Inky Stamper Craft Room Shake Up

Hello friends!  It’s the very last day of November and also the last day as a Guest Designer for Inky Stamper too.  Really enjoyed creating with their fun products and hope that you’ve gotten some inspiration as well!  If you are ever looking for their store in the future, I will have the badge with link on the sidebar of my blog so you can find it or look for all of my posts under the “Inky Stamper” category also found on the side of this blog.

Today I’m sharing a fun way to make a full front/infinity shaker card using their products:

Rosie is having some fun cutting up paper!✂  She is from the Inky Stamper Craft Room set that I’ve colored up along with the little bottle and cut out.  This was so fun to put together and reminds me of the fun that I enjoyed during the Inky Escape event! (I will share the projects I made in a future post)  The heat embossed sentiment as well as the envelope and ink splatters in the background, came from the Inky Stamper Inky Greetings stamp set.

At a previous Inky event I went to, I learned how to put together a full front shaker in a very easy way and wanted to use this same idea for my card here.  So I started with the Inky Stamper Shaker Sealable Pouches and added a piece of 3.75″ x 5″ Doodlebug “Cute & Crafty” paper (released temporarily from Inky Stamper in the past) that I stamped the ink splatters with orange and pink inks over.  Before sealing up the pouch, I added some Iridescent Clear Shaker Garnish and some Picket Fence Crafty Friends sequence mix.  I used some Red Line Tape to attach the shaker pouch to the scallop orange piece that was layered over an A2 top folding bright pink card base.  I like this because there is no wondering if the foam tape will hold all of the bits where they’re supposed to be…so very easy!

I’ve also used the same Doodlebug “Cute & Crafty” papers to heat emboss my sentiment at the bottom and I’ve also used a pink gem from the Picket Fence Reflections.  For the “floor” of the craft room, I’ve used the Doodlebug Buffalo Check/Woodgrain paper pad and die cut a piece for the bottom that was popped up with foam squares over the shaker pouch panel.

I wanted to share a closer look at the shaker details with the pouch and the shaker goodies inside.  The sequins mix is so fun with those tiny scissors in there, can you see them?!

For the picture frame, I’ve taken one of the squares from the Doodlebug “Cute & Crafty” paper pad for the main focal of it and added some dashes along the edge.  I also sponged around it with light blue ink and cut out the little brush from the “Craft Room” stamp set after coloring it up and then glued it to the panel.  I also cut out more of the woodgrain paper for a frame look and then added a tiny piece of the Doodlebug Gray Twine behind it.  I pulled at the top and added a round foam dot to it so that it was held in place over the shaker pouch.  I then used the Metallic Transfer Foil Sheets to press over top of the foam dot so that it looked more like something hanging up the picture.

So I hope you’ve enjoyed my full front shaker card today and have been inspired to make time to make stuff too!  If you have any questions about anything here, let me know!  Thanks for stopping in today!

Challenges:

  1. Creative Inspirations – Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle
  2. Shopping Our Stash – Bling it Up and/or lighting
  3. Penny’s Paper-crafty – Anything Goes using paper
  4. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring
  5. Daring Cardmakers – ShineCOVER
  6. Tic Tac Toe – used bottom row across (patterned paper, stamped image & sparkle/shiny)tttc-challenge-board-189

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles29 Comments

Inky Stamper Fun

Hello friends!  Lots of fun crafty things happen during the month of October with the start of World Card Making Day to kick us off, then there’s the changing seasons with Fall, then Halloween with the treats which then turns into the Holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas!  I have taken the time to participate in some fun challenges and classes this month with some Inky Stamper inspiration for today’s post.

Although it says “EEK” next to the spider, I think he’s a cute one and not one to run away from!  This cute spider comes from the Inky Stamper Spider stamp set that I’ve used on the tag for my Hershey Nugget treat holder. (I made this for the October challenge in the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group with the theme of “Treat Holder”.)  I’ve stamped and colored the spider with Copic markers, used the coordinating die to cut him out and pop him over the green oval tag with the spider web and EEK stamped over it.  I’ve used the green colored markers to his eyes to match my project.

For the treat package, I’ve used the Inky Stamper Scallop Candy Wrappers die cut out from some black Doodlebug Gingham/Linen paper to wrap around the candies.  I made a “holder” for the nuggets with regular black cardstock and scored each side 1/4″ for a container to hold the nuggets in place.  I used some stickers from my stash to add the “B-O-O” letters and then slid the container into an Inky Stamper Hershey Bag that was gathered and tied up at the top with a piece of Doodlebug Limeade Twine.  I punched a hole in my spider tag/gift card and threaded the twine through it to wrap around the treat and then took a piece of black ribbon to tie a bow around it all.  These were so fun and easy to make!

Another thing I did was participate in the World Card Making Day Challenge in the Inky Stamper Inkspiration Group. The challenge was to create a card using a sketch that was given and turn in by a certain time frame.  This was my take on the sketch using the Inky Stamper Cow stamp set.

I used the “cow pattern” image from the stamp to create my background, white heat embossed the sentiment strip over black cardstock and sponged white around the edges of the banner.  I popped it up with foam tape, stamped, colored and popped up the cow image over the banner as well.  I also used the Inky Stamper Bunny set for the balloon image and the Inky Stamper Goat set for the party hat over the cow’s head.  The balloon string was attached behind the cow and then I made a bow for around the cow’s neck with the Doodlebug Beetle Black Twine.  To make my card fit with the sketch, I added some silver glitter cardstock strips behind the oval layers.  I also added some silver Stickles glitter over the party hat to bring in the silver as well.  So glad I ended up playing as I was picked to win a gift certificate!

I also participated in a “game night” class making these fun projects all made with the Inky Stamper Bug Catcher set.  This class was was a kit and all of the pre-cut items were included.  I already had the stamp set so I didn’t need to purchase that with it.  Even the candy spiders and magnifier came with it all!  I had fun putting it all together and I really liked the versatility of the projects we did.

  • If you’re on my website, just click on the photos below to take a closer look at each project
When you pull the slider tab the mouse moves over to catch the butterfly!
The magnifier is attached with Velcro dots from card! It works!
Mini card and treat box with candy spiders inside!

Hope you’ve enjoyed the projects that I’ve made and been inspired in some way!  Thanks so much for stopping in!

Challenges:

  1. Two Old Bats – Anything Goes Halloween (spider treat)
  2. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
  3. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  4. Make My Monday – Birthday Wishes (COW CARD)
  5. Happy Little Stamper Birthday – Anything Goes Bday (COW CARD)
  6. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
  7. CRAFT – Gift Bag or Box (spider treat)
  8. This is Halloween – Gothic and/or Halloween (spider treat)

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles29 Comments

Winter is Shaping Up With Interaction!

So after getting my calendars ready to start the year off, which is easy to sit and craft during the cold snowy winter where I live, my mind turned to winter when creating!  Sometimes it’s nice to create with a “snowflake/winter” theme because I think they can be used interchangeable for Christmas or just a “warm winter greeting” for someone!  (Or… because you might be late sending one out or for those friends overseas that won’t arrive one time!)

Today I’m sharing a card that I’ve made for this month’s Inky Stamper challenge on FB with the theme: “Shaped Cards”

Vicki-InkyStamper-Janchallenge-shapedcard

Isn’t she cute?!  I was trying to come up with a different shape besides a regular circle, etc.  So I looked up “coloring pages for kids” free online and found this one that I resized to what I wanted and printed it out over some light purple cardstock.  I used another printed one as a template so that I could cut another one out over a folded cardstock piece to create a shaped folded card design. (You can partly see the back piece in the photo.)  The sparkly “ball” at the top was just die cut out from a scallop circle die with sparkly silver cardstock.

For the card front, I used the Inky Stamper Snow Angel stamp set to stamp the snowflakes in the background with some purple ink.  I white heat embossed the sentiment over and wanted it to stand out a bit more, so I sponged some more light purple ink over top of it.  I colored “Rosie” over Copic blending card and used the die to cut her out with.  I’ve die cut a couple of the large snowflakes from Lawn Fawn with white cardstock and layered them over the beanie hat.  You can see that “Rosie” is popped out a bit over that snowflake, which is where I’ve added a “wobbler” to her…check it out in the video below:

The wobbling action doesn’t move around in the video as it does in person.  I think my camera slows down the action or something.  (weird)  And of course I finished the card with some sparkly Icicles sequins mix from Inky Stamper too.  I filled the centers of them with some Silver Stickles.

Because of the “ball” on top and the length of the “beanie band”, it needs to be in a 5.5″ square envelope to mail.  You could also make your own envelope which I do all the time anyway.  But the 5.5″ size fits perfectly.

*Speaking of Inky Stamper things, this past prior weekend there was an OOAK event (on FB) that Inky Stamper was apart of, so of course I wanted to get the kit and play along too! (I think that these have recently been sold out.)  But the stamp set used for the kit was this fun Penguin stamp set you can still get in the store.  Here’s my results:

The top card is an interactive “Theater Fold” design.  (All of the pieces were included with the kit along with an instructional video/class.)  I participated in the OOAK FB event to play along.  She usually always includes a mini bonus card which measures about an ATC size. (3.5″ x 2.5″)  She used the “icicles” from the stamp set, but I decided to stamp and cut out another snowflake for the front of mine.  I added a pretty gem to the center of it.

And of course that’s not the ONLY fun I had during the OOAK event!  I decided to play along with the always cute and funny Riley and Co. as well!  Here’s the set of cards created from that class:

I just thought these were so cute with the cow images and their little outfits along with the “Funny Bone” sentiments!  The instructions came with the kit which were really easy to follow along with.  I basically looked at the photos and put together the pieces from the kit.  For the clouds, I decided to pull out some sparkly white flock to cover them with.  They have a nice soft feel to them!  They just make me chuckle and I think it will be fun to send along to someone who needs a smile!😉

*If you are visiting my website, then you can check out each one of these cards in the gallery below by clicking on the photos to enlarge them: (I’ve found some coordinating envelopes from my stash for each card.)

Flock was added to the clouds.
purple, sparkle and funny sentiment…what more could you ask?!
rainbow image was turned upside-down for the swing! So clever!

I sure hope that you’ve enjoyed my post today and have been inspired in some way!  Really appreciate you stopping in and I’ll be seeing you soon!🥰  Stay warm!

Challenges (For Winter Beanie Hat Shaped card ONLY):

  1. Challenge Up Your Life – Winter Fun
  2. Papercraft – Winter Wonderland
  3. Creatalicious – Anything Goes with optional winter
  4. Make My Monday – Winter-Wherever You Are (snowy and cold!)
  5. Make the Cards – Encouragement (You’re unique sentiment)
  6. Aud Sentiments – Anything Goes + sentiment

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles34 Comments

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!

Halloween-31-Nights-blog-banner-2018-whimsy-stamps

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!
  • A class that Taylor taught using a special Halloween bundle showing how to foil.
  • This is the second portion of Taylor’s class using the same Jack-o-Lantern Cutting Plate.
  • Here’s another set of Halloween cards taught by Taylor for a virtual event I attended in Aug. (I think I over did it on the splatter! LOL)
  • This was a Lawn Fawn class with this set of projects during the Aug virtual event. The back project is a gable box.
  • This was a DecoFoil class class from the Aug virtual event…LOTS of foil! The green background is felt.
  • This was a watercolor mini slimline class taught during the Aug virtual event. I’ve used glow-in-the-dark glitter for the inside faces except the center one was just yellow glitter.
  • From a Riley & Co Halloween class. This is an easel slimline card.
  • Another Riley & Co easel type card. LOL
  • TEE HEE! A Riley & Co Dracula topped with glossy accent hair. Also added it to the bat too. See next photo for the inside…
  • …inside of Dracula card. LOL
  • Riley & Co is so funny! The cat is on a wobbler!
  • This card reminded me of Jimmy Fallon’s Friday Thank you notes! (If you’ve ever caught one of those shows!) See what I mean in the next photo for the inside of this card…
  • …ha ha! inside of Thank you Halloween Candy…

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:

  1. Crafty Animals – Anything Goes with animal
  2. Pearly Sparkles – Autumn and/or Halloween
  3. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring
  4. Critter Crazy – Anything Goes with featured Critter
  5. The Crafter’s Cafe – Anything Goes
  6. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
  7. Two Old Bats – Anything Goes Halloween
  8. Crafty Calendar – Halloween

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles33 Comments

Guest Designer for Addicted To Stamps & More – Any Occasion

Hello friends!  Hope you’re having a great week so far and have been enjoying the September month!  I look forward to the Autumn Season and all of the beautiful changes it brings!  Today, I have a fun post to share with you!

Super excited to have won a guest design spot over at the Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge blog!  Have loved playing along with the challenges over there for years!  A few years back I had been on the DT for a bit which was really fun too!

They have fun challenges every other week with a select set of 5 categories/themes that alternate for each challenge which makes it nice so that you can plan your creations according to each one!  So the category/theme for this challenge happens to be “Any Occasion“

This turned out to be a really great category to work with because my husband came to me and said one of his friends that he used to work with broke his leg.  So he’d asked me to make an “interactive” get well card for him:

The first thing that came to mind for this was the cute Lawn Fawn stamp set “Get Well Before n Afters” along with the “Magic Picture Changer” die set.  Once you’ve made one of these picture changers, it’s not hard at all and it’s really fun to see it change.  I had made a card a couple of years ago for someone else with this set and it was a really fun card to make! So I grabbed the items and started with the scene for the background.

As you can see, there’s not much showing once you place the pull tab picture changer layer over it.  So I just sponged some clouds over the white background and die cut a grass border for the bottom section of the card.  I also white heat embossed the sentiment at the bottom of the grass section, but waited until the picture changer area was done so that I could use that for placement of the sentiment.  I also added one of the band-aids for decoration to the right of it.

I wanted a tiny scene inside of the picture changers with the cute turtle.  If you’re familiar with the stamp set, then you know there is a turtle on his back not feeling well and then there’s also a “healthy turtle” image too.  So for the “sick turtle” I sponged the sky and grass behind him and the stamped clouds by using masks I cut out from the images.  I then colored him up with Copics.

And then of course when you pull on the slider tab, the picture changes and you see the “healthy turtle” with the sun and rainbow instead of the clouds and rain.  LOL  I colored the images with Copics again and made masks for the images so that I could sponge over them for the sky and ground.

I popped up the picture changer section with foam tape over my background panel and then layered it over a top folding A2 sized card base so that there’s message inside too.  Lastly, I’ve added another band-aid image on the green frame and stamped some band-aids on the envelope for mailing too.

It’s certainly no fun to be laid up with a broken leg, so maybe this will help cheer him up!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today!  Please stop on over at the Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge Blog to check out the inspiration and come play along with us!

Thanks so much for stopping in!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card in:

  1.  Crafty Animals – Anything Goes featuring an animal
  2. 2 Crafty Critter Crazies – Anything Goes featuring an animal (last challenge-closing)
  3. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring (turtled colored with Copic markers)
  4. Watercooler Wednesday – All About OccasionsChallenge WWC324 - Kath's Challenge All About Occasions
  5. Happy Little Stampers – Anything Goes with Diesimage
  6. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles22 Comments

Crafty Chefs Gnome Joy & FINALLY Finished Projects from Whimsy Retreat!🎉

Hello my friends!  Are you getting all of your Holiday errands finished up?  I’ve still got some cards to send out and get going on my cookies!  I always feel behind every year…are you this way too?

So while I was “making merry” literally, I thought I’d join in the December Crafty Chefs Group Challenge and see what I could come up with for it.  This cute little gnome has been wanting to jump on my craft table for a while…

Isn’t he adorable?!  He came from a stamp set that I had actually got last year around this time and just never had the time to pull it to play with before Christmas rush finished up.  Note to self…I have TONS of those items this year, so plan EARLIER! LOL!  It seems I always get closer to a deadline and then want to come up with all kinds of things I want to try…is it the pressure or what?!

Anyway, I’ve got him all colored up with Copics and then I used the coordinating dies to cut him out with that I’ve attached with foam tape over my “Joy Fold Card“.  (This was part of the challenge for the Crafty Chefs this months and I followed along with a tutorial to a link *see link above* that was given, but I changed it up slightly by making it an A2 size.)  For the card design, I’ve used these Sweater Weather Papers.  I’ve added some shimmer metallic ribbon and also stamped some green snowflakes from the gnome stamp set and cut them out with the coordinating dies as well.  I also found some green colored pearls to add to the centers of each one too!  The ribbon, pearls/gems and color green were a requirement for the Crafty Chefs challenge.

The snowflake on the left side of the gnome is popped up and actually helping to hold the top flap down, so you have to pull it out to open the card.

So when you pull open the flap, open the inside flap, this is what you’ll see inside.  I heat embossed the sentiment along with a couple of snowflakes from the gnome stamp set with white EP and colored up a gift package, cut it out with the coordinating dies and attached it to the green panel.  I also took the white Ink Pad and rubbed it along the edges of the green panel before attaching.

Here’s this month’s requirements for the December Crafty Chef Challenge.  I used them all except for the very last one.  It’s been a long time since I’ve made a Joy Fold card, so this was really fun!

I’m also VERY excited to announce that I have FINALLY finished all of those projects from the Whimsy Stamps Virtual Retreat that I took over a weekend back in October!  Yep, I guess I’m pretty slow!  In my defense, I took extra time so that I could enjoy each minute of it all and go back to revisit posts and tutorials!  There were 23 projects total and I made a few extras along the way.  Here are my last ones:

This was for kit 19 and a wonderful coloring tutorial from the one and only Crissy who also illustrated the image of course! The sentiment I added myself is from Lawn Fawn.
This was for kit 20 and I was so thrilled to finally be able to get to these adorable gnomes! Love this fun shaker design! I put my own spin on it with the embossing folder background, stitches, twine and snowflakes.
Last, but certainly not least is this fun mixed media project by Iris for the final project. We even got to make a customized envelope to house the slimline card. She had Christmas greeting on her design, but I wanted to make it a winter birthday card. Love how it turned out!

So that’s all I have to share for now, but I know I’ll be back again on Monday to share a reminder challenge post for you!  I appreciate you taking the time to stop by to see what I’m doing friends!  Hope you are staying healthy and happy!  Enjoy your weekend!

Challenges (ONLY for Joy Fold Gnome Card):

  1. A Perfect Time to Craft – #12 Anything Goes
  2. A Bit More Time to Craft – #129 Anything Goes
  3. Crafts Galore Encore – #82 December Anything Goes
  4. Love to Craft – LTCCB53 December Anything Goes
  5. QKR Stampede – #409 Anything Goes
  6. Arty Divas – #32 Anything Goes
  7. Crafty Creations – #416 December Anything Goes
  8. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles25 Comments

Bright Birthday and More Whimsy Retreat Projects!💡

Hello friends!  Hope that you’re having a great week so far!  Hubby and I are trying to figure out how this “retirement thing” goes together! LOL!  I think we’ll be having so much fun and we’re just really excited about the future and what we’ll be doing.

Speaking of which, this past Sunday he also celebrated a birthday and of course I had to make him a card that was suited for an electrician.  I had to add a bit of humor about his age on the inside, but this is what I came up with:

I’ve had this Stampin’ Up! Sunburst die and stamp set and haven’t used it that much since I bought it. (quite a while ago! Not quite sure how old.. LOL)  I thought it would make a great light beam for my VERY old Simon Says Stamp ‘Watts Up’ stamp set that was from a past card kit. (circa 2014/2015)…yep, all old!

I die cut the sunburst from some yellow and gold glitterstock that I glued together slightly off-set and then attached it over a side folding A2 sized black card base.  I stamped the sentiments over a couple of the yellow strips with black ink taking care to make room for the circle panel.

I then stamped the lightbulb over a white piece of cardstock and colored the base with Copics and used a marker draw a line above it for the string.  I took a solid heart from the stamp set and heat embossed it with some Gold Metallic Gilded EP and then sponged some yellow ink over the bulb for some glow.  I die cut it out with a circle die and then layered over another die cut circle black piece and popped it up over the sunburst layers with foam tape.

I tied a bow with some black twine and glued it to the light bulb base.  I also stamped the bulb in a lighter gray ink over the envelope and added a string to that as well with a gray marker. (The inside of the card said:  “Old is the new black.” 😆)

———————————————————————————————————–

And I also wanted to share that I’m still plugging away on the several kits that I received from the Whimsy Stamps Virtual Retreat last month!  These are really amazing projects and I’m having lots of fun putting them together still! (Christmas will be coming next..so stay tuned for those!):

This is a fun interactive card with a pull tab at the top where this cut little dragon slides upwards towards the sky! This kit 9 came with an A2 sized envelope, but I had to make my own envelope slightly larger to accommodate for the pull tab sticking above the card. I’ve added doodle lines around the edges and shadow stamped a sentiment at the bottom for my own added details.
This set was from kit 14. The hexagon shaped box was super fun and even came with the candy! There was also an extra stamped and cut out bee, so I used it to make another card… shaker style! I used the left over honeycomb die cut piece as a stencil on the card as well. I used the envelope that was provided in the kit above and decorated it for this A2 sized card instead. (I know someone that loves these candies…so they might get a surprise at some point! 😉)
And lastly, this was from kit 15 and TOTALLY different than what was photographed in the booklet! First of all, I received a plant image with a die cut speech bubble sentiments and thought it might be cool for a Halloween card on another project, so I saved those to use later. I received an EXTRA stamped sunflower image from kit 22 that I had posted earlier and decided to use it for this card here. I colored it similar to that one and cut it out, but cut off a portion of it on this design. I also changed up the background ink blended colors and splattered some gold paint on this one. Love how it turned out. This will be for an Autumn anniversary card for someone coming soon.

Hope you’ve enjoyed all of my projects today!  Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges (For the Birthday Lightbulb card ONLY):

  1.  Retro Rubber – Anything Goes + stamps older than one year
  2. Cardz 4 Guys – Birthday for adult male
  3. Creative Moments – Anything Goes
  4. Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
  5. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  6. Shopping Our Stash – Tic Tac Toe (I used middle across: String/twine, 5 year old stamp, bright colors)
  7. Watercooler Wednesday – All About Occasions (birthday)

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles31 Comments

Sports Reminder for {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge

Hello friends!  Stopping by with a reminder today that there are still a few days left to join our “Sports” themed challenge over at the {Cupcake Inspirations} blog!  Hope you will join in the fun with us!

It’s that time of the year over here in the U.S. for Fall football season and I have some male family members that enjoy watching it along with having birthdays around this time which brings me to making these type of cards for them!  So this challenge has worked out really well for that!  So here’s my second card for this challenge:

I’ve pulled out this older Stampin’ Up! stamp set that I refused to part with just for this reason because I knew that I would be using it down the line…which is the “Great Sport” stamp set.  (I think it’s maybe circa 2013?)  I have elected to use the colors of my brother’s favorite football team The Chicago Bears for my color scheme.  (His birthday is coming up shortly so this will work out nicely.)

I think the embossing folder is just as old if not older than the stamp sets that I’ve used as it has that pattern on it that would remind you of the football texture.  (pigskin leather as the guys say)  I’ve recently picked up some sport themed decorative papers and thought I would use a strip down the center of my design and then I’ve also used the same pattern to stamp the wings and football images over that were all fussy cut out with scissors.

For the navy banner in the background, I’ve used a die cut to cut it out with and then stamped some stars with white ink over it and then sponged around the edged of it as well.  I took another strip of orange colored cardstock and stamped a fun birthday greeting over it and then added some stars around it that were punched out from navy cardstock.  All of these layered were attached over an A2 sized top folding navy card base.  

Really thought it would be fun to add an interactive detail to this card as well by adding a wobbler to the back of the football image.  So when you put your finger along the side of the ball, it will wobble.🏈😂  (something fun for the birthday guy to play with!)

For the decorative papers I’ve used, I took a sand block to distress the edges a bit and smooth out the edges of my fussy cutting details.

Hope this will help bring a smile his way and add a bit of luck to his football team for this year to do well too!

Be sure to stop by the {Cupcake Inspirations} blog to see more inspiration from the design team and I hope you’ll be able to join in the fun with us for this challenge too!  Thanks so much for dropping in today and I’ll be seeing you soon friends!

Challenges:

  1. Watercooler Wednesday – WWC291 5th Week Anything Goes

2.  Krafty Chicks – #527 Stamp Act

3.  Love to Craft – LTCCB51 October Anything Goes

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles20 Comments

Interactive Fun for Crafty Chefs + Video

Hello friends!  We are nearing the end of July and I wanted to be sure to try and get at least ONE “Christmas in July” project in before the month is gone, so I thought I’d keep things fun and simple as well as “kill 2 birds with one stone” so-to-speak!

It’s actually my turn to share a recipe with our “Crafty Chefs” group this time!  I’m doing the month of August and I need to share my recipe with the group slightly before the month or right on the 1st of the month.  (CLICK HERE for last month’s Crafty Chef project I made.)

Now we’re given one “must do” item from the previous chef to use on our recipe.  My item from Nana Connie was *”die cut” and so here is the project that I’ve made for this month’s “Crafty Chefs” group:

Vicki-DDSElves-squarefold

I have used a scallop square (cut from gold metallic mirror cardstock) and stitched square die cuts for layers on my project here.  I’ve taken this really cute elf image from the Christmas Elves Pairables digital set from Digi Doodle Studios on the front of my design.

I’ve printed out and colored the present from the same digital set along with another elf image (for his arm only) so that I could cut them out to make it look like he’s holding the gift.  His cut out arm was popped up with foam tape.  I’ve colored with Copic markers, added details with gel pens, liquid applique and Stickles glitter under his feet for snow affects.  I also stamped extra snowflakes for the background as well as add three snowflake rhinestones for accents.

Here’s the Crafty Chef’s August Recipe:

MUST DO:

  1.  *Die Cut (can also use electronic machine like Cricut, etc)
  2. Interactive (More than 1 fold eg: easel card, gatefold, etc.)
  3. Specialty Paper (foil, vellum, glitter, etc.)
  4. ribbon/twine/raffia

CAN DO:

  1.  Color an image
  2.  Add THREE of something
  3. **add glitter/sparkle – (this one I’m passing along to the next chef)

It doesn’t appear to be very interactive by looking at it, but when you untie the ribbon along the side, this is what it looks like when you open it up:

Vicki-DDSElves-squarefold-open

I have decorated two of the opposite panels with a greeting and then I’ve added a pocket to the top left panel so that I could include a gift card or cash to the recipient for Christmas!  I thought it was a super quick and fun interactive design to do!

If you are interested in learning how this project comes together, I’ve made a video sharing the measurements on how it’s done:  (CLICK HERE to see the video on You Tube.)

During this time of the year when it’s pretty warm over my way, it’s sort of a nice thought to think about some snow!  Plus, it always nice to get a start on some Christmas too!  (It’s not necessary for the “Crafty Chefs” to use a Christmas theme…it can be anything.)

I hope you’ve been inspired by my project today and have learned something fun in my video with it too!  (I have even more interactive tutorials on my You Tube video channel if you’d like to see other ideas!)

I really look forward to seeing what the “Crafty Chef” group comes up with for projects during the month of August!!  It’s great to be included in this group of crafty friends to share projects and inspiration with!  I enjoyed coming up with a recipe for August and I hope they have fun with it too!  Thanks so much for stopping in today friends and I’ll be seeing you again soon!

Challenges:

  1.  Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
  2. Daring Cardmakers – Three Musketeers (3 snowflake rhinestones)cover
  3. Sweet Stampin’ – Chrismas in July
  4. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes (Christmas in July)
  5. Crafting Happiness– #59 Anything Goes
  6. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2030 Anything Goes
  7. Dream Valley – Christmas in July
  8. Fab ‘N’ Funky – #492 Christmas
  9. Christmas in July 2020 Hop – Anything Christmas Build Your Stash Holiday Hop Christmas in July 2020 hop graphic

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles39 Comments