Here Comes Santa Claws! by Jil Lebel

Hello Ai fans!

I've been hard at work making Christmas cards for a few weeks now.  I always make simpler cards for some people that I know don't understand how much time goes into making a card.  I designed this card with those people in mind.  I used the Christmas Wreath Set 4791 and colored it with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers.  I chose this set for my cards this year because it comes with matching dies.  I was able to make tons of cards all at one time. I added a sentiment and was finished with it.  They came out very beautiful!

But of course, I couldn't leave it there!  I got out my Tropical Christmas Set 4788 and stamped out the flip flop images. I also changed up the sentiment & added it to a flag that I made with a few folds and extra cuts.  I glued on some gems and I made several of these for people that I figured would appreciate them more. I just couldn't stop there for today's post!

I made a pop up card with the rest of the images from the Tropical stamp set.  Because I live in Florida, I felt compelled to own this stamp set.  It's just so cute.  I used a retired pop up Sizzix die, but you could use any type of pop up base.  I colored all of these images with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and cut them out.  I followed the packaging for most of my coloring just to make things easier on myself.

Here are the star's of the card.  I love how they came out. I used very little water and blended the Zig's with each other. They are all stamped onto Strathmore Bristol paper with Jet Black Archival Ink.

Here are the colors of Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers that I used:
Face - Flesh Color 071, Beige 072, Light carmine 021
Green - Deep Green 044, Pale Green 045
Red - Wine Red 024, Red 020
Blue - Cobalt Blue 031, Shadow Mauve 302
Gray - Mid Gray 096, Light Gray

Thanks for stopping by and Have a Great Day!

NEW Mouthfuls Stamp & Die Sets! PLUS Challenge 222 Funny & Punny!

Hello, Ai Fans!

You will have your hands full with our NEW Mouthfuls! This new line of clear stamps & dies features a fun animal with corresponding images to tuck into their mouth or hand, along with unique birthday sentiments! Kangaroo Mouthful includes a little joey and party favors that fit in the mama's pouch! Send hilarious birthday greetings with our Hamster Mouthful set, featuring cute accessories like pizza, with phrases like "Age only matters if you're a cheese"! Our Dino Mouthful is adorable for that young athlete's birthday, or makes for a playful card for your older sports lover! We cannot forget about our dog and cat lovers! Say "Happy birthday from the dog" in our Dog Mouthful set, which includes a slobbery gift, bone, and more! "Cattitude is everything" in our Cat Mouthful, as our feline dons fabulous accessories such as cat-eye classes and a huge donut! Projects are fun and easy, since each set includes dies which cut out the accessories, as well as a slit for the mouth, hand, or pouch to place them in! See these sets in action in our video from Creativation! Grab your Mouthfuls today at artimpressions.com!

Dana is here to share her adorable creation with our Hamster Mouthful! 

Hello AI fans!! 

These new Mouthfuls are so adorable!! My tutorial features the Hamster Mouthful set. I started by stamping the images on white cardstock and coloring them with my Spectrum Noir Markers. I used AG1, AG3, AG5, CT1, CT4, GY2, GY5, IB2, IB3, TN2, Blender. As I was coloring I decided what images I would use with the Hamster, so ended up only coloring them.

Next, I held the dies in place with washi tape and ran it through my die cutting machine. With sharp scissors, I fussy cut out the hamster. The hamster has two dies, one you can cut a slit for his mouth like I did or the other cuts a slit above his hands. Tip #1 I also when ahead and cut the ones I didn't end up coloring for use at a later date!! And tip #2, I never had a hamster so was very unsure of the coloring, after looking at Google the options where overwhelming! So I just copied how the packaging colored him and kept it simple!!

With a little bit of glue, I adhered the candles to his face, sliding it under the die cut slit. This way it looks like he is eating the candles.

For a background, I die cut a stitched rectangle from watercolor card stock and with an ink applicator added Distress Oxide Cracked Pistachio. Then I splattered water all over the panel and let that dry. Next, I added some water to some Frayed Burlap Distress Ink and splattered it over the panel.

While my splatters where drying I cut a strip of grey cardstock and stamped the What Cake? in brown ink. I adhered the green panel to a grey card base when it was dry and then I played around with the placement of the sentiment, hamster, cheese and his hat.

When I was happing with the placement I adhered the grey strip and added foam tape to the hamster and cheese.

A quick shot of it all put together. 

These stamp sets have lots of uses with different sentiments and images that you can mix and match! And what's really nice is being able to customize where the accessory image can be tucked into to!!!

Thanks for stopping by!! Happy Stamping!!

TOO CUTE, Dana! Love how your hamster is all ready for some birthday festivities!

Well folks, a new release means a new challenge! This 2-week challenge is called "Funny & Punny" and we want - of course - some hilarious cards! That's right, grab your sentiments, creativity, and perhaps a funny image or two and share a chuckle with us!

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, December 13 at 5:00 p.m. PST to enter your creations.

✻ Good luck and happy stamping!

An InLinkz Link-up

NEW VIDEO! Winter Cottage in Wreath Watercolor

Hello Ai Fans!

Welcome, welcome to a new Holiday Watercolor Wednesday! This week, Bonnie challenges us with a beautiful winter cottage sent inside a Christmas wreath. Bonnie starts by drawing a 3" circle with a pencil on her watercolor paper and stamps the mini cottage in the center. Next, she adds some small shrubs near the cottage, creates a snowy roof, and adds brown to the siding. With a little free hand and the fine tip of her African Violet marker, she creates snow piles and a driveway up to the cottage. She adds a small tree in the front right and builds the wreath with sprigs, vines, and berries. Next, Bonnie adds Molotow to her sky backdrop and lets it dry, then creates a wash of color for the night sky, leaving a space for the smoke coming out of the chimney. For the final touches, she uses her white gel pen to add extra snow and Wink of Stella to add some shine to the snow.

Another great watercolor project to inspire your holiday crafting! If you like this video, we would love it if you gave it a thumbs up over on YouTube and we always appreciate when you hit that subscribe button! See you next week!

Happy Watercolor Wednesday!

View on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GsZYV-lM1Xs

SALE! Black Friday to Cyber Monday!

Hello, Ai Fans! Are you ready for our HUGE Black Friday to Cyber Monday Sale?! We are offering 15% off site-wide with our coupon code! Additionally, visit our Sale Category for retiring stamps and dies priced 50% off, and apply our coupon code for that extra 15% off! Items in the Sale Category are retiring, and will disappear after Cyber Monday, so grab them while you can!

COUPON CODE: BF2CM17

Coupon code runs from 11/24/17 - 11/27/17. Cannot be combined with other coupon codes, one coupon code per order. Coupon code is for retail orders only, not valid on wholesale orders. Please allow 5-7 business days for order processing before shipment.

Shop at artimpressions.com

Shop Sale Category here

The blog is on Thanksgiving break for a few days, see you back here December 30!

Happy Stamping and Happy Shopping!

Happy Thanksgiving! PLUS, Michaels Exclusives Now Available!

Happy Thanksgiving, Ai Fans!

The blog is closing for the next few days so our design team can enjoy a Thanksgiving break! Today we have a bit of inspiration to tide you over! You can now find FOUR new Art Impressions clear sets, produced by Hampton Art, at your local Michaels!

 Introducing TWO new Holiday PopCards, Santa PopCard and Reindeer PopCard! These new sets contain clear stamps and metal dies, and assemble the same way as our previous PopCards to make unique 3-D cards! Make spirits bright with our TWO Christmas Girlfriends clear sets, Ugly Sweater and Merriest! These four sets are EXCLUSIVE to Michaels, so find a store near you to grab them up!

Inspiration time! Check out what our designers created with these exclusive sets! Click the designer's name to view more details on their personal blog, and click the set they used to view it at Michaels.com to find store availability by your zip code!

Cheri with Merriest

Dana with Merriest

Diane with Ugly Sweater

Jil with Santa PopCard

Karen with Ugly Sweater

Renee with Reindeer PopCard and Window Die 

Sharon with Ugly Sweater

Thank you for your bright and shiny cards, designers! Enjoy a week break for Thanksgiving! We are thankful to you!

Before we go, let's celebrate the winners of our previous Tag It Challenge!

Top Spot goes to...

Funtography!

Congrats! We love your sweet bracket tag featuring our Santa Paws puppy! Such festive colors and details! Email annelise@artimpressions.com with your address to claim your prize pack!

Honorable Mentions go to..

Irene Rhodes!

Melissa O!

Congrats, you two! The reindeer theme is really working! Irene, your handmade "ugly sweater" tag with our Reindeer Mini Shaker is just such a cute idea! We can't resist! And Melissa, your bold Reindeer Games tag is just divine! Email annelise@artimpressions.com with your address and choose a stamp set of your choice for a prize!

We had really wonderful tags for our challenge! Our next challenge will not start until November 30th, but we will give you a clue: laughter!

Happy Thanksgiving! We are thankful that you spend time with us here on the blog! Stay tuned tomorrow for a blog post about our Black Friday special! If you aren't already signed up for our Retail Newsletter, you may want to hop over and subscribe so you don't miss out! It's a big one!

Happy Stamping!

NEW VIDEO! Snowy Christmas Tree Watercolor

Hello Ai Fans!

Welcome to the second video in our Winter Watercolor Wednesday series! If you missed last week's Rustic Winter scene, you'll want to hop over to YouTube to check it out too!

This week, Bonnie builds a snowy fir tree in the forest, adorned with ornaments! She starts by drawing a pencil line down her watercolor paper and adding the different shaped pieces from her WC Fir Tree Set. She draws in the snowy lines with her African Violet marker and pulls the color upward to give the appearance of snow. Bonnie then adds the trunk with the fine tip of her Sepia marker. To make the ornaments, she simply creates circles with her Tropical and Magenta markers, trying to leave a highlight on the bulbs. To finish the image, Bonnie adds tiny flecks of snow with her Signo White Gel Pen maker.

We hope you enjoyed this week's installment! If you did, would you please hop over to our YouTube video and give us a thumbs up? We also love it when you directly subscribe to our channel, you can click the bell next to our subscribe button to receive email notifications of new uploads!

Happy Watercolor Wednesday!

View on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0m82ALFMorU

Dress the Turkey by Dana Warren

Hello, AI fans and Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

It's almost time to eat some turkey and pumpkin pie!! Art Impressions Full of Thanks, is a great stamp set to have on hand, for before Thanksgiving or after!!

My card features the dressed up turkey! Which I didn't release had pants on!! I thought he was just wearing a jacket and bow tie, didn't release it until I was taking pictures!! But, he still is looking good!!

I stamped him, the pumpkin pie and wishbone on some watercolor cardstock. With my Distress Markers, I colored him up, using: Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey, Squeezed Lemonade, Rusty Hinge and Tea Dye. I cut out the turkey with a circle die and fussy cut out the pie and wishbone.

From a fall themed pattern paper pad, I trimmed up some scraps and adhered them to a Kraft card base, some at different angles, I didn't want them to be perfect. Then I added the circle, pie, and wishbone with foam tape over the strips. Last I stamped the sentiment in a brown ink.

Thanks for stopping by!! Happy Thanksgiving!!