Saturday, June 26, 2021

With Love From Me to You Card

Hi there!
Samantha here, and today I am sharing a happy and tropical, summer friendship card!

     

Create a Smile stamps makes one of a kind floral images and I knew it was time to make a flower-forward card with that new stencil!

Let's make this card together!

- first, I stamped colored all the images with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and then once they were all dry, I fussy cut them out!
- I also splattered some ink color and white acrylic ink on top of the images
- I used Distress Inks in Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn and Pine Needles to do some ink blending from the top left corner down


- I did more splattering, this time with greens and white acrylic ink onto the backgroun
- I used the stencil and the same colors in Distress Inks, but this time with more pressure, to add the leafy background.

- I heat embossed part of the sentiment onto a strip of black cardstock
- then I stamped the large 'you' directly onto my cardfront
- finally, I finished off the card with some clear sequins!


In order to get the leaves close to each other and in different areas, I used some printer paper to cover up the areas/leaves of the stencil, so I didn't add ink to areas I didn't want it!


For the background, I used the new Leafy Stencil! The flowers are from a retired set, but look at these gorgeous alternatives! And the sentiment is from All About You.

    

There is ALWAYS a fun challenge going on in the Create a Smile Stamp Facebook group page! It's fun and filled with prizes! I love seeing all of the incredible, unique and amazing inspiration!
 
~Samantha

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

We dare you to create a smile : June Sketch

Hello everyone 

Time for a new challenge and now we are having this wonderful sketch to boost your creativity !

Also i have some sad news as this will be my last challenge as challenge coordinator . When Christine asked me to join her team and CAS family,  almost three years ago ,  i was so honoured and also very emotional as  CAS was one of my favorite and i've been a fan ever since i found the company . 

Now after three years i feel as honoured or even more if that is even possible to have been part of such amazing and supportive group , to had the opportunity to know so many talented people . 

I'm sad for leaving but i know that team and the challenge remains in good hands and will continue to check all your fantastic creations ! 


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

 Our guest designers made such fabulous cards using today's sketch to bring you inspiration. Let's check their cards out!

Loreen made this beautiful card using Heute wird gut stamp set 






Thank you for guest designing for our challenge ! Make sure to check their amazing creations and leave them some love.

Let's see what our design team created inspired by the sketch 






Claudia  created this wonderful card using A little treat stamp set 














Vicki made this adorable card using Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles  , Glowing seaside 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 



You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter


Winners from June Mood board challenge

Hello everyone !

It's time to pick our winners !! Thank you everyone for playing along with our mood board challenge !


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!


The winner of a 25€ gift card is Biggi with this gorgeous card using  Unschlagbar stamp set  , Cool cuts Stacked Pierced Banners 


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

Our featured artist from the mood board challenge is Liebes.Wolf with this adorable card using Cool cuts DIN Lang Postage Zuckerschnute stamp set


Congrats !! You can take the badge and display it on your blog is so well deserved ! if you would like to guest design for our next challenge please send an email to challengeteam@createasmilestamps.com so i can let you know the details.


 Make sure to check the blog for the new challenge and I hope you are inspired to play along with us. 
Until next time have a great day!

Alexandra

Saturday, June 19, 2021

You're My Reason to Smile

 Hello dear crafty friends!  It's Candice with you today and I want to share with you my secret of how to get the splattered backgrounds for your scene building!



I love to use the splatters on my ink blended backgrounds to add contrast to my scenes and I feel it's about time I shared this with you!


The first thing I like to do is to die cut my stitched panel, here I used the Double Stitched DIN Lang dies, from Bristol Smooth cardstock.  I find Bristol Smooth to work the best for my blending of oxide inks.

On this panel, I used abandoned coral, dried marigold, and squeezed lemonade to get the base.


Now, onto the splattering!

I have found from asking around (especially helped by @theunpamperedstamper) that the best way to get the solid white is to use the Copic Opaque White paint.  

For my gold splatters I either use watercolor paint (as I did here) or for a more lighter sheen I used shimmer sprays.  

I then like to use the darkest oxide color I inked with, either by rubbing onto a piece of acetate or using the refills, and the damp paint brush.

The paintbrush of choice is #4 (another helpful hint from my friend) pictured above.


Now, while we let the panel dry, we move onto the pieces that will be put onto the card!

I die cut many of the Summer Florals dies from different pattern papers that would match the background.

Next, I heat embossed the 'SMILE' and fussy cut around it. 

The cute little pig was next, I stamped him, colored him with copic markers, and fussy cut him out.


To put the card together, I glued the splattered background to the center of my card base, glued the bases of the floral dies, and topped them with a row of black twine.  

I then used foam tape to add the pig and 'SMILE' and stamped the sentiment above.  To finish, I sprinkled a few yellow jewels!


Experiment with the paints and watercolors that you have to see what works for you!  Also, try different sized brushes for varying sized splatters, for galaxies, I use a toothbrush to get the really tiny dots!








Don't forget there is a current challenge that you can try this new technique on for your chance to win!

Thank you for visiting today!

Candice

Wednesday, June 9, 2021

Simple Masking and Combining Stamp Sets!

 Hello friends and welcome back! It's Laurie with you today to share a clean and simple card using some simple masking!




I went through all my CAS stamp sets and as soon as I saw that cute jam jar from the Summer in a Jar set, I knew I wanted to turn it into a vase or a pot for some flowers. I also wanted to do some masking to make one complete image instead of fussy cutting each image. For the flowers, I chose the gorgeous Cosmeas set.


Yes, masking does take a little time and a little bit of thought to create the scene you want. But in the end, it is so worth it! I don't go for very elaborate scenes. I try to keep it simple! Here are the steps I followed to create this jar with flowers:

1.  Stamp jam jar and create mask.
2.  Apply jar mask and place the flower stamp you want towards to the FRONT of your scene. In this case, it was the purple flower!
3.  Stamp flower and create mask.
4. Apply mask over first flower and place stamp for the next image. You can see that the pink flower looks like it is sitting behind the purple flower...that's all thanks to the mask on the purple flower!!
5.  Make mask for pink flower. When we stamp the greenery, all of our stamped images will be covered by masks and will make the leaves look like they are in the background!
6. Stamp the leaves.
7. Remove all the masks and voila, you're scene is created!

I used alcohol markers and coloured pencils to colour the image. I fussy cut the entire image out including the inner bits!


Once the image was cut out, I did a little ink blending with a light blue ink and a blending brush onto the front of a white card base. I used one of the DIN Lang Border Dies to create a scalloped "shelf" for my flowers to sit on. To take it to the next level, I added a piece of crochet ribbon. When was the last time you used ribbon on your cards?! I rarely do anymore but I absolutely LOVE the look!

Before adhering everything to the card base, I realized I needed to stamp some sort of a greeting. I found the "hello" from the Mesmerizing Mandalas Stamps Set fit perfectly!!

I adhered the "shelf" with liquid glue. Because the ribbon was a bit thick, I needed to add a bit of foam tape to the flowers and everything sat level. 

To finish off, I used a white gel pen to add a couple of details to the leaves and flowers and also added a few clear sequins.




If you're new to masking, my advice is to start out with simple scenes, like this one. The more you do it, the more complicated scenes you'll be able to do. I don't mask much so I ALWAY keep it simple! This project only used 3 masks!  Another tip is to not use itty bitty images. I find I get so frustrated cutting out tiny images only for them to get lost or slide around.









Create a Smile Stamps has a wonderful community on Facebook! If you haven't checked out the group, you totally should! And if you need more inspiration, check out the biweekly challenge here on the blog!!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!! See you again very soon!!

Laurie