsors for celebrating with {Cupcake Inspirations} 500th challenge! Hope you’re planning on playing along with us!

Thank you for stopping in today friends! See you tomorrow!

Challenges:

STAMPlorations Never-Ending Challenge – Anything Goes + STAMPlorations product
Crafty Friends – #142 Anything Goes
Creativ Fusion Arts & Crafts – #20 Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday – Bright Colors
Seize the Birthday– Rainbow Colors or Anything Birthday

August 17, 2020August 17, 2020

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles20 Comments

{Cupcake Inspirations} celebrates it’s 500th Challenge! WOW!🥳

Hello friends!! Happy Monday! I have something very special to share with you today!

The {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog has hit a wonderful milestone and is celebrating their 500th challenge! How cool is that?!

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I’m so thrilled to be apart of the celebration with them and share in the excitement! I hope that you will be celebrating right along with us and join the challenge too! We also have an AMAZING list of sponsors to share in the celebration with us! Please be sure to check out the challenge blog for the complete list…AND…we will be sharing inspiration EVERY SINGLE DAY throughout the 2 week challenge using products from our sponsors, so you won’t want to miss any of the posts so you can see the inspiration!

I WILL BE POSTING INSPIRATION FROM MOST OF THE SPONSORS RIGHT HERE ON MY BLOG EACH DAY AS WELL! SO STAY TUNED IN!

The theme for this challenge is “Birthday Celebration“! We can always use birthday cards! So we look forward to seeing your creations!!🥳🧁

Today, I thought it would be fun to start out with products from our sponsor

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Remember those fun birthday parties as a child and all of those fun photos you took with your friends? Everyone is having a great time together! I miss those days for sure!

I have used the Wild for You stamp set along with the coordinating dies for the animals friends and colored them up with Copic markers. I have also taken the Party Animal stamp set and coordinating dies for the sentiment over the black banner that was white heat embossed as well as the balloon that is tied around the gator’s tail with black twine. I popped up the balloon and covered it with glossy accents. The cupcake on the gator’s back came from the “Party Panda” stamp set and dies that I received as a gift for my birthday month. (P.S. You may notice a cupcake in almost every one of my creations for these two weeks…see if you can spot them!)

I’ve used the Selfie Frames die set to cut out the poloroid frames, plus I die cut some grass in them with the Grassy Border die. I pulled out a piece of paper from the Watercolor Wishes paper pad and cut it out using the Small Dotted Rectangle die.

I finished my card with some bright blue and purple sequins. (Although it almost looks black on the photo! LOL!) I’ve added details with metallic gel pens and glitter too.

Really fun card to make with some really adorable products…love Lawn Fawn!

Thanks for stopping in today friends! Be sure to check and see what I’m making for tomorrow’s post with another sponsor!

Challenges:

Not Just Cards – August Anything Goes
Retro Rubber – rrcb141 Anything Goes (have had all at least 1 year or more!)
Arty Divas– #28 Anything Goes
Watercooler Wednesday – WWC284 Occasions
Colour Crazy– Anything Goes + coloring

August 16, 2020August 14, 2020

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles20 Comments

Finishing Up Summer School With Cupcake Creations!🧁

Hello friends! Hope you’ve had a great week! Wow…it’s Finally Friday! I’ve been SO busy “behind the scenes” and I will be getting to all of that later on, but I needed to squeak in with the final creations for the MFT Summer School! I have earned my badge now…woohoo!

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I finished up Day 2 with my “smile rainbow” and now for Day 3, they’re asking for a “symmetry” style of creation. I was told that basically it’s something that if you were to split it in half, it would be exactly the same on the other half…so this is what I thought of:

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I was so excited about getting the My Favorite Things Cupcakes card kit, so I was determined that I was going to pull it out and use it for the rest of my Summer School cards! LOL! It’s such a cute set with the dies and sentiment stamps! I really had fun!

I used some papers from the kit and sponged ink around the edges of everything pretty much. I just used the two cupcakes side by side for the symmetry class. I just have opposite colors of sprinkles. I added the red cherry on top, covered with the glitter brush pen and then some glossy accents. (The glossy accents really got a work out!😮)

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So Day 4 class was “ombre” and that pretty much called to me to use the stencil from the card kit (sprinkles in background) and then I just heat embossed white over white and then used inks for the emboss resist technique moving the colors from lightest to darkest to get that classical “ombre effect”. I also added a die cut cupcake that I used the same ink effect over it. I die cut the words from the kit with the dark papers I used for the base of the card. I finished with some sparkly crystal accents to finish it off!

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And last but certainly not least was Day 5 “White Space” class. I don’t often make cards like this, but I honestly love those CAS style cards, but I always want to “teeter” on the fine line between CAS and not…so I always think I’m not doing CAS. I’m just not comfortable with the “CAS” definition or “rules” of what is or isn’t CAS. I just feel happiest doing whatever happens to work out in my plan for a design…that’s pretty much it! Be happy and you’re good!

I used this class to also follow along with the MFT sketch challenge going on as it looked like it was a good sketch for making a “white space” design.

I started by masking off the square and sponging lightly around it, I white heat embossed the sentiment over a black strip and added some silver ink over the stencil again and then attached the cupcake over top with the papers…and added the cherry on top with glossy accents too!

I finished it off with another little flag die from the kit and some silver sequins! I like how it turned out! I think I deserve a cupcake after all the creations I made!!😋

I hope you’ve enjoyed my creations today and I really appreciate you stopping in to see what’s going today! Please be sure to stop by again on Monday for a very special post that you won’t want to miss! Have a fabulous weekend!

Challenges:

MFT Summer School– Day 3 Symmetry
MFT Summer School – Day 4 Ombre
MFT Summer School – Day 5 White Space
My Favorite Things – Wednesday Sketch Challenge MFTWSC502 (my last card and I flipped the sketch on the side)
Crafty Creations – #412 August Anything Goes
Craft Rocket – #73 Birthday
Creative Fingers – #191 Anything Goes
Arty Divas – Bonus Birthday Challenge
Crafty Friends – #142 Anything Goes

August 14, 2020August 13, 2020

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles23 Comments

Sparkly Rainbow Smile🌈

Hello there friends! Just popping in here today to share a smile with you!

The MFT Summer School lessons continue with Day 2: RAINBOW! For me, nothing says “smile” like a rainbow and we certainly need plenty of smiles these days!😀

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I wanted the rainbow on my card to really stand out, so I’ve used an older MFT background stamp no longer available called “Floral Fantasy” and stamped it with Steel Gray Ink over a piece of Grout Gray cardstock that was cut out with the Wonky Stitched Rectangle die.

I used the “End of the Rainbow” die no longer available, but similar to THIS ONE in the store, to cut through the background and then I used the different strips in the rainbow to die cut the different colors of glitter paper to fill it in with. I used the Sunset and Mermaid glitter paper stacks for the strips. I then took an older MFT SMILE die and die cut over top of the rainbow and stamped background. I die cut the words again with Black Licorice cardstock and inlaid the letters over top of the background. I mounted the background over an A2 sized top folding Black Licorice card base.

Lastly, I stamped the sentiment from the “All Smiles” stamp set (no longer available) over more of the Grout Gray cardstock and cut out with a banner die and popped it up underneath the die cut letters with foam tape. I finished the card with some sparkling clear sequins.

Here’s a closer look at the glittery rainbow that I’ve inlaid for the background as well as the “smile” letters too. Hopefully, you can see from this angle how all of it is incorporated into the background of the design. The only thing that I popped up was the sentiment banner.

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I hope that you’ve enjoyed my card today and it helped bring a smile your way! Thank you so much for taking the time to stop in today my friends! I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

MFT Summer School – Day 2 Rainbow (ROYGBIV)
The Corrosive Challenge – #8 Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2031 Anything Goes
Little Red Wagon– #561 Happy Days
Aud Sentiments – #257 Anything Goes + a sentiment
Creative Knockouts – #362 Sparkle & Shine
Crafts Galore Encore– #78 August Anything Goes

August 8, 2020August 8, 2020

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles29 Comments

{Cupcake Inspirations} Color Challenge Reminder

Hello there friends! Hoping you’ve had a wonderful weekend! It’s gotten pretty warm again over my way after enjoying the slightly cooler and beautiful weather for a while! I’ve been enjoying the flowers while they’re still around!

I’m sharing some more inspiration with you today for a reminder on our current color challenge for {Cupcake Inspirations}, so if you haven’t played along with us yet, you still have another week to join us!

For some reason this color challenge still had me thinking of daisy flowers…so I went with that again for my design this week as well:

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I’ve pulled out a Pink and Main stamp set called Daisy Bugs and colored up the bundle of flowers image with Copic markers and then used the coordinating dies to cu it out with which was popped up over my design with foam tape.

I used the sentiment from the same stamp set as well and white heat embossed it over Navy cardstock and used the coordinating die to cut that out with as well which was glued over the card.

The yellow decorative papers were pulled out from my older Stampin’ Up! stash as I thought it fit with the theme and I was super happy to use some more papers up! I’ve used a stitched circle die to cut out the white layer behind the flowers and then another fancy circle die from Gina Marie cut out with Navy to layer behind that as well. I also die cut a border strip with a Crafter’s Companion die to place across my design and I wrapped some stitched navy ribbon (SU!) over it before attaching to the design.

I glued the bow over top of the circle image panel and then I used a navy marker to create the stitch lines around the edges to finish it off.

Here’s a closer look at the flowers popped up on the design. You can see in the centers of the flowers that I’ve added some glossy accents.

I think it really makes the flowers pop off the design!

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I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and has brought you some inspiration to play with the colors for this challenge so you can join with us!

Please be sure to check out the {Cupcake Inspirations} blog for more inspiration from the rest of the team as well!

Thanks so much for joining me here today and I’ll see you again soon!

Challenges:

The House That Stamps Built – JL2220 Anything Goes
Krafty Chicks – #517 All Occasions
Creative Knockouts – #360 Flora and Fauna
Watercooler Wednesday – WWC281 All About Occasions

July 26, 2020July 24, 2020

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles27 Comments

Galaxy Powders with LOTS of projects + video!🚀⭐

Hello there friends! I’m a tad late with my post today, but I ended up hurting my shoulder and it was a bit hard to get on the computer to type things up! LOL! I tihnk I’ll be able to recover a bit over the weekend…I hope anyway!

So today, I’ve pulled out some media that I hadn’t gotten a chance to REALLY play with until now. I had so much fun and decided to turn on my camera and do a video with it as well! (I’m a bit rusty with video making as I haven’t done one for a while and hope to do some more in the near future!)

Here’s my play with the Galaxy Powders:

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My first of projects here are ATCs! Do you remember back in the day for the “older crafters” that we use to trade those ATCs at conventions and such?! I loved getting them from people from other countries! ATCs (aka: Artist Trading Cards) are 2.5″ x 3.5″ with info on the back to trade with other artists. You could even transform these to place on regular cards, etc. which I’ve done before too!

I’ve taken a piece of Midnight cardstock and started playing around with these Galaxy Powders and also used an ATC kit for the chipboard backs and the rocket details.

To show how the Galaxy powders work up close, check out my video below! I started by making the backgrounds and then I worked each background into finished projects…CLICK HERE if you want to see it on You Tube or just watch it below:

Sometimes it’s fun to sit and just have fun playing around getting crafty!

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And for this card, I’ve taken the High Tide stencil and went over it on black cardstock and brushed over it with the Galaxy Powders.

I’ve used this butterfly from the Take Flight stamp set and attached it over the panel along with the sentiments. That Mirrorstock paper is really stunning and a little bit goes a long way with that! (You can check out my video for full instruction on how I put this card together too!)

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My last project here shows how I’ve used the Galaxy Powders over a stamp! I’ve used the Smile On stamp set for that. It’s hard to see in the photo the pretty shine on it, so be sure to catch the video to see it in action! I used a white pencil to highlight some details on the image too.

I used a stitched rectangle die to cut it out and then used a stitched scallop rectangle die to cut out a piece of white cardstock to layer behind it. I used Kraft cardstock for the A2 sized card base panel and then used the Embossing Ink to randomly stamp the “smile face” image for the background from the So Emotional stamp set.

I also layered on a piece of the Sequin Sheets between the layers of the sentiment panel and white scallop layered panel to attach to my card and then I used some metallic clear ribbon over that along with a bow before popping up my main image panel with foam tape.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my projects today along with my video on Galaxy Powders and learned a few things about them!

Have a wonderful day and I’ll see you again soon!

Challenges:

Crafting Happiness – #58 Anything Goes
Pammies Inky Pinkies – PIP2029 Anything Goes
Fab ‘N’ Funky – Use Real Stamp (no digis)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Reach for the Stars (ATCs)
ATC ARound the World – Sun, Moon and Stars (ATCs only)

July 23, 2020August 3, 2021

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles32 Comments

It’s a Color Challenge for {Cupcake Inspirations}

Hello friends! Hope you’ve had a great weekend and enjoying your Summer so far!

Today starts up a brand new challenge over at {Cupcake Inspirations} and this time we have a fun color challenge for you to try out:

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What a pretty looking cupcake photo to go along with it too! Can’t wait to see your white, blue and yellow creations in the gallery!😀

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When I saw this challenge, the first thing that went through my mind was this unique and fun bicycle image from the Blooming Bicycle stamp set.

I left the “wheels” white for daisies and colored the rest in blues and yellows with Copic markers, fussy cut it out and popped it up with foam tape over the sponged cloudy background. I cut that panel with a stitched rectangle die, layered it over a piece of yellow cardstock and used some pretty daisy papers from my stash for the background. I’ve also used these papers for the strip on the front and stamped the sentiment from the same stamp set with navy ink. I’ve mounted these layers over an A2 sized top folding navy blue card base. (I followed a sketch design for a challenge, see below.)

The flower from my stash was actually a bright turquoise color, but I’ve used some white gesso and painted over it. I’ve also taken some crackle paint and went over it along with some sparkly white paint and went over the crackle with that. (I’ve always hoarded my paper flowers because I believe you can always change the colors for your project.) I’ve added some yellow ribbon around the strip and added a blue button and yellow bow with the ribbon over the flower to finish it off.

Here’s a closer view of the bicycle colored in as well as the details of the painted flower.

I colored parts of the bike in blue colors and then left some areas on the bike that I thought would be metal and colored those areas with a clear metallic gel pen. I popped up the bike with foam tape and left it sticking off the edges to make it look like it’s ready to get on for a ride!

You can really see the shimmer over the flower with the Lumiere acrylic paint I’ve used…love that stuff! (The white flowers in my photo props I felt weren’t “daisy” looking enough, so I opted to paint over a colored one with longer petals. I’m silly like that😉!)

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Well I don’t know how you feel about this color combo, but it really makes me feel happy and so I thought that the sentiment was just perfect for this one!

Really hope you can join along with us for this color challenge! Please be sure to stop by the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog to see all the inspiration and enter your project! Hope you’ve been inspired by my card today! See you soon!

Challenges:

Cheerful Sketches – July sketch
Arty Divas – #26 Anything Goes
A Bit More Time to Craft – #120 Anything Goes
Fab ‘N’ Funky – #490 Creaive Free-For-All
Allsorts – Flowers All Over

July 19, 2020August 3, 2021

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles27 Comments

Full Bloom Rainbow

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great week so far! I’m wondering if this cold weather has me feeling this way lately, but I’m seriously lacking in creativity and just have misplaced my MOJO lately! If you’ve found it, please let me know! LOL!

In the meantime, I seriously needed to create a rainbow in my life and found that a young lady certainly was in need of a smile sent her way as well so I thought I would do just that:

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I had received my Pink and Main Crafty Courtyard Card Kit and really loved the happy colors and pretty blooms in the stamp set and so I started out using the stencil with rainbow order inks for the background!

I’ve also used the same color of Distress Oxide inks to do the stamping on the tag and envelope as well. I absolutely love the tag die set was inclued with the kit which I’ve used for the main focus of my card. I always want to add just a bit of black to my rainbow colors, so I decided to white heat emboss the sentiment from the stamp set and then used one of the tag die elements to cut it out with and pop up over the bottom of the tag.

I’ve also used the ribbon and enamel dots included in the kit to finish it off. (The floral sequins used for the photo prop were also included in the kit. LOL!)

Here’s a closer look at the details in the tag. For the black border around the tag, I just cut a piece down to size and then cut off the edges with my scissors to match up with the tag. The scallop tag behind it was cut with the paper and die from the kit. I used some circle punches to create the black re-enforcer and then I tied the ribbon together with some black twine from my own stash and topped the center with an enamel dot from the kit.

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This card has now been sent along to a young lady that is currently in the hospital dealing with cancer treatments (teapotters from SCS) and really needs some cheerful happy colors, so I hope that this will help fill her day with some cheer.

Hoping that this card has also sent some feelings of cheer today your way as well! Thanks so much for stopping in today friends and I’ll see you soon! 🙂

Challenges: