Create a smile

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Winners from the Sketch challenge

Hello everyone !

The fact that you take your time to play along with our challenge even if is such a busy time of the year makes us very happy. we enjoyed seeing your beautiful takes on the sketch and we finally picked one winner and one featured artist

Also wanted to let you know that by playing along with our challenge you get the chance to win a 25€ gift certificate to Create a smile store and to be guest designer for our next challenge!

Our winner from the latest sketch challenge is Sandra with this gorgeous card using Keine Geschenke stamp set , Maus au Chocolat stamp set , Lächeln stamp set

Congrats please send an email to challengeteam@createasmilestamps.com to claim your prize ! Is so well deserved !

Our featured artist from this challenge is Kerstin with this sweet card using Ähnlich programmiert stamp set

You can take the badge and display it on your blog is so well deserved !

Thank you to everyone who played along with our challenge! until next time have a great day!

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Awesome Fur Real!

Welcome! Candice here with you today!

And, like Nicole, I am sharing a masculine card with you!

I tend to struggle with ideas for masculine cards and I know I am not the only one, right?! I have found that when I am in need of a masculine card I am usually pulling out Create a Smile stamp sets. They have this fabulous unique ability to be used for cute and bold styles!

-I first created an 8 1/2 x 3 1/2 card base to fit my tall design on.
-For the background, I trimmed thick black cardstock and using the twinkle stencil, I filled in the stars with a gold pen. It didn't come out as clean as I hoped, but it gives it the handmade aspect!

-Next, I stamped the lion, rock, and ferns, colored them with copic markers and used my scan n cut to cut them out.
-The new bold alphabet dies, Cherry Uppercase & Cherry Lowercase, are a perfect choice to create a masculine sentiment and I combined it with the black & white happy to make the sentiment stand out as much as the images.
-To finish the card, I stamped the Fur real phrase on the rounded banner and added a few white nuvo drops around the background.

My best advice for masculine cards:

Use deeper, richer colors and just a couple tones throughout the card.
Using black and white as your base to your color choices will always work.
Use a simple and bold design for either your images or sentiment or both as I did.

Fur Real stamps Fine Ferns stamps Happy Days stamps Twinkle stencil

Cherry Uppercase dies Cherry Lowercase dies Useful Banners dies

We would love to see your beautiful creations using Create a Smile products and can share them on the Create a Smile FB page!

Also, their is always the bi-weekly challenge you can enter for your chance to win!

Thank you for visiting today!

Candice

We dare you to create a smile : Mood Board

Hello everyone!

Can't believe is already our last challenge for this year ! And also with this amazing design team , that has been on our side for a year now , and let me tell you that was a fabulous year. Loved having them by myside , getting inspired by this amazing ladies and counting on them when the times were busy !

Thank you for being part of our little challenge family , was an honour to be in the same team as you lovelies , and I said before this isn't a goodbye , as we will see each other on social media

We end the year with a Mood board challenge and here is the graphic .

P. S. our next challenge starts on 8th January 2020

Also don't forget that by playing along with our challenge you get the chance to win a 25€ gift card to Create a smile store and the chance to be guest designer for our next challenge

Let's see what our guest designer made inspired by the Mood Board theme

Jessica created this sweet and adorable card using Flauschige Weihnachten stamp set , Sweets & Treats stamp set , Hauptrolle stamp set

Thank you so much for being guest designer in our challenge . Please make sure to check Jessica's social media and leave her some love.

The design team also created some gorgeous projects inspired by the new mood board . Here they are

Alexandra made this card using Cool buddies stamp set , Mouse au Chocolate stamp set , Frosty fun kit

Anita created this adorable card using From my nest stamp set

Elisa made this gorgeous card using Stencil from Sending sunshine kit, Lettering Alphas CAPS stamp set , Lettering Alphas stamp set , Easter Tweeting stamp set

Ildi created this stunning card using From my nest stamp set , Festive foliage stamp set

Laurie made this beautiful card using Floral decorations stamp set , Cool buddies stamp set

Mirella made this wonderful card using Cool cuts Kathi Snowflake, Small Christmas Sentiments stamp set

Natalie made this gorgeous card using Cool cuts Kathi Snowflake , Festive Foliage stamp set , Oh, Tannenbaum stamp set

Viola made this adorable card using Tollpatschige Weihnacht stamp set , Scene buiders stamp set , Snow Flurry cling stamp

Hope you got inspired and now is your time to be creative!

Please before entering your project make sure to check the rules which are listed below

Saturday, December 7, 2019

(last minute) masculine christmas cards

Hello there, Nicole here.

I have two quick and easy masculine christmas cards for you today.

I realized that most of my christmas cards were cute but I needed some masculine ones as well. And because it's December already, I needed them fast. So here are two quick and easy cards I made using watercolors, embossing powders and Distress Oxide Inks.

Card no.1 - mistletoe

stamp the mistletoe on watercolor paper with a crisp black ink that is a bit sticky and cover it with clear embossing powder. Heat set the powder with your heating tool.
color your image with watercolors or watercolor markers and let it dry
use a blending tool to add Distress Ink to your panel. Start with the lightest color on the edges and get super light towards the middle to create a halo. Add a darker color of Distress Oxides to the edges to create more depth.
sprinkle on some water drops to add a bit of texture/interest to your background.
stamp the greeting in crisp black ink
stamp some little stars with the lighter Distress Oxide ink to add a finishing touch

Card no.2 - globe

stamp the globe and the stand on watercolor paper with a crisp black ink that is a bit sticky and cover it with clear embossing powder. Heat set the powder with your heating tool.
color your image with watercolors or watercolor markers and let it dry. Make sure it's completely dry, so the embossing powder for the next step will not stick to your entire image
stamp the stars and lines with a sticky clear ink and heat emboss it with gold embossing powder
add a little watercolored shadow underneath the stand
stamp the greeting in a matching dye ink or Distress Oxide ink

Clear embossing powder over black ink helps you to stay in the lines while coloring with watercolors if you need to be quick
for me, watercolors or watercolor markers are easier to use if I want to do some quick coloring (projects with alcohol markers or colored pencils take me much longer)
vintage colors like these warm brown tones give your stamped image a cool retro look
gold embossing powder adds a bit of festive bling without being too much

Festive Foilage

Joy to the World / Fröhliche Weihnacht überall

Zum Feste das Beste

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Have a happy day,

Nicole

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Cool Buddies

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Christmas is only a few weeks away! Of course I have a Christmas card for you today!

I've been loving might sky backgrounds lately! And penguins coloured in dark blue instead of black! So I decided to combine both in one card.

I started by stamping, colouring and fussy cutting the snowmen and the penguin. For the colouring I combined Distress Ink reinkers and coloured pencils.
To create the backgrpund I ink blended Distress Oxide onto a piece of white cardstock. I started with Tumbled Glass in the middle, than added Peacock Feather, Dusty Concord and Black Soot.
For the snowflakes I added silver embossing paste through a stencil.
To bring some colour to the card I die cut a speech bubble from orange cardstock and stamped the sentiment on it. The sentiment says Merry Christmas in German.
Then I assembled the card.