Big Hugs with Create A Smile Stamps!

Hello, my friends! Today I'm sharing a card made with one of the newest stamps from Create A Smile Stamps! This mini set is called Big Surprise and it is absolutely adorable!! This latest release was full of these mini stamp sets but don't be fooled, they are all so versatile!!

This little cutie was so much fun to colour! I made a simple scene card by die cutting a circle into a 3.5X5 inch white piece of cardstock. I used one of the Stitched Circle Frames to do this. On the card base, I used a light brown ink for sand and a blue ink for the sky. Over top, I added some clouds using the Cloud Pattern Stencil.

Before adhering the aperture panel, I ran it through my die cut machine using a striped embossing folder. I foam mounted the panel then added all the elements.

The sentiment is also part of this set. I fussy cut around the "big" and foam mounted it to the card.

I added a few details with a white gel pen, a sparkle pen and a few sequins! 

I hope you enjoyed today's project!  And just a hint...the June release is almost here!!!! :)

See you soon!

Laurie

Create A Smile Stamps Card Share!

Welcome!! I'm dropping in to share a card I made using products from Create A Smile Stamps! I've just recently joined the design team and am over the moon to be a part of this amazing group!

For this card, I've mixed a few stamp sets, old and new!

CAS Products used on this card:

Uplifting Stamp Set: helicopter, clouds

Best Bugs Stamp Set: tiny flower

Ting-a-Ling Stamp Set:  kitty cat

Cloud Pattern Stencil

I'll be sharing Create A Smile Stamps cards here once a week so stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by! See you soon!

Laurie

Spread Joy not Germs Blog Hop!!!

Hello and welcome!! I'm so happy to be participating in the #spreadjoynotgerms blog hop which was put together by our friends at Catherine Pooler Designs and Hedgehog Hollow. We're coming together to make some Happy cards which we encourage you to send out during this uncertain time.
We are all experiencing something different and out of the norm. There is no better time to send out some happiness, whether it be across the globe or across the street. Let's create a card and make the world smile!

This is a MASSIVE blog hop with TONS of prizes. There are 31 sponsors who have generously donated more than 50 prizes. Please remember that these small businesses are struggling right now and still donated to this hop. Let's help them out a bit:) More details will be provided at the end of the post!

I'm using products from Pink & Main which is generously offering a $25 gift certificate to the online shop! Let's have a look at what I've created!

I went with a clean and simple design. This card could easily be massed produced. I started by cutting a white panel with the largest of the Stitched Rectangles Set 2 dies. I then placed the Mask It Circle Stencil towards the left centre of the panel. Using the Ergonomic Blending Brush, I blended some All That Jazz ink. I repeated the process by adding 2 more circles on the right side of the panel.

Using the stencil, I cut a mask out of typing paper so I could cover the lower half of the circle before stamping the florals.  These come from a fab set called Gorgeous Vases. I chose 3 different bouquets and using Versafine Black Onyx Ink stamped them inside the circles.

The sentiment comes from the Just Because Stamp Set and was stamped onto a Sentiment Strip Die. I originally had the sentiment on just a white banner but decided to add the same blue ink to make it pop of the white background.

I added a few pencil details to one of the flowers in each bouquet but this step could easily be skipped. After adding the panel to a grey card base (yes, it has white heat embossing on it) that I just happened to have in my stash, I added a few black gems and called the card done!  I think this card could be fun to send to a friend, sibling or even a neighbour. Who would you send this card to?

The next stop on this creative journey is : KAREN B.

To be eligible to win, all you need to do is leave a little love at each stop of the hop. This is a large hop and we appreciate you taking the time to comment! You don't have to comment on each stop, but your chances of winning increase with each comment you leave! I suggest maybe grabbing a coffee/tea/glass of wine to keep you company on this journey :)

Deadline to enter is April 24, 2020!!

Winners will be announced on April 27th, 2020 on both Catherine Pooler's Blog and the Hedgehog Hollow Blog!

For more information on all the prizes being offered or if you'd like to see the full list of hoppers, please visit:

Catherine Pooler's Blog

or

Hedgehog Hollow Blog

Thank you so much for stopping by! Have fun hopping and good luck!!

Be well, my friends!

Laurie

My Creative 94th Edition Sneak Peek Day One!!

Hello my friends and welcome back to a week full of spookiness featuring products from the upcoming release from My Creative Time!!  This month's release will get you ready for Halloween season!

Today, we're having a look at the new Halloween Fun Stamp and Die Set!  This set is full of creepy, cute sentiments as well as a ton of dies to dress up your Halloween cards or treat bags!

I used one of the ghosts and the witches hat die to decorate the front of my card.  The background was really easy! I used Mixed Media paper and the inks blend like butter! I used Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire and Dusty Concord Distress Inks.

The sentiment is so cute, which I heat embossed in silver. The stamp set also has a speckled image (don't know how else to decsribe it) which is super fun and comes in handy to add texture!!

And that's your sneak peek for today!! Hope you enjoyed!! See you back here tomorrow for another awesome peek!

**Sneak Peek Giveaway**

We will be giving away the sets we are showcasing each day to ONE lucky winner!! For example, the sets we showcase on Wednesday, Emma will announce the winner of that on Thursday and the sets we showcase on Thursday will be announced on Friday on the MCT Blog!  All you have to do is leave some love on each of our blogs.  You are not required to comment on every blog, but the more you do comment on, the more chances you have of winning!!   VERY IMPORTANT: Please leave a way for us to contact you with your comment, just in case you are the lucky winner! For extra entries, you can spread the word about this release on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using #mycreativetime!  Good luck!!

Wild About You with Pink & Main!!

Hello, friends! Welcome back! While the Pink&Main Blog is getting an exciting new look, I'm sharing my latest creation here!

I used the fun, new set called Toucan Do It stamp set and co-ordinating dies for this card along with some fun ink blending.

I started by die cutting a white panel of cardstock using the largest of the Stitched Rectangles Set 2.  I used Peacock Feathers Distress Ink to add some base colour. I focused on the bottom left portion. I then placed the Puffy Hearts Stencil over top and used the same ink, with a harder pressure. This creates such a beautiful look!

I stamped that adorable alligator with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and used my Copic markers to colour it in.  I cut the image out with the co-ordinating die.

I adhered the heart panel onto a white card base and used foam adhesive to adhere the alligator.  I stamped the sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black ink.  I decided to leave it as it was and not add any sort of embellishment...which is hard for me, haha! I really wanted that background to shine!

Thank you for stopping by today!! I hope you have some time to check out some of these new (and older) products in the Pink & Main Shop!!

Sneak Peek Day 3 for My Creative Time!

We're halfway through sneak peeks for the upcoming 92nd Edition Release for My Creative Time! We've had a couple days of baby themed products, now it's time to switch gears to wedding season!!

We are showing you two brand new products today! One stamp and die set and one stand alone die.  Both beautiful, both must haves! Let's start with the die. It's called the Lace Border Die.  This die is both smart and gorgeous. Gate fold cards seem to be all the rage right now and this die makes it easy for you to make them.  It cuts a gorgeous rounded, lacy edge on one side and a score line on the other. So, when you line the edge of the die onto a card base, it will only cut the frilly portion and leave the card base in tact. I hope this makes a bit of sense.

I used this die to cut two edges for a simple, square card.  I had some scrap grey cardstock and thought it looked lovely on top of an ivory card base.  Note: the size of this die is much larger than shown here. I've trimmed it down quite a bit!!

The detail on this die is just beautiful!  

Now onto my second card and my favourite of this release!  I used the new Save Our Date Stamp and Die set for this card.  Along with a little ink blending and I just love how this card turned out!

This die set is so awesome! Die cut in black with a few white accents against the sunset Distress Ink background, it just pops!! The cans on the back of the car are a separate die so you can add them if you want. I think you could use this die for a non-wedding card as well. Just snip the veil off!

I love that small "congratulations" sentiment that comes in the stamp set. It fit perfectly!

And that's today's sneak peek! Hope you enjoyed!

**Sneak Peek Giveaway**

We will be giving away the sets we are showcasing each day to ONE lucky winner!! For example, the sets we showcase on Wednesday, Emma will announce the winner of that on Thursday and the sets we showcase on Thursday will be announced on Friday on the MCT Blog!  All you have to do is leave some love on each of our blogs.  You are not required to comment on every blog, but the more you do comment on, the more chances you have of winning!!   VERY IMPORTANT: Please leave a way for us to contact you with your comment, just in case you are the lucky winner! For extra entries, you can spread the word about this release on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using #mycreativetime!  Good luck!!

Create A Smile Challenge...CIRCLES!!

Hello friends and welcome back to another challenge for Create A Smile Stamps!!  It's all about circles. Who doesn't love a basic shape?  Especially, circles!!

I used a bunch of CAS products on this card. I basically went through every stamp set I have and looked for circles.  But real basis for this card comes from the Huge Polka Dots Stencil.  I used Catherine Pooler Inks in the colours Sweet Sixteen, Aquatini and Lime Rickey.  I used a Life Changing Blending Brush from Picket Fence Studio for the blending.

When the ink was dry, I heat embossed a bunch of circle images in silver.  The two largest circles come from the Hocus Focus set and all the other circles come from the Fine Ferns Stamp Set. I trimmed the panel down and adhered it to a light grey panel cut with a stitched rectangle die.

For the sentiment, I die cut the "you" from the You Twice Cool Cuts and used the Sweet Sixteen ink to give it some ombre style colour.  I took a co-ordinating sentiment from the All About You Stamp Set.  I heat embossed it onto a circle cut from a piece of polka dot vellum (from PaperTrey Ink, years ago!).  I simply manipulated the stamp to fit the circular shape.  I did layer the vellum onto a white circle die cut as well.  The sentiment just got lost without it.  I cut the "you" out of white craft foam for some dimension and added it to the circle.

I did adhere the sentiment circle with foam tape to separate it from the stencilled and embossed background!!

I hope you can play along with us!! I love seeing all creativity!!  Visit the Create A Smile Stamps Challenge Blog to enter!!

Thanks for stopping by! See you soon!!

Laurie

Made in Minutes with My Creative Time!

Hello crafty friends and welcome back!!  Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends!!  Today it's all about whipping up a card in minutes using products from My Creative Time!  I mixed a bit of old and new stuff for my project today and since fall is upon us, I used a bunch of gorgeous colours of Distress Inks for my colouring.

I was recently told that I should start making more sympathy/thinking of you cards so that it what I did today.

My favourite way to add colour quickly is to ink blend onto die cut images. This takes no time at all and the results are beautiful!

I started by clear heat embossing the large image from the Carved Heart Stamp and Die Set onto a piece of white cardstock and used Vintage Photo and Brushed Corduroy Distress Inks to add the colour. The embossing resists the ink resulting in a bright, crisp image!

I used the co-ordinating die to cut it out. This set also comes with a bunch of heart dies so I cut a medium sized one of those and added Fired Brick Distress Ink.

The leaves come from the new die set, Little Stitched Leaves which is a must have!! I used Mowed Lawn, Crushed Olive, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick and Fossilized Amber to add some shades of Fall.

The sentiment comes from the Vintage Sentiment Stamp Set and was stamped onto the banner die from the Vintage Stitched Label Dies Set.  I used ivory cardstock for a more muted look against the kraft card base.

For a bit of added detail, I added some sparkle pen and Nuvo Crystal Glaze to the heart (which changed the colour slightly) and a few gold gems.

This card took my about 20 minutes to make. The longest of those minutes were trying to decide on where to place the gems and getting my glue to come out of the bottle!

Thank you so much for stopping in today. Much appreciated!

See you soon!

Laurie

Pink & Main Sneak Peek!!

Hey friends!!  I wanted to share a little peek at one of the upcoming stamp set from Pink & Main!!

This entire release is fantastic but the Deck the Palms set is one of my favourites!!

All the detail can be found on the Pink & Main Blog :) September Release will be available on Friday!!!!

Thank you so much for stopping by!  

Laurie

Oceans of Birthday Wishes with Craftin Desert Divas!

Hello friends and welcome back!! I'm back to share a fun Summer themed card with you!!  The past couple Craftin Desert Divas releases have had some absolutely amazing summer themed stamps and dies, so this card was so fun and quite easy to make!!

I started by picking the umbrella and the cute little mouse on her beach blanket from the Waving Hello stamp set and did a little masking to make them into one image.

I stamped the umbrella first, applied the mask and then stamped the mouse.

Always stamp what you want in the foreground first!!!  I coloured up this cutie with my alcohol markers.

For the background, I used the Bright Horizons Stencil along with Wild Honey, Scattered Straw and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks. 

This stencil is so beautiful and gives such a great result!

To complete my scene, I of course, used the Beach Scene Dies. This has to be one of my all time favourite and most used die sets!!  I cut the "beach" die out of white cardstock and used Tea Dye Distress Ink for some colour.  I cut the pretty scallop die from the Outdoor Landscapes Two Die set out of white cardstock as well and used Peacock Feathers Distress Ink on it.  I ended up cutting a piece of vellum with this same die.

I fussy cut the sweet little mouse and thought I needed one more element to this card...a bird!  So, I die cut the bird from the Scene Builder Dies and applied a light grey ink.

I decided to cut down my stencilled background as well as all the die cut pieces with the largest of the Fancy Frames Die set.  This gave everything a beautiful scalloped edge.

I simply layered each piece onto the scalloped card panel using tape runner adhesive.  I did use foam tape for the mouse.

The sentiment comes from the Mermaid Lagoon set and was stamped on a thin strip of cardstock which I angled at one end.

Of course, every card of mine has to have some sparkle and shine, so I added some clear sparkle to the pink areas and added Glossy Accents over top!!  And don't forget about the Shimmer Sequins!!

And that's my Summer Themed card for you today!!  I hope you enjoyed!!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!!  Until next time...stay crafty!

Laurie

Here is a full list of CDD Products used:

Waving Hello

Mermaid Lagoon

Bright Horizons Stencil

Beach Scene Dies

Outdoor Landscape 2 Dies

Scene Builder Dies

Fancy Frame Dies

Glossy Accents

Clear Wink of Stella

Maple Syrup Monday with Catherine Pooler Designs

Hello friends!!  Colleen from Maple Syrup Designs and I are taking another look at Catherine Pooler Designs stamps and dies...and inks!!

I used the recently released Wonderful Wildflowers stamp set for my project today.  This stamp set has co-ordinating dies but I didn't actually use those today. I started by stamping many of the images with Versamark Ink and heat embossed them with white heat embossing powder.

I used Rose Petals, Peppermint Scrub and Skylight inks to blend some colour onto each image. The white embossing resists the ink.  I used a combination of Green Tea and Eucalyptus ink for the leaves.

I fussy cut each image out. In the end, you'll notice that I did not use the small red flower. Each flower comes with three layers: the outline, a full stamp which fills in the outline and one detail layer. To give a bit of interest to the flowers, I stamped the detail layer in the same ink I used to blend the colour.

After I fussy cut each image, I jazzed up the white card front using a light grey ink, a stencil with small polka dots and an oval mask cut out of a piece of typing paper and an oval die.

I stamped the "wonderful" word from the set in both the Peppermint Scrub and Rose Petals ink to create a soft ombre look.  I ended up fussy cutting around the word so I could pop it up off the card.

I adhered all the images with a combination of foam adhesive and liquid glue.

I added a bit of Clear Sparkle Overlay pen to the darker parts of the flowers.  It reacted a bit with the ink, but the effect is pretty.

I finished the card off with a few Sparkling Clear Sequins.

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope you enjoyed today's card!!

Until next time....stay crafty!!

Laurie