It’s a Spooky Kind of Love

Happy Friday friends!  We’re now upon Halloween weekend!🎃  Are you ready?!  Lots of candy on hand to give out and some to enjoy for yourself…check.  Scary movies at the ready…check.  Ready for lots of fun before the weekend ends!

Not really sure exactly where my love for Halloween comes from, but I love it so much that even my wedding anniversary comes real close too!  So today is our 22nd year anniversary and I couldn’t have made it in this crazy life without my “Boo”!  I’ve made a card to let him know how I feel:

And yes, this is probably something we would certainly be doing under that moon as we’ve done before including watching bats fly around in the sky!  We do weird and wonderful things which is just ONE of the gazillion reasons why I love him so!  I’ve made a card with a bit of a “love/Halloween” theme.  I’m not sure I’ve ever really made a Halloween style card for him before, but I know this will make total sense for him and he’ll get a kick out it.

Started with the background using some Oxide ink blending keeping careful with leaving the “moon” area clean.  I sprayed water over top of the purplish/black background for that texture and then took a Taylored Expressions heart stencil over the background and introduced another color of oxide ink.  I ink blended the edges and bottom with black.  I have a Tim Holtz “Moon Mask” to create the moon with…which makes it super easy!  I stamped the fence at the bottom right and the bats with black ink.  The couple on the bench (TE “Love Story” die) was die cut from black cardstock and glued in the center of the large heart.  Lastly, I white heat embossed the sentiment over another piece of black cardstock and cut it out with a sentiment banner attached to the top left edge.

It’s really a simple card, but I loved creating the background with a “spooky love” feel that I know he’ll like too!

Here’s a collection of just a few snippets of some current moments we’ve had:

  • Enjoying Fall time picking apples from a local Orchid we love to visit each year. He’s my “Picking apple punk boy”!
  • Oh no! Those darn bats! Our visit to a literally COOL cave from a Minnesota trip.
  • A morning “Cabin Coffee” time together
  • He’s always giving me a hard time for making “goofy faces” in photos…so he “allows” it as long as I get a “nice” one in!😂 This is what I call a little “Hocking Hills Humor” visiting the state park.
  • Awesome beach and lighthouse history at Lake Erie
  • Recent trip to Niagara Falls with our rain gear on. I’m not wearing my glasses because I drenched myself under the Falls and he thought it was funny!
  • Cruising a carousel ride at Silver Beach on our trip to Lake Michigan
  • It’s a Halloween photo booth at Silver Beach…so of course! Watch out for those bats and spider webs!
  • Indeed❤

And since we’re going “all batty” here, I thought I’d share my creation that I’ve made for this months’ Inky Stamper challenge (over on the FB InkyStamper Inkspiration Group) using a recycled item!  I thought this might be a good opportunity to create a fun treat!  I took an empty paper towel holder to cut a 2″ tall container with a handle and covered it with some Doodlebug papers.  I layered some trim and ribbon around it and added a punched out circle for the bottom.

I’ve used the Inky Stamper Bat stamp set for the bat that I’ve stamped, colored and die cut for the front of my treat holder.  I’ve cut out a stamped sentiment banner to tie onto the handle.  Really easy and fun to create!  You could get about 5 containers per empty roll which I thought was a lot!

I sure hope you’ve enjoyed my “BATTY” makes today and I wish you a very frightfully FUN weekend!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!

Challenges:

  1. Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes
  2. Alphabet – ‘O’ is for Outdoors
  3. Sweet Stampin’ – All Hallows Eve
  4. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  5. Make My Monday – (E)scape it (scene)
  6. Little Red Wagon – Outside (outdoors)
  7. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
  8. CCEE Stampers – Create a Scene
  9. Stamping Sensations – Animals, Birds & Bugs

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles27 Comments

Shades of Blue at {Cupcake Inspirations}

Hello friends!  Hope that you’ve had a great first weekend of December and are ready to roll on with the spirit of the Season!  I know the world is a bit different, but it’s been great to get out the Holiday decorations and try to keep things as “normal” as we can be.  We went out and drove through our local park filled with Christmas lights while sipping some Starbuks coffee and the baking of cookies always gets me in the spirit.  What do you like to do around the Holidays?

Today, I have a new challenge to share with you over at {Cupcake Inspirations}:

The new challenge for the next two weeks is a color challenge in “Shades of Blue“!  You need to be sure to use at least three different shades of blue when making your project.  So any theme or occasion you can think of just use these colors!  We look forward to seeing what you come up with for this challenge!  Here’s my project:

I think my favorite colors to decorate with for Christmas are blue and silver!  So I knew I wanted to pull out this GORGEOUS stamp set from Whimsy Stamps called Elegant Ornaments and have a play with it!

I started with a Bristol Smooth Watercolor panel and took the Whimsy Stamps Beaded Curtain Stencil and went over the top with some Blueprint Sketch, Salty Ocean and Tumbled Glass Oxide Distress Inks.  I ended with the lightest color and faded it into the white.  I took the lightest color and also went over the top of the panel too.  I then cut the panel out with the Whimsy Stamps Zig-Zag Stitched Rectangle die.

I then took a couple of the ornaments along with the sentiment from the stamp set and heat embossed them where I wanted to place them with Ranger Liquid Platinum EP.  I took my Zig CC Real Brush Markers and colored in the heat embossed ornaments and blended them together with a watercolor brush.  I then stamped the “curved beads” images in navy colored ink and then heat embossed the strings to the ornaments so that it all looked layered.

This image panel was layered over a piece of silver mirror cardstock and then layered over an A2 sized side folding navy cardbase.  Lastly, I added some blue sequins and filled the centers with some Nuvo Dazzling Blue Glitter Drops.

Here’s a closer look at the ornaments and how that pretty embossing powder looks.  I noticed that the navy beads caught some of the EP when I heat embossed the strings to the ornaments, but I don’t mind that as I think it gives a bit of shimmer over them and gives more depth to it.  The card looks very pretty and sparkly and I’m happy with how it turned out.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my “shades of blue” creation today and it has inspired you to pull out your blue colored goodies to play along with us!  Please be sure to check out the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog to have a look at the wonderful inspiration from the rest of the DT to help inspire you more!

Thanks so much for joining me here today and I’ll be seeing you soon!😉

Challenges:

  1. Cute Card Thursday – Anything Goes
  2. Dream Valley – #238 Christmas
  3. Winter Wonderland – Anything Christmas Goes
  4. 52 Christmas Card Throwdown – Pick a Precious 2020 Challenge – February 52CCT6-20 3 shades of blue
  5. Through the Purple Haze – #174 Holiday – Make it Blue
  6. Crazy 4 Challenges – C4C564 Elvis “A Blue Christmas”
  7. Merry Little Christmas – MLCCB29 December Anything Goes Christmas
  8. The Paper Funday – #24 December Anything Goes optional: Christmas/Holiday
  9. Crafty Calendar – December Christmas theme

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles28 Comments

WARNING: Spooky post with Monsters/Ghouls for {Cupcake Inspirations}

Hello there friends!  Halloween is very quickly approaching us at the end of this week and it’s one of my favorite Holidays ever since I can remember and it was such a fun memory of things I passed onto my own children to have fun with as well.  We have lots of fun memories together.  I know there are some people that don’t like it…or maybe the “scary” things that come from it, but for me, the more scary, the better! (With the exception of the little ones, I don’t like to scare people that don’t like a good scare…but for me, it’s all in fun and make believe.)  This is the reason for my warning post title…just in case you happen to not like it.  It’s totally fine if you don’t!😉 – OR clowns!! LOL!

CIC505

Today starts a fun new challenge over at the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog with the theme of “Monsters/Ghouls“.  Looking at the photo, you can opt to make a cute little colorful monster/alien type of birthday card if you’re not into the Halloween or scary, so just another way you could interpret the challenge idea if you wanted to.

But here’s my scary “monster/ghoul” creation I made for the challenge:

He is a bit on the spooky/scary side, isn’t he?!  I have been looking for a creepy clown image like this for a couple of years and finally Whimsy Stamps came out with this “Creepy Clown Sleep Tight” rubber stamp set and I knew I had to grab it up and specifically in reference to the movie “It” by Stephen King who’s a favorite author of mine.  My younger son is really into these type of things too, so this one’s going to him!

I started out the background with a piece of watercolor cardstock that I used some Black Soot Distress ink to sponge in some clouds with using a cloud stencil from my stash.  I then took some Wilted Violet Distress Oxide Spray and water and let the color run into the background with the sprayed water.  I also watered down some more Black Soot ink and made some splatters with a brush over it.  I then black heat embossed the Whimsy Stamps Spider Web Frame over top of it, cut it out with the WS Zig Zag Stitched Rectangle die and then added some more Black Soot ink around the edges.  I layered it over an A2 sized top folding black card base.

For the creepy clown image, I black heat embossed it twice over a piece of Bristol Smooth Watercolor panel and then used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers and a water brush to color it with.  I fussy cut it out and then just cut out the hands only of the second image, and used some foam tape to pop the hands over the image and then the entire clown image over the frame background.  I white heat embossed the sentiment from the “Creepy Clown Sleep Tight” set over a piece of black cardstock and then die cut it out using the WS Quick Strips die set.  (Note:  I used a partial die cut method to lengthen the die so that it would fit the sentiment.)  I sponged around it with white ink and then glued in place under the clown image.

If you “dare” to take a closer look at mister creepy clown here, you see how I’ve colored him and cut him out.

I did use some brighter colors as he’s a clown and I really wanted him to pop from the design.  I used a silver metallic gel pen to color in the bells on his hat and then I’ve used some glossy accents over his yellow colored eyeballs to make them pop out a bit more as well.  The teeth were left white, but I used a white gel pen to color them in a bit for more prominent whiteness.  It is such a detailed image so it was fairly easy to color.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my good Monday morning scare for you today!😱🤡😂

So if you’re still making some Halloween type of creations or you have some cute, creepy, fun monsters/ghouls on your projects, be sure to share them with us over on the {Cupcakes Inspirations} challenge blog in the next 2 weeks!  We are looking forward to seeing your makes!

Whimsy Stamps still has their 31 Nights of Halloween Event going on, so I’ll be entering this card in that as well.

Other Challenges I’d like to enter “Creepy Clown” for:

  1. Double D – October:  What does it mean to you? (spooky Fall fun Halloween!)
  2. Mod Squad – Spooky Halloween
  3. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Layer it Up (popped up layers over clown)
  4. Creative Moments – #201 Anything Goes
  5. Cute Card Thursday – Stamping
  6. Creative Knockouts – #373 Halloween (black, green, purple, orange)
  7. Crafty Catz – #524 Anything Goes optional: hats
  8. Daring Cardmakers – Spooktacular Makes
  9. Two Old Bats – Halloween Jump Start *NEW CHALLENGE BLOG

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles30 Comments

Spooky Undertaker Tag for {Cupcake INspirations} Color Challenge

Hello there friends!  I’ve been a bit MIA lately but that’s because I’ve actually been having fun attending a virtual stamp event which I will be sharing some things I’ve done with you later and I’ll be doing it all over again this weekend as well!🥳  Although it doesn’t replace an in-person live event, it was lots of fun!  I’ve also been enjoying time visiting with my son who stopped by for the weekend!

CIC504

Today I’m stopping in to share my creation with you for the brand new challenge over at {Cupcake Inspirations} using this unique color combo:  OLIVE, RED and LAVENDER  The first thing I had thought of was the inspirational photo to go along with it and it reminded me of this cool Tim Holtz stamps/stencil set I bought a few years ago:

I thought it would be fun to play around a bit with my Distress Spray Stains over one of those Distress Tags.  So I sprayed a few of the colors over it and then also sprayed water over it as well to get the colors moving and blending together.  I think it turned out pretty cool.  I used the Distress Sprays I used were Crushed Olive, Fired Brick and Seedless Preserves.

I then took the stencil from the Tim Holt “Halloween 2 Stamps/Stencil” set and used some Black Soot distress ink to sponge the bats in the center of the tag.  I then used the coordinating distress ink colors and used the other portion of the stencil to sponge the colors with.  I took a thin strip of black cardstock to attach above and below the stenciled bat areas.

I took the skull image from the Tim Holtz “Halloween 2” stamp set and stamped it with black pigment ink over a piece of vanilla style cardstock and heat set it with clear embossing powder.  I fussy cut him out and added a piece of purple metallic ribbon around his hat and then glued on a purple flower along the side before popping him with foam tape in the center of the oval die cut piece from silver foil cardstock.

I stamped the “undertaker” sentiment from the stamp set with black permanent ink along with some scripty words in random places over the tag.  I also had some Tim Holtz Halloween rub-ons that I used for the spider and the “31” numbers.  I finished the tag with some more of that purple metallic ribbon and the key charm at the top.

Here’s a closer view of the skull with the embossed details along with the shine from the foil cardstock and ribbons.

Really had fun putting this tag together and I think it will make a fun spooky treat to share with someone I love because I have several family members that are really into the spooky Halloween theme besides myself! Yay!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my SPOOKY “undertaker” tag today and that you will stop in over at the {Cupcake Inspirations} challenge to check out the rest of the inspiration using the color combo and join the challenge with us too!

Thanks for stopping by and leaving your kind support! It’s very much appreciated and I’ll be seeing you again soon my friends!!

Challenges:

  1. Unicorn – Spooky and/or Cute
  2. Arty Divas – #30 Anything Goes
  3. Creative Craft Cottage – #134 Spooky and/or Cute
  4. The Paper Funday – #22 Anything Goes optional: Halloween/All Hallows Eve
  5. Creative Moments – #200 Anything Goes
  6. As You Like It – Fave non-card project and why? (I love making tags because I feel like you can “experiment” with different media on it and I like that I can use it for putting on gifts or even add to a card later.)
  7. This is Halloween – #2 Anything Halloween
  8. The Divas That Cut Paper – Autumn-Thoughts of Halloween + die cut/punch
  9. Crafty Cardmakers – Create a Tag
  10. Two Old Bats Halloween – Anything Halloween Goes *new challenge blog*

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles35 Comments

Sports🎾 for {Cupcake Inspirations}

Hello friends!  It’s been a week since my last post, but I’ve been busy cleaning up around my house to get prepared for the cooler weather ahead of us shortly and it’s starting this week to be very cold in the evening…so it’s just one of those things that need to get done is all.  I actually love all things Fall including that! (Yes, I’m weird! LOL!)

Today starts up a brand new challenge over at {Cupcake Inspirations} and the theme is….

SPORTS!!!⚽⚾🥎🏀🏐🏈🏉🎱🎳⛳⛸

That is also something else that I enjoy in the Fall season!  I like to watch football with my hubby and since I have had boys that played in several different sports along with my husband liking all things sports, I’m always involved in it in someway!🏈  I thought I’d try something a bit different with this theme that is something I like to do for myself….

Although this card may look a bit simple in style, I did spend some time putting it all together. 

I’ve used this darling image from All Dressed Up Stamps called “And Relax” that I’ve fussy cut out after printing and then I created a separate plain panel with just the words enlarged a bit more than what the image was printed.

The printed words panel was die cut with a stitched rectangle die and then I masked off the Kramer stencil from Brutus Monroe and covered it with some glitter glaze (unknown color) that was lurking in my stash and it turned out so pretty when dried!  I popped up the colored image with foam tape, added sequins filled with some Nuvo Emrald City Glitter Drops which seemed to match up with the glitter glaze nicely.  I layered the front image panel over a stitched rectangle Raven cardstock layer and attached these layers over an A2 sized top foldiing white card base.

Here’s a closer view of the coloring I’ve done on the image using Copic markers.  Since it’s an image with really tiny details and small areas, I kept the coloring light and simple.  I’ve only added dots to her cheeks with a white gel pen.

I’ve used a craft knife to cut in the areas and I left a white border around her so that all the details showed up with her hair strands and neck line.

You can also see how pretty that sparkle looks from the glitter glaze over the stencil too!  The Nuvo Glitter Drops matched up nicely with it!

It’s a Monday, so perhaps this might be something good to think about doing today, right?!😁

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my “sports” themed card and be sure to check out the {Cupcake Inspirations} blog to see all the inspiration from the design team and join along in the fun with us!  Can’t wait to see what you create!

Thank you for stopping in my friends!  I appreciate you taking the time!  I’ll have more coming soon!!  See you then!

Challenges:

  1.  All Dressed Up Challenge – September Anything Goes + ADU image
  2. Dream Valley – #233 Make it Digital (no stamps allowed)
  3. Use Your Stuff – #406 Sports
  4. The House That Stamps Built – S2320 – Anything Goes
  5. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles28 Comments

Pink & Main Video Hop with Hello Autumn Slimline

Hello friends!  I hope you’ve had a fantastic week!  It seems like this month is flying by!

I’m excited to share with you a fun video hop collaboration with Pink and Main on my You Tube Channel today! (Be sure to check it out on MY VIDEO because there is a giveaway and you’ll need to leave comments on the videos to be entered to win!)  So head on over to see the wonderful inspiration with the Pink and Main products going on!

Here’s the fun Autumn themed slimline card I’ve made for the video hop today:

So Pink and Main has come out with some fabulous new products which I’ve used for my card here and I’ve added some fun techniques to use with some of those products as well!

The background was really fun to create using the Pink & Main Blending Brushes along with the new Crackling Campfire Distress Oxide Ink color that just came out!  I’ve also used the wonderful Leafy Stencil from Pink & Main over the background too.  The cups and leaves were also colored using the oxide inks and a waterbrush which you can see in my video as well as how I’ve inked and cut out the one image backwards so I have two cups with the handles in opposite directions on my design here. 

You can check out how I’ve put this design together and the techniques I’ve used in this video below, or to leave a comment and see the link to the next person in the video hop, CLICK HERE to go to the video on You Tube.

I absolutely fell in love with that Need to Venti stamp set and coordinating dies!  I loved that older Christmas Mugs stamps they had previously came out, but Autumn is awesome to add to my collection because it’s my favorite time of the year!  So be sure to check out how to stretch out the use of this set in video above!

The Blessings slimline die was so fun to use on my card too and I love that the frame cuts out separately from the center and there was room to layer behind it before attaching to your slimline card base.  The Brutus Monroe Copper Glitterstock was the perfect accent behind the scallop frame. That frame was cut out with several layers of cardstock and stacked together for thinkness.

The same Copper Glitterstock was used to cut out the sentiment dies as well.  I’ve used some vellum to layer behind the Autumn sentiment, which the backing diecut was also included in this same slimeline die set!  The final measurement of my slimline card was a piece of brown cardstock measuring 8.5″ x 7″ and scored at 3.5″ in the center.  The finished card will fit inside a #10 envelope when closed.

Here’s a closer view of the details with my colored cups using the distress oxide inks and waterbrush.  I’ve also used the same Need to Venti stamp set and oxide ink colors to stamp the leaves and die cut them out to arrange over my scene as well.

I popped up the cups with foam squares and added some drops over the whip topping in the cups with some Nuvo Honey Gold Crystal Drops.

Hopefully you can see the pretty Autumn colors and dimension in the card.  I sure had lots of fun putting all of this together with the new Pink and Main products, so I hope you’ll go check them out along with checking out the video hop for your chance to win a $25.00 gift certificate to the store! **The Video Hop will only be open for 1 week and end on September 25th!**  Wishing you lots of luck my friends!

Thanks so much for dropping in today and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Challenge Up Your Life – Autumn Mood 
  2. The Paper Funday – #21 Anything Goes optional:  Fall/Autumn
  3. Dream Valley – Embossing wet/dry (embossed cup images)
  4. The Sisterhood of Crafters – Autumn Inspiration
  5. CCEE Stampers – CCEE2037 Slimline Cards
  6. Not Just Cards – Anything Goes
  7. Crafting Happiness – Anything Goes
  8. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2037 Anything Goes
  9. Simon Says Stamp Monday – Frame It

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles33 Comments

The “Power of Practice” Blog Hop

Hello friends! I’m so excited to be sharing a special collaboration blog hop with my fellow crafty friends collab FB group as we share our own personal progression on how practice over time can help to increase your confidence and skills within your crafting journey. (blog hop links are at bottom of post.)

So please grab your favorite beverage and join us in this fun and informative blog hop that shows how “the power of practice” can be utilized in your own crafting! (highlights are done in red.)

  • I would like to start off by stating each person’s experience is their own journey and will run on it’s own pace which is something that we all need to be aware of and patient with.  Some particular skills will take much longer to grasp than others and you need to take it easy on yourself without harsh judgement.  Just enjoy the process and have fun with it!  (That was and still is the hardest thing for me to learn.)

Although I’ve been paper crafting for the last 20 years or so, I’ve been involved in several different crafts throughout my entire childhood or since I could hold a crayon in my hand!  My grandmother as well as my mother has passed down their experience with crafts which I learned from and picked up many others along the way including what I love today.  So some things I do may already come naturally for me without recognizing where it came from because it was taught to me long ago.  There are some things, however, that I’ve had to spend the time learning.

Now taking classes aren’t the ONLY way to learn something for sure!  Good ole “Trial and Error” are great for learning and gaining personal experience from…which I tend to learn the most from actually!😁  Another thing that helps is new tools/products to help make the process easier or look more “finished” or “professional” in nature.  When I first started with my stamps, there was not a common heat tool for instance.  I had to heat emboss over a stove!  So times have changed as well as techniques and inspiration. Inspiration is EVERYWHERE over the Internet too!  Many people have so many clever ideas…I wish I could keep up with them all!  Some things may not be of interest to you and others may intrigue or intimidate you.  Find what interests you the MOST..at the time…and work on it because you will love learning about it which means you will gain more knowledge from it.  You don’t have to share with others what you do as long as YOU enjoy what you’re doing.  Do what feels right to you and your journey.  It’s never about others, it’s about YOU!

 

I feel like I could write an entire book on just this matter, but since this is a visual craft, it’s better to “see” with your eyes sometimes or show how things can come together…or not!🤨

I’m starting with a photo of a card I had made back in 2007 when I had already been a year into having a blog and was still a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator at the time.  Even the technology of simply taking a photograph has improved tremendously over the years…

crafting encouragement singleNeighborhood_by_basement_stamper

I no longer have most of the products used here and I had to lift the photo from my Splitcoaststampers gallery as they have stored my oldest photos I have anywhere.  This was the first place that I shared anything I made online. (There are 124 pages of my gallery and if you look through, you will see the progression over time.)

 

Now I could really criticize myself and pick this all apart, but it was part of my process at the time.  And at that time, I was happy with it.  It looks like I’ve colored with ink pads and a blender pen, cut out the images with scissors as well as cut fringes of the grass border. (tools have improved since and many purchases have been made as well!😊)    As we move forward, I can share how I updated that design today:

Vicki-CraftyChefs and POPhop

What I have decided to do was to take the photo of the older card above and make an updated version of the same design, but with the mindset and techniques that I’ve learned since.  You can see that my coloring has improved as well as the different tools and items that have been updated to help with my design execution.  I still used similar colors, similar layout design as well as coloring an image, but just maybe updated the look from the practicing of not just the coloring over time, but the practice of just cutting the layers and putting things together as compared to years past.  Just meerily putting together card after card has helped me with the practice and made me better aware.  So you can see how just putting together a card in general, with practice, can help improve skills!

  • Another tip I find helpful is to join your fellow crafty friends in groups and collaborations like this blog hop as well as other groups which is what I’ve also made this card for, called “The Crafty Chefs“, where we take turns coming up with a new “recipe” to follow each month.  There’s no pressure, just a group of friends coming together, learning from each other through challenges, and inspiring one another as we enjoy our love of crafting!  For me, this is a huge deal.  Check out the link above if you’re interested in joining with us!  It’s still fun to craft, but it’s even better when it’s shared with someone.  So here’s the September Crafty Chef’s recipe that our head chef Linda has come up with for us to use:

Crafty Chefs Sept recipe

(I have used ALL of the “must do” items and then added a couple of pearls from the “can do” items.)

I have found that within the last several years, many people enjoy watching video tutorials on You Tube..which makes sense because seeing someone actually doing something or putting something together is a better way to learn rather than just seeing a finished photo of a project.  So to see how I’ve made my latest card for my son’s birthday, check it out below or CLICK HERE to view on my You Tube channel:

Hopefully through the video you were able to learn a few things that you can incorporate into your own card making.  Sometimes we can improve upon ourselves by even trying to recreate something we’ve done in the past and add some new things you’ve learned along the way.  It’s a great way to see how far you’ve come along and not be so critical of yourself to remind you that you are always learning, as I still am right now as well.

 

I have to chuckle at this card for my son’s birthday as he is a fun-loving jokster that will appreciate this along with the fact that it’s a bear image.  He was nicknamed “Bear” in his school years, so I thought these Big Grumpy products from Taylored Expressions would work perfectly for this!  I’ve also used the Big Grumpy Birthday stamps to go with him along with the other products used in my video above.

For the sparkle, I’ve taken some Stickles Star Dust glitter and added to the birthday hat as well as the center of the bow in the present.  I used a glitter brush pen over the balloon and bow.  I added dots to his cheeks, hat and the present with a white gel pen.  I forgot to mention in the video that I’ve added a couple of brown pearls to the blue strip so that I added something from the “can do” list for the Crafty Chefs recipe!😉

I really hope that this post was helpful as well as enjoyable for you and that you received some benefit for taking the time to read over it.  I know that I will be looking forward to seeing what my other crafty friends have to share and inspire me with!  I think there is something to learn from everyone no matter how long you’ve been doing it.  

  • The power of practice simply means, to me, being able to refine your skills into something that you want to be better at, take in more information or take it to the limits of your ability.  This is done by repeating often and over time to increase or add to your knowledge of what you’re trying to improve upon. If we are not trying new things, then we are not learning or growing as individuals.

Please be sure to check out the following crafty friends’ blogs below to see their take on this blog hop concept:

Thanks so much for stopping by my friends and I’ll be seeing you again soon!

Challenges:

  1. Inkspirational – Birthday PhotoChallenge221
  2. Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
  3. Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
  4. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
  5. Dragonfly Dreams – Happy Birtdhay Traci!
  6. The Corrosive Challenge – #9 Sept Anything Goes
  7. Creative Moments – #198 Anything Goes optional:  Make it Funny
  8. AAA Birthday – #17 Animals & Critters#17 bottom badge
  9. Creative Craft Cottage – #133 Include and Animal
  10. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Humorus/Fun Card

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles51 Comments

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 2

Hello friends!  The celebration continues over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with our feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!!  Woot!!

CIC500

Today, we are highlighting STAMPlorations & Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios – check out the challenge blog for more details about these sponsors.

STAMPlorations logo

Rachelle Anne Miller Logo

The DT was provided with an image from STAMPlorations to use:

Vicki-CIC500-Day2-Stamplorations

What could be more fun and happy for a celebration than rainbow colors?!

I was provided with this lovely Framed Tea Cups stamp to use for my card which I’ve colored up with Copic markers using the traditional ROYGBV rainbow colors for the cups.

I also decided to mask off the image and using the ARTplorations Weaving Stencil, I inked over with some Pumice Stone Distress Ink and then cut out the panel with the CUTplorations Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle die that was barely trimmed along the edges so that I could layer it over a black A2 sized top folding card base.  I also took one of the images from the Scribbly Splattery Grunge stamp set and randomly stamped it a few times with black ink before attaching the panel to the card base.

Lastly, I used the CUTplorations Celebrate Word die to cut out the sentiment with silver foil cardstock and attached it to the bottom of the card and then I added some silver sequins to the design.

A huge thank you to these sponsors for celebrating with {Cupcake Inspirations} 500th challenge!  Hope you’re planning on playing along with us!

Thank you for stopping in today friends!  See you tomorrow!

Challenges:

  1.  STAMPlorations Never-Ending Challenge – Anything Goes + STAMPlorations product
  2. Crafty Friends – #142 Anything Goes
  3. Creativ Fusion Arts & Crafts – #20 Anything Goes
  4. Cute Card Thursday – Bright Colors
  5. Seize the Birthday– Rainbow Colors or Anything Birthday2020-08-13-RainbowColors

 

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles20 Comments

Slimline Waving Hello🧜‍♀️

Hello there friends!  Hope you’re having a wonderful week!  Just wanted to stop in with a Slimline style card I had made with a fun underwater scene.  (I’m thinking a magical place like this would be great to be in right now!  How about you?)

Vicki-BRM-mermaidslimline

These slimline cards are really great for creating scenes like this on and I was also having fun being able to “experiment” with my different products too!

I’ve the stamp set called Sea You Soon along with the background paper (mermaid skin) and the Lilac Shimmering Sand Paste were all items from a past card kit.

I created my underwater scene basically using the mermaid skin paper as the background.  Although it has a cool texture and smoothness to it, I was able to take the School of Fish stencil and add that Lilac sand paste over it.  Love that extra texture and purple hue it gave!  I also took the silhouette images from the stamp set and heat embossed them over this paper with black EP.

I stamped and colored the rest of the images from the stamp set with Copic markers and then fussy cut them out to arrange for my scene and popped some up with foam tape and then lastly added some clear acrylic bubbles over it.

Vicki-BRM-mermaidslimline-flat

You can see now that it’s lying flat how the color shifts and changes on the paper!

I’ve used some stitched wave border dies to help create the scene using some Kraft cardstock where I’ve also fit in to arrange the sand castle image that I colored and cut out.  I used Copic markers and gel pens to help fit the borders and image together.

I cut out the background paper with the Trinity Stamps Slimeline Stitched Card Panels and Windows die set.  I layered it over a piece of blue paper that was included with the kit and then layered that over a Slimline style card base measuring 8.5″ x 7″ folded in half from a piece of Aubergine Cardstock.  The sentiment was actually stamped from the Merfriends stamp set using black Ink.

You can see parts of the images with shimmer on them which have been colored with metallic gel pens.  I’ve also covered the mermaid tail and jelly fish with a Spectrum Noir Glitter Brush Pen.

The bubbles are looking a bit white instead of clear because my glue wasn’t quite dry enough when taking my photos, so my apology on that, but it took a couple of days to completely dry up clear for some weird reason!  Those babies aren’t going anywhere though!! LOL!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my magical underwater slimline card today!  Thanks so much for joining with me today and I’ll SEA you again soon!😁

Challenges:

  1.  Just Us Girls – #544 Trend Week:  Long & SkinnyScreen Shot 2020-05-29 at 9.41.33 AM
  2. Crafting Happiness– #57 Anything Goes
  3. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2028 Anything Goes
  4. Mod Squad – Slim Line Scene
  5. Little Red Wagon – #558 Fantasy
  6. Papercraft – Fantasy
  7. There’s a Stamp For That FB Challenge –  #2 Summer and/or Slimline
  8. Not Just Cards – July Anything Goes

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles29 Comments

Turtley Adorable!🐢

Hello friends!  I hope you’re having a great week so far!  Really hate it when technology doesn’t cooporate and I have to figure it out, but hopefully I can soon!  Sometimes it just needs to be done!🤔

Anyway, I was wanting to post some masculine cards I made for Father’s Day earlier this week, but I’ll have to post another time as this card was already done and is needed to enter a challenge that is ending soon:

Vicki-BRMturtle

I love that wee little baby turtle riding on the back with his tongue out!  The stamp was colored up with Copic markers, cut out with a circle die, along with another circle layer of Cabbage cardstock that I’ve also used for the A2 top folding card base, and another circle layer of vellum.

I was super excited to try out the brand new Ranger Distress line color “Speckled Egg”  products!  I’ve used the Distress Oxide ink to sponge over the image onto a piece of Sidewalk cardstock that was cut out with a stitched rectangle die.  I also took the Circle Tone stencil and added some Opal Chroma Glaze over it.  You can see how pretty the shimmer is on those dots!

For the banner along the side, I took another piece of sidewalk cardstock and cut my own banner with scissors.  I took my embossing ink pad and covered the banner piece with it and then heat embossed the Speckled Egg Distress Glaze EP over it…turned out so pretty!  I heat embossed the sentiment from the same turtle stamp set over a piece of vellum and wrapped it around the banner before attaching it to the card.

Lastly, I’ve added some metallic shimmer ribbon from my stash and some pretty sparkling sequins that remind me of bubbles.  The card was designed based upon a sketch, see details below post.

Vicki-BRMturtle-close

Here’s a better view of the cute image and coloring I’ve done.  I’ve added some dots with a white gel pen for their cheeks as well as their eyes and noses.  I’ve also used it for highlights on their shell.

You can also see a better view of that pretty shimmer from the Metallic Chroma Glaze that I used over a stencil.  Thought it was great for the circle theme going on.

Vicki-BRMturtle-flat

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and have been inspired in some way or has brought you a smile!  Thanks so much for dropping in and I’ll be seeing you again soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

  1. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + colouring
  2. The Divas That Cut…Paper! – Summer Fun + dies
  3. Crafting Happiness – #154 Anything Goes optional: Under the Sea
  4. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
  5. Make My Monday – #125 Use Stencils
  6. The Sisterhood of Crafters – Stenciling

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles33 Comments