music – Stamped Smiles

April AJ Page-Does Anybody Know Time It Is?

Hello friends! I feel like I’ve been so busy, but it sure doesn’t seem that way on my blog here! Hopefully, I’ll be able to show more things later…however, I think it’s about time for this month’s Art Journal page…don’t you?!

Today I’m sharing my monthly Art Journal page and collaborating with my blog friend Carol as we both try and get creative by using up our never-ending stash piles! So please hop over to her blog to see some more Art Journal inspiration with our “SMASH YOUR STASH” April prompt of: “recycled items/thrifted items to upcycle/pieces of magazine, gift wrap, etc.“! So here’s what I’ve come up with:

I absolutely LOVE The Peanuts Gang characters! I have a desk calendar that I use every year next to my computer and it has the Peanuts Gang on it. I was thinking this would be a perfect way for me to recycle it by fussy cutting out some of the characters on it and incorporating them on my AJ page this month!

So I’ve started out by creating my regular 9″x6″ sized page with thick watercolor paper and pre-cutting the holes at the top for my book. This time I’ve turned it in the landscape direction to work on the design. I took out a musical notes style stencil and added paste for texture to the background, but it turned out to look more like bricks instead..but I let it dry and used it anyway. I decided to pull out my Brushos that just sit on my shelf and never get used. I’m always amazed at the results with them just by sprinkling them and adding water.

I also took some printed vellum and attached ripped pieces over the background with collage medium. This is where I’ve also added a clock image that I cut from a magazine to recycle as well as the background Peanuts Gang characters (Snoopy & Sally). I then stamped a few musical notes and scribble stamps in the background using Archival ink. Lastly, it was also splattered with gold paint and set aside to dry. (Snoopy & Sally were covered for the splattering.)

The next portion was to create the piano going across the bottom for Lucy and Schroder to be on top. I took some black metallic cardstock that has been in my stash for years and free-handed the slope cut. The piano keys were simple with a white cardstock strip that I scored every 1/2″ and then I used a Word Window Punch (Also had for years from Stampin’ Up!) and punched out the black keys to add to the white scored piano keys over top. Attached this strip to the bottom of the page and then used foam tape to attach the black slope over top. At this point I had to punch the holes again at the top of the page for my AJ page book construction. This is where I glued and foam taped Schroder and Lucy over the black section of the piano between Snoopy and Sally.

The wording is something else that goes with the theme of my page. I had actually saw a video on You Tube with the Peanuts Gang singing the song by Chicago “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” and that’s where the musical theme came to my mind when cutting out the characters from my desk calendar. LOL Thought I’d share it if you’re interested in singing too:

For the wording on my AJ page, I just used my label maker and cut out the words to arrange on my page and then outlined each word with a black waterproof marker. I also took the same black metallic cardstock and cut out the letters to emphasize the word “TIME…” and glued it over the textured stencil.

But before I glued the black lettering over the brick texture, I took some metallic brass wax and rubbed over it to bring out the textured areas. I also used it around the edges of the page.

I thought the large black slope of the piano looked a little plain, so I made a flower using a scallop circle punch and cutting each scallop edge with my scissors to make “petals” from a musical sheet paper that I also sponged with black ink and splattered with gold paint. I also took more of the wax around the edges. Punched another circle with gold metallic cardstock for the center and topped the center with a black enamel dot.

I think it’s so fun to be able to incorporate just about anything into your art journaling and I’m glad to be able to pull out some of my neglected stash as well as find something to recycle rather than just throw away. It makes it so fun to be able to incorporate something different to suit your own ideas/thoughts/style too!

I hope you’re also enjoying the AJ pages too! Maybe you’ve been inspired to see something in your everyday life that you can turn into something creative…or maybe you can sing your own tune while you create!🎹

Thanks so much for stopping in today friends! So happy to share with you!

Tomorrow is inspiration from a new challenge for the month to try…see you then!

Challenges for today’s AJ page:

Art Journal Journey – “Play it Again Sam” (based on movie or song)
Try It On Tuesday – “I Can Hear the Music”
River of Creativity – Anything Goes (not cards) optional: Spring
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge – Anything Goes

April 30, 2022April 30, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles22 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!😀

Vicki-MFTsummerschool-day2rainbow

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.

Vicki-MFTsummerschool-day2rainbow-flat

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

I’m Going to be Tagging You!

Hello friends! This year I’ve been really inspired with all of the cool tags I’ve been seeing lately during this festive season and I wanted to join in on the fun too! So you’re going to be seeing lots of tags from me scattered within my postings for the next several days!

The inspiration that I’ve been seeing comes from Tracey’s 25 Tags of Christmas Event and this is her 9th year of doing it! Every day there has been some really cool and inspiring tags, so I had to join before the time runs out! I did make a tag earlier in THIS POST (Tag inspiration from Day 2) for the first one I’ve shared…but a few more are to follow starting now:

Vicki-BMTags-Day 1 and 4

I’ve been wanting to pull out a few of my stash that I and haven’t had a chance to take the time to play with! So I decided making tags would be a quick and fun way to play around a bit! These were really fun to make!

Vicki-BMTags-Day1 only

The “Joy Coffee” tag was something that I had actually started during the “Coffee Lovers Blog Hop” this last time and never got around to posting it! I was trying to combine the two events together as the inspiration for that tag came on Day 1 from Jen Schow’s tag for Altenew inspirational tags post. I like how she cut out the wording on her globe and I thought I’d do the same idea with the word “joy” over my coffee cup.

I’ve used the Cozy Coffee stamp set and colored in the coffee and fussy cut it out. I stamped the sentiment from the same stamp set, but only cut out the word “joy” from it and popped it up over the cup. I also took the hearts from the stamp set and stamped them over the kraft background with kraft colored ink.

I’ve taken the Holiday Essentials stamp set and heat set the snowflakes in the background of the tag with white EP. Also for the background, I took some metallic gold watercolor and splattered some over it as Jen did on her tag and I liked that subtle look to it.

I’ve taken some gold thread and made a nest under the cut out coffee cup that was popped up with some foam tape over the tag. (The tag itself was an old die cut from my stash BTW!) Added seam binding and twine at the top.

Vicki-BMTags-Day 4 only

For this tag, I was really inspired with Kim’s tag on Day 4 of the Uniko post. LOVED the monochromatic red with all the sparkle!

I really love the glitter paper and I didn’t have a large enough tag die that I wanted to use, so I took a tag from my stash and traced around the backside of the Red Glitter paper and cut out my shape. I had some rounded rectangle dies (Hero Arts) which I made a frame with the white glitter paper.

Within that frame I took the Holiday Essentials stamp set again and used several of the images to stamp over a piece of white cardstock with red ink. (It was fun to create a stamped background panel for this!) I heat embossed one of the sentiments from the stamp set over a red piece of cardstock with the White Sparkle EP…it sparkles really pretty IRL! I die cut the sentiment out with a banner die and tucked it behind the white frame I made with the stamped images.

I finished the tag with some sparkling clear sequins with some White Blizzard Nuvo Glitter Drops in the center of each one and then I added some white organdy ribbon with a bow at the top.

Hope you’ve been inspired in some way as I’ve been inspired to create these! Thanks for stopping in and I will have a new post to share again with you tomorrow for the new challenge up at Cute Card Thursday so stay tuned! 🙂

Challenges:

25 Days of Christmas Tags – Day 1 and Day 4
Always Fun – #138 Anything Goes
The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge – Anything Christmas Goes
Try it On Tuesday – Inspired by a Song or Chstimast Carol (I was inspired by “Joy to the World” on the first tag and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” on the second with music notes!)
Through the Craft Room Door – Anything Goes

November 27, 2019August 3, 2021

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles15 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

Joy to the World a Penguin is Born

Hello friends! I hope that you’ve had a great weekend and a great start to your week so far! I’m back to share another image from the November digital release at Whimsy Stamps.

Vicki-WSPenguinNativity-Nov6

This one is so sweet and makes me smile! This image is called Penguin Nativity by Crissy Armstrong. I really enjoyed coloring up this cute image for my card! I’ve used several Copic markers to fill the entire panel:

Penguins bodies: C8, C5, C3, C1, C0, Y00, R00, Y17, Y15, Y11 (wings: C3, C1), (Halo: Y17, Y11, Y00 and finished with gold gel pen), (Gown: E84, E81)
seal: W7, W5, W3, W1, W0, R00
tree: W7, W5, W1, W0
egg shell: E53, E51 (straw: YR24, YR21, Y15), (manger: E29, E27, E25, E23)
Star: Y17, Y15, Y13 (finished with shimmer brush pen and gold gel pen)
Ground: E21, E00, E000
Sky: BG000, BG10, BG13, Y11, Y00, 0 blender

After I was finished with the coloring, I ripped it out along the edges and then went over the edges with some distress ink and swiped it with a gold ink pad.

I’ve also taken some digital papers from the November release called Christmas Traditions (namely the musical sheet paper) and printed it out and the also ripped along the edges and attached that to another piece of ripped up brown cardstock that was also swiped with a gold ink pad. I attached these panels to an A2 sized top folding brown cardstock base and then took an additional strip of the muscial sheet paper to add to the base of the card and took a white ink pad and sponged around the edges of the card base.

I took some natural twine and wrapped it around the musical sheet and ripped cardstock pieces before attaching it to the card base. I took an additional strip of brown cardstock and white heat embossed the sentiment from the Whimy Stamps Holiday Mini Sentiments clear stamp set and made a tag with it by punching a hole at the top and threading the twine through it. I made a bow and attached it to the card front panel. I then used my fingers to bend the tag a bit for a more natural feel of the design.

Lastly, I took some foam tape and added my colored image panel to the front of the card. I took some tiny confetti stars and glued them to random places in the sky.

Here in the close-up details of the image, you can see where I’ve added some shimmer touches with a gold gel pen and then the places where the animals are ‘glowing’ as well as the side of the tree, I’ve added some shimmer with a clear glitter brush pen. (Still not sure I was able to fully capture this in my photo.) I think the ‘glowing’ feature turned out nicely.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and I’ll see you again soon! Thanks so much for stopping in!

Here are the Whimsy Stamps products used for my card today: