Thanks For Everything You Do (with Hummingbird!)

Hello, and happy Friday!

Samantha here, and today I'm sharing a sweet little thank you card featuring this adorable hummingbird!!

I really LOVE this stamp set, and I honestly just wanted to color and use that cute cute cute humming bird!! And I don't know about you, but I can always use more thank you type cards! Ha! 

Let's make this card, it's easy, and so colorful - two things I love:

- stamp and color the images (I used copic markers to color, but watercoloring or colored pencils would look awesome, too!)

- once colored, fussy cut out the images and arrange on the patterned paper card front

- stamp the sentiment and add black splatters!

To create this card, I used two stamp sets: Jungle Fever and Time to Say Thanks! The super awesome, grey woodgrain paper is from the Sending Sunshine kit! 

This card was SO fun to create - I just spent some time coloring some wonderful images! I LOVE taking the time to color, it helps me relax, focus and enjoy the moment!

   

Next week is release week...I'M SO EXCITED!! Stay tuned for lots of information and join our new Create a Smile Friends and Family Facebook page to keep up with new items and share your own projects!! 

Thanks again for stopping by!

~Samantha

           

Some more inlaid diecutting.......

Hi there it's Anja again at the beginning of this new week.
I hope I have some inspiration for you today.

 

 

If you read yesterday's post from Christine you already know we have a new facebook group called, create a smile friends & family, not only to connect with you but also to be inspired by you. We have already placed our first inspiration picture and would love to see what you do with it.
So my card for today is inspired by this picture at least the colors are.
I love the inlaid diecutting technique reminds me of puzzles.
So I combined this technique with the colors and some stamping, masking and embossing.




First I sponged some differeent distress ink colors on some watercolor paper. After it was completely dry I masked the envelopstamp three times and white heat embossed it.
I took the frame die and diecut it several times making sure that I kept all the little pieces to place them back in my background.
Now I had to puzzle the pieces by diecutting them from white cardstock and placing everything back.
I stamped the images and the sentiment on some paper and fuzzy cut it. Colored the images in the same colors as the distress ink and adhered them to the card.
Rounded the lower corners of the card and placed some enamel stickers to put it all together.
Ofcourse I also used some glitter on the snake and the hearts to finish it.

Stamps;

Happy Mail;



Cool cuts (dies)

Magical frame;



Enamel stickers;





Make sure that your watercolored background is completely dry before you heat emboss images. You can speed up the procces by using your heatgun and heat it also from behind to avoid warping of your paper.
Test if your paper is completely dry before you stamp and heat emboss. Use a antistatic tool and place some embossingpowder if it doesn't stick your paper is dry enough.
Make sure that you collect all the different diecut pieces of paper when you use the inlaid diecutting technique because you have to put them back again.







We love to connect with you and love to see what you do with our supplies either by linking at the sidebar of the blog but as we mentioned before you can now join us over at our facebook group create a smile friends & family, love to "see"you there.

Have a great week;

Anja

Video: Baby Shaker Card

Hello crafty friends and happy Sunday! :)


Hope you're having a wonderful week-end, including some crafty time!
I'm finally back with a new card video, showing how to create this cute baby shaker card:

This week we decided to open up a Facebook Group called "Create A Smile Friends & Family", because we love connecting with you. This group quickly became a fun place full of inspiration and chitter chatter - and I pop in whenever whenever I can to answer questions, check out your projects and get to know you :) We would LOVE to meet you there!

In this group if we could do some baby stamps, so when I asked the group members what theme they would like a video on we found that it would be a great idea to show what baby-related stamps we have or how you could use our stamps for baby cards.

Check out the video to see then steps for this card (they were quite a few ;) )

• instead of using foam tape for your shaker, cut fun foam with the same dies that you use to create your shaker window. This way everything should fit just fine.
• cute images are perfect for baby cards - just combine them with the baby's name and some soft colors and you're good to go.
• stacked dies create fun shaker windows if you combine them to create a frame.
• if the little circles don't come off your die easily heat your die with a heatgun - the steel will slightly expand when it get's warm and you can carefully tap it onto your work surface - the circles will just fall off and the die will go back to normal when cooling down.
• You can use the tiny circles for your shaker-filling as well.
• use sticky tape to get the right placement for your dies. This way they will have the same position on your cardstock and your fun foam.
• glossy accents adhere your fun foam just fine.

Did you join the Facebook group Create a Smile Friends and Family? There is so much fun going on there with chats, challenges, sneaks and more :)

Hopo you enjoyed this little tutorial and it was helpful to create some cute baby cards :)

Have a great day!

Monster in a Bottle!

Hey stampers! Anni here!
Spring arrived here in Berlin and I hope it has where ever you are, too.
Nevertheless I have a Get Well card for you today! It says something like"Caught a bug?" but in German the saying is more like "Caught something?". That's why the sentiment goes perfectly with the little monster from Monster Party.

I was thinking about other things that would fit into the bottle from the set "Message in a Bottle"/"Flaschenpost". When I went through my stash of Create a Smile stamps this little monster instantly caught my eye! Perfect!

• Stamp, color and fuzzy cut the bottle and the monster.
• Die cut the banner shape.
• Stamp  the background. 
• Heat emboss the sentiment on a tiny strip of cardstock.
• Assemble the card.

• It isn't so easy to color the bottle - well, not for me. But Sandy Allnock made a great video on how to color glass.
• The banner die isn't as long as it seems on my card. With partial die cutting I created the size I needed for this card.
• Stamp and heat emboss the background. Stamp the background a second time a tiny bit off with white pigment ink. It is a great subtle effect.

Have you already joined the Facebook group Create a Smile Friends and Family? There is so much fun going on there with chats, challenges, sneaks...

         

A Totally Cool Birthday

Hello, Samantha here, and today I'm sharing a fun little boy-ish card with you today! :)

I was totally inspired by one of my little Mann's shirts, to be honest! I just loved that little bear, and so I knew I could create a cute little guy like it from the Made of Snow stamp set! 

To create this card, you'll need some patterned paper, some markers and a lot of fun! :) 

- stamp and color the images with your favorite coloring tools! I used Copic markers, but this would look just as adorable watercolored!

- fussy cut and add foam tape to the back of the images

- cut down the patterned paper to size, and add strips of washi tape

- heat emboss sentiment and attach images

It's honestly that simple! :)

I used images and part of the sentiment from the Made of Snow stamp set! The sentiment is from the Mini-Birthday stamp set! And that awesome grey paper is from the Snow Dance kit! LOOOOOOVE it!

I really LOVE this design! You could use this same placement (sentiment, image, etc) and create a totally different look!! 

    

Don't forget to get your own Create a Smile paper!! It's SUPER thick and awesome quality!!! 

Thanks again for joining me! 

~Samantha

  

You Make My Heart Happy

Hello friends! Angel here to share a sweet and simple watercolor card using distress inks and embossing powder. 

I love distress inks. They are one of my absolute favorite mediums to use. I am constantly amazed at all they can do and how beautiful they can make a card look. I knew I wanted the colors red, black and white. At first, I thought the hearts had to be red but I'm glad I used the white. 

I used distress watercolor card stock to apply the Candied Apple distress ink across the paper. I let the ink and water have a mind of it's on and go where it wanted. Once I liked how it looked, I used my heat tool to dry it completely. I stamped three different hearts from the Color Your Heart Out stamp set using Versamark ink. I masked a few of the hearts to look as though they were behind others. The white embossing powder makes the hearts pop right off the card. The sentiments are also stamped in Versamark ink on black card stock also using white embossing powder. I cut the panel slightly smaller than the card and placed it on black card stock. I created faux stitching lines along the top and bottom to finish off the card. 

Try using any bold color distress ink with white embossing powder to help it pop off your paper. I promise you won't be disappointed! 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Angel