Happy Independence Day + New Challenge #286 Rustic Roundup!!!

Hello, Ai Fans!

Can you believe we're already in July?!

You can shop this sale at HERE on artimpressions.com

This week, Jessica joins us with some Americana for this week's feature!

Hello Ai Fans! 

For the Rustic/ Americana challenge I first thought of the barn from the Barnyard Cubbie set. Reminds me of seeing all those large old barns while on a road trip! I paired my barn with the WC Mountain set too. These mountains make for a perfect background setting. I hope you enjoy the card video process below. 

I stamped the mountains that are the farthest away in a light gray ink and the ones closer in a medium gray ink. I also used some masking paper from Inkadinkado. You can find this masking paper in the Ai shop! After stamping the mountains on to the masking paper I used scissors to fussy cut out the images. Then I layered those over top of the stamped images on my card front. This made it much easier to ink blend with Distress Oxide inks. 

I wanted to keep the rest of the ground layer simple. Using two more Distress Oxide inks and a strip of masking tape, I created straight edges to ink blend Peeled paint and Frayed Burlap. Before blending the Peeled Paint ink I did use masking paper again. This time stamping and fussy cutting the fence image. Same kind of technique that I did for the mountains. 

I used the coordinating die for the barn and die cut it. Then placed it on my card front. This is a cubbie stamp and die set but I decided to keep all of the windows pieces and glue them back into their respectable places. So none of the doors or windows will open with this design. I like to mix it up and use these cubbie designs in different ways. 

I can't wait to see what you create for the Challenge Rustic/ Americana. Thank you so much for joining me today! Happy Stamping

 

Thank you Jessica!

Now, as we get ready for another new challenge, let's congratulate the winner of our 

You Make Me Laugh Challenge!!!

Thank you all for participating and bringing joy to each of our challenges!

This week, Top Spot goes to Hunky-Dory Cards who used our Golden Oldie,

Millie, for a card that made us all laugh out loud!!

Congrats!!

Contact Claire at feedback@artimpressions.com with your mailing address, and choice of 3 stamps. Well done!

This week for our new challenge, we are celebrating America's Independence Day!!! Let's see your best rustic or Americana themed card. Whether you are patriotic or not, feel free to play with red/white/blue, or something with a Southwest feel--wherever the road takes you!

If you're looking for some starter ideas, check out our July 4th Cards, Work and Play, Funny Farm, or Circlets MTF on our Pinterest Page. 

We want to see how you create your best humor-themed card or creation! Though you can use any stamps you have, we'd love to see any Art Impressions products in your collection!
Hurry, challenge closes July 15th at 5PM PT!

Here are the Challenge Rules...

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

✻ Limit two submissions per person. You will receive extra votes if you use Art Impressions stamps!

✻ 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 by clicking and commenting 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

A big thank you to everyone who joined us for Wednesday Live with Bonnie yesterday! Below we have provided the link to re-watch the video, as well as a comprehensive list of what Bonnie used for her beautiful project this week.

Watch Wednesday Live Replay HERE.

Supplies List : 

Happy Stamping!

Ridiculously Fabulous!

Hi Ai fans! This week I played with the Practically Perfect stamp set. I love this stamp set all of the ladies are just so much fun. My favorite is the who is eyeing the chocolate cake. 

I stamped the image onto smooth card stock with Memento black ink so I could color the image in with alcohol markers. After the image was all colored in I die cut it out with a double stitched oval die. I stamped the sentiment "A year older and still REDICULOUSLY FABULOUS" 

I matted the oval image onto a pattern stripped paper background and matted that onto a solid color piece of card stock. I adhered the whole panel to a 5 1/2" X 4 1/4" top folding card base. 

Spectrum Noir Markers: 

LG1, LG3, LG5, PL2, PL3, PL4, Eb5, EB6, EB7, PL2, PL3, PL4, FS6, FS7, FS8, TB2, TB3, TB4, DR1, DR3, DR4, GB1, GB3, GB5, GB6, GB7, GB10, BP1, BP2, BP3, BG2, BG3, BG4, VB1, VB2, VB3, GY1, GY3, GY5, JG1, JG2, JG3

Happy Stamping!

Farewell Niccole!!!

Hello Ai Fans!

Today is a bittersweet day for us as our design team member, Niccole, is taking some time off to care for herself and her family. We have been so blessed to have her as a Design Team member for the last year and a half, and while we are so sad to see her go, we also know that family always comes first.

Niccole, thank you for your time, creativity, inspiration, and teamwork!!

Please feel free to send Niccole off with some words of encouragement below, and enjoy a small slice of the beauty she brought to our Art Impressions Team.

Farewell Niccole!!!

Barnyard Cubbies Card by Jil Lebel

Hello Ai fans!

I used the Barnyard Animal Cubbies stamp set. I didn't use all of the images because I wanted to create a scene card that didn't include the barn.  These little animals just make me smile.

I started by stamping the images onto Spectrum Noir Ultra Smooth card stock with Gina K Black Amalgam ink and colored them with Copic markers.  The colors I used will be listed at the end of this post.  I then cut the images out with the matching dies that come in the set. 

I started the layers with a top fold A2 card and a piece of 4 1/2" x 5 1/2" white cardstock and acetate.  I cut the top of the card & cardstock layer with the Lawn Fawn cloud die.  Both pieces need to line up exactly because they are going to sandwich the piece of acetate.  I used the remaining two pieces to cut the bottom with the Lawn Fawn grass die.  I used the extra cardstock with the cloud cut out of it like a stencil to form clouds on the inside of the card as well as on the top cardstock cloud. I colored one of the grass pieces with Bundled Sage Distress ink. 

I used dry adhesive to assemble the card.  I placed the piece of acetate over the top of the cloud attached to the A2 card.  I then attached the colored cloud piece over top of the acetate lined up with the cloud below it.  I then attached the colored piece of grass cardstock to the bottom of the acetate and matched up the other piece on the back of the acetate. By sandwiching the acetate between the two layers of cardstock, you hid all of the adhesive. The animals are attached to the front of the card.  I cut out a second blank set of the animals and attached them to the back of the card. The greeting is stamped inside the card with Versafine Claire Nocturne ink.

Copic Colors Used:

Sheep - C0, C1, C3

Chicken - C0, C1, C3, YR07, Y17, R35, R39

Duck - Y11, Y15, Y17, E15

Cow - E31, E33, E35, E37

Rooster - C1, C3, Y17, YR07, R35, R39

Thanks for stopping by and Have a Great Day!

Friendship Blooms by Carol Hintermeier

Happy Monday Ai friends!  Today I have a sweet card for that special friend using the beautiful Poppy Border set.  This is in the Bible Journaling line, but as you can see, it's perfect for so many occasions!  This card is for you all!  I have some news to share so keep reading until the end!

I die cut some Neenah Solar White 80# card stock with the next to largest Rectangle Double Stitched die.  Then I began as usual, stamping in Copic safe ink and coloring with my markers listed below.  I've been working on coloring with different color families and hey, these are my poppies and I colored them in yellow and a coral shade.  Isn't that the best thing about beautiful floral stamps like this?!!  I decided to try something new--instead of adding a typical shadow around the image, I used the yellow markers and added tiny dots.  What do you think?  

I chose a sentiment from the WC Sentiment Set-4903 and stamped it in Versafine Onyx Black ink.  I layered it onto a coordinating colored card stock from my stash and popped it up on foam tape to my card base.  I added a few Dandelion Yellow Nuvo Crystal Drops for a bit of bling.

So, if you've read this far, thank you!  I have felt so very honored and blessed to be on this amazing design team for Art Impressions and the ladies on this team are just the absolute BEST!  I made my first Ai post on June 4, 2018 and have felt so welcomed and supported by my teammates for these two years.  I've decided to step down from the team for now, as I've just felt the need to have more free time to work on other things--one of those being improving my watercoloring--including the Ai way!  I'm SO thankful for YOU, and your kindness!  I'll still be around on Instagram and my blog, and I hope to see you there.  Sending many crafty hugs to you all!

Copic markers:

R24, R14, R22, R20, R30,

Y15, Y11, Y00,

G07, YG67, YG23, YG03, YG01

Sending Smiles! by Reneé Matarese

Hello Ai fans!

As you know I've been making cards to thank essential workers during the Covid quarantine.  This time around it was postal workers.

I used 5221 – Sending Love Cubbies.

I made a few copies...one for my postman, one for our local post office and one for my sister's friend who is a postal worker.  She said they were swamped and working so much overtime that he rarely saw his family. 

The doors on the mailbox open to reveal all the mail!

Also, the flag goes up and down.

Here's the inside.

This is the second version that I made.

Some of the letters are from 5181 – Happy Mailbox Cubbies.

The thank you verse is from the 5102 – Succulents Set.

Copics used:

B18, B24, B26, R37, R85,

E31, E99, W00, N0, Y19