NEW Valentine and Holiday Mansion Sets! PLUS, Challenge 224 Feel the Love!

Feel the love as we reveal our FIRST NEW release of 2018! We have four new sets perfect for the early 2018 holidays that are sure to share a smile with a loved one! In our Holiday Mansion line, we added both Valentine's and Easter sets, filled with bears, bunnies and accessories to make this house a home! Our Valentine's Bear Set features some "bear-y" big sentiments to share the love with your "best-tea!" Plus, for a new interactive design, we are releasing Critter Cups to create adorable place cards, candy cups, or an egg cup character for Easter! Order today at artimpressions.com!

Jil is here to show a fabulous example of our Critter Cups! This set is too cute and so versatile for many designs! Let's take a closer look!

Hello Ai fans!

I am so excited to bring you this new stamp set and dies, Critter Cups.  You have everything you need to stamp and cut countless animals.  This set is designed to cut out a bunny, kitten, raccoon and a fox.  As I was looking at the faces I saw many other animals.  I'm excited to see what all of you can come up with. Here are the main four images you can do finished.  Because Valentines day is coming up, I'm going to walk you through the a Valentine Kitten Critter Cup.

Stamp out your main images.  I stamped out one body with a black alcohol marker safe ink onto the center of a piece of 6" x 1 1/2" piece of Spectrum Noir Ultra Smooth Premium White Paper.

 Stamp the face onto a piece of paper that is at least 3' x 3".  There are four faces to choose from.  I used the kitten face and a tail from a white piece of paper.  Then I cut them out.

Then do all of the die cutting. I'd rather get it out of the way just in case I make any mistakes with the coloring. I line up the dies for the left and right foot and cut them out. I also line up the middle front paw die cut and tape it down. 

Now you just need to cut out the right side front paw die cut on the body. Also cut out two ears from white paper along with a tail. Cut the bow tie from a scrap of the Echo Park I'd Rather Be Crafting 6"x 6" paper pad. 

 Now for the fun part! You get to start coloring. I colored  the perimeter of the Valentine label and the inner parts of the ear and the pads on the paws with a RV10 Copic.  I colored the tummy and the front paws with a RV30 Copic.

I used a very simple technique to color the calico spots onto my kitty.  No blending was needed!  First, I used The Cool Grey Copic's. I just squiggled on the C7 at the center. I went around it with the C3 and C1.  Sometimes they overlapped, sometimes they didn't.  I just keep them irregular. Next, I added the Brown's  the same way.  For those I used E30, E35 and E37. The cheeks and pads of the paws were added with the RV10 Copic.  

The head was attached to the body with Tim Holtz Collage Medium.

Now you want to very gently curl the body around a roll of Washi tape that is around the size of the finished treat bag.  Tip: Be very careful around the feet. The first few times you bend it are important because you want to be sure they curve and don't crack.  I attached the tail with the collage medium at this point.  I added red line sticky tape to the inside to close up the back..  It is very sticky and you don't have to wait for it to dry.
















I added extra detail to the eyes and nose. I first used a black Sakura Glaze pen.  It's different than a gel pen because it looks like it was embossed because it is raised.  I set it aside to dry. Once it was dry, I added a dot of the white Sakura Gel pen. This brings life back to the  image.   I added the bow tie and then add an enamel dot to the middle.

The last thing to do is add the treat bag and close up the back of the body.  Now it's finished!

Thanks for stopping by and Have a Great Day!

Thanks, Jil! What an adorable way to send some treats this Valentine's Day, or for any Holiday or party!

We are kicking off a new challenge! But first, let's recognize the winners of last week's Anything Goes challenge!

Top spot goes to...

Shari!

Congrats, Shari! We LOVE your brilliant coloring and fantastic use of patterned paper! Our Quilt Set ladies look quite cozy! Email annelise@artimpressions.com with your address to claim your prize pack!

Honorable Mentions go to...

Helen!

Katrin!

Congrats, you two! Helen, what an inventive arrangement of images from our Reel Great Guys set! What a perfect masculine card! And Katrin, we are stunned by your fabulous watercoloring! Please email annelise@artimpressions.com with your address and select a stamp set of your choice for a prize!

Thank you to everyone who joined our first challenge of the year! The second one is going to help you get ready for your Valentine cards! This challenge theme is "Feel the Love" - so show us your love cards! They can be Valentines, friendship or anniversary, or anything to do with L-O-V-E!

✻ 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, January 31 at 5:00 p.m. PST to enter your creations.

✻ Good luck and happy stamping!

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Stamping!