Stamped Smiles – Stamped Smiles

WINNERS of the TE Background stamps!

Hello friends! It has been while since my last posting, but was having some back issues and hobbling around a bit which is never a fun thing to deal with, but I’m getting a bit better day by day. Hoping to get back to doing some crafting soon! I’m going to be working on an AJ page for tomorrow’s post…so stay tuned!

I realized that my giveaway had ended and I needed to pull some winners of the Taylored Expressions background stamps for 4 people!😀 So the way I drew out the names, I did sort of “old school” by printing out the names of everyone according to which stamp or stamps that were indicated via comments from the GIVEAWAY POST. So if you were only interested in one of the stamps, your name only went in the draw for just that particular stamp. If you indicated that you were interested in all of them, then your name went in for each one. I cut the names in strips, wadded them up and had my husband hand-pick out a name strip for each stamp. If there was a duplicated name, I would’ve had him draw another, but there was not any duplicates. Here are the winners for each stamp……..

stampedsmiles.com giveaway Daisies For Days Winner 1 stampedsmiles.com giveaway Goodhearted Winner stampedsmiles.com giveaway Winter Village Winner

WOOO-HOOO!!🥳🎈 CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF THE FOUR WINNERS!!!

If you are one of the winners above, please be sure to CONTACT ME via the form and share your snail mail address with me so that I can promptly mail out your stamp package to you! (I will also try contacting you myself to let you know you were a winner as well.) I would appreciate you contacting me as soon as you can so I can get your stamp to you. If I don’t hear from you within 2-3 weeks, then I will try to draw another winner to claim it.

I’m very sorry if you were not a winner THIS time, (blame my husband!😁) but you never know when I’ll have “extra duplicates” in my craft room that I’d like to share with a fellow friend! Thank you for your kind support! Happy crafting!🤗

September 23, 2022September 20, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles14 Comments

A Beautiful June Wedding!

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great week! We got a tiny break from the hot weather, so I had to spend the last few days enjoying it and was happy to get away from being indoors! Now as the temps climb back up, it’s time to get busy and craft some more!😃

As promised, I’m catching up with my postings to share the wedding invites, thank you cards and special wedding card I made from my son’s June wedding. I made them a few months back, obviously, but I thought it would be nice to condense it altogether here in one posting.

The couple had asked for me to make their invites for them and of course it was a great honor to be able to do that for them. I was given a photo of an image and was educated about the “Tree of Life” to incorporate that into a design as well as a sample of some color shades. Making a total of 50, here’s what I came up with:

I was able to find some similar Stampin’ Up! colors that closely resembled the samples given and come up with Bermuda Bay and Mint Macaron for the design. I wanted both the ink and cardstock colors and worked it out from there.

For the base of the design, I’ve used the darker Bermuda Bay and on the front panel, I used a piece of Mint Macaron with a stenciled “tree of life” over top of it with Bermuda Bay ink. I actually found a fairly inexpensive stencil on Amazon and thought it looked very similar to the image I was given and thought it would be perfect for the front with a partial side off the edge. I never inked up 50 panels before, but this stencil certainly got a work out! I was thinking it needed a bit more to it than just the stenciling, but I didn’t want to do too much with having 50 to make! I took the Taylored Expressions Diagonal Stitched Rectangle die to impress a design around the edge, wrapped silver ribbon around the front with the knot and layered it over the front of the invite.

So being happy with that, the hardest task was to figure out the inside details….

I wanted to make the inside a portfolio style with a pocket containing the wedding details as well as the RSVP/envelope inside and then the actual “announcement” on the other side. As I was piecing it together, I thought a decorative flap with some vellum would be pretty over the announcement too.

I’ve used the Stampin’ Up! Basic Borders die set to die cut the pocket front as well as the vellum flap on the left side. I had to adhere two Bermuda Bay card panels together and cut out the areas I didn’t need. (I ended up using the left over pieces to punch out a circle layer. To add a bit more of a decorative detail, I cut strips of silver cardstock as well as silver heat emboss the “tree of life” circle stamp. (I was happy to also find this really inexpensive rubber stamp image for a couple of dollars to use for this too!) For the image on the pocket area, it was stamped with Bermuda Bay over the Mint Macaron cardstock, layered with that left over Bermuda Bay circle punched pieces and popped up with foam squares over the silver strip. I was happy with how the portfolio design was working.

And now once you open up the vellum flap on the left side, you will see the announcement portion. The silver strips were strategically placed to cover up where all of the layers are glued/attached together, but still looks like it “belongs” there. The image that was given to me via digital photo was used at the “back drop” behind the wording. It was a very bright image that I altered on my computer and muted it down so that it was faded in the background, but yet still clearly visible on the design. I thought it worked out nicely and still coordinated with the stenciled area on the front.

Because this invite was so thick in nature, I didn’t want to add more layers of cardstock, so I used a thinner parchment style copy paper as everything was printed out from the computer anyway. The parchment made it feel a bit more professional I thought. I die cut ALL of the printed parchment pieces with a Lawn Fawn RETIRED Small Dotted Rectangle dies. (I thought the “small dots” went with the SU! edges I used on the flaps.) I placed the announcement over a piece of Mint Macaron and then layered it inside the card. I layered the RSVP card over a piece of Mint Macaron and the “wedding details” card was left on it’s own.

Finally, you can see that on the silver envelope flaps, I silver heat embossed the image. This was also done for the larger silver envelopes for the whole invite to fit in as well. I even used the “Tree of Life” computer generated image to create some address sticker labels for them and give them extras ones to use.

Of course after the wedding, you need to send out the thank you cards, so I also made 50 of those….

I really didn’t want to event a new wheel with it, so I had plenty of cardstock colors and just repeated the same design on the front as I did with the invites except for this one, I used the Taylored Expressions On Occasion stamps. I stamped them out with the Bermuda Bay over the Mint Macaron cardstock, cut it out with the coordinating dies and popped it up with foam tape over the silver ribbon. Stenciling another 50 panels with this same stencil gave it another work out yet!

So for the actual day of their wedding, this is the card I made FOR the couple. I was able to get a little more “intense” with this one as it was only ONE card!

I was so excited when I saw this stunning card kit come out from Taylored Expressions called “Modern Eucalyptus” (no longer available) and I thought it was the perfect colors to create something with for their wedding. The white panel was silver foiled and then I stenciled the colors of the wreath pieces, stenciled some silver paste, die cut them out and popped them up over the foiled wreath. I stamped the sentiment in the center, added some TE Tiny Diamonds to some areas and cut a strip of silver glitter cardstock to go across the bottom.

Around the edge of the panel, I used a free gift that I got with purchasing items and tried it out and on my panel without realizing that it cut the center. I went ahead and attached it down anyway as I liked the decorative look to it. I had a matching envelope and off we went to the wedding!!!!!

The couple was married in Hocking Hills (Ohio State Park area) and it was absolutely beautiful over there! The venue they used only had a certain capacity limit and so this is why there were only 50 invitations that went out. It was a very nice private wedding with everything done and organized for them. I do not have any professional photos of the wedding as of yet, but I had to rely on my husband for taking a few photos on his phone and then handing the phone to someone for photos as well…my dress didn’t allow me for handy phone carrying. LOL But here a just a few photos (not professional) of the wedding

As being a first time “mom of the groom”, it is quite an experience and very emotional especially when my son picks out a song for our dance with a song I used to sing to him as a baby in my belly! We both had tears!! LOL It was such a joyous occasion and I’m thrilled to welcome our new family into our lives for years to come! May they always feel the joy and love together for ever after!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my wedding post today and have been inspired in some way to brighten your day. I thank you so much for taking the time to stop in and say hello! It means so much to me! See you soon!

Challenges:

Crafty Friends – Embossing Wet/Dry (heat embossed on invites)
Crafty Calendar – Add a ribbon (on invites and thank you)
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Fab ‘N’ Funky – Anything Goes
Penny’s Paper Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes

July 28, 2022July 27, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles23 Comments

Pray Until Something Happens With Inky Stamper

Hello friends! How is your Summer going? It seems like it is really flying by for me! After getting back from the wedding, I have a PILE of things to get finished up, literally! I signed up for classes knowing that I couldn’t participate during the class time, but figured I would finish them up on my own, so along with doing that I’ve decided to also throw in a current challenge project as well and share that today:

So this cute little fella came from Inky Stamper called Praying Mantis, of course. The challenge for the month of July in the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group calls for “watercolor” of any kind and so I pulled out my Zig CC Real Brush markers to color him with, cut him out with the coordinating die and even added a bit of the Liquid Pixie Dust on his wing.

For the watercolor on the background, I’ve used an Inky Stamper Watercolor Panel and ran a few different colored Distress Oxide ink pads over it without touching the colors. I then spritzed it with water to saturate and let the colors run together over it. I picked up any extras on my glass mat to completely cover the panel and then I took the Picket Fence Geo Squares Stencil and laid it over top while it was wet, pressed it in and let it just sit until it was dry. I picked up the stencil that had dried ink on it, spritzed it with water and turned the stencil the other way with the ink on it and pressed it onto the panel again and let it dry. This is how the darker ink color showed up on the lighter end. I took some green and black watercolor to spritz over top. Really fun background to play with!

I then white heat embossed a sentiment over a black strip and attached it to the bottom portion of the background and then die cut the panel with a double-stitched rectangle die. I used foam squares to pop up the bug and wrapped some Doodlebug Limeade Twine under the sentiment. This panel was layered over a black piece which was attached to a top folding A2 white card base. I finished it with some Doodlebug rhinestones.

And continuing on with my “Inky Stamper projects”, There was an OOAK event a few days before I left. I didn’t have time to do my projects during the time, but finished them up when I returned. We made this fun and unique fold design with a gorgeous butterfly and then of course the mini card to go along with it. Not sure if the kits will be available at a latter date, but you can check it out in the Inky Stamper Store HERE.

For mine, I colored the butterfly with Copics, popped up the wings with foam tape and added some of that Liquid Pixie Dust which is hard to see in the photo. Then for the mini card, I used some watercolor to color the hydrangea with. The sentiment was white heat embossed.

Super fun projects as always! (I usually make my “mini card” into TWO ATCs, I just did the one so far here.)

And for my last set of “Inky Stamper projects”, this was for a special class Chelsea held during the time that I was gone. Even though I wasn’t able to attend the fun and games with them live, I went ahead and purchased the kit anyway so I could watch the video at a later date to make all of these fun projects centered around this ADORABLE Sloth! If you are interested in this kit, check it out in the store here – Inky Stamper SLOTHsome Class Kit

I pretty much followed along with the way the class projects were made. I added some gold thread on the card in the back with the clocks so that it could hang from the sloth’s claw. I added a glittery heart for the treat container for the sloth to hold as well. The candy inside the container are slo pokes!! 😂 Super cute and fun projects to make! I sort of treated myself to the candy while I was creating!

I also think that there were a few days where I could relate to the sloth too, but glad to get things done!

Really hope you’ve enjoyed my projects that I’ve shared today and are inspired in some way too! Thanks so much for stopping in today…I’ll be sharing more soon!😉

Challenges: (For top card only)

Happy Little Stamper Watercolour – Anything Goes + watercolor
Happy Little Stamper Stencil – Anything Goes + stencil
Aud Sentiments – Anything Goes + sentiment
As You Like It – Favorite warm/cool colors and why? (Always been attracted to the cool tones even as a child!)
Krafty Chicks – Week 1: Stamp Act
Crafty Catz – #603 Anything Goes
Creative Fingers – #235 Anything Goes
Colour Crazy Craft – Week 27: Anything Goes + coloring
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2228 Anything Goes

July 12, 2022July 11, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles23 Comments

Cowboy Courage and Dad Jokes

Hello friends! Hope you’ve had a great Fourth of July weekend and staying cool through this really hot week too! I had planned on scheduling a post or two while I was gone last month, but time just didn’t let me get there and I’m a bit behind, but I wanted to share a couple of masculine cards I made for some men in my life for Father’s Day:

Up first is this card I made for my own dad. He’s a huge John Wayne fan and so I thought it would be fun to print out one of his famous quotes for a card. After printing it out, I stamped the large rope lasso image around it from the Whimsy Stamps Cowpoke clear stamp set. I printed the quote over a piece of kraft cardstock and stamped with chocolate colored ink with the rope frame and colored it with Copics. I also cut the other images from the same stamp set over White Copic Blending Card and colored it with Copics. I just fussy cut them out with scissors and placed them over my card front with some foam squares. I cut a section of the horseshoe out so that it “appears” as if it’s hanging around the lasso and glued it over each side of the lasso.

I thought it would be fun to add some more details to mimic the boots by die cutting the loopy stitched borders from the Whimsy Stamps Straight Edger Die Set and then I ink blended around the edges with chocolate ink. I also did this with the envelope you see behind the card too.

He really liked this one! I remember as a child sitting with him sometimes and watching those really old “cowboy movies”. LOL

The next card I made was for my husband…

This card was PERFECT for him! Most of the time, the kids would always tell him that his jokes were NOT funny, but the fact that HE thought they were so funny is what made them laugh!😂 And then he would claim that they were laughing or smiling, so he knew they liked them!😄

So when I saw this Dad Jokes stamp set from Lawn Fawn, I knew it would be a good one to have on hand for cards with him. I kept this card a simple one with a grassy stitched border and then I used one of those woodgrain papers from Lawn Fawn and also die cut the LF Father’s Day Border using the same woodgrain paper for it.

I positioned the little chicks to the side with the *crickets* sentiment above them and then the other one laughing while the little chick with the tie is telling the “dad joke”. I popped up the speech bubbles with foam squares. You will also see that I’ve stamped another “dad joke” on the envelope with some ha ha ha next to it as well.

**Side note: My husband’s favorite “dad joke” from the stamp set was…”What’s brown and sticky?….A stick!“** He had to tell that one to the (adult)kids of course!🙄

Hope you’ve enjoyed my masculine cards today or had a smile! Thanks for dropping in and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

The Male Room – Monochrome (Top card only with brown tones)
Alphabet – ‘G’ is for Giggle/humorous card (Second card only)
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Corrosive – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using Paper

July 7, 2022July 6, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles23 Comments

Challenge Up Your Life with a RAINBOW!🌈

Hello friends! I don’t know about you, but I’m so happy to see the month of May starting! That means the flowers will be coming out along with the warmer weather! It’s also a great time of the year to see a rainbow perhaps?!

#147_regenbogen_CUYL

Today I’m super excited to be joining the “Challenge Up Your Life” challenge blog as a guest designer! I had previously won a Top 3 and a future guest design spot from a past challenge I had entered, so I’ll be joining them as a guest for April, May and June challenges! Today their new monthly challenge for May is “RAINBOW“. Hope you can share your lovely creations with us this month! (Check out the challenge blog for details and inspiration!)

Here’s my guest design creation for this month’s challenge:

Nothing better than to look up into the sky and see a rainbow! What’s also fun is to be able to create your own and especially on a card to send to someone to brighten their day! I’ve used a previous card kit from Taylored Expressions that contained these products: Make a Rainbow Stencils, Over the Rainbow clear stamp set, Rainbow Cloud Duo dies, and Over the Rainbow Sentiments clear stamp set to create this card. I ink blended the different colors through the rainbow stencil and stamped the orange dots over the rainbow as well as a few hearts in light blue ink. The sentiment was also stamped with black ink over top of the rainbow. I then die cut the one cloud twice from white cardstock and ink blended some light blue around the edges of it and popped it up with foam tape at the ends of the rainbow.

Then the card front panel was ran through the die machine using the Taylored Expressions Diagonal Stitch Rectangle dies (Which actually doesn’t cut anything out, but creates the lines.) I layered it onto a piece of black to make the rainbow pop a bit more and then attached it to an A2 sized top folding TE Pineapple card base. I also topped it off with a couple of TE Bits & Pieces-Full of Heart sequins.

I knew the minute I went to create for this challenge that my zippered pouch from Taylored Expressions that has the “A Rainbow of Possibilities” sticker over it was what I was going to grab! All of my rainbow things are in it! Makes it easy to grab when you know everything is in there!

I hope you’ll stop over at the challenge blog and join with us to share your rainbow too!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card or been inspired! Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

Sweet Stampin’ – Rainbows & Rainy Days
Arty Divas – Anything Goes
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes
Krafty Chicks – All Occasions (encouragement)
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes

May 1, 2022April 29, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles23 Comments

Donut You Want a Sweet Birthday!?🍩

Hello friends and happy Friday! Wishing you a wonderful weekend ahead as we head into Valentine’s Day on Monday! With this holiday, I’m always reminded by the sweet treats and memories of my children passing out their Valentines, making special boxes to hold them in and classroom parties with lots of goodies! I thought it would be fun to incorporate those thoughts into a fun birthday set and a small treat with NO ‘REAL’ SUGAR ADDED!

I can never turn down a good donut, how about you? I had so much fun creating this set with the Taylored Expressions Donut Days Cling & Clear Combo and decorating them! This was created with the February #TEMakerChallenge color combo and theme in mind when putting the set together. I’ve used both the TE Spearmint & Peaches ‘N Cream ink and cardstock for these. I’ve added some Chocolate Truffle, Toffee and White EP as well.

To create the “donut box” on the card, I’ve stamped the TE Argyle stamp only without using the stencils and then I’ve cut it out with the TE Box Top Stacklets die to give the frame look for the donuts to be placed in! (Note the small treat container was decorated on the front with the left over middle piece from the frame…so save everything!) I then took the stamped frame and ran the TE Pierced Lattice Cutting Plate over it for an added design. To assemble the box of donuts, I took a piece of tissue paper, crumpled it up and glued the decorated donuts together over it. The back of the frame with foam tape was then centered over the donuts so it was popped up. I ripped the excess tissue paper and attached the card together. I used some of the TE Peaches ‘N Cream cardstock and white heat embossed the TE Mini Strips Donut Worry and cut them out with the TE Mini Strips die.

FOR THE TREAT HOLDER –

I found this really fun video tutorial for a Hand Sanitizer PocketBac box container using my envelope punch board. (CLICK NAME FOR THE TUTORIAL!) I always love finding new ways to use a tool I have especially in a totally different way than what it was intended for! I didn’t wrap decorative paper around mine like she did, but like I mentioned above, I saved the center of the cut out frame and cut it down to size to decorate the front. I took one of the sentiments and donuts left over from the card, wrapped some twine around it and tied it so the bow is centered inside the donut hole.

I do love me a good pun…so please feel free to pun away my friends!!😅 Maybe you can come up with a “hole in one”!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my birthday sweet treats today and thanks so much for stopping in!

Challenges:

Penny’s Paper Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
Watercooler Wednesday – Helen’s “All About Occasions”
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
River of Creativity – Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

Thank you to all of the wonderful challenge blogs and keeping them going!

February 11, 2022February 10, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles24 Comments

Stinky Love and TS Card Hero Auction

Hello friends! Happy Friday and I hope that your having a great week so far! I’ve been having some fun creating a couple of Valentine’s Day cards with a fun/snarky inside greeting. Plus, I wanted to share something going on starting today for a worth-while cause! (Scroll through post for details!)

So I absolutely fell in love with these STINKIN’ CUTE skunks from Lawn Fawn! A few weeks ago, I caught a live on FB and enjoyed the crafty products shown with these Lawn Fawn Scent with Love stamps! I wanted to play with them and decided to order it! I didn’t have them on hand during the video, but I decided to do my own spin from their cards once mine showed up in the mail.

I didn’t use the heart stencil they had as I decided to use my TE Heart of Hearts Layering Stencil on both of these cards. I’ve used some clear glitter paste over the first layer without using the largest heart, let it dry and then used some red ink for the second layer. The red strip was embossed with a 3D heart folder. I’ve used the Lawn Fawn Scripty Love die that was ink blended faded with the red ink and layered over another die cut sentiment with glitter cardstock. All of the images were colored with Copic markers and die cut with coordinating dies. I’ve used some black glaze and white gel pens for accents. I just glued all of the pieces down with the exception of the skunk that was popped up with foam tape.

OK, I had share the inside of the card that the recipient will be receiving as I thought they would get a kick out it. 😆 I’ve used the SSS Sassy Insides stamp set for the inside of both of these cards. I finished with the Valentine sentiment and the tiny hearts from the Lawn Fawn set.

And so this is also a “spin off” from the second card they did on the live, but I decided not to add another layer to it; instead, I used the large heart within my stencil to center these darling hugging skunks. I did about the same thing that I did on the card above with different colored inks. The only thing popped up is the skunks over the sentiment banner that I cut out using the MFT Stamps banner dies. I think this turned out so cute for a one layer simple card.

And then here’s what the inside of the card looks like with another sentiment from the same SSS stamp set that I’ve used on the above card! 😆 I think this one was so appropriate for using with the skunks!

So I’m thinking that these cards would be something fun for the recipients to receive in the mail. It’s a great time of year to get something to chuckle about especially if it’s unexpected! I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing them too!

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Today starts the “Turner Syndrome Card Hero Auction” over on Instagram! (I’m not on Instagram, but I wanted to share the information for those of you that are and would like to participate. I donated some cards to Lori to help with her fund raising efforts for her daughter with Turner Syndrome.) CLICK PHOTO BELOW FOR DIRECT LINK TO AUCTION DETIALS:

All of the money raised will go directly to the Turner Syndrome Foundation that helps to provide the help and support needed for families like Lori and her daughter. This foundation depends solely on donations, so please think about contributing your support in any way you can as it’s very much appreciated. Thank you!

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Thank you so much for stopping in today! I wish you a happy and wonderful weekend ahead!! See you soon!

Challenges:

Lawn Fawnatics – Lots of Heart
Make the Cards – Valentine card
Unicorn – Red (top card only)
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes with animal
Pearly Sparkles – Anything Goes
NBUS – #35 NEW SKUNK STAMPS! YAY!
Critter Crazy – Anything Goes with animal
Double D – Hearts
Aud Sentiments – Love Sentiment

February 4, 2022February 4, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles32 Comments

Vintage Anniversary and Commissioned Ones Too!

Hello friends and happy February! I feel like we just started a new year and it’s already into the second month! I will need to get going on a couple of Valentine cards really soon! Today, I wanted to share a card I had made for my parent’s 57th wedding anniversary along with a few other anniversary cards I was commissioned to make that I had forgotten to share until I made my parent’s card! LOL!

I really like how this one turned out for my parent’s anniversary card! If this looks familiar to you, then you may recognize it from a past Simon Says Stamp card kit. (This one came from a Valentine 2020 kit.) I thought that the papers in the kit looked “Vintage” and I really liked that, so I thought I’d try to go for that style in my card.

I used the heart rose stamp image from the kit and colored it with Copics and fussy cut it out. I also copper heat embossed the leaves from the stamp set included in the kit over some green cardstock and fussy cut those out as well. The sentiment was also from the same set as the leaves and I copper heat embossed that for the bottom right corner of the card. It’s hard to see from the shine, but it says: “Happily ever together” and was fussy cut as well.

I started with the Vintage looking papers and cut a piece down to size and inked up along the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink and layered it over a side folding A2 white card base. I pulled out a piece of shimmer vellum that I ran through a Sizzix 3D heart embossing folder and layered it over top of the background. I also took some of the ephemera from the kit and added those to parts of the background after sponging the edges of that too. (see the “ticket” in the top left.)

Finally, I arranged the heat embossed leaves along with the heart shaped rose over top. I glued the leaves and then popped up the rose with foam tape along with the heat embossed sentiment. I added some shimmer to the leaves with a shimmer brush pen and then took some sequins from the kit to attach over the card and filled with Stickles glitter.

I think this would be a special Valentine card as well for someone!😉

At the end of last year, I was also commissioned to make a 50th wedding anniversary card for someone. I was just given the detail that the wedding photos were shown with the colors black and white…so I based my card using that idea.

I always think that wedding/anniversary style cards look especially elegant with die cuts and embossing, so I dig through my die cut and embossing folder stash. I’m sure you can imagine me sitting on the floor with things everywhere! LOL!! Do you do this too when you’re not sure what you want to do and/or what all you have?

So I found this really pretty Memory Box die cut with the heart in the center that I wanted to use and thought some glitter paper behind it would be so pretty. This is why my card is a square shaped design. Since it was celebrating 50 years, I thought it would be appropriate to add some gold in there too and die cut the numbers for the center of the heart as well at the border pieces on the top and bottom of the heart. (Not sure where that die came from as it’s old. The number dies are really old too!)

I layered this onto the glitter paper and gold foil paper. I stamped a sentiment (Taylored Expressions-The Inside Scoop Anniversary used both inside and out of card.) and die cut it out with a banner die and popped it up under the heart with foam tape. I layered this onto a white 3D embossed background that was layered over a black top folding square card base. I attached a gold ribbon bow over top.

I stamped a sentiment for the inside of the card and you can see that I’ve decorated the inside of the card using the same die cut border with gold foil cardstock. The papers I’ve used for the borders on the inside were also used to create a custom envelope for this card. Sometimes if I don’t have the envelope on hand, I make my own envelope. Sometimes I prefer to do this for special cards anyway.

And this is another card that I had been commissioned to do for someone that wanted a card for an anniversary on Christmas Eve. I was given the detail about them spending time at Disney World and seem to be a fan of Disney along with it being their 25th anniversary…so my card was based on those details.

I have no Disney character type stamps/products at all. My thought was to create something with a “winter/Fairytale” theme which is why I turned to my Cricut machine for help. I was lucky enough to find the carriage and horse image that I cut out using brushed metallic silver and silver glitter cardstock for the different pieces. I also found a castle image that I cut from the brushed metallic silver as well. I used black cardstock for the base and insides of the cut out images. After I cut out the castle, I ran it through a brick embossing folder to give it that brick castle look. I also die cut the numbers from Taylored Expressions Cap It Off Numbers dies. I attached the numbers in the center of the castle and attached a silver ribbon bow over top of the numbers.

Since I had my main cut out images for my card, I was able to create my scene and size based on those. My finished card measures approx. 7″ x 5″ which is not a regular size for me, but I thought it was fitting given the type of card it was along with the cut out images. I started with a piece of blue cardstock and generously sprayed it with some Pearlescent Cosmic Shimmer previously received from a class I took. It gives a really stunning look and the shimmer doesn’t show very well from the photo either. Once dried, I die cut both the snowflakes and snow border at the bottom from some white glitter cardstock. Both dies used for them come from Lawn Fawn. The trees behind the bottom snow border were cut from some pearl white paper with an older Stampin’ Up! die set in my stash.

I attached the sprayed blue background over a piece of silver metallic cardstock after wrapping a silver ribbon around the center. I then attached the trees and added the snow border at the bottom. I added the castle and snowflakes next being careful that everything was showing the way I wanted and then I popped up the carriage with foam tape.

This whole scene was placed over a white 7 x 5 top folding card base. I also took some silver glitter to add to the little flag ends on the castle. I thought with all of the glitter and shimmer it didn’t need any more embellishment! I was happy with how it turned out because I wasn’t quite sure it would!

There was a custom envelope that was also made for this card using some pretty silver pattern paper from my stash.

Everyone seemed to be pretty pleased with how the cards turned out for them and I was very happy to have had the privilege of being apart of someone’s special day too!

Speaking of wedding anniversaries, I’ve been given the honor to create wedding invites for my son’s wedding coming up this Summer and I know I’ll be getting really busy putting those together as well! So that will be coming up really fast and I hope I can keep up with things! LOL

Thanks so much for stopping in today! I hope that you’ve enjoyed my creations or been inspired in some way! See you soon!

Challenges (TOP CARD ONLY)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
Krafty Chicks – All Occasions
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes with optional add flowers
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring (Copics used for heart rose image)
Creatalicious – Anything Goes with optional love
Simon Says Stamp Monday – Use embossing folder (3D heart folder over vellum piece)

February 1, 2022January 31, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles24 Comments

Facing Fear With Art Journaling

Happy weekend! Hope you’re weekend is going great! I’ve been wanting to start doing some art journaling again because I used to do lots of it years ago on a previous blog I had before this one. The only one I had recently done was in 2020 on THIS POST. For me, creating AJ pages gives the freedom to “explore” different media, use more of my stash or even TRY things that I would never do otherwise. I’m always inspired with other people’s AJ pages, but just need to start doing it again! It’s nothing that I would ever give away, it’s just something for me personally to create. I find it’s a HUGE stress reliever too!

I’ve decided to play along with a couple of challenges. (shown below post) *One was about “adding a face” to your AJ page and something that I decided to do was to actually trace half of a face over some vellum paper. (I used a micro pen for tracing) I don’t draw anything at all…which is why I love stamps! So I had a go at “facing fear” to start this year with an AJ page!

As you can see, I’m making my own AJ book and there are actually 7 other finished pages underneath this one. These are the pages I had previously done and hadn’t kept up on my book. The size is 6″ x 9″ and I always punch the holes at the top before I get started putting anything on it. (I’ve used heavy weight watercolor paper) I wanted the face tracing to “show through” what was underneath, so I took ripped up strips from left over collage pieces I had previously made, I also added some text print and acrylic paint colors over it. I’ve used DecoArt media fluid acrylics to blend colors and DecoArt media shimmer mister for some splatters. I’ve also taken a stencil with some Taylored Expressions purple glitter Happy Medium gel paste in certain areas. Once I’ve gotten the background build up a bit, I layered over the face tracing. I wasn’t real happy with the crackling of the vellum, but it added some fun texture.

I also took one of those ripped collage pieces and stamped the quote from Eleanor Roosevelt with Archival Black ink and layered next to the vellum face with matte medium. And since I’ve used matte medium to attach all of my elements, I took out my Faber-Castell Pitt big brush markers to add some color to the vellum tracing, around the edges of it and around the edges of the ripped stamped sentiment. I took some foiled cardstock and die cut the “face fear” letters from an Altenew die set I had in my stash. I also added some shading with my markers under the letters too.

In the close-up photo, you can see the bits of sparkle and shimmer on it a bit more!

Some of the words in the quote were doodled around using a micro pen. I had a rub-on clock face in my stash, so I rubbed half of it on one place, moved it and rubbed the other half in another spot so as not to waste it. I thought I needed to add a bit more shimmer, so I took some Art Alchemy Sparks acrylic paint and brushed it on randomly in places. I love the pretty shimmer of this paint! (You can really see it around the edges in the top photo)

Something a bit different from me today, but hope you’ve enjoyed it or been inspired in some way! I’m hoping to try to create a page each month. Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great rest of your weekend!

Challenges:

*Art Journal Journey – Let’s Face It!
Country View – A Year to Sparkle & Shine
Mixed Media Lovers – Anything Goes Mixed Media
Try it On Tuesday – Add a Quote

January 29, 2022January 27, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles31 Comments

Making Condolence and Get Well Cards

Hello friends! I hope that you’re having a great start to your week and are staying safe and warm in your world.

Today I’m sharing a collection of creations that I never seem to have in my stash because it’s never really something that I think about when creating…and I always seem to be making them as needed rather than having a few on hand. Even though, a couple of these were needed, I decided to make duplicates to have on hand this time around.

As you can see, this is a pet sympathy card I created and one was needed to send to a friend that had recently lost her special companion. For anyone that has lost a pet knows how this feels and I wanted to be sure to send something special her way. It’s always great to have one on hand when needed.

I’ve used this wonderful stamp set from Whimsy Stamps called Furever in Our Hearts. I started by ink blending the background with distress inks in Candied Apple, Carved Pumpkin, Squeezed Lemonade, Mowed Lawn and Blueprint Sketch on a piece of Neenah Solar White. I sprayed the panel with water and used a towel to blot up the water droplets. I then took some white shimmer paint mixed with water and splattered it over top with a paint brush.

I cut out the panel with a Lawn Fawn Cross-stitched die. I used my Brilliance Black pigment ink to stamp the paw prints and sentiment over top of it so that it would show up over the background. I die cut a couple of clouds out (MFT I think) and lightly sponged the bottom of them and placed them over the areas I wanted with popping up the one cloud using foam tape at the top of the paw prints. I layered this panel onto a piece of black cardstock and then layered them both over a white A2 sized top folding card base. I finished it off with a few sparkling clear sequins.

Another card that I needed was for someone that had recently been through a surgery and I actually didn’t have any more “get well” in my stash… again, so I decided to create a duplicate of this one too. This set of cards along with the set of cards below actually were the results from the previous OOAK event (Craft Fancy class) I had attended and these were part of a class I had taken. So this class actually came in handy!

All of the papers including that beautiful die (from Memory Box-Verdant Leaf Collage), Get Well Soon die, and dewdrop water droplets came with the kit. I subtly changed up the design given for the class by adding black paint splatters and changing up the die cut lettering and the layering of the papers. I really liked doing more of that ink blending and then having it fade to the white for a soft look. The outside woodgrain frame was popped up with foam tape.

And here’s the second set of cards created within the same class using the same Memory Box die and ink blended colors. I changed up the layout with these as well by making the card base black (instead of white like shown in class) and instead of the sentiments used in class, I created my own version with the Whimsy Stamps Deepest Sympathy clear stamps and the WS Sympathy Heartfelt and Condolences die set. I also added the black paint splatters to the ink blended panels like on the set above.

I thought these sets made for some really nice cards to have on hand when needed. I’m not sure that I would’ve actually sat down to make up these type of cards in production if I hadn’t have taken the class, so I’m glad I did.

Thanks so much for stopping in today! Hope I have inspired your crafty inspiration in some way! I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges: