Something Sweet for you by Sharon Caudle

 Hello AI Fans!

I just love the Halloween season! It's just so fun! I am always sad to see the wonderful days of summer leave, but Halloween sure helps with the transition! I've always loved spooky ghost stories and the idea of ghosts and such! I've got a cute little "too cute to spook" tag to show you today. I just love the new Halloween sets from Art Impressions! All of the critters are so adorable! Today I chose to use #6112 Pumpkin Parade Set and that adorable ghost kitty!! I started out by grabbing #5132 Tag Stitched Dies and cut out my base, then #5062 Rounded Rectangle A2 Die Set to make couple of mats. I cut a second tag out using #5849 Halloween S2 PP, and then trimmed off the top using one of the dies from #5723 Journal Cover and Bookmark Die Set to add to the top of the gray base tag. I stamped the kitty and candy onto Copic friendly cardstock and colored them with Copic markers. When done with that, I used the included dies from the set to cut them out. I LOVE having matching dies to stamp sets!! It's really nice not to have to fussy cut the images out! I added a heart that was die cut with #5721 Nested Heart Dies and stamped the sentiment onto a circle die cut using #5064 Double Stitched Circle Dies. 

So that's it for me today! Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit and until next time - stay crafty!!

Pumpkin Parade Matchbook Fun Fold Card and Treat Box by Diane Mason

Hello, and welcome back for Watercolor Weekend! 

Spooky season is here, and Halloween crafting is in full swing with a delightful duo of watercolor projects featuring Art Impressions Sets 6112 – Pumpkin Parade, 6111 – Spooktacular Set, 5604 – Halloween Journal Die Set, and 5805 – Mini Journal Box Dies. This matchbook fun fold card and coordinating treat box are sure to bring a smile to the recipient!

Pirate Fox Matchbook Fun Fold Card:

We all love the adorable little Art Impressions matchbook designs that Bonnie has created for us, but for this card, I decided to take things up a notch and create a larger matchbook-style card using the newly released 6112 – Pumpkin Parade Set. The trick-or-treating critters from this set are absolutely adorable!

Lately, I’ve noticed a lot of online designers making matchbook cards. So of course, I had to try making one too! My card was inspired by Patti Dolan’s (#pspapercrafts) YouTube tutorial. There were many other tutorials to choose from, but I liked hers the best. She even has a link at the end of her tutorial to download a project sheet that includes all the steps and measurements.

This sweet little pirate fox was so much fun to paint. It wouldn’t be Halloween without a splash of orange, purple, and black! I stamped the fox image onto Canson XL watercolor paper inked with Ranger Pebble Beach Archival Ink.

Here is a list of colors I used for this card:

Fox:

• 947 (head, ears, hands, feet, and tail)
• 990 (white fur on face)
• 856 and 837 (bandana and sash)
• N25 (pirate hat, eye patch, pants, and shirt stripes)
• 565 (jacket)

Pumpkin Wagon:

• 993, 933, and 925 (pumpkin), 177 (stem)
• 977 and 969 (cart and wheels)
• N25 (handle)

Background and Foreground:

• 565 (background), shimmery gold and white dots (Gansai Tambi Starry Colors)
• 565/969 mix, and 565 (foreground)

Once I had my little pirate fox done, I painted the background in a watery mix of 565. When dry, I added starry-like dots with shimmery gold and white paint from the Gansai Tambi Starry Colors palette. For the foreground I mixed 565 and 969 and brushed under the cart and fox. I added a little more 565 to darken the shadow of the cart and fox. For texture, I added a few tiny dots of the 565/969 mix. I painted the teeth white using our friend, Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleed Proof White. To refine some of the details, I used a brown or black TwinTone marker.

To construct the card, I followed the instructions from the tutorial. The spiderweb background paper is from 5849 – Halloween S2 Paper Pack. I die-cut and matted the image using nested arches dies and mounted it to the card front with foam tape. I used a tiny attacher stapler to staple the bottom flap of the matchbook (making sure the front flap didn’t get stapled). I faced the back of the staples to front, which then is covered with the patterned paper strip.

For the inside of the card, I stamped the sentiment from 5934 – Spooky Crew Set in purple (636) onto white cardstock. The Trick or Treat and Happy Halloween embellishments were die-cut from orange and black cardstock using dies from 5604 – Halloween Journal Die Set. I inlayed the orange and black interior pieces for added interest.

This sweet little matchbook fun fold card is strikingly cute (sorry, I just couldn’t resist - lol!

Halloween Treat Box:

Who doesn’t love a little sweet Halloween treat? Treat boxes are made easy using the 5805 – Mini Journal Box Dies (of course, it also makes a nice box to store mini journals in too!) For the image on top of the treat box, I inked the trick-or-treating pumpkin mouse from (6112) in Ranger Pebble Beach Archival Ink and stamped on to watercolor paper. The “Trick or Treat” sentiment was inked with Versafine Onyx Black Ink.

Here is a list of colors I used for this treat box:

Mouse:

• N57 (head, tail, hands and feet)
• N57 and a touch of 856 (interior of ear, and cheeks)
• 992 (pants)
• 526 (shirt sleeve)
• 993, 933, and 925 (pumpkin costume, hat, and pumpkin pail)
• 173, 177 (collar and stem)

Pumpkin Treat Cart:

• 993, 933, and 925 (pumpkin)
• 947 (cart handle)
• N25 (wheels), 177 (wheel caps)

Candy:

• 025, 993, 933, 925, and 565 (candy corn)
• 173, 177, 933, 925, 636, and 565 (wrapped candy twist)
• 526,173, and 177 (blue and green gummy worm)
• 856, 933 (red and orange gummy worm)

Shadow under mouse and treat cart:

• 969/565 watery mix

To refine some of the details, I used a brown or black TwinTone marker.

I die-cut the box from dot embossed orange cardstock using 5604 – Halloween Journal Die and assembled the box. I cut the watercolor image to fit the top of the box and adhered with double sided tape. I also painted another candy corn and wrapped candy twist, die-cut and attached to the flap of the box. I added a hook and loop fastener (5967) to the flap to keep the lid closed.

For the box interior, I created my own patterned paper by randomly stamping the candy stamps (993, 933, 173, 526, and 636). The sentiments from (6112 and 5934) were inked with 636. I cut the patterned paper into two pieces to line the interior lid and bottom of the box.

    

BOO! There is a spooky-cute pop-up surprise inside, along with a treat! The delightful pop-up ghost is such a cute surprise feature. The ghost image and pop-up die is from (6111). The ghost is quick and simple to paint. I inked the ghost and flag with Versafine Onyx Black Ink and stamped onto Canson XL Mix Media Paper. I used this because it’s thinner and easier to fold the pop-up. 

I used 565 for the shading on the ghost and 856 for the cheeks. The flag was painted with 933, 925 and the stick with 947. I attached the flag with glue to the ghost’s hand and folded the ghost and applied adhesive to the head portion only. I lined up the fold with the crease of the lid. To allow the ghost to pop-up when the box is opened; I attached a mini glue dot to the underside of the bottom edge of the ghost, placed the candy in the box, folded up the ghost, and shut the lid. The glue dot attached to the candy, and when opened – the ghost pops up! How fun is that?

When the candy is gone, a sweet sentiment remains for the recipient!

That’s all for now—thanks so much for stopping by for Watercolor Weekend! I hope you enjoyed today’s Halloween projects. I can’t wait to see what you make!

Until next time, Happy Halloween and Happy Painting!

Snow Globe Shaker Mini Journal Box by Janet

Hello Ai Fans. Today I have a mini-journal box with a small twist. As I was looking at the 5805 - Mini Journal Template Box Set, inspiration hit me. I wondered if I could fit a 5808 - Snow Blob Shaker Dome on it and yes, it does fit if you carefully center the circle that the done fits into! I had to trim a tiny bit off of the flat part of the dome on the edges to make it fit but it does work and I am pretty pleased with that! It makes this little box extra special.

The church scene was created with the 5791 - WC Snow Globe Set. I cut the circle out with the die in this set and then stamped the church a bit above the bottom edge knowing I needed room for some snow. I masked off the church with masking paper and then I used the tree stamps in the set to create the stand of trees behind and to the side of the church. I used Copic gray markers to put in a little shading and a very light blue green marker in the windows. In hindsight, I think it would have been more cool to color the windows with yellow as if the lights were on inside but I thought of it too late.

After stamping, I used Delta Decorating Snow to create snow texture on the ground and on the roof. Then I added some fine white glitter to the globe. The result is a very snowy scene. It reminds me a lot of the many rural churches where I grew up in North Dakota. It also looks a lot like my home church in the town where I went to school. We made our way many snowy and cold Christmas Eves for midnight candlelight services. I have some really lovely memories of snow that glittered like diamonds in the headlights as we drove from the farm into town for those special services. 

Once the scene was ready, I cut the box out of a sheet of striped paper from the 5964 - Winter Woodland Cover Paper Pack. I carefully centered the circle die in the middle of the cover and then installed the completed dome. I also added several small snowflakes to the front which were made from the dies in the snow globe set.

Inside, I glued in a glitter cardstock piece to cover up the back of the shaker dome to make it look a bit more finished.

Here is a picture of the side of the box which I decorated with dies from the box set. The elongated ovals in this die are supposed to be removed but I left them in place because I liked the look it created. 

So of course, I MUST create a mini-album to put into this box. I think that's a pretty big hint about what my next blog posts are going to be! Stay tuned. Now that we have the Dwellings sets, there are several really fun little images that can go into the mini-journals.

Thanks for joining me here today. As always, don't forget to find your favorite stamps, dies, papers, and accessories at the Ai Store! You'll always find something that calls to you. 

Happy Crafting!

Janet - YouTube - Blog - Facebook - Instagram - Pinterest  

Boo Crew! Card by Tasha

 Happy Friday Art Impressions Friends!

Tasha here sharing a fun Fall card featuring the new 6112-Pumpkin Parade Set.

I always enjoy making Halloween cards, and Art Impressions has the cutest characters for creating little Fall and Halloween scenes. For my project, I used the not-so-scary cat dressed in her ghost costume along with the adorable owl image; because I absolutely love owls!

To set the scene, I added a tree filled with colorful leaves, a rake, and two pumpkins. A piece of patterned paper worked perfectly for the ground to tie everything together.

For the greeting, I heat embossed “Boo Crew!” on black cardstock and attached it with foam tape for some extra dimension. Finally, I layered plaid patterned paper with brown, white, and orange cardstock to complete the design.

This cheerful little Fall card just makes me smile. I hope it inspires you to create something festive for the season! 🎃

Keep it Contained Challenge Week #2

 Hello Ai fans and welcome to week #2 of
our Keep it Contained challenge.

We want to see your handmade projects featuring a container.

These can be (but are not limited to) 

Stamped or die cut containers like vases, pots, crates, barrels etc., repurposed containers, handmade gift boxes, bags, treat holders or gift card holders. Anything that can "contain" something.

Last week, Tasha was our Featured Artist and she shared this adorable
Halloween Gift Card Holder.

Now, as we begin our second week of the challenge, we can share
the other wonderful projects from the rest of our Design Team members.

First up we have Dori.

Janet created this beautiful box using:

5791-WC Snow Globe Set
5805 - Mini Journal Box Set
5964 - Winter Woodland Cover Paper Pack
5808- 5 pack Snow Globe Shaker Dome

Lynn has a fun treat bag.

I created a repurposed vase.

Sharon made this treat box and wobble card.

Our Design Teams work so hard to bring you amazing inspiration week after week.

We hope that you'll join them in creating something for our challenge.

You might be the one to win a free stamp set!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Be sure to enter your creation for the chance to win a free stamp set from Art Impressions. 

We award one Top Spot and one Lucky Random Winner, and each will win a free stamp set from Art Impressions.

✻ Please make a new card or handmade crafty creation. You can make any item you wish; this is not limited to cards! (unless specified)

✻ Limit two submissions per person.

 ✻Please include your first name and last initial on your submission. You may include your entire last name, but it's not necessary.

✻We love to comment on your entries, but keep in mind if you use a private group or a platform that you need to sign up for, we probably won't be able to.

✻ The Ai Challenge is open to everyone, international submissions are welcome!

✻ Include a link back to the Ai Blog or grab our button on the top right of our sidebar!

✻ Share the Ai love if you can, by clicking and commenting on your fellow crafters.

✻ Make sure to get your link up by the deadline to enter your creations.

✻ Good luck and happy stamping! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Bobble Head Frankenstein Coffin Treat Box by Dori Mendiola

 Happy Thursday AI Friends!

We have a new challenge going on called "Keep It Contained".  What a fun challenge!  Make sure to check out the tab above for details.

I created a coffin shaped treat box with the new #6120 - Frankenstein Puppet.   His head bobbles so he will entertain the little ones while they enjoy the goodies inside.  😀  

I stamped a few images onto copic friendly paper with Memento black ink and colored with my copic markers listed below.  I punched a hole into the top of several of them and linked them onto a chain and created a dangle for the opening of the treat box.  I tied a "webbie" yarn to the top link and attached to the ghost eyelet at the treat box opening.

The Frankenstein puppet is sooo fun to create and decorate with scrap pieces of paper.  I two-tiered the pants by offsetting slightly and created a small patch piece onto his pants for an added touch.  For his face, I die cut the scar several times and glued into a mouth shape and then added some wiggle eyes for movement when his head bobbles.  To create the bobble head, I die cut an extra shirt piece and extended the length to attach the mini wobble base.  Then I attached the head to the top of the wobble. 

To create the coffin box, I followed a youtube tutorial by Positively Papercraft called "Spooky Coffin Treat Box".  I tweaked her measurements a bit but her tutorial works great and is fairly simple.

Wobble head video:

Thanks for checking out the blog today!  Hope you join in the AI Bi-weekly challenge for a chance to win a free stamp set of your choice.  

Have a great day and keep creating!

          Copics used:  T0, T2, T4, T6

G43, G46 

Y13, Y17 

YR12, YR14, YR16, YR18 

Frankenstein Puppet Treat Bag by Lynn Dionne

Happy Wednesday Ai Fans!!!

Watch video tutorial here!

 Art Impressions has a brand-new set available that is part of their puppet series and it's the Ai Frankenstein Puppet Set (6120). It is the most adorable die set for all of your Halloween projects!

Let's begin by creating a background for the puppet using a fun Spiderweb Background Stencil Set and some Tim Holtz Oxide Inks in Black Soot, Seedless Preserve, Wilted Violet, and Villainous Potion. We can also spatter this panel using the Tim Holtz Distress Spritz in Seedless Preserves and Hickory Smoke. This will give a bit of shimmer!

We can attach this stenciled panel to some black glitter cardstock and add a few black borders along the bottom of this panel by quickly tearing the edges for a spooky look!

Now we can get to the fun part of die cutting the pieces in a variety of cardstock colors that are needed for the little Frankenstein and ink around the edges of each of the pieces using the Tim Holtz Black Soot Ink. This finishes off the pieces nicely! I used colored cardstock, but you could certainly die cut all of the pieces using some white cardstock and color them with your markers or ink pads.

I'll show you exactly how to put this little guy together in the video. For the eyes and eyebrows, I thought I would grab those pieces from the Ai Santa Puppet Set. This is an easy way to add these if you are not keen on drawing in your own. Now for the nose and mouth I did use a black pen and draw those in because it was fairly simple.

Let's glue everything together to build Frankie and add a bit of color to his cheeks, some highlights with a white gel pen, and black stitching around the cuffs and collar.

For the sentiment, we will be using the Ai Spooktacular Set (6111) and die cutting a stitched oval from the Ai Portfolio Template Die Set (5952). Now we can add some Lime Tinsel Embossing Powder around the edges of the oval and heat set the for a sparkly look!

From that same Ai Spooktacular Set we will stamp, color and die cut the cute little spider. For the coloring we will use the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens in the following colors: Blender, Sugared Almond Pink, and Gray. Let's add the spider to the sentiment and attach to the panel.

Next, to create the bag we will use a product that you all probably already own because it has been around for a very long time but is one of those products that I have reached for several times throughout the years. It creates a variety of bag sizes, and we will be using the large size today which will fit this panel perfectly. For paper we will use an ombre' 12"x12" paper in a variety of purples and lavenders. I will show you exactly how to use this nifty little punch tool in today's video!

To finish off the bag we will add some lime green twine by wrapping it around a few times and tying a pretty bow!

Thank you so much for joining me today! Have a fun and crafty day!

Ai Frankenstein Puppet Set (6120)

Ai Santa Puppet Set (5931)

Ai Spooktacular Set (6111)

Ai Portfolio Template Die Set (5952)

Ai Nested Rectangle Die Set (5724)

 

Boo Bottle! by Reneé Matarese

Hello Ai fans!

Have you checked out the new Keep it Contained challenge?

There are so many fun choices. You can make a gift card holder, a treat box or gift or goodie bag. Use a stamp or a die that's a container, like a barrel, crate, pot, vase or basket. One of our DT members used a watering can and a wheelbarrow. (super cute!) Or, you can repurpose something like I've done. I spray painted a seltzer water bottle that I liked, and decorated it to put on my mantel.

I like that it's a little bit spooky, a little bit cutesy.

I used the new 6111 – Spooktacular Set.

6111 – Spooktacular Set

The web is from 5462 – Web Dies Set.
The bats are also from the Spooktacular set. I used the die and didn't

stamp them because I just wanted the "idea" of the bats in the background.

They aren't meant to stand out on my project. I bent their wings up to give

the illusion that they are flying.

The ghost has pre-scored lines on him when you die cut him.
This allows him to be popped up on a page or
used as a pop-up feature on the inside of a card.

I used a tag from 5132 – Tag Stitched Dies.

 

 

I have a small bottle collection. I just can't recycle something that I find interesting

and think I may be able to repurpose in the future. I hope I've inspired you to give

something like this a try. It's much cheaper than HomeGoods...lol!