Warm Wishes & Christmas too!

Hello friends!  Gosh, it’s been a few minutes since my last posting, but I’ve not been with a computer for a while and I haven’t been able to post or see what’s been going on in blog world.  I’m still without sound, but hopefully I’ll be fixed with that soon as well.  After you get used to a computer, it’s time consuming trying to set everything back up on a new one and make sure you have all of your stored photos/files too!  I’m getting there though!

Everything was a bit busy at the end of last year and I was not able to get around to participating in some classes that I’ve been wanting to do.  Unfortunately with no sound, I couldn’t hear the videos, but I managed to easily figure things out anyway along with an instruction print out.  So I was happy to get these Christmas/Winter cards finished:

I absolutely fell in love with the Lawn Fawn Ugly and Bright stamp set and I wanted to play with it and participate in their “Create with Us” class using it.  I colored the stamped pieces similar to the class, but I didn’t have the same snowflake stencil for the background, so I pulled out my Taylored Expressions Let it Snow stencil (retired) to use for it.

The critters as well as the letters were popped up with foam tape and I’ve added some loose glitter to the speech bubbles, and hats.  I used some LF chunky glitter to the bottom section of the letters.  The letters were die cut from the LF Henry’s ABCs and colored with Copic markers. 

And this one was also from the class using the same products as above, except the large sentiment came from the LF Giant Merry Christmas die and this time it was ink blended and sprayed with a shimmer spray.  This was also popped up with foam tape along with the speech bubble and Santa hat.  I was happy about the colors on this one and thought it was fun to put together and color.

For this last card, it was not apart of the class above, but I still wanted to play a bit more with the set and I had an extra deer critter cut out and colored and ready to be clothed!  For this one I decided to keep it as just a wintry theme so it could be used for Christmas OR non-Holiday-ish.  I pulled out the Lawn Fawn Snow Flurries Backdrop die to cut out a frame over top of a piece of the LF Knit Picky Winter Paper Pack that was ink blended along the edges and attached to an A2 top folding card base.

Thought that the deer looked a bit plain with no “grounding”, so I die cut a piece from some silver cardstock for him to stand on. (retired MFT die set) Added some glitter to his hat and sweater and popped him up with foam tape.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted to add some sequins, dots or other snowflakes to it, so I left for now.

  • Really sorry if you’re over with anything Christmas, but I am just happy to have finished the class and hopefully it won’t take me as long to get to the next one…which has already been out and I haven’t gotten to yet!🤨

Thanks so much for stopping in today and hope that you’ve been inspired in some way!  I will be doing my monthly AJ page Saturday, so I hope you’ll come back to see this month’s inspiration.

Challenges:

  1. NBUS – #46 New LF! Yay!
  2. Merry Little Christmas – Anything Goes Christmas
  3. Christmas Kickstart – Masks and Stencils
  4. Once Upon a Time – Snowy Day (third card)
  5. 613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes optional winter theme
  6. The Corrosive – Anything Goes
  7. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles21 Comments

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 Fun with Kits and Classes

Hello friends!  We’re headed into the home stretch now for Christmas and the end of the year!  Are you ready yet?  Well I thought that I would try and get some Christmas cards made up and have some fun with it rather than trying to rush things too much.  

Tee hee!  This one makes me giggle!  While I was making up some squares for my sampler swap group, I thought I’d use this same MFT Stuffed Santa kit (that I had gotten last year) and made a card along with making the squares too!  The squares I made turned out cute too and I’ll share those later on.  I added some glitter to the snow on the image and on his gold belt buckle too.  The background was white heat embossed with the MFT Christmas Greetings Background and then ink blended with blue inks.  Finished off with snowflake sequins and Stickles glitter in the centers of each.

And here’s another set of cards that I made from a previously purchased kit by Riley & Co using the cute Riley as the Grinch stamp.  The stamp was included along with the kit and so I just thought it would be nice and easy by just coloring him up, adding my own sentiment and putting it together.  So now I want to watch the movie!😄

And lastly are some cards that I put together during an OOAK event with the classes that I selected to get the kits for and just enjoyed the process of putting them together.  **If you are on my website, you can click on the photos below to see them up close and larger**

Craft Fancy class – part 1 (spinner)
Craft Fancy Class – part 2 (shaker card)
Riley & Co – candy lane image (z-fold)
Riley & Co – Merry deer (z-fold)
Riley & Co – funny bones
Inky Stamper – gift card holder inside & mini card

So although I’ve shared several projects here today, I have more craft-making going on so I’m going to shorten up my post and hope that you enjoy the inspiration!  I appreciate you stopping by today!  See you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Christmas Crafts All Year ‘Round – Waiting on Santa (top card! LOL)
  2. Christmas Kickstart – Christmassy
  3. Crafty Friends – Traditional Christmas Colors (2nd card)
  4. Jingle Belles – Wrapping Up Christmas 2022
  5. Winter Wonderland – Anything Goes Christmas
  6. Sweet Stampin’ – Christmas Creations
  7. Moving Along With the Times – Christmas

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles20 Comments

Hey! Let’s Squash It! I’m Guest Designing!

Hello friends!  I hope you’re having a great week!  I’m stopping in today as a guest design spot winner to share a fun new challenge today over at the Let’s Squash It! Challenge Blog!

I’ve just recently discovered this challenge blog a few months ago and thought it was fantastic because I have so many embossing folders and I know I only use them a fraction of the time creating cards.  I thought that this would give me some inspiration to use them and learn fun new techniques with them to stretch out the use as well!  I had won on a previous challenge so was asked to be a guest designer for them in this month’s challenge!  How exciting!

So for the challenge this month, they ask that you “use some stenciling over your cards and then use an embossing folder over it“.  So this had me thinking and I don’t really recall doing this before!  So of course you start pulling out tons of stencils and then grabbing the embossing folders to see what looks you might achieve with the idea and here’s what I thought of…

I love how it turned out!  I’m so thrilled that the card is pretty much flat first of all.  It has only the card front layer attached to the card base and then the sentiment strip.  Great for mailing a Christmas card!

I took the Taylored Expressions Rectangle Masking Stencils and then also added a Snowflake Masking Stencil (unknown from my stash) so that I could line it up properly over the rectangle area.  I started by ink blending with TE inks in a rainbow color pattern in a diagonal direction. BEFORE removing the stencil, I sprayed it with some Shimmer Spray.  I lifted off the snowflake mask being careful to leave the remaining rectangle stencil in place and then I took the “negative” snowflake from the stencil to cover it up.  I then used some blue tones of TE ink over the rectangle stencil in a straight across direction with the rainbow snowflake being covered up.  Once I was happy with the ink blending, I removed all stencils.

Lastly, I took the entire stenciled panel and ran my Sizzix Winter Snowflakes Textured embossing folder over top of it.  That added bit of an embossing folder really stepped it up!  I also rubbed over top of the impressions with a white ink pad on the colored sections to make it pop a bit more.

I white heat embossed the sentiment from Taylored Expressions Mini Strips Holiday and die cut it out with the TE Mini Strips Asymmetrical Die over a TE Blue Corn cardstock piece which was what the card base is cut from too.  Popped up the strip with foam tape and finished with some silver sequins.

So I hope you’ve enjoyed my creation today and that you’ll pop on over at the “Let’s Squash It!” Challenge Blog to check out the challenge this month and play along with us too!  Looking forward to seeing what everyone’s comes up with for this one!  Thanks for stopping by today and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Creative Inspirations – Wonderful Winter/Feeling Festive
  2. Crafty Creations – #427 Anything Goes
  3. Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
  4. Dragonfly Dreams – Christmas/Winter
  5. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  6. Christmas Crafts All Year ‘Round – Letters ‘U’, ‘V’ or ‘W’ for inspiration (I used “W” for winter!)
  7. Merry Little Christmas – Anything Christmas Goes

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles27 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

Snowflakes for {Cupcake Inspirations}

Hello friends!  Happy Monday!  Hope that you’ve had a wonderful weekend and are ready for Christmas to come!  This Friday will be Christmas Day and I’m happy to have everything finished and ready to deliver the cookies and presents to family and enjoy the time with my husband.  Hoping that next year will be looking much different too!  Are you ready for Christmas or just ready for the year to be finished? 😉

CIC509

Today is the start of a new challenge over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with the theme of “SNOWFLAKES“!  The only difference for this challenge is that it is only lasting for ONE week instead of the noraml 2 weeks.  Also, this will be my final post as a design team member for them as well.  I have really enjoyed being apart of this team as what’s better with crafting than with a cupcake inspired theme, right?!🧁😋  So I’m sure I’ll be inspired to play along with the challenges in the future as I have been!  Hope you’ve enjoyed my creations for this challenge.  Here is my “snowflake” cupcake inspired project for today:

I thought it would be appropriate to create a New Year’s themed card for this challenge as I don’t really need to make anymore Christmas cards, but sometimes I forget to send out a Christmas card to someone and don’t realize it until later, so that’s when a New Year’s card can come in handy! LOL!

I absolutely LOVE the fabulous slimline dies that Whimsy Stamps has!  Such a huge selection of them and I spotted this gorgeous Elegant Snowflakes and Border die and thought it would make some really incredible slimline style cards no matter what color scheme you have in mind!  I knew that I first wanted to try it out with some metallic mirror cardstock and I was also inspired by these gorgeous Gilded Holiday papers from Whimsy Stamps with the snowflakes in gold and black colors.  It looked elegant like the die, so I pulled out a strip to fit across the top, but because it’s 6 x 6, it didn’t fit, but I decided to piece the strip together anyway and I don’t really think you can tell that much until you look up closely to know that it’s there.

So I then layered the gold metallic die cut piece right underneath the strip that was attached to a 3.5 x 8.5 black cardstock layer.  There are also a couple of extra snowflake dies included with that border die, so I used them layered together (one in gold and another in black cardstock) on the right side of the slimline design.

To create the sentiment on the card, I used the Whimsy Stamps Happy Sayings Clear Stamp Set and gold heat embossed it along the bottom of the black card panel. I also took the Whimsy Stamps Happy Large Word die and die cut it out in black cardstock several times to layer together for thickness.  Before attaching it to the card, I used a gold ink pad and brushed around the edges with it as well as the entire black card front panel before attaching all together.  I then layered it over a white top folding slimline card base. 

Here’s a closer view of the gold metallic die along with the gold heat embossed sentiment as well as the gold inked edges around the design.  I’ve also decided to add some gold Drip Drops from Taylored Expressions in the center of some of the snowflakes as well as a couple of black sequins that I filled the centers with some gold Stickles with.

Of course I think it looks so much more elegant, shinny and sparkly in person as it’s hard to photograph and be able to capture all of the lighting that you see when you’re holding it in your hands!

Hopefully by sharing a few different angled photos, you’re able to see some of these details in this card design.

Please be sure to stop by the {Cupake Inspirations} Challenge blog and come join us with your “snowflake” creations this week and check out the inspiration from the design team whle you’re there!  REMEMBER:  You have only ONE WEEK to enter!  Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Thanks for stopping by today and I’ll be seeing you soon with another post soon!

Challenges:

  1. A Bit More Time to Craft – #130 Anything Goes
  2. QKR Stampede – #410 Anything Goes
  3. Watercooler Wednesday – WWC302 Anything Goes
  4. Cute Card Thursday – Anything Goes
  5. Creative Knockouts – #381 Anything Goes
  6. Crafty Catz – #532 Anything Goes optional:  Anything New (new die!)
  7. Allsorts – Sparkle and Shine

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles28 Comments

Working in a Winter Kit!

Hello friends!  If you live around my area, then you know that it’s in full swing Winter Weather time!  We do have snowflakes in the forecast for tomorrow, but hopefully it’s not too bad!

So while we’re thinking of snow, I thought this would be a great time to share with you all of the winter style cards I’ve made using a brand new subscription card kit that I’ve got going from Pink and Main.  So grab a cup of your favorite beverage and enjoy some crafty winter inspiration!

So my first card kit from Pink and Main was the December 2019 Winter Wonderland Crafty Courtyard Box which is no longer available, but they have this month’s box out which I will I get soon!  Here’s what I’ve made for the December box:

Vicki-PMCCboxDec2019-set

Yeah, I know!  That’s alot of cards, right?!  I was surprised myself how many cards I was creating from this kit and I could’ve just kept going as I still have plenty of supplies left!  I needed to make a few more cards to send out after Christmas for the ones I missed and send out thank yous…so this came in handy actually!

P.S.  Every single one of these cards were completed with an envelope too!  (So far so good on my New Year’s Resolution! Yay!)

Vicki-PMCCboxDec2019-card6

My first card here is a “see through” design using acetate for the center of the design.  I have used a Bold Snowflake die from Pink and Main NOT included in the kit, but overlayed it with another foam snowflake and button that WAS included in the kit.

I stamped snowflakes from the stamp set in the kit and added some “dots” with Stickles over the design too.

Vicki-PMCCboxDec2019-card2

This card was pretty simple, but I love it!  I’ve used the sentiment die that was included in the kit and die cut it with the sparkle cardstock from the kit as well as the pretty snowflake papers.  All I did was stamp 3 snowflakes and added another dot of Stickles to the centers.  I chomped the corners at the bottom and done!

Vicki-PMCCboxDec2019-card1

For this particular card, I’ve decided to make a ‘Z-fold’ card design and if you’d like to know the measurements and/or how to see one put together, then please check out my video tutorial on it here – “Coffee Style Z-fold Gift Card Holder“.

Vicki-PMCCboxDec2019-card1A

This is how the card folds closed.  It folds down to an A2 size.  I love how the colors look on this one!  Everything on this card except for the greeting on the inside was from the kit.

Vicki-PMCCboxDec2019-card4

So I wanted to use lots of those papers from the paper pad included with the kit and they were double sided so I had even more choices to deal with! LOL!  I decided to make square panels for my layout and use those sparkly silver snowflakes from the kit to place over top.  I heat embossed the sentiment from the stamp set at the bottom.

Vicki-PMCCboxDec2019-card7

This card was just destined to be a square design.  I wanted to use my Reverse Scallop Square dies from Pink and Main for this one.  I’ve also used papers from the kit as well as the silver sparkle paper and snowflake.  I took a snowflake embossing folder fort he background.  I used sequins from the kit and filled the centers with more of that silver Stickles.  (I got a bit of the prop  over my sentiment there.  LOL!)

Vicki-PMCCboxDec2019-card3

I wasn’t finished using that “Reverse Scallop Square” die set, so I took it to die cut some embossed snowflakes and layer them over some of the papers from the kit.  The middle of the card has a strip of the awesome transluscent tape included in the kit.  I covered the middle of the snowflakes with a rhinestone and pop up the embossed sentiment with foam tape over the tape.

Vicki-PMCCboxDec2019-card5

And this last one was hubby’s favorite. I took the largest image from the stamp set in the kit and heat embossed it over a watercolor panel.   Then I took some Distress Oxide ink spritzed with water over a glass mat and brushed them over it and splatterd some with with a brush as well.  I die cut the sentiment from the die included in the kit with the sparkle paper in the kit and finished the design with more sequins filled with Silver Stickles.

I had “SNOW” much fun with this kit and creating these cards!  I hope you’ve enjoyed it as well and have been inspired in some way!!

Thanks so much for stopping in and I enjoy seeing what you have say!  I loved reading all of your New Year’s resolutions and NOT resolutions too! LOL!!

I’ll see you again soon my friends! 🙂

Challenges:

  1.  Cardz 4 Guyz – Blue is the Color
  2. Arty Divas – #12 Anything Goes
  3. Classic Design– Anything Goes
  4. Creative Inspiration – Something New or Something Old
  5. Challenge Up Your Life– Anything Goes
  6. A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes
  7. Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday – Snowflakes!

 

 

 

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles24 Comments

Winter Friends at Whimsy Stamps

Hello friends!  I hope that you all had a great Christmas!  I’m still celebrating with my family over the weekend and happy to be with all of my loved ones for sure!

I have this really sweet image along with some news to share with you today.

For the news:  This will be my final post as a design team member for Whimsy Stamps.  I STILL adore Whimsy Stamps and of course will continue to use the products and promote the products and still use my affiliate link with them when I can, but my term has ended and it was time for me to move on is all…I will truely miss being apart of this wonderful team and working with my friends over there for sure, but will always remain friends of course!

And, perfectly, this brings me to my card for today with this darling image.   This card was made and sent to a lovely teamie for our Christmas card swap and I thought it was perfect to send along to her….

Vicki-WSWinterFriends-Christmas swap

I have used this adorable Wee Stamps image from Whimsy Stamps called “Winter Friends“.  I just fell in love with the sweetness of it all for sure!

After coloring up the image, I die cut it out with a stitched circle die and layered it over another blue die cut circle.  I then took some “Fallen Snow Glitterstock” from Brutus Monroe and cut out a piece with the MFT Linked Chain Circle Frames die and attached that piece around the die cut circle image.

I wanted to pair this image to match up with the colors from the Whimsy Stamps “Christmas So Soft” Digital Papers Collection.  I used one panel for the entire background base that was mounted over a blue 5″ square top folding card base.  And then I used the pink strip from the same collection mounted over another strip of blue cardstock across the middle of the card wrapped with some silver metallic ribbon.

In the bottom corner of the card is where I stamped the greeting in black ink from the Whimsy Stamps Holiday Mini Sentiments clear stamp set.  The circle image was mounted over top of the card with some craft foam and then I die cut some snowflakes from the Whimsy Stamps No-See All Seasons Tree die set with more of that Glitterstock that was randomly added to the card along with placing one in the center of the ribbon bow.  I’ve also added a gem to the center of that snowflake as well.

Vicki-WSWinter Friends-Christmas swap-close

Here’s a closer view of the coloring that I’ve done on this sweet image.  I’ve used my usual Copic markers and also used a white gel pen for highlights in certain places.  I covered the “holly berries” in her hair with a glitter brush pen and for the snow ground, I used a glue pen and then added some glitter over top of that for sparkling snow.

Vicki-WSWinterFriends-Christmas swap-flat

A perfect image to send to one of my special DT Whimsy friends!  I hope you’ve enjoyed it as I really enjoyed creating it and sending it off to my friend too.  🙂

It’s NEVER a “good-bye”, but I’ll see you again soon my friends!  HUGS

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

Winter Friends - Digital Stamp

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Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

  1.  As You Like It – Favorite Die and Why? (I am constantly using the circle, square and rectangle stitched dies because they’re nice basic shapes but also add that stitched detail along the edges to add more interest if needed.)
  2. Daring Cardmakers – Pretty Pastels Christmas
  3. Allsorts – Anything Goes
  4. Stamps & Fun = Creativity – Anything Goes
  5. Papercraft – Anything Goes
  6. Cute Card Thursday – Anything Goes

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles29 Comments

Christmas Makes Countdown!

Hey friends!  I hope you’re having a great start to your week!  I have been in the Christmas making card mode the last few days and just finished sending out over twenty cards I believe.  I had previously made a few and already had those sent out over seas too.  I actually still have just a couple more to make for a few people close to me and I’ll be finished.

So I thought since I’ve been doing Christmas makings, I’d share some things that I’ve been working on with you!

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Here’s a fun “Snow Globe” shaped card that I had actually made for the Kit And Clowder Christmas card swap.  I made it in November and had actually sent it out the last week of November.  I just wanted to make sure she received it before I posted it anywhere and she did!

I have used this really sweet digital image from Whimsy Stamps called Snowman and Snowflakes by Crissy Armstrong.  I had to make it a certain size so that it would fit with my “Snow Globe” design.  So I’ve used a stitched die cut circle to cut it out with so that it could be placed on the inside of the card design.

If you would like to see how to put one of these shaped cards together for yourself, then you can check it out HERE on Splitcoast Stampers for the tutorial.

I’ve used some fun papers for the bottom and die cut a stitched scallop circle frame from some gold mirror cardstock and then used my MS “goo border punch” for the snow drip edge at the top.  I even took some white Staz On ink and stamped a few snowflakes over top of the acetate piece on the front of the card.  I added some gold ribbon and a holly sprig from Prima around the bottom.

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Here’s a closer view of the image and how I’ve got him all colored up with Copic markers.  I’ve also taken a glue pen and added some extra glitter to the snowflakes around the image as well.

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And when you open the inside of the “Snow Globe” card, this is what it looks like with the sentiment.  I have used a retired Whimsy Stamps clear stamp set called “Christmas Greetings” to stamp both the “happy” sentiment in red ink as well as the snowflakes on the piece of acetate with White Staz On ink.

I then took the Whimsy Stamps Christmas Large Word die and cut it out with a piece of gold mirror cardstock and glued that to the inside bottom of the card.  I also took some white ink and sponged around the edges of this entire inside.

I haven’t made one of these Snow Globe cards for quite a while, so that was fun to do!  I hope that you’ve enjoyed it too!  Thanks so much for stopping in today and I’ll see you again soon!

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

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Challenges: 

  1.  Make My Monday – Anything Christmas
  2. Crafty Cardmakers – Christmas
  3. The Holly & Ivy Christmas – Anything Christmas
  4. Papercraft – Christmas
  5. Sweet Stampers – Anything Goes
  6. Try it On Tuesday – Christmas is Coming!
  7. Crafty Creations – #404 Anything Goes
  8. Cute Card Thursday – Anything Goes

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles27 Comments