Thursday, December 24, 2015

Merry Christmas! Blog Closed for the Holidays

Merry Christmas, Ai Fans!

As you finish decorating and wrapping presents, we're wrapping up the blog for a two week break for the holidays! But first, we have a Diane and Sharon double feature with last-minute inspiration and merry wishes!

Hello Ai friends and Merry Christmas!
I have one last Christmas card to share with you today.  This one uses the Ai Mouse Spinner (4674) and Mouse Spinner Dies (4693).  What a sweet image!


The mouse and ornament image is on a string in the card front opening so it spins!  The gray striped paper is adhered to the inside back of the card.
Here's the back side of the image...


I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!


Hello AI Fans!!
Sharon here! Today I have a couple of cards to show you featuring the brand new AI People! They are all so much FUN!!! I believe a card made with any of them would bring a huge smile to the recipient!!  First I'd like to show you a couple things I did using the Skinny Yet Set (sku# 4672).  I used a darker tone for her skin and also wanted to give her curly hair.  So I wanted to show you one way I give the illusion of a character with curly hair.  For this particular image, I used three different Copic markers E15, E39, and E59. I start with the darkest and just dot around the hair randomly.

I then take the E39 marker and do the same thing, filling up more of the hair area.


I then take E15 and finish filling in the hair completely.

A very simple and easy way to give the illusion of curly hair!  Next thing I want to show you is how I used the "out of the box" technique to cut her out.  The image was too large to be able to cut her out with the Spellbinders circle die.  So I decided to have her arm hanging "outside of the box".  To do that, simple lay your die over the top of the image the way you want to cut it out. Then I take a pencil and draw on both the outside of the die and the inside right up to the area I want to have hanging out of the cut. 


Then you want to cut straight into the paper. For instance with this image, I cut directly to her fingertips and then fussy cut around her hand and arm until I could slip the die back into place where I wanted it, only slipping the die UNDER her arm that you've partially fussy cut.


Then simply put it through your die cut machine, erase our pencil marks, and voila!!

The finished card


Copic markers used:

skin: E11, E13, E21, R02
hair: E15, E39, E59
Yoga Ball: W0, W1, W2, W3, W4, W5
Leotard, shoes, and headband:  BG72, BG75, Blender
Papers used: Fancy Pants Park Bench




Thanks Diane, thanks Sharon! Be sure to check back in with us on January 7th after our holiday hiatus! All of us from Ai wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 



Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Dana's Top 5 of 2015

Hello AI Fans!!

Dana here today sharing my top 5 of 2015! It was fun looking back at my projects this year since joining the team!! And of course very hard to narrow it done to just 5! 

I hope everyone has a Happy Holiday and I'll be back in the new year (Happy New Years!!!)... CHA is coming and AI has some FAB new stamps!!! 







Happy Stamping and I'll see you next year!! ( I just love saying that, hehehe!!!)



Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Karen's Top 5 of 2015!

Hello Ai fans!
Oh, my goodness - another year has flown by.  So many cards, so little time...  As always, I've had a wonderful time posting here on the Ai blog, and colouring up all those fabulous Ai images.  I really enjoy putting these kinds of posts together, because I literally revisit every single card that I posted this year.  I could've easily come up with a Top 25 list - but after much deliberation, here are my Top 5 of 2015:
Using Live Laugh Love (available at Michael's stores)
Simon Says Stamp exclusive Stamptember set
I hope you've enjoyed some inspiration from our projects that we share - and I want to thank those of you who visit us here, play along with our challenges and leave us such lovely comments!  Enjoy the holiday season, and best wishes for a Happy New Year!

Monday, December 21, 2015

Kerry's Top 5 of 2015!

Hello Ai friends and happy Monday!
Hope everyone has a great weekend and it's my turn to show you my Top 5 of 2015!  I totally agree with my fellow design team ladies, this is sure not an easy task, hehe!
Without further adieu, here it is!



Looked So Good (SKU#4381)





 



And finally a Christmas card just for you.  I just couldn't help it, my absolute favorite from the Christmas 2015 collection Twinkle in Tangle (SKU# 4665).
Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas!


Sunday, December 20, 2015

ReneƩ's top 5 for 2015!

Hello Ai fans!
Due to the busy time of year our bosses at Art Impressions have given us a little time off.  Our assignment this week was to choose our 5 favorite cards from the year.  Not an easy task.  I wanted to choose at least one from every line. I narrowed it down to 10 and then had my husband and two kids vote.  Most of these they chose unanimously.






So those were the 5 they chose.  I was really sad that not one of them picked this next card though.  I know the instructions were to pick 5 but I just had to include this one.  I love the Polar Pals and can see them being used in so many more ways than just for Christmas!


I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and wish you the best in the new year!  See you in 2016!!

Here's the link to my faves from last year...