Create a smile

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

We dare you to create a smile : January Mood board

Hello everyone,

It's time to finally start the newest challenge.

And you know what? It's also time so welcome our brand new Create A Smile Challenge Team!

We are beyond excited about these ladies - they are going to blow your minds with their talent, their creative ideas and different styles.

They will bring inspiration to you from January till June , make sure to check their social media out and follow them:

New on the team:

Candice • Claudia • Jeanne • Joke • Kerstin • Maaike • Nina • Tinne • Vicki

Leave them some love and let me know we sent you ;)

We are starting our first challenge with this mood board that Christine created for us and we are excited to see what you will create .

Also don't forget that by playing along with our challenge you get the chance to win a 25€ to Create a smile store

Let's see how our guest designers were inspired by the current mood board :

Valerie created this adorable card using Tea time stamp set

Ildi created this wonderful cards using Radio rock stamp set , From my nest stamp set, Unfrogettable stamp set, Lights on! , Stencil Blossom

Johanna made this beautiful card using Endlich Schulkind stamp set , Stempelfreunde stamp set

Thnak you so much to our guest designers for creating such gorgeous cards , please check their social media out and leave them some love.

Our Design team creations are also here to inspire you so let's see what they created

Ale made this card using More than naps stamp set , Cool cuts Scalloped Rectangles , Cool cuts Speech bubbles , Furry & bright stamp set

Candice made this gorgeous card using Lights on! stamp set

Claudia created this wonderful card using our freebies

Jeanne made this fabulous card using Einatmen, Ausatmen stamp set , Kroküsse stamp set , Cool cuts Cherry lowercase, Cool cuts Cherry Uppercase

Joke created this wonderful card using Easy-breezy stamp set

Kerstin made this gorgeous card using Ähnlich programmiert stamp set , Stencil Triangles, Cool cuts Cherry Uppercase

Maaike made this adorable card using our freebies

Nina made this wonderful card using Licht an! stamp set , Cool cuts Double stitched Rectangles

Tinne created this beautiful card using Cool cuts Scalloped Rectangles, Cool cuts Stitched Circle Frames , Same Frequency stamp set , In bloom stamp set

Vicki made this adorable card using Best bugs stamp set , Scene builders stamp set

Before you enter our challenge please make sure to check the rules below

Thank you for stopping by ! Have a great day

Alexandra

Saturday, January 16, 2021

Rainbow Mugs

Hello! Candice with you today and I hope you are having a fabulous new year and I am going to start it off with these fun rainbow mugs!

I wanted to have a fun and bright card and I knew this cute mug from the Cream Topping would be great in rainbow colors!

To create the background I used the Narrow Stripes stencil and lightly inked with spun sugar.

I then die cut the stitched panel, taped off the bottom and inked it with hickory smoke.

Next, I heat embossed 6 of the mugs in clear embossing powder using versafine black ink and used my Zig watercolor markers color the mugs.

The Zig colors I used: carmine red, orange, yellow, light green, turquoise green, purple, medium beige and gray tint.

I finished with a simple vellum stitched scalloped tag heat embossed with the sentiment in black, a few rainbow domes and some clear stickles!

When you have a stamp set with one image coloring it in rainbow colors allows you to use it repeatedly in a fun way!

Cream Topping stamps Narrow Stripes stencil

Scalloped Rectangle dies

You can always join in the bi-weekly challenge for your chance to win!

Thank you for visiting today!

Candice

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Hello friends and Happy New Year! Laurie with you today sharing a fun technique using stencils. I'm not sure if you're familiar with a Gel Press but it is a super cool tool to help you create mono prints. It's basically a gelatin plate that you can apply paints, inks and stencils to. By applying these mediums and placing a piece of paper over top, you can achieve amazing "prints" or "pulls". It's called mono printing because you will never get the same background twice. I'm VERY new to this tool and am still learning but what I know so far is that it is SO MUCH FUN!

I really wanted to use some of my favourite CAS stencils along with the Gel Press to create an interesting and fun background. My original plan didn't involve making four cards but it worked out in the end.

First thing I did was create a simple background. I placed a light pink and white paint onto the press and spread it out using a brayer.

I then placed a stencil over the gel plate and added a darker shade of pink paint. I spread the paint over the stencil with the brayer then removed the stencil. I placed the same paper over top and pulled.

I took the next stencil and yellow paint and repeated the process.

The paint dries very quickly because it's such a thin layer so this goes fast! I used quite a few stencils and different paint colours. This is what I ended up with:

I always use white paint last to lighten and break up some areas. I didn't use the Gel press for the white circles. I love the grungy, imperfect look of this. But what comes next increases the beauty of this background!

To bring out some of the details of the stencils, simply use a white gel pen and a black pen. Simply trace certain areas as well as add random dots and line!

Before:

After:

These sketchy dots and lines add so much!! Because the background is quite busy, beautiful but busy. This is where I decided to cut it up and make four cards.

I used a couple different dies and got four different panels. I made 2 white card bases and 2 ivory card bases to fit these panels. I used a kraft layer on two of the four cards and used foam adhesive to adhere the pretty background panels.

This is a very neat trick!! Instead of stamping a sentiment directly onto a panel that has a lot of texture and risking a poor image, you can use tissue paper!!! Simply use a permanent ink and stamp slowly. Try not to wiggle the stamp too much as tissue is slightly slick.

Trim around the sentiment...it doesn't have to be perfect. You will need Gel Medium to adhere it.

Because I used acrylic paints for my background, they are not going to smudge as they are permanent. Apply gel medium, lay the tissue over top and apply a thin layer over top. The tissue paper virtually disappears into the background...cool, right?!!