Splotchy Octopus

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Today I have a card for you where I have combined some older stamps with a brand new stencil.

Lately I tend to stamp the whole set and colour all the images when I got a little bit of time on my hands. Some weeks ago I showed you a card with the narwhals from this cute set Underwaterlove. For this card I used another image from this set.

• When you create your own background it is easy to match the colours. Sometimes I start with the images, sometimes with the background. It depends on my mood and in which medium I have the biggest variety of colours.
• Here I coloured the images first (with coloured pencils) and then created the background. 
• For the colours of the background I try to choose some that are not the main colours of the focal image. In my opinion you get better contrast and less tone in tone.

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

      

Loops of Love

Hey stampers, Anni here!
Today I have an easy to make and clean& simple card for you.

Life is crazy right now and so I needed to make a card that takes not so much time. Loops of Love is the perfect set for this occassion.

• I started by die cutting a Double Stitched Rectangle from watercolour cardstock.
• Then I stamped an dheat embossed in white three hearts in a row.
• I filled the hearts with water with a brush and sprinkled the some colour pigments into the water.
• All that was left to do then was to stamp the sentiment. In English it says something like "How nice that you were born, we would have really missed you otherwise.". It is from a German Birthday song.

Create a Smile will be on the Stempelmekka - Europe's biggest stamp faire. Maybe you can come along, too, we would love to meet you in real life.

   

Super Birthday Mouse

Hey stampers, Anni here!

I needed a special birthday card because I missed the birthday of a crafty friend of mine.

I was on vacation when my dear team mate Chris had her birthday. I forgot to send her a card before I went to France so I wanted to make a card for her when I came back.
I thought Super Birthday Mouse was perfect for this occassion.

• Go through your stamps and think about how combining different sets can creat totally NEW stamps.
• Using white pigment ink and heat embossing in white can create different shades of white and an intresting effect.
• Versafine ink in black is the perfect ink for stamping sentiments.

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

         

Congratulation!

Hey stampers, Anni here!

It is this time of the year when a lot of pupil graduate from school. I made a card saying: Congrats - I know you had it in you.

A friend of me ask me to make a graduation card for her son. The only school related stamp set in my stash (also I am a teacher) is First Day of School - but I think you can make it work for the last day of school, too.

• I started by stamping all the pens in the set a few times and coloured them in shades of green, turquoise and blue. 
• Then I fussy cut the images without leaving a white border. It is more difficult then with a border but when layering the images I like the look better. 
• I took the second biggest rectangle from the die set Double Stitched Rectangles and draw around it on white paper with a pencil.
• I arranged the images in that rectangle, glued them down and die cut the paper.
• All that was left to do was to stamp the sentiment and assemble the card.

The new challenge started today. Christine created a beautiful mood board that will fire up your inspiration.

      

Vinyl Greetings

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Today I have a rainbow birthday card for you.

A good friend of mine is turning 50 this week and I know that she likes the set Vinyl Greetings. So I decided to use it for a birthday card for her.

• I started by stamping the records with Versamark Ink and heat embossed it in white.
• Then I added some colour with Tombow markers. With a water tank brush I took the colour further and blended it with the colour beside.
• For the sentiment I stacked up some die cut numbers to achieve some dimension.
• I adhered them to a circle of vellum and added a stripe of pink cardstock with the main sentiment.
• I adhered all to a black cardbase.