End of the Year-Dec AJ Page-SNOW+Book

It is here!  The end of 2022 has arrived weather you are ready for it or not!  I know as I’ve gotten older the time seems to pass more and more quickly.  Each year I usually go through all of the things that I didn’t have time to do.  This year I’m going to look at all of things that I DID do instead!  I look forward to a wonderful year ahead and I hope you are as well!

  • For this entire year, I’ve had such a wonderful time creating my AJ pages at the end of each month with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)!  Thanks SO MUCH to her for the wonderful inspiration and joining in the venture with me!  I know she’ll have something wonderful, so please check out her blog for an AJ page too!🥰  We’ve gotten creative by using up our never-ending stash piles! (I look forward to doing this for another year each month in 2023 and I’ll hope you’ll be here too!)  Here’s my final Art Journal inspiration for 2022 with the “SMASH OUR STASH” December prompt of “Oldest Stash” :

It’s a bit challenging for me to FIND my “oldest stash” as I’ve been a bit of a collector over the years.  So I’ve pulled out a very old, but favorite stamp set of mine from Stampin’ Up! called “Lovely as a Tree” from 2001.  The container broke when I opened it up to take a stamp out! LOL  I’ve also pulled out my Pearl Ex powders and some gilding flakes from my older media stash.  It’s a good thing that powders don’t go bad otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to use them!🙄

For the Background – I’ve used some mix of paints and splattered some white paint over it for the snow.  The trees at the bottom were stamped over vellum and then I cut it out and attached that to the bottom of the page so that they were a nice vibrant black as I didn’t think they would stamp over the paint very well.  I did take a snowflake stamp (not too old) and stamped a few randomly over the background in teal ink. (water-proof)

For the Pearl Ex Powders – I mixed some Misty Lavender Pearl Ex with embossing paste and used a snowflake stencil to randomly add this to the background.

For the Gilding Flakes – I die cut some snowflakes with double sided adhesive sheets will make the front sticky.  This made it so I could rub in the gilding flakes over them.  They did turn out very pretty!

The “SNOW” letters were die cut and I found a neat winter clipping from my sentiment stash to add below it after I sponged some teal ink around it.  I also die cut another tiny snowflake in the center of the ‘O’ with glitter cardstock and attached a tiny teal rhinestone in the center of it.  I rubbed some silver wax around the letters and around the edges of the page.  Lastly, I’ve added some star sequins and filled the centers of those and the gilded snowflakes with some silver Stickles.  I covered the bottom of the page under the trees with glue and covered it with sparkly glitter.

So I thought that since I’ve done an AJ page every month this year that not only did I need to close up the year, but I also needed to close the book to all the AJ pages I made from 2022 by finally finishing up a book to put them all in!

I made the covers with some chipboard along with some “old” chipboard pieces from my stash and did some painting with a bit of mixed media gold wax and stenciling.  I wanted to be sure to add the year to the front and a little quote from my sticker book that says:  “happy in her heart where only the imagination can go”

I fit all of the AJ pages completed this year along with a few extras that were created from before with unknown dates, added the front and back covers and used my Zutter Bind-it-All machine to add the spiral wire for a book.  (This was the reason all of my pages had the pre-punched holes in them when I posted each month.)

That finishes up the 2022 year on my blog.  I hope you’ve enjoyed my posts weather it’s for inspiration or just a smile.  Either way, I’m so thankful that you have joined me this past year and your friendships.  I look forward to a productive and crafty year ahead in 2023!

  • Have a safe, happy and healthy New Year!🎊

Challenges:

  1. Art Journal Journey – Snowy Winter
  2. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  3. Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles19 Comments

Christmas Cards, Projects and Cookies…ready for Santa!🎅

Hello friends!  We’re here!  We made it to Christmas Eve!😀  My cards have been sent out, my cookies are done and delivered as well as my other little gifts.  This is quite a long post, so grab your hot cocoa or whatever your favorite beverage is and a Christmas cookie or treat and let’s see what I’ve been doing this past week:

So starting with my Christmas cards, I usually make around 40ish cards each year give-or-take and I only like to make a handful of them at a time for not only boredom of the same design, but for product depletion as well.

So back in July, I purchased this really adorable card kit from Taylored Expressions (included was the Frosty Background Cling and Clear Combo set + more.) that came with coordinated colored envelopes as well as the seals.  So I made a set of four different colored designs in two of each one.  The snowmen were popped up with foam squares over the backgrounds and I added some fun Snowflake bits that were included with the kit as well.

Next up is another set of cards I made using some more gorgeous products from Taylored Expressions.  I’ve used the Seasonal Sprig stamp and die combo along with the stencil to color them in with.  Some of these I ink blended the backgrounds, so I just used cardstock with a watermark effect and a white heat embossed sentiment.  I used the die to cut an extra frame behind the stamped one for added stability.  I made 4 of each design shown here for a total of 16.

I then made another set of four using the same products, but for these I gold heat embossed the image and sentiment and then used some watercolor for coloring it in with.  I also got some of these coordinating envelope seals to use on about 10 of the 16 cards.  (No longer available in store.)  I’ve also partially ink blended the background behind the frame on these as well.

Here are some cards that I’ve actually made a total of 8 similar designs using the large wording background dies from My Favorite Things.  I’ve used the “Sending Christmas Joy” and “I Really Miss You” dies for all eight of these, but only after I stamped the backgrounds.  I used the MFT Knitted Sweater BG stamp and the Alley Cat BG stamp for a couple of backgrounds before I die cut them.  Then I used the die cut letters to place into the other backgrounds on the cards to get that look.  So it was like creating 2 cards with one cut and filling it all in.  (For the Alley Cat background stamp, I ink blended the background and stamped it as a watermark effect over it and then took the “left over” ink from that to stamp it again to create an additional BG.) I then cut out each of the panels with the MFT Wonky Stitched Rectangle die and placed over a white A2 sized side folding card base.  The penguin image is from the MFT Holiday Penguins set and the bird on the other one is from the MFT “Tweet Holidays” (Not found in store.)

And then of course you don’t want to waste any backgrounds you’ve made, so you make more cards!  I’ve used a couple more images to personalize the design for people too.  I combined the sets Newton’s Nook Whispering Pines and the Lawn Fawn Winter Skies.  I think I took a set from them to create a sentiment to fit my cards as well. (not sure from which set.)

For the other card, I took this cute image from the Whimsy Stamps Gnome for Christmas stamp set, colored him up with my copics and cut him out with the coordinating die to pop him up over my card.

And then for these set of 4 cards, I’ve just die cut a snowflake from some glitter paper and glued in the center of the “O” on each design and popped up a sentiment over that with foam tape stamped and die cut from the Taylored Expressions Mini Strips – Holiday and Mini Strips die.

And as you remember in a previous post those “recycled Crystal Light containers” that I make, I made another set of three of them here.  This time, I’ve used this snowman stamp.  I just used my scissors to fussy cut those cute snowmen out as they were pretty simple to do and then I popped them up over an ink blended tag using the stencil over them.  I used coordinating cardstock and silver heat embossed the sentiment strip at the bottom and of course added my “snowman soup” poem on the back of the containers.  I’ve also added a layer of silver mirror cardstock behind the tags.

And I made a couple of these darling ornaments from a fairly “new to me” company that I was actually introduced to with product during my time as a {Cupcake Inspirations} sweetie DT when they sponsored a challenge a while back.  P.S.  There are a few more days left to enter their current challenge of “SNOWFLAKES” if you want to pop on over to join us too!!

But I was so taken with this darling image and kit from Inky Stampers from this Snow Much Fun Kit.  You get the snowflake ornament (with string), the stamp set and die, papers, wobbler, along with glitter to complete it too!  Well I wanted to make more than one, so I grabbed another set of Snowflake Ornaments from the store and just added my own papers and glitter from my stash to make it.  

And of course, last, but certainly not least, here’s all of the Christmas treats that I’ve made to give out to family and of course for hubby to eat up as we went along too!😋  I have made from top left on down:  Homemade caramel corn, white chocolate covered pretzels, peanut butter fudge, molasses cookies, chocolate covered caramel pecan clusters, scottish peanut butter cereal cookies, chocolate fudge, snickerdoodles and chocolate crinkles.  Of course each family member has a favorite they like me to make and there are a couple of old recipes passed down from grandparents/parents that I like to add in as well.  They’re all delicious and I enjoyed making them.

Whew!  I’m ready for that “Looong winter’s nap” now!!🥱  I hope you’ve enjoyed my post today and it has brought you some inspiration and/or a smile somehow!  I have received some beautiful Christmas cards and I so appreciate them and have them all displayed by being pinned around my garland in our pass-through in the living room/dining area.  I think after a bit of rest, I need to finish up my projects for the “Bugaboo Christmas Chaos” that I haulted in the middle for to finish up Christmas projects….so I’ll be back soon with that.

In the meantime, I wish a MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!🎅

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles22 Comments

Bringing You Joy With Digi Doodle Studios

Hello friends!  I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!  It’s getting closer to the big day now!  Only 11 more days until Christmas!  If you’re like me, then you wait until the last possible minute to mail out all of your Christmas cards!   So guess what MY plans are this weekend?! LOL!  Have you got all of your Christmas done and ready to go?  I keep telling myself that NEXT year I will be prepared! LOL!

To help inspire those that are still looking for a fun and simple Christmas card, I have a cute one to share with you today using a Pairables set from Digi Doodle Studios:

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You probably remember not too long ago the fun tags I made on THIS POST.  I’ve used that same Pairables Wintertime Penguins digital set that I’m using on my card today!  I love that you can get a whole set of digital stamps that coordinate together so that you can use them to create fun scenes or have them doing different things!  Do you recognize the sled that this penguin is pulling full of gifts?  I took that same sled image and used it as “ice skates” for the penguins feet on my tags in the previous post!  That’s how fun and versatile this set can be!

This time my card is really simple.  I just arranged the images how I wanted them on my computer and printed it out.  I printed it again over some masking paper so that I could mask off the images to create my background.

To create the background, I ripped a piece of the masking paper to go along the bottom of the die cut panel after I masked off the images.  I used ink blending for the background and then spritzed with water and dried it with a towel.  I then took watered down white paint and splattered it for the snow effect.

Once it was dry, I removed the masks and colored up the images, made the sentiment (also from this same digital set) banner and mounted both pieces with some red cardstock which was mounted over an A2 sized white card base.  I added some glitter to the snow ground at the bottom and on the penguin’s hat.  Topped it off with some twine and a snowflake rhinestone.

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Here’s a closer look at the coloring details of the penguin and his sleigh full of gifts.  I used a white gel pen for dots on the one present and his cheeks.  I also took some pencils for a few highlights.

I kept this card flat except for the sentiment banner so that I can mail it better.  You could even leave it more flat than that if you prefer.

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If you know me, then you know how much I love penguins.  I have a special collection of stamps and will probably always keep them around.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and perhaps this little cutie has brought you some joy too!

Please be sure to stop on over at the Digi Doodle Studios store and check out all of the really adorable images!  There’s a brand new WINTER COLLECTION in the store for you to check out and I will be using a few of those later on…so stay tuned in!  Please be sure to join us over at the Digi Doodle Studios Facebook Group for inspiration and challenges!  Don’t forget that there is still time to join the Christmas Collaboration ‘Crafty Friends’ Blog Hop!  Check out my post below or CLICK HERE to start from the beginning!

Thanks so much for stopping in today friends!  See you soon!

Challenges:

  1.  Arty Divas – Anything Goes
  2. Tales From the Craft Room – It’s Christmas!
  3. Penny’s Paper Crafty– Anything Goes
  4. Cardz for Galz – Cute Christmas
  5. CRAFT – Christmas Present
  6. Let’s Craft and Create – Anything Goes with optional:  “Let it Snow!”
  7. Crafting With an Attitude – Anything Goes (scroll to second linky)
  8. Winter Wonderland– Anything Christmas Goes

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles24 Comments

DDS and PND Collaboration Blog Hop is Here!

Hello friends!  Today is the “special day” of our really fun and festive Collaboration Blog Hop!  Hope you will be joining along with us for lots of inspiration and prizes!  Woohoo!

This blog hop starts TODAY and ends December 18th!  Winners announced Dec 20th!

**If you came from Maria’s Blog Post, you’re in the right place!  If you are starting from here or somewhere else, please go to the MAIN BLOG page to begin!**

If you need some ‘Happy Holiday’ inspiration, then this blog hop is for you!  Let us help you with some wonderful Christmas themed inspiration from two amazing companies! The digital stamps at Paper Nest Dolls and Digi Doodle Studios are PERFECT for those last minute projects and gifts because there’s NO shipping involved! – order, download, print and create!

Digi Doodle Studios and Paper Nest Dolls have teamed up for the FIRST time to present to you a fabulous Holiday Hop!  Please be sure to stop by each blog and subscribe!

Collaborations are a great way to see incredible projects from two different design teams and get your creativity mojo going. Hop along for new ideas on how to combine our two companies’ darling stamps. There are GIVEAWAYS, SALES, and a CHALLENGE too!

BLOG HOP & GIVEAWAYS:

Hop to each blog and see how our Design Teams combined Digi Doodle Studios and Paper Nest Dolls digital stamps on their cards. Be sure to make a UNIQUE comment on each stop along the hop for your chance to win one of the following prizes:

  • Grand Prize Winner will recieve: $50 Prize Pack that includes $25 worth of Stamps, Paper Pads and Goodies from Paper Nest Dolls & a $25 Gift Certificate to Digi Doodle Studios
  • TWO Blog Hop Winners will receive: 2 Digi Doodle Studios digital Stamps & 2 Paper Nest Dolls digital Stamps of choice

Commenting will be open from December 10th- December 18th. Winners announced on December 20th.

HUGE SALES:

  • Digi Doodle Studios is offering 25% off the ENTIRE Store!  (December 10th-18th Use Code: DDSHLDYHOP19)

CHALLENGE:

We want to see how you COMBINE the Digi Doodle Studios and Paper Nest Dolls images too!  So please be sure to join and share your projects with us here:

Enter your card into the “DDS PND Crafty Friends” Albums in each group page. You can enter your cards in both albums so you will have two chances to win! Each Company Facebook Group will have a WINNER!  So twice the chance to win!

Challenge Winner Prizes: 1 DDS and 1 PND Digital Stamp of your choice.

Entries will be accepted through December 18th and winner will be announced on December 20th.

MY HOLIDAY HOP PROJECT:

I am on the Digi Doodle Studios Design team and here is my interpretation of combining each companies’ images together to come up with this fun snow scene for the Holidays:

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For my card here I have taken the Digi Doodle Studios Penguin Wobbles Special Delivery digital stamp along with the Paper Nest Dolls Holiday Friends digital stamp and printed them out over a piece of Copic Blending Card.  I’ve colored them up and fussy cut them out for my scene here.

To create the scene, I’ve used some blue cardstock for the background and splattered some watered down gesso over it and then used a die cut to create the fun frame within it.  I layered it over a piece of gold cardstock so it shows through.  I also die cut some snowy hills with white glitter cardstock and some pine trees with green cardstock.

I arranged them over my blue cardstock panel  and created the scene.  I popped up the front layer of snow hill along with the penguin image with foam tape.  I covered this snow hill layer with some texture snow paste…it’s so glittery!!  I also added some more glittery details here and there on the images too.

I white heat embossed the sentiment and placed a peppermint candy embellishment next to it and attached the strip over the blue background.  I then mounted this entire scene layer over some fun and festive foiled striped papers and then onto another blue piece which was then mounted over a top folding white 5.5″ square card base.

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Here’s a bit of a closer look at the images and how I’ve colored them up with Copic markers.  You can see that I’ve used my white gel pen for details on the bow in the present along with the shinny look on the candy cane and the cheeks of all the images.  I’ve added a few dots on the deer’s back tail too.

I’ve used a gold gel pen to color in the sleigh runner, the band around the gift sack, the “lettering and dots” on the penguin’s sign as well as the bells the little girl is holding.  I used a red gel pen to color in the little deer’s nose.  I’ve used a green gel pen to create “dots” on the penguin’s present and the deer’s bow.

I’ve also added some glitter to the heart candies and the girl’s outfit trim.

You can also see just how puffy and dimensional that snow is too!  I got it from Brutus Monroe.  It’s really glittery and was so fun to add to the scene!  It looks like they’re gearing up to deliver some presents and the cute little Mr. Penguin Wobbles is all loaded and ready to go! LOL!

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I really hope that you’ve enjoyed my card today and have been inspired with it in some way to get you into the festive Holiday spirit!  I hope to be seeing your projects in one of the groups on Facebook too!

*I also hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog hop with us as well because this is the very last stop on the blog hop for you to complete!  If you have just came to my blog or somewhere in the middle, please be sure to go back to the MAIN BLOG POST PAGE to ensure that you didn’t miss any blog stops along the way!  You don’t want to miss out on a prize!

Thanks so much for stopping in today my friends!  I look forward to seeing you soon!  (I will be back soon to share another Digi Doodle Studios post with you!!)

Challenges:

  1.  Stamping Sensations– Dec Anything Goes
  2. Love to Craft – LTCCB41 – Dec Anything Goes
  3. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
  4. Shopping Our Stash– Happy Holidays!
  5. Crafting By Designs – Dec Anything goes
  6. The Paper Funday – Dec Anything Goes with optional twist:  Christmas Holiday
  7. Winter Wonderland – Anything Christmas Goes

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles34 Comments

I’ve Been Published!

Hey friends!  This is just a quick post to share my excitement with you about having a card I made for Whimsy Stamps published in the December 2019 “Handpicked” article on p. 38 of the Making Cards & Papercraft Magazine!  If you hurry, I think there are just a couple of short days to grab your December issue and get the “Pablo the Penguin” stamp set for FREE with it!  They also give you some fun papers to go with it too!

Vicki-published in Making Cards magazine

I would’ve shared this a bit sooner, but I wanted to take a photo of the issue in hand with me here.   The stamp set that I’ve used for my card is from the brand new December release at Whimsy Stamps called “Winter Wonderland“.  It’s a clear stamp set with lots of really sweet snowman images in it!  It’s one of my faves from the new release too!

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Here’s a photo of it that I took myself before sending it along to the magazine back in October.  🙂

I won’t go into great detail about it, but I’ve also paired this with the Whimsy Stamps Winter’s Magic Blue Digital Papers Collection as well as the Whimsy Stamps No-See All Seasons Tree die set (snowflakes only die) for my card design.

If you get the magazine, then you can see below in the article how it was put together.

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Here’s a closer view of the image and you can see the bits of glitter over it.

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This was just a really fun card to make and quite simple to put together too!  I really enjoyed it and how fun to get published with it as well!  It’s an honor of course and now that I have that adorable penguin set (from the magazine)….I can’t wait to play with it and have some fun!!  So stayed tuned for projects I will be making with those cute little guys!! 🙂

Thanks so much for stopping in and letting me share my excitement with you!

*Be sure to stop back in tomorrow for a special blog hop!

P.S.  I have a spot along the sidebar of my blog where there will be a link to the magazine website in case you’re interested as well as a link to the Whimsy Stamp set I used for my card and a link to this post as well.

Here’s the Whimsy Stamps products used on my published card above with affiliate links if you’re interested in them:

*NEW Winter Wonderland Snowmen Clear Stamps

 

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*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles18 Comments

Cute Card Thursday – Anything Goes with Reindeer Farts

LOL!  Hey friends!  Did I grab your attention with my title today?!

Today starts a brand new challenge over at Cute Card Thursday and it’s an easy ‘ANYTHING GOES!’  Since it’s the first Thursday of the month, we are being sponsored by Whimsy Stamps!  Yay!  So please be sure to remember to add whatever creation you’re working on over in our gallery this week!

*News update:  This will be my last challenge as a design team member for Cute Card Thursday.  I have really loved being apart of the team and the wonderful ladies over there for over a year and a half. I wish them all well.  I’m sure I’ll be playing along in future challenges of course!*

Here’s the card I made with products from our sponsor:

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BWHAA!! HA! HA!  Yep, I’m most positive it’s probably been that cold out over my way!  LOL!  It’s supposed to get down to the teens next week! Brr!

This hilarious digital image is called Reindeer Farts by Dustin Pike from Whimsy Stamps.  It comes with the sentiment which I wouldn’t want it without that!  LOL!  This image was released back in October, but with all of the Halloween going on, it sort of didn’t get a good “spotlight” on it, so I thought now would be a good time to pull it out and perhaps send it out to my brother for Christmas…which he’ll get a kick out of!  🙂

I started out with a white cardstock panel cut with a stitched rectangle die with the printed out sentiment at the top of it.  I pulled out the Whimsy Stamps Snow Flurry clear stamp set and white heat embossed some snowflakes in the background.  I ink blended some  Distress Oxide Inks over top of them in the colors:  Salty Ocean, Wilted Violet, Mermaid Lagoon and Blueprint Sketch.  I sprizted some water over it, dapped it with a paper towel and once completely dry, I stamped out some more snowflakes in a few of the Distress Oxide Inks over that to give it a little depth.  The ink marks left over the white snowflakes were easily wiped away because the heat embossing resists the inks.  I covered this entire panel with a Shimmer Spray.  (You can see it in the photo below!)

I layered this piece onto a purple cardstock base and then layered it over a blue piece of cardstock cut from a stitched A2 sized rectangle die which was then mounted over a top folding A2 sized white card base.

I’ve used some White Glitterstock and cut a “snow hill” for the deer with a stitched hillside border die and glued that to cover the entire bottom of the card.  I also took another strip of that Glitterstock and used my MS goo border punch to create the small border above the sentiment, which generates a more “cold feeling” to the card.

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I’ve printed out the deer image with Copic Blending Card, colored it up with Copics and then fussy cut it out…including the “fart cloud” and popped it up over the snowy hill with some foam tape.

Before attaching it to the glittery snow hill, I took a couple of Copic markers to create a bit of shading for the deer standing on the snow.  I also took a white gel pen and added some dot markings on the back of the deer.

You can also see where I’ve added some glossy accents to his eyeballs and I even took some Star dust glitter and added it to the snowflake in the “fart cloud”.  🙂

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Well I hope you got a giggle from my card today! LOL!  This will be a fun one to send along!  Please be sure to stop by the Cute Card Thursday challenge blog and check out the inspiration from the rest of the design team and join in the fun with us this week!

Thanks so much for stopping in today and I’ll see you soon!

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

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glossy accents

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Challenges:

  1.  Creatalicious – #176 Anything Goes with optional Winter
  2. Sparkles Christmas– Winter Wonderland
  3. A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes
  4. Crafts Galore Encore – Anything Goes
  5. Cute As a Button – Anything Goes with optional twist:  Let it Snow!
  6. Cardz 4 Guyz – Christmas Critters
  7. Creative Inspirations – Festive Fun

 

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles26 Comments

Believe Tag

Hello friends!  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and maybe even took advantage of some great Black Friday deals today?!  I was happy about shopping a little bit this morning and almost forgot to post about my tag here! LOL!

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The scene on this tag was always a fun vision in my head from a child!  I would imagine Santa in his sleigh flying over the moon under a snowy night sky.  I love the peace and magic of it all with even little critters stopping to watch and listen to the magical sleigh bells ringing in the night.

I constructed my own tag the size I wanted and snipped off the top edges to make it look like a tag.  It was made with Navy cardsock.  I punched a hole at the top and made a reinforcer with white Glitterstock.  I then took some white watered down paint and splattered it over the background for a snow fall effect.

I bought this set a few years back from Newton’s Nook called Whispering Pines and I’ve used the coordinating dies to create the scene at the bottom.  I took some white Glitterstock for the snow the critters are sitting on.

For the “moon” I punched out a circle from vanilla cardstock and sponged around the edges of it.  I took a glitter brush pen to go over it.  The Santa’s sleigh was given to me from a fellow blog friend that I’ve attached over the tag.  I die cut the sentment from red cardstock.

Lastly, I’ve added some red striped ribbon from my stash and tied on a couple of silver bells with white twine around it.  Those bells make a fun jingle sound like I imagine from my scene! 🙂

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Here’s a tad bit closer view of the tag.  Here you can some what see the shimmer on the moon and the sparkle on the snow ground where the critters are.

Have a great evening my friends!  I’ll see you soon!

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This is of course another tag for the “25 Days of Christmas Tags” going on.  This one was inspired by Kim’s tag on Newton’s Nook Day 3 post.

Challenges:

  1.  Crafty Creations – Anything Goes
  2. Little Red Wagon – Snow
  3. The Sisterhood of Crafters – Trees
  4. My Time to Craft– Christmas Scene

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles21 Comments

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.

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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:

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Winter's Magic Blue Papers - Digital Papers

Challenges:

  1.  Cheerful Sketches – November sketchsketch bh
  2. Try it On Tuesday – Cold, Cold, Cold!
  3. A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes #104
  4. The Creative Crafters – Anything Goes
  5. QKR Stampede – #372 Anything Goes
  6. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles22 Comments

Snow One Like You for Whimsy Stamps

Hello friends!  I hope you’re having a wonderful week so far!

Today I have creation to share with you using this really sweet image from Whimsy Stamps:

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I really adore this digital stamp that came out this month for Whimsy Stamps called Tawny.  It’s one that I picked to make something with as it was a bit personal to me.  That little owl with those big eyes is so sweet and really reminds me of my grandma who passed several years ago.  She was an owl lover….so she’s like a sweet little angel with me here!  There was SNOW one like her either!  🙂  – CLICK HERE to see the full digital release for November.

To create my card, I started with some watercolor paper and Distress Oxide Inks in Seedless Preserves, Dusty Concord, Stormy Sky and Broken China (from bottom to top order.)  I spritzed it with a water bottle and soaked it up with a paper towel.  I then took some white paint watered down and splatter it with a fan brush over the panel.  I also took some shimmer spray and covered the entire panel.  You can see it better in the photo below.

I took a Lawn Fawn die to create the tree border with woodgrain paper and then die cut a snow border with glitter cardstock and glued it behind the frame.  I also took the sentiment from the Whimsy Stamps Snow Flurry clear stamp set and white heat embossed it over a strip of vellum that I’ve attached over top of these layers (with the inked backgroundalso) by using my Xyron Sticker machine.  These pieces were die cut with a stitched rectangle die, layered over a pice of white cardstock and then mounted onto a purple A2 sized top folding card base.

Lastly, I’ve added my image and some snowflakes that were cut out with some more glitter cardstock and each snowflake was dotted with some Nuvo White Blizzard Glitter drops.

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Here’s a closer view of the image and how I’ve got her colored up with Copic markers.

If you take a good look at the top portion of the background, you can sort of see the shimmer from the spray.  It’s really sparkly in the light.

I accidentally got a piece of the “faux snow” photo prop on her skirt. LOL!  I covered the flower on her hat with a glitter brush pen and I’ve used some Nuvo Morning Dew Crystal Drops over the owl’s eyes, but it cracked.  I don’t like it as much as the glossy accents as it doesn’t crack so easily like this does.

She was fussy cut out and popped up over the snow border with foam dots.

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I really like how this one turned out with the colors and I hope you like it too!  The inked snowy backgrounds are really fun to play with!

Thanks so much for dropping into today and I’ll see you again soon!

Here are the Whimsy Stamps products used on my creation today (Click on the photo for affiliate link to purchase/view):

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Challenges:

  1.  Shopping Our Stash – Snowflakes
  2. Crafting By Designs – November Anything Goes
  3. Cardz 4 Galz – Let it Snow
  4. Moving Along With the Times – Snowflakes
  5. Creative Moments – Anything Goes with Optional:  “Baby it’s Cold Outside”
  6. Krafty Chicks – Winter
  7. QKR Stampede – #371 Anything Goes

 

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles22 Comments