Stairs to Heaven by Neema

Hello Ai Friends,

I am thrilled to share my first Art Impressions blog post as the newest member of the design team. Transitioning from short Instagram posts to this blog has been an exciting challenge, and I have put a lot of thought into bringing my ideas together for this piece.

While many of you know me as Neema, my real name is Norma. My husband and I moved to South Florida just before the pandemic. Although I have painted since high school, I stepped away from it while raising my daughters. Since moving to Florida, I have returned to painting daily. Discovering the Art Impressions watercolor method a few years ago truly transformed my technique, both when using stamps and in my traditional paintings. By day, I work as a software trainer, and I spend my evenings practicing the Ai method or painting other watercolor pieces.

For my first project, I was inspired by a picture on Instagram. I created a 5x7 card using the Stone Path stamp (5131) from the Bible Journaling series. I stamped the path and the rocks using Tombow markers 969 and 565, the trees and the signpost were stamped using brown marker 696. I hand-drew a door at the top and sketched a brick wall effect around it. To the left, I added a tree using the WC branches set (4964), and to the right of the path, I used the WC Small Rocks set (5414) to create a river effect. 

 I wanted to take more pictures, but I got so into painting that I totally forgot. 

For the finishing details, I used the foliage set (4051), the WC Mini Foliage (5372) and the grass from the WC Large Tree set (5826). I also added the text "Stairs to Heaven" on the signpost.

I thought it was finished, but it felt like it was missing something, so I used the WC mini flower set (5009)- to add purple flowers. I also added some dots of Bleed Proof White. I used a dark blue mat to create a 1/16 inch border.

I kept the inside of the card very simple. I stamped the Stone Path using Archival ink, shadow gray, and I used one of the sentiments from the same set: "Upload my Step in your PATHS that my feet may not slip, Ps 17 v5".

For my second card, I decided to use one of the churches for the set 5058-WC Church set and the same foliage and flower sets as in my first card. The picture frame is 6 x 6 inches, and the painting is about 4.5 x 4.5 inches. I used a similar color palette. 

Thank you for reading my first post and thanks for all your support.