polarbear – Stamped Smiles

Come Aboard the Penguin Polar Express!

Hello friends! I hope that you are having a wonderful week so far! I have a cute wintry card to share with you today:

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Isn’t this the cutest little clan you’ve ever seen?! It looked to me that the polar bear was sliding around and having fun on the ice, so the penguins decided they wanted in on the fun too and are trying to hitch a ride! LOL!!

As you may recoginize the sweet penguins from artist Crissy Armstrong, this image has come out this month in digital format called Penguin Polar Express. I really adore her sweet images. Be sure to check out the entire November digital release HERE.

For my card, I have followed a sketch to make my card and thought it would be nice in blue colors and sparkle. So I printed out some papers from the Whimsy Stamps Winter’s Magic Blues digital papers and used them for my design. I’ve also cut out some white Glitterstock for some of the layers as well as some blue cardstock for a finished top folding 5.25″ square card. The scallop square panel was popped up with foam tape and the circle image panel was popped up with a die cut piece of craft foam.

I finished it off with some clear metallic ribbon and snowflake sequins that was dotted with some Nuvo White Blizzard Glitter Drops.

Here’s a closer view of the “gang” I’ve colored up with Copic markers. I was concerned about the colors of all of the diferent hats the penguins were wearing, but thought the colors really make the image stand out from the card. I dotted their cheeks with a white gel pen.

You can see where I’ve taken a glue pen and added some sparkle to the left penguin’s hat trimming. I also took the glue pen and went around the circle of the image and added some glitter there too. I colored the bottom of the image with Copics and covered it with a shimmer brush pen to make it look like ice. (You can see it better below.)

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I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and have been inspired in some way or at least been amused with this sweet image on my card! 🙂

I thank you so much for stopping by today! I look forward to seeing you soon!

Whimsy Stamps products with affiliate links used on my card today:

Challenges:

Cheerful Sketches – November sketch
Try it On Tuesday – Cold, Cold, Cold!
A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes #104
The Creative Crafters – Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – #372 Anything Goes
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes

November 19, 2019November 18, 2019

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles22 Comments

It’s SNOW Fun for Whimsy Stamps!

Hello friends! Welcome to the weekend and I hope you are having a great one so far!

Today I’m sharing this adorable image from the November Digital New Release for Whimsy Stamps! Be sure to check them all out in the store! They’re so cute!!!!

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How fun and cute are these guys?!! I’m using the Penguin Snow Fun image for my card today! Now you already know how I love these penguins, but how cute are they especially that one in the middle with the mouth open! LOL!

For my card I started with a watercolor panel and then white heat embossed the snowflakes over it from the Whimsy Stamps Snow Flurry stamp set. I then went over this panel with water and added some colors over it with Distress Oxide ink pads smooshed down on my glass mat and picked up with a brush and water. I’ve used Peacock Feathers, Stormy Sky, Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire and Salty Ocean for the colors. I tilted my panel to get the water to run down a bit and heat set it.

I cut a piece of glitter cardstock with the Kinetic Curved Hills die set as well as some snowflakes from the No-See All Seasons Tree die set. I placed the hill at the bottom of the watercolor panel and randomly attached the snowflakes to the background.

For the sentiment banner, I white heat embossed it from the same WS Snow Flurry stamp set and added a snowflake in the center of the ‘O’. I trimmed it into a banner with my scissors and added to the card.

I then took some foam tape and popped up the image over the hill and then added some gems to the center of each die cut snowflake.

Here’s a closer look at this adorable image that I’ve got all colored up with Copic markers. For the bear and everyone’s cheeks, I’ve used a white gel pen and for the band on the penguin’s ear muffs, I used a clear glitter gel pen.

For the penguin’s red hat trimmings, I used a glue pen and some loose clear glitter over top. I fussy cut out the image and popped it over top of the glittery snow hill.

OOPS…a bit of the snowflake staging clinged to the glittery snow hill a bit! LOL!

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Really had a great time coloring this sweet image and getting messy creating the background too! Hope you’ve enjoyed my creation today as well!

Thanks so much for checking in with me today my friends! I appreciate it very much and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Here’s the Whimsy Stamps products used on my creation today:

Challenges:

Happy Little Stampers Watercolor Challenge – Anything Goes (using watercolor) + optional: animals
Christmas Crafts All Year ‘Round – Stockings or other Winter Clothing
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes with optional: snow
Brown Sugar – November Anything Goes

November 2, 2019November 1, 2019

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles29 Comments

Merry and Bright for Whimsy Stamps

Hello friends! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I had another great weekend out with hubby, but this time we visited Starved Rock National Park. Really amazing nature hike we took and I’m wore out! I sure wish I was able to do more hiking than what we did, but what we did do was amazing. I will share some photos soon of our last two weekends out.

For today I have a sweet image from Whimsy Stamps to share with you and another Christmas card that I was able to add to my pile which is always nice to have!

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This little guy is so sweet trying to decorate his poor “Charlie Brown” Christmas tree here! LOL!! This is another adorable Crissy Armstrong image called Polar Bear’s Christmas Tree. He was previously released as a rubber stamp and now available in digital format this month too!

I’ve cut out the image the whole length of the card front panel and layerd it over a piece of black cardstock and then some red cardstock. I was placed over a piece of digital paper that I printed out from the Whimsy Stamps Rustic Wood and Brick Digital Paper Collection. I ran the edge of some scissors along the edges of it and then added some of the plaid ribbon along the left side. I then mounted this over a 5.25″ square top folding black card base.

I die cut some pine boughs from green cardstock and arranged and glued it down over the strip of plaid ribbon. I then added a plaid ribbon bow over top and then attached a black button with a twine bow in the center of that.

I’ve put alot of detail into this image which is why I wanted this to be the main focus of the card. I actually didn’t use too many different colors of Copic markers, but it took a while to get the “fur” looking the way I wanted. (See list below.)

I started the scene by ink blending around the top edges and a bit around the sides with Weathered Wood distress ink. After the ink blending, I took the sentiment from the Whimsy Stamps Holiday Mini Sentiments clear stamp set and white heat embossed it over the top right edge of the image panel.

For finishing details, I took some yellow chalk for around the star at the top of the tree for a glow look and then covered the star with some gold Stickles. I brushed the red ornament with a glitter brush pen and then the “hook” was colored with a gel pen.

I covered the entire bottom of the image panel with a glue pen and then sprinkled on some clear glitter for the snow. Lastly I’ve added some red “berries” to the garland that the polar bear is holding with some Red Nuvo Drops.

Here’s the list of Copic markers that I’ve used to color in the image with. You can view/purchase Copic Markers by CLICKING HERE at Whimsy Stamps or click on the numbered links below for a particular color that I’ve used:

Polar Bear – W9, W7, W5, W3, W1, W0, blender 0, R00 and white gel pen
Tree and Garland – E25, E23, YG67, YG63, YG61, R39, R37, R35
Snow Ground and Shadows – BG000

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I love the “woodsy” look to this image and I was trying to capture it in my design too. I hope that you’ve enjoyed my Christmas card today and were inspired or helped bring you a smile!

Thank you so much for stopping in with me today and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Here’s the Whimsy Stamps products used on my creation today with affiliate links:

Challenges:

Merry Little Christmas – Anything Christmas Goes
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
Christmas at Sweet Stampin’ – Anything Goes with optional: stars
Crafty Creations – Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Christmas
CRAFT – Christmas
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes

October 15, 2019October 14, 2019

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles26 Comments

We’re Recycling at Cute Card Thursday!

Hello friends! I’m back to share our new challenge for Cute Card Thursday this week! I have to say that I enjoyed this challenge and I can’t wait to see what you come up with for this one. We would like to see some “Recycling” on your projects this week! There are so many different ways you could go…do you have a box full of “trash treasures” waiting to be used? Now is the time to pull it out! 🙂

Here’s what I’ve come up with for the challenge:

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I haven’t made these for a couple of years, but I like to save those Crystal Light plastic containers and decorate them and use them as “gift holders” or like I have here for some “polar bear/snowman soup” containers!

I try and keep the decorating somewhat simple, but I enjoy adding ribbon, glitter, etc just for the fun of it! I’ve used an oldie but a goodie and my fave set from My Favorite Things called “Cool Day“. I’ve used both of the polar bear images and colored them in, fussy cut them out and attached to the containers. I’ve also white heat embossed the sentiments from the set and cut them out with a banner die for them to stand on. I found some matching ribbon that I’ve wrapped around the top of the container and then added the bow. Although I didn’t take a photo of the top of the lid, I’ve also cut out some matching pattern paper to decorate the top of the lid. I’ve used some liquid glue to add some faux snow at the bottom of the containers and then some glitter under the polar bears feet.

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This is actually the first time that I’ve done polar bears for these. I usually use a snowman with the snowman soup poem, but since these were polar bears, I sort of changed out the wording to make it work with my design. LOL. I’ve just printed it up on the computer and added a coordinating mat behind it and attached it to the back of the containers. It slightly sticks out on each side, but I could always trim it down more if I wanted it to fit, but I was fine with it.

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I just wanted to share a photo of the original packaging of these containers. I have my family save these up for me and I will create with them each year. I have about 10 of them saved up for now. As a crafter, we always keep our eyes peeled for something we can save and create with! 🙂

And here’s a closer look at the details of the polar bears. I used my Copics to color them. For the green one, I used the pointillism technique to create the look on the sweater. I also made the elbow pads and the circles on the mug. I covered the mug with some glossy accents. I added some glitter to the top of the hat on the red one.

Be sure to stop by the Cute Card Thursday blog to see the inspiration from the rest of the design team and enter your recycled creation to the gallery! Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Thanks for stopping in today! See you soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter:

Always Fun – Anything Goes
Christmas with the Cuties – Anything but a Card
Use Your Stuff – Mood board (inspired by the sweet treats, mugs and red/white colors!)
Double Trouble – Thing 1: My sweet treat is inside the containers! Thing 2: I used the mood board above from “Use Your Stuff” challenge! Thing 3: I used lots of “sprinkles” with faux snow and glitter!
Crafty Card Makers – Anything but a Card
Artistic Inspiration – Just for Fun Challenge – Anything Goes

November 29, 2018November 29, 2018

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles34 Comments

A Beary Sweet Christmas Tag for 2 Crafty Critter Crazies (2nd Post of 3 today)

Hello friends! I’m back with another new challenge for you today!

It’s the first of the month, so that means it’s time for a new monthly challenge over at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies! As always the challenge will last for 1 whole month and all you need to remember is to add a critter to your creation! We look forward to seeing your critter makes this month!

Our sponsor for the challenge this month is Sparkle N Sprinkle! They were kind enough to supply our team with some darling images to use for our creations! Here’s what I’ve decided to make for my design:

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I have used this darling digital stamp set called A Peppermint Christmas [DIGI3148M] from Sparkle N Sprinkle. They offer colored versions with this digital set, but I opted to use this cute polar bear and place the frame around him along with adding the sentiment above his head so I could color it. I used a Word doc. to design it before printing it out. Once printed out, I cut it down to size for my black tag and rounded the corners with a corner chomper.

I’ve been trying to develop my skills a bit with colored pencils and invested in a large set of them recently. So this is what I have used to color in the images of my tag. After coloring it all in, I thought…. I couldn’t use a Sparkle N Sprinkle image with no sparkle!! So I took out my Quicky Glue Pen [quicky] and then sprinkled some SnS Waterscape Glitter (Semi-Transparent) [G1108] over the snowflakes and dark gold star bursts. For the stars, I’ve sprinkled the SnS Lemonade Ultrafine Glitter (Semi-Transparent) [G1091] over it for a bit more brighter sparkle! I’ve also covered the peppermint candies with the Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Glitter Gloss Pen [888N] for some shimmer. AND…if that wasn’t enough, I took the Quickly Glue Pen again and went along the edges of the white image panel and added the Waterscape Glitter to the edges.

For the assembly of my tag, I’ve used a pre-made tag from Graphic 45 and sponged around the edges of it with white ink. I took some green colored glitter paper from my stash and added a strip of it across the center of the black tag. I then added some pink silk ribbon strips on each side of the glitter paper. I then used some craft foam to pop up the image panel and placed it on the tag.

I finished it off with a pink silk ribbon bow and added some more of it to the tag hole for a hanging element and tied that together with a piece of white twine. Decided for a finishing touch to add a sparkly snowflake gem in the center of the bow.

I hope that you have enjoyed my critter project and be sure to check out the rest of the inspiration from the design team over at the 2 Crafty Critter Crazies Challenge Blog and come and join in the fun with us!

I have some REALLY exciting news coming up shortly after this post!!! TEE HEE!!

Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Challenges: