Left Over Pieces + New Pieces = Finally-Finished Cards

Welcome, Blogging friends! I have missed you!

Still plugging along in my "unfinished stuff" boxes, these creations have been in the works for the last 6 weeks. I came across some pink and white Spellbinders decorative squares elements already cut out - probably 15 years ago - they were crying out to put put on a project! So I added some Impression Obsession butterflies and Tattered Lace flowers, enjoying designing The Old dies with The Virginal dies. The designing was fun, too - especially with the addition of sparkle in one of my favorite colors PINK!

Here are some of the pieces I started with before adding the whimsy:

Because the bottom layers overlapped in some places, shims were needed:

With the shims prepared and glued in place, the diagonal square in the middle could be added:

Next... to adhere the fun die cuts:

To shade some of the pink areas (included the pink glitter paper), Worn Lipstick DI was applied. See the difference?

The vellum "butterfly shadow" is pearly, so it picked up the pink tones without coloring. The other butterflies with pink frames around them were "inked" with Worn Lipstick atop pale pink cardstock. The die cut sentiments were cut from pink glitter paper, darkened with Copic Marker RV32, and shadowed with a pale slate blue cardstock:

Two more cards, one using Ana Griffin's sentiment set:

Upon finishing the cards, I decided some pop up elements on the inside would be fun. It sure would have been easier had that been done before adhering all the layers! Front facing:

Top facing - notice the notched element under the butterfly to minimize the popup feature:

Thanks for visiting my little blog! Your encouragement and friendship means so much. I am permanently homebound, leaving only for medical appointments. Each excursion takes tremendous toll on my body, but I'm still able to do "small things with great love".  I'm so grateful to still be living in this wonderful world, surrounded by beautiful people!

Products: Anna Griffin "You Are" sentiment stamps (set of 9), Inks: VersaFine Clair Nocturne, Distress Worn Lipstick, Dies: Tattered Lace Michaelmas Daisy, Imp Obs Butterfly DIE059-N, SB Marvelous Squares, SB Adorning Squares, LifeStyle Nesting Frames 7, MS Floral Crochet PAP, MS lace heart edge punch, Die-Versions Express Banners "Happy Day" and "Make a Wish", Cardstock: pink glitter, pink, white, white glitter, slate blue (shadow on sentiment) Other: Gold Detail EP, Copic RV32, 

May I please play in the following challenges?

1. Seize the Birthday #303 Layer it Up Birthday 4/2 (each card has multiple layers inside and out)
2. Triple B Challenge (April 3) inspiration board for birds butterflies blooms 5-1
3. Crafting A Cut Above (April 7) Spring Time with Dies 5/1 (Dies used: Tattered Lace Michaelmas Daisy, Imp Obs Butterfly DIE059-N, SB Marvelous Squares, SB Adorning Squares, LifeStyle Nesting Frames 7, MS Floral Crochet PAP, MS lace heart edge punch, Die-Versions Express Banners "Happy Day" and "Make a Wish")
4. Colorful Options (April 1) choose color(s) from the inspiration photo. I chose pink. 5/1
5. The Four Seasons Challenge (April 1) Anything Goes Spring 5/1
6. Craft Rocket Challenges #124 "Layer it Up" 4/28 (each card has multiple layers inside and out)
7. As You Like It Challenge (April 17) Fussy & Fancy and Why 4/30 (while CAS are amazing, I have trouble keeping it simple. It's always satisfying to add more layers, more sparkle, unexpected details, and products to cards, and see the faces of the recipients - or to hear their sweet voices - exclaiming "how did you do that?" giggle)

Thanks for stopping by!

Poinsettia Square Triad Skinny Cards - freebie sentiment

 Hello, friends! I hope you are doing well, and gearing up with sweetness for the upcoming holidays and festivities.

Many MANY years ago, before unmounted and clear stamps were the norm, and during a mega Stamp Show in Orlando, I purchased this beautiful poinsettia stamp from Mitra at Impression Obsession. It's a virgin, I'm shamed to say. Two cards are embossed in silver EP on dark blue cardstock. Two cards are stamped with VersaFine Clair and heat embossed with clear detail EP. Interestingly, in person, the clear EP cards look more fantastic than the silver EP! But through the camera lens, the Silver looks more majestic! 

After fussy cutting the embossed images, I "painted" with bleach so the colored cardstock would show through. Add extra bleach in the areas you would like highlighted. Be sure to use either very cheap brushes, or nylon brushes for this technique.

The magenta colored card was dry embossed and inked with distress inks.

The silver embossed cards are layered with black squares for extra drama. The turquoise layer is actually colored vellum, with edges folded behind white layers.

Card Interiors:

The digital sentiment is a freebie you can download in two versions.

My gift to you - Arrangements of the same sentiment for use on the inside or outside of your projects. Please do not sell these Sentiments. Use on any of your projects, including projects involving any design teams you might be on.

Click on the image to bring it to full size. Because of the changes Google Made with Blogger (June 2020), your image will appear to be solid black. Don’t panic. Right click and do a SAVE AS PNG. Once it is saved on your hard drive, you can open it and it will have a transparent background. I create PNGs instead of JPGs so they can be placed anywhere on a scene or project, and so backgrounds can be made using them. Please let me know if you have any problems. I hope they serve you well!

Enjoy!

Products: Stamps: Impression Obsession D4261 Poinsettia Square, IO Warmest Thoughts C5394 (interior of card), Colorado Craft Company Pine Cone and Branch BB264 (sentiment Merry Christmas), Silver & Clear EP, Bleach technique, Assorted colors of SU cardstock and TH distress inks, Turquoise and "white" vellum,  silver & turquoise glitter, Craft Essentials Diamond Tiles EF EFOB0013

Thank you for hosting challenges. I'd like to play in:

1. Jingle Belles 11-22-24 "Banner Holiday" inspired by the poinsettias and sparkles in the fun banner Lauren made!) 12/4
2. C.R.A.F.T. #741 Christmas - lovely poinsettias which are placed all over our home, and lots of sparkle for additional joy. (sep post) 11/27
3. Beautiful Blossoms Challenge #23 (poinsettias) 12/12
4. Christmas Bingo Challenges #10 Nov 1 - Using B COLUMN "Hand Colored with Bleaching Technique", "Slimline Cards", "Free" 
   
   
   
5. Merry Little Christmas Challenges #59 12/15

Wishing you beauty!

Orange Rose Fiesta Time at Beautiful Blossoms Challenges

Hello, blogging friends!

It's time for a new Challenge at Beautiful Blossoms.  A fun "mood-board-inspired" monthly challenge which features Flowers as the main focus.  

 The Mood Board is a starting point, and your artwork is where your imagination takes you! 

 I was inspired by: 

1. The letters in the word "fiesta" are separated by squares. The "square triad rose image" is "separated" by the same shape.
2. The gold glitter embossing tinsel is inspired by the pretty jewelry in the mood board.
3. And those brilliant colors, so these orange roses are shaded with pink tones, and boast green leaves.

I rummaged through my "needs to be colored" bin and found this Pink and Main rose awaiting its completion. It was heat set with gold glitter embossing tinsel, and is quite sparkly in person.

The sentiments are from a stamp set purchased nearly 25 years ago, by Anna Griffin. The die set is also by Anna Griffin. Her dies are deeply etched, easily cut, and always emboss well:

While coloring with Copic Markers, I carefully avoided the marker tip with the gold EP. You cannot see it well in the photos, but the orange is shaded with deep pink Copics. The "tall flower" was cut into thirds to mimmic the scrabble words in the mood board, but it also allowed me to introduce the bright green color as well. (apologies for the dark photo)

Looking forward to seeing your floral masterpiece at at Beautiful Blossoms Challenge!

Products: Stamps: Pink and Main Tall Flowers set, Anna Griffin "Sentimental Statements" stamp set, Inks: Cheerful Yellow and Green Oasis VersaFine Clair, Copic Markers, Gold Glitter Embossing Tinsel, Dies: Anna Griffin Gentleman's Study Concentric Slimline Die set, 2 old SU punches, old EKSuccess corner punch.

Playing in the following fine challenges please:

1. Worldwide Crafters and Colorists Challenge #5 AG (entry 1 of 3) 6/12
2. Classic Design Challenge #5 AG 6/1
3. A Perfect Time to Craft #5 AG (check 7/1)
4. Crafting Happiness Challenges # 142 Flowers 6/1

5. Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2319 AG 5/22

Stamping Hugs,

Sweet Spring Tulips - Jan's Digi Stamps

Hello, friends! I hope this finds you well, and enjoying some Spring Season crafting time.

Today's card is for April's Kickoff at the Anything Goes Challenge at Jan's Digi Stamps!  If you use a JDS image in your card, please mention it. There is a 2nd draw specifically for those who use one of Jan's fun images.

Jan's newest sets are 25% off, and this month's sale, includes 9 sets for Mother’s Day, also 25% off.

To create my card, one set was used:

*NEW* Spring Flowers & Coffee 4085
9 images on sale for $3.00

I had fun using Copic Markers on this versatile, sweet Spring Flowers & Coffee set. 

Wilted Violet & Shaded Lilac Oxides were employed in the background, while Pumice Stone Distress ink was used in the bottom area.

Using Distress ink allows for shading a bit more atop the ink with warm gray Copics to create a shadow effect.

Gotta love the combination Purple & Yellow!

The beauty of digital stamps is they can be "re-worked" to suit our purposes. 

In this case I cropped one of the sentiments to fit my needs. 

Instead of:

 "Daughters are like flowers, they fill the world with beauty", 

my card says:

 "fill the world with beauty".

M

Looking forward to seeing your creation in the Anything Goes Challenge at Jan's Digi Stamps!

Products: Jan's Digi Images:  Spring Flowers & Coffee 4085, Anna Griffin Slim Concentric die set AG-1249-AS, Copic Markers, Pumice Stone DI, Wilted Violet & Shaded Lilac Oxides, White Gel pen for the heart bauble.

This was taken on March 14. Even after the "dregs" of milkweed leaves at the end of winter, the caterpillars have hatched, are merrily munching, and growing quickly. There are butterflies all over because of the crazy weather patterns. We have potted milkweed in our gardens, just for the butterflies to lay their eggs on!

May I please play in the following challenges?

1. CD Sunday Plus Challenge #107 AG (1 of 3) (sentiment was copy-and-pasted digitally, cut apart digitally, and then printed out to accommodate my card. The "table top" was drawn on the word processor and hand colored with the image after printing) 4/16
2. Worldwide Crafters and Colorists Challenge #4 AG (entry 2) 5/12
3. A Perfect Time to Craft Open Challenge #4 AG 5/1
4. Classic Design Challenge #4 AG 5/1
5. The Corrosive Challenge #4 Anything Goes 5/6
6. SheepSki Designs Challenges #73 Die Cuts and/or Punches 5/1
7. My Time To Craft Challenge #505 Easter Flowers or Spring Flowers 4/20
8. Inspiration Station #48 Field of Tulips in the boldest of colors, like the yellow tulips in my card. 5/1
   
   
   

Stamping Hugs,

Inspiration Time at Beautiful Blossoms Challenge

Welcome, Blogging Friends! I'm so happy you are here! It was ALMOST more fun WRITING today's post, than it was to make the card - but I really laughed a lot through the makings of this project, and I hope you will laugh through the post.  YOU WILL UNDERSTAND WHY MY BLOG IS CALLED CREATIVE SMILES.

First things first: let me tell you about our new challenge blog:

 Last month we kicked off a Brand New Challenge called Beautiful Blossoms . 

It is a fun "mood-board-inspired" monthly challenge which features Flowers as the main focus. 

The Mood Board is a starting point, and your artwork is where your imagination takes you! You do not have to follow the theme of the Mood Board, but you do need to use it as inspiration.

Details are on the blog. Hope to see you there! 

I was inspired by the petals, pinks, and blue background in this mood board.

Have you ever had one of those projects where not one single thing works out as anticipated, yet STILL, you plug along, expecting the next step to cover up the problem, but then THE NEXT STEP becomes a problem, too? Until your whole project is one blunder after another?

Well, THAT is this card. NOTHING happened the way it was supposed to, AND that was after throwing away two-partially-colored and/or cut out items for this card! SIGH - and yet, I really did have fun making a  mess and playing with just about everything in my craft room. (What a mess to clean up afterward!)

I couldn't even take photos as I went along because it was one boo-boo after another, including:

1.  throwing away two backgrounds
2.  ruining the embossing powder, 
3.  refilling the Copic marker with the incorrect color reinker, 
4. restarting from scratch, 
5. NOT ruining the EP the 2nd time, 
6. NOT using Copics the 2nd time, 
7. dropping the markers repeatedly on the card front, 
8. warping my cardstock by spilling water on it (the SAME water I was using for cleaning my brush, so it WASN'T EVEN CLEAN WATER), 
9. dropping the card several times and TWICE rolling over the card front with my chair, 
10. having the super-duper adhesive stick my card front to the guillotine cutter because I had forgotten that I die cut a small hole in the back..
11. and WHY would I do that? Because I had run out of pink cardstock for the sentiment.
12. Picking a brad that would cover a mistake. Using a Copic on said brad to change the color, only to have my hand spasm and the color ended up on the sentiment. Went to look for a larger brad, and found one - it gaudies up my sentiment satisfactorily. LOL

DARE I GO ON? 

Speaking of boo-boo's:

OKAY, OKAY -- Those are a few of my boo-boo's. I figured, at this point, no matter what I tried to do, blunders were GOING to occur, so I pressed on... 

Jack came in and asked, "Is there anything I can do?" All I could do was laugh at that point, because he could see all the little piles in my room where I had each small boo-boo isolated to fix the mistakes. 

At the VERY END, I almost glued the completed topper onto the card UPSIDE DOWN.

BUT I PERSEVERED AND WON!

sorta...

               kinda...

After ALL THAT, 

wanna see what I made?  (giggle)

Products used: Beccy's Place Cherry Blossoms clear stamp set, Sue Wilson Lattice Arched Adornment die, Tutti-680 Stitched Rectangles, Spellbinders Decorative Labels Eight, assorted distress inks, Zig markers, Tombow markers, pink EP.

Challenges I would like to play in please:

1. Ally's Angels #67 AG 3/9 (1 of 3)
2. Beccy's Challenges (February) Beccy, I hope I followed your directions - please forgive me if I misunderstood. 3/1
3. Creations in Pink #54 AG in Mainly Pink
4. Colorful Options (Feb 2) Celebrate Pink 2/28 (sep post)
5. A Perfect Time to Craft Open Challenge #2 AG 3/1 (winners on 3-28)
6. Worldwide Crafters and Colorists Challenge #2 AG 3/12 (1 of 3)
7. Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2306 AG 2/20
8. The Paper Funday Challenge #50 AG with lots of layers 3/1

Thanks for popping by today!

Happy Holidays with Jan's Digi Stamps

I am excited to share that Jan's Digi Stamps Challenge will resume on November 1! To get ready, how about reacquainting yourself with the Challenge Rules and become inspired by seeing the newest work of her design team!

Jan is one of those easy-going spirits who enjoys sharing her memories through a vintage, yet contemporary, style. Not only are her PNGs (and JPGs) easy to use individually, they are fun when making a scene, involving several images.

Today's share is a fast-and-easy Christmas card, using a single element from Jan's new "Santa's Jalopy" set which is currently 25% off. 

Still not able to hold a pen for long, I opted for the pre-colored image, and made a slight shadow with colored pencils and gamsol.

It felt great using glitter again!

Hoping you will visit her shop today!

Using one of the little "now drifts" in the set, I placed it behind the pole for some extra dimension.

Products Used:

Stamps: Jan's Digi Stamps "Santa's Jalopy", Jan's Digi Stamps "Reindeer" (sentiment), Dies: Anna Griffin Slimline Concentric AG-1239H, Pierced Shape, MS Snowflake Punch, Other: Clear Glitter, Cloud Blue Prismacolor pencil.

Facebook - Shopping - Pinterest - Challenges

I would like to play in the following Challenges, please:

1. World Wide Open DT Challenge #9 "AG DT" 10/15
2. Classic Design Challenge #10 "AG" 11/1
3. Love to Craft Challenges #63 AG (11-10 sep post)
4. AI Art Impressions Challenge #313 Slim Line Cards (toward bottom of post) 10/15
5. Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2139 10/5
6. Sweet Stampin Challenge (Sept 25) Christmas in September 10/9 (sep post)
7. Merry Little Christmas Challenges #39 Anything Christmas 10/30 (sep post)
8. The Holly and the Ivy Challenges #102 Anything Christmas 10/10 (sep post)

Stamping Hugs,