Good Morning!

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Today I have a colorful coffee card for you!

The sentiment is from the new sentiment set called Bei Merlins Bart and means Good Morning. When I saw it I knew it would go perfectly with the coffee pot.





I die cut a stitched rectangle from watercolour cardstock and heat embossed the sentiment in white on it. After that I added a lot of water to it. Then I sprinkled on some pigment powder colours on.
While the background dried I stamped the coffee pot and coloured it with alcohol marker.
I fussy cut the image and added some glossy accents to the heart.

• At first my background was very bright andtoo dominant for the image. So I kept adding water to make it more pale.
• With the background becoming paler the sentiment was difficult to read. I added some grey shadows to make it stand out more.

The new challenge started today. The challenge is to stamp a background.

   

So Many Flowers... Happy Birthday

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Today's card is full of flowers.

I learned this technique from one of Kelly Latevola's amazing videos. I tried it once before and found it easy but loved the effect. So I decided to do it a second time.




AS I already told you is the technique not too difficult. For the instructions how to achieve this look you can watch Kelly's video on this rechnique. It is called Watercolor Bleaching.

• Instead of Copics I used coloured pencils for the shadows. I had the feeling my Copics didn't go well with the embossing and the Oxide inks.
• Use dark colours for your card The effect is much more stronger with darker colours.

Show us your art work: Use #createasmilestamps when you're posting on Instagram!

               

You've Got Mail

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Happy New Year to all of you!
Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

After a lot of Christmas cards I am happy to share a non christmassy card with you!

I created a big sheet of an alcohol ink background a few weeks ago, that I wanted to use. So I knew I needed a critter with neutral clour to go with the bright background! I decided to make this cute elephant the star of my card.

• When you create an alcohol ink background, use a bigger sheet than you need for your project. This way you have backgrounds for further cards.
• To create this background I used Yupo paper, Copic Cleaner and alcohol inks. I start with a layer of Copic cleaner and add in alcohol inks. In between I use my heatgun to dry the layers.

We will have a big and fun release this month. Follow Create a Smile on Instagram and on Facebook to get all the news.

            

Happy Birthday

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Woohoo, no Christmas card today, what a surprise! For a change I have a birthday card for you.

When I saw this video by genius Jennifer McGuire I knew I had to try this technique called Distress Ink Monoprint. I did a lot of samples not each turned out pretty but I liked this one.

• I created the background following Jennifer McGuire's video. When the background was dry, I die cut a circle from it. I layered it with a die cut circle with a post edge.
• Then I stamped the super cute guinea pig from the set Furry & Bright / Flauschige Weihnachten. You can use the guinea pig all year round although it is a Christmas set.
• I coloured the image with Copic markers and added in some fur details with coloured pencils.
• When I put the circle on my card, it looked a little bit boring. I decided to add some splatters using the same Distress Oxide inks I used before for the background (absolutely inspired by Kerstin).
• The last thing I had to do was to stamp a sentiment and that finsihed up my card.

Show us your art work: Use #createasmilestamps when you're posting on Instagram!

      

   

Simple Christmas Cards

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Last week I showed some simple Christmas cards on Instagram using the versatile die from the Frosty Fun Kit. Today I continue the series of easy to make Christmas cards but this time I use stamps.

Usually I create Christmas cards all year round. I love to make Christmas cards and this way I don’t get stressed at the end of the year. Last year I challenged myself to make two Christmas cards a month. Unfortunately I didn’t pull this through this year. That’s the reason why I am thinking about ideas for simple cards that don’t take too much time to make.

I arranged the snowflakes in my stamping tool and stamped them three times using Versamark, one time on regular white card stock and twice on watercolour card stock. I embossed the images in white, silver and platinum. Then I die cut scalloped rectangle from the pieces.

On the regular card stock I added some ink blending using Distress Oxide Inks.

For the watercolour paper with the platinum embossing I smooshed ink pads on my craft mat, sprayed it with water and dipped the paper in it. I repeated the process and dried the paper in between.

For the piece with the silver embossed snowflakes I added some ink blending again. I filled the paper with Distress Oxides again and sprayed it then heavily with water to blend the colours.

On all three panels I added the same sentiment by embossing it and some metallic twine.

All that was then left to do was to adhere the panels to some cardbases.

The next release is just around the corner! The DT will be showing sneak peeks starting next Monday.