Splitcoaststampers – Stamped Smiles

A Unicorn with Sprinkles & Rainbows for Dare to Get Dirty

Hello again today my friends! Yes, still posting and with another “twofer post” again today! It will calm down eventually, but for now I have lots of things to share with you!😀

As you may have read in my second post from yesterday, we kicked off the “Dare to Get Dirty” Event over at Splitcoaststampers and I shared the card I made for one of the challenges. I have another creation to share with you that I made for one of the challenges released today and this one is for the lovely Lori:

This really brought out the little girl in me when creating this card with the rainbow colors and magical scene! This sweet little unicorn image along with the rainbow in the background and the sentiment all come from the Digi Doodle Studios Unicorn Wishes Pairables set. I’ve printed them out, colored them with Copic markers and fussy cut them out with the exception of the sentiment which I left and cut out as a cloud with my Lawn Fawn Cloud Border dies. I’ve also used that die to cut some clouds from a piece of vellum and an additional piece of white cardstock.

I’ve used an older My Favorite Things Stitched Rainbow die from white cardstock that I colored with Copic markers to place behind the first set of clouds behind the unicorn. Before layering my clouds, I took some distress ink and blending tool to add a bit of blue shadow behind them. After attaching all the cloud and rainbow layers, I cut it out with the MFT Blueprints 27 die se t .

Lastly, I’ve attached this layer over an A2 sized white top folding card base and popped up the fussy cut unicorn with foam tape. I took some random sequins to attach over the design.

Here’s a closer view of some of the details in the card. I added some loose glitter over the unicorn’s wings with a 2-way glue pen and some loose glitter. Hard to tell, but I’ve also added some shimmer to the rainbows and the unicorn’s mane with a glitter brush pen. I also added a bit more blue cloud shadow under the unicorn’s feet before attaching him on the card.

This was really fun to create and I know it will make a fun card to share with one of my grandkids.

Since I have used a Digi Doodle Studios product on my card today, I also wanted to share something really awesome that this special lady, Dina Gerner, has created just for me and I love it:

You may have noticed this different watermark that I’ve used over my photos recently. A few months back, I had someone lift a photo of mine and use it as part of selling something that was not produced from the company that it actually came from, nor did I give permission that they do this with my photo. They attempted to remove my typed name over the photo. I had learned from other crafters that this has happened many times over and sometimes they don’t even care about removing the watermark at all…and sadly have learned that even some crafters don’t share what they create any longer because of this problem. There are also others that attempt to lift images/photos from digital as well as stamped images to reproduce cheaply for profit. (I’ve even seen it being done with videos too!) While some things are out of my control, I thought the best thing I can do as a crafter is try to watermark my photos and also over some of the images if I can.

So, you may also remember that I used to be on the Digi Doodle Studios DT for a bit and had discussions with Dina about this situation and she agreed to help me with a watermark! I love the design she made so much, so I wanted to use it as a stamp for the back of my cards as well as a business card design too! I was referred to this place online called Zazzle that I was able to use the digital watermark file to create them with.

Really love how it all turned out and I have something that I can share with others that are interested in my cards presented in a professional way. Just wanted to share because I thought someone may be interested to know. Not sure if Dina is open for a ton of orders or has time, but she did it as a favor to me and I deeply appreciated it with her special creative digital design talent!😉 Please be sure and check her amazing digital images…just like the unicorn I’ve used today, they’re all adorable!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop in today friends! Yes, I’ll see you again tomorrow!! Yay!

Challenges:

Digi Doodle Studios Challenge Blog – #30 Things with Wings
Digi Doodle Studios FB Challenge – August Anything Goes + DDS image
Crafty Friends – #143 Fairies & Fantasy

August 23, 2020August 23, 2020

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles21 Comments

Dare to Get Dirty Has Begun with Something Festive!

Hello friends! Yes, I know, not only am I posting every single day, now I’m posting twice in one day!?! What’s going on with me?!😂 Really sorry to “bombard” you with all of these posts, but this is what I meant by me being SO busy “behind the scenes”! If I do miss a day, you’re going to wonder if I’ve left again! It sure is busy, but it’s also fun while the long days of Summer go by.

Today starts the Splitcoaststampers “Dare to Get Dirty” annual event full of fun challenges by current and past alumni from the Dirty Dozen Design Team. This is the 16th year that this special event has happened! I’m very proud to be associated with Splitcoaststampers and have been apart of the community since 2003…a lurker👀 a few years before that too! I have some LIFE LONG friends as that’s where I started putting anything I ever created online anywhere. So in June of 2016 I was honored when asked to be apart of the Dirty Dozen Design Team! They certainly have my creative heart forever. So I think I missed last years event because I was not well at that time, so I will be participating as a challenge hostess this year. You must be a “Fan Club Member” over there to be able to see the event, so if you’re interested in joining, please check out the “How to Become a Fan Club Member” page. (Otherwise you will not “see” the event details.).

So each day, there’s about 5-6 new challenges released starting today and lasting until Friday August 28th…that’s a whole lot of challenges! I obviously didn’t have time to make something for every single challenge, but I have made a few to help my fellow “Dare to Get Dirty DT friends” create samples for their challenge.

The first challenge I made a creation for was the lovely Kittie’s challenge. And obviously, I cannot reveal what the challenge is about, I can show you my creation and ask that you head on over to the event to see the details and play along with us….

I had such a fun time creating this fun Holiday themed slimline! I pulled out an old favorite “Santa’s Elves” stamp set from My Favorite Things for this one. I’ve stamped and colored several images from this set using Copic markers and cut them out with a coordinating die. For the scene, I’ve taken a piece of white cardstock and used a wave border die to cut out the different snowy hillsides and before attaching them down, I’ve used a blending tool to add some blue ink to the edges. I then took each individual hill and embossed them with an embossing folder.

I arranged the “hills” over a piece of brushed gold cardstock that was cut out with a stitched slimline die from Trinity Stamps. I “tucked in” the cut out images in between the hills. The gold layer was attached over a red stitched scallop slimline piece that was mounted over a 3.5 x 8.5 slimline card side folding white card base. I’ve also used one of the banners from that Trinity Stamps die set to white heat emboss the sentiment from the stamp set and then popped up the little elf over top of that with foam tape over the bottom of the card front. I also attached that little holly image at the end of it.

Lastly, I topped the card off with holiday colored sequins filled with gold Stickles in the centers.

Here’s a little bit of a closer view of the images on the card. I’ve taken a glitter brush pen and went over the stars on the trees as well as the ornaments and the bell on the elf’s hat for a bit of shimmer. I also covered the holly berries on the bottom sentiment with some glossy accents. (Hard to get all details in there!)

Hope you’ve enjoyed my Christmas slimline card today as well as all of the daily posts I’ve been sharing! I look forward to either seeing what you create during the “Dare to Get Dirty” event or anything else you may be working on! The end of the year is coming soon and I know everyone will be creating lots of fun things!

Thanks for joining me today friends! I’ll see you again tomorrow! Stay well and happy!

Challenges:

Merry Little Christmas – Anything Christmas Goes for August
Jingle Belles – Cardstock Christmas
Crafty Cardmakers – Lots of Layers
The Pper Girls – Emboss Like a Boss (both heat and embossing folder used)
Shopping Our Stash – Pile it on! (layers)
Cute Card Thursday – Embossing

August 22, 2020August 22, 2020

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles20 Comments

Christmas Cards from County Fair, Invite and ICAD Week 8!

Hello friends! TGIF is what I am thinking today! Whew!

I have lots of fun things to share with you all today…so please take your time to read, relax, sip on your beverage and enjoy! 🙂

First, I’d like to share a couple of Christmas cards that I had made earlier this month and I didn’t take a photo of them until (with the exception of one of them) because I was in a hurry to meet a deadline of course and had to wait until I received them back! (I will explain that as we go…)

Vicki-SU! Christmas Card-County Fair 2nd place

I am glad that I have started making up a few Christmas cards now because I literally ran completely OUT of any Christmas cards I had last year and didn’t really have quite enough to send out all that I had wanted. Well I’m going to be working DOUBLE hard on my Christmas from here on out because I have 2 craft shows that I’m going to be at and I know I will really need some including several in a boxed up form!

I have TONS of Stampin’ Up! products and I was happy to pull some things out and use it on my card here. I knew I wanted to go mostly white with this one because I wanted it to look elegant. I used some chunky silver glas glitter around the edges of my oval. Both the pine needles and outter pine cone where heat embossed with some clear glitter embossing powder. The embossing folder and ribbon are all from SU! too. I just used a wonky stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things to cut out main panel.

This card won 2nd place at my local County Fair! (You can see more about that below)

Vicki-SU! Christmas Card - County Fair 3rd place

Here is another Christmas card that I made using some more of my Stampin’ Up! products that I keep on hoarding in my stash and don’t use! LOL! The only thing I did different was the background pine trees are actually a Tim Holtz stencil from last year and then the die cut pine trees along with everything else including the paper and ink are all from Stampin’ Up! I added some Stickles clear glitter over the die cut pines and though it’s hard to see in the photo, I sprayed the DSP with some shimmer spray.

This card ended up winning 3rd place at the County Fair!

Vicki-County Fair Christmas Card entries

Here are the entries that I entered in one category at my local County Fair this month. I won 1st, 2nd and 3rd all in the same category which was “Hand Stamped Greeting – Holiday”. They don’t award any more than than this in any category. So I was happy to see that I placed all three! Above, you can see that I have entered the bauble Christmas card I previously posted and it ended up winning 1st place! You can see the close-up details of the card in THIS POST if you are interested or missed it.

I just needed to start making up Christmas cards and I thought this was a great way to not only get some done, but make the most out of it by entering them for the fair! I’m glad I did that too. Thanks to mom for helping to nudge me along as well! LOL!

DTGDinkling

So if you are familiar with Splitcoast Stampers, then you know what time of year it is and the time is getting closer! Next week will start our annual “Dare to Get Dirty” event for our special fan club members! Not a member? Check out the details by CLICKING HERE!

There will be tons of fun with the Dirty Dozen Design Team both past and present (like myself) coming together to bring the fan club members a special treat with at least 5 challenges a day, lots of fun, chatter, glitter in your face and prizes! 🙂 And especially for your family, you will need to fill out this form below and present this to them as to not bother you during your time to have fun!!…..

DTGD-Header-e1371861527847 I hope that you will be able to come join in the fun with us! I will be there to present a challenge that especially a paper crafter will love! 🙂 – Be sure to check out my blog for some of the creations that I’ve made especially for this event too!

And of course since it’s Friday, it’s also time for my weekly ICAD results!! I only have ONE more week left of this 61 day challenge….can you believe it?!! So here is the ICAD 2018 week 8 results:

Vicki-ICAD2018-Week8

As always, things are a bit random and weird, but each day the prompts inspire me to keep on going to my room and have a play with media!

For one of the cards, I have used a Chibilights Electronic and yes it is showing as there is a reason for it! LOL! But, I wanted to share that it DOES really work on my card:

Vicki-ICAD2018-Day55-circuit or network1

I just had to share that as it is the very first one I’ve ever done that I got to actually work!! LOL! I was pretty excited! I will be back next week with my very final share from this!

Now you all know WHY I had random and spotted postings…I’ve been a busy stamper with getting projects done and ready for the County Fair (I’ve entered 16 projects and I will share more later on), and I’ve been getting samples ready for my challenge as well as my fellow Splitcoaststampers DDDT challenges getting ready to start soon.

I am tired now and I think I’ll relax with hubby this weekend! Tonight we are going to go to a hot-air balloon moon glow in our area. The weather is beautiful for it! Hope you all have a wonderful and fun weekend too! Thanks so much for dropping in!

Challenges for Christmas card(s) at the top: