NEW Watercolor Release! PLUS Challenge 192 Watercolor Stamping!

Hello, Ai Fans!

We are thrilled to announce two NEW additions to our Watercolor Mini line! Our Covered Bridge Set and Old Barn Set include beautiful new structures and trees to make gorgeous scenes with your favorite flowers and foliages. Use our Stamp Positioner for spot-on stamping, and our Acrylic Block Variety Pack, perfect for all those small watercolor stamps. See our Summer 2016 Watercolor Mini release in action in our Stamp & Scrapbook Expo Video! Today, Karen is going to give a wonderful watercolor tutorial to kick of this release and our new Watercolor Stamping challenge! It's time for some wonderful new Ai Watercolor Mini sets!  I was thrilled when I saw the Covered Bridge Mini set (Sku #4808) that I'm sharing today - it reminds me of New England... and there's no prettier time to drive around New England, than the fall.  So I decided to share a fall painting with you. I started by stamping the covered bridge image, then stamped it again on a post-it note, and cut it out to create a mask that I placed on top of my artwork.  The set includes this wonderful group of Birch trees, that I coloured with a Sepia marker and stamped partially over the left edge of the bridge mask.  I inked up about 2/3 of the image again, and stamped it on the right edge.  Now when I remove the mask, the trees appear to be behind the bridge:  With the tiny leaves image, I inked up two different warm yellows and stamped repeatedly to start the foliage, then filled in with two shades of green.  I used the small grass from the WC Foliage Set (Sku #4051) and the small daisies from the WC Flower Set (Sku #4052) in oranges to create some bright fall bushes.  I softened everything with a wet paintbrush to pull the colour out.  I added some brown to the roof, gave the building some purplish shadows, then painted in the water, sky and the suggestion of mountains in the distance.  I added a few purplish shadows to the trees as well, especially up near the leaves.  And there's my fall scene! Beautiful work, Karen! We love how delicately you watercolored with the Covered Bridge Set! We'd love to have you join in our new challenge! We want to see yo use all water-based inks for these projects! Have some watercolor fun! 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 Wednesday, September 14th at 5:00 p.m. PST to enter your creations. ✻ Good luck and happy stamping! An InLinkz Link-up Before we go, let's recognize the winner's of last week's challenge Too Cute to Spook! Top Spot is awarded to... Krisha! Congrats! We find it clever how you transformed our Hot Java Mama into a witch with other stamps you had! What a fun post card! Email annelise@artimpressions.com with your address to claim your prize pack. Honorable Mentions go to... Karren!  Terri! Way to go, ladies! Karren, we love how you used our Birthday Fairy to make a cute Halloween costume! Sweet sparkle on the wings! And Terri, what a fabulous way to color our My Feet set! Be sure to email annelise@artimpressions.com with your address and stamp set of your choice! Thanks for joining in our challenge! Please join us again for our Watercolor Stamping challenge! Happy Stamping!