Create A Smile - Challenge of the Month - Blog Hop

Welcome to Create A Smile first Challenge of the Month! This month, the theme is Favourite. You can interpret it however you like. I choose to pick my favourite type of stamps. Of course, there are countless of stamps that I love but florals are weakness ;) 

For this hop, the winner will receive a 15€ gift from Create A Smile and there's also a hop-giveaway on the Create A Smile main blog. 

Here you can see a one layer card I've made using the floral sets from Create A Smile called Crokisses and a bunch of Distress Ink Markers.

Hope you like my card as much I love making it!

Here is the order of the blog hop. 

Head over to the next blog or you can go to the blogs that you might have missed. 

Their instagram name are next to their blog links for you to support and follow them on instagram as well!

Create A Smile - @createasmilestamps

Sonja K. - @sonjakstampart

Francine - @francinevuilleme

Anika - @annikarten

Birka - @biiirka

Keeway - @kiwi.koncepts

Justine - @justinehovey

Amy - @thecraftbunny

Samantha - @sammann11

Marina (You are here) - @mjeggtofu

Marika - @mispasttimes

Anja - @anjacurvers

Create A Smile Stamps - White on White

Hi Everyone! Did you order the new kit? If you have not, what are you waiting for? Head over to the store because there's a limited amount of kits available.

White on White. I have not done this in a while and I don't even know why because I absolutely love the result. This card is simple to do and you can do it with anything you have or you can get the same materials that I use with the links at the end of the post.

Very easily, to start, I did a bunch of die cutting. I used the tree die from the Beach Part Kit and cut 5 pieces. Tip : To make the white on white quite seemlessly, it's best to use the same white paper for die cutting and as your card base. The whiteness of the papers will be the same which I think makes it look good. 

I attached the trunk and the top of the tree together with some liquid glue. This really helps me, when I'm trying to position the die cut on my case base, because then you basically only have to move one die cut at a time and not the leaves and trunk separately ;) 

I attached the die cuts to the base with some liquid glue and making sure that I have some die-cut hanging off the card base. 

This is how it looks after I've attached them and cut off the access.

To finish the card, I die cut the sentiment and attached some sequins and a banner. 

All Create A Smile products : 

Beach Party Kit (used the Dies, patterned paper, sequins) 

Doppeltes Danke

Mini Danke

Follow Create A Smile on Facebook keep yourself updates on all the happenings and if you're an Instagram addict like I am, you can follow Create A Smile using this name : @createasmilestamps ! :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Marina

Create A Smile Stamps - Beach Party Kit

Hi Everyone! Did you order the new kit? If you have not, what are you waiting for? Head over to the store because there's a limited amount of kits available. But if you still need more convincing, I'm using a few of the products from the kit in my card below.

Enjoy!

To be very honest, I don't know how I wanted the card to look. 

I just started with taking a watercolour paper and swipe a layer of white gesso over the stencil, but only on one side of the paper. Why? I don't know haha. I just wanted to test out how it would turn out and didn't want to waste a whole piece of watercolour paper.

While I let the gesso air dry, I stamped the images (also on a watercolour paper with Distress Ink - Walnut Stain) and use my Inktense Watercolour Pencils to colour the images. I usually start by direct colouring on the areas that should come out darker. 

The pencils are highly pigmented, a little goes a long way. As you can see below, I'm using a wet brush and "pull" the colour to the rest of the white space. If the colour isn't vibrant enough, you can get the colour directly from the pencil with a wet brush.

To add colour to the gesso-ed stencil, I used my very wet brush to pick up colour directly from the pencil. If you've never done this before, no worries, this does not ruin your pencil. At least not for me. 

Anyways, all I wanted to create is a gradient of light to dark blue.

Materials Used

All Create A Smile products : 

Beach Party Kit (used the Stencil, Stamp and Enamel Dots) 

Alphabet Sticker - Dolphin

Happy Days (Birthday Sentiment)

Non-Create A Smile Products : 

Derwent Inktense Watercolour Pencils

Ranger Glossy Accents

Clear Wink of Stella

Follow Create A Smile on Facebook keep yourself updates on all the happenings and if you're an Instagram addict like I am, you can follow Create A Smile using this name : @createasmilestamps ! :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Marina

Create A Smile Stamps - More Masking!

Hi Everyone! Happy Mothers' Day to all mothers out there! :) 

As much as I love adding dimensional stickers to my images to have it overlap images and overall, looking more fun and interesting, I do enjoy the planning and carefully stamping all images in one flat layer. Also, I find that masking technique also kind of helps you save some money on buying truck loads of dimensional stickers.

This might not be new to some of you but I would like to share more masking ideas and tips along the way. I hope you'll enjoy today's card and I would like to see what you've come up with.

I am a clumsy crafter. Almost all the time, I managed to ruin my project mid-way or when it's almost done, so eventhough, I usually create a card with spontaneous ideas, in this case I've made a plan on where I want the flowers and leaves to be. 

But first, let's cut the paper. I wanted to die-cut the border using Pretty Pink Posh's Stitched Dies but my new die-cut machine isn't wide enough so I traced the die on my panel and just hand cut it. If anyone has any tips on how I can use border dies on my cardbase using cuttlebug, that would be awesome!

Time to start stamping and masking! General rule for masking is : The image that you want to have it on the front, has to be the one that you stamp first. I want all the flowers to be on top of the leaves, so they get stamped first. I stamped it again on a thin typing paper and carefully cut it out and use a temporary adhesive. I've also made a mask for my leaves :)

This is how it looks after being stamped. It looks a bit chaotic but take your time to colour and it will come out great! I used Antique Linen Distress ink to stamp the images and Prime Watercolour to colour in the images. Since I'm watercolour, I coloured all the flowers first. This allows the flowers to dry before I start colouring the leaves. 

To add something that would pop out of the images, I used a White Gel Pen to add some dots to the flowers. 

All Create A Smile products : 

Aloha Spirit

Just Because 

Non-Create A Smile Products : 

Pretty Pink Posh - Stitched Border Die

Prima Watercolor Confections

Tombow Removable Adhesive

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Antique Linen

Follow Create A Smile on Facebook keep yourself updates on all the happenings and if you're an Instagram addict like I am, you can follow Create A Smile using this name : @createasmilestamps ! :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Marina

Create A Smile Stamps - Creative Stamping!

Hi Everyone! A month break from crafting has made me a bit rusty. I've finally migrated to Germany! :) Still getting used to the idea but getting there. Anyways, I'm just really happy to be crafting again and sharing my projects with you. Today, I would like to share a way to "edit" your stamp. 

A good tip I learn while doing this sort of stamping method is that try it on a regular typing paper first if you're doing it for the first time. It helps and avoid wasting your precious cardstock :) And always make sure your fingers stays clean from the black it. I'm always having this issue -.- Somehow black ink finds it's way to my fingers no matter how careful I try to be. 

The image that you want to have it on the front, has to be the one that you stamp first. And I wanted a second stamp behind it but the image was a bit larger so I had to extend the height of the shelter. To do this, I masked off the top part (the shelter) and a bit of the two bars and stamp the rest of the image as usual. Remember to take off the tape before stamping! 

This is how it should look like when you masked off the top part. 

Next, I masked off the bottom area and the hippo and only inked up what I had masked off earlier and  carefully stamp it so that the bar would look kind of straight. Lol, it's a bit slanted :D As you can see below, it's a bit taller than the original.

More masking! I used pieces of post it to masked of the area where I will stamp the next hippo so that it won't overlap. 

Once, all the stamping is over, I took my Copics and colour :) Added the sentiments and ta-da! Hope you like it and let me know if you have any questions / comments!

All Create A Smile products : 

Served Up

Mini Geburtstag

Geburtstags-Triple Dies

Non-Create A Smile Products : 

Copics

Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Follow Create A Smile on Facebook keep yourself updates on all the happenings and if you're an Instagram addict like I am, you can follow Create A Smile using this name : @createasmilestamps ! :)

Create A Smile Stamps - Let's Celebrate

Hi Everyone! Last week, I did some masking on the little envelopes. Today, I used masking again for a different stamp set and not for a one layer card. I usually like using masking technique when I need to make a one-layer card but it can be used to make your own customised embellishment / image.

This is a very simple care to make. The stamp set (Message in A Bottle) basically did most of the job for me! I prepared a masking for the bottle. Just one and that's all you need. I stamped the middle bottle first and then, the other two. I did not use any masking when I stamped the straws. I used watercolouring to colour the image. I just thought watercolouring might be a nice option to use since I'm trying to portray liquid anyways :D 

Add some glitters to the straw and that's it! I love you love it as much as I do.Oh and that pretty striped paper at the back is also from Create A Smile ;) 

Follow Create A Smile on Facebook keep yourself updates on all the happenings and if you're an Instagram addict like I am, you can follow Create A Smile using this name : @createasmilestamps ! :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Marina

Create A smile Stamps - Tags!

Hi everyone! Adding a simple tag to a small gift is always a great idea, don't you think? Sometimes, when I need to give a gift to a friend or just a little pick-me-up and I have no cards in hand, I'll add a little tag to the gift. Here are some tag ideas you can recreate using only ONE stamp set.

I started by cutting myself some tag shapes with my watercolour paper. You can buy some watercolour tags but I find that when I cut them myself, I can get the size and shape that I want.

I used Distress Ink Walnut Stain to stamp all my images. I had no intention of doing a no-line colouring but I didn't want the lines to turn out too sharp like if I use black ink. And I kind of like the vintage look that brown outline gives.

You notice that I did not stamp any of the images right in the middle. I wanted to give the tag a big of "movement" and some added interest without adding layers to the tag. Try doing this to add image you have for your next project and I bet you'll like it ;)

Once your image is dry, all plenty of clean water around the image and drop some colours and let the water spread the pigment out. You can help it by using just a clean wet brush to push the colours away. This gives a soft "halo" to the image. 

Stamps : 

Create A Smile Stamps - Doctor's Helpers

Follow Create A Smile on Facebook keep yourself updates on all the happenings and if you're an Instagram addict like I am, you can follow Create A Smile using this name : @createasmilestamps ! :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Marina

Create A Smile - A Card Without Any Images

Hi everyone! You know, I'm not such a great colourist and I always take so long when colouring an image, eventhough I love it. So, sometimes, I take the opportunity to make a great without using any images and you can still make a great card! With die-cuts that's popping out everywhere nowadays, there's plenty you can do :)

As you can see, I basically almost filled the background with the colours of the rainbow. As usual, I use Distress Ink for this. You can use any medium you have. Hey! You can even use strips of cardstock to create a rainbow background. 

With a busy background, I wanted to keep the rest of the card clean. I die-cut those frames and left it uncoloured. The frame can stand out more and a gold die cut for the sentiment just adds a little glam to the card, don't you think? ;) 

Material Used : 

Create A Smile Die-Cuts - Birthday-Triple

Create A Smile Die-Cuts - Magical Frame

Create A Smile Stamps - Mini Birthday

Follow Create A Smile on Facebook keep yourself updates on all the happenings and if you're an Instagram addict like I am, you can follow Create A Smile using this name : @createasmilestamps ! :)

Create A Smile Stamps - Watercolouring A Stamp

Hi everyone! Sometimes, one small image is more than enough for a card. For this card, I wanted to make something that only uses one image but at the same time make the card look "full". Watercolour is a big hype for a while now and I am a big fan. I hope you like this card!

To share with everyone that just one image can help to make a card look "full". Sometimes, I'll be on a budget and I try not to buy everything that comes out because I can't afford to keep buying everything. So, this is when I'll take the time make full use of my stamps and doing something like this can give a stamp a different look. 

I wanted to have a freehand watercolouring look and for this I always use the Antique Linen Distress Ink because it's one of the lightest ink I have. Distress Ink works well with water so you won't see any obvious ink lines anymore. 

I used a Daler Rowney paint set for this watercoloured card. Instead of just painting the shell or face with one colour and few shades of the same colour, I added some brown to the green. This gives more texture to the shell and it doesn't look so "flat". And I really like how it turned out. The beauty of watercolouring is that you can achieve this look easier than if you use copics/pencils.

Materials used : 

Create A Smile Stamps - Lovely Critters
Create A Smile Stamps - Kleine Worte 
Antique Linen Distress Ink
Prima Watercolour Paper

Follow Create A Smile on Facebook keep yourself updates on all the happenings and if you're an Instagram addict like I am, you can follow Create A Smile using this name : @createasmilestamps ! :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Marina

Create A Smile Stamp - Rainbows!

Hi everyone! Last week, I shared a card with a colour combination that I'm not reaching out for very often, or even, ever. But today, I'm using a colour scheme that everyone is familiar with - RAINBOW! It's the easiest colour scheme but yet, it's makes something very eye catching. And also, you get to use a lot of your supplies that you've bought ;)

Creating and colouring a full background can be quite time-consuming. But sometimes, we might need a last minute card. Today, I'm sharing with you some tips on time saving when making a card.

Alphabet stamp sets are awesome for many reasons but one of my favourite reason is, they make awesome background stamps. If take a look at the image below, I have placed as much of the alphabets as possible on the watercolour paper. By doing this, I can use a stamping press to pick up all the alphabets are stamped all of them at once. If you don't have a stamping press, you can use the acrylic from your die-cut machine. 

I'm using VersaMark to stamp the alphabets and this method of stamping saved me a lot of time. If you stamped them one by one, you might have to heat embossed it very couple of alphabets because you can't see where you have stamped previously. Hope you get what I'm trying to say :) 

After I've heat embossed all the alphabets, I just added smaller signs from the stamp set to fill in some of the spaces. You can skip this step if you want to. 

Next is my favourite part. Choose any watercolour medium of your choice. Distress inks, markers, watercolour pencils/markers, etc. I used Daler Rowney Watercolour Set. If you scroll back up and look at the card, I wasn't colouring the individual alphabets. I just added the colours loosely :) 

Add your sentiment in a dark bold colour and you're all done!

Materials Used : 

Create A Smile - Kleine Worte Dies

Create A Smile - Crystal Letters (Lower Case)

Follow Create A Smile on Facebook keep yourself updates on all the happenings and if you're an Instagram addict like I am, you can follow Create A Smile using this name : @createasmilestamps ! :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Marina

Create A Smile Stamps - Stack Those Die-Cuts!

Hey everyone! I'm sure many of us have those stackable dies. It might be of a square shaped, or circle, or a banner one like the one in my card. But I rarely use them all at the same time, so I thought why not try and do that now? :D 

Of course, I started the card with some die-cutting first. I started with the biggest & second biggest die. You can start in any order your prefer. I used some coloured paper I got from the bookstore. You can use, patterned paper or you can even create your own colours. 

When you position the dies like in the image above, you'll get 2 die-cuts; one - a border (shown below) and the other is a solid cut of the banner. You can keep this for your next project :) 

Once I have the die-cuts, all I have to do is assemble them. They fit into each other like puzzles! Simple! :) Add a big bold sentiment like I did to complete the card.

Materials used 

Create A Smile - Kleine Worte  (Dies)
Create A Smile - Stacked Pierced Banners (Dies)
Create A Smile - Stickers (Enamel Dots)
Create A Smile - ein riesiges Danke (stamps)

Follow Create A Smile on Facebook keep yourself updates on all the happenings and if you're an Instagram addict like I am, you can follow Create A Smile using this name : @createasmilestamps ! :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Marina

Create A Smile Stamp - Sending You Love

Hey everyone! Happy New Year! I hope all the celebrations were awesome. I'm here to start my first project of the year with a lot of die-cutting. 

I love stamped images and I looooove colouring them but sometimes, I like to give the die-cutting a chance to be the star of the show ;) 

This is a simple card to make but it might take a few minutes ;) 

I started off by just colouring some colours on my card stock. This is really important because the dies are small and it's harder (or more troublesome) to colour  them after you've die-cut. This is the best tip I could give you for this project. 

After colouring, I can go ahead and die cut using those cute small dies that comes with the Stacked Pierced Oval dies. I feel like sometimes, we over looked those tiny dies, but they can be a big part of your project. 

I stamped the bold sentiment and started placing those dies as I wish :) 

Now, it's your turn!

Materials used : 

Create A Smile - Stacked Pierced Oval Dies
Create A Smile Stamps - This Must Be Love

Follow Create A Smile on Facebook keep yourself updates on all the happenings and if you're an Instagram addict like I am, you can follow Create A Smile using this name : @createasmilestamps ! :)

Create A Smile Stamps - A Bunch of Hearts

Hey everyone! Did you catch the new release? If you didn't, I'm here to share with you a card I've made using one of the sets. Also, if you didn't know, the first kit that was released, Sending Sunshine, is still available! I'm gonna use one of the items in the kit for this card. So if you didn't get a chance to get it the first time round, head over to the store :) 

Also, are you on Instagram? If you are, come visit me at @mjeggtofu and Create A Smile at  @createasmilestamps

This card is where I mixed it the old and the new. Hopefully, this will inspire you to take a look at your older products and see how you can mix it with your new stuff.

When you look at the card, it's fairly obvious how I did it but I hope you'll still read on as I'll add in some tips along the way. 

I started off by colouring in the hearts with copics. Obviously, I'm not an expert on copics but I did find that to get a nice blended look, I, sometimes, touched the tip of the markers so that I could achieve the middle colour. Hope you get what I mean. 

Here's what I used an "older" product. I wanted something to attract the sentiment. I looked through my stash and realised that I have not used this chipboard from the Sending Sunshine kit. In the middle of the chipboard, there's a word sunshine but I cut it out so that I could use the "messy" circle. 

To add the gold (that I love), I die-cut the word using the Kleine Worte die using a strong metallic gold paper. I'm so obsessed with this paper. I got it from a local store (no brand was written on it). Added the rest of the message and dots of gold stickles and that was it! 

Materials used : 

Create A Smile - Sending Sunshine kit

Create A Smile Dies - Kleine Worte

Create A Smile Stamps - Color Your Heart Out

Create A Smile Stamps - Ein Riesiges Danke

Ranger Gold Stickles

Copic Markers

Create A Smile Stamps - I love Snowflakes!

Hey everyone! How's your preparation for the holidays? I've been having some Christmas parties with friends in the last few weekends! It was fun and I'm excited for more wine and loads of food ;) If you're like me and are still making Christmas cards, I hope this will give you more ideas.

Oh! Don't forget, there's a big discount on some of the products! Get them before they are gone! Click here to get to the store.

Firstly, I started by die cutting a white panel using the snowflake die from the Snow Dance kit. I love this die because it's so big and it's just a great center piece! On the card panel itself, I sponged it colours using Distress Ink. You can use ANYTHING you like :) Distress Ink, watercolour, patterned paper, possibilities are endless! You can even turn this into a shaker card!

Next, I added my sentiments and dots of Gold Stickles for some holiday touch ;) 

Materials used : 

Create A Smile Stamps - Snow Dance kit

Create A Smile Dies - zu Weihnachten

Ranger Gold Stickles

Distress Ink - Barn Door, Peeled Paint

Follow Create A Smile on Facebook keep yourself updates on all the happenings and if you're an Instagram addict like I am, you can follow Create A Smile using this name : @createasmilestamps ! :)