Challenge #4 Inspiration with Nora

Hi everyone!! I hope you are having fun playing along with Stamping Smiles Design Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge #4. I have been looking at all your wonderful creations and am in awe of all the creativity. It is so interesting to see the different interpretations everyone has using this card.

Nora here to bring you a little inspiration using Challenge #4.

I chose the middle row from top to bottom with the elements-sequins, Distress Inks and stencil to create my card.

I used a technique on this card that I had never tried. It was using shimmer spray and Distress Ink with a stencil. I snapped some photos to give you a little photo tutorial of the process.

I inked a piece of white card stock with Peacock Feathers  Distress Ink. I did not use any fancy tools but literally rubbed the ink pad across the paper. 

Next I covered the inked card stock with the Echo Park"Branches" stencil and misted it with a clear shimmer spray. (You can also use water if you did not want the shimmer.) I sprayed just enough to cover the stencil but not enough to saturate the paper. I used a paper towel to blot any excess moisture there might have been on the stencil.

I slowly took the stencil off and used a heat gun to dry the panel. It might buckle a bit but once you adhere it to a card, it will be fine. You can also see that I did not mist the card evenly. I could have gone back to fix this but I liked the way it came out so I chose to leave it this way. 

I cut the panel down a bit and adhered it over a top folding white card base. I then added a strip of white and black polka dot paper at the bottom of the inked panel.

I used PaperTrey Ink's "Vintage Linens" stamp set to stamp the flowers in black dye ink. I then die cut them with the "Vintage Linens" matching die set. I adhered the leaves and flowers to the front of the card, using foam adhesive on the left flower to give it a bit of dimension.

I adhered three clear sequins randomly over the card and used clear Wink of Stella over the black leaves and the flower stamens. 

I chose to leave the card blank, figuring I could add a sentiment later, depending on what I want to use the card for.

There is still some time to play with the Challenge #4 card. I cannot wait to see what you create!!

Thank you for stopping by. Have a wonderful day!!

Nora

Challenge Guest Designer : Yukari Yoshioka

Happy Thursday Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge Fans! Today I am so excited to introduce our guest designer for challenge 4, Yukari Yoshioka of Handmade By Yuki! I am telling you this girl is crazy talented and she is going to make you fall in love with her project today! I absolutely adore her style of cardmaking! Like me, she loves creating with cute and whimsical images that make people smile. Below you'll find a little information about her in her own words followed by her super cute project.

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Hello! My name is Yukari; however, I go by my nickname, Yuki. While originally from Los Angeles, CA, last summer we moved to beautiful Seattle, WA. When I'm not busy paper crafting, I enjoy cycling, snowboarding and training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. While I enjoy trying new techniques and styles, my favorite by far would be making cutesy cards using critters!

For today's card, I went with Sequins, Distress Inks and Stencil to create a fun birthday card featuring the cute kitties from the MFT "Cat-itude" set. I colored the kitties with Copic Markers and then fussy cut them out, leaving a white border. I then cut a square panel from white cardstock and used the MFT "All Lined" stencil to apply Twisted Citron distress ink. I die cut two strips of dark gray cardstock using a stitched border die and glued them to either side of the focal panel. I used a light gray cardstock and created a stamped background by stamping the fish stamps in a light gray ink for a tone-on-tone look. I white heat embossed the sentiment onto a strip of black cardstock and popped that onto the focal panel with foam tape. To finish the card, I added some Shimmer Pico Embellisher to the collars and matching Pretty Pink Posh sequins.

I tried to keep the colors gender neutral and really love how this card turned out. I had so much fun playing along with this challenge and hope you were inspired too! I'd like to thank Ka for having me this month!

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So? Did you fall in love with this cute kitty birthday card? I hope you did! Thank you so much to Yuki for providing us some more inspiration using our current challenge board! And please stop over to Yuki's blog and give her a shout out for her oh, so cute card!!

Introducing Our Social Media Design Team

Hello everyone! Today we are interrupting our regular posting schedule to announce our Social Media Design Team! Why have a Social Media Design Team? Well, we think it will be a lot more fun to extend our awesome design team family and create a Social Media Team specifically to provide even more inspiration for you on our social media platforms. They will be posting their projects on their personal blogs as well as theirs and ours social media sites. And, occasionally, you will also see their projects here on the challenge blog. We will have plenty of inspiration for you, so no more excuses as to why you cannot participate! ;)

I (Ka) am so honored to have all of these talented designers be a part of something that I have created and inspire to have grow in to something so fun and creative! I know both design teams will only bring AWESOMENESS to our challenge and inspire each of you. So, without further ado, let's meet these talented designers from the Social Media Team and welcome them to our family!

Blog: My Lime Journal

Instagram: @mylimejournal

"Hello! My name is Amina and I am deeply in love with paper crafting. I live in the UK with my awesome husband. We have two cute kids who fill our lives with happiness and laughter. I used to teach in a Primary school but currently a SAHM. I love making cards, albums, mixed-media, altering and anything in between. I have always enjoyed being creative. In fact as a little girl I used to love playing with scissors and glue. I bought my first ever stamping supplies in 2005. YouTube videos totally changed my life in 2009. Since then I have fallen deeply in love with this awesome hobby. For me, ‘ME TIME’ means making cards, tags, mini books and journals. I would describe my crafting style as eclectic and wide ranging. I love making shabby chic cards with layers as well as simple cards with just one layer. I love my hobby and have become friends with some awesome people. Love the crafting community. So excited to be a part of TIC-TAC-TOE challenge and looking forward to getting to know everyone."

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Blog: Моя Мастерская
Instagram: @solus.m

"My name is Maria, also known as Masha. I live in Belarus, Minsk and I'm married and have a little daughter. She is 3 years old. I have been papercrafting for 2.5 years. Cardmaking is my love! :) My favorite style is clean and simple, basically all my works are in this style. My profession is an economist in the bank, not connected with creativity. I love traveling and interesting books . I'm very glad to be in such a great team and I hope I can inspire you for your creativity!

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Blog: Rachel's Card Corner
Instagram: @rbergfeldcarddesigns

"Hi, I'm Rachel Bergfeld, and I'm an Indiana native who's been transplanted to Southwestern Arizona for the time being. I still feel like a newlywed (just over 2 years) and my husband and I have 2 dogs and 3 cats, but no human children yet. I started papercrafting in 2011 when I decided to try to make my own Thank You cards for my wedding. Little did I know that I was starting a full-blown obsession with that cardstock and simple rubber stamp!

My style has since evolved into Clean and Simple by nature and necessity. I live pretty far from all of my family and I like to stay in touch with a handmade card every so often, but they have to stay fairly flat to make it through the mail undamaged. I will occasionally play around with other styles just for fun and variety! I love card making because receiving a handmade card feels like getting a little hug over long distance. It's a great way to keep in touch with the people in my life that I don't get to see very often. When I'm not making cards in my craft room, you can usually find me curled up with a good book and a dog or a kitty (or 2!) or else playing video games with my husband."

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Blog: Sunrise Stamper
Instagram: @picturethis74

"I have been a crafter since 2011. I started out with Close to my Heart and a year later retired from there. I've since discover the rest of the crafting world and have been in awe ever since. I have a clean and simply style but sometimes like to mix it up and try something different. I've been with my hubby for 21 years and we have two beautiful girls, three dogs and two cats and the reason why I sometimes escape to my craft room! Thank you so much Ka for the opportunity to join the Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge team. I can't wait to get started!"

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Blog: Friday Finally

Instagram: @francifridayfinally

"Hi! My name is Francesca, but I'm pretty much Franci all the time! :) I'm 23 and I live in a little town near Milan, Italy, with my mom and our lovely dog. I'm studying animal welfare and I always enjoy my time surrounded by all kind of animals like horses, cows, goats, dogs, cats, parrots and etc...! When I'm not studying or working I love making cute, simple and whimsical cards with soft colors and pretty critters, trying new techniques, playing with all my pretty stuff and being inspired by everything!! A while ago I started collecting all my projects on my blog just for fun, then I discovered challenges ( and I love them!!), but I would never have expected to meet so many new friends around the world!! :) Now, I'm happy to meet all of you!"

Floral Silhouette

Happy Monday!  It's Lindsey today sharing another card I made for Challenge Four using the middle row: silhouette, distress inks, and stacked sentiment.

I discovered that using a die was the easiest way to have a true silhouette, and the star of the show here is the Brushed Blooms die from Papertrey Ink.  I had intended to use a pink silhouette on a white card base, but after die-cutting the flower, the white paper below peeked through the negative image, and I decided to switch gears.  And I'm so glad I did!  I think the change really allows the silhouette to shine.  I used an inlaid die cutting technique here.  This technique is so much easier now that I've watched Laurie Willison's video on using Press n' Seal to hold the little die-cut tidbits in place.

For my second element, I blended some Peacock Feathers Distress Ink in an ombre fashion, die-cut hello, and triple layered it.  I wanted a more subtle stacked sentiment, so I stamped the second part directly onto the card base.  And that's it! :)  Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope I've inspired you to try out Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge #4 for the first time...or again if you've already played along!

Card Supplies
Stamps: PTI (Wet Paint)
Ink: PTI (Raspberry Fizz), Ranger (Peacock Feathers)
Dies: PTI (Brushed Blooms, Noted)
Paper: PTI (Hibiscus Burst, Stamper's Select White)

Berry Happy Birthday

Hello everyone,

Olesya's here and I'd love to show you my inspirational project for challenge four of the Stamping Smiles Designs, Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge.

I always wonder how many projects we can create with this wonderful challenge, myriad of variants and inspiration from you, our sweet participants.

This time I've chosen the following combination: Silhouette - Distress inks -Stacked Sentiment. 

For the silhouette element I took "Silhouette tree" stamps of two sizes and "Silhouette grass" and stamped them directly onto the front panel.  The next step was to sponge the branches with Crushed Olive distress inks and draw some white dots with a white gel pen to make a look of blooming trees.

I'm in love with distress inks and love to create some sort of scenes with them. They're just perfect the background. So I used Crushed Olive and a little bit of Peeled Paint for the grassy meadow; Tumbled Glass and Salty Ocean for the sky. Then made some clouds with Color Box Chalk Popcorn inks and a dry baby wipe.

The focal point here is this bunny girl with a strawberry bouquet -  Strawberry Bunny stamp set from Scrapberry's. I colored her with watercolor markers and mounted with a foam tape. I also added some strawberry clusters which were also colored with the same markers. The stacked sentiment here says "Happy Birthday! Wish you lots of happiness, health, luck and love". 

Thank you so much for stopping by and have loads of inspiration!

Olesya.